"Ugh…my feet are killing me…" Drek complained as she and Riche walked further east – or what they hoped was east. "It's so hot…I'm fucking starving…"
"Quit whining. You ate all the food I brought back from Koven City. That's not an easy task, you know. Quantum Rifts are hard to control. I can't keep using them just because you're 'starving'. I don't even have enough energy right now…" Riche loosened her shirt's collar to air out her sweating self.
Drek grunted and tied her long blond hair in a ponytail. "You could at least go get us a fish or two from the market in Koven…"
"Why? So you can eat my share when I turn my back?"
"That was one time!"
"Twice, Drek. In a row."
"I apologized!"
"Yeah, right before doing it AGAIN!" Riche stopped, "Hang on, I'm being contracted by Krey." The black haired girl activated her innocence, causing a golden scepter to appear in her palm. "Krey, can you hear me?"
From the scepter's top came a projection of hologram in the shape of a man's head. "There you are, Chelieu." Spoke the man. "You haven't left yet, have you? We could use your help at the base."
"Sorry," Riche answered, "I've already gone back to my own time period."
"-without bringing me food!" Drek chimed in, effectively earning an eye roll from Riche.
"Heh, good mood as always, eh, Kale?" Krey's gravelly voice chuckled. "Come ta think of it, you've been acting all pissy ever since you two stopped bringing Silerin with ya."
Drek growled, "Yeah well, that bitch is still missing. When I do find her, I'm gonna give her a serious piece of my mind…"
Krey cleared his scratchy throat. "Well, I'll leave you and your girly issues alone, Kale. Make sure ta come back soon, Chelieu. Out." With that, the man's hologram disappeared and Riche deactivated her innocence.
The girls continued to walk in search of somewhere to get food and shelter. Finally, Riche questioned, "Drek, what did you mean when you said you'd give Lyssa a piece of your mind?"
"Isn't it obvious? I've got a score to settle with her." Drek kicked a pebble with her sore feet. "I don't get why you aren't pissed at her. She just abandoned us out of nowhere!"
Riche sighed, "How can I be upset with her? You and I both know what happened the night before she left. We shouldn't blame her for wanting to get away."
"A letter, Riche. All she left us with was a damn letter. She couldn't even look us in the eyes when she tore us apart." Drek clenched her fist tightly. "I'll never forgive that bitch for leaving us."
"Why are you avoiding my avoiding my question?" Kanda nagged.
"Maybe because the answer is ugly; ever think about that?" Silverton protested, "No one's past is flawless. No one lives a perfect life."
"If you know that, then telling me about your past shouldn't be that hard." Kanda rolled his eyes, "Believe me, there are people out there with worse lives than yours. Quit acting like a child."
Kanda and Silverton were still down in the underground garden alone. The girl kept trying to change the subject, but the young man was more clever and persistent than she'd anticipated. He wanted to know more about her, and he wouldn't let up so easily.
"Tell me anything. It doesn't matter, just shoot." Kanda pushed on again.
The brunette snarled. "Anything about my past? Anything at all?"
"That's what I just said."
"Fine. I'm not a virgin. There's your 'anything'."
Kanda choked on his own saliva for a moment. "Were you raped or something?"
"Nope, I was completely willing. Mostly, I was just love sick, though."
"So then…how old were you?" He stuttered out, half of him not wanting to know the answer. *"She's only sixteen! What the hell?!"*
Silverton shrugged. "Why should I tell you, anyway? You said to tell you anything, so I did. Now you're asking for more?" She smirked as Kanda glared at her. "Alright, fine. I was…eh…fourteen…"
Kanda was a bit shocked at her answer. *"Only fourteen?! How is that not the same as rape?!"* He cleared his throat, "That doesn't sound like something you'd even consider. Don't you think that's irresponsible?"
The brunette picked a flower from a pot beside her, "Of course it's irresponsible…I guess being influenced by Nova doesn't help…No, there's no excuse. Look, I ain't proud of what I did. I was just being stupid, as usual. I thought this guy genuinely loved me. I thought that by pleasing him in that way, I was ensuring that his love for me never died. I was too naïve to see that I was just being used to satisfy his boredom." She sniffled. *"Bitch, if you start crying over that asshole, you're even stupider than you look. Haven't you learned anything?"*
"So then when did you figure it out?" Kanda rested his chin in his palm, listening intently.
