(rped scene with Jeremy and Layla.)
Last month they had discussed going to his homeworld, and once that was decided" There was nothing left but to submit the paperwork.
And the paperwork was maddening. That was not an accident; it seemed by intentional design his homeworld discouraged travelers from entry. To say they were xenophobic would have been correct, even if it hinted towards something slightly more violent, more subversive, than what he felt they were. Jeremy felt that they were just' protective, the way a rich man is protective of his wealth. They had something the universe wanted and a big enough bully might just try to elbow them out of the way and lay claim.
There were five portals, which seemed tremendous until one considered that they touched down on enormous areas of a planet. To be "close" to your destination could still means days of travel.
Jeremy was outside of Layla's shop door, his backpack shouldered and their applications gingerly pinched by his other hand. In a month they had applied, the hoops had been jumped through and now, finally, it could begin. They had a one week visa, it was difficult to gain anything longer than that without it being for work.
This was the last moment— the moment where her door would or wouldn't open. Where they would or wouldn't go. Most of his heart said she would be there, but he found some sliver of insecurity causing him to hold his breath until he grew dizzy, until she opened the door and relieved him.
The paperwork was daunting. If Jeremy felt concern that Layla might back out at the last minute, he wasn't entirely unjustified: the Egyptian had asked him more than once if he wouldn't just prefer to go visit his family without her during the arduous process. She still couldn't quite believe that they'd done it correctly, couldn't quite believe her eyes when it came back with that "approved" stamp.
Layla had woken up early that morning. She'd packed her modest bag, unpacked it and then repacked it again. She fidgeted and paced and fretted and worried. She kept making herself cups of tea only to abandon them, forgotten and growing cold, on the kitchen counter. She checked that she had all the necessary documentation and then checked again, and once more to be sure. Remembering how nervous she'd been when she'd made the initial flight to Rhy"Din, she spent some time trying to talk herself out of her fears, telling herself out silly it was to be worried, how an entire world made up of people like Jeremy couldn't possibly be that bad, the anticipation was always more frightening than the reality.
Even so, she jumped a little when the doorbell rang. Pulled out of her preoccupation, Layla hurried up the steps and across the darkened showroom to let him in. Greeting him with a nervous smile at the door, she stepped back immediately to usher the man inside.
"Hey," he said when she opened the door, his smile brightening with the joy and relief he felt at seeing her. All of what he needed was in the backpack that hung off of him, pulling at his shoulders, the cloth of his shirt wrinkling under the tug of its weight. When she stepped back he moved into the offered space, "Are you ready to go?" He reached into the back pocket of his pants, withdrawing an envelope that was bent in half, "I have the tickets for it, we have to be at the station in an hour." There would be other buses, of course, but he didn't want to travel through the incredibly late hours of the night, arriving home around 1 am.
Jeremy had been slightly nervous when he first reached out to his family. There was some annoyance from them that he had been gone, that he had not spoken to them more. The separation, though' That had been part of keeping things okay between everyone. They knew it, quietly, but he had left before anything bad happened. He'd left before it had become a problem— they didn't really see what problem had prompted him to go.
Her smile spread in answer to his. She nodded, her sepia eyes darkening with self-deprecating humor. Always striking, those bottomless near-black pools largely dominated her face these days, given the way she now tended to cover the long lengths of her silky black hair and the slender column of her throat with solid colored scarves. "Yes," came the reply, and with it a breath that hinted at laughter. "I have changed the contents of my little bag probably ten times since I woke up this morning, but I am fairly confident that it is right now."
Layla was nervous about meeting his family. She worried for herself, of course, that they would dislike her, that she would be too strange and too foreign for them. She worried that even if they did like her, or at least found her tolerable, they still would not approve of her relationship with their son and brother. She worried that Jeremy would suddenly remember that he was happier among people more like himself— sometimes she feared she was too strange and foreign for Jeremy, too. Maybe he would want to return home permanently, knowing that she could not stay with him. Maybe he would leave with her anyway out of some sense of duty or obligation, even though he would have preferred not to. Her mind had chased itself in dizzying circles of self-doubt that way fairly frequently since the trip was first proposed.
But she was also worried for him. It was his difference from his people, his dreaming, that had driven him into these far away lands in the first place, and eventually into her own arms. His dreams had not stopped in the time they had been together, from what he'd told her, they'd grown only more intense. What if his family found out, and shunned him' Concern for him furrowed her brow, and she reached out to run her fingers gently over his shoulder, up the side of his neck to his jaw. "Are you ready?" She wasn't asking about his backpack.
Jeremy had packed his worries away for the moment. For him, the point of concern was past them. Layla was coming. The paperwork was approved. The trip was going to happen! He could have gotten distracted by that alone, but her hand cruised up his outline and to his face. He smiled and bent down to kiss her before speaking, "Yeah, for sure. I think you're really going to like them." One of his hands caught her just under the chin where he kissed her for the second time. Then, he broke away, his hands gripped his hips and his bright, flatly colored cobalts shifting over the room, "Where's your bag" I'll get it." Jeremy might have believed he could carry a whole world on his shoulders.
