Chapter 110 – A Condition.

Matt started laughing.

The girl looked at him, confused. She took her hands off Aurora's ribs and pushed herself up a little, as far as the arms still locked around her waist would allow.

Aurora stopped moving too. She lay quiet underneath her, getting her breath back while she watched Matt.

"Papa?"

Matt ran a hand down his face, but he laughed again.

He had been thinking about how to deal with her. He had stopped to consider her intentions, to compare her with Iris and Noxx, even to wonder whether he could learn to live with her.

And the girl wanted to see the queen.

Of course she wanted to see the queen.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

Matt shook his head and needed a few seconds to answer.

"Of course you'd ask for that."

"To see Mama?"

Matt's laughter stopped.

"Don't call her that."

"But I want to see her."

"I heard you."

The girl rested a hand on the floor, next to Aurora's shoulder, and studied him with curiosity.

"So can I go out?"

Matt was about to tell her no.

He could keep her inside. Take back control every time she tried to take his body, refuse to bring her in front of Elyra, and make it clear he wasn't going to allow another outing like the one a little while ago.

It was the simplest option.

The girl would have to get used to living in there and accept that he decided when she could go out.

Matt stopped smiling, because that was exactly what Elyra would do.

The comparison left a bad taste.

He had wanted to go see his family too.

He'd had to ask permission to leave, wait until Elyra was in a good mood, and listen to the reasons why it still wasn't a good time.

There was always a reason.

Now he had someone in front of him asking to go out, and his first idea had been to keep her locked up because he didn't like who she wanted to visit.

Matt lowered his hand.

He couldn't let her do whatever she wanted either.

The girl had used his body for a few minutes and Lucrecia had ended up on the floor, being bitten by a swarm of tiny copies of her.

Then she had asked whether she could devour her.

Matt looked at her. She looked back at him with a smile, waiting for his answer.

'No. Not a chance.'

Giving her free rein to wander the castle wearing his face was stupid.

Everything she did would be blamed on him, and he already had enough problems without a maid showing up to ask him why he had tried to eat a guest from another kingdom.

Besides, Matt could picture perfectly what would happen if she ran into Elyra.

His own body running toward that woman.

His own voice calling her Mama.

Matt clenched his teeth.

The queen would enjoy every second of it.

"Papa."

"I'm thinking."

"You think a lot."

"Somebody has to."

The girl looked down. Aurora was still holding on to her waist, but she had stopped squeezing so hard.

Matt needed a condition. One that would let him learn more about what this girl could do before letting her out again.

He had seen her dolls, and he had felt the strength of her hug. But he still didn't know how she would handle someone who understood what she was doing.

"Fine," Matt said.

The girl looked up immediately.

"I can?"

"If you want to go out, first you're going to have to beat me."

The smile vanished from the girl's face.

"Beat you?"

"Yes. In a fight."

Aurora lifted her head a little. The girl stared at Matt for several seconds. She seemed to be waiting for him to add something, but he was done.

"You want to fight me?"

"I'm giving you a way to get what you want."

She frowned.

"I don't want to fight you."

Matt blinked.

He had expected a laugh. Maybe for her to get up and accept far too quickly, forcing him to wonder whether he had just made another stupid mistake.

The refusal left him with nothing to say for a moment.

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to."

"A little while ago you didn't seem to have any problem with fighting."

"With that woman."

"And?"

"Now you're talking about you."

The girl said it simply, as if that difference explained everything.

Matt crossed his arms.

"Then you'll have to decide what matters more to you."

Her shoulders dropped a little.

"Papa..."

"From now on, that's the condition. If you want to control the body, you'll have to beat me first. You're not going out on your own again."

"But..."

"And if you want me to separate you the way I did Noxx, same thing."

The girl closed her mouth.

Matt waited while she studied him. Her eyes went down to his hands, traveled along his arms and came back to his face.

For a moment he thought she was working out how to face him.

Matt didn't change his stance.

If she accepted, he would have to take it seriously. He didn't know how much of what he had seen was skill and how much was simply the absurd amount of power she had at her disposal.

The girl tilted her head.

"Aren't you going to give me a name?"

Matt went still.

"...What?"

"A name."

"I'm talking to you about something else."

"I know."

"Then answer."

"But I asked you something too."

Aurora turned her eyes toward Matt without lifting her head off the floor.

Matt let out a sigh.

"Noxx came up with her own. You can do the same. Find one that..."

"I don't want to."

Matt looked at her.

The girl moved one of her twin tails over Aurora's shoulder, freeing it from where it had gotten caught.

"I want you to give me one."

"I just told you that you can choose it."

"I heard you."

"Then choose."

"No."

Matt rubbed his forehead.

"Why do I have to do it?"

"Because I want one from you."

"You're supposed to pick your own name."

"But I want you to be the one who picked it for me, Papa!"

The girl smiled as she explained it.

Matt still didn't understand why that mattered so much to her.

"You're awfully demanding for someone so young."

"What's wrong with that?"

"That the rest of us don't have to do everything you want."

She propped herself on her other arm and sat up a little more.

"I only asked you for a name."

"And I told you to choose it yourself."

"But I want you to choose it."

"That's exactly what I'm talking about."

