Brand New Day

[lily tomlinson]

"Or it's the smartest ones who work things out with logic and common sense rather than fists and blood," Tabitha says. It was an old argument, and one she had never backed down from. She'd just been waiting for it to come up again. "But let's not argue so much into a newfound friendship."

She lifts her foot and kicks him lightly in the shin. It's hardly a tap, but it was a movement that spoke of comfort levels. It was more of an action done because she'd known him in the past life, shared a home with him. It was hard not to act familiar. And she found she was actually liking this reincarnate of Ares. Even if he still had that same intensity. But in secret, she'd actually found the intensity attractive. Just so long as it wasn't directing violence. There were other areas that that intensity had come in handy though. Best not to think of those though.

[shinigami]

Aidan opens his mouth to respond, and then she taps him on the shin and he shuts his mouth again. A smile, then. A smile that gleams in his eyes like a scythe, like a cinder; his long lashes sink to kiss his cheekbones and linger there.

Clearly, there's more he would've said. Tabitha can see it there, unsaid. That almost gives it more weight than words would've.

"Okay," he says, agreeably. Then he looks at her sidelong, up from 'neath his lashes. The short teenager manages to look a little dangerous. No mean feat. "So tell me about yourself. You read palms, believe in past lives, know the properties of crystals. Are you a witch?"

[lily tomlinson]

Tabith swallowed, playing with a strand of her hair. Too many familiar looks, it was creepy in a sense, startling, and oddly, she was still finding him very attractive. Where were all these men coming from? Seriously!

"No, really?" she asks, feigning innocence. "Why I have no idea what you're talking about. What would give you that idea?"

She couldn't help but smile after that, a bit amused, and reached over to brush his hair to the side and look at the cuff on his ear where there was a nice black dahlia. From there she raised her wrist and jingled her bangles until a matching black dahlia untangled itself and hung from one of them. "Well, I suppose you could say I am."

She was still wondering what he remembered, and what he didn't. He didn't remember her, thankfully, it looked like. But it as only a matter of time before that started to show itself up, she believed. Not that there was much to remember. There was fighting, yes. Lots of make-up sex. Then there were the hellion children.... Ok, maybe there was a lot.

Sighing, she began to play with her bracelets, staring off towards the school grounds. "But it's not really my witch blood that I know all this from. I study a lot. And I remember pretty much everything."

[shinigami]

Aidan (manipulative, but quiet) can be perceptive. He can also be a chump. He's a chump right now. When Tabitha brushes his hair away from his ear, he flushes. Because he's a chump. Because blood is quick to rise when he's around. He half-moved to grab her wrist, but didn't do it in the end.

Instead, he leaned against the stairwell wall and stretched his legs out. No more knees-hugged-to-chest. He ran his fingers through his hair, smoothing it out of his face. He needed a haircut. His hair was in that inbetween place, not intentionally long, but by no stretch of imagination short.

"Why? I mean... Uhm, why do ... What sort of things do you study... And remember? And ... Why those things?"

[lily tomlinson]

Tabitha shrugged. "I study everything, basically, and it all just sticks. As for remembering, anything I study, anything I live, or have lived. I don't know why. It's just a part of who I am, I suppose. To never forget."

She smiles sheepishly at this point. It was just how her powers worked. She remembered anything pertaining to life, her mind was like a sponge for it, soaking it all in and retaining. She didn't really have defensive powers like the others. She could tell you a thousand times over what your life is, but she couldn't fight you. It was her job as an observer and maintainer of life.

"History, is my best area, but anything that keeps life going, stuff like that, is something I can easily gain knowledge in. But heaven forbid you give me something to do with math. I'd throw myself off a balcony. I don't mix well with numbers."

[shinigami]

Aidan had a love/hate relationship with history. He liked it, because it was full of epic battles; of people fighting, and dying, for what they believed in, or for what they didn't believe in, or for what somebody else believed in. He also didn't like it because of that fact. From his viewpoint, history was just war. The written account of war, which got to him, made his heart beat a certain way.

So, as it is, Tabitha's latest response causes him to go all quiet again, all dreaming distant is his gaze, and he traces a few patterns -- they mean nothing -- in the stairwell dirt. Picks up a cigarette butt and then flicks it away.

"I like history," he says. "But I'm not real good at it. I'm not real good at most things, honestly. I don't suck. I'm just not real good." He sounds matter-of-fact about it.

Then he looks up, sort've quickly, at Tabitha and leans forward, enters the realm of personal space, because he's suddenly all thrumming with intensity again, with that magnetism that is one of his hallmark's, and he's a boy who's forgotten what personal space means.

Drawls: "D'you dream 'bout things? Old things, sometimes?"

[lily tomlinson]

It was Tabitha's turn to flush, a soft pink rising to her cheeks, flaring out and down her neck. But otherwise she feigned her usual calm demeanor. "I'm sure you'll find what you're good at eventually," she murmurs. "I don't like all the fighting and predjudice in history, but I find it's good to know where we came from. That way we can put in an effort to keep history from repeating itself."

