To Lyger 0: Hmm… Merlin showing up here would be rather fascinating…
"You know, some days I almost miss Angola."
Stepping to the edge of the sidewalk, Bri turned toward the voice and quirked an eyebrow at Anne as she jogged across the quad from the Strand Building. Bri shrugged one shoulder, settling her messenger bag better, and shifted her weight from one leg to the other. A moment later, Anne stopped on the sidewalk in front of her, rubbing her forehead in frustration and stifling a yawn. The fog that had covered the city closest to the Thames for most of the morning had almost entirely vanished, leaving only a few clouds high in the sky over them, one of which drifted overhead, casting a fleeting shadow across Bri and Anne. And yet, with the warm sun beating down on her and a gentle breeze blowing through the trees lining the campus on the street side, Bri smiled, inhaling deeply the scent of the flowers blooming alongside the sidewalk, stifling a contented yawn. Again she rolled her shoulders, twisting her neck in either direction to work out the stiffness from sitting in class for two hours that morning and another two after lunch. Seeing Anne's amused look, she nodded. "I'm almost inclined to agree with you. After all, say what you will about that stupid camp, at least I didn't need to spend hours on end on circuit diagrams and energy configurations!"
Anne covered her mouth to hide a laugh. "No; you just spent hours on end up to your eyeballs in actual circuits!"
Grimacing, Bri hummed ruefully, starting to lead the way off the campus, toward their building. "Yeah… Not exactly my finest work, was it?"
Anne shrugged. "You did a thousand times better than I would have done – not that that's saying anything."
"Fair." Bri let out a breath. Her preference was working on hardware – her suit and bracelets especially. And yet, in the Angola refugee camp, she had spent so much of her time trying to understand and reconfigure Max's portal technology for their use. He and Paola, one of the American miraculous users, had developed it last year, but he had been back in Paris, and Paola had been busy with other problems. Unfortunately, they had discovered that with Paris off limits, the entire portal system was unusable – all the main portal rings connected back to Paris, and none of them could connect with each other. And while Bri had been able to disassemble the portal ring easily enough, figuring out how to adjust the portal ring to act as a new hub had proven impossible – at least with the time and resources at her disposal. In the end, the best she had managed to do had been to rebuild the portal and get it back into operative condition before they defeated the Tarasque.
Precious little help that had been.
A couple weeks after their return from Angola, Max had invited her to visit the Heroes of Paris' Headquarters for a consultation. She had helped him to redesign the Heroes of Paris' emergency watches with some of the same functions provided by her watches. Subsequently, they had also redesigned the entire main portal system on a similar model to that which connected the Manor with her flat and the workshop. Now, there was no need for the Paris portal to serve as a central hub – all of the portals could connect with each other directly, meaning that the main portal in the Manor could connect directly to Australia, or to America, or to Angola, or…
Not that she'd visited anywhere other than Paris since then.
"Still," Anne mused. "From what you've said, your class sounds at least a little more interesting than either of mine." She made a face. "History – and not even interesting history; right now our focus is exclusively on the Roman Empire… before they had any contact with the Britons. Oh, sure, the Roman Empire is significant to the history of the islands – no one could possibly claim otherwise. But I don't need to know that much about the early Roman Republic to understand Boudica!"
Bri hummed. "I can't exactly argue that!" she teased. "Although considering how much of this class involves reading the academic theories…" She shook her head, raising an eyebrow. "You know I prefer hands-on experience over all this theory."
Anne smirked. "Oh, I know – or at least, so I hear…" She wagged her eyebrows. "Although speaking of your 'hands-on experience,' have you heard anything from lover boy since they left?"
Bri felt the heat rising in her cheeks and rubbed her bracelet awkwardly. She coughed, shaking her head. "Just a text while I was in class. They're doing fine it seems. Though Felix said his feet are getting sore and tired from all the walking they've been doing – no car."
"No car," Anne deadpanned. "And they're trying to visit all of Wales."
