“Oh." He sat in confused silence for a few seconds. "Can I ask you a very serious question?""I rather you didn't," I said.He stared straight into my eyes. "If you were an animal, what animal would you be?"WAIT, WHAT? "Wait, what?""It's a classic icebreaker.""If I were an ANIMAL...?"He faked a sigh and checked an imaginary watch. "Your inability to answer the question doesn't bode well for-""I refuse to answer that," I said. "On the grounds that it's probably the stupidest thing I've ever been asked."He stared at me, frowning. "I hear your subconscious saying MONKEY.”

“What are you doing here, Luce?" he asked, studying me. "Watching you play," I answered, knowing it wasan't one he'd accept. "Yeah," he said, making a face. "That's not going to work for me." Of course it wasn't. "You know why," I added with a whisper. "I need to hear you say it," he said, swallowing. "I've gone too many days without hearing it." Sighing, I closed my eyes. "I love you," I said, knowing it was the truth and that it didn't change anything. "And I missed you." "Yeah," he said, "me too.”

“You have a visitor, my lord." I frowned, "What?" "That is why I came in here. You have a visitor waiting for you." I stood up, exasperated. "Why didn't you say so?" Lacuna looked confused. "I did. Just now. You were there." She frowned thoughtfully. "Perhaps you have brain damage." "It would not shock me in the least," I said."Would you like me to cut open your skull and check, my lord?" she asked. Someone that short should not be that disturbing.”

“I was not staring at you,” he told his plate. I leaned over. “Did you hear that, Dingane’s lunch? He was not staring at you.”He looked up at me crossly. “I was not staring at you.”“I never said you were.” “I was merely explaining that Henry was exaggerating. I did not stare at you.”“Okay,” I stated, implying in my tone that he had done just that.“I didn’t. I-I wasn’t.” “I believe you,” I told him“I may have looked at you a few times to make sure you were doing your job.”“Oh, I see then.”“But I certainly wasn’t staring.”“We’ve established that you were not staring.”He breathed deeply a few times, his eyes burning into mine. “Good.”He’d definitely been staring.”

“So what were you doing there?”  Here’s the frustrating thing about Nate, one of those things that happy memories conveniently glossed over.  A lot of times, you had to ask him a question more than once to get a straight answer.  He loved to answer questions you’d never asked, or to answer a question with another question.   “Do I really have to answer that, Kyrie?” See? “Don’t you trust me?”  See?!”

“Does P-Jamie... like me?"Malcolm blinked. This was clearly not the kind of dirt he'd been expecting."I mean,like me, like me." I clarified quickly. "What are you? Twelve?" he asked, incredulous."You aren't supposed to make fun of me!" I scolded."You never said you were going to act like a teenybopper. That's a special circumstance. Any judge would agree.""Fine." I started to rise. "Like I said, forget I asked.""Wait, Amy. Sit down," he said with a sigh. Malcolm was leaning his fits against the wood, staring down at his knuckles. I sat. "What?"He didn't look up. "This is all just between us, right?""Yeah.""I wouldn't say he likes you.""Oh." Oh. Of course not. How stupid of me. How ridiculous, really-"He's pretty much in love with you.”