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Library, Wednesday, All Day

Sholeh was thrilled to be back in the library, back to classes, and, best of all, back to human shape again. She was also secretly thrilled not to have been the sister who woke up naked in front of Sparkle and Ulrik (and hadn't yet figured out a way to talk to them and explain anything), though she felt bad that Zhahar had gotten stuck with that instead.

But enough of that. The library had decided to welcome her back by sending out groups of fantasy novels to bother various other parts of the library. Each group had fourteen books at a time in them (which made it hard to get all of them when they scattered) and they kept invading the geology section, the travel section that dealt with famous mountain ranges, and the hobby section--particularly the mountaineering, hiking, and spelunking books.

Sholeh decided it was just better not to even know.

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"I honestly couldn't tell you," Sholeh said with a shrug. She was hoping that maybe he'd take it as a way of saying that she didn't know. "A lot of the past month has been...hard to focus on."

Because she had been sharing the body with her sisters, of course.

"When I came back to myself, I was in my room."

Also sorta trueish!

"Well, you kept flipping around between that deer, and a badger, and a dog. But the dog turned out to be someone else entirely," Sparkle replied, wrinkling his nose, "and I don't know what's up with the badger, but I'm not ruling out that it was someone else, too."

A beat.

"Someone bitchy." Look, nobody could blame him for that one. Zeela had been a holy terror as a badger. "I'm just happy you're in one piece, Girly. And I'm never going to bring animal transformations into my room again, because that shit was messed up."

Strangers. In. His. Bed.

Edited 2013-01-10 04:18 (UTC)

"Possibly just high-spirited?" Sholeh suggested, because Zeela was her sister. But also not very convincingly, because, again--sister.

"I'm hoping to never transform into an animal again," she said, just as fervently. "That was terrible. It lasted forever."

"It threatened to rip my face off whenever you or the dog didn't get your ways," Sparkle pointed out. "It was bitchy."

He was going to maintain that one until the day he died. Adamantly.

"And that was pretty long for a transformation. Maybe you and the dog and the badger were, like, stuck in it for three times as long as everyone else gets, because there were like three of you for whatever reason?"

She couldn't argue that there weren't, at this point. She hadn't actually denied that she wasn't the badger, and he'd seen them switching freely between the three.

=I prefer 'protective,'= Zeela said, not sounding at all contrite. =It's not my fault he's such a big baby about claws.=

Claws. Coming at his face. Yeah, stop being such a baby, Sparkle.

"Maybe that was it?" Sholeh agreed, after failing to find a way to argue against the three-in-one thing. "Perhaps we each changed at the same time and sort of got stuck together. Anything can happen on this crazy island!"

Again with the sort-of truths. Still, she was having trouble meeting Sparkle's eyes over it.

"I feel bad for whoever it was that woke up in your room, though," she said, because the sibling loyalty was strong in this one. "She was probably just as confused and scared as you. And naked."

"Yeah, well, she seemed to know my name without me needing to make introductions, so at least she had that one up on me," Sparkle grumbled, frowning. "I don't just let anyone in my room. On my bed. Around my stuff. And it wasn't like I was gonna look at her or anything."

Seriously. Still not interested.

"She was covered."

"If I had ended up naked in your room, even knowing who you are and that you're not interested, and having Ulrik's blanket, I would have been flustered, too," Sholeh pointed out softly. "I don't think anyone's seen me naked since I got too old for my mothers to bathe. It's scary."

*Thank you, little sister,* Zhahar whispered.

"And of course she knew your name, silly," Sholeh laughed, trying to make Sparkle feel better. "You were on stage. And awesome! You're practically famous, at least on the island!"

Practically famous? Any other time, Sparkle probably would have set to preening at that. But right then? Yeah, he'd accept that 'Zhari' was probably terrified. For like a million different reasons, even. But there had still been something about the way she'd been acting that had thrown him, had set off alarms in his head.

There was a long pause, there, while Sparkle took everything Sholeh said into consideration, and then, looking up at the ceiling, he drawled, "So. Who told you she had Ulrik's blanket, then?"

Because it sure as hell hasn't been him.

Honestly, Sparkle. Could you just for once do what was expected of you? Just once? You could have taken the compliment and just run with it! Sholeh would have been willing to inflate your ego all afternoon!

Instead Sholeh was going to squeak at his question. Quite literally squeak.
While bright red and big-eyed. She no answer for him. Not one. And her sisters were of no help either.

"..."

And Sholeh could sit there, beet red and wide-eyed, for as long as she needed to, because Sparkle wasn't going to back off, at this point. Nope. He was going to just sit there with his arms crossed over his chest, and his eyebrow raised, and give her that 'I am going to stare you down now,' look.

"So. I don't suppose you want to tell me what the hell's going on, now?"

Somehow, he wasn't expecting her to be much more helpful than Zhari had been.

A tremble of red curls as Sholeh shook her head, face and eyes immediately turning towards the floor. Sparkle had a remarkably effective stare and Sholeh was already feeling very guilty.

But she definitely didn't want to tell him what was going on here.

"Not now," she whispered. "I just...can't."

"No?"

Sparkle eyed her for a moment more, and then shrugged his shoulders and leaned back, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"Fine. You don't wanna talk, that's fine. I know you're alive and in one piece now, at least. That's more than I had to work with, like, yesterday." He looked toward the doorway. "Stinks like books in here. I should leave you to it before it like rubs off on me or something. People might get the wrong idea, think I've been learning or something."

Was he feeling stung? Hell yes. Was he letting it show?

... Well, not if he could help it.

"No, wait...Sparkle!" Sholeh called after him. "Sparkle, please don't--!"

Though what else could she say? Other than, you know, the truth?

"Sparkle, please! It's not about you at all! It's...it's bigger than both of us." She stood behind the desk, looking helpless. "I just--you see--because--and then--but they--"

"Yeah, yeah. Save it for when you got more'n a bunch of excuses to throw my way, girly." Sparkle gave her a flippant little wave of his hand, back turned to her, before making his way out the door and not looking back.

He'd been fucked around with enough for one week.

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Library, Wednesday, All Day

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