Book Haven, Tuesday

[shyest_eyes]

Kittens, Hinata was fairly sure, were not supposed to make friends with dust bunnies. Chase them, of course. Pounce, roll, and fling themselves were all par for the course. But, as she knelt down and peered under one of the shelves only to be confronted with her kitten, sleeping, curled up with several dust bunnies and all of them content

Comments

Talk to Hinata

[shyest_eyes]

If you'd like.

Re: Talk to Hinata

[shyest_eyes]

She took a pepper packet in her hand and turned it over with two fingers, fixing a pale-eyed gaze on him mildly.

"Would he not be worried?"

He might not be. If so, she'd have an answer of sorts. In her own way, she was being--quite straight-forward.

Re: Talk to Hinata

[not_a_parakeet]

She was. But if there was anyone on the island that Warren trusted to not make a huge deal out of something... Well...

"He might be," he allowed. "He probably is."

His tone seemed to ooze inflections of 'Let him worry.'

Re: Talk to Hinata

[shyest_eyes]

She narrowed her eyes very very slightly.

Her voice, though, was still calm and light. In this, Hinata was well able to keep up the game. "The Warren I know," she said softly, "does not let others worry about him without good cause to avoid contacting them."

Re: Talk to Hinata

[not_a_parakeet]

"Then, maybe the Warren you know has one."

He didn't mean to make that statement bite. He didn't. But there was something scathing behind it nevertheless. Something like a scab that he didn't want to pick at.

No amount of ketchup in the world was going to distract him now, was it?

"Look, my dad and I... we just had a... a falling out, that's all. I'm not up to facing him again after that. Not yet."

Re: Talk to Hinata

[shyest_eyes]

"There's no need to snap at me," Hinata said, carefully placid. Unassuming. See, she was utterly inoffensive.

... and if you believed that...

Well.

"Will you ever be?" she asked, instead. "Do you think?"

Re: Talk to Hinata

[not_a_parakeet]

My, but his father was getting to be a popular subject, lately.

Warren was scowling as he set down the food in his hands, turning his attention toward... books, mostly. Something or other off to the side, so that he didn't have to make eye contact with anyone as he spoke.

"No. I don't think I will."

Re: Talk to Hinata

[shyest_eyes]

Her voice was soft but held not a trace of pity or condemnation or horror at the thought.

"Might I ask why?"

Re: Talk to Hinata

[not_a_parakeet]

Warren's gaze wasn't leaving the corner that it had trailed to, though he didn't seem to be focused on much of anything at all.

Why? Why wouldn't he go back? When he answered, his words were so soft that he could barely hear them, himself.

"Because... Because I'm not a disease."

Re: Talk to Hinata

[shyest_eyes]

"You're not," she agreed, casting her gaze out the window so that even that gentle pressure was off him. "Though I imagine years of hearing so makes it hard to believe sometimes."

... Hinata had personal experience with that aspect, yes.

Re: Talk to Hinata

[not_a_parakeet]

"I did believe it," Warren murmured, shaking his head. "I believed it before I even knew I was it. Normal one day, wings the next, and it was like the entire world stopped. I knew the entire world would stop."

So he'd tried to cut them off.

He drew in another deep breath.

"I'll never be good enough, Hinata. I refuse."

Re: Talk to Hinata

[shyest_eyes]

"Refuse what?" she asked, very softly. "To believe that you're not a disease? You say it, that you're not. Do you believe that, Warren? Here and now."

Re: Talk to Hinata

[not_a_parakeet]

"I... believe that I'm not," Warren replied. Because there was something in Hinata's tone that was impossible to ignore. "What I refuse is to live up to his standard. I don't want to be good enough for him."

Not at his father's price.

Re: Talk to Hinata

[shyest_eyes]

"What price does he ask for?" Hinata's voice didn't even change. Her gaze didn't even waver away from the window.

Re: Talk to Hinata

[not_a_parakeet]

"My disease."

If there was any doubt at all what it was that Warren was talking about, the fact that he flared his wings a little probably helped to clear that one up.

Re: Talk to Hinata

[shyest_eyes]

"Why?"

It's a question, she thinks, that will fall into the silence. It might not even be answered.

But that's an answer of it's own.

Either way, she was still and quiet as she waited serenely for a response of any sort.