After a few minutes, she twisted to curl up against him, head on his shoulder. He pressed a quick kiss to the top of her hair.

“Long day?”

“Yeah. Good! We got the agreement through, but it’s such a - ugh. You know.” Kit nodded, though she couldn’t see it. Even without listening to her talk about the ins and outs of environmental policy campaigning, he had a pretty good background understanding of his own. It was hard not to, as a wizard who could speak to the trees and understand what they said about the changing seasons and patterns, had friends who happened to be whales or dolphins (and sometimes wizards) who were as sensitive to the changes to the ocean as it was possible to be, or flip open your manual and see detailed readings of any atmospheric variation or pattern you cared to look at for as long as it had been possible to get measurements - in some cases longer, though those were less reliable. Some days Nita found the work invigorating, a way of following her Oath of wizardry in her day to day life. Other days it was just depressing.

 Kit nudged her gently in the ribs.

“Okay, let me up. I’m gonna make mama’s chicken for dinner - it’s already marinading, we finished up a bit early ‘cause we had a super early call.” Nita let herself slump sideways into his vacated seat.

“See, this is why you’re the best.” He laughed, patted her ankle on the way by, and headed back into the kitchen. Nita wriggled until she was on her back, feet propped on the arm of the couch and staring up at the ceiling. She wrinkled her nose at the cracks in the paintwork. They’d fixed anything structural, mostly through subtle wizardry, though one or two things they’d had to get someone in to help with just to make it not too obvious that there was something odd going on.

 They hadn’t gotten through much of the decorating yet, still getting used to the idea that they could decorate the place however they wanted. Splotches of paint samples dotted the walls, though Ronan had laughed his head off when they told him and then reminded them that you could buy pretty much anything you wanted at the Crossings. Including time in a nifty device that threw incredibly detailed holograms up, accounting for objects in 3D space, so that you could make a lifelike mock up of any room you chose and walk around it, seeing how different colours worked and what furniture you wanted to use. It wasn’t cheap, but Nita still had a lot of credit worked up with the staff of the Crossings from various dramatic exploits, and a solid in with the stationmaster. Also a very healthy alien bank account that was built largely on investments and returns from Carmela and Ronan’s ongoing side business of ethical chocolate exports. Writing them a custom wizardry for filtering through the business practices of every step of their pipeline to help quantify as much as possible the ethics of each partner had earned her several shares, and they were paying dividends.

 It was largely how she and Kit had been able to afford the apartment.

Nita had been torn on the option. On the one hand, being able to play around in a SIMs style mock up was appealing. On the other, there was something nostalgic about putting up swatches, trying to imagine how the room would look. Eventually they’d decided it would be fun, and spent a day up at the Crossings getting increasingly distracted by different options - particularly after taking off the filter to limit them to what could be reasonably implemented on Earth, and could goof around with anything that the Crossings system could find labeled for sale anywhere related to ‘interior design’. Even if most of it had been for fun rather than useful, it had helped narrow down their colours and had given them ideas for things they might not have dreamed up otherwise, and for a few pieces of alien technology that they could pass off as slightly weird decorating choices or furniture, or even that just wouldn’t be visible.

 (Alien temperature regulating systems, for example, ranged massively as you would expect, but there were several very discreet options that you could get that blended in perfectly to the join between wall and ceiling. While they could use Wizardry to achieve the same effect - and regularly did if they went anywhere out of atmosphere - it was also the kind of frivolous use of Power that they tried to avoid, particularly when there was a perfectly reasonable solution available.)

 - Kit, do we have any plans this weekend? - There was a thoughtful hum from the kitchen, just about audible under the clatter of pans.

- Uh, think we’re seeing your dad for dinner on Sunday. There wasn’t anything urgent on my Manual when I looked earlier, not sure if anyone’s clamoring for more of your time more urgently - His mental tone was teasing, and Nita snickered. There was always someone asking for time from one or both of them; they’d taken on deputy-Advisory responsibilities for the region some years ago and taken on increasing responsibility since then. They’d talked it over a few times, and Kit thought he was likely to phase out of the pipeline for full Advisory soon. He liked working with other Wizards, but he dealt better going in depth with one or two as a mentor or support on a specific project, rather than trying to keep on top of what was going on with several people. In his own words, this is why I don’t want to be a manager at work, Neets. Better play to my strengths, yeah? Nothing concrete had been said, but Nita suspected that once they were more settled into their new home there would be more official movement coming through to back it up; the Powers and their on-planet network tried where they could to not pile new responsibilities on when you were dealing with something major outside of Wizardry, whether positive or negative.

