the self-knower

[lifes_sake]

Vague and grandiose chat about motivated capitalism take up the rest of the wizards' evening. Plans are made for Cam to learn about worldgates the following (skipped from school with Renée's kind accomplicehood) day and, assuming he catches on quickly enough, to go to New York and meet Jenny and talk about her operating as their business proxy.

Presently it's bedtime, and Cam goes to his room and Matilda and Jellybean go to theirs and Cam has the chance to ask Grace what on earth she meant.

"Well," Grace says, whispering, "you've been holding off on labeling because you're only fourteen, but people stabilize at different ages, don't they? And as near as I can tell you've been stable for almost a year now. Not on either, but on whichever. I think you're just as likely to get a crush on Jellybean as Matilda and vice-versa, and I don't think it's because you're still undeclared, I think you're just wired that way."

Cam considers this. "Okay," he says. "I can live with that."

"I should hope so," says Grace, and Cam laughs, and he goes to sleep.

He's still on a sleep cycle appropriate to school, so he may be up before Jellybean and Matilda in the morning.

Comments

[pythbox]

Perfect! Jellybean is so glad he agrees.

Subtraction of shirts opens up enough new options that it might be quite a while before he raises the subject of pants.

[lifes_sake]

That's good, because there may be only one pair of pants between them but Cam thinks they should stay where they are for now.

[pythbox]

Does he have any opinions about Jellybean's skirt? Because Jellybean is fine with keeping the skirt on, but might be a little disappointed if Cam is scrupulous about avoiding its entire area of coverage.

[lifes_sake]

Well, not the entire area. Not necessarily.

[pythbox]

Oh, awesome.

[lifes_sake]

This was clearly an excellent idea.

[pythbox]

It totally fucking was.

[lifes_sake]

Delicious Jellybean kisses, om nom nom.

[pythbox]

He is the tastiest Jellybean, it's true!

It's literally true, in fact - just for fun, he makes his skin taste like candy.

[lifes_sake]

Cam makes a confused, intrigued noise, and carries on with exactly what he is doing.

[pythbox]

Jellybean giggles into the latest of many kisses.

[lifes_sake]

There's really no clear indication of when they're done kissing on the moon, is there?

"How much air'd you bring?" murmurs Cam.

[pythbox]

"Enough," he says cheerfully. "Tilly came up with an air-vacuum barrier that does gas exchange, we could be up here for days before it gave up on us."

[lifes_sake]

"'S a long time," observes Cam.

[pythbox]

"Yup!" says Jellybean.

[lifes_sake]

Kiss kiss nibble?

[pythbox]

Mmmmmmmmmmmm. Yes excellent.

[lifes_sake]

Good, Cam's first attempt at outright improvisation is a success. This was a good idea that Jellybean had and going along was a good idea that Cam had.

[pythbox]

Jellybean is downright enthusiastic about Cam's improvisation!

Jellybean is enthusiastic in general. Especially about makeouts.

[lifes_sake]

Yeah, Cam's getting that impression. He's developing quite a bit of enthusiasm himself.

[pythbox]

Awesome. Jellybean loves making out with enthusiastic people! It's such fun, isn't it?

[lifes_sake]

Cam can see why it's so popular, yes!

[pythbox]

Eventually, Jellybean snuggles up and says contentedly, "See? Now you know plenty about making out on the Moon."

[lifes_sake]

"I do wonder how well it'll generalize to related situations," muses Cam. He pauses for effect. "I mean, I feel like I know almost nothing about skiing on the moon."

[pythbox]

...

Jellybean cracks up.

And then kisses him.