2.29 – Ce Que le Cœur Veut

Google translate says that the title is: "What the Heart Wants"

Minor language ahead! Considered yourself warned!

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Chloe’s PoV

True to his word, the agent had the rights to Donovan to us within a week. It was the happiest day…in a long time.


I was finally rid of most of the money I’d taken. A good chunk of it was sent off to Landgraab Industries, as an investing donation from ‘Molly Briggard’, one of my many aliases. Most of the rest to various charities. Now that his mind was free of troubles, Thomas was more than happy to share our misbegotten wealth with the world.


And the rest? The last 300 thousand simoleons? I eventually had an idea for that money.

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Thomas’s PoV

I stared at the shop. In there was a phone for public use. Local calls were free, but the international fees weren’t bad. I still had a fiver on me.


This is stupid, I told myself as I stood up. I stretched out my arms, just to prevent myself from walking forward. My back cracked from sitting for so long.

I was supposed to be looking into jobs around town, something long term. Chloe was looking into schools for our siblings. Lucy was ecstatic about the possibility of attending the local art school. Medea was looking forward to getting a learner’s permit for driving, and Shaye, well…Shaye was still Shaye. Donovan was his own person! He had an official birth certificate now! Everything was straightening out after the fucked up journey we’d gone through.


Are you really gonna toss all that away? I asked myself.

Chloe’d said how word probably hadn’t gotten to Dr. Funke yet, so we should still be careful. But it was more a matter of avoiding cause for lawsuit than the risk of losing our brother.


I found myself walking through the cafe’s front door. I picked up the receiver and dialed a number burned into my brain since high school. It rang twice before a voice crackled over the line.

“Hello?”

My breath caught in my throat. Of everyone who could’ve answered…Her voice was beautiful.


“Hello? Is anyone there?”

I slammed the phone down and leaned against the wall, breathing hard. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

I ran back outside and down the street.

You moron! She’d sounded lovely. What if Funke finds us? A bit irritated, but the voice of an angel. Stupid!

I slowed to a stroll and took the road out of town up towards the nectary. I balled my fists tight against my sides, as I still didn’t have pants pockets.


I imagined another universe, one where I’d actually stayed on the line. One where she’d known it was me.

“Hello, yeah, it’s been a while.”

She’d ask me what I’d been up to.

“Not much. How ‘bout you?”

She’d talk about her day. How her job was going. How her brother was still an asshole.

And I couldn’t think of anything else. Nothing that could be communicated over a phone call. I shoved my hands in my pockets and laughed. “I don’t even know why I called her!” Yes, you do! I squeezed my eyes shut and stopped walking, taking a deep breath.


“I just wanted to hear her voice again.”

Stupid!

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Chloe’s PoV

I was feeling very good. I wasn’t sure why exactly. Must be an excess of dopamine after all the stress. Whatever the reason, it had caused me to agree to take Shaye to the nectary again. She wanted to learn more about nectar making. Lucy was along so I could drop her off at the art school for her first lesson. She wasn’t fully enrolled, and Thomas and I were still in the consideration process, but one or two art classes would keep her happy for a while.

“You have your phone?” It was one of the first purchases I’d made once I’d known we were safe, the latest in communication technology. But that hadn’t stopped Shaye from cracking the screen on hers the first time she even held it.


Lucy nodded, waved at Shaye and I, and ran off across the lawn.

“Call me when you’re done!” I shouted after her.


Then it was on to the nectary.


Shaye was quite happy to be left to it, but I had to stay in the building. Something about teenagers having a responsible adult near in case of emergencies. I resisted the urge to correct the man’s label of me as "responsible" in any meaning of the word. My track record spoke otherwise.

I had no desire to watch my sister destroy fruit with her feet, so I made my way to the lounge to do something I hadn’t done since high school. I played a computer game.


It was an MMORPG I’d gotten sucked into the month before. So far, I’d joined a small guild and had taken part in a few extragalactic missions. I was working on owning my own spacecraft.

I was just idly grinding when something caught my eye. Something you could do was set up a billboard to advertise something, sometimes a new planet or a shop that had opened. This was land on Centos 6: Buy a beach house right on the Grivvard Volcanic Lake!

It got me thinking.



I did some cursory research and was pleasantly surprised with my findings. I checked the family funds. That’s plenty! I’d have to speak to Thomas about it, but I had a feeling he wouldn’t be opposed. After all, he’d been humming tunes and scribbling music bars for the past month. I hadn’t seen him so musical since high school!

I wonder what real estate is available…

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Thanks for reading! ^_^