ONE HUNDRED NINETEEN: Interesting

* 119     The gleaming tip of a slender chain whip inched through the air, approaching its victim with a quiet, lethal grace. “Gently,” Lexi Roberts mumbled, staring at the marshmallow on the concrete floor a couple of meters away. “Calmly.” “Lexi? You’re not jogging this morning?” Writher wrapped around the marshmallow and sliced it in half, filling the apartment with a burnt sugar smell and making Haoyu Zhang-Demir smile sheepishly from where he stood by a leather armchair. “Sorry. You were practicing.” “Not like it was going well.” Lexi huffed and went over to pick up the marshmallow pieces and fling them toward the trash. “Don’t throw them away!” Haoyu protested. “Toasted marshmallows are good.” “They’ve been on the floor.” “It’s pristine. The robot vacuum cleans it every day.” “The bag’s on the counter if you want a fresh one. You don’t mind me using them for this, do you?” “The marshmallows?” Haoyu asked. “Why would I?” “They were on the shared food shelf. I figured you’d bought them.” “No. Alden did. He won’t care. It seems like he’s easygoing about most things.” Writher hung by Lexi’s side, writhing slightly. “Do you think he’s…?” Haoyu looked at him. “Do you think he’s one of those people who just gets how to use his powers naturally?” Lexi asked. Haoyu shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t known him that long. I haven’t had powers that long. He hasn’t either really. It’s premature to guess.” “I know you were thinking the same thing as me last night,” Lexi said. “I saw your face.” “When?” “Several times.” Haoyu sighed. “Okay. I was a little envious.” “Yes,” Lexi hissed. “This isn’t the first—” “I know. We met him a little less than three weeks ago, and that skill of his looks vastly more impressive than it did on assessment day.” “It’s so different than I thought it was,” Lexi said. “Even Kon mentioned it this past weekend, and at that point, we hadn’t even seen him do…whatever that was last night.” “The skill seems really versatile. I’m glad for him. Stop worrying about your own progress so much. You’re doing great.” “Writher’s supposed to be versatile, too. But it randomly attacks—” “It was a tiny scratch. It was right after you first got it, and Kon wasn’t even mad about it.” “I don’t want a deadly weapon I’m responsible for to scratch my brother.” “It’s responding to your mood.” “That’s not a good thing for it to respond to.” “I mean it’s responding to your mood right now. It just singed the edge of the fluffy rug.” Lexi swore in Russian, and ran over to stomp on the smoldering spot while Writher withdrew. Haoyu walked over with a pair of scissors and started trimming the burnt fuzz out of the rug. “Maybe I should get Kon.” “It’s such a thick rug. It hides mistakes like this all by itself.” Lexi stared down at him. “How many times have you trimmed it?” “Just once. There was an itty bitty tiny little stain that wouldn’t come clean. And now it’s gone. Like it never happened.” He snipped some more. “I don’t think Alden’s had the opportunity to try most of the things with his skill that he’s trying now. He wasn’t surrounded by older Avowed when he affixed who could take him to safe places and let him experiment. And even though he’s leveled, I doubt he was in the mood to take creative risks when he was stuck in a situation where mistakes would get him killed. If you think about it that way, it’s natural for him to be finding a ton of new things he can do all at once.” “I know. Still. Last night it took him two hours to find the soup…” “Right. And he was like, Oh no that’s such a long time.” “After the first time I activated Writher’s phase out feature, it took me a week to get it to do it again.” Haoyu stood up with a fistful of trimmings. “It was his certainty that he could do it reliably from now on that stung my ego. But maybe he’s figuring his skill out so fast because he’s been through bad stuff with it.” “I considered that.” “So stop comparing your pace to his. He’s just got interesting circumstances. After you’ve been summoned to another planet for months, then you can worry you’re slow.” Lexi was quiet. Then he said, “When do you think it’ll happen for us?” “Late uni maybe? If we both level as fast as we hope to. Unless some wizard who knows our parents decides to request us for a job out of curiosity.” “Are you seriously going to that party tonight?” “Yes. It’s not that much trouble. And Lute needs support. You’re coming too.” “No, I’m not.” “We’ll see.” “I’m not.” ****** “The Rabbit’s interestin’.” “Morrison, I hope you’re talking about a cute animal or the zodiac right now and not one of our students,” Lesedi Saleh said as she phased her hand through the top of the mini fridge beside her bed and pulled out a bottle of water. “Students are work. And I don’t discuss work when I’m not fully clothed.” Morrison Waker rolled over to grin at her. “You were just tellin’ me about that time you shoved your hand through a Meister to punch the Brute behind him.” “I’m retired from being Ghosten. Old work isn’t work anymore. Alden Thorn is current work. Current work is off limits when I’m naked or when the person I’m talking to is naked.” “Good policy.” She twisted the cap off the bottle, drained half of it, and then passed the rest to him. He sat up to take it. “When you’re not Big Snake or Little Snake, do people ever call you Medium Snake?” He shook his head. “Hardly ever get around to being my natural self in front of strangers these days.” “I like you this way. You look more like when we first met.” “I can look exactly like when we first met if you want. Right down to the mullet.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Not that I don’t appreciate the possibilities of your morphing, but let’s keep it simple for our first time trying this.” “You’re the boss,” he said happily. Then he gasped in false horror. “Wait. You really are my boss now. I’m sleepin’ with my boss.” She slapped his thigh. “This is terrible. I’m being taken advantage of.” “If you don’t mind, I’m going to take advantage of you a little bit more.” Some time later, as the lights in the room gradually brightened to...