She forces herself to look down, away from him because he was just too intense. Brought up old memories. Made her heart stutter too much. Not good.

"I do dream. Often. There's a lot to be said in dreams. They all have meaning, even if you can't quite grasp it. There's always truths in them."

[shinigami]

"The biggest cause of war is the desire for peace," Aidan says, matter-of-fact. The smile, the half-smile; it's definitely uncomfortable. He turns uncomfortable in the next second, and sad, with his eyes grazing the line of her cheek, chin, mouth, collar-bone, shoulders. He doesn't know where to put his eyes, so he sort've looks down, too, after a much too intense moment of staring.

He looks at how he's positioned, crouched and leaning forward, as if it surprised him, and he rocks back so his spine its the stairwell wall again. "Truth interests you, huh? Sorry to be so heavy. I'm gonna take pottery." Oh no, she'll think he's gay! Well, although he doesn't want that, Aidan was pretty straightforward about certain things. "Maybe. After school. Well, before my job. What other classes are you in? Maybe we have some together?"

[lily tomlinson]

To say Tabitha was thankful when he was out of her personal space would only be half-right. The other half.... she didn't want to even think about it. So it was with putting it out of her mind that she crossed her legs in front of her, indian style, and set her hands in her lap, still looking down with a thoughtful expression. Her hair fell forward to hide it, but it was still there.

"I'm taking the basics, mostly," she said, "Math, History, English. All that jazz. And then french, Italian and Home Ec."

Home Economics was her favorite though. She got free sweets all the time, and she was pretty good with sewing and stuff like that. Anything else though and she was bound to suck.

"Pottery wouldn't be so bad," she continued, "You'd get to work with your hands. Put effort into creating things. It never hurts to try, any way."

[shinigami]

He carefully shifts position and reaches into his back pocket. Then he pulls forth a much-folded, much-battered schedule of classes and peers at it. Intent. A falcon or a hawk or an eagle, some raptilian bird of prey. Then he looks up again, that surprising sweetness back in his expression. Heated honey, darlin'. "Home ec is last period? Because I have it then, too."

[lily tomlinson]

Tabitha curls her legs up and leans over to peer at his schedule. "Lovely," she murmurs, but without any form of a tone in her voice. No sarcasm, no happiness. Just an observation. "Looks like we have the class together. Can you cook, though? If so, I'm stealing your food when we make cake today. If not, well, I'll share."

[shinigami]

"I do work at a restaurant," Aidan says, flint in his voice; she's the spark. He sort've-just-barely turns his head, when she peers over his shoulder, but then they're all close again, and he's in his hyperaware superalive skintingling girlisreallyclose state of being. "Well," and he smiles, again. The smile's like bloodied dawns. "I mean, it calls itself a restaurant anyway. It serves food. Well, stuff it calls food. I like home ec. Especially the cooking portion. Sewing, boring."

He frowns, just a little, down at his hands. It is good to do things with your hands. But is it good to do all things with your hands? He flexes his fingers a little. He doesn't look very hurt; doesn't look like a boy who'd recently been in a fight, one boy against many.

[lily tomlinson]

"I like the sewing," Tabitha said thoughtfully, straightening up when the lunch bell decided to ring. "But then again, it is more of a girl thing." She smiles to show that she's kidding, but there's a secret underneath that smile. You see, Tabitha just likes the stuff that a stereotypical housewife would do. The creating, the mothering. It's something that's natural, something she's good at.

"I have to run to math, but I'll see you in home ec. Though..." She trails off, looking at the stragglers heading back into the school. She frowns slightly, but it's not something that would be noticed unless someone was looking closely. "I do recommend not associating yourself with me in front of the other kids. You'll just get picked on more. It's how crowds follow, like lemmings. The bullies like to pick on anyone associated with the odd."

She doesn't really care herself, not really, but she thought it only fair to warn him. If he decided otherwise, then whatever came wasn't her fault. She'd warned him, after all.

She waved slightly and moseyed up the stairwell. "Either way, it was nice to share lunch with you. And thanks for the cake!"

[shinigami]

He scrambled to his feet when she stood, after gazing upward, a little blank, when the bell that signaled the end of lunch period rang. He was still a little too-graceful, too-fluid; this wasn't his natural state. Or this was his natural state, depending on how one looked at it. Either way, Aidan ducks his head in a nod in response to Tabitha's parting words -- and her words of warning. His lips curve, slightly. Red hair falls into his eyes. He really needs to get it cut.

"Seeya." That's all.

He isn't worried about being associated with her; about the way the other kids will react. There's something in his smile, something dark and frightening; something like the taste of metal on the tongue, the smell of blood, the drum of boots. He's an old hand at moving from place to place and after a little while he always lands on his feet. Tabitha knows crowds.

Well, so does he, in his way.

With that, the shy kid grabs his backpack and skedaddles towards his next class. His spirits have lifted significantly. And he's looking forward to Home Ec, oh yes he is.