Shara opened her eyes slowly, the empty environs of Cassie's barn snapping immediately into focus the way they always had. It was just one more in a long line of reminders of just how inhuman – some people might have said better than human, but she was determined not to take that view – she was now. The sound of the barn's large front door being opened was another.
Nothing was really the same as it had been; she had different friends, very little family that she could really call her own, and no real home of her own anymore.
Sighing as she sat back up and took out the hairbrush that Cassie had so thoughtfully packed for her, Shara listened as the other girl made her way across the floor of the barn and up the ladder into the hayloft where she and Slade stayed.
"Good morning, you two," Cassie said, now speaking at what Shara personally felt was a more reasonable volume.
Shara smiled briefly at the reminder of when she and Cassie had experimented with the other girl morphing her. "Good morning to you, too, Cassie."
Slade didn't say anything, but then he'd been more reserved since the Radam had changed him; just another reminder of the life she'd been forced to leave behind. She tried as hard as she could not to think about things like that, but the reminders of what she – and Ness, and Cain, and everyone else who'd been close to them – had lost on that last, fateful summer camping trip were always waiting for her on mornings like this one.
Finishing the rest of her breakfast in silence, Shara handed over her used dish and found herself being embraced by Cassie after the other girl had finished taking her and Slade's dishes.
"It's not always going to be this way, Shara," the other girl said, speaking directly into her left ear; breath warm where it touched her skin. "Things are going to get better; you'll see."
"Thanks," she muttered in response.
True, she didn't know of many ways their current situation could improve, but she also knew that Cassie was the kind of person who worked to keep up the spirits of those around her. She had clearly just wanted to say something to make Shara feel better, regardless of the reality of their current circumstances. It was a nice thought, that someone was concerned for her, but considering everything that had happened, that was all it was: just a thought.
Laying back down once she'd finished brushing her hair, Shara slowly allowed her eyes to slip closed again as the lethargy that served as yet another reminder of her lost humanity settled over her once more. She hoped, briefly and even in spite of the fact that she knew something like that was insensitive, that there would be another mission to distract her sometime soon. It was the last coherent thought she had for awhile.
xxxxXxxxx
As she finished washing, drying, and putting up the dishes that she had used to serve Shara and Slade their respective breakfasts, Cassie sighed. Shara still didn't seem to be quite comfortable in her own skin; like she didn't think she could ever recover from what the Radam had done to her. And yes, what they'd done had been horrible in ways that only someone who had had their own family taken from them could even begin to understand, but there was still hope.
She just had to keep showing the other girl how to see it; sooner or later, she'd manage to break through Shara's shell.
Still, there were a lot of things that she still had to do, even if today wasn't a school day, she still had chores and other things to think about. And not just helping out with the animals, either; though her chores around the house didn't quite take up as much time, Cassie had to admit.
Might as well get started now, she mused. She was already too awake to go back to sleep, after all.