xp_logs | Amanda and Topaz || Monday Morning

Amanda ~~mother hens~~ checks on and feeds Topaz.

"So, someone's made themselves at home," reflected Amanda as she brought the teapot over to the couch where Topaz was wrapped in a blanket, working her way through the giant tray of breakfast food Amanda had brought. The older witch nodded at the small ball of black fuzz curled up on Topaz's lap.

"She meows if I move her anywhere else," Topaz said as way of explanation, like she wasn't at all enjoying the little kitten who had made her lap into a bed. "She likes being held." There was almost too much food here but she was pretty sure she wasn't going to be able to get away without eating all of it.

A certain gleam in Amanda's eyes indicated the older witch knew exactly how much Topaz was enjoying her new friend. The smugness was certainly apparently to the empath. Amanda reached over and stole a half of a bagel, before sitting in the chair and curling her legs up. "How's the head?"

It was absolutely apparent. Topaz just refused to acknowledge it. "It's alright. More like a regular overuse of magic hangover and less like someone is drilling into the back of my head, so that's an improvement." She'd nearly finished another bottle of aspirin though. She was probably going to have to lay off that for a while.

"Sounds like a bit of a wild night. And not in the fun way." Amanda's tone was quiet, slightly wry. "I won't ask if you want to talk about it, since you'll get that from everyone and you'll talk if you bloody well feel like it."

"At least I didn't have cartoon animals from hell wandering around my head," Topaz returned dryly before dropping her eyes to the tray in front of her. "Made me think a bit though. That's always dangerous."

Amanda chuckled before she could help it. "That's Meg for you. I hope now she's sorry for all those games of Candyland she made me play with her when she was a little 'un." She took a bite of the bagel half and chewed it meditatively, watching Topaz. "'M going to guess you saw some stuff that you didn't want to think about in your head?"

Topaz smiled a bit at that - she couldn't help it - before her expression settled into something a bit more contemplative. "More like stuff I hadn't thought about it in a while." She abandoned the context of trying to eat and reached instead for a picture sitting on the table. The edges of the photo were frayed and torn from years of being carried in her pocket and then transferred from book to book. It was of her and Alice and Luca, back when things were still good. "It was like a library," she said after a moment, still looking at the picture. "Except when you opened the books it was my memories."

"Ah." Amanda understood immediately. "'S the problem with memories - they don't actually go away. Even when we want them to. We can just bury them and hope they stay put."

"Yeah, too bad they never do." Topaz stared at the photo for another moment before putting it back on the table and looking instead to the kitten in her lap. "I'm horrible with names, you know. This one's gonna end up with something horrible."

"You can't get worse than 'Fluffy'," Amanda pointed out. "Or 'Frank'. That was the name of my pet lizard. Bet-- one of the teachers gave it to me for my birthday, in sort of similar circumstances. No warning, just, 'here, have a pet'."

"Is that a tradition or somethin'?" Topaz asked, scratching the little kitty behind the ears. She made it brr-ing noise as the motion startled her awake. "Am I gonna have to find a student to give a pet to someday?"

"I've got four to choose from if you want one," Amanda replied with a chuckle. She watched Topaz and the kitten, pleased at the expression on her student's face, her own softening. "She's a cutie, isn't she?"

"I think maybe we should wait until I've gone an entire year without you havin' to bail me out of somethin' before someone even thinks to trust me with a student," Topaz returned dryly, though she was smiling as she watched the kitten. "Yeah, she is."

"Hey, you're still on the '0 days since Amanda bailed me out for 2016' clock," her mentor pointed out. "This one was totally a self-help job."

"Yeah, this'll be my year, I can feel it," Topaz said dryly. "Maybe I'll finally get that quiet life I'm always talkin' about livin'." The kitten stood in her lap, turning a couple times before looking up at Topaz and making a chirping noise.

"Now that's just silly." Amanda finished off her bagel and rose, brushing crumbs off herself. "I"ll leave you two to get acquainted - I still have a little sister to check on and feed, if she's awake yet. Can't let Kurt have all the mother henning."

"Tell Meggan I'll come around later?" Topaz asked as the kitten attempted to climb up her. "I kind of blew her off yesterday, couldn't think past the headache much."

"No worries." Amanda snickered at the kitten's antics. "Don't forget to keep eating, and I'll be by to check up on you and the fuzzball later."

"Ow, no, do I look like a Disney princess?" Topaz asked as the cat attempted to grab onto her hair to climb. "Sounds good. And thanks for...well, all of this."

"It's what I do."