The Estate, After Lunch, (Morning Fandom Time)

[glacial_queen]

When Mallory had been asked by Queen Ilyse and Prince Audric to come tutor their young daughter, he had been honored and delighted. Several months later, the shiny had been rubbed off both the honor and delight, but he had become fond of enough Karla to continue to teach her for years, up until the tragic accident that had claimed her parents' lives and gotten her shipped off to live with the local Hourglass coven her aunt Kay had been a part of. When Hobart had announced Karla's 'death,' Mallory had spent a week mourning the spoiled, yes, but also sweet, imaginative, and precocious child he had taught.

In the years she'd been gone, time and nostalgia had blunted the worst of her childhood antics, helping him forget that classes were just as often characterized by biting, kicking, crying, and arguing as they were learning, studying, and behaving (Darkness bless behaving.) All that had come rushing back to him over the past four days, dealing with her much-younger self--and her much-younger friends. Even being the Steward to the headstrong and still impetuous Queen and her entire Court was easier than this.

Mallory couldn't help but reflect on these facts as he pulled Karla down the hall by her ear. He'd caught her in his office a few moments earlier "playing" some kind of game that had involved a jam sandwich and a great deal of ink all over his desk, his chair, and the floor. Coincidentally enough, those were the same places he could see much of his paperwork, also under the ink. Any last ideals he'd had about respecting the Queenly dignity she was due as an adult when flying out the window (possibly with more of his papers) as he'd grabbed her ear and began dragging Karla towards her room, a bath, and the tender mercies of anyone who was not him.

What neither of them had been expecting, however, was for the filthy, shrieking child was to suddenly return to being an equally-filthy-but-less-inclined-to-shriek adult halfway towards their destination. It was Mallory who ended up yelping when the ear he was pinching shot up two feet in the air.

"Karla!" he said, half-surprised and half-thrilled. "You're back!" Before she could respond, however, he was grasping her shoulders with a hissed, "Don't you move or I will throttle you," and running off to find Julian, Morton, and anyone else he could find. Their Queen was an adult again. They were going to get this bloody coronation over with before something else could happen, come Hell or high water.

[NFB, open for folks what are here, SP is gonna be a thing, pls to be waiting for OCD]

Comments

Re: The Coronation

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah wandered over when the festivities were well under way, and gave Jono a sneak hug. Not around his knees. "Did I remember to say thank-you for all the singing yesterday?"

Re: The Coronation

[furnaceface]

"It might've been muffled under porcelain," Jono chuckled, turning around to return the hug properly. "But you're welcome to make up for that now. I'll also accept medals and other such badges of honour."

There had been a lot of kids. They'd all been a little wicked.

Re: The Coronation

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

And in some cases, insane little terrorists.

"I'm gonna have to find you a Best Babysitter Ever trophy to put on your mantle," Dinah replied with a squeeze. She grinned and settled back on her heels. "Maybe I'll make sure it has a porcelain squirrel on it or something."

Re: The Coronation

[furnaceface]

"Well, you're definitely spoiled for choice if you'd like to pull one from the estate's collection," Jono snorted. "Though that sort of trophy might end up packed away in a box. For its own protection, of course."

Of course.

Re: The Coronation

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah snickered, leaning against his shoulder. "Well, you can always time-share it with Momoko. Who somehow kept me from destroying anything important. That might help with not being blinded by it every day." She looked around with sigh, mostly of relief. "Somehow, even with everything, I'm finding it kinda hard to believe this is actually happening."

Re: The Coronation

[furnaceface]

"That we've actually gotten this far?" Jono glanced around, and then lifted his shoulder, shrugging. "I had that feeling weeks back, when we walked into the estate for the first time since we were run out of Sidra. Figured it was too good to be true."

... And then it kind of had been. So he was tabling all wide-eyed moments of celebration for some other time. He hadn't decided when, yet.

Re: The Coronation

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Yup. I mean, I hadn't relaxed then, and then there was drama, so... this is better. Much." She tilted her head. "You're okay with a five-year contract this time?"

Re: The Coronation

[furnaceface]

"Shouldn't I be? It's a step up from one," Jono replied, shrugging his shoulders. "And I figure, with Fandom running at half the pace and me spending most of my time there, I'll miss most of it anyway. I blinked and missed my single year. That won't do."

He'd been fine with the single year, too.

