Chapter 7: Outbursts

Did anyone ever think about how, if Sasha fell in love with Milla, how he'd have to loosen up a lot? I think it'd be like puberty (without the physical effects, of course), with all the outbursts and stuff. The funny part is that Sasha's, like, thirty or something, and he's acting like a teenager.

"!$"

"Sasha, darling, you shouldn't swear!"

Milla's perspective: Sasha had been acting so… weird, lately. He was having all these angry outbursts. It seemed that he was acting more like a high-schooler than an adult.

"Milla, the computer just erased all five pages of my report. I have a right to be mad."

"Yes, darling, but you don't have to swear. Maybe that's just telling you that you should write shorter reports for the files. Don't write down everything we've done, just the things that mattered."

sigh "Milla, just let me write. The report is half an hour late already."

"Can I type it, darling?"

"Sure. Knock yourself out."

"I'd prefer not to, darling." She progressed to write:

We recovered the psitanium together and are sending it back to HQ.

She sent the e-mail.

Sasha just didn't understand that the Psychonauts didn't have time to scan his reports, so they usually just xeroxed them and gave them to the Psycadets to study. Then the cadets summarized them and gave them back to the Psychonauts. Psycadets are to Psychonauts as freshmen are to grads.

"Milla, that didn't tell them anything!"

"No, darling, it told them what they needed to know. When I was working at the desk a couple years ago, that was the extent of information I wanted to know. If it was more than a paragraph, I'd give it to a Psycadet to summarize. They're wonderful for that sort of thing, darling."

He fixed her with that dry gaze that she would expect of anyone other than Sasha. "Milla, most people aren't like you."

"Trust me, Sasha, the desk people hate dealing with long reports. It's a great way to help teach the Psycadets, though."

He heaved a sigh, fixed her again with that dry stare, and left the computer room. She knew it must be exasperating for him, dealing with her. He was just so… different, now.

She had noticed that he was getting like that as he released the control of his cube. It was like he was in puberty, with all the feelings. God forbid that his voice got any lower, or she wouldn't be able to understand a single word he said. This seemed more like the emotional side of puberty, though. It was… interesting, to be married to someone with the emotional maturity (he understood love, yes, but not that many other emotions) of a middle-schooler.

Yeah, it's kind of repetitive, I know, but it's hard to say Sasha's having emotional problems and put that in a story format. That's, what, the second time I've had Sasha swear in this story. The firs time was when he wasn't awake, and now he's stressed, which I think most teens and preteens can relate to.