Room 330, Wednesday Evening

[genesishero]

Evan had gotten his first voicemail today since... well... since he'd come to the island, really. He'd been out walking Ozzy, and he'd just missed the call, and was actually almost excited to see that it had been Yeul to leave the message.

Until he went to listen to it, and was met, first, with the sound of his own voice in his own message to anyone who called.

... Especially if it's you, Ma and Pa. I haven't heard from you in ages.

It hit him like a baseball bat to the chest, and he was out of breath as he hit the button to play back the message that was there for him. There, Yeul's voice, promising him in a voice incapable of lying that no matter what, she would never be afraid of him. She probably had no idea just how badly he needed to hear someone say those things. He listened to her message through once. And then, after a moment's hesitation, he listened to it again. And again.

He was going to have to change his own voicemail message soon so that it wouldn't blindside him again. But before that, he was just going to sit there, curled up on his bed, listening to someone telling him that he was a good person over and over and over, and struggling not to cry.

[OOC: Open!]

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[genesishero]

Well... that was good, if what Evan was looking for was to be knocked breathless all over again. He froze, his face etched in worry and a lingering pain mixing with a new, unexpected one, and he exhaled, moving his finger away from her lips.

"So long as we... Why would that have anything to do with... anything?"

It was better to ask and ignore that pang.

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"It's forbidden," Sholeh said, damning this stupid day to all of the bad places she'd ever heard of. "For my people to fall in love with outsiders. There are consequences."

There was no hiding the fear in her eyes as she mentioned those consequences, or the shudder that passed through her.

[genesishero]

It would have been difficult to miss that shudder, arms wrapped around her as they were. It put a different sort of worry into his eyes, something scared for her almost as much as he was heartbroken over so many other things...

"Should I let go...?"

He bit the inside of his cheek, hard, trying to keep himself from saying that he was already more than a little enamored with her, that she had been there for him and was just the sort of girl he'd always hoped he'd meet, and she had the most beautiful smile, and...

"I... don't expect you to fall in love with me."

For a million little reasons.

And another pang in his chest.

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

The choice between Evan and her sisters was no choice. She couldn't bear to be like Allone, all single-faced bitterness and regret, abandoned by the man she'd chosen mere weeks after she sacrificed her sisters for him.

"Please don't," she whispered. "I don't want you, too. I like being held like this. You make me feel warm and safe. I just...I have to be careful. The choice--"

She shook her head, refusing to say more. "I don't want you to let me go."

That was true in a number of ways, some she wasn't even willing to admit to herself.

[genesishero]

"I don't think I can let you go entirely."

Clearly, he wasn't just speaking about the literal, physical definition of that phrase. His voice was small and a little sad, even as he tightened that hug that he'd wrapped her in.

"I care... I care a lot." He bit his lip. "I think I'd be too scared to tell you I love you. Even before you told me that. I like you, though. I really, really like you."

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"I like you, too," Sholeh whispered. "And liking is okay. Lots of, umm, things are okay." Perhaps her blush and averted eyes would tell him what 'lots of things' meant, because she wasn't about to say it aloud, truth day or not. "Just not love. Which I never really expected anyway. Not like that. Not for me."

[genesishero]

"But you would be so easy to fall in love with," Evan murmured, seeing her blush and turning his own gaze toward the floor. "You're smart, and gentle, and kind, and pretty..."

He kind of tapered off at that, chewing on his lip.

"You... I could see a lot of people loving you. I..." He bit his lip again, hard.

He wasn't going to say it. She didn't need him crying at her because he was coming to realize that he had never really been loved. If Fantomex had loved him, he sure had a funny way of showing it. And everyone else he'd thought had... hadn't even been real.

"It... makes me very sorry that I'm not one of your people."

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"Don't say that," Sholeh said, this time covering his mouth with her fingers. "You...you don't know that. If you knew what we were, if you knew the truth, you wouldn't want to be one of us. Most people don't even want to be near us. They hit us and hurt us and send us away. Sometimes they even kill us. Because of what we are. It's why we keep our natures a secret. So that we can try to live in peace."

[genesishero]

"We've been brought almost to extinction," Evan murmured, giving her a sad sort of look as he spoke against her fingers. "They make weapons to cull us, they make my people hide and they come after us even then. When Daken and Sabretooth grabbed me, it was because of what I am. Because... because of the monster I was made from. If being what you are instead of what I am meant we could be closer... it would be worth it."

He held her close for a moment longer, and then leaned back to look Sholeh in the eye.

