Shiny and New

[Kira & Lee Norris]

The hat had been Caitlyn’s fault initially, but now… Kira was grudgingly beginning to like it.
She checked her reflection in the window; fingering the intricately detailed pockets of her short jacket carefully. She felt oddly free from her usual self-consciousness; the corridor was empty, and the sky outside was already an endless blackened expanse. The only source of light was the flickering candlelight that ran the length of the corridor.
Orchid Hill had always felt that with people like Steve Ritzski around, installing electrical lighting in the corridors would be too much of a risk to bear.
Well, no matter. Kira liked it this way.
She stepped back slightly, tilting her head to the side. With her head, tipped her curls; tumbling down in a soft bounce.
Her haircut was Caitlyn’s fault, too. With Conner away at some sort of Summer Camp, Caitlyn had been left bored and melancholy. That was, until she had found the mirror image of her melancholy mood in Kira. Caitlyn had decided that Kira would be her Summer project, and Kira had been obliged to let Caitlyn go wild.
New clothes.
New hair.
New hats.
New Kira.
Purple was Kira’s new trademark colour. After wheedling at Eric for about an hour to agree with her that it suited Kira, she had taken it upon herself to collect Marli from the cul-de-sac and bring them all into Dublin for a shopping trip. Marli, who had an eye for all things beautiful, quickly hand-picked a wardrobe worthy of even Caitlyn’s oh-so-picky taste. Then, after having them both demand that she lose no more weight or else, Kira had been all fitted out.
And as Caitlyn had pointed out, it had only taken about 6 hours!
Gosh, wasn’t Kira lucky?
The hair had come later. Caitlyn had cut it herself, and here, Kira had to admit, credit was due. Although it had certainly started to grow out again (it’d be cropped right up in what Caitlyn referred to as, ‘pixie-style’) and was now creeping past her ears and towards her shoulders, it still looked pretty. Caitlyn had cut it right into the curls, and so what had once been a gentle wave was now a wild tangle of golden threads that refused to be tamed no matter how many times Kira dragged a hairbrush through it.
But- amazingly- it suited her.
The Summer had dragged on endlessly. Kira had missed Orchid terribly. But through the general avoidance of her house, and the constant company of her childhood friends, Kira had found a sort of peace at home in Ireland. Sean and Conner were at camp all Summer, and Lee was with Maddie; so it had just been Caitlyn, Marli and Eric.
But that’d been nice. With less people, Eric had come out of himself more, and for the first time, the two other girls were treating him with respect.
Well, a little more than that-
Eric and Marli made the most adorable couple.
Caitlyn, not one to be outdone, had found some lovely eighteen year old boy by the name of Luke, who was going to Trinity. He was from Northern Ireland, and so, at least in Caitlyn’s eyes, he was foreign enough to be, ‘exotic’.
Kira stepped backwards from the window with a sigh, dipping to the ground, where she’d set her file. Rolling back her jacket sleeves, she caught a glimpse of the time on her watch.
8.47p.m.
… Shít one.
Since when had it been that feckin’ late?!
Jumping to her feet, Kira looked at herself once more in the window. Her little heels made the oddest of clatters in the echoing hallway.
New shoes.
New Kira.
It was going to take some getting used to.

[Arihant]

