Hey little Sister

"I think the flour goes in the nutcakes, Tersa, not my hair," Surreal was laughing as she threw a handful of the ingredient back at her co-cook. "Stop wasting food!" Which, while it was not as huge a concern as it had been before the introduction of Tersa and Daemon into her life, and then Fandom with its constant food, it was still a worry never far from her mind.

"The boy will bring us more if we need it," was Tersa's reply, making a face as she tried to lick the flour from her own nose. "He always does, if he can. You're smiling. That is worth flour."

Surreal quickly tried to shake the flour off her long braid. "You're being ridiculous," she muttered, averting her eyes. "I smile."

"Not since you were small. The Girl had to teach you how to smile again," Tersa replied, reaching for the eggs. She stared at them for a moment, then blinked and continued with her baking. "You were sleeping then she kissed you and you woke up. I like her."

"Good, because Sadi doesn't," Surreal grumbled under her breath, scrubbing flour from her face with the back of her hand. "Not that it's his business."

"He is male," Tersa said, waving a hand. "He is snarly. He is wrong to snarl at your Firefly Girl, but he can't see what you have not shown him."

"What is it that I haven't shown him?" Surreal growled as she grabbed the bowl to start mixing. "That she's female? That she's not a Queen? That she can't - won't - hurt us?"

"You did not show him your dream of future past," she said dreamily, fingertips tracing patterns in the flour dusting on the counter. "That you laugh and dance and live lives that dance apart and come back together when they can, and that you both shine like Jewels in sunlight, dazzling, blinding, private behind curtains. That you became all he could ever hope for, and it will be because of her."

Surreal's hands stilled on the bowl. "Tersa," she said, doing her best to keep her voice even. "What are you talking about?"

"You were older, and you were skilled, and you were happy, and then it went back to as it is, but that does not mean it will not happen again," Tersa informed her cheerfully. "...it does not mean it will happen either, but it is and it is not and it is all there, waiting."

"I didn't tell you about that weekend." Not that they'd all woken up older, thought it was the 'school reunion,' who Surreal had been, that it had lit something up inside her that she had thought dead after finding Titian's dead body. The concept that there was still joy in life, beyond her desire to kill Kartane. Wild, uninhibited, spontaneous joy, and Surreal was still capable of it.

Tersa gave her a look before dabbing dough on Surreal's nose.

"Darkness protect me from Black Widows," Surreal swore, rolling her eyes. "Nosy and interfering. All of you."

"Yes, dearest," was Tersa's sweet answer. "That is why we get on so well. Keep mixing."

[OOC: Establishy, NFB, NFI.]