Chapter 5 – Negotiation
Ariel
“Yes, Daphne,” Jesse says, grinning wider and slowly nodding, hoping she picks up his hint. “You do have a gift for Midnight, remember? A really nice one.”
“Oh,” Daphne says, eyes going round. Then she nods eagerly, catching on and turning back to Midnight. “Yes, that’s true. I, um…forgot. But I’ve got a gift for you. A peace offering so…maybe we can be friends?”
“How good is the present?” Midnight asks, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at Daphne.
I clench my teeth against my laugher, slowly moving behind Midnight and slipping into the kitchen to stand at Jackson’s side. He wraps his arm around me, pulling me close, sending a long, warm pulse of love and affection down our bond. I pass it right back.
Daphne glances once at Jesse and then looks back at Mids. “It’s really good.”
Silence reigns for a long moment.
“All right,” Midnight says, raising her chin like a master negotiator, sizing Daphne up with her narrowed stare. “Show me the gift. And then…we’ll talk.”
I look back at Daphne, delighted and eager to see what the hell she’s going to come up with.
She sits quite still for a long moment and I can very nearly see the thoughts racing through her head. Then she turns to me. “Ariel, may I borrow a piece of paper? And something to write with?”
“Sure!” I say, pushing myself from Jackson’s side and quickly moving to the bookcase. I grab a marker and a coloring book from the bottom shelf where Marigold can reach them and flip to an open page in the back, handing both to Daphne.
Then I stand back, fascinated, watching as Daphne begins to sketch.
“You’d best come sit by me, Midnight,” she calls, nodding to the seat next to her. “So you can see and give me your perspective.”
Midnight hesitates, tempted and not wanting to give in. I squeeze myself onto the arm of Jesse’s chair, pushing his leg aside and leaning over so I can see better. Jackson comes over too, putting Daphne’s tea on the coffee table and then moving to the little space between Jesse’s chair and the corner of the couch where Daphne sits, bending slightly so he can look.
“Here, give me that,” Jesse murmurs, reaching for Marigold, who tilts backward now against Jackson’s chest.
Jacks smirks and hands the baby over as Midnight continues to weigh her choices. I smack Jesse on the shoulder. “My child is not a ‘that.’”
He flashes a grin at me and turns his face back to Daphne’s paper.
I glance over at Midnight who looks around at us, worried, realizing that she’s now all alone on her side of the room. Her foot slides forward, wanting to come close, only her pride keeping her back now.
“Come on, Mids,” I call, cheerful and soft. “You should see what she’s drawing. It’s really cool.”
This breaks something in Midnight’s resolve and she skitters over, sitting at Daphne’s side and peering at the piece of paper. Her face lights with excitement when she sees what Daphne is drawing. “Is this…for me?”
Daphne hums her confirmation, concentrating on her sketch. Even upside down, I can tell that it’s Midnight’s dream come true. The sketch takes form as something between a fashion plate and an action shot of a young woman all in black, the collar of her shirt the same style and shape as a Cadet uniform even if she does wear a fantastic, sweeping black hooded jacket that is definitely not standard issue.
I grin, glancing at Jesse who sneaks a look up at me, both of us realizing at once that it’s precisely what Midnight wants – something that marks her as at once extraordinary and part of the group. Pride swells through me at Daphne’s intuition and talent.
“Can…can I keep this drawing?” Midnight asks, her voice breathy with awe, looking down at it unblinking.
“Well, I need it to get started,” Daphne murmurs. “But you can have it when I’m finished making the gear.”
Midnight turns her wide eyes to Daphne’s face. “You’re going to make this?”
Daphne glances over at her, a little frown taking her lips before she turns back to the drawing and keeps going. “I’m a seamstress, Midnight. This is just the plan for the actual clothes. And we can make it all black and flexible, so you can sneak around silently. We can even incorporate all sorts of pockets like I make for Tony’s assassin gear –“
As one all of our eyebrows go up at the mention of that. I mean, I knew that Daphne sewed special pockets into Tony’s uniforms – but did she really make him special gear?
Why hadn’t I heard about this before!?
Midnight almost shivers with delight, glancing back down at the piece.
But then she crosses her arms, leaning back, and glaring at Daphne. “What’s the catch?”
Daphne sighs and looks up at her. “No catch. I would like there to be peace between us, Midnight. If this can be a step towards that…” she shrugs. “I’m happy to do that. I’d like us to be friends.”
“We’re not friends. We can’t be friends.”
Daphne scowls a bit, I think frustrated and a bit at the end of her rope with being the only one in this situation even attempting to be nice. “Why not?”
“Because!” Midnight snaps, throwing a hand up in the air. “You were kissing my mate!”
