enebrae wandered into the room, and instantly arched her back and hissed at Jade. Her fur stood on end, and she leaped forward and scratched Jade across the wrist. Jade dropped the mirror, and Tenebrae landed on it, tail lashing. Jade gasped, and clutched at her wrist, and Kat also looked startled.
"Tenebrae!" Kat scolded, putting down her mirror. "Let's put something on that," she added to Jade, getting up and moving into the bathroom.
After a bit of anti-septic, Kat frowned.
"Hmm... I'm going to have to buy all this stuff."
"Yeah. And cleaning things."
"And cooking things."
"Ugh. This gets more expensive by the minute," laughed Kat. "Maybe I should rent out a room."
"To... Marc, say?" teased Jade.
Kat laughed.
"Of course not - I only just met him."
"Oh, as opposed to someone you've never met?"
Kat slapped her sister lightly, and laughing, they left the bathroom.
"I was just packing when you called. Want to come up and help me?"
"Sure."
The girls went into Kat's room, forgetting about the mirrors completely.

***

Later that afternoon, Jade stopped packing and looked at the 6 boxes that had so far been filled.
"Um... How are we going to move all your stuff?" she suddenly wondered.
"Well, Marc has this friend, and he has a van... Marc said he'd ask him to help me out."
"Ah..." Jade grinned.
"Stop that!" Kat scolded. "It's nothing that serious, yet."
Jade laughed, then stopped, and smiled.
"I know... It's just that you haven't dated anyone seriously since Glenn, and he spent most of his time peering down your top or trying to feel you up..."
Kat laughed.
"I know. But I loved him."
"Mmm, really."
"Or at least, I thought I did." Kat returned to packing dragons. "He had what I wanted then."
"Oh? And what do you want now?"
"I don't know. Something else. Marc may have it."
Jade didn't press the subject, and turned to Kat's wardrobe.
"I don't want to open that, do I?"
"Go ahead. It's already empty."
"Already?"
"Why do you think there are 6 boxes?"
Jade laughed so hard her sides ached. Kat waited patiently for her sister to regain her composure, then went out to the kitchen to make some tea. As she passed the sunroom on the way back to her room, she spied the mirrors on the floor. She re-wrapped hers, and placed Jade's on her desk. Her mirror went into the box Jade was packing, and they sat down to drink their tea. Kat surveyed the room.
"You know, I think I'm almost all packed."
"Mmm," Jade said noncommittally, sipping her tea.
"Marc and I prepared the walls and did the undercoat of my house this morning."
"You did?"
"Yes. We'll paint it properly tomorrow. And again on Friday. And then on Saturday, Marc is coming over with his friend, and we're going to get some things out of storage. I should have finished packing by then, so I can get him to move this stuff at the same time."
"Good idea."
"You busy tomorrow?"
"Not really. Was going to do something with Dazz in the afternoon, but we didn't have anything planned."
"Oh. Ok. You want to come help paint?"
"Sure. I'll talk to Darryl."
After they finished their tea, Jade took the cups downstairs, and Kat returned to packing.

***

Leo stood in his darkened room, and peered into his mirror. Through it, he could see the inside of Jade's bedroom. He peered around the edges, and spied a blank canvas. There were sketches laying around, but he couldn't really see them clearly. It was, however, obvious that Jade hadn't started on her piece for the competition. Leo filed the information away for the next time he saw Jade, and continued to look for information he could use.

He cursed that damned cat. If it hadn't scratched Jade, he would have been able to leech the information straight out of her mind... now it had to be done this slower and more cumbersome way. But he would still get what he needed, cat or no cat.

Leo changed his focus, but saw nothing but the paper he had wrapped the mirrors in. Kat obviously hadn't opened hers yet. He settled back and let his focus slip away. In a few moments, his reflection returned to the mirrors.
"What were you doing?" Leo demanded of his reflection.
"None of your business," he replied, then kicked the bottom of the mirror, covering the reflective surface as Leo himself had often done. In the darkness of his room, Leo's reflection plotted his next move.

***

Jade awoke early and frowned, wondering what day it was. Then she remembered. It was Saturday. Moving Day. The week had passed slowly for Jade - seeing as though Leo had cancelled almost all her classes for the entire week, she'd had almost nothing to do - other then brood about Kat leaving, her parents leaving, and Nicole's death. Luckily, she'd also thought often of Darryl, but she hadn't seen him often, because he still had classes, which he wasn't going to skip.

