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It is a few hours into a projected 168 of them. Haru is trying to get back to sleep while his mother holds him, because 168 hours is going to feel a lot longer if he can't figure out how to sleep while lonelier than ought to be humanly possible.
Suddenly not having his mother holding him is certainly a way to ruin the attempt.
"I read a lot. I play Civilization. I have a blog, about espers and dungeons and monsters."
"Jane Eyre. If I just explain the plot can you pretend to be interested enough to ask questions about it?"
"Cool. I dunno whether I could pretend but the good news is I can probably simply actually be interested, is that good enough?"
Ari seems interested! Once or twice she might be asking for more clarification than is strictly necessary, but she seems generally genuine. And she sometimes has trouble keeping the names straight, which is maybe helpful on a strict number-of-questions basis.
Yeah, he can remind her that Mr. Edward Fairfax Rochester is only Mrs. Fairfax's cousin-in-law and clarify who Adele is as many times as necessary.
"You know, I keep saying 'my uncle' but really he's my cousin once removed. But that's really just so much worse to say all the time."
"I would probably approximate that to 'uncle' too if it were a cousin once removed I saw much of and frequently referred to."
"Yeah, he goes for 'niece' too even though he's all persnickety about names."
"Like how he's the only one who calls me Ariel. I can't get him to not. - Though, we have kind of a jokes thing going on; he'll probably call you whatever you want."
She knows that one already actually! But the trip isn't much longer than an hour; she can backtrack on clarifying questions about previous Jane details to kill the last ten minutes.
The house is only one story, but with a large footprint and in the middle of fucking nowhere. After she parks and pockets the car keys, Ari passes Haru her bag of food and jogs around the front of the hood to lift him across the gravel driveway. The sun's up, now.
"Oh boy, gravel, I'm glad you've been hitting the gym enough to haul around teenage boys."
"I'm kind of cheating but yeah. Can you get the doorknob? Should be unlocked."
"Iiiiiiiiiiiiii don't want to elaborate actually, sorry." She gets the door closed behind them and out of her shoes without setting him down. "HELLLLOOO Uncle Xaaave, I have the problems guy, his name's Haru."
A very tall man strides from around a corner. "Good morning, Ariel; Haru. ...Does our guest prefer to be elevated in this way, Ariel?"
"I don't have shoes, the driveway was gravel, and my psychiatric emergency features touch starvation."
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