"'Survival' is a strange word," Ellie clarified. "I think... Before, it just... Seemed to bring up certain images that have nothing to do with now, with here. Of course words change -- the definitions change. But survival seems difficult somehow, and... This isn't difficult, at the moment."
She nodded to their surroundings -- the lighting, the safety. "This is more like life again. It may have been more like survival before, but I'm not sure."
Ellie liked Evan's smile. She liked that he seemed to smile when she was smiling, and she smiled when he did -- like a loop. She didn't know if she could manage to look up through her lashes at anyone like that, though, unless it was by accident. Or lift one eyebrow.
The main thing was: he thought she was decent. She didn't know exactly what it meant if two people thought that about eachother, but maybe they could just sort of happily tolerate eachother. Which was enough for Eloise, even though she managed to tolerate most things. Still -- her heart felt sort of funny, like it was being squeezed in someone's fingers.