She reads it over one more time. It's good - warm enough to be believable, distant enough to buy them space. No red flags, nothing that would make someone hop on a plane.

"Send it."

She watches Cara hit the button, then reaches over and closes the laptop before any reply can come through.

"Done. No more exes today." She shifts, pulling Cara back against her side. The contact is becoming automatic now, something she reaches for without thinking about it. "What else needs handling? Any other messages that looked urgent?"

She's already mentally cataloguing the day ahead. Messages, guiding, food, sleep. Keep Cara functional, keep herself functional, get through the weekend before classes start again Monday. Simple. Manageable.

She doesn't think about what happens after the week ends.

No more exes is fine with her! That would have been exhausting without an audience.  (Leaning into the contact is getting automatic for her, too, though a small part of her brain is screaming to not take it for granted.)

"I think the only other time-sensitive person to talk to is Aunt Rachel, sometime today? It'd be good to give her... some details about what's going on here, fake or real. Up to you, obviously, but I think I can be pretty reassuring without lying or sharing anything that actually points at you." 

She considers that. Aunt Rachel had seemed... intense, based on the texts yesterday. The kind of person who would actually fly back early if she thought something was wrong.

"What kind of details?" She keeps her voice neutral, but her grip on Cara's arm tightens slightly. "Walk me through what you'd tell her. Before you open anything."

She's not saying no. Not yet. But she needs to know what Cara's planning before she lets her anywhere near that conversation.

"And what do you mean, 'points at me'? What would pointing at me even look like?"

Hm. "Mostly I was thinking that she will find 'A brand new person who you have never heard of is taking care of me' more reassuring if I told that the new person had experience with backlash, or something like that."

"Uh, by pointing at you I just meant details like 'a fellow student', 'someone my age', stuff like that? Things that might be used to identify you." (Though Aunt Rachel already knows Vera's phone number, so the higher priority should be keeping her unsuspicious, maybe? Something to mention later...)

"Experience with backlash." She turns that over. It's true enough - she's been dealing with her own for months now. And it explains why some random person would know how to help an awakening esper.

"Fine. You can say that. And-" She pauses, thinking through what details are safe. "You can say I'm an esper. That I found you when you started showing symptoms. Nothing about being a student, nothing about where we are."

She loosens her grip slightly, though she doesn't let go entirely.

"What's she going to ask? Your aunt. What questions should we be ready for?"

Better to plan this out now than scramble when the messages start coming in.

Oh! Being able to mention Vera is an esper will make things easier. Cara nods appreciatively, and is nice and normal about the change in grip.

"I bet she'll probably ask how we met, first? Just because it's a pretty big coincidence. And... she'll be a lot less worried if she gets a good explanation for why I am not telling her much about you, and why you're spending time helping me. Which, hmmm..." she pauses to think.

"We met at the pool." That part's true enough. "I noticed you were showing symptoms and stepped in before things got out of hand. That's not uncommon, for espers. We can usually tell when someone's about to awaken. Probably."

She's quiet for a moment, thinking through the other questions.

"As for why I'm helping..." She shrugs, the motion shifting Cara slightly against her. "Compatible backlashes. It's mutually beneficial - I help you through awakening, we both get relief from guiding. Simple transaction."

It's true enough that it shouldn't trip any alarms. And it explains why a stranger would drop everything to help someone through hell week without making it sound suspicious.

Slow headshake. "We should not say we met at the pool - I don't own a swimsuit and can't really swim. We could say you noticed I was about to collapse after bumping into me at the coffee shop?"

Wait. She tilts her head in confusion. "Um. Can you actually sense awakening espers? I don't think that's common..." by which she means she's literally never heard of it, not even as someone's power (it would be a kinda useless power, but lots of people get those)

"Coffee shop works." She ignores the question about sensing for a moment, then sighs. "No, I can't actually sense it. I just said that because it sounded plausible."

"We can say I noticed you looked off. Pale, shaky, whatever. Asked if you were okay, and things went from there. Close enough to true."

She shifts slightly, uncomfortable with how much of this story is being built on lies layered over lies. But that's the situation they're in now.

"What else will she ask?"

She nods, and gracefully declines to point out that it really did not sound very plausible. (Maybe it does, to normal people who read less about espers as kids than Cara did?)

"Um... She's going to be surprised about me running into a compatible esper while awakening, because it is stupidly unlikely, but that's not actually a question and also it really did happen. She might want to know more about you, or be given a reason why we're not telling her more about you. We could... tell some lie about your backlash..."

Wait.

What is Vera's backlash?

...and what is Vera's power? She - has clearly had (and still has!) a lot of chronic backlash, but... Cara could have sworn that yesterday...