The flowers hung from the ceiling of an expanded version of Billy’s lab. Suspended from hooks and keep in aetheric stasis-fields to keep their magical potency from wasting away.
Each petal of each flower was around one hundred times the size of your average man, and each flower had ten petals. All of them overlapping, forming, an opalescent, rainbow colored cup.
Billy sat beneath them, arms crossed, his brow furrowed, his lips set in the usual neutrality, though it was slightly more thoughtful than usual. He stared up at the flowers that he’d gathered from the Devil-Paradise Ivy.
Each flower representing a power that was equivalent to the divine energy of ten thousand ‘rank-and-file’ god-monsters.
For Monde it might have sounded like a nigh-unbelievable amount of power, but in the grander scheme of things it wasn’t much.
What it was, at least in the right hands, was a doorway. The key to a set of options that with a little more building, could decide, the world’s future.
The door to the lab opened and in walked Edna, she saw Billy sitting there staring up, looking just a little bit more lost than usual.
“Hey, you….So there’s where you’ve been hiding. I haven’t seen you all day.”
“Nh?....Did we have something planned?” said Billy. A bit of confusion in his voice though, he still sat staring up at the ceiling the flowers that hung from it.
“Nope...not really. Was just looking for my favorite guy.” said Edna. Stepping the behind Billy and wrapping her arms around his shoulder.
“.....Ah...Okay.” said Billy.
“So…..what are you thinking about?” asked Edna. Tilting her head up towards the flowers, following Billy’s gaze, to try and catch sight of whatever it was, that he was staring at so very intensely.
“Thinking?” said Billy.
“Well, you’re obviously brooding over something. You’re wearing your brooding face.” said Edna.
“....Brooding face?” said Billy.
Edna laughed, it had taken these last five years plus an entire childhood for her to become an expert at reading the man’s expressions. Strangely enough he was a surprisingly open book once you knew what to look for.
She drummed her finger on the top of his head.
“Nevermind that…What’s on your mind, little William?”
Billy looked up at the the ceiling then he tilted his head further back to look at Edna.
“....I’m trying to make a decision.” said Billy.
She crossed and uncrossed her arms, nodding, she’d thought as much and would secretly pleased that she was right.
“Okay, what about?” said Edna.
“.......”
For the longest time he didn’t speak, and Edna didn’t press him, then finally he sighed.
“You….know. Have I ever mentioned how much I care about you guys?”
Edna blinked, thoughts going fuzzy, a warmth rising in her chest.
“Er...sometimes. Rarely quite so explicitly but…”
“Really? I guess I need to say it more often then...hm...I love you Edna. I love you and Ell and Tamra ...I like running our company together with you guys. I want to help Al get as strong as she can possibly be. I think Jermaine and Matthew ‘might’ be my best male friends now...maybe...Even Angelo’s grown on me. I’ve officially gained a vested interest in seeing the little Aria tribe can do when they’re not pissing off the entire Hinterland. Hell, I think I’d even regret it if those paranoid types at the Ministry were to disappear. There’s a lot of things and people I care about now.” said Billy.
Edna didn’t interrupt him, waiting for him to finish talking. Eventually a lapse fell and she realized that he’d run out of things to say.
“I guess, your world’s grown a little bigger then….” said Edna.
Billy nodded. Wearing his own, bland version of a pout, looking almost painfully young, his eyes wide and bright, filled with flickers of green.
“.....It’s troubling. It used to be so much simpler when I only had the two of you to care about…. I suppose that means that my fall-back plan of destroying everything and starting over on some new world is no longer an option now, then...” said Billy, lost in his thoughts.
Edna laughed off that last that she’d decided was some bit of humor, and bent down and gave the silly man a peck on the lips.
“I’m not sure what it is, that has you so down, but usually when I have something I can’t make my mind up on I ask two questions. What can I live with? And what will make most happy? If I can’t live with something or the consequences of something, then its no good. If I ‘can’ live with both option, then its the option that makes the least happiest, that is no good. It’s all about satisfaction really.” said Edna.
Billy blinked and then he nodded, a small smile spreading across his face, like a butterpat across pancakes. A simple arch, like a rainbow in a clouded sky.
Then he stood up and gave Edna a kiss. His hands gently resting on the side of her face. Her feathery yellow locks tickling his nose.
“Thanks...You’ve always been the most grounded of all us.”
He was just about leave and get to work, but then she stopped him short, catching by the the hand.
“Wait…”said Edna.
“Nh?” said Billy.
“Do you have to go do whatever it is, right now?”
Billy’s face scrunched up a bit, as he considered her question.
“...Not really.”
Edna matched his smile.
“...Good.”
*****
Several hours later they lay in Billy’s oversized bed, lying beneath the rumpled sheets, skin sticky with sweat. Edna sighed, tired but contented, panting softly, like she was settling down from a run.
Billy was already asleep, or maybe he was just lying very, very still. She couldn’t tell because her back was turned to him, she was bent over, revealing the elegant curves and lines of her golden brown figure.
Scrounging through the drawers that lay beneath the bed. Looking for a suitable change of clothes.
Wondering if she might not, just be better off getting up and showering first, but feeling a bit too lazy to do so, right that minute. She found a t-shirt. She put it on and then she slipped back into bed.
“Oh….So you 'are' awake.” she mumbled. Speaking mostly to herself.
