Envy's Office, The Hegemony Compound, Brazil, Monday

[whenshewasnice]

It had been an unbelievably good week and a half or so. Envy had barely left Todd's side at all. It'd been almost like when they'd been kids. Except with much more kissing. But it wasn't a reunion that would last, yet. Todd still had a semester left at Vegan Academy (yes, he was a vegan and yes, that was why he could fly to the moon and punch it).

Comments

[whenshewasnice]

"I may be leaving."

She hadn't meant to announce it like this. Hell, she hadn't meant to announce it all because until now she hadn't really accepted there'd be anything to announce.

If pressed, she might've admitted she wasn't even entirely sure when she'd decided to get up and march across the hall and make said announcement, with her arms folded across her chest.

[lockestheway]

Peter would've liked to act shocked, or made some kind of argument as to why she shouldn't.

"I know," he said.

He was trying not to immediately jump to the conclusion that she was happy because she'd finally realized that, but in his still largely Peter-centric brain, it wasn't easy.

[whenshewasnice]

Envy was a little taken aback. Not shocked, but she had to pause because that hadn't been the answer she'd expected.

She came out with, "But Todd's only been back for ten days." Because after the Scott blow-up, she'd mostly been slowly settling back into the idea that she'd stay here indefinitely. Didn't really register that Peter hadn't thought the same.

(And, of course she'd counted the days.)

[lockestheway]

... And now it was Peter's turn to do a double-take.

"Wait, who's Todd?"

[whenshewasnice]

"My boyfriend." Yes, Peter, that had been fast. "And my best friend from childhood."

[lockestheway]

This time, the moment of silence on Peter's part was less a double-take and more him rifling through his mental databank of Envy's past boyfriends-or-something-like-them (most of which did not have names, and only vague images of their faces, if that) before settling on the notion he had maybe heard that name once.

"That was fast," he said. "Or the absolute opposite, based on which time scale we're using."

[whenshewasnice]

Envy shrugged one shoulder. Wasn't really the thing she was focusing most on right now.

"He came back at the right time," she said. "And he's graduating from Vegan Academy in a semester."

[lockestheway]

"Is that Ivy League?" Peter asked.

Sarcastically, yes.

[whenshewasnice]

Which Envy did not take to very kindly.

"It's better than that."

[lockestheway]

"Do they have extra classes in being condescending to carnivores?" Peter said. "Now I'm curious."

[whenshewasnice]

"We didn't waste time on talking about his curriculum, Peter," Envy replied, rolling her eyes. "There were better things to be doing."

Causing natural disasters, for one.

[lockestheway]

"I don't really want to know about that," Peter said immediately.

[whenshewasnice]

"He punched a hole in the moon for me."

She would've rather told someone who wanted to hear. At the very least someone who hadn't just explicitly told her he didn't want to. But she wanted to tell someone.

And this was Envy. Her wants overruled other people's.

[lockestheway]

Peter stared at her.

This was not a purposeful silence or something that was about to turn into an actual answer.

Peter just stared.

[whenshewasnice]

She should've expected that. But she hadn't. Maybe it was her romance-addled brain.

"What? It's what he did."

[lockestheway]

"He punched an actual hole in the moon," Peter said slowly.