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I. Visit
Lili wasn’t quite sure what to expect when she saw the large, slightly worn circus tent, lit up by hundreds of stringed lights and the large crowds of people heading inside, mostly parents with their children, all sticky from cotton candy with grins as wide as their faces. She felt a little lonely pushing through the large crowd and sitting by herself with no one to talk to, or ask what usually happened at circuses, and opted to stare around at the grand ring. She wondered if maybe she shouldn’t have come, or if she should duck out of the tent before the show started.
But when the lights went out and a spotlight lit up a smiling family suspended on a thin rope high above the ground, her breath caught and she leaned forward, all loneliness forgotten and her eyes widening with a little fear and expectation. When the young man standing next to the oldest gentleman turned his head deliberately in her direction and gave her a wave and a grin, his voice echoing in her mind and calling her name, she sat back and enjoyed her first circus visit.
***
II. Smoking Attempt
The day after Razputin turned 18, he snagged a spare box of Sasha’s cigarettes and went down to the lakeside, deciding to see just what the hell was so appealing about it. It took two tries (he spat them out, coughing and hacking horribly) before he finally managed to keep one in his mouth. It really didn't taste that great, but it wasn't as bad as he initially thought. He had been smoking for about ten minutes when Lili came down the dock. Raz turned and lifted a hand to wave, but it drooped almost immediately when he noticed that she stopped five feet away from him, her nose wrinkled and eyes narrowed. Firmly, she told him that unless he stopped smoking that cigarette in five seconds, she would never kiss him again.
He chucked the whole box into the trees and ran off to his cabin to brush his teeth. Sasha was not pleased by the theft and the disposal of his cigarettes (and Milla could not stop giggling at the story).
***
III. Injury
It had been his first solo mission. He was only supposed to tail this one perp that the Psychonauts had been after for months, so that they could find his hiding place and send in a full squad to apprehend him. But Raz noticed that he seemed rather dodgy when exiting a bank, and (against direct orders) probed the man’s mind. Flashing red digits and a small wire-covered object hidden underneath the main counter immediately appeared in his mind, and he ignored the now running man as he dashed into the bank, shouting desperately ‘get down’, and extending the biggest shield he could—
He woke in a clean white hospital room to small hands tightly clutching his arm, a red, tear-stained face, and a half-sobbing, half-furious voice telling him he was so stupid and so lucky to be alive and she would kill him if he ever did anything like that again. He lifted his other arm and held her, not even thinking about how much his body hurt.
***
IV. Camp
Raz’s second summer at Whispering Rock was just exciting as the first, but in a rather different way. True, there was no crazy counselor harvesting the brains of his fellow campers, but that was quite the unwanted distraction. He could concentrate on his education now (there was still tons more that he didn’t know), get to know the others a little better (finding and restoring their brains wasn’t really the socially accepted way of doing that), and (most importantly), spending time with his girlfriend. He came back half-fearful that she had put the whole thing behind her, or had moved on, but when she tugged his hand, leading him away to a secluded area of the campground to give him a kiss, he knew he never should have doubted that in the first place.
It was also extremely gratifying to have her suspend Bobby Zilch upside down when he tried to push Raz off of the observation deck.
***
V. Mindscape
Raz and Lili spent a lot of time in each other’s minds when they weren’t physically together. It was a comfort to know that even when they were halfway across the world from each other on a mission or just visiting their family that they could just meet each other in their minds. After a few years, Raz finally asked why Lili never seemed fully comfortable with him being in her mind and why she always preferred going into his mind. While initially refusing to answer, even snapping at him when he pushed the issue, she broke down, recounting a memory from when her mother used to be around. She had found her father’s psychic door and was playing around with it, eventually clamping it onto her own head and opening it as her mother came into the room, pulling her mother into her mind. She was unable to get out until Truman came home, and just like that, her mother started avoiding Lili and then one day she was gone.
Raz was silent after this, only holding Lili close until she calmed down, rubbing circles on her back. He kept her from pulling away and told her solemnly that her mind was his favorite place. It still took a long time for her to be completely comfortable with him visiting her mind, but the next time they were together, she inclined her body towards him, curling her fingers around his, and leaned against him, closing her eyes. It was a start.