Miranda’s Dilemma Part 2

“Grammy?” Miranda starts to say with a small voice. Heliotrope scrambles the rest of his way up and rests on her shoulder.

Opal snaps out of her reminiscing and looks back at her granddaughter. She gestures with one hand for her to continue.

“Can I… May I…? Finish braiding your hair?” Miranda asks with an endearing head tilt. Her head snaps back up and she stares at one of her open palms as she wiggles her fingers in her peripheral vision.

“Yes of course my darlin’!” She faces away from Miranda, positions herself appropriately in front of the other woman, and the Elf starts to braid her dark, curly hair. Miranda summons small rubber bands and colorful beads out of seemingly nowhere to tie off the first completed braid.

Opal often forgets about Miranda’s casual use of magic, although Opal herself did have a fairy-lover back when she was younger, back in college, who would also do the same thing… Hmm… I wonder how her family is doing now? I haven’t spoken to her brother or her sisters for so long. She ponders as Miranda’s deft fingers weave their way through her hair to start the second braid, the beads hitting her face every once in awhile.

Her eyes begin to drift closed at the soothing and repetitive motions and then her granddaughter’s soft voice jolts her awake. “Pardon? Would you care to repeat that?” She asks with a rough voice, still dozing a bit.

“Done.” Miranda mentions or repeats

as she ties off the last of her grandmother’s braids. She gives a satisfied nod to herself as her grandmother still faces in the opposite direction.

“Thank you kindly!”

“Also… uhhh… Have you… Uhh… Have you ever had a crush on two people?” Miranda all-but squeaks out. She inhales and then exhales sharply as if to steel herself. Her body becomes noticeably rigid.

“I’m sorry, what?” Opal’s eyes spring open and her head snaps towards her granddaughter. She is now fully awake, she wasn’t even aware that her granddaughter was that aware of her feelings, or that she even experienced or expressed romantic emotions. But wait… something about this question… she spins around on Miranda’s bed to look at her granddaughter. Her eyes large and her eyebrows reaching upwards towards her forehead.

“I… never mind!” Miranda sighs and shoves her face in her hands, her freckles flash brighter in the spaces between her fingers from her embarrassment. She huffs, releases her face, and pets Heliotrope, who rewards her efforts with a hit of his tongue to her cheek. “I was not… supposed to ask you… Dammit!” She exclaims, almost loud enough to startle her Familiar. As it is, he just blinks languidly at her and continues to steal her body warmth while nestling into her lap.

“I apologize. Just…? Two people, at the same time?” Opal asks incredulously and stands up, Miranda lunges at her and grabs her arm with a vine. “Hey, it’s okay, I’m just getting up to close the door! So we can have a little girl talk, okay?” She states placatingly with a soothing hand out which she uses to pat her granddaughter’s green appendage, which then retracts. She closes the door and heads back to the bed. She sits down with her legs curled under her.

Miranda mimics her pose and takes a few fortifying breaths. “Yes… at the same time. Well wait… one way before the other… but at the current moment, my feelings are… simultaneously occurring?” She finally responds. She crosses her arms around herself. A small frown mars her features.

“Alright. I don’t feel like I’m the most qualified person for this, but I support you! And you should know that it’s… Well, not exactly normal, but… Uh…. Is this kind of thing typical for your kind or umm…” Opal stammers and she releases a sigh. She smiles apologetically at her granddaughter. Which she likely misses as Miranda is making intense eye contact with the covers of her bed. Heliotrope crawls up to Miranda’s shoulder.

“Polyamory is more common in the non-human humanoid population. Correct.” Miranda agrees and nods. She rapidly jerks her head-vines for a bit. “I know my feelings are… valid… However… I uh… thank! However…. I require… umm… assistance on… what to do in… this uhh… situation?” The Elf finishes so awkwardly it is almost painful for her grandmother to watch.

Miranda begins to curl in on herself, but she stops before she can finish forming a ball with her body. She readjusts and sits with a straightened posture. She still has her arms crossed and she rubs her hands on her arms, then straightens her skirt around her. Heliotrope nuzzles his broad snout against her neck.

Opal gently claps a hand on her granddaughter’s shoulder. Who then jolts a little at the unexpected touch. “I have absolutely no idea how to help. And I express my sincerest apologies for that!” She chirps. “However, if you don’t mind me asking…? Who are they?” Grammy asks with a feeling that she already knows the answer to her own question.

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“Who what?”

“Listen missy, don’t play coy with me!” Opal starts to say sternly with a finger waggle, but changes tones quickly and tacks on a smile for good measure when she sees Miranda’s shoulders tense minutely.

Heliotrope seems to sense this or he wants to get better basking light, it’s hard to tell, and he skitters up to the top of Miranda’s head.

“Oh, right. Sky and Circe. It is… that is… I… them!” Miranda stumbles through her words and shrugs as tersely as possible. Her shoulders almost reach the middle of her ears. Her fingers harshly grip at the material of her clothing.

