a citizen of the universe.

|     “ You know, I have a theory—if I tell Drax a riddle just before curfew, he won’t be able to get a wink of sleep. And by morning, he still won’t have the answer. ”

“ my dear, you are positively diabolical. ”

he smiled very neatly, shot his schoolmate a coolly affectionate look across the table, then extended a solitary digit to push the stack of old tomes he’d just got done working his way through off to one side of it.

“ but you know——you know, i simply couldn’t allow it in good conscience. ”

he stuck his tongue on his teeth and eyed the other boy, leaning back a bit in his chair.

|     “ Oh, no. I told him that he was being very boring. ”

“ hm? oh, yes, my dear, i’m sure you did——and i’m sure he was. ”

he looked up at her, smiling slimly, and a bit affectionately, or——by his standards, anyway.

in any case, by his standards, it was saying quite a lot.

“ being very boring, i mean. ”

he smiled slightly more, then turned his attention back to the project they’d been working on——lifting up his eyebrows as he spoke.

“ actually, i believe i should’ve liked to see the look on his face when you told him. ”

he went in to give her a loving little pat on the hand after that, which lasted——well, probably longer than it could have.

|     He’d reclined in a chair, looking bored, one leg slung over the arm—toying idly, if rather exaggeratedly, with the Doctor’s yo-yo.

“ oh——give me that, you! ”

he snatched the object out of the other man’s hand——pocketed it, then straightened up again with an audible huff.

“ and it’s not ridiculous——it’s a time and space visualizer, which is a perfectly sensible machine, thank you very much! ”

he gave his lapels a sharp sort of a yanking.

|     “ Shall I pull it for you? ”

“ oh, certainly not——and you can keep your snide remarks to yourself, thank you very much! ”

he waved the other man away, still cradling his aching jaw obstinately in his other hand.

actually, he seemed to be in something of a hurry.

“ anyhoo, i do believe it’s improving! yes——yes, it’s a definite improvement, i must say! ”

he worked his jaw a bit——let his hand drop, then hauled himself up off the ground, giving his coat a good yanking once he’d done that to straighten it out.

|     “ No. I’d sooner be dead. ”

“ yes, my dear——i’m sure you would. ”

he smiled thinly, and a little coolly, but very pleasantly——and it seemed without giving the matter all that much thought.

“ that being said, rallon and i would rather be alive, and we intend to enjoy ourselves whilst we’re doing it. ”

he gave the other boy something which resembled a loving sort of a pat on the cheek.

|     Beneath their respective desks, he stepped very pointedly on the other boy's foot.

“ oh, yes——that’s what i said, sir! it’s altogether the trouble, y’know——that wire there, i mean. ”

he thrust a digit out——leaned in a ways, then went on to wave it around in a couple of disparaging circles.

“ you see, it’s overloading the neural pathways——you can tell because when you switch the main on, it starts to go all——ow! ”

he let out a small yelp, and——then, looking dead ahead, he smiled very pleasantly, and a tiny bit icily. then——still smiling, he withdrew his hand——sat back in his seat, and composed himself again.

|     He’d spent the past several minutes familiarizing himself with a set of pistols, now twirling one in each hand.

“ oh, stop it, my dear——honestly, you’re going to put someone’s eye out. ”

he sighed very coolly, then reached a hand across——giving one of the muzzles a tetchy little shove so that it wound up pointing downwards.

“ at least learn to hold them properly, won’t you? ”

his voice was very thin. he sniffed——lifted a critical eyebrow, then retracted his hand a bit coldly.