'Huh?' Satoshi sounded sleepy-not surprising, since he had been over at the geography department till two o'clock in the morning. But he was awake enough not to be grumpy.
'No clean towels.'
'Again?'
'Yeah.,,
'He promised.'
'I know.'
Satoshi sighed. 'He promised to give the laundry to the housekeeper. No housekeeper-'
'I'd split hairs for him, too. Usually. But he did promise. And the tub was filthy.'
'So much for learning quaint Japanese customs,'
Satoshi said. 'He forgot the one about showering first and soaking afterwards.' Stephen Thomas was studying the partnership's ethnic background. Satoshi's mother was of mostly Japanese ancestry, though that branch of his family had been in Hawaii almost as many generations as Victoria's family had lived in Canada. The other side of Satoshi's family, being Hawaiian, had been in Hawaii since people started living there. Victoria could not help but chuckle. 'He must have skipped that chapter.' Satoshi sipped his coffee and Victoria scalded the teapot and filled it with loose tea and boiling water.
'Let's try not to fight with him,' Satoshi said. 'The last fight was kind of hard on us all.'
'It was,' Victoria said. 'I will try.'
'You were up early this morning,' Satoshi said.
'I went swimming with J.D. and Zev,' Victoria said, grateful for the change of subject. 'And if I'd known how much fun it'd be, I'd've made you get up and come with us.'
'Swimming at dawn in this season doesn't sound fun to me. It sounds cold.' She brought her teapot over to the table and sat down to wait for the tea to steep.
'We swam in the gulfstream, and the lagoon. Divers don't just swim. They play.' She rubbed her foot against his leg, stroking his calf with her instep. 'It isn't quite sex, it's too quick. But it's very sexy.'
'Quick?' he said doubtfully.
'Quick touches, over a long time.' She touched his shin with her toe, like brushstrokes. He looked at her quizzically. 'It'd be fun to go swimming with you and Stephen Thomas and make love in the water.'
'I don't know,' he said doubtfully. 'I tried that once, back home. Wasn't very successful.'
'Why not?'
'Salt water interferes with the natural lubrication. My partner . . . took exception to continuing.'
'Worked for me,' she said with a grin.
He put his foot in her lap. She rubbed it, massaging
his sole and stroking her fingertips up the sharp strong tendons. She bent down and nipped his toe gently. Satoshi yelped in surprise.
'I'm starved!' Victoria said. 'Is there anything to eat?'
'Not much,' Satoshi said. 'I made some rice.'
Victoria had never warmed to the Hawaiian custom of having white rice with practically every meal.
She jumped up and opened the refrigerator.
'Don't-'
'Wasn't there a tomato in here someplace?' Victoria said. 'I could broil it.'
She picked it up. It collapsed in her hand.
She made a sound of disgust.
All the vegetables were wilted, the leftovers moldy. The housekeeper had kept the kitchen clean, too, and before Feral came to stay with them they had kept very few perishables around. They never had time to cook, and none of them was very good at it. They had ordered most of their meals from the central cafeteria.
'This is awful,' Victoria said.
'I know.'
'Why didn't you throw it out?'
'Because I don't know if the recycler's coming. There's a big empty hole in Arachne where the schedule ought to be. I figured the stuff wouldn't smell too bad if we kept it cold.'
'Oh,' Victoria said. She put the squishy tomato back in the refrigerator. 'We've got to do something with it. Do you know how to make a compost heap?'
'In theory.'
'Maybe we'd better try it. But I've got to have some breakfast. I'm going over to the cafeteria, want to come?'
'Sure. Shall I get Stephen Thomas?'
'Do you know where he is? All I've seen of him since yesterday is his muddy tracks in the bathtub.'
Satoshi hesitated. 'He's sleeping in Feral's room.'
'In Feral's room? Is somebody with him? Why didn't he use his own room?'
'He's alone.'
Victoria stared at him in disbelief.
She strode down the hallway to the spare room. The guest room. The room that should have been Merry's, but never was. She could not think of it as Feral's. He had been a guest, an acquaintance, a passing fancy for Stephen Thomas. Not a member of the family, not even a friend. Not yet.
I don't make friends in two weeks, Victoria thought. Even Stephen Thomas doesn't make friends in two weeks.
She opened the door without knocking, went to the window and pulled the curtains open, and in the flood of light sat on her heels at the edge of the futon.
When she saw Stephen Thomas she drew away sharply, lost her balance, and sprawled backward. She caught herself and knelt beside him.
He lay with one hand over his face, his fingers spread, the translucent webs spread between them. The webs had grown all the way to the second knuckle on each finger. Even his hands had grown. The fine gold pelt surrounded his arm and shoulder like the auras he claimed to see. He had always been so fair: now his skin was deep amber, far darker than his gold hair.
'Stephen Thomas!'
He drew his hand down from his face, opened his eyes, and looked at her blankly. Concern overcame her moment's incoherent, absurd relief that the color of his eyes had not changed. His blank look scared her.
The changing's gone wrong, she thought in terror. He's changed-
She loved him and she found him exasperating, often both at the same time.
If the change were to obliterate his personality . . .
He blinked, and he was suddenly Stephen Thomas again.
'What's the matter?' he asked. 'What time is it?'
'It's about eight.' She answered the answerable question first. A flare of sheer relief heated her irritation. 'What are you doing in here?' 'Trying to sleep,' he said, and spread his strange, changed, webbed hand over his face again.
'Wake up!' The fear he had given her only made her angrier.
'All iight, I'm awake.'
Satoshi appeared in the doorway, worried.
'Why are you sleeping in here? Why not in your room? Why not with us? Where have you been?'
'Take it easy,' Satoshi said. After a moment Victoria realized he was talking to her, not to Stephen Thomas.
'I don't much feel like taking it easy right this second,' she said to Satoshi. 'I want to know-'
'Which question should I answer first?' Stephen Thomas said.
'I don't care!'
'I'm sleeping here because I wanted to. I never did, you know . . . or maybe you don't know.'
'It didn't make any difference to me if you did or didn't,' Victoria said, 'when Feral was alive. But now . . .'
'Where I've been is in the wild cylinder. In a thunderstorm-'