Arihant shook the metronome again one more time, willing the little grey machine to start up its beating that had been irritating him so much a moment ago - apparently, self-taught students had a lot more difficulty with rhythm than those who had been safely institutionalised - but it was no use. The little thing was dead as the proverbial dodo.
...Christ, Jamie was going to murder him, wasn't she?
And the stupid thing was, he hadn't even asked her to give him the bloody thing. He had been fully prepared to go and order his own - order, of course, because as useful as Cardsdale was for bowling and ice cream, it didn't really have a good stock of music supplies. Or, to put it another way, any stock at all.
But oh no. The girl had had to go insist that he took it, insist that it was no bother at all seeing as how she had given up the cello years ago. And then tell him to look after it, because she needed it to use for her electricity project, and that she wouldn't be able to replace it easily.
He gave the little plastic block a last despairing shake, sighed, and slipped it into the pocket of his trousers - trousers that were, incidentally, not his, but Kennedy's. His ensemble now was made up of a ragtag of other people's belongings: jeans from Kennedy, jumper leant to him by 'Cardo, metronome from Jamie, the music book - "Jigs, Reels and Hornpipes: A Collection Of English, Irish and Scottish Traditional Tunes" - tucked under his arm was a present from Lynn from Inverness. He liked the feeling, being made up of what other people had given him. It was an idea that was becoming more and more important to him the longer he stayed at Orchid.
He started to walk down the corridor briskly, hearing his footsteps echo in the solitary hallway. It was strange, that a school this large could be so empty, especially only at - he checked his watch - 8:47pm.
Then again, he could be certain that this sense of being stranded in the ghost-school would be banished as soon as he got to the Common Room, where everyone would undoubtedly be, seeing as how it was already dark and how temperature outside was verging on sub-zero. Recently, he'd been glad of his genuine reason to be wearing gloves and heavy sweaters in class - this country was bloody freezing, and it wasn't even Winter yet! He could only imagine what would happen then.
The flickering shadows of the candlelight shuddered in all directions as he strode past, turning the corner. This corridor wasn't completely deserted, he saw, seeing a pretty blonde girl dressed in purple looking at herself in the window. Strange place to admire yourself, wasn't it? There were plenty of mirrors upstairs; and those had the particular advantage of not having the waving silhouettes of trees outside behind your face - could be a little distracting.
Distracting. This, of course, was what he was doing right now. Distracting himself from the fact that, as soon as he did get to the common room, he was going to be murdered. He'd got awfully good at distracting himself over the last few months, actually, come to think of it - but of course, he couldn't take all the credit. His friends had been more than happy to take his attention off of...
That.
This was improvement, wasn't it? He could think about it now without flinching, so long as he didn't do it for too long. Granted, he couldn't talk about it or anything, but that was still a while away. He'd get there. Eventually.
Or he hoped he would, anyway.
The girl at the window looked quite like her, actually, he noted as he continued walking down the corridor. Same height, same hair - well, same colour, anyway. It was shorter, curlier than hers.
He was just about passing the girl, now, and he contemplated saying Good Evening. Or something less stupid and formal, anyway. He was more able to do that sort of thing now - speak to people in Orchid without feeling like he was just pestering them, give people a friendly greeting if they passed. He knew that it wasn't really normal to think of that as an improvement, but for him, it really was. He almost felt like he was starting to fit in in here, weird as the idea was.
Bolstered up by this realisation, he nodded at the girl as he went past, prepared to say hello -
And froze.
Oh God.
"Kira," he blurted out before he could stop himself, the tone of his voice revealing all the shock and - yes - panic that suddenly possessed him.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

“Kira.”
She hadn’t even heard him coming.
Kira swerved to face him, her back pressing against the cool panel of glass behind her. Oh, no. How idiotic had she appeared; apparently enraptured by her own reflection? How arrogant must he now consider her? How egocentric- how narcissistic-
“Arihant.” Her voice was weak. “Hello.”
Hello.
Was that really going to be it?
Was that all she was going to say?
Months, Arihant. It’s been months. And in all those months, she’d sat, and dreamed, and waited… and just sort of waited, for Kira was a passive sort of person when it came to her personal life. She never acted first. She never imposed herself on anyone else. She waited. And dreamed. And hoped. But… there’d be nothing. Lee and Arihant alike had left Kira to contemplate her own lonely existence in Ireland for the past two and a half months. Once she’d trained herself to forget about them, it hadn’t been so bad.
Then she’d come back to Orchid.
Lee was… she wasn’t sure, anymore. She doubted he noticed the difference, but it was more pronounced now than ever. Even at the end of last term, it hadn’t been so bad. But Lee had spent his whole Summer- much longer than he’d meant to, at least- with Madeleine and Madeleine’s family. His glorious return to Ireland was to be the highlight of his mother’s Summer. On the day he was due back, Aunt Vicki had got up and prepared a banquet fit for a king. All day she’d sat outside in the porch, calling to Kira and the other neighbours as they crossed the roads that today, her son was coming home.
Then the next day.
And the next.
And finally, a week later, when Aunt Vicki was nearing breaking point, they received word from Lee. Travel, he explained, was currently impossible. Madeleine needed him for some unfathomable, unmentionable reason, and he refused to leave her. His apologies were profuse. His mother had no choice but to accept them with a glowing reply of gracious goodwill. Lee, naively choosing to believe the lie, had pressed his mother into allowing him to spend the remainder of the holidays with Madeleine, as he was of much better use with her than he was at home, and surely she could cope without him?
But of course, the mother had replied, take as much time as you want.
She had never been able to say no to the apple of her eye.
Kira- already used to being second on Lee’s list of priorities- had held no great expectations for her cousin, though when he finally did return to Ireland for the last day of the summer, she’d felt her temper snap. One day with them, and his head was away with her once more. One day. Like they weren’t good enough for him anymore.
Now at school, she still expected little. She approached him only to request an account of her new baby cousin, Callum, and to wonder when he’d be available for his next mission.
Arihant was a different matter altogether.
Initially, Kira had resented the disappointment each letter unaddressed to her had brought. But sooner or later, she began to chastise herself for being so foolhardy as to assume Arihant would actually write to her. Goodness knows where Arihant even was! Probably somewhere in India, having the time of his life. Or maybe with Lynn and Kennedy- in Scotland? That was their accent, was it not?
So, she had decided to wait until school began, and wait until she could talk to him again.
Trouble was… she never saw him. Not ever. Once or twice, she caught sight of one of the twins or both, but she never quite managed to work up the courage to ask them where he was. Arihant was definitely in the school somewhere- she’d checked the Warrior role- but as to where he was… well, she’d been forced to draw a blank.
And to sooner or later, she’d been forced to draw another of her painful conclusions: Arihant didn’t want to see her, or hear from her. Arihant was avoiding her.
Well, Kira had decided, then she’d avoid him, too. She wouldn’t bother him. She wouldn’t speak to him. She’d just… just let the world float by and forget all about him. It had worked, too, for the most part- at least, she’d always assumed it was working, despite her shadows’ continual hints that she was, ahem, ‘in love and lonely’.
Lonely…
How could anyone make her feel like that?
How could he?
Idiotic, wasn’t it- this endless silence stretching out between them? Sooner or later, she realised, she was going to have to start breathing again. And then what would happen?
His eyes were much darker than she’d remembered. Her memory had obviously altered them in some way- made them softer, somehow. But the eyes that looked at her now were sharp- even… afraid?
Her heart lifted in spite of itself, and a slight smile gently pushed the corners of her lips upwards. She remembered this expression all too well.
Poor, little Ari. He was even more terrified than she was.
“Hello,” she repeated, and this time, her voice was stronger.
She could do this. There was nothing to it. Arihant was an old frie- acquaintance of hers. Nothing scary about it.
So there really was no need for her heartbeat to flutter like this…

