Chemistry as an Art

“Uri, tell me a secret.”
“A secret?”
“Yeah, like how you told Kiana you’re #3! My brothers are shit liars, but I’m pretty good at it.”
“Uh huh, sure you are.”
“Come on! We can trade secrets? That way, if I tell, you can tell mine.”
Areta enters, grumbling, "Eve, have you seen--? Oh! Hi!"
"Daddy, perfect timing! Tell me a secret about Uri."
"No, don't!" Uri pleads with the fire in Areta's eyes. "Aret, don't."
"Uri's hands are permanently colorful like that because ae treats chemistry like an art."
"Whoa! Really?!"
"Yes," Uri. Ae wiggles aer fingers, sheepishly, then rolls up aer sleeve to reveal other streaks up to aer elbows, most scars not nearly as artful as the ones dotting aer hands. "I learned chemistry through trial and error. Most of these scars are from before we had the highly trained healers we do today. I haven't gotten around to fixing any of them up, I don't know if I'd recognize myself without them."
"... Ow."
Uri laughs. "It was long enough ago that I hardly remember the pain, but yes, ouch!"
"Do you know why I told you that?" Areta snipes at ver daughter.
"... I'm taking a chemistry class?"
"Ding, ding ding! Uri, help!"
"Oh, no," Uri laughs approvingly over the raspberry Eve is blowing at her father. "Please learn from the mistakes of your elders, Eve. I treated chemistry like an art so you can treat it like a proper science."

---

“Wait,” Uriel prompts, biting back aer concern for the pain ae can feel from Areta. “Eve, didn’t you promise me a secret in return?”
“You didn’t tell it, daddy did!”
“Yeah, Uri!” Areta teases. “That doesn’t count. Tell us a secret.”
Choosing to go for something that would at least make Areta laugh, ae says, “Hey makes me proofread their reports before even you see them.”
Areta’s brow furrows. “What? Why? That’s so much extra work.”
“They’re great at following set procedures, but any time they try to propose anything experimental, their first drafts are shit. I blackmail them about it when I need a favor.”
"And blackmailing Hey... actually worked?"
"Of course. You'd never let them live it down."
And laugh, ve does.