Jade pulled herself out of bed, and got dressed before moving into the kitchen. She'd just made tea and put some bread in the toaster, when the door bell rang. It was only 7:30. She moved into the hall, then opened the door to Marc and someone else - evidently, his friend who owned the hated Moving Van.
"Jade," Marc greeted her. "This is Tim. Tim, Jade."
"Hi," said the other. Then, quietly to Marc, "she doesn't really look like your type."
Marc laughed. "That's Kat's sister."
"You said they were twins."
"Not identical."
Kat took that moment to emerge from her bedroom for the morning. She took three steps out, caught sight of Marc and Tim at the door, turned around and went straight back into her room. Jade laughed as the door was firmly closed.
"Come in," she offered. "Kat will be out in a minute."
"Yeah, that was more your type," Tim murmured.
Jade guessed she wasn't supposed to hear that.

The three sat in the kitchen, and presently, Kat joined them - now dressed. The four stood and talked for a while, then the boys got down to business and started shifting things while Kat and Jade had breakfast. Jade related the conversation at the door, and Kat laughed. Kat asked if Jade had any plans for the day, and Jade replied that she was busy. The girls allowed the boys to pack the van, and then Kat, Marc and Tim prepared to leave. Jade waved at them from the doorstep, then once they had gone, moved back inside. She had lied to Kat - she didn't have plans for today. She *had* planned, several weeks ago, to spend the day working on her art submission, but she just didn't have the heart for it at the moment. Jade checked the clock. It was only 9:30. Darryl would still be asleep. Jade headed up to Kat's bedroom, and looked around the almost-empty room. It looked rather absurd, the pictures still on the walls, 8 boxes stacked in the centre of the room, and no furniture. Jade stood in her sister's room. It didn't even really feel like Kat any more - Jade had never really paid attention to anything that Kat would have called "spiritual", but for the first time in her life she felt like there was something missing.

Jade sat down on the floor and cried.

***

Erick and Lucia were leaving in 8 days. It seemed as if the entire house was being packed up. Lucia and Erick had started packing up the things they were taking with them when they woke up on the Saturday, but it was taking them far less time, as they had packed and unpacked many times before, and weren't taking as many things with them. But still, it seemed the house was missing something by the time they'd half-finished. Lucia looked around the house.
"It feels... empty, doesn't it," she said softly to her husband.
"You and I haven't left yet," Erick replied, wrapping his wife in his arms.
"Yes, but Kat has, and I can feel it."
"Our children are growing up," Erick offered. "And Kat isn't far away."
"I almost wish we weren't going to be."
"It will be ok."
"I hope so."

***

Kat arrived home shortly after lunch, and found Jade at home.
"I thought you were going out?"
"Oh... it was cancelled."
"Oh." Kat sensed the lie, but didn't know what to do about it. "You can come help me play house then."
"I never liked that game."
"This will be different. This is my house."
"It always was in the game too," Jade replied, but agreed to go anyway.

"Well? What do you think?"
Jade looked around. It was really quite amazing what a coat of paint, a steam clean, and a tin of polish had done to the house. Of course the rooms still looked very empty. The main bedroom held nothing but Kat's bed - assembled, but not made - and a bedside table. The other bedroom had Kat's stand-alone wardrobe and the chest which Jade knew held Kat's "spiritual stuff", and the chest full of Kat's art supplies, which had been in storage. The study held the desk and bookshelf from Kat's room, and two old bookshelves from storage. The breakfast room had a table and 6 chairs, the dining room a table and 8 chairs, the lounge room a somewhat old and battered leather couch the girls had used for assorted gymnastics when they were five, a display cabinet (empty) and a small liquor cabinet (also empty). In the sitting room was two recliners and a rocking chair, and the TV cabinet the previous owners had left - also empty. The bed the previous owners had left was in the hall - Kat wasn't sure what she was going to do with it.
Jade realised Kat was still waiting for a reply, so she pulled a face.
"It smells like paint."
Kat laughed. "Tell me about it. I'll have a headache for a week. The windows are all open now though, so it should go away soon. Gonna help me organise?"
"Sure."