Jeremy was still, more or less, the man she met. That man was different from what his family knew. Tree climbers and coffee bean harvesters were known for being fit, but Jeremy was more than that. From some military training, work as a blacksmith and a woman who kept his meals regular, he had put on bulk from when they had known him. The harsh lines of his lean build had softened after he met Layla, and with her they had built up but he never went back to the look he had before. The work he was doing was different, moving metal and steel required the sort of muscle mass that kept a man's shoulders broad and his core thick. Flitting from tree to tree required being light and lean and being able to grip. Jeremy hadn't noticed how much he had changed, it was likely Layla only saw a few details because she had not known him before. His family, though' It would be a surprise, one he didn't know he'd deliver without using a single word.
Meeting his first kiss with affection, Layla closed her eyes for the second, the fingers of the second hand joining the first in cradling his face. She broke away when he did, breathing deeply, like his kiss alone could calm her nerves. To some extent, it did.
And anyway, his enthusiasm was infectious. Jeremy believed that everything would be alright and so she believed it with him, turning towards the interior of the darkened showroom. There, directly in front of the counter where purchases could be made, almost exactly where Jeremy himself had been standing the first time they met, was a compact suitcase with hard plastic sides, the kind that could meet the height and weight requirements of any airline carrier on Earth. It had a handle and free-spinning wheels that could move in any direction. Over the top of it, her small, square purse was draped. "It is just right there. It is not heavy."
"Not worried if it was." It was a little boastful, but Jeremy believed he could manage anything when he was in a good mood. It was lucky for her that there never seemed to be any violent downward swings inversely proportional to his joy.
He picked her purse up incorrectly, grasping the body of it instead of the straps, his hand sticking it out towards her, "Did you bring any books or anything?" He wasn't altogether certain that he could talk the whole time.
Layla collected the purse by its long thin strap and draped it over her head, tucking one arm underneath it so that it laid at her hip, across her body. Smiling up at him in his buoyancy, she nodded. "Yes. How long is the journey?"
"It's about fourteen hours. It's nine on the bus and then four by boat. Then we disembark and have to kinda" go through the hoops to take the portal home." There was a lot of time to sit, to watch the world go by. Luckily, there was also enough time to grow bored of the traveling, for the nervousness of the voyage to melt into the annoyances that came with travel. Jeremy found that the longer the journey was the more disenchanting the trip could be.
He gripped the handle of her suitcase and nodded towards the door, "After you."
And the paperwork was maddening. That was not an accident; it seemed by intentional design his homeworld discouraged travelers from entry. To say they were xenophobic would have been correct, even if it hinted towards something slightly more violent, more subversive, than what he felt they were. Jeremy felt that they were just' protective, the way a rich man is protective of his wealth. They had something the universe wanted and a big enough bully might just try to elbow them out of the way and lay claim.
There were five portals, which seemed tremendous until one considered that they touched down on enormous areas of a planet. To be "close" to your destination could still means days of travel.
Jeremy was outside of Layla's shop door, his backpack shouldered and their applications gingerly pinched by his other hand. In a month they had applied, the hoops had been jumped through and now, finally, it could begin. They had a one week visa, it was difficult to gain anything longer than that without it being for work.
This was the last moment— the moment where her door would or wouldn't open. Where they would or wouldn't go. Most of his heart said she would be there, but he found some sliver of insecurity causing him to hold his breath until he grew dizzy, until she opened the door and relieved him.
The paperwork was daunting. If Jeremy felt concern that Layla might back out at the last minute, he wasn't entirely unjustified: the Egyptian had asked him more than once if he wouldn't just prefer to go visit his family without her during the arduous process. She still couldn't quite believe that they'd done it correctly, couldn't quite believe her eyes when it came back with that "approved" stamp.
Layla had woken up early that morning. She'd packed her modest bag, unpacked it and then repacked it again. She fidgeted and paced and fretted and worried. She kept making herself cups of tea only to abandon them, forgotten and growing cold, on the kitchen counter. She checked that she had all the necessary documentation and then checked again, and once more to be sure. Remembering how nervous she'd been when she'd made the initial flight to Rhy"Din, she spent some time trying to talk herself out of her fears, telling herself out silly it was to be worried, how an entire world made up of people like Jeremy couldn't possibly be that bad, the anticipation was always more frightening than the reality.
Even so, she jumped a little when the doorbell rang. Pulled out of her preoccupation, Layla hurried up the steps and across the darkened showroom to let him in. Greeting him with a nervous smile at the door, she stepped back immediately to usher the man inside.
"Hey," he said when she opened the door, his smile brightening with the joy and relief he felt at seeing her. All of what he needed was in the backpack that hung off of him, pulling at his shoulders, the cloth of his shirt wrinkling under the tug of its weight. When she stepped back he moved into the offered space, "Are you ready to go?" He reached into the back pocket of his pants, withdrawing an envelope that was bent in half, "I have the tickets for it, we have to be at the station in an hour." There would be other buses, of course, but he didn't want to travel through the incredibly late hours of the night, arriving home around 1 am.
