I own something? WHERE?

"How do you do it?" Raven asked, looking at her feet. "How can you listen to them day after day?" Jericho shrugged as if to say 'what else would I do?' "I don't know, but they always seem to think I know the answer to all their problems. Sometimes I just want to cover my ears and hum loudly to shut them out. Is it weird? Or am I just cruel to not want to help them?" Again the shrug.

"Sometimes I think they only like having me around to say, at least I'm not her; at least my father isn't that. At least I can laugh and cry and live. They pity me, I think. I don't want their pity. I just want their trust." Jericho nodded, and motioned with his hands to indicate the others didn't realize how uncomfortable it could be. They were trying to help.

"Joey, I think this is the most I've ever talked to someone before, you know that? No interruptions either. It's nice." Joey nodded, looking carefully at the sheet music in front of him before picking up his guitar again and starting to play softly. Raven listened, it was a children's song, a nursery rhyme maybe. She began to hum along, trying to place the tune. She definitely recognized it from somewhere, what where the words? Songbirds…

"Bobolink, cuckoo and quail
Tanager and cardinal
Bluebird, Lark, Thrush and Nightingale,
There is joy in the spring
When the birds begin to sing,
In an English country garden."

Yes, that was the song. A pretty thing, more suited for a harpsichord than a guitar, but it was still pleasant enough. Raven had a poor singing voice, soft and rough, but she didn't really mind Joey hearing her. He, unlike some of the others she knew, wouldn't make any note of it, just keep playing.

"How many kinds of sweet flowers grow,
In an English country garden?
We'll tell you now of some that we know,
Those we miss you'll surely pardon.
Daffodils, Heart's Ease and Flox,
Meadowsweet and Lady Smocks,
Gentain, Lupine and tall Hollyhocks.
Roses, Foxgloves, Snowdrops, blue forget-me-nots,
In an English country garden."

When she forgot the words, Raven looked up to see Joey mouthing them for her, so she could catch up, she was sure the verses were out of order but a silly song didn't really need them in any specific order. No one knew the difference anyway.

"Hah, I sound like an old woman singing. Nobody hears about this, got it?" Joey made the completely unnecessary gesture of zipping his lips, causing Raven to smirk. "You know, for a smiling pretty boy, you're all right. Now, I think there's a murder mystery calling me from my room, if you'll excuse me." He made an over grand bow and offered his arm as if to say 'Shall I accompany you?' Raven raised an eyebrow. "Don't get stupid on me now. Thanks for listening, and actually hearing me. But now it's alone time."
Raven teleported quickly to her room, leaving Jericho on the hill in the park, smiling to himself. "Thank you Robin," He thought, "I'm surprised you can't do the same for your own lady." for Robin had been the one to suggest faking a headache and heading to the park; assuming Raven would follow. It worked, and he seemed to have made the first step towards getting her to really open up. And she called him pretty. He laughed silently.

"There is joy in the spring
When the birds begin to sing,
In an English country garden."

I felt I was long overdue a crappy attempt at Joey/Rae, this came out better than I thought. If you want to hear the tune, http/ www. nurseryrhymes4u. com/PORTLA2new/ Page843. html

cute? maybe. This is still below par, but I'm working on it.