I'm not quite sure what I had in mind, to be honest.

We stood in silence for a moment after that. What now? Should I bring him somewhere? Should we 'hang out'? This was painfully awkward.

"What now?" He asked, finally shattering that god-awful silence.

I shrugged. "Want to see my room?"

He nodded. "Sure."

And so I turned and led him down the hallway, hearing his loud metal footsteps behind me. 'So much for the Ultimate Life Form being stealthy,' I thought. 'But, perhaps he's strong enough to not care about stealth...'

And this was also the creature I was letting into my room. What great life choices I make. But hey, it's not like I knew this was the start of my own downfall.

"Ah, you know, this is a much nicer space than the one I'm given to sleep in," he commented, walking past me into the room as I held the door open.

I shrugged. "It has a nice view of the earth, I suppose. Most rooms on the edge of the colony do, though."

"Yeah. Is this your bed?!" He sat down on top of the powder blue comforter.

"Mm-hm. What else would it be?" I asked, sitting down next to him.

A shrug from him as well. "Mine is about half the size of this. White sheets. Sort of."

I grimaced. "Sounds wonderful."

"Oh, it's anything but."

Another awkward silence began to set in. No, no I wouldn't let that happen again. If I'm putting in all the time to be this creature's friend, I might as well make it goddamn worth my while. "So-"

"-Why were you there?"

I shut my mouth, realizing I'd been cut off. I looked down at my blue dress and asked, "Oh… um, what do you mean?"

"I mean, when you were watching me, when I woke up. Why were you there? Was I fascinating to you?" I glanced up at him to begin my reply, and I thought for a second that there was a trace of a smirk on his face. But it was already gone before my mind could elaborate on it.

"Uh… uhm…" I shook my head. "It's not like it was anything special that I was there. Don't get the wrong idea." For some reason, I found it necessary to shoot down that hint of narcissism that I'd detected. Or at least, it seemed like narcissism. It didn't occur to me at the time that he may have just been happy that I found him as interesting as he found me. It seemed to be a success as he pursed his lips together and looked down at his hands. "I was walking to lunch, and I glanced through that window and decided to get a better look."

"And why did you run when I saw you?" He asked. I couldn't really tell if I'd hurt his feelings or if he was just curious.

"Why did I run?!" I was surprised he was even asking. "Because you were in a giant glass container, completely still with your eyes closed, and then all of a sudden you opened them and just broke out! It was terrifying! I thought you were going to cause a security breach, so I turned and ran in the other direction. Even the scientist working at the computer seemed terrified."

He began to snicker. This made me angry. Didn't he see how serious I was being?!

"What's so funny?!"

"You remember every detail of that scene, don't you?"

I hesitated before responding. "Well… yes. Does it make a difference? It was scary! Don't you remember the first time you ever saw the world?"

A scoff. "Come now, Maria. This isn't the world."

"Don't change the subject." God, this guy was getting on my nerves. "What's your point?"

He stood up and walked over to the window, crossing his arms. "I don't know. Maybe you don't thnk as neutrally of me as you let on."

I jumped to my feet and approached him from behind. "I don't know what the hell you're implying, but you're honestly getting on my last nerve-"

Knock knock knock!

I turned to the door. Shadow continued to sneer. "Yes?"

"Maria, is Project: SHADOW with you?"

I was relieved to get the annoying project off my hands. He seemed to really easily mess with my emotions and I couldn't stand it.

I opened the door, to find that it was my grandfather. "Yes, sorry. Here, you can have him back." I grabbed Shadow's wrist and he reluctantly let me drag him to the doorway.
"Hey, this was fun." He flashed me a bit of a smirk.

I attempted not to roll my eyes, but failed.

-XXX-

Minutes later, it already occurred to me how bored I was. After he left, I'd walked back over to the window and continued to peer out. I could just faintly see a shooting star in the distance, zipping past the gigantic earth. "...Goddammit."

He shouldn't have this much effect on me.

But he does.

A sigh. "Maybe I should ask him if he wants to hang out again… He's kind of cocky though. He seems serious but then…" Then he goes and smirks at me. What's he so happy about? He only existed for the sake of technological advancement, and it's not like he had any friends either. Unless he was happy because he finally found one.

I smacked myself in the head, realizing my thought process had just done a three-sixty. And then I smacked myself again because I really wanted to stop thinking about him entirely. But maybe I was excited to have a friend as well. I had acquaintances, children whose families lived on the ARK and were growing up there just like myself, but none of them were my age and they didn't really… they didn't really live to the same rhythm, I guess.

I sat down on the floor and criss-crossed my legs. As much as this whole situation bothered me, life was pretty unfulfilling up here and this was honestly... fun. Conflict, whether or not people dare to admit it, can honestly be described as nothing else but 'fun'.

'Entertaining', if some like that better. But I'm a straightforward person.

I noticed a book on the floor that I completely forgot I'd just left there. The day before, I'd been reading up on the biomes of earth. I grabbed it and flipped to a random page.

'Jungles are moist, green biomes that teem with wildlife. For example, the monkey, the toucan, the red-eyed tree frog…'

I sighed and slammed it shut. As I secretly suspected, I hadn't registered a single word.

Goddammit, Maria. Pull yourself together.