Re: [Lake: "Sparrow" & Luke]
She heard the smirk, and she didn't think she liked it. Dark night, and she couldn't see his features. She couldn't see the movement of his mouth as it formed words in the bitter cold, but she still didn't think he was made for smirking. "You're a pessimist. You always expect really bad things. Is it really better that way?" She thought there must be some kind of soothing in expecting things to go terribly. She didn't know personally, but it made sense. If you thought it would rain, then the rain wasn't surprising once it came. He, she thought, always expected the rain.
She wasn't really sure what she expected. Nothing? Perhaps, and like everything else about her. She waited, but she didn't expect. She wanted, but she didn't expect.
But, but, perhaps not, because she didn't expect the dog to bite her hand off. Crouching there, in skirt and a coat that rustled, she was really, really sure that the dog was just like the boy, friendly and maybe just a little scared. She made soft sounds, cooed in the dark, and she giggled softly when she felt cold nose against her fingers. "Some not nice people might admit things. You assume everyone lies, but sometimes people tell the truth. And your dog is sweet." She leaned forward, pressed nose to scruff, and she inhaled warmth and fur and cold night dog. A second, a second longer, and there was reluctance to her limbs. But, she stood once more, and she took a teensy step back. Deliberate, deliberate and careful, and the back of her heel was against the edge of the dock now.
"You are nice." She didn't counter his statement that he was trying to stop people from being stupid, because there was still heroism wound up in that bitterness. It made him sound young, young to her ears, and she swayed a tiny bit, there, on the edge of the dock. "You think I'm really, really stupid, don't you? What would you do if I fell?"