She's taken aback.

"Okay," she says after a moment. "Gotta be a reason you're telling me, then? Who else knows, are you in danger - is there a Masquerade that's gonna come after you - please tell me there's no Dark Lord bullshit - "

"I wanted to invite you on the road trip. And you're a better liar than me, and it'd be hard to keep it from you. And..."

She explains. Witches. Kyubey. Magic, and dying when you run out, and its relationship with moods, and witches targeting people who know... (Not wishes, not yet.)

(She doesn't tell Emma about Kaylee or the scouting group. It's probably not hard to guess.)

There's something suspicious about this. About Kyubey, and the entire situation. Something Emma suspects her sister's gotten an inkling of, from how she talks.

Emma nods, guesses Kaylee's involved, and contemplates getting her own gun. She's gone to a range enough, under the excuse it's calming, and surely her mom doesn't want her going off to college unable to defend herself.

She doesn't know if guns will work on cute little aliens.

She doesn't know they won't.

(And enemy magical girls sound like they're fully capable of being shot.)

"I'll come, and I'll cover for you. In return, you tell me where you're going, and you don't treat me like someone in need of sheltering. I'm older and smarter than you."

She rolls her eyes at 'smarter' but nods, and says, quietly, "Thanks."

"Anytime, brat."

"You're a pest," she says, but her voice is fond.

And then, soon enough, it's time for Kaylee's birthday.

Kaylee's parents are as delighted as ever to see Lianne.  There's a cake!  Fancy elaborate pink-and-blue-frosted cake, store-bought but no less delicious for it.

She's there!

With a present even, that she carefully wrapped herself in shiny blue paper with purple and silver bubbles. The ribbon's gold and curled at the ends.

Ooh!  She tears the paper off gleefully.

"Heh. Happy birthday!" Lianne says.

It's a framed drawing, done incredibly carefully, of Lianne and Kaylee together. 

There's also, behind the frame, a set of DVDs - season one of an anime Kaylee hasn't heard of, but that looks interesting.

"Aw, I love it, thank you!"  She bounces happily.

"Eee! I'm glad you like it!"

She hugs the picture, and hugs Lianne, and props the picture up carefully on the dining room table.

Her parents both chipped in to get her a new more-advanced anatomy textbook to study in preparation for pre-med, and her mom also gives her a key to the family car.  Hugs all around!  Delicious cake!

Hugs and cake! The best parts of a birthday party!

They're pretty great!

"Tomorrow," Kaylee's mother says to her, "you have an appointment to take your driving test and get an intermediate license, since you said you wanted to take it as soon as possible.  So you have to do some of the driving on your road trip with Lianne."

Kaylee rolls her eyes affectionately.  "I will, Mom."

She smiles.  "Do you know when you're heading out?"

Kaylee looks at Lianne.

"I don't really have a set schedule, so whenever Kaylee feels comfortable."

"You don't need to worry about me, I had plenty of practice when I had my learner's permit.  Just gotta make it legal.  I'm honestly ready to set out whenever you want - I mean, I still need to pack and everything, but I can set whatever date.  The sooner the better, I think, I'm looking forward to it!  Did you talk to your sister about whether she wants to come along?"

"Yeah! She's good to come. Doesn't want to do all the driving, but she'll do her share, too. Next week work? That'll give Emma time to get her stuff organized..."

"Sounds good to me!"  She'll wait till they're alone together to ask if Emma knows about the magical girl thing, rather than try to double-talk around it or carry out two conversations at once.

She carries on conversation with Kaylee and her parents well enough, and eventually it's presumably time to retire to Kaylee's room?

Yep!

Kaylee finds a spot for Lianne's drawing on her desk, then sits down on the bed.

She sits down too. "So - Emma took whole," she waves her hand encompassingly, "thing well. She'll cover for us at least."

"That's good.  - Does she know about us, or will we have to be - stealth?"

"I didn't get as far as bringing that up but I think she separately suspects."

"We can be discreet, if you'd prefer.  Do you think she'd react badly?"