Disclaimer: All characters and ideas coming from The Host by Stephanie Meyers are being used for entertainment only. Original characters are mine.

Title: Human Tendencies

Rating: T

Summary: Uniquely, Spins Glass Colors had never woken up. The only voice in this mind was its original, Austin Swanson.

Chapter 1

Austin was still astounded by the silver light pattern that hit the ground a few feet in front of her path as she walked in the summer sun. She was making her way down a row of shops, indulging in free amenities such as manicures, fruit smoothies, hair coloring and facials. Today was her birthday... her human birthday. Her 'soul birthday' or anniversary of her implantation wasn't for several more months. But today, she secretly pampered herself on her 26th birthday.

Annoyed that the sun was making her light blue (and silver) eyes water, Austin pulled the dark sunglasses off her head and over her eyes. Smirking to herself, she made a quick turn into a grocery store and walked around for a while until she found what little hard alcohol the store held.

"Good morning, Miss, may I help you?" An attendant asked from where he was stocking a nearby shelf of fancy crackers.

Austin grinned at his manners. Soul manners were one of the harder things to learn when Austin had to figure out a way to hide the fact that she was a human behind the silver eyes. Now though, she was just as sweet, and even if she was feeling snotty they'd all miss it anyway.

"Good morning. I think I found what I need. Thanks, though." She reached up and grabbed a tall, clear bottle of flavored vodka and smiled at the sight of him looking skeptically at the bottle.

"Are you having a gathering? That is a large bottle of alcohol for such a small body." The soul, Leaves Up, according to his name badge, asked with a concerned expression.

"Don't worry, Leaves Up, I'll drink in moderation." She answered and smiled tightly before heading for the register. To her annoyance, Leaves Up was apparently the only employee around and he followed her up to take inventory of her purchase.

"I apologize for invading that way, Miss. My housemate is a healer and reminds me often of these sorts of things." He smiled politely, and Austin almost missed that the cute-ish boy was flirting.

"I'm not offended." She answered with a falsely light tone she was glad he wouldn't pick up on. "Have a nice day."

The next stop on Austin's birthday trip was the library where she fulfilled her Calling as a records keeper and librarian. Her graduation would have been just a semester after her parents snuck her onto a shipping barge, and she would have had a career in teaching history in front of her. Instead, she lazily maintained the Soul's media and records in what used to be the human libraries all across America.

Austin tried to study alien travel and history, but with no memories or personal experiences from the Soul in the back of her neck it all seemed more fictional than educational. Eventually, bored with 'current' soul information, she rooted around until she found the jackpot- human archives. After working through some human fiction and non fiction that she had always wanted to read, Austin stumbled upon building after building of DVD's. All human media had been eventually discarded, and apparently ended up in a bunch of warehouses in Arizona.

So today, she meandered into a storehouse and walked back out shortly later with some old TV shows and a few movies to entertain her for the rest of her day.

She smiled at a soul passing her at the entrance of her temporary apartment building, and then let herself in to celebrate in solitude.

.-.

Wanderer was a soul. She'd had a successful implantation and was alone in her mind. But that wasn't always the case. She had been one of the few Souls that could still hear her host's thoughts. She had been placed in a rebel human's body, and after living through all the violence, fear and neglect that accompanied the life on the run, the host's mind was resistant enough to remain active after insertion. Through a long power struggle, Wanda eventually partnered with her host Melanie, and found her remaining family hiding in caves in Arizona. Wanda had struggled for nearly a year to convince the cave dwellers that she was not a seeker, and eventually was removed successfully from Melanie's body and placed in another.

Now with her own life and love in the human world, Wanda made trips out into the Soul world to get food and supplies. She was on one of these trips when she incidentally crossed paths with her exact opposite.

"Thank you for your help," Wanda said politely to an attendant at a pharmacy counter, and after taking up the items the employee gave her, she turned and ran smack into a tan, brunette female.

"Oh I'm so sorry," Wanda said, holding out a hand to steady herself and the other Soul. It wasn't really necessary, as Wanda's tiny, blonde body was very nearly too small to even cause the second Soul to waver.

"'s alright." The female grumbled and tried to smile as she adjusted her purse.

Alarms went off in Wanda's head. She was used to humans, could read sarcasm and inflections a little bit better then a typical Soul. This quiet and flushed woman wearing very dark sunglasses inside the store was very clearly one thing, grumpy. Souls were never grumpy.

Wanda's eyes instinctually jumped to the front windows of the store, where she could see her van in the parking lot. Four of her humans were waiting for her there. She nearly missed the thoughts of her old host in her head, needing the human's opinion of this new person in front of her.

Instead of inquiring after the strangers health, as most other Souls would, Wanda gave a tight smile and sidestepped the roadblock. Unfortunately Wanda's actions were unexpected enough that the grimacing woman tilted her head and openly watched Wanda slowly walk away. Most of Wanda's instincts screamed at her to leave, but she found herself walking to a nearby row to arbitrarily look at hair products to eavesdrop.

"Hi, I have some issues today," the woman said, a little tersely.

"I'm sorry dear, what can I help you with?" The Soul's versions of pharmacists were called Menders.

"I have an awful headache and I'm tired enough to fall asleep standing."

Wanda's heart rate increased after hearing such a human hyperbole come out of this woman's mouth, and didn't hear the next few exchanges between the two. Trying to convince herself it was a coincidence, Wanda tuned into the rest of the conversation.

"It's nice meet you too, Austin, do you know why your body is so worn down?"

Austin smirked. "I think it's because I've been running a lot lately and not drinking enough afterwards. My legs are kinda crampy, too."

"Well here is No Pain," Austin plopped the tiny paper square in her mouth and after a few moments sighed and relaxed her posture.

"Awake," the healer sprayed a light grapefruit mist in Austin's direction and smiled as she leaned in the inhale it.

"Now," the mender spoke as she put away her supplies. "Those will make you feel better today, but remember that we are only masking symptoms. I'd like for you to concentrate on drinking plenty of water today, and be sure to rest for two days. Light stretching is best, as you won't feel pain of overexertion with the No Pain in your system."

Austin nodded her head and grabbed a bottle of chocolate Health vitamins from under the counter.

The mender scanned the bottle and smiled warmly at her customer. "Please make sure to see a healer if the symptoms aren't gone when the No Pain wears off."

"Thanks." Austin said and turned from the counter. Wanda watched her leave the pharmacy with wide eyes. Austin's face was no longer flush and she had a very wide grin on her face as she pulled some bulky items from her purse and put the vitamins in the bottom. The sunglasses slid down the bridge of her nose a bit and she pushed them back up before Wanda could tell if the sunlight through the windows was enough to fluoresce any silver in her eyes.

By this time, Wanda's paranoid mind had made up an entire scenario in which this was a human woman that posed a huge threat, and instead of finishing the shopping trip she followed Austin outside. Wanda's entire body was buzzing as she followed at a reasonable pace. Her hands were shaking by the time she noticed that Austin was making her way down a row of cars that would take her right by the van.

Wanda's adrenaline left her bloodstream in a nearly painful rush as she watched Austin keep her head down and arrange all the items in her bag to fit and walked right past the van. Letting her posture relax, Wanda sighed and got in the driver's seat and looked around the parking lot for anyone watching her before turning to hand her pharmacy spoils to her human passengers.

The sight behind her was not what she expected, and she gasped, the bag of assorted vitamins and tubes of Heal hitting the floor of the van and scattering.