Nyu.

[chibi_trillian]

I'm making myself depressed.  I found out that I live 2,350.97 miles from my mom (by car).  Thirty-five hours and forty-nine minutes driving time.  Literally almost the entire way across the US, from the East Coast to Arizona.  Damn you, MapQuest, making it easy for me to find out such things.

Ethan/Kansas drabble, from last night.

 

The Quiet Game

            “EthanEthanEthanEthanEthaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!”

“Yes, Kansas?” Ethan managed through gritted teeth, trying to keep his clenching hands from crumpling the fragile pages of the rather elderly book he was attempting to read. 

“Why is grass green?  Because green, though it is a nice color, is kind of bland, and all the grass is green, and you’d think some of the grass plants would be original and be purple or something, but they’re all green, and you’re really smart so I figured you might know.”

Ethan tried to control the jumping tic of a muscle in his cheek as his frustration mounted.  His day today had been worse than usual.  He’d had a shoplifter who’d run off with about a hundred gold’s worth of money potions (ironic yes, funny no), a small child who had thrown up on his floor (reaffirming Ethan’s opinion that all children should be kept in cages at home until at least the age of nine), Trixie coming in and grabbing his ass (twice), and right now he was trying to concentrate on the instructions for making an alchemical preparation that he hadn’t made since he was an apprentice.  There really wasn’t much demand for a potion that turned any alcohol a person consumed into water, but when one was the loving daughter of an alcoholic father who was drinking the family into bankruptcy it suddenly became a must (or so his customer’s sob story ran.  Ethan believed her, but not enough to give her a discount). 

Because it was an ingestible and Ethan had no desire to be involved in a wrongful death lawsuit, he had pulled out the old tome with the rather intricate recipe for the potion in it and was currently attempting to refresh his memory.  Kansas had come in an hour ago and would not shut up long enough for him to get farther than a sentence or two in.

“Kansas, let’s play a game,” Ethan hissed between his teeth.

“Game?  What kind of game?  I like games, I’m really good at Monopoly—“

“Let’s play the Quiet Game.  The person who says something first loses.  Okay?”

“Mmmmmm…okay!”

And then it was blessedly, blessedly silent.

Too silent.

Ethan glanced over at Kansas.  She had a determined expression and firmly closed lips, and she was staring at him intently.  Ethan turned back to his book, feeling strangely unnerved.

The silence stretched longer and longer.  Ethan couldn’t concentrate.  All he could think about was the boring pressure of Kansas’ eyes on his back.  His shoulder blades were twitching under his untucked dark blue business shirt.  The hairs on the back of his neck were standing up.  That was some stare.

“Alright!  I give up!  You can talk now!  Just stop staring at me!”  Ethan threw his hands up, resigning himself to reviewing the preparation instructions at home. 

“Yaaaaaaaay!  I win!  Now you have to take me out for dinner, Ethan!”  Kansas bounced happily.

“I don’t remember agreeing to that,” Ethan grumbled, noticing that his hands were already busy cleaning up and putting things away.  Kansas was getting her way, as usual.

“I won, so you have to do what I say!  And I say you’re buying me dinner.”  Kansas grinned happily, and Ethan sighed.

Ethan closed the shop early, and took Kansas out for Chinese.