no need to go anywhere fast

Audra smiled in that cute way of hers -- everything Avantika's girlfriend did was cute, but you couldn't blame her for noticing -- and asked if there was a particular effect she was looking for. "No, no, I'm sorry. That was a joke." But as she was saying that, she realized that maybe it wasn't. She had to think about it. "I'm anxious pretty much all the time, to the point that it makes me feel sick whenever something unusual happens. But I don't know. Maybe -- maybe feeling like I'm not enough all the time is making me better. Better to overcompensate than to be underprepared, right?" Her worries made her train her hardest. They were her friends, sort of. They kept her from stagnating and relaxing herself into weakness. "I don't know if I want them even to subside. It would make life easier, but..." But what if her home was attacked? She couldn't relax, or something bad would happen.

Something pricked at the back of her mind. Something that she'd wanted to ask Audra. "Hey, Aud?" she said. "This is completely off-topic, but do you think -- maybe -- that you'd ever want to have kids? Like, with me?" They were still young and there was still so much time, but Avantika had been thinking about it lately. What it would be like. But did she really need more vulnerable things to protect?

"Speech"