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 Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2016 9:13 pm
The fog wasn't so bad (not yet, not like the rumors around town said it would get) and Nasir probably shouldn't have been out in it anyway. Except that he really could not help himself when it came to looking out for other people.
At least once a month he would stop by the beach and bring pastries with him. It used to be far more often but between school and work the young man found that it down to just the one visit. Blinking his eyes to adjust to the fog, he reflexively went to push hair out of his face only to stop mid-motion because there were barrettes in his hair so he didn't have to.
His eyes squinted and narrowed, focusing on that one spot he usually found her. Sunny was almost always there. It was just a thing he assumed whenever he came out. He had a bag on his shoulder with things he brought out for her.
"Hey, Sunny!" he called out, maybe waving a little too much because it was foggy and everything had to be exaggerated okay.
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2016 1:35 am
"Hi, Nasir," Sunny caroled back, sticking a hand up from where she sat in the sand. Her baggy hoodie sleeves were pushed up over her elbow, brown skin speckled with white sand. She was digging channels where the tide had receded, carving a path for the small fish trapped inside a puzzle to return to the ocean. "Sorry, I'm-- I'm almost done-- come sit with me, mijito, it's been so long!"
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Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2016 2:35 pm
Nasir grinned when he caught sight of Sunny, coming to crouch next to her and watch as she made paths for the fish with her fingers. "Think it'll make it back out?" he asked, raising his eyes to look at her.
He was setting his back onto the ground next to him, legs folding underneath him as he sat down. "Ah, yeah, I meant to get out here last week but Darlene's has picked up business and ..." Nasir gave Sunny a smile. "Been busy cooking. Oh! But I did bring you some pastries and some soda."
For when she was done obviously.
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2016 2:16 pm
"I hope he will," said Sunny, looking out to the tide. Now that her channel was made, she just needed the waves to come in to set the little fish free. "It's all about self-determination, you know? But he'll suffocate in there." She leaned over and grabbed a soda with her sandy hands. "It's okay! You don't gotta make excuses." Sunny spread her legs out before her, sinking her feet into the sand. "S'not like I don't know where you are," she said, smiling, the corners of her eyes all crinkled, very normal numbers of teeth all on display. "How are you?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2016 6:25 pm
Nasir was tempted to ask why not help, why not just scoop him up and put him back into the water. It was what he would have done - it's what he would always do - but sometimes he knew people needed to do things on their own.
Not that he listened to that when it came to certain other people.
Not that look wasn't apparent on his face anyway. Nasir always had open expressions on his face.
He leaned back, palms going into the sand without thought and digging his heels in so that they sunk in some. "I'm doing good," he grinned, leaning for his bag and pulling out two glass bottles of coke and popping the lids before handing one to Sunny. "School is the usual but working for Borr is fun. He's so big, you'd probably think it's funny how tiny he makes the kitchen look."
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Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2016 6:08 am
"He makes everywhere look tiny," agreed Sunny, who had met Borr just recently and taken a shine to him. "D'you think they fed him something when he was a small one? Like... human fertilizer?" She peered into the puddle at the little fish, who seemed quite content to be swimming around in the little hole he'd ended up in. Sunny frowned.
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2016 11:02 pm
"Don't know," Nasir laughed. Sometimes the way that Sunny phrased things was odd but he chalked it up to her personality quirks. "I mean, I ate a lot when I was still growing and I'm not as tall as him." He paused a moment, thinking of something he remembered his aunt saying. "Or maybe he's just big because he needs to be that way because his heart is so big."
That was a silly thing to say but ...
He leaned to watch the fish and then his eyes flicking to Sunny's face. "You could help it? Give it a little guidance." A finger was wriggled in the air. "A lure or something to get it started on the way out?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2016 6:10 pm
"Oh, so it's a matter of proportion? He wants to be seen to be big as his heart?" Sunny looked up from her puddle-fish with a puzzled expression. "The thing is... I already made its way out, see? Without my intervention, it would've definitely died. But if it's happy there, then why should I get in the way of that?" She wasn't really talking about the fish.
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Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2016 3:13 pm
"Something like that? It may not be true but you never know with Borr." Nasir was watching the fish again, looking up to see the expression on Sunny's face. This was not just entirely about the fish but he was not sure what it was about. (After all there had been more times that they had talked that it had ended up being about him in some weird, abstract way.) "... if that's the case ..." A frown appeared briefly on his face. "You can't help people who don't want to be helped." His fingers dug into the sand a moment. "Or if they believe they don't need it. You can only do what you've done and hope they see it before it's too late." He raised his hand up with a pile of sand in it, squeezing it in his hand and then letting it fall back down. "Also sometimes ignorance in bliss?" Isn't that what they said?
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Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 6:23 am
Sunny groaned. "No, it's... it's not you, Nasir. You're amazing." He was always amazing. "It's... a whole situation, I can't fix it." She deepened the trench for the fish after planting her soda in the sand. "I can't do any more. They have to do the rest and I don't... I don't think I think they will, anymore." (Were those tears?)
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Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 10:21 pm
"I didn't think it was me, I just ..." Then it looked like Sunny was crying and that would not do. It was not the first time he would have invaded her space and he would do it without thinking every time. Nasir leaned towards her and wrapped an arm around her in a hug. "You can't fix everything yourself, you know? Sometimes the helper needs help from other people that are outside the situation. So that they can do the things you can't." He kept an arm around her, pulling back to look at her face. "I've known you long enough to know you do everything to help." He chuckled, shaking his head. "I mean you listened to me when I first met you. About how I liked it here, how I did not want to keep moving around and told me what I needed to hear." A warm grin. "What I need to know so that I could make the decision that was best for me." Which was staying in Ashdown. Sunny had opened that door and was better for it.
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Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 10:48 pm
Sunny did not often get hugs. Actually, most people didn't touch her at all--they didn't trust her, didn't see her as a person, she was kin but not kind, the weird cousin and never the sister--but then there was Nasir, who hugged her, who wasn't afraid. Sunny smiled at him, a little shyly, and hooked a lock of hair behind her ear. "That was easy," she said. "It was only what you wanted. You just needed a little push to see." A wave surged up the channel Sunny had so painstakingly dug. The little fish, alerted to more oxygenated waters, threw itself into the fresh space with wild abandon. It was gone, its puddle and the channel leading up to it obliterated, but the fish survived. Sunny sighed. "So it goes."
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 4:40 pm
Nasir smiled a bit broader, especially when he saw that shy smile. It meant things were usually okay. Sunny could work through things if she had that smile. He squeezed his arm around her, only jostling and moving when the wave surged forward. "It's what I needed and you helped." He leaned away from her to watch the fish dart out into the wave as it receded. Gone, back out into the ocean. It was a weird thought suddenly. "... but ... what if you were saving it then? By keeping it here?" What if out there was bad and in this little place she created good?
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 4:45 pm
Sunny started to shrug, stopped, and leaned her head on Nasir's shoulder. "Well... would you rather be safe, or free? That's the question. Everyone's got to answer it sometime."
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 5:02 pm
His arm was still around her, head tilting and cheek brushing the top of her hair, to catch her voice and hear her properly. "I would ..." Nasir dragged his finger through the sand, watching the push and pull a tide for a moment. "It is probably selfish to want others to be safe but myself to be free, isn't it?" He laughed a little, mostly at himself. Safe is what he wanted for those he cared about he also knew freedom was important. It had him thinking about Wil a moment, Sunny as well. Both people that while he would like them safe, they would always do best free.
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