Welcome to Gaia! ::

Marissa was about to point at the white stack of pumpkins not even forty feet away from them when he pulled a move from the movie Up and just squirreled so hard at the sight of animals it would have made Doug proud.

“Ok,” falling into step beside him she laughed. “Just don’t get any ideas about adding them to your collection, please.” With a wink she nudged Winter with her shoulder teasingly. “I’m pretty sure they’d notice if one went missing.”

“Me too,” she admitted. “Never really had pets growing up unless you count an aquarium of Guppies.” Endler's guppies to be specific; small yet brightly colored and looked really cool under a blacklight.

Marissa took a step towards the donkey, she reached out with a hand to feel the bristly mane between its ears before pouring some of the pellets into her hand for it as a treat. It pawed at the ground with one hoof and shifted uneasily and for a split second, she wondered if it somehow knew what she was but then it shook its head and began eating.

“You can have a you-” she caught herself before the full word slipped out and immediately corrected her question to something more fitting of a crowd. “You know, a companion now, right? I thought with your promotion you could pick one.”

I guess that makes sense, even if it was a bit disappointing. Although, maybe because they were half youma there was an exception to that rule. On the plus note, their home isn’t far from ours. Just a quick pit stop to the castle and a daunting walk down the corridor into the Rift and they’d be able to see them again.

“I don’t know, honestly.” Marissa poured half the remaining pelts in her hand then offered Winter the rest of her cup. “My brother and I never really pushed our parents to let us have pets.” Not really anyway. Sure there was a very short period of time where he had asked about a dog but then sports season came up and he got busy with after school activities so it really wasn’t brought up again.

“Mom didn’t really want to deal with a cat clawing up the furniture or the hassle with training a puppy or worry about claws damaging her hardwood floors.” The woman was a bit of a stickler for keeping rooms neat and orderly, something that became stricter after her brothers death as it served as a bit of a coping mechanism; something she had control of that could keep her hands and mind busy.

“I had been considering getting a labrador retriever, or a similar breed, once I graduated. One that I could take with me to the lake or beach.” It would have been kind of fun to have a dog with her when she want canoeing or hiking. While she didn’t recommend it, some dogs could dive in pools. “Medium size would have been nice.” She thought almost longingly.

With one finger Marissa traced the spot on top of the donkey’s head where its fur spiraled in every direction while it finished of the last of the pelts she had to offer it.

“What about you?” She asked, crouching down next to him to pet the goat he was feeding. “You told me about your previous companion. But do you remember ever having any actual pets?”

Marissa’s heart felt very heavy as she watched him stand up, that glazed over look in his eyes as he stared off somewhere into the distance. There were times to push a topic and there were times to let it go. This was definitely the latter of the two.

For a minute she remained crouched beside the animals he had walked away from and would have remained there longer still had she sheep not bleeped loudly in her ear just as one of the impatient pigmy goats heat but her in the hip. She caught herself by grabbing on to the cold chain link fence to keep from falling over into the little animal turds intermixed with chunks of sawdust.

Little s**t… she turned and glared at the little odd-eyed animal then shook her head and laughed. “I get it, I get it.” For as derpy as it looked animals seemed to have this odd intuition about things. Some could read emotions and offer comfort while this little goat got straight to the point, literally.

‘Suck it up buttercup’ it seemed to say when it beeped loudly at her in annoyance. ‘Get up n’ go after him.’

“Ok!” Marissa snapped back which earned her a few odd looks from the adults standing nearby as their children played with the other animals. “Jesus,” she muttered under her breath as she rose to her feet and retreated to the handwashing station.

Once her hands no longer smelled of farm animals she met Winter over in the tractor line. She took one of his hands in her own and leaned her forehead against his shoulder. “I’m sorry.” This was no fake or half hearted apology. No, there was true remorse in her voice as she continued.

“Today was supposed to be a fun day, something worth remembering. New experiences to fill in the gaps for the ones you’ve forgotten. But I keep messing things up by either asking the wrong questions or saying the wrong things. I honestly hope you know I’m not trying to be insensitive or mean it’s genuine curiosity and desire to learn more about you, I just can’t seem to get my foot out of my mouth since last night.”

