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The sun had burned through the first and second layers of lotion she applied.
Luxa, safely back inside Gregor’s small apartment, stared at the red, tender patches of her skin with interest. Her gaze rested on them as if they were whimsical curiosities rather than a painful inconvenience.
“Luxa.” Gregor’s tone was casual enough, but he stuck his hands in the pockets of his worn brown pants, one shoe anxiously scuffing the floor as he swing his leg back and forth.
“It is all right, Gregor. I am ‘A-Okay.’” She said, making air quotes with her hands. A gesture she’d learned only a few days ago, but she found having motions to go with the Overland words helped her remember them better. They tasted strange in her mouth, strangeness laced with hunger - she wanted more, she wanted to possess every new word and wield them like a sword whose blade was strange, but with grip made just for her.
“That’s not how you use those.” He said, chuckling, a rare brief smile gracing his dark skin.
“Oh? Perhaps I am inventing a new use for them, Overlander. Who is to say that your people know all the uses of ‘air quotes’? I royally decree that I may use them however I please.”
“Like I’d ever try to stop you.” He said dryly, and if it wouldn’t have made her every nerve scream, she’d have lunged for him.
She settled for throwing Boots’s stuffed bat at him. He let it hit his forehead, raising quizzical eyebrows.
“Is this a new type of Underland weapon?”
He winced before he even finished the sentence, realizing the implication.
Luxa’s face tightened despite the sunburn.
The cutters were a weapon unto themselves, having massed to attack the gnawers, humans, and even the diggers thanks to the new alliance. Regalia itself was surrounded, so Luxa had been evacuated. Gregor’s family had been nearly ready to move to Virginia when a bat had left a message at the grate in the laundry room.
His mom’s face had tightened, her fingernails digging into her palms. Remembering the plague. Remembering everything the Underland had nearly taken from her.
His father, quiet, possibly even more fearful. Still he’d taken her hands and they’d talked quietly for many hours before accepting the request.
Luxa had bitterly fought Vikus’s orders to come up. She hadn’t been happy to see them at first, scowling at everyone within range until Boots ambled up to her, delighted.
Things had slowly turned into a manageable routine from there.
“I do not think we could scare the cutters with that.” She said dryly, but her fingernails dug into her palm, against scars she hadn’t had before she’d come up here again.
“Maybe you don’t need to scare them.” He said, quiet but firm. “Maybe we can talk.”
The Garden of Eyes. Frill and Hamnet’s death. He didn’t even know how many he’d killed that day. He didn’t ever want to find out.
Were the cutters disappointed not to find him, the one who’d slain so many of them?
“The crawlers are trying, Gregor, but the few who have gone near have been torn apart.”
He winced. He remembered Tick’s sacrifice, and felt sick to think of others like her giving up their lives for a fight that wasn’t even theirs. It was the rats and humans that the ants wanted.
“There has to be a solution.” He said, slightly desperate, knowing full well there might not be.
Even if he half wished there wasn’t, so that Luxa could stay with him.
“I do not know. I…” She shook her head, her shining blond hair shaking. It was growing longer again, a few inches past her shoulders now. He couldn’t help admire it, and pray she didn’t need to cut again.
For if she cut it, it meant more war.
He wanted her hair to never stop growing.
A sharp knock came from the apartment door, and both of them jumped, automatically springing into combat poses before dropping. They shared a look before Gregor went to answer it.
“Mrs. Cormaci!” He said, delighted but confused, then afraid. She didn’t know about Luxa’s visit. She -
She pushed past him, saw Luxa, put her hands on her hips and then smiled. “So this is the girl! Those cards haven’t failed me yet.”
“Hello, Overlander.” said Luxa, bowing formally. “Gregor has told me about your contributions that greatly enabled him to keep his light in - “
“Oh, hush with all that, I don’t need it. I’m not royalty! Just be a dear and get me a root beer, Gregor, I brought food for you and your friend.”
Gregor, shaking his head but figuring it was better to go with it, grabbed his neighbor a soda and sat down at the table. Luxa sat down with them, and Mrs. Cormaci immediately fussed over her sunburns, offering remedies.
Gregor smiled.