swimming

"Well...I think you are nice. I wouldn't...know...why whoever they...are would say that."
Her eyes widened, and she leaned towards him in disbelief. "Really? You- really?" She shook her head, leaning back against the rock and watching him with even more confusion then ever. Even if they didn't know her, people usually hated her within minutes of meeting her.

Well, that was it. She'd only known him for eighty-seven seconds.

"It is...reminds one of...what they desire..most."
She drew up her legs to her chest to make sure he had as much room as he wanted, wrapping her skinny arms around them. "Sometimes it is what I desire most." She didn't expect him to understand the way she felt; she wasn't even sure why she'd said it in the first place.

"I guess...that is why...we come back to...beautiful places...and...want to see beautiful people so...often."
She rested her chin on her knees, hazel eyes staring back at him. Normally she hated it when people looked at her, but it didn't seem like he was summing her up, putting a price on her life. He looked away, and she trained her eyes on the ground, digging holes in the sand with her toes. "Why are you here, Mister D'Carteno?" She glanced up at him, hugging herself tighter. "Are you looking for something, or trying to forget it?"

Shirese cautiously snaked a hand out, patting his in what she hoped was a comforting manner. "Sorry." 'That I can't do anything for anyone, that I'm not beautiful, that I'm the last person you'd ask to heal you... Pick one.'

She traced a pattern in the sand, looking at that instead of Raphael. "My sisters and I... We used to say something to each other. A motto or something. It was... 'When least expected'." She glanced up at him, continuing. "It meant... Help, hope, can come when you least expect it. Whenever one of us lost hope, someone would eventually say that."

"You might think it's stupid, but it made everything seem a little less bad for a bit." She turned away, not wanting to look at him in case he was laughing. "And... Maybe it works for healing, too? Maybe it'll just happen, when you're not expecting it."

She was quiet for a moment, finally offering him a rather pointy grin and shrugging. "I never had any parents." She pulled up her shirt, displaying the smooth spot where the umbilical cord scar - what did they call it? Bellybutton - was supposed to be. "Now that I've come here, I'm starting to think that perhaps I'm fortunate in that; no one here seems to like their parents." She smiled again, half joking, half serious.

Normally someone touching her would be grounds for a fight, but he was so gentle she didn't mind at all. "I... Thank you." She really didn't need to thank him, she knew, but she wanted to. He could have laughed, could have simply ignored her...

"I only wish...I love my parents...but they..do not love me back..."
She shivered, sitting on her legs to get them warmer. "That is a very bad situation." She was watching his eyes, her own brooding with empathy. "I'm sorry." She didn't really understand love, but it was obvious that he was upset, and it was making her upset as well. She leaned against him for a split second, trying to convey her empathy to him - words really weren't working well.

She looked up at him, trying to remember the last time she'd felt this safe around another human. She hadn't even spoken a word to anyone for weeks before today; she guessed that's why she was prattling on to the poor man. "I hope... I hope that people love you back." They would, too. He was just so... Nice.

"Thank you for not ignoring me, Miste- Raphael." She was warmer now, and feeling oddly content for a change.

Shirese glanced up at him, momentarily afraid she'd forgotten how to speak English. But, no, that couldn't be it. She was thinking in English, wasn't she? He must be speaking some other language, although she had no idea which. It was a miracle she'd even learned English, let alone anything else...
She tried not to think about it, staring towards the sea. "Do you... Are you happy that they put you here? At..." 'Sunshine? Starbright?' She never could remember... 'Starlight? Starlight.' "...Starlight Academy?"