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Time goes by. Linya, who already quietly turned nineteen, turns twenty. She collects an accelerated master's degree in neuroscience and starts corresponding with various people on the subject.
Pens spread out; the next time Miles sees Elli he gets a white standard-model pen she bought him on Escobar. She has one too; it's silver. She loves it and thanks him for recommending it to her. (She has bought a whole boxful to unload at a markup on the next planet or station she comes to that doesn't have them yet, but doesn't explicitly mention this in case he objects to her cutting into Lady Vorkosigan's margins.)
Miles also has one actual courier mission in there, just escorting a diplomatic pouch from Pol back home, to pad his service record for the less-cleared eye.
There is a visit to a clinic to collect and mystically join gametes, and Linya collects the resulting assembly in data format for editing. She does the grey eyes first and estimates that if she doesn't particularly hurry she'll have a Little Aral What-the-Heck-Should-His-Middle-Name-Be all ready to put in a replicator in two or three years, though she can accelerate that considerably if something comes up urgently requiring the presence of Little Aral sooner rather than later.
And then Miles gets sent off again and is gone for a very long time.
isthisart
isthisart
"Thank goodness we were naming little Vorkosigans. I suppose wondering what in the world you're doing assigned here or why he's particularly paranoid about Cetagandans when his accent is Komarran is an off-limits question?"
thisvorlunatic
"He's paranoid about everybody - the Komarran part is a major contributor, should I explain the history there? - but I fully acknowledge the fixation on your planet of origin was a little absurd, all things considered."
And Cetagandans do happen to be trying to assassinate Miles—Naismith. Whom Miles Vorkosigan's wife cannot be allowed to know exists. Yeah, that's going to be fun.
And Cetagandans do happen to be trying to assassinate Miles—Naismith. Whom Miles Vorkosigan's wife cannot be allowed to know exists. Yeah, that's going to be fun.
isthisart
"I didn't think the Komarrans were as bad about Cetagandans. I suppose if they were it might be hard to blame them particularly. I do understand the part where he's under particular pressure to look after you - via abrupt door-opening if need be, I suppose."
thisvorlunatic
"The Komarrans generally are not as bad about Cetagandans. This Komarran just happens to be under a great deal of stress about my presence, and I suppose anything that gives off even the faintest and most obscure whiff of danger is going to make him sweat."
isthisart
"Well, hopefully he principally takes it out on the security people who couldn't be bothered to have him in to look at me and not on you." Squeeze.
thisvorlunatic
"Hopefully," Miles agrees, snuggling her. And crossing mental fingers on the wish that her curiosity has been flawlessly deflected from the subject of Galeni's Cetaganda-related worries.
isthisart
Well, she doesn't ask anything more about it, at any rate. She just snuggles him. "Anyway. I don't think I like 'Tybalt' as much as you do. Makes me think of the Romeo and Juliet character. Hating the word peace. Getting stabbed."
thisvorlunatic
"Anyway," he says, his mind still running along the previous track, "I don't think of myself as slightly less than half Barrayaran. I'm not sure how I do think of myself, but that's not it."
isthisart
"I suppose that makes sense, I was neglecting upbringing and yours was thoroughly Barrayar. Still. Casmir? Loren?"
thisvorlunatic
"Can't decide between them, neither one is grabbing me the way Tybalt did. I guess there's plenty of time to think about it. What about girl names? Any ideas there?"
isthisart
"I actually like my designer's name, but it'd probably be inappropriate on a number of levels."
thisvorlunatic
"Or pick something that only sounds a little like it... plenty of French-derived names end in -anne. Sylvianne? Adrianne, if we want out firstborn daughter to have a built-in excuse to despise us and our choices?"
isthisart
"I like 'Adri', but not enough to do it twice. Is 'Ninon' in use on Barrayar? I know it's French but not what dialect, and it's an extremely well-disguised derivative of Anne."
thisvorlunatic
"I don't know off the top of my head, so it's relatively obscure if so, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. And it's cute. I've always liked Natalia for a girl, but of N names I think I like Ninon better... should the girls alliterate too? The singular girl or plural girls or lack of a girl, depending on our reproductive choices after Aral Adri is born."
isthisart
"Yes, Aral Adri first, and then we can contemplate girls and Whatshisface Antoly and so on, but it's nice to have an idea of where our aesthetics overlap. I think if Whatshisface Antoly winds up alliterating it might be a little - twee, so perhaps only one alliterative name and we can pretend we didn't notice."
isthisart
Snuggle. She makes a quick note of the other discussed names appropriately peppered with question marks and then collars her pen again.
isthisart
Snuggling continues, nothing that would be too embarrassing for Ivan to walk in on (though when he's back hours later freshly showered, he does knock first). And eventually Linya departs to make sure she has a hotel room - "Your bed here is tiny, and I don't think I want to room with Ivan."