“This is new to me, I’m going to keep making mistakes. I just hope you can forgive me when I do.” Friendships she could handle, they were fairly low maintenance as long as you were there when needed things usually worked themselves out. But relationships, even trial ones at that, were a whole different ballfield and here she was still learning the rules.

Marissa lifted her head and looked up at him. The cold sea met the dark forest and in her eyes was a conviction that could not be ignored. “Who you were and where you came from are what helped shape who you are now. It’s not something to brush aside or be ignored.”

Before she could finish her statement the next tractor rolled up to the front of the line. One by one people filed in and took a seat on the haystacks until it was their turn. Stray pieces of straw poked the back of her legs through the jeans, but she paid it no mind as she settled next to Winter; her leg against his their hands rested between them.

“Your current goals derive from the events that happened in your past. If you forget about them, what reason is there to make changes or move forward?” This went beyond his feelings for her or their relationship. It bled into almost all facets of his life really; from working on his temper and mood swings, to inspiring and leading other officers the same way Sovereigns did when he was still new.

Be it small changes or big goals Wolframite’s ability to reflect on and learn from what remained of his past is really what was paving the way for his future. That didn’t mean that things would be easy or that he wouldn’t stumble or fall; nobody was that infallible.

“Please don’t take my lack of questions to be disinterest. Like last night, there are some things that you need to be the one to bring up when you’re ready. Otherwise I’m prone to asking the wrong things at the wrong time.” Marissa gave his hand a gentle squeeze.

“Trust me, I would be just as happy going home-” she paused. The word fell from her lips as easily as a simple hello but to call the barracks ‘home’ still felt so very wrong. “To our dorm,” she amended, “and just let you tell me stories and brag about your scars as I did mine.” Then again that might be a sensitive topic as well.

“Really?” Marissa leaned away from Winter, head canted to the side in a somewhat confused fashion, almost as if she wasn’t sure she had heard him correctly.

She watched him closely the expression on her face shifted from one of surprise to wary hopefulness, as her gaze went from his eyes to his lips expecting him to crack a smile and tell her this was a trick and he was just teasing; they were close to Halloween afterall.

But when the tractor stopped and the people around them started to exit the hayride Winter remained there beside her waiting patiently for a reply.

Unable to find her voice, or words for which to speak, Marissa felt the sting of unshed tears as she nodded her head. The hold on her glamour weakened and for the briefest of seconds wavered before she pulled herself back together.

“Yes,” she replied quietly, nodding even more.

There were tears of sadness, tears of pain, but the ones that fell from her eyes were neither as she replayed his question in her mind. Regardless of what happened in two months time… “Yes, please!” Without warning nor hesitation she threw her arms around his shoulders, burring her face in his shoulder she shamelessly wiped her tears off on his coat.

A house. A home.

Something she thought was reserved for fantastical dreams now that she was a half youma. Yet here he was, offering her one of the few secret wishes she still held close to her heart.

The tractor driver turned around and cleared his throat. “I got to head back to taxi the next group. You two getting off?”

“Sorry,” Marissa turned to look at him, an apologetic look on her face, and in his eyes she saw a glint of humor. No doubt he thought that Winter had asked a very different question. “We- we’re getting off. Thank you.”

“Just let me know when.” It wasn’t as if she really had any pressing matters to attend to. She was caught up on quota’s thanks to him, anything else was just time filler since they couldn’t really go venturing around Destiny City during the day, not for long at least.

Laven had ventured out into the ruins enough times that she had a decent idea where some of the more stable houses were still standing. Granted he had probably been out there plenty of times too, but it at least gave them a place to start.

Although, with the thought of saving for a house Marissa had to wonder if they should postpone or cancel their cabin trip. It was a selfish thing to want but the fear of him telling her that they wouldn’t be able to go on their vacation kept her from voicing her concern. For a little over a month now it was the single most important event she was looking forward to this holiday season and if going meant that it delayed moving out of the barracks for a few weeks or a month, it was worth it. This was one opportunity she didn’t want to miss out on, for both their sakes.

“I’m not going to let you do all the work. If need be I will see if there are any jobs around the castle I could pick up until I can earn a promotion and teleport myself out of here.” It would be easier for him to find an actual part-time job if he didn’t need to worry about bringing her along. True, they had been working on his teleport and he was noticeably less exhausted than the first time he used the ability, but it was still taxing.