Normalcy

By: Shima And Tempis

A/N: I haven't had fan fics up for a while, and this is a bit different from my past fics. Just to note ahead of time, this is a ONE-SHOT. As in, there will be no more, no matter what.

Plus, this was inspired by a crack!Meme from LiveJournal. It's not a crack!fic, however. Don't worry.

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Nita had never been in detention before. She had been beaten up at school, certainly, had fought back, yes, but the administration seemed to have quite a bit of pity for the poor Callahan girl who could not seem to make enough friends.

Sitting in a practically empty classroom, Nita decided, is what detention must feel like.

She was not sure why she had coerced the front door of the school to unlock for her, or why she had walked through empty hallways, listening to old walls whisper complaints of pushpins, nails and tape. She doubted it was really nostalgia for school time that convinced her to "break in" to a dark classroom and just sit at one of the desks. It was more something to keep her mind off of the oncoming war, off of Life and Entropy and back to normalcy and silly, frivolous things that didn't matter in the scheme of things.

Nita was especially surprised that she had not told Kit that she was going. He was just as disoriented lately as she was, and they had a habit of not talking about wizardry when in each other's presence. When together they rarely wanted to face reality anymore—they liked pretending that for once they were just a pair of normal teenagers.

So why, when Nita had wanted to feel especially normal, didn't she invite Kit along for the ride? It was still summer vacation and Kit was rarely busy. It was slightly early, but not so much so that he would be asleep if she attempted any sort of mind-touch.

Somewhere deep in her mind Nita knew she needed to be alone for this. She shifted in the metal and ceramic chair she sat in to tuck one leg beneath her. As if it were a textbook she needed in order to look like she was busy in detention, her manual lay open to the wizard listings open in front of her.

She looked at her name in the small, professional font of the manual, and let out a breath at Kit's full name listed under "PARTNER." That was when her feelings finally sunk in. Tears slipped down her cheeks as the gravity of the events to come hit her full-force. She did not ache for normalcy, she realized, as she grabbed her manual and wiped her eyes, leaving the classroom as it had been before she had entered. She ached for the time when wizardry and the fight for Life were still new to her, and she could smile at Kit from across a crowded hallway, not unlike the one she walked down, and not only would he see her, but he would share the smile that came with a secret only they knew.

She could no longer live without wizardry, Nita knew. She did not actually want to be normal. She just did not want the fate of every world on her shoulders. Her home world was enough.

That afternoon she and Kit sat on the Moon in one of the most comfortable silences they had ever shared. They held hands—not as new lovers, no, but as old friends. When Nita was finally ready to talk, she knew they had been up there for hours in Earth time. She turned her face to him, tugging at his hand as she did so, so that he turned to her as well.

"I want to know," she breathed, "that we'll still be us." Kit looked her in the eyes, searching, making sure she was ready to be serious, that they would be taking of the same things.

"When it's all over?" Kit asked, and watched her nod. "Of course we will."

"I need you to swear it," Nita pleaded, now holding just one of his hands in both of hers. He lifted one eyebrow warily until he figured out what she meant. Taking up her hands while kneeling in moon dust, Kit changed from speaking English to promising Speech.

"I swear that after all this is over, we will definitely still be us." The syllables of the Speech touched the Moon's ground and even its lifeless rock face leaned in to listen. Nita felt the words inside of her, the truth that came with knowing and using the Speech. With her entire heart, no matter how much that might be, Nita knew she believed what she had told Kit to swear. With every fiber of her being, especially those that connected with his, she believed it.