silverchain.
link zero: the prologue
"-that he's planning to propose! At his age! I just think that's ridiculous, don't you?"
Dark eyes flared. Not-so-dainty hands wildly danced. Raspberry lips pursed, pouted, opened for more irritated words to spill out. Her voice was sharp on his ears.
"I think it's rather sweet," he mused, smiling without teeth and raising a pale eyebrow.
Jenna fumed. "Sweet?" she screeched, in her most matronly tones. Never had she seemed more what she was: an aging mother who positively adored her son. In this crisis, she had barely a hint of her teenage self, except in her still-youthful appearance. Ivan sighed. Diplomacy was getting him nowhere.
"His heart's in the right place, and if he wants to marry her, why not?" He tapped a pen on the table absentmindedly. "He's young. He has a life to live, and if that's what he wants..."
"Exactly. He's young, and he doesn't know what he wants yet. For goodness' sake, Ivan, he's only eighteen!"
"You were hardly older when you got married," Ivan said with a frown. "Be fair, Jenna."
"Oh? So how would you feel about it if Karis planned to get married, hmm?" she countered. Ivan knocked the pen on his clean-shaven chin, and Jenna snatched it away.
Before Ivan had a chance to speak, Karis swept into the room, humming some foreign tune or other. Jenna looked devilishly at Ivan before calling out, "By the way, Karis, any of the boys on your quest...interesting?"
Karis paused. "B-boys?" she repeated, in a tone that suggested she was not entirely comfortable with the subject.
Pleased with this reaction, Jenna continued, "Well, I just wondered if you thought any of them were cute...you know, like Rief or Eoleo?" Ivan rolled his eyes at her.
"Eoleo? He's like thirty," Karis scoffed, looking somewhat relieved. "And Rief is sweet, but he's really not my type."
Jenna looked thoughtful. "Well, I'm sure you met other boys than the ones you travelled with...hang on," she said, a thought evidently dawning on her. "What about...what was his name...Amiti?"
A furious blush stained the Jupiter Adept's face. "W-who? Oh...Amiti. We...we're just friends," she stammered out, her purple eyes large and betraying some flash of unfamiliar emotion.
"Oh, I see," Jenna replied, obviously trying to restrain her smile. "I just wondered." Karis turned away and resumed her song, her blush still bright on her cheerful face. After a minute, she left, and Jenna burst out into laughter.
"So she likes him," Ivan muttered sullenly. "I could have told you that."
"She likes him a loooot," Jenna laughed, her earlier irritation completely forgotten. She leaned forward and pinched Ivan's cheek. "Aw, is papa wolf upset?"
"Don't you have anybody else to bother? Your husband and son, for example?" Ivan grumbled.
"Somebody's grumpy!" sang Jenna. "And no...father-son camping trip. Isaac just won't leave well enough alone, he has to solve all the world's problems...you know him."
"I think the neighbors are starting to talk about your constant visits over here," Ivan said with a smile. Jenna laughed at him.
"Oh, I wish I could hear that. Sounds hilarious. I'll probably just spend the night here, by the way. Who wants to go home to an empty house?"
"You've been living in an empty house for the better part of the year," Ivan reminded her.
"Exactly!" Jenna exclaimed. "And so have you, for the past couple of months, and now your adorable daughter is back to light it up! Aunt Jenna just has to suck some of that joy up!"
"You're creepy."
She punched him lightly. "Keep talking like that, you won't get any supper."
"You don't have to cook for me, you know," Ivan said. "I can manage perfectly well on my own."
"Yeah, yeah, I hear you." She ruffled his hair and stepped into the kitchen. "Nobody cooks like a Mars Adept, anyway," Jenna calls back to him.
"Who'd want to?"
"I heard that!"
Karis shuffled back into the room, singing a chipper song, and Ivan almost missed having the house to himself. Almost.