making it up as we go along
Callisto looked around the over-shop apartment that had been his home for decades and managed a contented smile. It wasn’t often he put the effort into cleaning the place from top to bottom, but this was a special occasion. He had been thinking a while about the possibility of it, and he had to admit he liked the idea. Ruenheim was a wonderful child, if a bit snippy and stubborn, but he was small and sometimes awkward and it would be good for him to have playmates of his approximate age.
“Callisto?”
Speak of the devil. The child was clearly done with his nap on the couch. Sitting up, he looked around the living area and rubbed his eyes before looking up at Callisto. “You picked up everything!” he said, staring wide-eyed at the Yuan-Ti before turning back to look at the room. “Where’d everything go?” He climbed down off the couch to cling to Callisto’s pant-leg. Callisto petted his hair gently, rearranging a few of the mislaid strands and in general improving Rue’s look to something tidier.
“It’s in its place for once. I thought the apartment could use cleaning. The shop is tidy, my workshop is tidy, and your room is tidy, but everything else was messy.” Rue nodded slowly and held up his arms. Callisto picked him up and settled him on one hip as he walked around the island into the tiled portion of the living area that served as a galley-style kitchen. “What do you think? Everything’s washed, not just picked up.”
“What’s that smell?” Rue responded, wrinkling his nose. “Smells like…” he thought for a moment and then scowled. “Smells like the pool.” The child hated swimming and pools, and clearly the smell of chlorine bleach was not going to end up on his list of preferred scents. Callisto smiled at him anyways.
“It’s bleach. It makes everything clean, like the sink, see?” He swung Rue up and more or less set him in the sink. Rue scowled at him but looked into it nonetheless. It was white porcelain, though it had been off-white before, and now all but sparkled under Callisto’s ministrations.
“’S’really clean, yeah,” Rue said, then looked suspiciously up at Callisto. “Callisto?”
“Yes, Rue?”
“Why did you pick everything up? You never pick things up, but today you picked everything up. Why?” Rue didn’t look upset, just confused, and he kept his nose wrinkled (now in curiosity rather than disgust) as he looked up at Callisto. Callisto laughed and picked the child up again, carrying him out of the kitchen before setting him down.
“We’ll talk about it soon, okay?” he asked. “First, I have to make us dinner.” Rue frowned just a little bit, but then he shrugged.
“Okay.”
