filling in canon: sge oneshots

hair dye

"Do you dye your hair?" asked Tedros from the bathroom door, wiping his wet hands on his breeches.

Callis didn't turn around from the stove.

"What makes you think that?" she said. She felt it was calm enough.

But it seemed Tedros had spent long enough with her daughter to recognise the suppressed irritation in Callis's voice.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Tedros frown.

"Black marks on the sink."

"Isn't it just mould?" asked Callis airily.

Tedros pulled a face.

"Er, no. It's definitely dye."

"And how do you know it's not Agatha's?"

Tedros snorted.

"Agatha? Knowing how to do anything remotely cosmetic? Come on."

What happened to him being an idiot, Agatha? Callis thought furiously. It seemed he was certainly astute enough to notice this. She was glad that Agatha was asleep, because if she heard this--

She needed to convince him otherwise. Quickly.

"Going grey." she said brusquely.

"I can't believe you care about going grey." said Tedros dismissively. "You raised Agatha. And anyway, you've got brown roots."

Callis reminded herself she was not permitted to throttle the boy.

"Sorry, do you spend a lot of time staring at me?"

Tedros didn't look particularly abashed.

"I was just trying to see if there were any differences between you and Agatha. You're spookily similar."

"Many people have said so."

"You'd have thought she doesn't have a father at all." mused Tedros.

"He's six feet under, she doesn't." snapped Callis.

"You know what I mean."

Callis glared at his reflection in the cracked, dirty kitchen mirror.

"It's not that surprising. You look exactly like your father did at your age." she muttered-- then realised her mistake.

Tedros bolted up.

"You knew my father?"

Yes.

"No." Callis shot him a hopefully convincing look of disdain, and pointed a crooked finger at the teetering bookshelf. "In there."

She went back to her lizard soup, hoping she'd distracted him--

"I've never read this. They don't really print them at home." Tedros mumbled, pulling the gold-bound book from the very bottom of the pile. He caught sight of the blackened edge and frowned. "Hey, what happened to it?"

"Left too close to the fire." lied Callis. She didn't think he'd appreciate the knowledge that Agatha had come close to burning it after she'd returned from Good.

"You actually read these?"

"I don't. But there's a reason students from Woods Beyond are called Readers, you know."

"...Right."

Tedros was quiet for a few merciful minutes. Callis could hear him flipping pages.

Then;

"We look the same."

"I think perhaps you're taller." said Callis. In truth, Tedros was far taller and broader than Arthur had ever been when Callis had known him, and she actually thought he looked more like Guinevere around the mouth and eyes. But she didn't think he'd want to hear that--