2
You can fall for pretty strangers
And the promises they hold
~Matt Nathanson, Romeo and Juliet
The plane had taken off and the woman still hadn't looked up from the point on her lap. At first the man had thought she may be nervous about flying and was waiting to move until they had taken off smoothly, but since they had been flying without problems for over twenty minutes now he was quite sure that wasn't the case.
Richard decided to try and make some sort of conversation, wanting to come off as a casually concerned citizen, and not get too in her face friendly as he thought he himself would like to be approached if the roles were reversed.
It had been quite a bit of time since Richard had spoken so he cleared his throat, for the dual purpose of warming up his vocal chords and to make sure he didn't scare the young woman with his upcoming inquiry.
"Hello miss", he said. A simple statement just to start things out, to test the waters.
The young woman looked up and her shifted slightly back from her face. She didn't quite look at him; rather her gaze shifted the tiniest bit in his general direction. He still couldn't see most of her face, but he could see a bit of her cheek.
It had been a few second since he had spoken to her, and Richard was beginning to think that the woman wasn't going to respond. He had already gone back to his novel when a quite, gravelly voice let out a small," …hello".
Richard let out a small smile and turned back to the woman," My name is Richard, Richard Grayson."
The woman too turned her head, fully this time, before responding in that same gravelly yet definitely feminine tone, "I'm Raven."
If Richard had been the sort to not be able to keep his expression at bay, he would have taken on a look of awe when he finally got his first look at his seatmate. The first thing he noticed, surely the first thing anyone noticed were her eyes. Richard thought he must be mistaken, but the more he looked into them the less he could deny them. Her irises were the exact colour of violets. They were so amazingly beautiful, and just looked so clear on her heart shaped face.
The next thing he noticed was the way her pale skin looked just a little to tight. If he had to guess, he would say that the woman probably hadn't eaten a good meal in a while, which didn't make sense because she based on her clothes, she had to have a little bit of money.
In all Richard thought that the woman looked stunningly beautiful, but there was also a touch of sadness in her. Raven looked young, maybe a few years younger than himself. Except at the same time she looked like she had lived through thousands of lives; ones of hurt and sorrow.
Briefly Richard wonders if people see the same look on his own face.