Despite herself, Jade entered into the spirit of things. She set about cleaning the bathroom (something which Kat had left until last, as it was her most detested job) while Kat attempted to make the leather couch look a little less like it had had been sat on with buckled sandals for 12 years, then sitting in storage for 2 more. The couch went under the window, the display cabinet on the opposite wall, and the liquor cabinet next to the fire place. The dining room had the table shoved into the middle and the chairs arranged around it, and Kat's room had the bed pushed against the wall that didn't have the window or built-in wardrobes. Kat moved her "spirit chest" as Jade one called it into her bedroom, and placed it against the remaining wall, near the window. Then Jade helped move the bed in the hall into the 2nd bedroom, against the wall, with the art supply chest next to it, where it could double as a bedside table, and the wardrobe in the other corner. The desk and bookshelves were arranged around the walls in the study, and the breakfast room was easily arranged also. As Kat moved through the rooms, she wrote on her list.
"Need a new fridge with a freezer," she said as she looked at the bar-fridge which had come out of storage. "A microwave. The stove works, thank the Gods. Need some cutlery. More crockery too. Can get by with that, though. A clothes dryer. At least they left the washing machine. Need to stock my liquor cabinet. And I have no vases, or platters. Don't have a TV. Don't need a TV I suppose. Some cushions. New curtains. A mop, broom, cleaning things, food... Gods, I am going to be broker than... than..."
"Than someone who's just moved out of home for the first time?"
Kat laughed, for which Jade was grateful.
"For one," Jade said, "You have enough to get by on for a while. You don't need a TV, although that cabinet does look a little funny empty. You can put your CD player in there though."
"Oh, I'd forgotten all about where I was going to put that!"
"You can live without cushions, curtains, a clothes dryer, microwave, and everything else. I admit that fridge won't really hold much, but you're only one person, remember. You have plates and bowls and cups and things, don't you?"
"I have my glory box."
"Well there you are. Pull out all that crap that Gran has been giving us for years and you'll have a starting place."
Kat smiled.
"I am so glad you're here."
Jade smiled back, and the girls began unpacking.

At 7:30, Marc, Darryl, Erick and Lucia arrived on the doorstep with Chinese food for dinner. The six sat around Kat's kitchen table, eating with forks or spoons from bowls or bread plates.
"Looks like your girls have been doing an OK job here," said Erick, smiling.
Jade and Kat smiled at each other across the table. They had been working hard, but hadn't really done all that much in the scheme of what there was to be done. At the end of dinner, Kat walked into the kitchen, stopped, then turned to her list and wrote "rubbish bin". The rubbish from dinner went back into the plastic bag it had come in, and the dishes into the sink. "Plug" went onto Kat's list. Then there was the grand tour. Lucia was impressed with the state of the leather couch. Darryl was unimpressed with the state of the liquor cabinet. Kat's bed had been made, and the alarm clock and lamp plugged in, but there was a stack of pictures on the floor which didn't have spots on any of the walls yet, and a couple of boxes of clothing that wasn't in the wardrobe. The "spare" bed didn't have any sheets - "sheets" were added to Kat's list, and Erick offered the sheets from when the girls were children - he suggested that fairy and unicorn sheets were better than none. Two boxes of books sat in the study, and Darryl rigged up Kat's computer for her while they waited. Eventually, tour concluded, Erick and Lucia stated that it was time to go home. They pointed out several pot plants Lucia had decided to give to Kat, to "do something with", and then Erick, Lucia, Darryl and Jade left, and Kat, Marc, Lux Lucis and Tenebrae were alone in the house.

***

Jade entered her bedroom, exhausted. The day had been exhausting, both physically and mentally. Darryl had gone home for the evening - he would be moving in when her parents moved out next weekend.
Kat had said she'd have house-warming on the Friday night before her parents left on Sunday.
And... Jade kicked off her shoes and started to change for bed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her mirror sitting on her desk. With a smile, she walked over and picked it up. Jade looked deep into the mirror, and the room seemed to darken for a minute. Jade placed the mirror down, removed all her clothing and went to bed. Tomorrow was Sunday. Just another day. But the day after *that* was Monday. And she had art. And she could see Leo. Leo. Jade sighed. A whole day before she could see him again. She suddenly didn't know how she had gone for an entire week without seeing him. She missed him. She need to see him. Now. Tonight. Jade was half way out of bed, before her rational mind took over.
She would see him on Monday.

She could hardly wait