“I mean it! I’m wounded! That you could even look at anybody else right now . . .”
Wounded is exactly what he’s going to get if he’s not careful—She took a few seconds to finish the Cel-Ray and turned to drop the bottle in a nearby bin, reminding herself about her teeth again as a brief cool breath from the air-conditioning caught her from behind and helped her settle herself. “Penn,” Nita said. “I hate having to say this in quite this way—”
“But I cleaned those guys out,” said Kit’s voice from directly behind her, “and thought I’d come over to see if you wanted to help me celebrate. You busy?”
Nita’s eyes went wide as he came up beside her. Not the air-conditioning, then. Wow. “Not at all,” she said.
“Good,” Kit said. “Penn, we’re off the clock right now. Was there anything you needed to talk to us about?”
“Nothing,” Penn said, “nothing at all.”
And he sailed off past the dance floor without another word.
“That,” Nita said, “was the quietest beam-in I have ever seen you do. You barely made a breeze.”
“You do a spell for as long as I’ve been doing that one,” Kit said, “and you’re likely to pick up some expertise.”
She sighed, smiling at him. “Well, thanks.”
“I nearly said ‘Is this guy bothering you?’ Except that it’s such a cliché, and also it’s obvious that he is bothering you. You okay?”
“Yeah.” Nita shook her head. “Kit, seriously, you shouldn’t worry about it; I can handle him. Life’s given me way too much experience with idiots.”
“Maybe so,” Kit said. “But you know what? Let’s give the idiot some experience for a change.”
“What?”
Kit reached out and took her hand. When they started moving, it took Nita a moment to realize that he was leading her toward the dance floor as the music cross-faded from the hip-hop beat into something significantly slower.
Nita’s stomach did that flip again. “I might step on you . . .” she said.
“Somehow I think I’ll survive,” Kit said.
It was amazing the noise that could erupt in your head over so short a walk. I look stupid I should have worn something nicer everyone’s going to get the wrong idea everyone’s going to get the right idea but too soon what’s the matter with me I wanted this but I didn’t know if he wanted this or if he wants this for the right reasons and what if I’m bad at it what if he decides this was a bad idea what if what if what if . . .
The introduction to the slow-dance song was already playing, something Nita didn’t recognize: not too slow, with a soft-rock eighties kind of backbeat and a female vocal. But that was all she could deal with at the moment, as they were out there now on the wood-tiled dance floor, and she didn’t know what to do with her hands, and it felt like the entire planet was staring at her, actually several planets, because she was sure both Jupiter and Pluto were still onsite, leaning quietly against one wall or another and watching the humans do peculiar human things. I wonder what they’ll make of this, she thought as Kit lifted up the one hand he’d taken and put his other hand on her waist. He put his head down by her ear and said conversationally, “You might try grabbing hold of my belt to keep me from running away.”
“Yeah, right, makes perfect sense,” Nita said, struggling to sound slightly snarky even though she knew she was babbling. Nonetheless it was a good suggestion, and once she’d managed that, they began to move together. Nita was glad to let Kit handle this part of the process, as she wasn’t entirely sure where any of her limbs were at the moment; her body seemed almost to belong to someone else, she was in such a state of wonder and shock. This is happening. I can’t believe this is happening. In front of all these people. Oh God.
The vocalist had started singing, but Nita couldn’t make head or tail of it right now, because her hands were sweating and she could feel Kit’s muscles moving and it was all a little bit too much and he was looking down at her—
And then she blinked, and laughed.
He was still looking down at her, but the look changed, softened. “Something funny?”
“You’re looking down at me. I can’t get used to it.”
“No?”
“No. Not yet. You were shorter than me for such a long time.”
“Stockier than you too,” he said. “I wasn’t wild about that . . . Didn’t think it was a good sign.” Kit’s smile went very wry. “My dad used to say, ‘Either you’re going to favor my side of the family, where we all get to be six feet tall, or Mama’s side of the family, where they specialize in diminutive-but-fierce.’ And every night when I was praying I would say, ‘Fierce is good. Diminutive, not so good.’” He made a face. “I mean, I didn’t want to order God around or anything, I didn’t think that would help my case . . .”
“I don’t think you have to worry about the diminutive anymore,” Nita said. “You’ve got that handled.”
She was relaxing now, the noise in her head pretty much on its way to dying back to nothing: at least enough to start hearing the vocalist as the two of them rocked gently back and forth. I don’t know why I was worrying about stepping on him, Nita thought; we’re not exactly doing the tango. But they didn’t need to be. This was nice enough . . .
It’s kinda funny,
you were always near,
But who’d have ever thought that we would
end up here?
And every time I’ve needed you,
You’ve been there to pull me through;
Now it’s clear
I’ve been waiting for you—
Could it be you and I?
I never imagined—
Could it be suddenly
I’m fallin’ for you?
Could it be
you were right here beside me
and I never knew?
Could it be, could it be that it’s true . . . ?
Nita gave Kit a look. “You set this up,” she said.
Kit blinked, all innocence. “What?”
“The song. You set it up.”
“Me?”
“One of the most basic principles of wizardry,” Nita said. “‘There are no accidents.’”
After a moment, the corner of Kit’s mouth twisted upward. “It’s possible,” he said, “there was some kind of agreement with the DJ. Who may or may not be part of a gaming group who’s going to be playing Ronan’s group in a couple of months, and wanted to see some of our planning notes for the last campaign.”
Nita’s eyebrows went up.
“They’re not classified or anything,” Kit said. “Ronan knows. In fact, he may have tweaked them a little.”
All Nita could do was shake her head at him. “You have no shame.”
“That’s what the Transcendent Pig said when I ran into it in the practice spaces, back when your mom was sick. Or something like that.” Kit looked thoughtful. “It also called me a twerp.”
Nita laughed. “Did you deserve it?”
“Probably. But I was looking for someone right then, and I needed it to tell me where they were. So maybe I got pushy.”
“Okay,” Nita said. “But that worked out all right.”
“Yep.”
“Good.” She smiled. “Twerp.”
Kit chuckled. Nita put her head down against his shoulder, feeling him hug her a little more tightly, and found that she didn’t mind a bit.