“Aww!! I mean, that absolutely makes sense I suppose! I appreciate you telling me!” Her grandmother coos with her hands on both of her cheeks. “Wait, is that what you were so worked up over before?” Opal furrows her brows in worry after dropping her hands.

“Excuse me Grammy, ‘worked up over’?” Miranda questions with a cock of her head, she rushes to stop her Familiar from sliding off. He grips on for dear life and his claws desperately scratch into her skull as he scrambles for purchase. The elf cringes minutely.

“Be careful with him! Poor thing!” Opal chides and her grandmother laughs as Miranda deals with the consequences of her, usually inconsequential body language. She shakes her head to get them back on track. “Did you flip your lid or wig so to speak?”

“Grammy, I do not have a lid. I am not a jar. And I… was under the impression… that you knew that… my hair was actually made of micro-vines? That is why…. I refuse to have my haircut?” Miranda intones around her thumb that she has in her mouth.

She feels Heliotrope’s belly flatten on her scalp and she lifts her hands up one more time for good measure and to check that he is more securely affixed to her head this time. Her hand drops when she is sure that he is no longer in danger from falling.

“What I meant was, were these feelings what had you, presumably pacing, holed up in your room all day?” Her grandmother explains through a sigh. “I forget that you have a thing that makes you take things very literally sometimes.” She almost gives a face palm. “Was this what made you freak out or get upset earlier? Before I came into your room.” She clarifies and puts both hands up in a calming gesture. Miranda is not usually upset easily, but she appears a bit more… volatile today. Opal considers, then wonders if she should consider a more gentle and less direct approach, or if that would make things more confusing for her granddaughter today.

“We’re you aware that Sky is also Autistic too? Much like I am?” Miranda mentions. “Also I should wash my hands… after handling reptiles…. But I cannot get salmonella anyway… so…” She lifts her shoulders slightly and then bounces them for a bit. Fortunately, she does not manage to wake her, now sleeping lizard by performing either of these actions.

Yet again, Opal is left reeling as she feels as if she missed a few of the stops that were key to understanding Miranda’s trains of thought. Her mouth forms a perfect ‘oh’ shape as she attempts to follow the tracks. She has long since given up trying to control or stay on topic with the conversations she has with the twenty-something-actually-super-ancient immortal beings in her life after she has spent any significant time with, including Circe, Sky, or, as is currently applicable, her own granddaughter.

“Ah? I was aware of this yes. I think maybe? If one of you didn’t tell me, that would make a lot of sense either way as I understand them? Also where did you learn about the salmonella thing?” Opal says through a bit of a daze again. She also wonders if conversations with all immortal beings give her or others emotional whiplash, or if it’s just the aforementioned three specifically.

“Sky told me. They used to… freak out… a lot when people held their frogs… or when they handled… uhh reptiles or other amphibians? Because of that. The salmonella thing. Circe also had to remind them…. That uh… true immortals are… incapable of getting sick? Unless it is an autoimmune disease…? I think… as Nina definitely has a… few of those.” She states all of this in a detached manner while she constantly wiggles her fingers near her eye. She shakes her head ‘no’. “Wait, no. Salmonella is… is… not an autoimmune disease.”

“I… uh.. interesting? Also we’re we not just talking about your feelings for two of your best friends? And what you were going to do with them?” Opal asks incredulously with furrowed brows, trying her best to get Miranda to continue the conversation topic that she started. She barely restrains a frustrated huff.

“Oh. Yes… I have decided…” Miranda starts to say, then she trails off. She looks at her snoozing Familiar with a fond grin as she gently lifts him off her head.

Her grandmother waits for her to finish with bated breath. She leans forwards to hear her better. She gets tired of waiting. “Yes? So you’re going to do, what exactly?” The human prods gently.

Miranda straightens up and kicks her legs out from underneath her. The length of them far exceeds the length of her mattress and the curtains around her bed float up ever so slightly as a result. “I have… determined that… I shall do…” She says while watching something move outside the window.

Her grandmother leads even further forward, almost encroaching into Miranda’s personal bubble. She gives a patient smile. She lightly taps her fingers on the bed next to her.

“I shall do nothing. Or maybe I shall ask Nina. She has more experience… with uh… having romantic feelings for more than one… person… Thank you. Farewell.” Miranda finishes, then moves to stand up off her bed, holding Heliotrope atop her head as she rises. She lovingly pats her grandmother in the head. The door of her room shuts softly behind her and she’s gone from the room.

Opal places her hands on her face and sighs dejectedly and frustratedly. She straightens up and briefly considers following her granddaughter and demanding she explain her reasoning.

However, she quickly comes to the conclusion that she is personally emotionally drained for the day and lets it go. Also, if Miranda was physically leaving the conversation, then she figures that she really didn’t want to continue the topic either. She shakes her head fondly. Opal lets out another cathartic sigh and exits the room as well. She might as well go tend to her garden, if Miranda hadn’t done that already.

She leaves the room and exits the building, assuming she’s had enough stress for one day.