Re: first class ; baths
"I know everyone dies," the boy said plainly, his words steady and even. "And I know that I will die one day too, just as everyone else will. But you come uninvited, before some of us are ready. Why do you get to decide when our time is up? Should that not be for us to decide? To invite you, then, with open arms. An old friend instead of an enemy to be feared?" The boy lowered his hand back to the edge of the pool, bone fingers clicking against the hard stone edge before he settled into stillness once more, legs resting in the water that had gone still as he had.
At the mention of his own current state of affairs, the boy gave a shrug of one shoulder. "I may not be able to join them," he started, facts laid out upon the table in front of them, "but I bought more time, did I not? To prepare. To ready myself. I know where my path leads, but I'm not yet ready to walk it." When Death suddenly appeared to sit beside him, the boy didn't show fear upon his face. That had gone a long time ago, left behind with that part of him that had been snatched away.
"I was not ready for you," he clarified in simple tones, as though explaining it to a small child. "I did run. I wasn't ready. You may come to me when I have invited you back." The corner of his mouth lifted in a smile, something the boy rarely did, and perhaps it was strange that he felt reason to smile with Death as his companion.