Re: The Coronation

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"It wasn't a blink, and you did a lot. A lot a lot." Another squeeze, and then Dinah smiled. "And whatever makes you happy, dude."

Re: The Coronation

[furnaceface]

"Staying involved makes me..." Jono tilted his head for a moment, and then he shrugged his shoulders. "If not happy, then it at the very least makes me feel like there's a place that I belong. I think where I'm concerned, that's generally the best I can hope for... And better than I thought I would ever get. Maybe not happy. But more complete."

He shrugged again.

"I don't know if you've noticed, I know I make a good secret of it, but I'm not really the poster boy for fitting in and togetherness."

He was also a smartass.

Re: The Coronation

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Oh, Jono." Dinah got-- well, she got some of that. How the world he came from was epicly messed up. How a lot of people had died or let him down. And that Fandom, however great it could be, was not a place most people felt they could depend on; it was way too changeable, with no rhythms, no cycles, no patterns you could bet money on. Why wouldn't he want something more solid? "If you feel like you belong here, then I'm just gonna be visiting you guys here when I can, then. And I'm gonna poke you about that happiness thing. 'Cause sometimes that can sneak up on you."

Re: The Coronation

[furnaceface]

"So people keep telling me," Jono replied, his lips pulling into a wry twist of a smile. "Hell, Momoko seems to think that I need to get back into the dating circuit. I'm finding myself... a little leery."

How was he supposed to maintain a healthy relationship with someone else when he didn't even have a healthy relationship with himself? That was a large part of what had imploded between himself and Raven, back when.

Re: The Coronation

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Soooo just get back into the hanging-out-with-new-people circuit?" Dinah offered. "Less pressure that way. And maybe you'll get to like somebody eventually... Not that I've got any business telling anyone anything on that score."

Re: The Coronation

[furnaceface]

"Giving dating a go again, are you?" Jonothon raised an eyebrow, smirking faintly. "Dare I ask how that's going?"

Jono would happily sit on the sidelines and cheer her on. Maybe point Momoko in Dinah's direction and hope that she got distracted by shiny things over there, rather than concentrating her efforts on getting him a girlfriend.

A man could hope.

Re: The Coronation

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Mean, Jono. Just mean.

"Enh, well... Not actively, I've got so much school and work stuff to do." She grimaced. "And I'm beginning to doubt I pick up on signals very well-- on the other hand." Her lips quirked. "There's a guy back in my world. Who lives out of town, but. I said I'd, you know. Maybe want to give it a shot, after the war was over..."

Re: The Coronation

[furnaceface]

"And lo, the war ended," Jono smirked. "What's holding you back, then? Just school and work, now? People balance that sort of thing all the time."

Look, just because he'd never been good at it didn't mean he couldn't enable.

Re: The Coronation

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Pretty much? And, I'm supposed to hear back about internships when I get back this week, so.... Maybe after Thanksgiving?" Dinah paused, thinking about it. "It's -- you can have crushes on two people at once, right?"

Re: The Coronation

[furnaceface]

"Last I checked, the world didn't have some sort of hard upper limit set on crushes," Jono agreed, raising an eyebrow slightly. "Lord knows I've had my own fair share."

But then, Jono had gone through a phase where any pretty girl that looked his way was pretty much the greatest thing ever.

"Have your eye on somebody else too, then?"

Re: The Coronation

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Nooo," Dinah said, a little glum. Resigned. "He's not -- yeah. The guy closer to home isn't into that with me." Too embarrassing to admit it was Priestly. "But he was nice about it. And at least the guy in Starling City, I met and liked before that crush. So. It doesn't exactly feel like rebound from rejection? I hope?"

Re: The Coronation

[furnaceface]

Honestly, Dinah. Anyone who had eyes and who saw you with Priestly could figure it out. Jono was just too nice to say so.

"Though if 'rebound' is a worry you have, and if he's interested, it can't hurt to take it slow, either," Jono noted, smiling faintly. "No need to hurry into something you're not certain about, right?"

Re: The Coronation

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah would just be running away now if he'd said that out loud. Thank God Jono was nice.

"I guess not. And it's not like I know a lot about him, since mostly I've run into him at crime scenes."

Her life, ladies and gentlemen.

Re: The Coronation

[furnaceface]

Honestly. Truly.

"... It's really telling that that statement doesn't so much as make me blink."

Their lives, ladies and gentlemen.