The girl watched him closely. Matt pointed at her.

"It isn't right to force someone to do something just because you feel like it. You can ask, but if the other person says no, you have to accept it."

The girl stayed quiet.

Matt lowered his hand.

At least this time she seemed to be listening.

"Ah," she said.

Aurora turned her head a little to look at her. The girl smiled again.

"Then why are you allowed to force me to stay in here?"

Matt didn't answer.

"I want to see Mama," she went on. "But you don't want me to see her, so you tell me I can't go out."

"We're talking about my body."

"You also said I have to beat you to get one of my own."

Matt pressed his lips together.

The girl raised a finger.

"And I just told you I don't want to fight you."

Aurora looked toward Matt. He noticed the look and frowned.

"What?"

"Nothing, Master."

Aurora put her head back down on the floor. The girl, on the other hand, was still waiting.

Matt understood now what she was doing.

She hadn't refused the fight because she didn't understand the condition.

She had understood it perfectly, and now she was using his own words to try to get the same thing without getting up off the floor.

'She's trying to beat me by talking.'

Matt could explain the Lucrecia thing to her again. Remind her that she had taken his body without permission and that he'd had to stop her before she did something worse.

He could also explain why running into Elyra was a bad idea.

But then she would ask him who had decided it was a bad idea.

And Matt would have to say it was him, again.

The argument could go on for hours.

The most annoying part was that he couldn't pretend the comparison with the queen hadn't occurred to him already. That was exactly why he had looked for an alternative.

Although, hearing her lay it out like that, the alternative didn't sound very good either.

Matt took a breath.

"Look."

The girl watched him, interested.

"If you beat me in a duel, I'll let you go free."

She said nothing.

"If you want to separate, I'll help you do it. I won't make up another condition afterward."

"And I'll be able to see Mama?"

Matt made a face.

The girl noticed.

"That's included in letting me go free too, isn't it?"

"If you beat me."

She started laughing.

Aurora took the movement from on top and adjusted her arms around her waist so she wouldn't slip loose.

Matt looked at her without understanding what she had found so funny.

"You really are a very fun person, Papa."

"Glad you're enjoying yourself."

"Enormously."

"Are you going to fight or not?"

The girl looked at him one last time. Then she looked down at Aurora.

Aurora frowned.

"What?"

The girl folded her arms and let herself drop on top of her, settling her head next to Aurora's neck.

"I'd rather take a nap."

Aurora froze.

So did Matt.

The girl closed her eyes.

For a few seconds, Matt waited for her to add something. A condition of her own, another question about her name, any comment to keep annoying him.

She settled more comfortably on top of Aurora.

"Hey," Matt said.

She didn't answer.

"We're still talking."

The girl let out a sigh against Aurora's shoulder.

Aurora raised her head and tried to see her face, but from that position all she managed was a mouthful of white hair. She blew it away and looked back at Matt.

"Master..."

"I see."

"She's lying on top of me."

"I see that too."

Matt came over and crouched beside them.

The girl had her eyes closed and one cheek squashed against Aurora's shoulder. One of her hands had fallen open on the floor.

Matt poked her face with a finger.

"Hey."

Nothing.

"You're not ending this conversation by falling asleep."

The girl didn't open her eyes.

Matt took one of her cheeks between his fingers and squeezed.

Her mouth moved a little.

"Mmm..."

"Yes. Mmm. Open your eyes."

He let go.

She put her face back down where it had been.

Aurora was watching her with an increasingly confused expression.

Matt took both her cheeks and lifted her face a little.

"Listen to me. You haven't answered me."

The girl's head followed the movement of his hands. Her eyelids stayed shut, even when Matt squeezed her cheeks until her lips puckered.

Aurora started to prop herself up on one elbow, forcing her to shift position.

The girl slid a little to one side.

She didn't even complain.

Matt stopped squeezing her face.

"...Seriously?"

Aurora freed one hand from her waist and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Excuse me."

There was no answer.

"You're on top of me."

The girl breathed slowly.

Aurora shook her shoulder more insistently.

"Excuse me!"

Matt expected her to open her eyes and laugh at them. She had been arguing with him a few seconds ago. She couldn't have fallen asleep that fast, much less while they were moving her head around and shouting right next to her.

Matt squeezed one of her cheeks again. The girl barely wrinkled her nose and burrowed her face against Aurora, looking for a more comfortable position.

She kept sleeping.

Aurora looked up at Matt.

"Master... I think she really fell asleep."

Matt looked at the hand he still had next to her face.

"Looks like it."

"But she falls asleep so fast."

"I noticed."

Aurora watched her again. She loosened the arms that had been holding her until then, although the girl was no longer making any attempt to move.

"And she's a pretty heavy sleeper," she added, surprised. "Not even with her cheeks being squeezed..."

Matt stayed crouched beside them.

He had managed to explain a condition to her, but not to get her to accept it. He also didn't know what he was going to do when she woke up.

The girl let out a little snore.

Aurora looked at him.

"Can I let go of her now?"

"Yes."

Aurora pulled her arms away and tried to slide off to one side.

The girl hugged her in her sleep.

'One more problem…' Matt thought, letting out a sigh.

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