you like her!! :: grey, pen

"The bridge!" Wil exclaimed as a train trestle came into view. She and Grey were walking to meet with a friend of his (Grey had literally never had a friend in his life so this was shocking), and also!! he had promised a surprise. "So what's the surprise?" Wil asked for the fiftieth time today.

"No! Don't tell me yet!" she said, when Grey groaned. "You know I love surprises--I just can't wait till I know what it is." Grey also almost never had surprises, so she knew this had to be good. "I just can't help myself." She shoved her hands into the pockets of her new-to-her coat and did a sort of little jumpy dance thing, kicking up snow. It was a good thing they'd had a little extra money this year--she and Grey and Lotus had all been able to buy coats with the extra income Lotus brought in.

"Sooooo much snowwww!" she sing-songed. "Hey, where is your friend?"

Grey had been determined to ignore Wil as she pestered him about his surprise, but she was making it impossible. Every fifteen minutes she asked, only to immediately demand he don't actually tell her. "If you don't stop asking me I'm going to push you off that bridge," he grumbled.

The big surprise was that Grey had settled. Loren was perched on his shoulder in her new permanent form, a little blue gecko. And he could wield Dian.

Not Earalas. Dian.

Grey wasn't sure how to admit this to Wil, but he hadn't meant to pick Dian. It had just...happened. There was no conscious choice. Had he...done it wrong? Was it possible to settle wrong? Wil settling as Nadar had been kind of unexpected for both of them, but when pressed on it she'd admitted it was what she really wanted. Had Grey really wanted to be Dian, deep down? So deep down he apparently wasn't even remotely aware of it? That didn't make sense.

It wasn't that there was anything wrong with Dian. He could get a good factory job, or maybe even learn a trade. But he'd wanted Earalas.

He blew his hair out of his face. Seeing Pen would cheer him up. He'd never had a friend like her before, someone who it was easy to talk to and who he actually looked forward to seeing. He was also secretly nervous to introduce her and Wil. He hoped they'd like each other.

"I think that's her," he said. There was a figure off in the distance, dark against the white snow. It was otherwise pretty deserted. He cupped his hands around his mouth. "Pen!"

Pen heard her name being called, and looked up from the ground. She lifted a mittened hand into the air and waved, a smile creeping onto her face. She looked forward to hanging out with hanging out with Grey every week. These meetings had become common, the last few months. She'd brought B and Ri with her a few times, and today Grey had told Pen he wanted her to meet his sister, Wil. That was who Pen imagined was with him now--a smaller form walking next to him. She seemed to be dancing. Pen laughed, picturing the look on Grey's face. He wasn't exactly the dancing type.

Wil waved back when Pen did, and shouted, "Hiiii!" As they got closer and Wil could make out Pen's face, she elbowed Grey's side. "She's cute, Grey. You didn't tell me she was cute!"

"Hi Pen!" Wil said brightly as they closed the distance. She held out a bare hand and took Pen's mittened one into her own. "I'm Wil." She smiled.

Pen smiled back and opened her mouth to say it was nice to meet Grey's sister finally when Wil suddenly pulled her hand away and whipped around. "Okay! Out with the secret, mister!"

Wil wrote:"She's cute, Grey. You didn't tell me she was cute!"

"Shut up, Wil," Grey snapped. She never failed to find a way to annoy him. From his shoulder, Loren snickered, knowing it was true. Grey did think Pen was cute.

You shut up too, Grey thought, reaching up and flicking Loren on the nose.

Wil introduced herself to Pen in her usual Wil way, but before Grey could even open his mouth to speak she whipped around and got in his face, demanding (again) to know his so-called secret. "Wil, you--" he started, annoyed, because he'd wanted to, y'know, greet Pen and stuff first. "You're the worst sometimes, you know that?"

Well now Pen was looking at him expectantly too, so he might as well get on with it. "I settled."

"What!" Wil cried, mouth falling open dramatically. She looked him up and down. "You don't look anymore grown up." The she addressed Loren, who was perched on Grey's shoulder, directly, "You are SO CUTE. I always knew Grey would be something cute. Isn't he cute, Pen?" She smiled back to Grey. "I can't believe you made me wait for this! Show us some fire!"

Pen felt a small tingle in her stomach when she realized Grey had waited to share this exciting and personal news simply so he could tell them both at the same time. He'd wanted to surprise her like he was surprising  his sister (who, by the way, looked absolutely nothing like him). And though Pen didn't respond to Wil's question, she decided yes--Grey was cute. And Loren. But mostly Grey.

