Elaine Felkin [Arachne of Vanara]

[ WELL WELL WELL ]

[This'll end well]

For once, if this memory is accurate, anyway, you’ve decided to leave your room for some place that isn’t the lecture hall. You’re in the garden attached to your house - a small place for growing herbs and flowers, protected from the soot and grime of the outside world by glass paneling above your head. It keeps the winter air out too; the temperature inside is mild for a January day. Morgan sits in the chair in front of you; he’s been here since you dragged him from your room (he says it was with enough strength to dislocate his shoulder, he’s impressed because he’s never had a sick girl force herself on him before, and now he can’t get married, but you know for a fact he’s just being shy. when you tell him as much he flusters a little, and he doesn’t speak until the walk is over. he's so weird.) hoping for a little change of pace. The servants bring you tea and the biscuits he likes at your request, and you sit and talk as usual. He tells you a story about a dead body he found, ribs splayed out like a chandelier, or a video game he played before he met you, and you converse about the books and the manga you both know. Plays, poems, philosophies -

But, he always adds, for him it’s all osmosed. He failed English in high school. He’s not smart like you, no matter how much you tell him so.

A good while in he suddenly stops and frowns, and you turn your head to face a young man you don’t know. He apologizes for the intrusion (but adds that a maid let him in) and introduces himself - Joshua Berridge, he says, he’s in your department at the college and you caught his eye months ago, but he could only convince your father to let him meet you at home just recently. Joshua is tall with fair hair, and when he kneels to kiss your hand his own is warm with human life - it feels like it goes for hours. His lips brush your knuckles as he finally pulls away to stand and the softness and the heat linger.

But you have no idea who he is or what he’s talking about. (you think a little idly it isn't that strange you don't know anyone in your department, but you'd definitely notice such a beautiful person, right?) Morgan stands from his chair with enough force to knock it to the ground, but stays quiet; that's enough, apparently, for Joshua to realize you're indisposed, offer another apology, and make a promise to visit again at a more convenient date.

All that he leaves after his exit is a small jewelry box, neatly poised on the corner of the table.