BayRat — Roleplayer Guild

Chris|Siena

𝕊𝕖𝕡𝕥. 𝟙𝟚, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟘   / /   𝕌𝕊𝔸ℝ𝕀𝕃ℕ 𝔼𝕒𝕤𝕥   / /   𝔹𝕦𝕚𝕝𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝔸   / /  𝟙𝟞𝟘𝟘

Collab with @Papitan

Chris let out a sigh as he approached Siena's dorm. He had been sure to wear his black trim suit with a blue shirt that matched his eyes, and for once he even combed his white hair back for sake of formality. His blue eyes looked to his phone to confirm this was the right room number. He was nervous, he still didn't quiet understand this girl or her attention. Perhaps though, this could be the start of making connections with people again for once. Hopefully it doesn't end up like...last time. Numerous times he thought how likely it was for any friends he'd make here would just die, he's seen enough death already. However, he had finally realized that at the very least, companionship can make the present a bit more enjoyable. He didn't have much to lose either. After having built some confidence, the youth knocked on the door three times and awaiting patiently.

After an eventful week, Siena was satisfied to remain in her dorm until her planned excursion with Chris. In fact, she'd spent most of it updating her blog or simply browsing through a few fresh releases from her preferred publishers. Part of her made mental earmarks on titles and summaries that struck her as potentially useful in a combat situation--should she have felt so comfortable with the idea of combat already?--while she consciously made the effort to pick out a few to add to the ever-growing "things to read later" list. There was a comfort in the familiarity of a slow day that the brunette did her best not to acknowledge, her eyes glued to the words on the screen. 

Was this why she'd come?

The sound of a knock pulled the girl from her inner world, causing her to sit up in her seat, eyes darting for the door. A moment passed before Siena realized that she should have answered it. No Maya, no Gerwulf. Grounding herself, Siena brushed out the superficial wrinkles of the beaded halterneck dress she'd chosen before opening the door. As expected, Chris was there. 

And he was...very nicely dressed? 

Shoving the faint level of confusion that threatened to rise down to the furthest pits of her thoughts, Siena masked the uncertainty with a faint smile. "Oh, that's a nice fit for you." The hazy image of a memory came to mind. Familiar. Uncomfortable, but familiar. She pushed it away in favor of the present. "Let me just grab my purse, and we can go."

Chris nodded once in agreeance, the book she had given him was held casually in his left hand. "Alright." He mimicked a small, barely noticeable smile. With the youth left to his own thoughts again, he was once again reminded of one of the scars in his past. For a moment, he thought Siena had sounded like a small blonde girl he once knew. 

Jesus Christ Chris, keep it together. He had thought to himself. While waiting for Siena to return he placed a hand on his forehand as if to comfort a headache.

Fortunately, Siena had thought well ahead of time on preparations for an outing--courtesy of a lecture she remembered about foresight from Maya--and had her purse prepared a few hours prior. Taking the moment to slip a bolero over her shoulders to ward off the potential cold--it wouldn't be enough if there was an actual chill, but there was pain in beauty--the brunette stepped out, her eyes trailing towards the book in Chris's hand even as her mind registered something else entirely--the position of his free hand. To the forehead--the same kind of motion that Gerwulf would make when warding off either a headache or unwanted topics of discussion. A conditioned response reached her lips before the mental filters could stop it. "Is something wrong...?"

Chris Shuddered when he heard Siena's voice again. As if he was surprised she was there. "Y-yeah, I'm just...Still caught up with whats been happening lately.." He muttered towards the end of his sentence, his tone as broken as his spirit seemed to be. "What part of town did you want to go to specifically?" Chris immediately asked, as if cutting himself off of his own thoughts. He couldn't allow his issues to catch up on him here, hell if all things went well this could be the best thing to happen for once. His dress shoe was tapping on the hallway floor, either from mere impatience or to continue to distract himself. EIther way it was clear he was eager to leave these dorms with her.

'Not okay.'

The thought fired off like a signal flare, telling Siena the obvious at Chris's reaction. She knew she should have expected as much, given the events since their arrival. Logic dared to present her with two options, but already she was moving away from the topic of the past. There would be time enough to look back on it with a level head. "Hm...well it seems like a waste to be dressed this nicely and then go to a diner..." Not that she would have known, but she assumed that a suit wasn't typical fare for most. "Maybe we can find somewhere a bit classier than what we'd get at the cafeteria." 

"I don't mind the idea, do you know any in town?" He inquired, the conversation had seemed to cause him to relax a bit. Already he had stopped tapping his foot, and his hands had slid into the pockets of his dress pants.

"Hm...I've only been to a few places in town, unfortunately..." And none of them had been especially classy if the general attire had been any indication. "I guess that means we'll have to do some exploring, then." Despite herself, Siena could feel the mischievous tint leak into her voice. She berated herself mentally, but allowed her smile to lean towards the tone. She had been curious about town...

Chris didn't mind the thought of that, he really hadn't been to the town that much himself either. This was a good opportunity to be more acquainted with it. "Sounds good to me." Chris agreed, already he had turned to the hall and began to walk. He looked back to make sure Siena had started to follow, as to avoid seeming rude. He thought for a moment that it may have been polite to hold her hand, but upon further thought that was probably a bit much.

Making sure that the door was properly closed behind her, Siena only had to take a few strides faster than her typical pace to catch up with her fellow mage, her mind suddenly incredibly aware of the fact that she still wasn't accustomed to the idea of heading into town. A pang of anxiety echoed in the pit of her stomach briefly, and for a moment, the would-be heiress wished that either of her caretakers were there. 'Stop that. You're here now.' It had been her choice. Her problems, not theirs. Once again, the girl pushed herself away from the past with a smile for the present. "Any preference on dining? Or um...preferences on not dining?" ...that sounded a lot less clumsy in her head. She felt her arm twitch towards her hair, and with a surge of conscious effort, disguised the action as simply brushing a few stray locks behind her ear. 

Chris continued to move down the hall as he looked to her. "Not exactly. I'd imagine if you wanted something fitting for our attires we'd go to some cliche italian restaurant. However, since neither of us seem to know a good place, why not just have a little adventure in finding something exotic or interesting?" Chris suggested, though a moment ago he had been dreading this very situation with anxiety and past scars, but now he had the chance to loosen up for once, and being a bit more open on his opinions. His casual tone was made apparent with the way he moved his right hand as he had spoke.

"Sounds like a plan!" The words were more genuine than expected, and Siena wasn't entirely certain that she liked that. She did appreciate it, there was no doubt of that, but it was the fact that it was comfortable that made the girl uneasy. A faint, fluttering feeling of anxiety--the same type she got when she knew she'd done something to disappoint Maya. But why...? "Hmmm, well I don't remember anything exotic that way." Here, a quick motion of her hand in the general direction that she'd followed the last time she'd wandered into town. "So any other direction seems like a good bet."

"Well you know this place better then me." He said as he followed the motion of her hand. He took a moment to think before he spoke again. "So how have you been holding up, y'know with all this hell going on?" Chris asked his excitement died down a bit as it shifted into a bit of melancholy. He didn't need to go into detail, and he was thankful of that. Perhaps seeing someone else who's going through the same shit he is to some degree, and being able to smile through it, could have given him some encouragement of his own.

How have you been holding up?

She should have expected as much, really, but that didn't make the question any easier to answer. Countless answers threatened to make themselves the first. Badly. Not well. Okay, she supposed. 'Exceedingly well?'

"Honestly, I'm not sure." A more honest answer than most. Since their flag-and-seek excursion, Siena had found that her emotions had been difficult to categorize--Serena was a mistake--and that had left her with more on her mind than she'd really been prepared for. Aaron was missing, Rain was gone. "I've never had to process quite so much at once. Not with other people, at least." Truth. "What about you?"

Chris didn't answer at first. He had now been looking straight ahead, and one could sweat he had the expression of a soldier's 'Thousand yard stare.' The returned question briefly reminded him of the dead students, the missing students, and.."Tara..." The word barely escaped his lips, as if he was mumbling to himself just for a moment. The trance was broken when he was immediately brought back to reality. "Well, in all honesty I just hope tonight cures me of something thats been itching on the back of my head for a while now." he answered, honesty in his words despite the vague meaning. He did not want to go into detail, such could drag this whole night down into flames. "I don't say this often but..."He had bitten his lip, as he was trying to choose his words carefully. "I'm..happy you invited me to hang out today."

A mutter that she didn't quite catch. Too short to be more than a word, but too soft for Siena to understand. Curiosity sparked in the back of the girl's head, threatening to use every thought as kindling for an inferno she knew would not be stopped. Control snuffed the ember out before it had the chance to catch, replacing it instead with the concern Siena expected to feel. "Well, I hope I can help you with whatever you need."

Because you can't help otherwise? Or because you want to feel better about yourself?

"I guess falling down some stairs was a happy coincidence for us then." Something felt off. The familiarity was fading. The comfort that made her uneasy slipped through her fingers like sand, and with its absence, a different sensation threatened to fall into place. Relief and dread created a thick concoction that tried to clog her throat, but she smiled through it all. Her problems, not his.

Chris..laughed. Yes he laughed, it was a small chuckle, nothing special to most.  How long has it been since I had.. He shook the thought away. It didn't matter. He couldn't let that drag him, he was being happy. "Maybe this school is good for something after all." He mused, thinking that could have been something Gary would have said. 

Gary...

The youth tried to look around to see anything of interest, or perhaps think of something else to say to keep him from those damned memories. "Eh..See anything interesting yet?" 

'Well, his laugh is a little better than his smile, at least.' An oddly light thought graced the reader's mind as she sent a preliminary glance around the area. There weren't any particularly overpowering smells, as far as she could tell, but there were a few restaurants--no, not really. Cafes and coffee houses, maybe, but not actual--

"Oh?" Grey eyes trailed over a faded name that would have been brighter in the dark. Unlike most of the surrounding establishments, there was a sense of decor that stood out even without the need for flashy nighttime lights. "How's...Rio Grande sound?"

Chris followed her attention to the restaurant. "Seems like a good idea." He had a smile on his face, this time it was less strained, and seemed natural. Though it was a small facial expression, Chris felt light. He couldn't remember the last time he let himself truly smile.. "Lets check it out!" 
Having slarted to slowly lose his fears of the pasts in the moment, Chris lead the way into the building. His eyes slowly traced the array of lights and decor the building offered.

At such an early hour, the restaurant wasn't exactly crowded, but that wasn't entirely unusual for Siena. On the rare occasion that she did head to a dining establishment, it was typically done through private rooms and reservations that kept immediate company to a minimum. Part of her was aware that those weren't normal circumstances, but it had never really been a concern. The restaurant was dimmer than the outdoors, providing an atmosphere that felt almost closed off from the outside world. The decorations were vibrant, the furnishing giving an almost premium aura...a voice in the back of Siena's head told her that while it was no Michelin star restaurant, it was not somewhere that just anyone went. Maya might even have approved.

Though the scenery seemed a bit overkill and expensive, Chris didn't mind spending his money. Still he could feel an awkward tension that the scenery provided, as if this was the start of some overly romantic date. Even though Chris figured this was technically a 'date', or at least a friend-date or whatever, what was implied with there little meet up definitely did not fit the atmosphere of the establishment. The teenager dreaded that this may influence awkward interactions just as when they were at that tower where they watched flag football. Chris hoped for a less uncertain event.

He had politely pulled out Siena's chair once the waiter directed them to the table, before having taken a seat himself, and then proceeded to observe the menu as the waiter poured water for the two well dressed arbiters. 

With a small nod of thanks in her companion's direction, Siena took a moment to glance over the menu. Nothing entirely familiar, but at least she could recognize enough to come to a quick decision. 'Nothing too difficult to eat. Definitely never chicken, and no messy food like pasta.' Allowing the silence to linger a bit longer, the brunette glanced at her white-haired companion, eyes drawn to the telltale mark on his cheek for an instant. While she hadn't done anything to cover hers since arriving at USARILN East, Siena couldn't help but feel the faintest sense of unease. Gerwulf and Maya would never have allowed her out without taking a cosmetic kit to her face. The former was atrocious with a brush for all his other skills.To see it on other faces was interesting. To think that there was no need to cover it up was unnerving.

But that wasn't what they were there for. 

"Were there places like this where you came from?" 

The question had hit Chris like a truck. He had never talked about his hometown before, thinking about it only helped bad thoughts resurface. Although his face had been somewhat hidden by his opened menu, it didn't complete hide his expression. Once again, his eyes had grown distant to reality, as if they had been staring at an empty space where the menu was. It took Chris a few seconds to reply. "T-There was one sort of like this, but I never got the chance to go in." Even after having answered her question, the thought of abandoment still clawed in his head. "Have you been in a resturaunt like this before?"

"A few times, but never just to spend time with people." Brushing a few locks of hair behind her ear, Siena gave a faint smile, her mind churning through thoughts with an intensity that she refused to let surface. "It was always a big ordeal to arrange for it, so on a whim was never an option."

Chris gave a nod. "I have to thank you for picking out that book from the Library, This Savage Song, its been a good help in distracting me from..y'know." He had left the book on his lap while he considered what to order. The first thought was some type of pasta or steak. However he dismissed those choices as they were both a bit too messy and cliche for the evening.

"Oh, I'm...I'm glad you've liked it." A throb of anxiety sent a spire of ice into her chest. Nothing to be nervous about, she knew, but...

'Afraid you'll have to answer for it?'

She kept smiling. "It's a little cliche, but I used to read it just to get away from reality." At least until it had become too close to what was real for her. Siena left the statement out. Her problems, not his. "Any thoughts on it yet?"

"I haven't read a lot of novels so I am not sure exactly how to feel about it. I liked the dynamic between Kate and August. The plot itself however does seem to be well..I mean the monsters in the book seem more human compared to the monsters in reality." He mused, but there was a hint of uncomfort in his smile. 

'Plenty of monsters play at being human.'

"That's true...compared to what we've seen recently, the ones in the book aren't too intimidating." Putting some distance between thoughts of their first battle and thoughts of what might be next, Siena felt her energy flag for a moment. The smile she wore faded slightly, as if dimming with her focus on the present. "Unfortunately, we got the short end of the stick there." 

Chris sighed. "If you don't mind the question, What was life like for you before you became a mage?" He asked as he placed his menu down. He had now decided on what to order, and had taken a sip of water as he waited.

Siena should have been expecting it, but the forward nature of the question had taken her off guard. Long enough to let the mask slip by the faintest amount, a dim light of confusion peering through for an instant before Siena regained herself with a silent breath. No tricks, no turns. Just a question. It was a little offsetting. "Oh, um..." She ruminated over her answer for a moment. "Lonely, I guess? I wasn't a perfect darling, so I didn't get much spotlight." It was hard to leave out words about the sister that didn't exist. A hazy figure that she swore was more than just a construct made to alleviate not knowing why. Making a motion to the white mark on her own visage, Siena gave a faint smile. "Probably not as lonely as after this showed up though." 

Chris paused, having acknowledged that same feeling of loneliness. "At least all of us mages can hang out with each other here." He said returning a faint smile to try and lift mood a bit. Not long after the waiter had arrived for their orders. "I'll have the dozen steamed clams." 

"The ceviche for me." Not exactly the easiest dish to eat, but it sounded like it would be something familiar if the faint buzzing in the back of her head was accurate. Waiting for the waiter to leave, Siena returned her attention to the boy across from her. "I hope I'm not being too forward, but what was it like for you? Y-You know, before becoming a mage." It wasn't just the curiosity that drove her that time. As far as she could tell, most of the mages around her had grown up with a sense of normalcy, and with some sort of reference...well, at least her own fuzzy thoughts would be easier to parse through. 

Once again he had froze. Chris had expected to be asked this, and in a sense he wanted to tell someone of his burdens. However when he had finall gotten to that moment, all that pain had walled up his insides and caused him to reconsider his desire. "I-it was OK, I had a few friends..." He stammered. He had regretted asking her the previous question. 

Unease. Not hers. Perhaps she was too forward? Certain topics were best left untouched, certainly, but usually... 'Not everyone thinks like you do.' The thought berated her, not quite her own voice, but not quite Maya's either. Hiding her internal grimace, it occurred to Siena that she had made a mistake. She should have considered that avoidance might not have been how Chris kept unwelcome topics at bay. 

But still, she smiled. No teeth, just a smile.

"I bet they miss you, now that you're stuck here." 

At that moment, the world began to spin before Chris's eyes. He could hear there very words moaned by his dead friends, 'You left us.', repeating in his mind. His head and heart were pounding. Though he was already pale naturally, Chris's face looked more like snow. It was as if he had just seen a ghost. "I, uh." He corrected himself as he stood up. "Sorry I need to use the restroom." He explained before he fast-walked away and into the restroom in the back. 

He was gone. Siena barely had a chance to register his expression before he had vanished. She recognized it--of course she did. After so many mistakes, were there emotions she failed to?--and knew that she had made a mistake. The smile faded, dropped away as she watched the white-haired boy disappear into the back. 

And then she was alone again. 

'Stupid, stupid...should have said something else.' But what could she have said? Her fingers dug into her dress, past the layers and into her skin. A harsh, bruising sensation in five neat little points. Past tense. Had. That meant more than what she had assumed. The familiarity slipped, returned, slipped again--shaken. With a shaky breath, Siena tried to tame the storm again. One piece at a time. Baby steps. 

She told herself to feel worse.

Chris looked into the mirror, his breath was shaky. The youth rubbed away the sweat that had formed at his brows, and tried to bury the past back down into his subconscience.
 Its over now, its all over now. 
He took a deep breath. He couldn't let this get to him. This has been the happiest he's ever been since he was a child, despite the night itself being lackluster. After a few minutes of fixing his broken emotions, he was confident to return to his date. But not before washing his eyes.

 "Hey sorry about that." Chris returned with a faint smile on his face. 

After a few minutes of regaining herself, Siena was relieved to see that Chris had returned, looking no worse for the wear. She gave an apologetic look, but followed it with a faint smile.

This time, she left the topic alone.

"No worries." And I'm sorry. But she couldn't say such things without bringing the topic up again, could she? Instead, she moved forward to lighten the topic. Easier to make fun of other people than to think of one's self, right? Painting a nervous tone onto a light laugh, Siena took a lock of hair and twisted it around one of her fingers, finding satisfaction when she heard a few strands give way to the force. "I'm not the best at social convention, but I'll say that the fact you came back instead of climbing out a bathroom window is a good sign." 

He had let a bit of a blush from his embarrasment form on his face, which was made especially apparent from how white his complexion was. "I'm not gonna leave a friend behind." Chris said. 'I'm never leaving anyone behind again.'  
"Besides I am having a good time otherwise."

Through the haze of her typical thoughts, Siena felt a flash of concern when she saw the flush on Chris's face. Was he feeling alright? Before the words had a chance to form into a question, the boy was quick to respond. A friend...? The word felt almost clunky in her head. It wasn't really one that she'd used frequently. Callan and Marcus were her roommates, the others her peers and classmates."Friend" had never really crossed her mind as a word to describe her relationship with anyone on a personal level.

Perhaps it was a better word...? The edges of the word smoothed out as it rolled about her head. The concept was...nice.

'You haven't said anything in a bit.'

"O-Oh! I um..." Again her hand reached for her hair, and again she caught the motion before it completed. An awkward flick of a lock not really out of place was all that she could disguise the tic with. "Me too." And here, despite her usual reservations, Siena gave a reserved glance away. "It's nice having an actual conversation."

 "Yeah I have to thank Angelique later for inspiring me to being more social." Chris admitted, before changing the subject. "So your power is from reading books? Can you basically become any fictional character?" He asked, curious of the powers of his fellow mage.

The name of the familiar dark-haired arbiter brought a flurry of memories. Not hazy, but not comfortable ones. Siena brushed it aside and considered the question that her friend posed. "Just...just ones that I can understand." No, that was broader than the reality, but it was easier to declare. "Though I guess I don't really become the character either. Not...not in the same sense as your power, at least." 

"So its more or less gaining their abilities or skill?"  Not a moment later from his question did their food arrive. The waiter placed down the dishes of the two mages with delicate care. "Enjoy." The waiter bowed before leaving the two alone.

The stifled sound of a dish lightly appearing on the table wasn't enough to take Siena's attention off the conversation. With Gerwulf and Maya, conversations about Siena's abilities as a subnatural had been strained--mostly confined to how to hide her abilities. Both had made it abundantly clear that she wasn't supposed to flaunt it, but...that rule didn't apply with other mages, did it? Without so much as turning her gaze to the dish before her, the brunette gave a hesitant nod. "Something like that, yes. It's a little muddier than that, but that's the gist of it..." Giving a shadow of a nervous smile, the Arbiter tested the waters herself. "What about your abilities? Does the power only go one way?" 

Chris was just as drawn to the conversation, there was some interest in considering these abilities to be something more intriguing then being cursed. "Not exactly. In the state I'm in now, I can still breathe fire and even grow scales as a sort of armor, though I am in no way close to the power resulted from...transforming." He seemed to have a pause in thought as to what he'd call it.
 "I can't exactly explain the whole detail but there is a bit more to it then just transforming the body. Its...well, its almost as if it has a mind on its own, or rather my own conscience changes a complete perspective." He paused again. "Well maybe that's over dramatizing it, I'm not sure what it is, but I know that I tend to get dangerous in that state. I've been thinking about using that form less and perhaps start using the minor powers I already have. Though I'd need some kind of weapon for me to feel comfortable doing that." Once being finished with his explanation, he took a sip of water  Already he had emptied a single clam shell.

As Chris spoke, Siena allowed herself to eat, finding the flavors only slightly more overpowering than she had expected--given her current distraction, it was fine. "Oh I...I think I know what you mean." More than just thinking that, really. Siena thought about their brief training session, about the connection she'd borrowed, and about the faint storm that lingered beneath every thought and action. It had been familiar to her, but she didn't want to admit it. "I can understand preferring a transformation too. If it were me, I'd probably feel safer as a dragon than I would as a person." Or really, as anything that wasn't her, but that was another matter entirely. 

And then another thoughtful pause. 

"...er...speaking of our powers, um...about the other day..." There was a sense of discomfort that rose like bile. This wasn't a topic she'd really wanted to talk about, but...she had to know. "When I was using the connection, how...much could you really uh...feel?" It was hard to find the correct words for it. "I-I mean, emotionally. From my end. I...I hadn't really realized that using that kind of communication would go beyond forming words."

Chris paused, having thought of his words carefully. "W-well at first you felt really happy, when we were flying all that. After that though there were movements were you seemed stressed.." He bit his lip as he looked over to her. "D-did you feel anything from my end?"

So she was broadcasting more to Chris than she had been to the others. At least that was something she could confirm about the situation--but the question that the boy posed was...harder to answer. There were things she could have said, countless things that would have been at least partially the truth. That she had felt something there, and something familiar. That she'd had trouble figuring out what was coming from Chris and what was her own emotional comparmentalization failing her at the moment. That there had been...something that was unfamiliar, and that it had scared her more than the primal fury that simmered like a pot waiting to boil over in the background. 

But those were all too difficult to approach, so she lied. 

"W-well, I don't think it was quite as much. I got that you were excited, and I er...I think there was concern when I panicked a little." A pause here as she pushed her food around. "And at the same time, something else? It was...harder to figure out. It might be what you mean when you say you see things from a different perspective."

Chris hid a blush from his face as he had figured what she might have been talking about.  "Y-yeah, I guess? I don't think it was too important...I-if you don't mind me asking though, why do you get so nervous? If you don't want to talk about it that's fine but thoughts like that can distract you in dire situations, you know?"  He fumbled a bit with his words as he tried to grasp for confidence. Another empty clam shall stacked on his plate.

"Oh..." Well, she supposed that had to come around eventually. She pushed a pile of rice into the corner of her bowl before lightly flattening it with the back of her spoon. "Really, I don't know. I think I've always been anxious." A brazen lie, but nobody would have doubted that, right? The anxiety was what she remembered more than anything else, certainly, but it hadn't been present until...

...well, those were thoughts she knew were best left pushed to unknown depths. 

"I guess it's worse now that I'm not familiar with where we are or anything."

Chris nodded. "Well if you need help adapting to this new 'life', if we can even call it that, you can always ask me for company."  He gave a smile to Siena, the sound of it filled his emotions with a warming happiness, something he had never felt firsthand in a long time. 
After speaking he had consumed a couple more pieces of his seafood. It was delicious of course, though perhaps clams weren't the best option at this restaurant. He just figured that such a simple dish wouldn't be messy, and he was right.

"O-Oh, well...that sounds nice." 

Lie. That was a tremendous lie. 

She was relieved, on one hand, to know that Chris was a willing companion. A friend--the word still rolled through the mind at a clunky pace--that she could count on the presence of, and almost everything she had been trying to build since she'd surrendered herself, but at the same time, the knowledge fed into the fears she'd tried her hardest to ignore. That something that frightened her more than almost everything else that had happened in the week. Between her increasingly dampened emotions and her own thoughts, Siena was surprised that she was able to keep the mask on. All she'd wanted was something more familiar, but the only way she knew how to do that was to keep smiling. So she did, with warmth and familiarity bred from practice more than heartfelt emotion.

"The same goes for me, though...I guess a nervous wreck isn't exactly the best company you could ask for." 

He chuckled. "Well I suppose not, but despite that you're one of the few others here that I can genuinely enjoy spending time with. Don't know why exactly that is.." He shrugged, not wanting to spend too much thought on the idea of a 'crush'. "Its been a rough week anyhow, I don't blame you for being..well..in unfamiliar territory. I just hope that within some time we can get used to this whole ordeal. You and me both."  He had taken a small sip from his drink.

"I don't know if I want to get used to what we've been through, but...at least it'll be more bearable with a friend." Finally, she settled for another bite of food, her thoughts still churning like wildfire. This seemed about right--much more successful than her last several attempts, but perhaps it was because she knew there was something familiar lurking beneath the surface? "Who knows? Maybe we really will get used to it all."

"Lets hope so." 

After a short while of dining, the waiter brought the two their bill. Chris took out a 50 dollar bill from his pocket and placed it over the tab.  "You ready to go?"

As the bill came, Siena blinked in surprise when Chris set his own funds over it. "O-Oh, I invited you out, you shouldn't pay for this..." Giving a faint smile, the girl picked through her purse, fingers deftly removing a few bills from her wallet--best to avoid the long route of credit for the moment. "It's only fair since I chose the restaurant." Sort of. Good enough.

Chris retracted his cash at her protest. He wasn't one to argue. He had let out a sigh. "I suppose, I'll pay for next time then." He spoke as he stood up and adjusted his tie. "Shall we?" He had walked around the table and offered his hand to his fellow arbiter.

"Let's." 

There were plenty of thoughts that told her to get up on her own, countless more that told her that she was doing the right thing earlier. That Maya and Gerwulf would both have been displeased with something as innocuous as accepting a helping hand. Still, between the disconnected numbers and the anxiety at the unknown emotions, it was hard to keep playing both their games while trying desperately to upkeep her own. Smoothing out the skirt of her dress, Siena gave a careful smile to her companion. 

Then she took his hand.
BayRat Member

Oh No

Status

Bio

Most Recent Posts
