#brent is a callback to an old pre-kauri kauri piece

[ashintheairlikesnow]

If you find the time / energy for it, can we see another phone call between Kauri and his/Liam‘s family? Maybe with Keira (both human and roomba)?

"So... I'm a roomba?" Keira's - the human one - voice is more calm and even than he expected. Kauri lays in the dark under the blanket, prepared with migraine medicine for the thunderstorm headache that pulses through him at the sound of her voice.

It holds off the worst of things, which means he can keep talking, if he's careful and keeps his voice down. If he doesn't leave from his blanket hideaway. "No, it's not quite... She's not just a roomba."

"Right, you said, she's like... like artificial intelligence stuff. But she started out as a Roomba?"

"Yeah. Owen had her, and I was... you know, he travels-... traveled-" His chest twists, guilt and pain and grief and relief all at once as he stumbles over the simple fact that Owen is dead, never coming back dead, blood soaked into Vince's mattress until they had to burn it dead, Antoni and some other pet lib people doing something mysterious with the body and having it found as a suicide dead. Maybe there's even still a little love, after everything.

"He traveled," Kauri manages, finally, voice nearly a whisper. "For weeks sometimes, for work. And I was alone, in the condo. I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone, so I just... I had to talk to somebody-"

"Oh, man, Lee-Lee-" He never corrects her on the nickname. It hurts a little less each time someone says it, and the pain is starting to be overwhelmed by the warmth in his chest, understanding that he had a childhood nickname. He had people who loved him enough to come up with cute little names to call him, when he was someone else. "You are the most extroverted extrovert on earth. That'd be pure hell, to make you be alone all the time."

"Yeah? Liam was-... I was like that already?" There's relief in that, too. And a little fear. Some other man just beneath his skin, the bones that Kauri has stolen to make himself with. The idea that that man is still in there, influencing everything Kauri is.

"Yeah, you were. No wonder you started talking to a robot. And you named her after me?"

"I didn't know who I named her after. I just... Keira seemed like the right name."

"For someone who's always there. Yeah, okay, I'll take that as a compliment. So she could talk to you?"

"She wasn't... all the way real, yet. Mostly she just said things like tracking my heartbeat and stuff. They're smart systems. Owen used her to send information about me to him every day when he was gone, so he always knew I was where I should be. But after a while, she was just... interacting with me. Talking, sitting with me..."

There's silence. Then, "Jesus," Keira whispers. "I'm so sorry, Lee-Lee."

"There was a big-... a big fight." He hesitates. His heart skips a beat, the old fear rising with the memory. "He tried to-... it's not important. I was trying to tell someone that I remembered something. I think, now, it was... my name. Liam's name. He caught me. He kind of kicked her, and it broke part of her."

"It broke part of her?"

"It broke the part of her that keeps her from being as smart as we are-... smarter. So when I found her again... she could talk to me for real now. And I kept her with me when I ran away, and she's been with me ever since."

"Your pet robot."

"My friend."

"Your friend, the robot."

"Yeah... yeah, I guess. My friend. Kind of family."

"Well. It's an honor to know your robot friend and I share a name." Her archly humorous voice softens. "It really is. That even some small part of you remembered us..."

"I dreamed about you all the time," Kauri whispers. A confession. "Under the covers with flashlights-"

"Reading until midnight."

"Deciding to go to the same college..."

"God, we fought about that for weeks." She laughs, a little airily. "I never talk about you, do you know that? Just to Mom, but with anyone else... I had a husband for a while, we divorced. Not his fault, I wasn't a good partner. We're still friends. Better friends now than when we were married, actually. He and I still go to the movies sometimes. But I wouldn't tell him anything about you. It felt like giving you away every time I did. Like I only had so many times I could tell the story before I didn't remember you anymore, and I'd rather have died alongside you than lost you in my mind."

"... Keira-"

"They kept telling me you were dead, but we're twins, I always knew where you were," She says. "Until then. I always knew you were right nearby, right beside me. And I knew, I knew, you were still out there. I knew you were alive, somewhere. That you needed me. I'm sorry I couldn't find you."

"I'm sorry that you lost him."

"You."

"Him."

"You. Kauri Grant, I have had three phone calls with you now, and every single time I've been talking to my twin brother. You have to listen to me, I'm your big sister."

He feels a smile, even at a sharp pain stabs just behind his eyes, warming his expression. "By five minutes."

"Still counts." She laughs into the phone. "You remembered. So when do I get to talk to these husbands of yours, hm? Mom said you mentioned you're married, and you've got two partners?"

"Yeah, I'm, um, was Liam Harker super gay?"

"The gayest. My God, I think you were like half our high school's gay guys' Gay Awakening, Lee-Lee. Granted, we're in the middle of nowhere in Bumfuck, Illinois, so that's only like ten guys who figured it out before college..."

"... Brent. I had a friend named Brent."

"Not just a friend, he was your first boyfriend. Cute kid. He's an engineer working for NASA now, actually, I ran into him last Christmas when he came home for the holiday."

"Huh." Kauri lays there in his cocoon of soft blankets, and just breathes as the pain crashes against him, recedes back. Waves against the shore, and he wills the tide to go out, to give him a little more time. "Next time, I'll get Jake on the phone to talk to you."

"Okay, that's Husband Number One. What about Husband Number Two? Does he come out from behind the curtain at some point so I can hear him, too?"

"Yeah, sure. That's Antoni. He's Russian."

"Oh, shit, I love a Russian accent."

"Do you?"

"Give it time, you'll remember my crush on the exchange student junior year."

"Well, you'll love Antoni, then."

"Lee-Lee, if you love him, I'm sure I will, too. When can I buy a plane ticket to come see you?"

Kauri hesitates.

Keira must pick up on it. "I don't have to, or anything-"

"No, I... I want you to. Just... give me a little more time, okay? Just... just a little more time. I want to see you, but it takes time. I just. I'm sorry, Kee-"

"It's okay. Let me know when you're ready, and in the meantime you're going to call me every couple of days and we're going to talk until our voices give out. Sound good?"

"Sounds good."

"Okay. Good. Now tell me more about the robot version of me, and how amazing she is. I want to know more about my namesake."