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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
spacetobreathe
"This is the down-tube, of course we're - are you all right? - let me see your eyes -" She grabs a handhold and pulls them both aside out of the lift-tube traffic, and as an afterthought seizes their floating fur package before it drifts away and peers at his pupils.
thisvorlunatic
Miles can't do much more than cling to her arm and stare. False but compelling interpretations of sensory data stream through his mind. The people descending the lift tube are a river of souls being sucked into a modernized, efficient hell - Elli's eyes are the vast black reaches of space, expanding to pull him in - he shudders and tries to collect himself.
spacetobreathe
"Do your pupils dilate or contract when you get a weird drug reaction?" Elli asks. "They're - pulsing."
thisvorlunatic
"Um." He shakes his head briefly. "The - I'm - the surgeon double-checks anything she puts me on, these days. She did warn me it could make me a little dizzy. I'm fine." With effort, he lets go of her arm, quietly grateful that the strength of his grip did not break any of his fingers. "Sorry. Let's - let's just get me back to the embassy."
spacetobreathe
"Right," says Quinn.
They go back into the flow of people, and find the exit they want, and then her comm beeps.
"...the hell? Can't be you, you're right here. Quinn here?" she says into the comm.
They go back into the flow of people, and find the exit they want, and then her comm beeps.
"...the hell? Can't be you, you're right here. Quinn here?" she says into the comm.
middlingalong
"I'm holding a hole in the Security net for you, and I can't keep it up much longer. Get your ass back here before I fall asleep." There is a yawn.
thisvorlunatic
"My God. I could kiss you," says Miles. "We're on our way. Be there in ten minutes, if we're lucky. Where do I sneak in?"
middlingalong
"Don't kiss me, just book it, I can only do the trick with the vid if you're back before Corporal Veli. I'm holding down the third sublevel post where the municipal sewer and power connections come through."
thisvorlunatic
"Got it. See you soon." He cuts the com and peers at the nearest subway route map, on which his eyes refuse to quite focus. "Elli? I think you're going to have to navigate; I'm still a little dazed."
spacetobreathe
Elli nods and checks the map and ushers Miles in a direction. Then she goes to submit their tokens, leaving him on his own for a few seconds.
thisvorlunatic
He rubs his eyes and blinks at his dark reflection in the polished wall of the station. Haggard expression, green Barrayaran uniform - wait. He looks down at his grey-and-white sleeves, blinks again, looks up. His eyes, re-blurred, fail to make out a reflection at all this time. He groans and staggers off to follow Elli. More hallucinations, just what he needs. At least this one didn't come with the howling of the damned. Small mercies.
spacetobreathe
Elli's back presently to trundle him into a bubble and drop him and the bag of fur at the embassy neighborhood's platform.
The bag purrs.
The bag purrs.
thisvorlunatic
Miles hauls his purring bundle directly to his rendezvous with Ivan. He's in with minutes to spare.
middlingalong
And then they steal back into their room, and Ivan makes friends with the fur, and they get some sleep.
thisvorlunatic
Lovely, lovely sleep.
Miles wakes up the next morning thoroughly blanketed by the affectionate fur. It doesn't snuggle, it strangles. And purrs the whole time, the vicious, cuddly assassin...
Miles wakes up the next morning thoroughly blanketed by the affectionate fur. It doesn't snuggle, it strangles. And purrs the whole time, the vicious, cuddly assassin...
middlingalong
Ivan, toothbrush sticking out of the corner of his mouth rather jauntily, remarks, "'t likes 'oo." He pets its corner. "Soft, innit, you want to rub it all over your skin."
thisvorlunatic
Miles squirms free of the fuzz at least far enough to growl, "Not an image I needed, Ivan." With some effort, he disentangles himself the rest of the way, and leaves the fur piled on his bed while he dresses and showers and generally makes ready for his day.
middlingalong
"Try to look like you've been in bed since yesterday afternoon," suggests Ivan.
They go to the little room where Miles does Ivan's job.
And then Miles is paged to Galeni's office, half an hour after their shift begins.
They go to the little room where Miles does Ivan's job.
And then Miles is paged to Galeni's office, half an hour after their shift begins.
Where Galeni is smiling, sort of, if you can call that scary put-on false grimace a smile. "Good morning. All over your acute osteo-inflammatory attack, are you?"