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

[momslilassassin]

"No, it's not important," Ben agreed a little hastily.

Re: The Coronation

[glacial_queen]

"Well, just remember I'm always here to listen," she said, patting Ben on the arm and looking very understanding.

Oh wait. No. That was her amused face. They were so hard to keep track of.

Re: The Coronation

[endsthegame]

"The important thing is we made it here," Ender said, ignoring her amused face and Ben's blushing face and basically everything about their faces. "Sadly, Shakespeare isn't much for luxury goods yet, but we did bring you some local produce... and ice cream."

Re: The Coronation

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded. "The wine's not quite ready," he said. "but I'll send you some when it is."

Re: The Coronation

[glacial_queen]

"I'm looking forward to it," Karla assured them. "I'll probably give the produce to Cook to see what she can do with it, but I'm keeping the ice cream for myself."

She paused. "Unless I'm supposed to share?"

[endsthegame]

"You don't have to share," Ender said, shooting her a look that was wryly fond. "That's part of the present. Ben even rigged up a portable, lockable cooler-- though that was mostly to get it here."

Since he figured Karla could probably rig up something similar with her Craft.

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded. "And a good thing, too, because smaller me would have totally eaten the snack if it didn't have a lock on it."

He was just...not going to mention the giant tantrum he'd thrown when he realized he couldn't get to the ice cream.

[glacial_queen]

"You would have been in so much trouble," Karla deadpanned. "I don't care how little you were when you ate it. So. Much. Trouble."

[endsthegame]

"That's why we got the lock," Ender deadpanned back. "We fear your wrath."

[momslilassassin]

"Go to bed every night shivering in fear," Ben added, nodding.

[glacial_queen]

Karla waggled her eyebrows at that. More details on how they went to bed, eh?

...But, in deference to ice cream, she left any comments to that effect unsaid. They knew enough about her to guess a few of them anyway.

"I am quite terrifying," she agreed. "You missed me kicking Warren's father in the shins every opportunity I had these past few days."

[endsthegame]

Ender knew well enough, yes, which is why he was already rolling his eyes.

"Does he respond well to that treatment?" he asked dryly.

[momslilassassin]

"Were you even little?" Ben checked.

[glacial_queen]

"You are both terrible," she informed them, as if she hadn't been equally terrible in her own way.

"...Though, since you asked, I think the kicking might have been less effective than me telling his he was a bad daddy," Karla admitted, a little shamefaced.

Because she was the best future daughter-in-law in the world, obviously.

[endsthegame]

Ender sighed. "You need to figure out how to get along with him eventually," he said. "Luke and I have our differences, too."

[momslilassassin]

"It starts with approaches to haircuts and just gets worse from there," Ben agreed.

[glacial_queen]

"I was six!" Karla protested. "...And it's not like I was wrong."

She darted a glance over to where Junior was standing, dignified and alone.

"It would be easier to figure out how to handle him if I knew what Warren wanted." But he was more conflicted about his father than he was about anything else. "Does anyone here have a decent relationship with their parents?"

[endsthegame]

Ender shot a little glance towards Ben.

"We're working on it," he said.

[momslilassassin]

Ben reached for his hand and squeezed it. "Both sides."

[glacial_queen]

Karla couldn't hide the brief twist of envy she felt then an didn't even try. "I'm glad to hear it," she said, honest even with the envy. "Helps to be universes away?"

[endsthegame]

"Helps we're in a position where we can do this on our own terms," Ender said. He shook his head. "To a point. My parents don't have much more time."

[momslilassassin]

Ben chewed on his lower lip. "We talked to them through the ansibile a few months back."

[glacial_queen]

"Good to hear it," Karla said. "How long has it been from Earth's point of view?"

[endsthegame]

"Fifty years, give or take," Ender said. "My parents are well into their eighties now."

[momslilassassin]

"They called me their son-in-law," Ben said, smiling shyly.