It was getting cold.

That one thought was the only thing that had registered in Piper's mind in the last half hour. She was sitting in the park on a bench, staring up at the fluffy clouds that stretched across the afternoon sky. She was just staring, not even trying to pick out turtles or giraffes among the endless twist of shapes. Sometimes it was nice to just let her mind go blank and drift away from anything that plagued her. Her fingers were wrapped around a bio-degradable cup of hot chocolate that she had barely touched, but it was doing such a good job of keeping her hands warm that she didn't mind passing on drinking it for a while. It was enough to just sit there with it warming her fingers.

Once that one thought passed by though, it turned around and flitted through again, until she was slowly brought down from her cloud and forced to realize that it was going to be dark soon. The chill wasn't just the cold of almost early spring in Destiny City, it was the chill of approaching night and fading sunshine. As much as Piper had adjusted, her parents still weren't keen on her being out alone at night lest.. something else happen. It was a warning to be careful more than anything, but Piper understood their concern at least.

She sighed and glanced down at her hot chocolate, resigned to finishing it and starting to head home. Instead, she caught herself smiling half-heartedly when she saw that the foam floating on top had formed a crooked heart. She let go of the cup with one hand so that she could prod a single finger at the lop-sided half of the heart, pushing it into a more recognizable shape. The simple act seemed to please her because her smile widened as she reached up to suck the residue from her fingertip. As she brought her hand back down she saw caught a quick glance at her fingernails - a rainbow of chipped paint greeted her and she made a mental note to repaint them later. Then again, Piper had to make mental notes about mental notes just to remember things sometimes.

She took a big sip of her hot chocolate, finding it the perfect temperature for gulping. Though one too-big gulp later and she was coughing wretchedly with her face parallel to the ground. She was hunched a little and her arms splayed, desperately trying to keep her chocolate from spilling. It was more comical than anything. At some point her coughing stopped and she remembered to breath, though she didn't seem too keen on moving just yet.