Long time, no see. (Mia)

[Mia Keystone]

"That's because the sun is a instrument of evil," Mia reasoned, glaring up at it. "I like my vitamin D levels nice and low thanks. How do you think I maintain this height?" It was that and the coffee, she told her parents. They should have never let her start drinking it when she was six.

It felt like a part of her was determined to keep dancing around her rib cage, screaming yes yes yes because Mia found it really hard to stop smiling as Jonah went pink, and couldn't help but think very un-Mia thoughts as she had to try and withhold a very indulgent smile because while she had made him blush plenty of times before, this was, well, them. And sex. Not just her telling him why they called it a Rabbit, or why condoms came in flavours.

He was upset, and the smile slide from her face quickly as she cocked her head to the side in question. Oh.. Swallowing, the technopath shrugged, rubbing one of his shoulders to get him to relax. "It's cool, King," she said light heartedly, not willing to let him get upset about it. "You do the leading, yeah? Nothing you don't want, blah blah blah, you know the rest,"

In a very unusual display, Mia grabbed one of his capable hands and squeezed it in her own. "Believe it or not, I can be patient." For you, anyway. And she could not help but feel like a frat boy talking to his prom date. It was both hilarious and very very strange. "It's... it's gonna be different for me too. I usually don't plan on seeing them again, so spend half the time looking for a window to climb out of."

Jumping off the bench finally, Mia looked up and suddenly was hit with a horrible thought. "I really dislike the idea of being a girlfriend," she said honestly. "Think of a better word. Go. I believe in you!" She would, for him. It was absurd, Mia was aware what chemical reactions caused the butterfly feeling people seemed to think was love but this was different so the butterflies could all go and fuck themselves.

[Jonah King]

Jonah couldn’t help but stifle a smile as he realised the absurdity of the situation between himself and Mia. He didn’t know if he read it from her thoughts, or if it just happened to occur to them both at the same time – either way, he looked at her with mirth in his eyes as she gave him the spiel he had watched a hundred times in a variety of awful teen films.

(Mia had insisted that he be exposed to them, describing such movies as ‘Bring It On’ as ‘a valuable historical record of American culture at the time of filming’. Secretly, Jonah wondered if she watched them in a vain attempt to try and make some kind of sense in the world in which she found herself, but he knew that she would never admit to it. Jonah had spent a lot of those films with his eyes discreetly closed, only opening them when a sharp elbow in the ribs forced him to pay attention to the dialogue.)

Tilting his head on one side, Jonah considered Mia carefully. She was right: ‘girlfriend’ really didn’t seem to suit her. ‘Partner’ made them sound like gay men, but it was the only other word he could think of. Mia was standing on the ground now, and he grinned at the sheer distance he had to stoop to kiss her. ‘I don’t want to call you anything, Keystone,’ he told her after a moment, pulling away to regard her with a smirk. ‘I’m not sure there’s a word that could do you justice.’

Jonah kissed her again, decisively. They didn’t have to call each other anything, because it was nobody’s business but theirs. Still, referring to Mia as ‘my girlfriend’ in conversation was probably something which would take a lot of practise. He looked down at her. Under normal circumstances, this would be where they departed to watch an episode of Battlestar Galactica (although not Black Market, which Mia refused to admit the existence of) – but with the removal of Mia’s technology, there was only one thing for it: ‘Want to get some Reese cups?’

[Mia Keystone]

"Yeah, that will do, I guess," Mia sniffed, crossing her arms over her chest and rolling her eyes. Jonah's mouth caught hers mid roll and she grinned as the technopath fought the urge to wrap her arms around him again.

God, her mum would go nuts when she heard about this... And Ollie, Ollie would most likely throw a party then offer to give Jonah some tips.... And Ginny was going to be so smug, so very very smug. For someone who was a normal human, Ginny seemed to be able to predict the future pretty damn well.

Warping her smile into a smirk, she shrugged and raised her eyebrows. "You're lucky I haven't had much of an apatite recently, I still have some left," Even as they started walking towards her dorm, Mia kept sneaking a glance up at him to make sure the telepath hadn't disappeared before shoving her hands in her pockets and walking with her usual semi-aggressive slouch.

It was pretty easy to hide her smile, it wasn't like Mia was used to it grinning like a loon and her face was more then happy to fall back into the usual 'what-the-hell-are-you-looking-at' expression. There was a feeling in her chest like when she left Kaylee on too long and it began to overheat while on her legs. But without the pain. It felt nice. She was scared; a part of her thought if she blinked Jonah would disappear, or she'd wake up, or the drugs would wear off.

Just to make sure, while Mia would rather set her own hair on fire then do something as lame as hold Jonah's hand in public, her shoulder occasionally brused his arm as they walked. Just in case, because it wasn't as if Mia was paranoid or anything like that....

But seriously, locator chips.

I don't want to let you out of my sight.

Maybe it sounded a little less desperate in her head. Maybe she didn't care, because maybe the thought of Jonah looking into her head was scary...

but maybe it was a good scary.

[wrapped]