Silverton threw the flower she held onto the ground and stomped on it with her foot. She glanced over her shoulder at her friend to watch his reaction to her sudden outburst. "That's when," She kicked the flower's smashed remains into the streams of water and continued, "I figured it out when he did that to my heart. He never really cared about me. I was just his plaything he could throw out when he was finished…" She felt tears well up in her eyes. *"Damn it, you fucking bitch…"* She took a deep breath to force back the tears and continued, "He only said the words 'I love you' to me one time, and it was anything but genuine. It happened shortly after I…"
"After you what?" Kanda encouraged her to keep going. *"Why do I even give a shit? She's just some dumb girl…"*
"He said it shortly after I killed an akuma in front of him." She looked down. "Ever since this innocence imbedded itself within my bones, I've been worried that someone close to me would think I was a freak and abandon me. Ever since I abandoned my own friends, I've been paranoid about my own abandonment. After I showed him my innocence, he spent a day being overly affectionate, as if he was trying to convince himself that he wasn't completely freaked out by me and that we could somehow work it out. No mater, the next day, he told me to leave and never come back…" She pondered on whether or not to continue. "The last thing he said to me was, 'I promise, even if a lifetime has to pass, our paths will cross again someday.'"
After conversing in the underground garden for what felt like nearly an hour, Silverton and Kanda emerged and returned to their daily routines. Kanda went to the training area. Since he never got the chance to meditate, he wanted to get rid of his weird feelings in a less peaceful, more violent manner; MUCH more violent…
Silverton took this time to wander the halls for a while. She wound up somewhere very high up in the tower, somewhere near the science division. She positioned herself on a small outlook balcony that gave a wonderful view of the outside world. She slumped her elbows over the railing.
"It's nice out, isn't it?" came a voice from behind her, sending shivers down her spine.
She had a feeling she knew who it was already, but she took a peek over her shoulder anyway. Immediately, she yanked her head back around to hide from the red headed prince who was smiling so warmly at her.
"What's the matter?" He walked over beside her on the balcony and rested his elbows the same way she was. He kept his head tilted to face her, as if he was waiting for her to say something. "Hey, I was wondering…would you mind if I call you Liz? I could swear I heard Miranda call you that."
The brown haired girl blew her bangs out of her eyes and slid to the side a little to get away from him. *"It's Lys, not Liz, moron…"* she wanted to say, but couldn't. Not to him. She turned her head as far away from him as possible, to the point where her chin touched her shoulder.
Lavi puffed up his bottom lip into a pouty face. "Why do you do that?" he slid closer to her again, until their shoulders were nearly touching. "You push people away from you all the time. I don't know why you would want to do that…Unlike me, you can genuinely connect with other human beings…Unlike me, you don't have to be so detached…so why would you choose to be?"
Silverton blushed. Detached was a pretty good word for it. She suddenly didn't feel as tense anymore. "Why would I choose to be detached?" she repeated the question, "I guess that's what happens when you've had your heart toyed with." She twiddled with her fingers and continued, "Happiness never lasts forever. Losing it hurts a lot more than never having had it in the first place."
Her last statement hit Lavi much harder than he'd expected it to. She was exactly right. The experience he had at being the bookman's successor has taught him that lesson several times. "You've got a point there…"
He would have said more, but he was interrupted by the spikey haired head of the science division. "It's nice to see you're talking to someone other than Kanda, Silverton." Reever said, sipping coffee from his mug.
Lavi instantly backed off of her, just realizing how close they'd gotten. "Well," Lavi stood confidently, "I guess I just have that effect on people." He said with a wink in Silverton's direction.
A moment later, Bookman yanked the red head away by the ear for not studying like he was supposed to. Reever took his place beside Silverton.
"I saw that," he whispered to her with a nudge.
"Saw what?"
"You smiled at him and your face got all pink. Can't hide it from me."
She smirked, partially admitting defeat, and punched his shoulder playfully. "Well, it's no different than the way you look at Miranda~," she laughed in a sing-song voice.
Reever gagged on his coffee. "I-I don't know what you're talking about…"
Both of them laughed as their cheeks went even redder than they'd already been. The two of them had a decent friendship before, but something about unveiling one another's secrets made them very comfortable around the other. Although not verbally announced, the two decided unconsciously that they would be like siblings form that point on.