Disclaimer: None of this is mine except for the plot and the arrangement of words on the page (or computer screen, more correctly). The heart of the Young Wizards universe belongs to Diane Duane; I'm just playing in it.
A/N: No, this will not be a one-shot! Amazing, I know. I actually talked myself into doing a chaptered fic. The chapters won't necessarily be long, and there probably won't be too many by the time I'm done (about five or six, I think), but it will have a complete plot, one that I've already got in my head. I think that's it for now, so please, read and review!
Changes of Heart
Chapter 1: Just Say It
Nita Callahan walked into her house, slinging her backpack aside and feeling very glad that it was a weekend. The past week had been hectic, giving her little time to relax, but she intended to spend the next two days doing absolutely nothing.
Well, not quite nothing, she thought as she walked into the kitchen, looking for something to snack on. After all, there was that thing with the worldgates in the city; she and Kit would have to take care of that tomorrow. One of the gates at Grand Central had been malfunctioning again, and though it posed no immediate danger, Rhiow had felt it important enough to warrant a trip Downside. The head of the gating team knew Nita and Kit, having worked with them before, and had asked if they would supervise the home side of the gate while she and the rest of her team did repairs in that other universe. Of course Nita and Kit had agreed to help their fellow wizards.
Still, that left most of Saturday and all of Sunday free for Nita to spend lazing around the house. Maybe I'll finally get a chance to finish that book I started last month, she thought, pulling a carton of milk out of the refrigerator and pouring herself a glass. She sat, sipping her milk and pondering the nearly endless possibilities of what she could do with her free time.
The silence did not last. Dairine burst through the front door, her usual noisy self, dropping her things in the hallway and heading for the kitchen. She walked in, reading a flyer she held in her hands. She held it up, showing her sister. "You going?" she asked nonchalantly.
Nita took another swallow of milk and looked at the flyer. She had seen them around her high school, proclaiming the spring dance to be held in a few weeks. She had no idea where Dairine could have obtained the paper, but then Nita remembered that she'd been handed one in homeroom. She'd thrust that copy into her backpack, intending to throw it away, but it must have slipped out of her bag.
Nita turned to Dairine, who was now looking through the cupboards. "You must not have read the paper too well," she said. "It's a Sadie Hawkins dance. Girls ask guys. And besides," Nita said, "who would I go with?"
Dairine found what she'd been looking for, a container holding the last of the chocolate chip cookies, and as she put several onto a plate, she said matter-of-factly, "You could ask Kit."
The mere suggestion was enough to elicit a number of reactions from Nita. "What?" she said, almost wanting to laugh, sure that Dairine would turn to face her and be smiling at the joke.
Dairine did turn to face Nita, but there was no smile on her face, no indication that she'd been kidding about her previous statement.
"You can't be serious," Nita said incredulously. "He's Kit. And besides," she said, "he's my friend." And partner, a piece of her brain added silently without Nita's permission.
Dairine looked back at Nita with an expression that clearly told her to cut the crap. "You can tell that to him, you can tell it to Dad, you can tell it to me—but can you honestly say that to yourself?" The look in her eyes was a daring one.
"Of course I can!" Nita said, annoyed with her little sister. "I don't like Kit; he's just a friend!" She looked at Dairine. "Happy now?"
Her sister met her glare with equal force. She stared at Nita for a minute before speaking in a tone of superior calm. "Say it in the Speech." She picked up the plate with her cookies and walked out of the kitchen.
Nita sat in silence, digesting the conversation she and her sister had just shared. The flyer for the dance still sat on the kitchen table. Why am I letting Dairine get to me about this? she asked herself. I know how I feel.
But did she? If what she had said was the truth—that she and Kit were friends, albeit good friends, and nothing more—why did the thought of stating so in the Speech make her stomach turn? Why hadn't she just proclaimed in that wizardly language what Dairine had told her to?
Scared of a younger sister? Nita asked herself as she went to the sink and rinsed out the empty milk glass. A year or two ago, Nita would have had reason to be scared of her sibling. Dairine had come into wizardry with a bang, one whose echoes still reverberated through many universes. But with that colossal start had come the inevitable decline in power. Dairine's levels were now pretty much even with Nita's, and if it came to a match between wizards, Nita had enough experience to best her sister.
There was no reason for it to come to that, though. Nita stuck the glass in the dishwasher and let out an exasperated sigh. Her sister might be annoying, but that was no reason to pull out the big guns.
But if this keeps up, Nita thought, I'm definitely reaching for the small ones. I wonder if Carmela still has that laser dissociater that looks like a curling iron…
Nita smiled, gathered her school things, and went up to her room.