Bri shrugged. "That's what Felix said."
"Well, good luck to them, I guess." Anne hummed, giving her an evaluating look. "You know, we really need to take advantage of the fact that you're not preoccupied with Felix this week," she suggested. "I'm pretty sure the last time we had a 'girl's night' of any variety was sometime before Hy-Brasil!"
Bri furrowed her brows. "No; I'm sure there was that night last week… wasn't there?"
Anne shook her head. "Felix was there, remember? Or at least, he came home at the end and you left with him a little after."
Bri nodded slowly, her face falling. "I'm sorry – I swear I don't mean to get distracted by him."
"Don't be sorry," Anne told her easily, squeezing her shoulder. "You're happy, and that's what's important. I think he's been good for you, and we both know that you've been good for him. But still. It would be nice to have a night with just the two of us – or the three of us, with Amelie," she amended, stifling a laugh.
"That would be nice," Bri agreed, smiling. Her smile faltered, however, and she frowned, glancing in Anne's direction. "But don't you have to work tonight?"
Anne groaned, her shoulders slumping, and looked up toward the ceiling. "Well feck. And with how knackered I am from class…"
Bri grimaced. "Sorry. Maybe tomorrow?"
"Yeah…" Anne shrugged. "We'll see. But I suppose you and your 'mother-in-law' can have a night together without me tonight."
Bri rolled her eyes. "You know it won't be the same."
Anne grinned, raising an eyebrow. "Still, don't hold off on my account."
"We'll see if we can save something for when you get back," Bri promised. Her shoulders shifted uncomfortably, and she looked around her, frowning, her eyes drifting up toward the sky above and settling on one of the clouds.
"That'll be… fun." Anne cocked her head and paused for a moment, eyeing Bri closely. Finally, she shrugged. "So, any plans the rest of the day?"
"I was thinking about working a little more on that headband," Bri explained. "I think I might've figured out how to get the holographic screen projectors to work with the headband; now it's just a matter of connecting it with my bracelets." She shook her wrist as a demonstration.
"Thinking about doing something like that with more of your devices?" asked Anne, holding up her own watch.
Bri grinned. "Jealous? If I can get it to work for me, I'll see about getting one for you." They had just crossed the street and stopped in front of the building. Bri furrowed her brows, looking around in confusion.
Anne's eyes narrowed suspiciously, and she eyed the ground level carefully. "What is it? What's wrong?"
"I don't know…" Bri answered slowly, pursing her lips. "I just – I've been getting this feeling all week like someone's following me."
Anne's eyes widened. "What!?"
"It's got to be nothing," Bri insisted, shaking her head adamantly. "It's just a feeling."
Anne let out a breath. "Well, okay…" She glanced down at her watch and jumped. "Oh! I'm going to be late! See you tonight?"
Bri nodded, glancing up at the roof above them out of the corner of her eye. "Stay safe."
Anne raised an eyebrow. "Nothing, huh?" She chuckled, shaking her head, and placed her hand on Bri's shoulder. "You do the same, sis."
As she watched Anne race down the street toward the pub, Bri momentarily considered following her, at least as far as the workshop. With another hour of work, she could finish the headband and test it. The feeling had to be nothing, right? But as she hair on the back of her neck stood up again, she shook her head, swiped her card on the apartment house's front door, and stepped inside.
Five minutes later, Bri opened the door to the flat and looked around, nodding to their neighbor across the hall as she did so. A few of their decorations remained on the walls – a couple of pictures that Anne had picked up at a rummage sale back in the fall, a bookcase full of books from all Anne's history classes last year, even a framed Iron Maiden album cover, hanging on the wall directly behind the ratty old couch that they had picked up the same week as they moved in. She smiled, half-tempted to sit down and rest after her class. But instead, she shook her head to refocus, dropped off her messenger bag on top of the bookcase, and walked down the hallway to the hall closet. The portal box built into the back of the closet opened up and activated with a whoosh, and she stepped through it, into the Manor's Hero Study.