"I would never send you away."

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"But our time here is limited," Sholeh said, sadly. "And I could be called home at any time. I'm here for a reason, don't you see? Not for an education or the library. I was sent here. And if they decide I'd be better somewhere else or if they think there's a better chance somewhere else, I'll have to go. My people's survival depends on it. Right now, they depend on me."

[genesishero]

"I want to help," Evan said, without hesitation. "If there's ever anything I can do. Anything. I'd do it."

He didn't know anything about her people, he realized. Didn't know what it was about them that so many people apparently hated and feared.

But he knew Sholeh, and that was enough for him.

"All I'm doing here is hiding."

Some hero.

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Sholeh offered him a small smile. "Thanks," she said. "That means a lot to me. I don't know if there is anything, but it's nice to know that I have someone in my corner if there is."

[genesishero]

"Always," Evan replied, nodding a little, offering Sholeh a ghost of a smile in return. "All you have to do is ask. I mean... I care. A lot. And you've always been in my corner."

She was in his corner right now.

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"Well, that's what friends do, right?" Sholeh asked. "They take care of one another. And I like spending time with you, even when you're sad. It's nice being someone who can make you less sad."

[genesishero]

"I think the list of people who can do that consists of you, and Yeul, and Wade," Evan offered, biting his lip. "And Ozzy makes me smile, too, but I guess he's not really 'people.'"

Nope. He was totally a dog.

His tentative smile grew a tiny bit more certain, then.

"And I like spending time with you, too. Which is sort of a given since you make me less sad."

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"I was thinking I could read to you again," Sholeh said, dropping her eyes. Sometimes looking at Evan's smile was like looking into the sun, so bright and warm and happy it almost hurt. It definitely made her stomach do flipflops.

[genesishero]

And it really wasn't going anywhere, with a suggestion like that. He ducked his own head a tiny bit, gave his toe a scuff against the floor, and nodded a little.

"If you wanted to, I would like that," he replied. "We can look through some of the books I got when we went out before break and pick one of those? I haven't had much of a chance to read through them all yet..."

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"That sounds like fun," Sholeh said, because to her little nerd heart, it did. "Maybe we could take turns reading the chapters aloud?"

[genesishero]

"We can," Evan agreed, nodding. "And... curl up like we did the last time? That was... it was really nice."

There were better words for it than 'nice,' but Evan wasn't really big on digging for his vocabulary today. Trying to make bigger words just meant he'd be prone to blurting out more of them.

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

And words were hard enough on days when they weren't cursed with telling the truth!

"Could you wrap your arms around me a few times when we do?" Sholeh asked. "Feels comfortable and safe."

[genesishero]

"I'm glad you like that," Evan murmured, his head ducked low again and a light blush spreading over his cheeks. "I worry that people might think it's weird, but if you want me to, I'd be happy to do it. Any time."

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"Then you wanna do it now?" Sholeh asked, before tripping over herself to explain that she'd only meant curling up and reading and not it-it. "Not that doing it isn't okay, but I don't think that I'm ready for that yet for all sorts of reasons, like because I'm not even sure if we're dating or, like, dating-dating and I know that wouldn't stop my sister, Z--err, that is, my middle sister, but I'm not like that. Not that that's like anything, you know? I'm not like Rilla, calling people jezebels and everything because of nail polish colors, but I'm just shy and need a long time to think about anything, especially doing it-it and I would really like to stop talking now, please, island."

[genesishero]

Evan was going to stare at her for a moment. Blinking.

Oh dear.

"... I would like to be dating-dating... if you'd like to be..."

Yes, out of all of that, that's what Evan was going to cling to.

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"Dating-Dating?" Sholeh squeaked. Why was saying only one word so hard right now. "I don't know! I've never done it before. Okay, I mean, umm, I've never even regular-dated. Or really talked to boys much. Or...anything. I'm shy."

He probably got that by now, Sholeh. Having, y'know, spoken to you. Ever.

[genesishero]

"I'm pretty shy too," Evan offered, along with a tiny smile. "And I've never dated anyone either, but that's mostly because I grew up in a virtual reality small town that didn't even have girls my age in it..."

Okay, he was making a face now.

"Actually, I'm kind of thankful it didn't. I wouldn't want my first girlfriend to be a computer simulation."

Still making that face.

"I mean, maybe we could... figure it out together? I'm not sure there's really a specific way to do it." A beat. "Not it-it. Dating-dating it."

That cleared it all up nicely, thank you Evan.