Daphne’s mouth drops open and her face blushes bright red, looking down at her lap. She deliberately avoids looking at Jesse, even though Jackson and I make no such attempt at discretion. Jesse remains perfectly calm, softly petting Marigold’s head and watching Daphne and Midnight’s argument unfold with interest.
I look back at Daphne and watch as she takes a moment to think, jaw clenched. “All right,” she says, nodding once and lifting her eyes to meet Midnight’s. “I’m sorry for that.”
The rest of us collectively inhale with surprise. Midnight straightens her shoulders, superior.
“But!” Daphne says, tilting her head to the side. “I didn’t know he was your mate! Or else I wouldn’t have done it! So, I’d appreciate it if you forgave me for that.”
Midnight takes a second to consider and then huffs a sigh out her nose, realizing that she’s rather logically trapped there. “Fine. I forgive you because I am nice and magnanimous.”
“Great. And now I’d like your apology.”
Midnight basically screeches with dismay, propelled up from her seat on the couch by her rage. “For what!?”
“For clawing me across the face, Midnight!” Daphne says, gesturing towards her perfectly healed cheek. “And scaring the hell out of me! Multiple times!”
Midnight’s mouth drops open as she looks around at all of us, clearly wanting to know if we think the apology is justified. But when we all just look at her rather blandly, letting her know that we think it’s fair, Midnight deflates a bit, her shoulders slumping.
“Fine,” she groans, clearly not liking it one bit. “I’m sorry I scratched you a tiny bit even though you deserved it.”
“Midnight!” I burst out, frowning at my small and stubborn friend.
“Fine!” she snaps, sending me a wicked glare and then turning back to Daphne. “I am sorry! I should not have scratched you, even if you did come away from it completely unscathed. And…I’m sorry I scared you. I wasn’t sorry then but I’m sorry now. But only because you didn’t know he was my mate.”
Daphne nods once, accepting it. “And you’ll stop calling me a whore?”
Midnight twists her lips to the side, looking like this goes a bit far, asking her to give up her favorite pastime –
But Daphne flashes her teeth at the smaller girl, letting her know that it’s non-negotiable.
“Fine,” Midnight says, sighing and flopping petulantly back down on the couch. “Fine! I won’t call you a whore! Even if…”
But Jesse growls and Midnight reconsiders.
“I won’t call you a whore,” Midnight amends, ending it there.
“Good!” Daphne says, still tight and angry, even if I can sense a bit of victory coming into her voice. She turns determinedly back to her drawing, marker poised. “Now. What weapons do you like? I can make you holsters to carry guns or a belt for some knives –“
Midnight gasps again, reverent and excited this time. She looks up at Daphne with big dark eyes. “You can get me weapons?”
Daphne grins at her, a bit devious. “I can requisition whatever I want from supplies. Weapons included.”
Midnight’s face breaks into her lovely excited smile and I can’t help smiling too as I look between them, thinking that this…this might just work.
“Well then,” Jesse murmurs, standing up with Marigold in his arms. “Why don’t we get this one to sleep?”
“Let me,” Jackson murmurs, taking our baby girl and nodding to me, turning towards our bedroom where Marigold is still sleeping on a little cot, not yet ready for her own room all night. “You two freshen up drinks.”
Jesse and I nod to him and head to the kitchen. As we go, Jesse lets out a long, relieved sigh that I think he was holding in. “That was close,” he murmurs. As I watch, he lets go of his excess of held-in shadows. They go streaming back to Midnight, who absorbs them passively, too interested in Daphne’s sketch to care.
“You did very well, Jesse,” I say, patting him on the shoulder as he reaches into the cabinet and pulls down the secret bottle of whiskey, pouring himself a tiny glass and prepping one for Daphne too.
“I didn’t do anything at all,” he murmurs, hiding his smirk. But I just grin at him, knowing that he played his cards precisely right – that Midnight would have flipped if he’d overtly taken Daphne’s side. He found a way to let Daphne take control, giving her a little hint about a gift and letting her take the reins, knowing she could handle it.
I’m reminded again of just how deft Jesse can be when he wants to be.
I open my mouth to say something very complimentary on this point when suddenly the little cell phone plugged into the socket in the corner starts to ring.
My stomach sinks.
“Isn’t that…for emergencies?” Jesse asks, frowning at the phone my parents gave us, deciding that the potential for a pregnancy emergency trumps the school’s rule against personal phones.
As I reach for it, glancing at the screen that reads ‘mom’ and pressing the button to answer the call, Jackson comes to the bedroom door, his face worried.
“Hello?” I ask, raising the phone to my ear.