fandomhigh | Exit Strategies, Monday, Period 2

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escape artistry

Exit Strategies, Monday, Period 2

Your teacher was back in front of the class. Yay. Complete with a very dubious tween beside her. Yay?

"So there are some things you actually can't escape from," Aphra said. "Not without being a terrible person." Which some people were actually okay with, just so you knew.

"But just because you can't escape from those responsibilities doesn't mean you can't find ways to discharge them that aren't going to lead you to soul-crushing despair. Sometimes the right solution is to recognise that you aren't the kind of person who should be taking on those responsibilities and instead find a better person and place for them."

"I'm not going to visit grandpa," Nebitu said. "And I told you Dad's place is too noisy."

"Oh, c'mon."

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"Hey, Libs." Vi scooted over, dragging Cerise with her with a proprietary arm around her shoulders. "I want you to meet Cerise. She's my kid. Might be my kid. In the future." Which was still a weird as fuck thing to say.

Libby blinked at Vi. She blinked at Cerise. Then back at Vi again.

Yeah, okay. She had definitely, miraculously, managed to miss something this weekend.

Still, trying to make sense of maybe-might-be kids from the future was no excuse to be rude.

"Hello, Cerise," she said. "I'm Libby. Liberty. I'm...erm, Vi's roommate. It's very nice to meet you."

"Likewise." Libby was maybe getting a tiny side-eye, but nothing compared to what Cerise had given Steph.

Vi ruffled her hair affectionately. "I've got a second one too, but Amber's been with her other mom."

Libby's bewildered expression was clearly not going anywhere. "You...have two?"

So, if people were having kids from the future, and she didn't even know about it until just this moment, did that mean...she didn't have...any?

When you'd spent your whole life being told that the most righteous and most important thing for a woman on this Earth to do was to be fruitful and multiply, this revelation felt like a kick to the stomach.

Libby was trying to push past that, though, her attention seeming to go now to Vi with determination.

"Who's her other mom?"

"Yeah, I know, surprised me too," Vi said. "Steph, from in town. Someone's being tight-lipped about her other mom though."

"Oh, yeah?" asked Libby, turning her attention more toward Cerise now, with a small smile. Focusing maybe on Vi's kids could help distract her from some of the finer details, and, well, you weren't the oldest of seven without having picked up (or so she thought) a few tricks here and there. "And why's that?"

"They haven't met yet," Cerise told her, just like she'd told Mom. From what she'd heard it had been fraught enough without her messing with it one way or the other.

Libby looked over to Vi for a moment before asking Cerise, "Not even a little bit of a hint? I'll admit, I don't know much about how this being from the future thing is supposed to work, but I can't imagine, if you're here now, that'd it make too much of a difference. Or maybe you could just tell me about her. What's she like?"

"She's my mother." Cerise weighed her answers carefully, both her mothers were excellent at interrogations, even if they rarely pushed things with her. "Mom's crazy about her."

Well, now, an answer like that as just going to cause Libby to grin over at Vi, looking both impressed and clearly excited for her and this mysterious future woman.

"With good reason, too, I'm sure," she then said to Cerise. "If you had to pick just one thing...that you think is Vi's favorite thing about your other mother, what do you think it would be?"

Cerise thought about the soft, hesitant way Mom talked about how her mum had reminded her what it was like to hope for better.

"I'm quite certain I'm not supposed to discuss that in public," she replied instead with false primness. "But they're very enthusiastic."

Mean, Cerise.

It was a pretty good indication that, while the pollen was gone, it still had left an effect on Libby, the way her face started to slowly turn from its slightly sun-touched pallor to a rather rosy shade of pink, and the hand almost immediately going to her mouth as if she didn't trust it not to say something inappropriate.

"Well," she eventually managed to get out, "there you go." She sucked in a little bit of a breath. "Enthusiasm."

"Be nice," Vi said, smothering a laugh and aiming a gentle swat that turned into a hair ruffle at Cerise. "Libs is good people."

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Exit Strategies, Monday, Period 2

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