Life After Death

Quinn/Mikaela/Blaise: scaring the locals

{Quinn}

Mikaela came out of the bathroom in a dark plum floor length gown, with her dark blonde hair piled up in ringlets on top of her head and a pearl necklace around her neck.

"It feels like cheating somehow," she said, twirling in front of a mirror. "It took me ages to look like this for homecoming. Are you ready to go?"

I was ready, but I wasn't quite finished gawking at my girlfriend. We had dated for two years, and not once had she dressed up like this. We had gone to formals and socials and even seen my parents, but never had she gone to such an extent.

I supposed she knew I was going to propose, and was determined to look her best.

"Ready," I replied. "Shall we?"

Mikaela took my arm, and we walked down the staircase. The Torninc seemed to emit a sort of glow around us, as if it knew what was happening too. I wondered if I had to wait until after dinner. Faeries would be watching at dinner, I thought belatedly. Faeries who could speak to Maewyn before Adele told her about Westley.

I would have to wait until after dinner. Maewyn would kill me if she found out.

Mikaela insisted on flying to dinner, and I didn't mind; proposing on a flying carpet wasn't a bad idea. I was nervous, sure, but figured most faeries would be nervous: marrying someone who lived forever, especially someone who couldn't die, was a huge commitment.

At the same time, she was already pregnant. If I was going to have cold feet, now was not the time.

At dinner, we talked about work, who we'd seen and what we had to do tomorrow.

"I don't understand why we're letting Ghuant set their own interest rates," Mikaela said, between bites of my salad. I wasn't sure why she didn't order one for herself, especially since I was eating her steak. "And normally I'm all for terrible ideas, but that's over the top."

"Mick, I think you're the only one who wants to do it yourself," I mused. "No one else wants to even deal with Ghuant."

"They're not nearly as bad as high school," Mikaela replied. "And anyway, now that Juliet's back, she can help with that too."

Mikaela tried to steal my wine, but I tugged the glass from her fingertips.

"The baby," I reminded her sternly.

She grimaced, apologetic. "I forgot," she said. "At least I haven't had morning sickness, right?"

"What's that?" I asked cautiously. Sounded terrible, whatever it was.

"When you wake up, you spend your first couple hours sick, nauseous and feeling generally horrible," Mikaela told me. "Faeries are staring at us; am I talking too loud?"

The troubling thing was, she was right. I didn't think we were talking loudly, but more than one table was giving us glances. I looked back at us.

Mikaela was dressed nicely, and you couldn't tell she was pregnant, not in that dress. I was in a suit, which was odd for me, but I had to admit the humans had much more practical styles. When we had gone to the human world to see her parents, who never knew that she even died, we had spent a lot of time seeing movies and 'window shopping' for clothes. Mikaela desired to show me where she had come from, and to understand it. I didn't quite understand her still, but at least I could appreciate what the humans took for granted in their world. We now had coffee at the Torninc, for instance.

"I don't know," I replied. "Maybe it's the human clothing?"

She rolled her eyes. "Please," she said. "Even with all the weird styles here? Our clothes are the least concerning in the room."