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“What are you reading about, big sister Mei?” The voice is overly sweet, a deliberate exaggeration neither of them is duped by.
“Snake handling.”
Mei, comfortably tucked into the couch of the Elysian Realm, doesn’t even look up from her phone. She keeps scrolling, seemingly making full use of the internet connection Klein made sure to install in the realm at the request of the successors.
“…are you trying to mock me?” Mobius sounds uncertain, split between disbelief, defensiveness and curiosity, but Mei has a simple answer for her.
“Come look if you don’t believe me, Mobius.”
Mobius narrows her eyes, slithering closer. Information about the outside world… Snake handling is hardly something she doesn’t know about, but it’s tempting to gain access to a connected device nonetheless. She crawls next to Mei on the couch.
Indeed, there is a baby snake on the screen, as well as handling recommendations. Hold your baby snake once to twice a week to get it used to human presence. Let it crawl over your hand and do not restrain it; you want it curious, not stressed, so you should only guide the snake where you want it. Do not hold your snake if it’s shedding or if it has just eaten. Basic stuff Mobius already knows about, though she hardly ever had a chance to apply it, since animals never liked her.
No matter what she did, even her favorite creatures would cower away, terrified. Did they smell the blood on her hands? Or was it always something more fundamental, something even Mobius couldn’t see? She never found a way to circumvent it.
While she’s reading, an arm wraps around her middle. She restrains a shudder. “What do you think you’re doing, my little white mouse?” Mobius’s sharp gaze snaps to Mei, but her sickly sweet accusing tone bounces right off the unflappable Herrscher.
“There are spikes on my outfit,” Mei points out. “I’m sure you’d hate getting impaled for no good reason.” Mobius can’t find any fault to that reasoning, so she uncomfortably lets the arm stay where it is around her waist. Mei isn’t doing anything anyway.
The Herrscher scrolls down. Mobius forgets about the contact soon enough, captivated by the screen, and then a demonstration video starts, so she leans into Mei a little more. The arm squeezes her ever so slightly when she rests her cheek against Mei’s collarbone, dodging the spiky armor, so she wordlessly removes her own spiky crown, the one Eden drew up to go with her dress. It was bumping into something hard (Mei’s horns? Or maybe her forehead?) so it was comfortable for neither of them anyway. A second video starts…
By the time they’re at the end of the thorough guide, maybe fifteen minutes later, Mobius is comfortably tucked on Mei’s lap.
Eh?
Mei magics her device away, and then it’s really just the two of them. A hand lightly settles on top of Mobius’s green hair, unhindered by the removed accessory.
“What do you think you’re doing, lab rat?” Mobius hisses, voluntarily ignoring the shallow warmth of the embrace. Unknown to the scientist, she repeated the exact words she opposed earlier, only ruder.
Mei doesn’t answer directly, only taking off the intruding hand. “You’re not an animal. You can tell me if you want to climb off of me...” Still, she suddenly stands, using her freed hand to support Mobius’s legs under the knees in what is essentially a princess carry.
“Put me d—!?” Mobius interrupts herself, clinging to Mei to stabilize her body. Mei baited her. She doesn’t want to take the bait and lose. “Nevermind. I don’t care,” she lies. “Where are you taking me.”
“Where do you want to go?” Mei asks, floating lightly off the ground. Always with that neutral-to-angry expression, but this time it’s completely unreadable.
“Outside,” Mobius snaps.
“Apart from that.” Mei’s reply is just as immediate.
“…just put me down on one of the bar stools.” They’re always annoying to climb, what with the shape of her dress and her short stature. Even with her assistive device, she has to be very careful not to fall when she transfers her weight to a wobbly chair… which has unfortunately happened a few times. She must have looked murderous, because she didn’t even need to threaten Hua for her to delete the humiliation from memory.
Mei does as she asks, almost gentle when she sets the snake on the tall chair and lets her knees go. Mobius’s hands quit clinging, and at last, once she’s sure the small girl is stable on her seat, Mei lets go of her completely.
“Thank you.” Once she's said it, Mobius immediately puts the last couple of minutes out of her short-term memory. It’s nice to be tall , she thinks childishly. She can stare eye to eye with Mei like this. Floating up on her assistive device, while stylish, isn’t solid enough to really feel the same. “Give me the head piece back.”
It’s metallic. When Mei holds out her hand, the crown flies into it, magnetized. Fascinating. “Here you go.”
Mobius puts her haughty crown back on, restoring the distance between them. She smirks. “You’d make an obedient assistant, big sister Mei. Not as good as Klein, but better than the worst I’ve seen.”
If her words anger Mei, it’s impossible for her to tell. “We both know I’m not interested, Mobius.” She throws a look at the portal. “That’s a long enough break. I’ll be going now.”
Mobius answers mechanically. “Good luck.”
As soon as the words leave her mouth, she slaps both hands over it. She didn’t think before she spoke, the words flowing naturally from the mood… she stares into Mei’s eyes, inwardly mortified, she stares much too intensely for her regret not to be obvious (she’s always been told she stares more than she should), but the Herrscher’s expression doesn’t change.
All that happens is that Mei pauses, body halfway out the door. “…thanks, Mobius,” she says, and then she’s gone.