"Good afternoon, sweetheart!" Amelie greeted her, standing up from the desk the moment that the portal opened, turning around, and giving Bri a warm hug. Bri drew in a surprised breath and almost immediately released it with a sigh, returning the hug and resting her head on Amelie's shoulder. "How was school?"
Bri shrugged. "It was fine," she replied, as Amelie held her out at arm's length for a moment and released her. "Of course, I don't really expect to have a lot of problems with this class, or at least not until the second half of it. Everything we're learning right now, I still remember from the first time through it." She grimaced. "It will be when we get to geothermal power generation that things start to get interesting…"
"'Geothermal'…" Amelie repeated slowly. "That is energy produced by the earth's core, correct?"
Bri nodded hesitantly. "That's… part of it. It's converting energy from the earth's crust into usable electricity." She groaned. "From talking to Max, it sounds like he actually expects geothermal energy to end up being important if we ever build that Moon base. Though until then…"
"I'm sure you'll do your best in your studies," Amelie told her, smiling.
"That's the hope," she agreed. She frowned, glancing past Amelie at the computer screen. "What have you been working on?"
Amelie shrugged. "Not much of anything, really. Cross-referencing crime statistics in London with the rest of the country – wondering if there might be a connection. So far, nothing."
Bri hummed, looking away. She could feel heat rising in her cheeks as she opened her mouth to ask a question, only for her bracelet to let out a beep. Cocking her head, she glanced down at the screen and scoffed, swiping her hand across the screen.
"What was that?" asked Amelie curiously. "Message from Felix?"
Bri frowned, shaking her head. "I wish. My… father called – fourth time in the last three days."
Amelie pursed her lips, her brows furrowed. "Curious. And he hasn't contacted you since last autumn?"
"No." Bri shook her head, her mouth set in a thin line. "Or not exactly – not if you don't count Angola." She coughed, looking away. "Um… have you heard anything from Felix?"
Amelie sighed knowingly. "Wondering if I have received more news than you have?" She shook her head. "I doubt it. He sent a message earlier, but that's it." Bri's shoulders slumped. "I'm sure he's fine," Amelie assured her, shaking her head ruefully. "I'm sorry to say that I've failed to convince my son of the necessity of regular communication; dare I say, I think you've trained him better at that! But don't take it to heart."
"No, I'm not," Bri insisted. Amelie arched an eyebrow at her, placing a hand on her shoulder. She grimaced. "… Maybe just a little bit."
"He will contact us if he has any problems," Amelie assured her. "In the meantime…"
"It's best not to worry?" Bri finished, raising an eyebrow. "I know. Actually, Anne was thinking that we ought to have a girls' night while he's out of town."
Amelie smiled warmly. "That does sound like a lot of fun – I so much enjoy getting to spend time with you both."
"I do, too," Bri assured her quickly. "Although Anne's working tonight. It's… nice. Watching Downton Abbey with you, I mean. My Mama and I would always…" She fell silent, her throat closing up, and sniffled. Amelie hugged her gently, and Bri let out a breath. "Thanks."
"I know you miss them," Amelie told her, smiling sympathetically. "And I know I can't take their place – not that either of us would wish for that. But I am here for you. And not because you're romantically involved with my son. Because I care about you. Whether you want to talk, or just to watch television together, I am here."
"I know." Bri nodded, the tension in her stomach easing. "And you don't know how much I appreciate it. I do think it would be nice to watch a couple episodes of Downton Abbey tonight, though I also want to get a little work done on my bracelet upgrade first."
"I'll have the cook whip something up for dinner," Amelie promised, pressing her thumb to the reader by the door. "But you, don't work yourself too hard!"
Bri smiled. "I won't." glancing down at her watch, she hummed. "I'll be back in an hour or so."
"I'll hold you to it."
Bri nodded as Amelie stepped outside, hitting a button to open the portal. She paused. "Oh, and Amelie? Thank you."
