a city and a mint who sleep very little between them

[self_composed]

Bella bikes to the airport on Friday. She gets a little reading done on her flight, then sleeps-on-purpose through the remainder of the trip, waking up precisely when the plane touches down. One nice bonus that she didn't even explicitly build into the power is that she can sleep at will in virtually any position; she doesn't have to get comfy if that's not convenient.

She steps off the plane, backpack full of her things over her shoulders, and stalks into the halls of LaGuardia, eyes peeled for Libby.

Comments

[prima_sequentem]

"You seem to use magic a lot more frequently than I do," Libby observes.

[self_composed]

"I broke my leg last winter. It was an accident, but as long as I had a broken leg, I jostled it for coins. I have a good pain tolerance at that level."

This is all technically true.

[prima_sequentem]

"Unfortunately for me, I don't have those kinds of accidents."

[self_composed]

"Yes, but we've established you don't want to tell me how you get any coins whatever under your circumstances. Me, if I fall down the stairs, I will get beat up."

[prima_sequentem]

"How convenient for you," she says dryly.

[self_composed]

"It really is! It would be a pity if I were Bridget. She'd be a terrible mint, since bootstrapping doesn't work."

[prima_sequentem]

"She would, at that."

[self_composed]

"Speaking of Bridget, I have been advised not to ask you if I may try breaking your wrist to compare Chris's protection with Bridget's version," Bella says.

And she's not asking. Quite.

[prima_sequentem]

"Advised by whom?"

[self_composed]

"Lazarus. I believe he finds your aunt unnerving."

[prima_sequentem]

"Chris has that effect on people."

[self_composed]

"You're not laughing at him and offering me your hand, so I'm going to assume he was right."

[prima_sequentem]

"I won't take exception to you asking, but I also won't say yes, and if I did I would pick a less public location in case someone got the wrong idea."

[self_composed]

"Anti-spying ward doesn't cover that, then? But all right, sure, not everyone invincible is going to be as cooperative about playing with it as Bridget."

[prima_sequentem]

"Maybe once I get to know you better," she deadpans.

[self_composed]

"Fair enough."

[prima_sequentem]

"Any other nosy questions?"

[self_composed]

"Would it net me any interesting secrets if I volunteered to occasionally serve as an interpreter-who-already-knows-about-magic between you and ingots overseas?" Bella asks thoughtfully. "Since I have some languages. I don't want a full-time job while I'm in school, and if you need translations done while I'm in class you might just need to burn squares for temporary competence in French or whatever, but as long as we're being friendly and could use a basis for more opportunity to get to know each other..." She shrugs.

[prima_sequentem]

"Good idea," says Libby. "What languages do you speak?"

[self_composed]

Bella names... most of them. "Most of the major Romance languages, German, Greek, Arabic, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Hindi, and Mandarin. And, you know, English and Python and Lisp and stuff."

[prima_sequentem]

"I don't need German," she says. "And I already know an interpreter who knows about magic and speaks Russian. But you might be more convenient than Lazarus now and then."

[self_composed]

[You do translation work for Libby?] Bella asks Lazarus quizzically. That's news to her.

"Cool," she says.

[nonbird]

[No I don't,] says Lazarus. [I mean, I do translation work, but not for Libby.]

[self_composed]

[Are you sure?]

[nonbird]

[I think I would've noticed.]