"Congratulations, Grey!" she said. "You picked Earalas, then?" she asked, picking up clues from Wil's demand of a spectacle.

Grey chose to ignore Wil's attempts at embarrassing him by exclaiming how cute he and Loren were. He did steal a quick glance of Pen's face, searching for her reaction. She seemed unfazed.

He reached down into his pocket and closed his hand around a few little screws and bolts he had found, having known ahead of time that Wil would want a show. "I...settled as Dian," he said slowly, pulling his hand out and opening it. The screws and bolts floated lazily around his hand, orbiting it like tiny moons. It was easy--as easy as moving a part of his own body. Effortless. He hadn't known it would be so easy. "But I didn't pick it. I wanted to be Earalas."

Maybe Pen or even Wil would have some kind of explanation to offer. They were both settled already. And although Wil had said that deep down she really did want to be Nadar, maybe Pen had gone through something similar to him when she settled.

"Wow, Grey!" Wil said, her eyes on the hovering screws. "Look at you go!" The bits of metal didn't shake at all--to someone who didn't know Grey it would seem like he'd been settled for much longer than just a day or so.

Unlike Wil, who was obviously preoccupied by her fascination and pride in her brother's new abilities, Pen was more interested in the way Grey waited for their response. He'd wanted Earalas? Pen had known clio to be stuck between two options and then being surprised by their result when they settled. Apparently it was just considered that they'd, deep down, truly wanted whichever they ended up with. It was just that the look on Grey's face, and the way he'd carefully picked his words, made Pen think this wasn't like that. But that didn't make any sense.

"Really?" she asked. "Are you sure you weren't, like, hovering between the two?"

"No," Grey said, casually flicking one of the bolts so that it flew towards Wil and bounced harmlessly off of her forehead. "Wil was the one who said she'd pick Dian. But secretly she wanted Nadar, and that's what she settled as. Maybe I was just...thinking about that when I settled. And it made my brain or whatever think I wanted Dian." He shrugged. It made as much sense as anything else.

No, that actually made no sense at all, Loren disagreed.

Pen raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't seem like it makes sense to me." She shrugged her shoulders then, and said, "Not like I'm an eilemaiden scientist, of course." She smiled, watching as the small bolts bounced lightly off of Wil's forehead. Wil swatted at them, laughing.

"You're going to be insufferable!" Wil protested, grabbing at them and trying to toss them at Grey.

"You're so good already!" Pen admired, watching how effortlessly Grey took hold of the tiny flying bits of metal. "Impressive!" He wasn't just cute, he was talented.

Grey felt his face grow warm. He'd never had a girl compliment him before (besides Wil, who did not count). "Oh. Thanks," he muttered, caught off guard enough to miss one of the bolts that Wil was throwing back at him. It hit him in the face. "Wil," he snapped, as if he hadn't just done the exact same thing to her. He pulled the rest of them out of her reach and left them hovering about three feet above her head.

A satisfied smile grew on Wil's face as one of the bolts she'd tossed back at Grey hit him smack on the forehead. "His skills don't seem that impressive to me," she laughed.

Grey's rosy cheeks were not lost on Pen, who tried to hide a smile.

"I can't believe we're both settled!" Wil shouted, fist pumping into the air and doing a little dancing jig. "We are adults!"

Pen laughed at that. "Wil, what are you settled as?" she asked.

Wil answered by shaking a snow covered bush that was next to them. With her mind. The tiny leaves waved to the trio. Wil smiled brilliantly.

Pen smiled at the little show, taking amusement in how happy and full of life Wil seemed to be. The brother and sister not only looked opposite of each other, they also seemed like complete opposites personality-wise. Pen was pleased to find that she liked them both, anyway.

"So Dian, Nadar, and Deilig," she said. "We're all something different!"

Something in Grey's stomach fluttered a little when Pen smiled. You have a crush~! Loren singsonged, thankfully not out loud. He ignored her, partially because she was being stupid, and partially because she was right. He did like Pen. But that didn't mean anybody else had to know, least of all Pen herself.

Aw, no fun. I bet if you told her she'd like you back!

Shut the hell up, Loren.

Grey was perfectly happy to keep things the way they were. Pen was a good friend, and her and Wil were getting along. For the first time in his life things seemed to be going in a good direction, and he didn't want anything to change that.