+ Show First Post
Total: 373
Posts Per Page:
Permalink

Miles giggles uproariously.

Permalink
Nika is delighted to have made her brother laugh.


Nika has recently turned three (counting from the doctors' best guess of how old she was when she appeared) when she finds that she is going to meet her grandda and Miles is not coming.

"That isn't fair," she points out.
Permalink

"Your grandda doesn't want to meet Miles, but he wants to meet you," says Nika's mama.

Permalink

"But, that isn't fair," says Nika. "Does he know?"

Permalink

"Does he know that it's not fair, you mean? I'm not sure," she says. "But sometimes people do want things that aren't fair, even though they aren't."

Permalink

"Oh. Why does he want that?"

Permalink

"Your grandda wishes he had a grandson who was healthy and could run around and play like you and Ivan and Gregor do without getting hurt," Cordelia explains. "He wishes that so much that he doesn't like Miles because Miles isn't the way he wants."

Permalink

"I can't run around," Nika points out.

Permalink

"You can do it better than Miles can. If Miles fell over as often as you do, all his bones would break and he'd spend most of his time in the hospital."

Permalink

"Well, he doesn't even walk. I walk for him."

Permalink

"Yes, you do."

Permalink

"What's Grandda like besides unfair?"

Permalink

"He loves your Da very much, even though they're angry with each other about Grandda being unfair to Miles. And he's a hero. He did a lot of very important things when he was younger."

Permalink

"What important things?"

Permalink

"When your Grandda was young, younger than I am now, Barrayar was invaded by Cetagandans and Grandda helped fight them off. That's when he became a General."

Permalink

"Why'd the Cet-gandans do that?"

Permalink

"I'm not sure. They weren't interested in explaining themselves at the time."

Permalink

Nika giggles. "Okay. How far away is Grandda?"

Permalink

"He lives at Vorkosigan Surleau, which is a beautiful house on a lake, and it's three hours away by lightflyer."

Permalink

"Will you read to me on the way?" Three hours is a long time.

Permalink

"Of course."

Permalink
"Yay!"

So Nika spends three hours in a lightflyer being read to and occasionally peering out the window, especially as they get closer to the pretty lake.

And when they land, out she gets.
Permalink
Cordelia leads her up to the house, which is indeed beautiful.

There's an old man there, standing just inside the door. He smiles a little bit when he sees them.
Permalink

Nika politely does not make the first thing out of her mouth be "you are unfair". Instead she says, "Hi Grandda! I'm Nika!"

Permalink
"Hello, Nika," he says. "Hello, Cordelia."

"Hello, Piotr."

Piotr crouches down to get on Nika's level and asks, "Do you want a hug?"
Total: 373
Posts Per Page: