A previous engagement

She listened to him, this reality was as real as ever. She never thought of humanity that way, it hadn't come into her conscious mind that people can overuse the system, and make it fail.

She frowned, and wrapped her arms around him. "I understand... I just, I don't...I don't know, I guess I just don't pay attention to people's faults, I find their sparks, and their strengths, I keep in mind their weaknesses, being gentle with them, but for the most part... I find the beauty within them... Believe it or not, but everyone has their own beauty somewhere."

She tried to smile as he complimented her, told her she was the different one, she was the one who kept him for hating all mankind, but she couldn't help but feel sorry for the rest of mankind who was missing out on such a great person. She leaned next to him, and kissed his cheek, trying to comfort him, keeping her arms around him, as they sat in her tree hammock.

"And that's one reason I respect you so much. I can't do that, not with what I've had to deal with. I've tried, don't get me wrong, but... it was a futile attempt. I just got walked on time after time."

She put her head against his chest, as they were laying down, and she could hear his heartbeating. From his chest, she looked up to him, "I believe you have tried... I really do. Some people... just get the butt-end of life, and it's not fair." She sat up, looking into his eyes, making sure that he would see her face, and know how much she meant, and felt, every word that came out of her mouth. "I will never, ever do anything to hurt you, and I would like to consider myself your friend. And friends don't walk out on other friends, so saying that, I'm always here for you. Okay?"

She hoped he was okay, and could tell there was something he wasn't telling her, something horrible, from his past, that maybe he wasn't telling her because it was secret, but because it was too hard for him to have to re-live in order to tell her, and she understood that, but wished she could know, and offer any help she could provide. She smiled gently, comforting, and layed back down next to him, with her head on his chest. Listening to the thump thump, thump thump of his heart, listening, to the life, being pumped through him.

"I'm a negitive person. I won't deny that." He looked at her sidways. "Sometimes I think that's the reason I have the powers." He lifted his hands and looked at them. "They deal with the bigger problems I have trouble with."

She looked at him curiously, and shook her head. "I think your negative with things, and people your not comfortable with. Which, is most of them, giving you the idea that your a negative person. But, what I see, when I'm with you, you can be a little on the half empty glass side, but for the most part your pretty...happy."

She thought about asking him about his bigger problems, which he was referring to, but decided not to, because she figured that he wouldn't want to talk about them, but still wondered about them a lot. Over and over her mind conjured up these horrible images where he was abused, or neglected, or picked on, or something to where he was the 'invisible child' and had to completely fend for himself. She thought maybe that she has been the only one to show him love, and friendship. She hoped not though, she hoped... all her imagery was wrong.

"So does this mean I have to find somewhere else to take us?" He almost smiled, indicating the morning sky.

She looked up at the sky and shrugged. "I'm happy here if you are. I was actually thinking about taking a dip in that lovely water over there. I'm sure it's freezing!"

As she spoke, he stopped to listen to her, his eyes the softest and most human she has ever seen on him. He nodded, closing his eyes. He ran an hand through her hair and stopped, holding the side of her neck. Opening his eyes, he looked strait into hers. "The feeling is mutual, believe me."

She noticed his softened eyes... and smiled faintly. Closed her eyes as his fingers went through her hair, and opened them, meeting his gaze whenever he stopped at her neck, and smiled gently at his response.

He laughed a very little bit. "That's the thing... I'm not uncomfortable with people, I just like teasing them to no end. It brings to light all these personality flaws that people go wide-eyed at, even their friends. And I'm happy because... He paused, looking at his hands which were playing with some of the zippers on his jacket/shirt.

She could tell he was going to tell her something serious, he always started fidgeting when he was going to tell her something more than the usual conversation. This was going to be hard for him, so she looked at his face with a soft understanding face.

"You..." He bit his lip before continuing, "You remind me of my foster mother... early on in my life. She always supported everything I did... And she was nice about it. She was the first one to get me playing the piano, and..." He looked up at the sky. "She got me my first sketchbook." Looking back to his hands after a pause, he continued

Enelya reached out for his hands, and held them, comforting him, helping him along with his story that was obviously painful for him.

"My foster father saw us playing the piano together one morning, and well..." He folded his hands. "He wasn't happy, and took his frustration out on his wife... She never looked at me agian...." He pursed his lips in anger. "That was the day I discovered my powers. One of the kids knocked me down when a group of them were running around in the back yard and I cut my hand pretty bad on a rock. I went to strike out at him and missed, but I splattered blood on his face and... He went wide-eyed and ran screaming into the forest." He sighed heavily, his next response was in a deeper tone. "They found him two days later, died of hypothermia... I took it upon myself to make my room in the attic that night." His eyes were dry throughout this entire story, as if he his tears had left him a long, long time ago.

Enelya listened to his story with the greatest understanding. She listened to every word he said, and was gentle with him. Still holding his hands, she looked at him.

"Kotah... I had no idea..." Her gentle look went stern. "It wasn't your fault. You were defending yourself..."

She let go of his hands, and wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight. She hated the fact that he went through such nightmares... No wonder he had bad dreams he couldn't wake up from... she thought, it wasn't his fault though... he was defending himself... who knows what that boy could have done if he hadn't reacted the way he did without his powers...

He shook his head. "No... I stuck in rage. If I had just let it go, like I usually did, nothing would have happened."

She then shook her own head. "I don't believe that. They were picking on you, and you did what anyone would have done, you defended yourself, and in turn discovered your power."

"After that is when I started experimenting with my powers. I randomly chose my victim of Misfortune; I think one of them might still be suffering from it, unless it was a different spell. I had uh... Cast a few things I had no idea what they were." He cleared his throat, scratching the back of his head while he glanced in another direction with one of his malicious grins. "Wasn't too pretty... but funny nonetheless."

She smiled weakly, "They all deserved it too..." She squeezed him in a hug for a couple seconds and let go, still had her arms around him, but not in such a tight embrace.

"No... Not by me. Karma has a way of sneaking up on the best of us. I should have let it do its job, instead of taking it upon myself." He looked at her and smiled weakly, "Besides, you're suposed to be the one saying it was a wrong, and I'm suposed to be the one justifying myself." He tried this as a joke, but assumed he failed.

Enelya snorted, "From what I've heard of these punks, whatever they got, they probably deserved. Plus, you don't seem like the type to just go out and swipe someone for no reason.." she remembered the person from the hallway, "Unless your trying to show off." She smiled, and winked at him.