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The sun was maybe an hour from setting, and the scene would have been nice enough if it weren't for the Titan's roar that echoed up from the beach, distant but still too close. Sherry's face scrunched up at the thought of the titan's roaming around below, but she pushed the thought aside. She didn't have titan patrol right now. No, right now was a precious bit of time off, time to enjoy the still warm sunlight that wasn't completely hidden away by the clouds.

"It's nice up here, even in the day," she said. "With the view and the sun and everything." Up on one of the hills or bluffs (Sherry never was quite clear on what a bluff was, exactly), still close to the compound, but out of the way and certainly way from any titans. It was, if memory served her right, where they'd ended up on that night of stargazing.

She wrapped her arms around one of Jake's and pulled him close, resting her head on his shoulder. "Thanks for coming up here with me." She'd asked him out for a bit of fresh air, while that was still thing they could have on the island. Well, her exact words had been, 'Fresh air and a chat.'

She smiled back at him, wondering exactly about that look on his face. He seemed a bit tense today, and the whole walk up her she'd been waiting for him to relax.

With a light sigh, she began kneading the hand of his she held, her thumbs pressing into his palm with what she hoped was a relaxing motion.

"I was wondering if I could ask you a few... personal questions."

"You don't have to answer any of them if you don't want to, but I've been curious about a few things. Like your scars. The ones you woke up with." She knew where most of the others had come from. "Like this," she said, the fingers of her left hand sliding over the scar on his left forearm. "Where did you get this?"

She never stopped pressing into his left hand with her right, though she might have hugged his arm a little tighter. Jake never really liked to talk about his past, in her experience, but she still wanted to know some things. Little things. That probably weren't important, but still... She bit her lip to keep herself from apologizing for asking.

She caught the hesitation in his answer, and though perhaps it had been something trivial and he didn't even remember. When he spoke though, she caught something in his voice, and she was definitely sad she'd asked. "Oh." The kneading of his hand stopped, and she intertwined her fingers with his, her free hand covering the scar as she continued hugging his arm.

"And...and the others? The one under the tattoo, and over your eye? Fights like this one?"

She was watching him, trying to figure out just how badly she had messed up by asking. Maybe he didn't mind? Would he tell her if he did, though? She knew scars meant fights, but just what those fights had meant, well, that was where the mystery was. And apparently the sadness. She should have stuck with her instincts and not bothered asking. But at the same time... she wanted to know more about him.

Raising her left hand, she reached across herself, leaning against him so she could touch his cheek, near where he had. "Will you tell me about it?"

"Oh," she said again. Squeezing his hand, she put her head back on his shoulder, scooting a little closer to him. She understood not wanting to talk about unpleasant things, and she knew death was usually involved with one started down the path of a hunter. Death or fear. "I'm sorry." She was sorry she'd begun to pry, and sorry for whatever happened in his past.

Letting out a sigh, she settled against him again. "You don't have to be sorry." It wasn't his fault she was asking about unpleasant things, or that those things had happened at all. "And we don't have to talk about it." She meant that. The past didn't change where they were now, not in the least.

"Me?" She asked, straightening a little in surprise. "I..." She paused for a moment, trying to remember how much she'd told him since... since he'd met her. "I grew up in the suburbs of a city in the American Midwest. I was an only child, until my half sister was born... but by that time I was old enough it didn't matter." She gave a half-laugh and let her head rest on his shoulder again. "My life before Deus wasn't anything glamorous or really nice, but it wasn't terrible, either." Average and plain as far as Sherry was concerned. And probably more than he wanted to know.

Another small laugh. "I was a waitress before coming here."

Sherry would honestly sit and listen to any story Jake wanted to tell, pleasant or not. It was just a matter of him wanting to tell it.
"Mhm." She nodded. "Danah. She'd be 4 or 5 by now, I'm not really sure. I didn't see her much before I left. She lived with my dad and his girlfriend." Sherry shrugged. She didn't mind discussing it, it wasn't the worst of her memories. "She was cute, though."


She grinned as he laughed. "Oh, really?" She suddenly didn't want to talk about her family anymore. She pulled his hand down into the gap between her knees, until she felt the grass on her knuckles. It made it easier to whisper in his ear. "That can be arranged."