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Turning to her side and seeing that Billy lay staring at the ceiling like he often did, thinking. She didn’t ask what he was thinking about, because she knew better than anyone that sometimes one simply had to have a good think.
Sometimes the wheels and cogs and gears of one’s mind wouldn’t stop turning.
Seeing Billy lying there thinking, got her thinking as well. She went over her day, she went over things that she’d have to do for the next day. She idly consider her plans and plots for the near future.
Then as she settled back into bed, feeling sleep’s call rising in her ear. She nestled closer to her bed-mate to sap some of his warmth, she remembered something.
“Billy.”
“....Nh?”
“Do you ever think about the family?”
“Of course, I’m always thinking about you and Ell.” said Billy.
“No...I meant ‘the rest’ of the family. The other Maddocs. You know the nieces and nephews and cousins that we left behind in Garland.”
“....Oh, ‘that’. No, I suppose I’d have to say I don’t. Not really…..Why do you ask?” said Billy. As always his words were free of any sense of tension, or sarcasm, or bitterness. But somehow this time, they were just a tad ‘too’ clean, too anesthetized.
So empty and flat that it was almost the same as if they had, had an edge to them. One that the man was trying to hide.
Except there was nothing in Billy’s manner or expression to let Edna know she wasn’t imagining it.
Edna lay silent, chewing on the inside of her cheek, wondering whether to press forwards or not.
On the one hand this was Billy and as far as she knew he didn’t seem possess any real conversational sore spots. He was almost easy-going to a fault. Laconic and light hearted in his own odd way.
On the other hand if he were to possess a sore spot she could imagine that this would be it.
One could hardly expect anyone to hold a warm spot in their heart for a family that was either involved in or complicit in selling them to bandits, barely a year after they’d been orphaned.
Or so she assumed, except he never spoke of it, aside from a few references to his having gone very far abroad after he finally found himself without an owner, he didn’t really speak of his time as a slave.
He spoke of what he learned afterwards, he’d occasionally share anecdotes of things he’d seen, and if he was pressed he’d a give a few fairly sparse details.
However, considering that neither Elena or her felt inclined to press him on it, and considering how sparse and vague the details were, they knew relatively little about what happened between then and now.
The family that sold him off for the sake of taking away his place and his parent’s assets.
Even she, Edna held some fairly serious grudges with the clan, the loss of her siblings and parents lay in the laps of a few of the family’s leaders. Still it was always hard to extricate oneself from one’s blood.
There were at least a few people in the many families of House Maddoc she’d liked or least didn’t blame, and still held some sense of attachment and obligation to.
Even if their connection to the others had been enough to make her take a step back from all of them. Edna ties to those who she still considered were still whole enough to make her care about their welfare.
The same could be said for Elena, though her attitude on the matter, was a little more hands off than either her, or Edna, were used.
After dithering for a bit, Edna bit the bullet. Deciding that the only thing that could be done was to inch forwards with care and see how the man reacted.
“...What would you say if I said I want to take a visit back home. Back to old Garland? Just to check how everything’s going and maybe make sure everyone’s okay?”
“Nh….Okay.” said Billy.
“Okay?” said Edna.
Billy’s shoulders did a sort of strange horizontal shrug and Edna found herself feeling conflicted. On the one hand she felt relieved to find that she’d been reading too much into things.
On the other hand, she found herself, dissatisfied. Or perhaps she was merely unsure. Wanting an actual reaction, or at least question, that would turn this into a proper conversation. That would let her know that this wasn’t going to be some uncomfortable thing, that sat between her and her William.
“Don’t you want to know why?”
“Not really? It’s your call, and they ‘are’ technically related to us. So I suppose its perfectly reasonable to want to check in on them.” said Billy.
“Miss Helene sent me a letter the other day. You remember Miss Helene, right?” said Edna.
She wasn’t sure why but she felt a need to explain herself. It wasn’t like he was guilting her and to that end she ‘didn’t’ feel guilty, but there was still a certain slight twist in her gut that made her feel uncomfortable.
In the end though, her words barely managing to elicit the slight nod he gave her.
“...Um...Anyway, so she sent me a letter just saying hi, I guess. Or trying to get back in touch. Congratulating us on all our success. Asking how we’re doing. Um, little Brett’s learned how to read so that’s cool. And...the point is that for the last few weeks Elena and I’ve been getting these sorts of letters. Ell mostly throws hers away, she only keeps the one from Brett and a few of the clan’s littler kids. You know how she likes kids... And as for me...I read all of mine. Somehow...I’m not sure but I-...we… think that they might be in trouble. They don’t ask for help exactly, but there are all these little hints they slide in. Bits about the old business, and lost properties. I’m pretty sure that whatever’s happening is pretty big, because that’s the only way I could see them ‘suddenly’ trying to get back in touch after all this time. I mean they didn’t try to get in touch before, I think it might be that they’re finally broke, or maybe the Seven Son’s had the other families put extra pressure on them, but…”
Billy got up, gave Edna a peck on the cheek and headed for the bathroom. Aiming to take a shower, and head back to his lab.
“Ed...You do what you need to do and I’ll have your back regardless. You know that already.” said Billy.
Edna watched him go, reassured and but still a feeling little uncertain. On the one hand she knew he meant what he’d said. On the other hand, the way he’d said it made her uneasy, somehow.