Name: Full Circle
Story: Starfall
Colors: Burgundy #10 (age); Beet Red #7 (what goes around)
Supplies and Styles: Graffiti (April Food Challenge)
Word Count: 1294
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Notes: 1313, Portcallan; Leion Valerno, Nin & Leily Valerno. (Mods, this completes Burgundy for the April Challenge.) Takes place some time after the last few pieces.
Summary: Leion is in trouble with his nieces.

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Peace reigned in Leion's office. He had his head down over a report for a client, and two of his niblings were here to watch the kittens didn't get into trouble. It couldn't remain this quiet for long, but for the moment, Nin had finished her school work and was lying flat out on the rug, playing with the four kittens, laughing for the first time this evening, while Leily had gone into the kitchen to bring in supper.

Fern, the cat Viyony had landed him with a few weeks ago, had produced four kittens—three females, as grey as their mother, and one black-furred male. Two of them were growing long-haired, rapidly turning into tiny balls of fluff with pinprick claws. They weren't quite yet at the stage where they could escape their box without aid, but it wouldn't be long, and they got everywhere as soon as they were let out of it.

Leily arrived with a tray and after passing Nin hers with stern instructions to sit up straight, not make a fuss, and absolutely not to feed anything to the kittens, she crossed over to place a plate in front of Leion.

"Thank you," said Leion, pushing his paperwork out of the way.

Leily eyed him with unusual solemnity. "Uncle Leion, could you come into the kitchen? I need to ask you something."

"Yes, of course," he said, kicking the chair back and jumping up. He followed her out. "What was it you couldn't find?"

"It's not that," she said, with an impatient wave of her hand. "I know where you keep everything by now."

"If it's about the kittens, that's up to your parents, not me."

Leily frowned heavily. "This isn't easy to say, and it's worse when you keep interrupting."

"Sorry."

"It's Nin. Didn't you see she was upset?"

"She did seem out of sorts, but I thought it best not to comment. What has she been up to?"

He was rewarded with a glare that made him straighten unconsciously. Leily looked uncomfortably like her mother, his older sister Arna. She shifted her position, putting one hand on her hip, strengthening the likeness.

"She hasn't been up to anything," said Leily. "Well. Not very much—you know what a pain she is. You're the one who upset her, and you didn't even ask!"

Leion blinked. "How? What have I done?"

"We saw you," said Nin, appearing suddenly in the doorway and making Leion jump. She had a wriggling grey kitten hugged against her chest. "Yesterday outside the theatre, when we were walking past with Leily's friends. You were horrible to Imai Eseray and now she's not coming to have dinner with us."

Leion looked from one to the other. "Ah," he said. "Yes. That. I had no idea you were there."

"That's not an excuse!" said Leily. Her gaze strayed to her younger sister. "Nin, be careful with the kittens."

"I am! She likes it!"

Leion intervened, shepherding them both out of the kitchen and back into his office. Supper was waiting, and he didn't think it a good idea to leave three kittens unattended by anyone save Fern, who didn't seem overly invested in being a strict parent.

"Did she do something?" said Nin, thumping back down onto the rug, and letting go of the kitten. "Imai Eseray. You should have told us if she did, because obviously then we wouldn't see her either."

Leion perched on his desk and faced them. "No, she didn't." He supposed, in accordance with the agreement he, Viyony and Tana had made, he ought to say that Viyony had committed a crime, but he drew the line at lying to Leily and Nin about something like that. It remained, as far as he was concerned, a terrible plan anyway.

"Then why were you mean to her?" Nin asked, more plaintively and then shoved a giant bite of pie into her mouth.

Leily drew herself up. "Iyanin Valerno, don't be such a pig."

Nin stuck her tongue out, deliberately disregarding all the now-visible half-chewed pastry, vegetables and savoury sauce on it.

"You can't scold me and do things like that," observed Leion mildly. "You're not two."

She put her tongue back in and swallowed hard, coughing and turning so red in the face for a moment that the rest of the conversation ceased while she drank her water.

"Why?" Nin demanded as soon as she was able.

"Well," said Leion. He tugged at his collar. "It was—well—a game, of sorts, I suppose. A pretence—for reasons I can't explain, because it's a secret. Neither of you must breathe a word to anyone, either."

Nin screwed up her nose. "That's not an explanation. We're not little, you know, you can tell us."

"Then act your age," snapped Leion. "That is the truth—I'm sorry if you got the wrong end of the stick. Now, finish your supper like a civilised being, or I'll have to take you both home early."

Nin's glare didn't hold any eerie overtones of his sister in it, but it was far more fierce than Leily's. She pushed her plate away. "You act yours!" With that, she ran out of the room.

Leion started to rise, shame heating his cheeks, when Leily shook her head at him. "I'll go and see that she's all right," she said, and left him behind to scoop up the kittens before they, too, got out of hand.

Having done that, he poked his head out into the hallway, to find them sitting together on the stairs, Nin red-eyed.

"I'm sorry I was rude," Nin muttered in a deeply grudging tone.

Leion held out his hand to her, and she hugged him. "So am I, believe me. And I'm not making things up. Life just is that ridiculous, sometimes. It will all be all right soon, and I'm sure Imai Eseray will rearrange her visit to you. Even if we were at odds, she wouldn't take that out on the rest of you."

Nin rested her head on his shoulder for a moment, in a way she hadn't done in ages. He could feel how heated she was, from tears and temper, and grimaced into her hair. Then she pulled back and said, "Am I allowed some more pie?"


"Is it true?" asked Leily, afterwards, helping him to clear things away.

Leion took the clean plates from her and hefted them up to the proper shelf. "Yes," he said. "I told you. It was all pretend—it doesn't matter. Put it out of your head."

"I don't think you should," said Leily suddenly. When he looked at her, she swallowed. "It wasn't nice. Our friends were with us—they heard you. All the other people around, too." She bit her lip, and then glanced up at him, and she looked again, so like Arna it unnerved him. "I think that does make it real in a way, doesn't it?"

Leion, bereft of words, shrugged.

"Mother would say so," said Leily. "She wouldn't like it."

Leion, about to try and defend the indefensible, had to laugh. He patted her cheek. "She would not. Neither would your grandmother."

"Well," said Leily, with an elderly sigh, "I suppose it's up to you. We didn't tell Mother, you know, so you don't need to worry about that."

Leion closed his eyes briefly. "Leily—I'll sort it all out soon, I promise. It won't happen again."

He held out his hand to her and, when she not only took it, but her face cleared, he smiled back in relief. He hadn't yet lost too much credit with her, as well as Nin, if she still believed he could put everything to rights so easily.