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Post by nightingale on Jan 6, 2009 23:27:31 GMT -5
A brief hint of confusion rippled across Saeo's face and she raised a hand to touch the burning stitches in her left cheek. While the contact hurt a little, there was no blood on the white cotton glove when she examined it. For a moment she just stared, wondering where the blood was.
"It's fine."
She said at last, letting her hand drop. Her eyes went to Pepsi then. How was she ever going to fix this -and she was intent on fixing it, considering that it was all her fault to begin with. She knew there was nothing she could say to reassure him, and weather the fact was fortunate or not, he wasn't fool enough to believe her when she told him she could make the bullying stop. Well, those options exhausted, what did she have left to offer him? A hug? Well there was a stupid, reckless idea...and she really couldn't justify going through with it using logic...but then again, Saeo had never been on good terms with logic.
Taking a deep breath for confidence, she inched her way over to the boy's side. Tentatively, she slipped an arm around him, letting the unmarked side of her face rest against his chest as she maneuvered her other arm into place.
"I know this is a wretched, hateful place for you..."
She murmured, trembling as she pressed herself against him, waiting for some sort of angry reaction.
"And I know it's not fair for me to ask you to stay...but...but please do. Stay here with us. I promise I'll try to make things better..."
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Post by binker on Jan 7, 2009 19:52:42 GMT -5
"Yes, is fine... But looking made you stop the crying." Pepsi felt smug over being right about the reaction, but it was a fleeting emotion, quickly washed away. What was he doing, trying to be mean to the last person that seemed to show him any kindness? The thought sobered him up, and he quickly looked away again, shuffling back towards the Weyr...
...Until a pair of arms stopped him, at least. He stared down numbly at the arms, barely registering what he was hearing. He was too shocked to react; he was so unused to human contact that didn't come without pain, he didn't know what to do now. Really, he was secretly expecting to be hit, but when it didn't come, he just stood stiffly.
"Is wretched place, yes. Is pen, cage. I have to stay, have no choice, see? No need to try and make better, am stuck here anyway." He gave a small, humorless laugh. "Besides, you could try forever, would not make any better... Weyr not like me, will not change mind because you say so." He stared at the jungle floor, waiting for her to do... Something. Yell, hit him, release him, she'd do something sooner or later.
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Post by nightingale on Jan 7, 2009 21:08:25 GMT -5
No anger...yet. Good, because she wasn't sure that she'd be able to let him go even if he did try to take a strip out of her
"I know..."
Saeo murmured, her voice trembling as fresh tears began to obscure her vision.
"But...but please, let me try...if things get any worse..."
Her grip tightened a little as she tried to keep herself from shaking. She didn't want Pepsi to leave. The jungle was a dangerous place, especially now that the drought was driving predators to attack things they normally wouldn't consider prey. Meira had told them that he was lucky to be alive after that last infection. If it happened again, away from the healers...but it really wasn't her place to tell him he had to stay, was it?
"I...I want it to be your choice if you stay here...just...wait until spring and if things aren't any better...then...then I'll help you escape."
She felt a chill settle over her heart the moment the words left her mouth. How was she going to make it better? She didn't know really...but there just had to be some way to convince him to stay. But what if she couldn't think up what it was? She wasn't sure that she could bare the thought of sending him out into the jungle...
"I promise."
Well, now it was decided. She was nothing if not faithful, and making it a promise meant there would be no backing down if and when the time came to follow through.
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