slow progress

[keep_busy]

Eventually Annie goes home for the day. Her mother lives a long but doable walk from campus, but Annie makes the trip by tricycle for speed and safety, or bus when the ice is too bad to allow riding. This is a trike day.

She tells her mother as straightforwardly as she can what has happened.

Her mother wants to meet the boy, but accepts that this should probably wait until the situation with Zevaia changes one way or another.

A few hours after Annie gets home, she gets a call from the Dean's office. There are results in; she can go hear them at the office. Apparently they're not supposed to release them over the phone for some obscure reason of policy.

Coat goes back on Annie, Annie goes back on trike, trike goes back on campus.

Comments

[keep_busy]

About twenty minutes later, the class actually lets out.

Annie's in a knot of other students and doesn't spot him right away.

[touchedinthehead]

He doesn't spot her either. Guilt, guilt, guilt. (Screw the guilt, screw the torture, he is responsible for his own actions, this is his fault. He knew what he was getting into and he has made up his mind.)

[keep_busy]

"Hey, mister, you okay?" asks someone, and then Annie looks.

A moment later she's on her knees next to Aldaras. "What - what - just tell me, get it over with, it can't be that bad - is it too private to say in front of people, do we need to go somewhere else?"

[touchedinthehead]

Oh. Annie's here. Okay then, he's - proud of himself, he guesses. (Ow.)

"S'fine. The necklace's effect," he says tightly, "is reciprocal if touched by the - object of affection. As in, it's symmetrical."

And then the crushing guilt and urge to die are gone, and he has room to do more than breathe.

[keep_busy]

"Why did they tell you that?"

[touchedinthehead]

"Because, I was going stir-crazy and asked them to tell me."

[keep_busy]

"And they didn't think you'd be this st- - how long have you been sitting here?"

[touchedinthehead]

"I have," he laughs, "no idea."

[keep_busy]

"Why ask them, why didn't you just read a book or - or audit a lecture or bake cookies or something to pass the time - or realize that you'd been an idiot and lean into the classroom so I could pop out for the fifteen seconds it would take to tell me - or otherwise do something that didn't involve parking outside my Jaillais class and being miserable? I didn't even know you were there! Are you trying to make me feel like I need to follow you around twenty-four hours a day lest you hurt yourself?"

[touchedinthehead]

"No. I'm - nothing I could do would have been productive. I'm not usually this stupid, but my sister's slowly dying. And I have nothing productive to do to solve this problem. I'm waiting on the Dean."

[keep_busy]

"If you can't be productive the least you can do is not be destructive."

[touchedinthehead]

"I'm not being destructive towards anyone else," he points out.

[keep_busy]

"Oh, I look happy and carefree to you?" Annie snaps.

[touchedinthehead]

"No," he sighs. "I'm sorry."

[keep_busy]

Annie sighs and sits on the floor, thunking her head against the wall softly.

"Don't. Okay?"

[touchedinthehead]

"Okay."

Is that actual guilt? That isn't influenced by a magical artifact? Yes. Yes it is.

"... I won't do it again."

[keep_busy]

"Thank you. Believe it or not, being the only person who can help you with the secrecy safety valve for your crippling artifact-induced emotional issues imbues in me a sense of responsibility and I do not like it when my attempts to be responsible are thwarted. Stupidly."

[touchedinthehead]

Aldaras sighs. "I can understand that. Sorry."

[keep_busy]

She sighs.

"Is there anything else I should know?"

[touchedinthehead]

"... I'm an idiot occasionally?"

[keep_busy]

"I figured that one out without help."

[touchedinthehead]

"Yeah," he sighs.

[keep_busy]

"I'm inclined to ask you if you want a hug but I'm concerned that what with the necklace being operative this will cause you to self-harm so you look sad and huggable again in the future."

[touchedinthehead]

Aldaras stares at her.

"What in the world would possess me to do that?!"

[keep_busy]

"An hour ago I didn't imagine anything would possess you to go to the Dean's office for important necklace information when I was in class and then decline to interrupt me," she points out.