"Kimiko? Welcome to Sigma Kappa Alpha," a lovely woman said as she approached.
"I promise I won't trash your house, ma'am--
miss," Kimiko said, realizing too late that this was not some older, wiser being but a young woman only a few years older than her at most.
"Don't mind them. You'll get used to them after awhile."
As if to emphasize the point, a
very pretty girl came out of the house carrying a basket of baked goods. "Blessed morning, Lucian! Would you like some bread? I, I know! I'm gong to send over a basket. Could one of the vi--I mean, one of the Kappa go to the hedge? I'll pass it over," she said. Briefly, Kimiko wondered what the 'vi-word' she'd cut herself off from saying was, deciding it was most likely a nickname SKA had for their neighbors, who (if that hypothesis was correct) would probably have a counterpart for the SKA members.
Kimiko nodded, then glanced back over toward KID house, only then noticing the others, most of whom were wearing matching KID logo shirts. She tilted her head for a moment, trying to decide if she thought the shirts were cool or gauche, then set the question aside seeing as she was hardly an expert on such matters.
With the woman who greeted her was a
very handsome guy...and the third member of the trio who approached could have come down the ramp of a flying saucer in a 1950's UFO contactee story.
Oh my...I'm in the House with the Beautiful People.
"Hello, Kimiko! My name is Cassander, but you can call me Cass. It's lovely to meet you! I can help you take your things up to your room; anything you'd like me to start with?"
Another guy, who could easily have fronted a heartthrob boy band, came up and said, "Need any help?"
"Oh! Wow! Thank you!" To her great relief, it seemed that the Beautiful People would not also be the Mean People. "I really appreciate that!" Her expression turned apologetic. "I have some pretty heavy things... There's a dolly in the truck though." The third of the original trio approached.
"Amari Leighton," they said, extending a hand. As Kimiko took it, she tried not to stare in fascination. She really tried. They moved with uncanny grace, the light cotton of their clothes fluttering like an angel's wings. They were beautiful-handsome, like no one she'd ever met before, poised in the blurry zone between 'masculine' and 'feminine.' Ordinarily, she would have fumbled for a polite way to ask for their pronouns. But if this was the Christian house, she couldn't rule out the possibility that they might take offense, or that their House-mates might disapprove.
"Amari...that is such a bea--amazing name!" Their blue eyes looked deeply into hers, and Kimiko couldn't help but be drawn in. It was as if there was no possibility of judgment or cruelty there, or concern that such might come from her. As if the interpersonal walls people put up by habit and necessity were not needed after all, and she would only find complete acceptance in those eyes.
"Thank you. Fae, faer, faerself."
"Huh?"
"My pronouns," Amari said with a da Vinci grin.
Kimiko gaped for a moment. "Those. Are. Soooo.
Awesome! I would
totally use those if I had a good excuse!"
"Don't expect me to stop you."
"Eh, hehe, thanks, but I should stick with she/her for the sake of accuracy. Maybe if we lived in a world where everybody decided what pronouns to use the way we pick what clothes to wear, like if we all had augmented-reality contact lenses and the pronouns would appear next to a person's head and nobody was uptight about it," she said, then caught herself and glanced back at the other three, but none of them seemed to be in that category. Amari certainly seemed comfortable with them in th--faer otherworldly way.
*Honk?*
"Oh--this is Fledermau," Kimiko said, giving the pet carrier a slow lift. "If we could take him inside first? I'll take a windowless room if you have one, especially if everybody else would rather have windows. I make YouTube videos, and it's easier to control the lighting."
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Created by Black_Sheep & edited by Jenamos and Zarko Straadi
