"What are you doing?"
"Thinking."
She sat next to him, leaning her head against his shoulder. "Careful not to hurt yourself."
He grunted in offence.
"You know, sometimes I wish I was a telepath."
"Why?"
"So I can see what goes through your mind."
"Why?"
"You often stare into space, with this blank expression on your face, it creeps me out."
"I'm fifteen, I'm allowed to space off."
"And I'm seventeen, I'm allowed to worry about my little brother." she stated, ruffling his hair. "Tell me, how are you feeling?"
He shrugged.
"Come on, you know you can tell me anything, right?"
"That's just it, I have nothing to tell."
"What do you mean?"
He scratched his wrist, pursed his lips and stared forward.
"I feel no purpose, so empty on the inside. Like the void inside of me, defines me."
Lauren sighed, he was always the one who repressed everything, keeping magnitudes to himself, bottling everything on the inside.
"You feel lonely?"
"More than that. I-at times wonder what it would be like not to be weird."
"You're not weird."
"Says you."
"I mean it Andy."
He nodded, and acquiesced to the silent tranquil atmosphere.
"Come on Andy, talk."
"What?"
"You need to talk more. You feel empty inside because you never let anyone listen to what you have to say, reason being you never actually communicate with others."
He rolled his eyes as a faint tug of a restrained smile visaged at the corners of his mouth. "You talk too much."
"Hey," she affronted with a playful nudge. "Insulting, but a start, yes."
He racked his void self on something suitable to voice from the archive of bottled controversies inside.
"I have better looking hair than yours."
"What makes you think that?"
"Because you're blonde."
"Yet this blonde grades higher than you'll ever accomplish."
He hummed as the blank stare enveloped his expression again, swarming his face with dignified nonchalance, something she noticed before trying to spring up another conversation.
"So, uh, which mutant do you think is most powerful in the underground?"
"John."
"Wrong."
He spared her a cursory glance. "He's indestructible."
"I know, but there is one mutant in here powerful enough to faze through his solid make-up. "
"Who?"
"I'm looking at him."
He looked down, before blinking in realization. "Oh."
"You don't really give yourself much credit, never mind your abilities."
He didn't respond, opting to just stare into the wall opposite of him.
"Come on Andy, I'm trying here."
"Look, I don't know what you hoped to accomplish when you came down here, but I'm fine, I don't need your doting. Go spend your time on something more impotant-"
"Stop sounding so self-centered Andy." she countered softly, "You are important to me."
He didn't show any outward reaction.
She palmed his face.
"Want me to show you how much you mean to me?" she asked, peering into his stoic eyes.
"No, now please get your hands from my face."
"I'm serious Andy."
"Will it ensure you leaving me so I can have piece of mind in silence?"
She smiled. "Of course, anything you want!"
"Sometimes I wonder if you actually are the older one between the two of us."
She frowned.
"What do I have to do?" he asked expectantly, unenthusiastically.
"Close your eyes."
He did so.
She leaned in, pressed her lips against his. A chaste indecisive kiss that neutralized individuality and centralized more on the pleasantness and unorthodoxy of their bond.
He was shocked as he opened his eyes.
Lauren released a varied breath and met his eyes, before pulling him into a hug. "That's how much you mean to me," she revealed faintly into his ear.
A minute or so Andy felt her detach herself from him, hearing the sound of her boots against the concrete floor further carry the echo away.
"…never forget that."