Jeremy had been slightly nervous when he first reached out to his family. There was some annoyance from them that he had been gone, that he had not spoken to them more. The separation, though' That had been part of keeping things okay between everyone. They knew it, quietly, but he had left before anything bad happened. He'd left before it had become a problem— they didn't really see what problem had prompted him to go.
Her smile spread in answer to his. She nodded, her sepia eyes darkening with self-deprecating humor. Always striking, those bottomless near-black pools largely dominated her face these days, given the way she now tended to cover the long lengths of her silky black hair and the slender column of her throat with solid colored scarves. "Yes," came the reply, and with it a breath that hinted at laughter. "I have changed the contents of my little bag probably ten times since I woke up this morning, but I am fairly confident that it is right now."
Layla was nervous about meeting his family. She worried for herself, of course, that they would dislike her, that she would be too strange and too foreign for them. She worried that even if they did like her, or at least found her tolerable, they still would not approve of her relationship with their son and brother. She worried that Jeremy would suddenly remember that he was happier among people more like himself— sometimes she feared she was too strange and foreign for Jeremy, too. Maybe he would want to return home permanently, knowing that she could not stay with him. Maybe he would leave with her anyway out of some sense of duty or obligation, even though he would have preferred not to. Her mind had chased itself in dizzying circles of self-doubt that way fairly frequently since the trip was first proposed.
But she was also worried for him. It was his difference from his people, his dreaming, that had driven him into these far away lands in the first place, and eventually into her own arms. His dreams had not stopped in the time they had been together, from what he'd told her, they'd grown only more intense. What if his family found out, and shunned him' Concern for him furrowed her brow, and she reached out to run her fingers gently over his shoulder, up the side of his neck to his jaw. "Are you ready?" She wasn't asking about his backpack.
Jeremy had packed his worries away for the moment. For him, the point of concern was past them. Layla was coming. The paperwork was approved. The trip was going to happen! He could have gotten distracted by that alone, but her hand cruised up his outline and to his face. He smiled and bent down to kiss her before speaking, "Yeah, for sure. I think you're really going to like them." One of his hands caught her just under the chin where he kissed her for the second time. Then, he broke away, his hands gripped his hips and his bright, flatly colored cobalts shifting over the room, "Where's your bag" I'll get it." Jeremy might have believed he could carry a whole world on his shoulders.
Jeremy was still, more or less, the man she met. That man was different from what his family knew. Tree climbers and coffee bean harvesters were known for being fit, but Jeremy was more than that. From some military training, work as a blacksmith and a woman who kept his meals regular, he had put on bulk from when they had known him. The harsh lines of his lean build had softened after he met Layla, and with her they had built up but he never went back to the look he had before. The work he was doing was different, moving metal and steel required the sort of muscle mass that kept a man's shoulders broad and his core thick. Flitting from tree to tree required being light and lean and being able to grip. Jeremy hadn't noticed how much he had changed, it was likely Layla only saw a few details because she had not known him before. His family, though' It would be a surprise, one he didn't know he'd deliver without using a single word.
Meeting his first kiss with affection, Layla closed her eyes for the second, the fingers of the second hand joining the first in cradling his face. She broke away when he did, breathing deeply, like his kiss alone could calm her nerves. To some extent, it did.
And anyway, his enthusiasm was infectious. Jeremy believed that everything would be alright and so she believed it with him, turning towards the interior of the darkened showroom. There, directly in front of the counter where purchases could be made, almost exactly where Jeremy himself had been standing the first time they met, was a compact suitcase with hard plastic sides, the kind that could meet the height and weight requirements of any airline carrier on Earth. It had a handle and free-spinning wheels that could move in any direction. Over the top of it, her small, square purse was draped. "It is just right there. It is not heavy."
"Not worried if it was." It was a little boastful, but Jeremy believed he could manage anything when he was in a good mood. It was lucky for her that there never seemed to be any violent downward swings inversely proportional to his joy.
He picked her purse up incorrectly, grasping the body of it instead of the straps, his hand sticking it out towards her, "Did you bring any books or anything?" He wasn't altogether certain that he could talk the whole time.
Layla collected the purse by its long thin strap and draped it over her head, tucking one arm underneath it so that it laid at her hip, across her body. Smiling up at him in his buoyancy, she nodded. "Yes. How long is the journey?"
"It's about fourteen hours. It's nine on the bus and then four by boat. Then we disembark and have to kinda" go through the hoops to take the portal home." There was a lot of time to sit, to watch the world go by. Luckily, there was also enough time to grow bored of the traveling, for the nervousness of the voyage to melt into the annoyances that came with travel. Jeremy found that the longer the journey was the more disenchanting the trip could be.
He gripped the handle of her suitcase and nodded towards the door, "After you."