black bats flying round and round

[colorshapes]

They're not really colors or really shapes, but Addy's tastes aren't really tastes, so Kerron thinks it's okay to call them like that anyway. Addy does too and they talk about colorshapes every week. He likes Addy. She has simple colorshapes that are easy to understand and he can help with lots of them. Other people have more complicated colorshapes but he's getting better at reading them while they fly through the air.

He's on his way back to the quarters he and Mummy and Daddy share, and he's just pushed open the door that usually leads to the right building in the Forks compound.

It doesn't.

Kerron has only opened this door twice before in this direction, but he sure remembers where it used to go. Probably Mummy or Her Majesty did a magic here. He wants to see what kind. He goes in and lets the door swing shut behind him.

Comments

[pythbox]

The bat lady laughs.

[colorshapes]

"What's funny?"

[pythbox]

"You'll understand when you're older," she assures him.

[colorshapes]

"Awww, man."

[pythbox]

...fine, fine.

"Some kids," she explains, her smile fading, "if they find out their parents didn't have them deliberately, can start feeling unwanted and unloved, and sometimes that feeling lasts for a long time. That's what Jasper meant by a complex."

[colorshapes]

"Oh. I know my parents love me," says Kerron. "There's all these colorshapes about it and they're easy to read when they're about me! So I'll be fine," says Kerron.

[pythbox]

She smiles again. "That's good."

[colorshapes]

Kerron nods.

[pythbox]

The colourshape for never seeing Kerron's parents ever again is a tiny bit smaller than it was.

[colorshapes]

"You must really not like Mummy and Daddy," Kerron says, peering at the colorshapes. He starts to trace the path with one finger, then he stops and picks up his synthetic again for a big swallow. "You sorta explained about Mummy, but why Daddy?"

[pythbox]

"Your daddy doesn't like me," she says, and there's something else she almost wants to say to him, but she doesn't.

[colorshapes]

"Daddy likes most people," says Kerron quizzically.

[pythbox]

"He doesn't like me," she repeats firmly.

[colorshapes]

"Why not?"

[pythbox]

"I think you might have to ask him that."

[colorshapes]

"You don't know?"

[pythbox]

She hesitates for a moment.

Then she says, "I don't think I understand your father very well, either."

[colorshapes]

"Can I help? I bet I can help!" says Kerron. "Daddy's simpler than Mummy. Mated vampires are kind of like that. Most of his colorshapes are about wanting her to be happy and safe. Most of the rest are about me. Some of the ones that are about me are about her too."

[pythbox]

"Does he have any about... other people your mother... loves?" she asks, slowly, like the word 'loves' is causing her serious trouble.

[colorshapes]

"He's fine about me, and she loves me, I'm her favorite munchkin," says Kerron brightly. "I'm not sure about anyone else. It's harder to tell who a colorshape is about if it's not about somebody who's close to me. I could tell that yours were about Mummy, but I can't tell when Henry has a colorshape that's about his mummy because Rosalie's not close enough to being a part of me for the witch part of my power to help."

He thinks. "There was this one colorshape that I couldn't read because I didn't know what it was about at all, and I asked Addy for help with it and she said -" He switches into a higher register, generic Midwestern accent with a trace flavor of German in place of his forty percent Manx to sixty percent assorted American - "'it means your dad is insecure and everything would be much simpler for him if your mum would just turn already' - but then she didn't explain what that means. Is she in love with somebody besides Daddy? ...Is she gonna fall out of love with Daddy? Humans can do that and she's mostly one! Then what would happen to me? All the hybrids I know with broken-up parents are grown up already but I'm still little! And Daddy would be so sad!"

[pythbox]

She hesitates.

Then she says, "I'm sorry, I don't know."

[colorshapes]

"Most vampires are in love with other vampires, and then the colorshapes go in both directions, and Mummy's not a vampire and now I'm scared she won't want to be with Daddy forever."

[pythbox]

"I'm sorry," she repeats.

[colorshapes]

Kerron frowns and folds his arms on the table and puts his chin on them.

"Anyway you didn't answer my question, you just asked another question. Why doesn't Daddy like you?"

[pythbox]

The bat lady shakes her head.

"I don't know exactly."