 Nita pulled her manual out of her otherspace pocket, skimming through messages.

- Nah, unless something comes up think it should be fine for my usual hours, a few consults and a request to look at a spell calculation, but no fires to put out -

- Nice! Why d’you ask? -

- Figure maybe we should actually take the plunge and do some of the decorating. If we hate it, we can always change it, right? -

- I was gonna say, actually, Chel and I were chatting, and he said - Kit broke off mid thought, the oven beeping. Nita tucked her manual away and rolled to her feet with a groan, going to set the table. Once they were sat down, plates piled high, Kit continued -

“Like I was saying, Cheleb was really interested in what we were doing, and told me that they do a kind of paint in one of the - ugh, I can’t remember where - anyway, someone, somewhere, does a kind of paint that changes colour really easily. Like, you don’t need Wizardry, just ask it nicely in the Speech with a passcode, and it can change to loads of different colours. Chameleon particles, it translated at, but not sure if that’s literal or a cultural translation.” Nita grinned, raising her glass in salute.

“That sounds perfect. Painting party this weekend?” Kit clinked his glass against hers solemnly.

“Sounds like a plan.”

They clattered into Nita’s old family home on Sunday evening, shaking rain off of their umbrella before propping it in the bucket left by the door. Her father called a greeting from the kitchen, echoed by Dairine, Roshaun and Filif. Nita lit up, sticking her head into the kitchen.

“Filif! I didn’t know you were gonna be here, how’s my favourite Christmas tree!” He waved back, and the house filled with chatter about what everyone had been up to.

“Nita and I are officially adults now,” Kit declared when it was their turn, helping carry plates over to the table. Dairine snickered, and her dad raised an eyebrow as he sat down.

“And you weren’t for the past decade? Well, almost decade for Kit, give or take a few weeks.” Nita giggled.

“We’ve discovered we have strong opinions about curtains.” Kit nodded solemnly, trying and failing not to grin. “Seriously, we spent forty-seven minutes discussing options and I don’t think I’ve ever felt so much like I’m an actual grown up.” Dairine spluttered with laughter.

“So, you didn’t feel like an adult when we did that errantry right after your birthday - you know the one,” she grimaced and there was a collective shudder. It hadn’t been terrible work, not the most stressful situation they’d worked on by a long shot, but it had been a spectacularly uncomfortable location. “Or when you both finished college -“

“- or, Nita, when new wizards started popping up in your manual first, rather than in your senior advisory’s to triage support -“ Roshaun added with a smirk, Dairine nudging him in the ribs with false irritation for interrupting.

“Or when the pair of you got jobs, or bought a flat together.” Harry added with a grin. Filif rustled his leaves, obviously cataloging this list of markers of human adult life. Nita and Kit both shook their heads, grinning.

“Nope. Turns out you’re actually an adult when you spend your spare time thinking about colour swatches, curtains, and whether it really matters if all the place-mats match or not.” Harry chuckled.

“Ah yes, true responsibility - the first time you understand why your parents were always so adamant that you be careful of the paintwork and not eat on the couch. Even if you do have the benefit of that little mini alien roomba…thing. Thanks for that, by the way, it does making keeping everything clean so much easier, even if I do have to remember to hide it whenever the neighbours pop by so I don’t cause an extremely international incident.”

 Nita grinned, nudging Kit’s ankle under the table. He nudged her back, smiling, and hooked his ankle around hers companionably.

- I still think the green will look best -

- Ugh, I don’t know! I like it, but I’m worried it will be too dark -

- Well, maybe whichever planet it was that does chameleon paint also does a chameleon curtain… -

- The perks of being a Wizard, huh? -

- Carmela will be so proud of us. Let’s not tell her and see if she notices anything -

- Agreed -