"Now..." said Lex, returning her attention to her companion, "where were we?"<br/><br/>She smiled and put a hand up to brush her hair aside and then took her companion's hand and laughed.<br/><br/>"Ah yes, we we're talking about you, of course," she said, "you are very pretty, you know," she said playfully. She could practically feel her young companion's disease, and she wished to free her from it.<br/><br/>"Perhaps I ought to be taking your picture..." she said, letting go of her hand to frame her up with her fingers, pretending to consider her for a portrait. It had been a long whip since serious Lex had let herself assume an older persona, the woman she'd pretended to be so well, for so long, and so long ago, that it felt like slipping on an old glove. It fit her, as though she'd never had another.