[Arihant]

She wheeled around, her back resting against the glass of the windowpane - and he didn't like that, that must have been cold, mustn't it? - and, as weakly she said, "Arihant. Hello," he realised what an idiot he'd been.
He'd startled her. Which meant, of course, that she hadn't been expecting him to say anything. Which meant that she hadn't seen him - because why else would she not have been expecting him to say something, to do something? He'd been avoiding her for months. He would have to say something. Explain himself - but how on earth did he do that?
Sorry I've been ignoring you for months, Kira - it sucks, I know, but see, thing is, I think I'm in love with you, and I'd really rather pretend you didn't exist than run the risk of killing you, so... y'know. Bye.
It was kind of lacking, all things considered.
And the stupid thing was that he couldn't even concentrate on what he should say, now. He was completely engrossed in the way her hair had shook as she'd turned, the way the colour had drained from her already pale face, the way her eyes had widened with shock, with apprehension, with... fear?
Was he scaring her? That didn't make sense - well, yes, it did. Or it would have done, eight months ago on Valentine's day (has it really been that long?). But why now?
It didn't make any sense at all.
And yet, even though they were widened with some emotion that he was sure had probably been in his eyes hundreds of times before, but that he couldn't remember ever seeing in hers - even considering that, the fact remained that her eyes were the only thing that hadn't changed.
Her hair was shorter, bouncing around in new curls at her jawline and crowned by a hat. Her shoes clacked with the sound of high heels, although he couldn't drag his eyes away from her to check. Her clothes were all different - more detailed, more tailored, more feminine -
More dangerous.
Kira had always been beautiful - that was a fact, for him, now. Something he just knew. Indisputable, even though he knew he hadn't always seen her that way - but before, it had been a kind of ethereal beauty, the beauty of a pixie, a fairy, the... well, the English sunset. Obviously there, and he knew that he saw it, but he didn't know if anyone else took had the time or the inclination to take more than a passing notice of it.
Now, she looked older. Kira had grown up - had it really been so long, he wondered, that she could have changed so drastically?
Whether it was a sudden change or a gradual one, the outcome was still the same, though. The fact remained that her beauty was an Indian sunset now, a beauty that even the busiest person couldn't help but stop, acknowledge... admire. He wondered what it was like, in Spy Training or in the Canteen, if you could see the eyes following new, all-grown-up Kira.
He wondered if she had a boyfriend.
Just as an unfamiliar pang clenched his stomach at that thought, she spoke again, her voice more confident this time. "Hello."
What did he do now? He would have to say something - but what? Did he acknowledge that he'd been avoiding her? Did he try to explain himself - or lie, anyway, because that was what he was going to have to do.
And then, suddenly, he remembered something that had deserted him in the last few moments of panic.
He had changed, too.
As he remembered this, he could feel the change in his stance - how he stood up a little straighter, how his shoulders pushed back. Confidence.
He'd learnt this from the Delaneys - a couple of months trying to emulate the easiness of their smiles (a mirror of which was settling across his face), a couple of months trying to crack the secret of how they just laughed and joked with all the ease in the world, a couple of months trying to hammer the notions of being sociable and interesting and fun into his head. He'd soon realised that he'd never be able to properly copy him - he'd never be able to make himself what they were - but he did know that he could do a d**n good imitation. He could fake it all.
So his panic, his rapid heartbeat, the faint tremor of his hands - all of it was pushed behind the grinning mask that now replaced his true face.
This would be a true test of how strong it was.
"Wow," he said, laughing. "I'm sorry about that - but in my defence, I have to say, I barely recognised you. How have you been?"

[Kira & Lee Norris]

ooc: Kira's Writer. says:
Let's see
Kira's Writer. says:
Better faster stronger?
Ari's Writer. says:
Haha, you know it.
Kira's Writer. says:
Okay, no, bad me. More confident. Better posture. Slightly longer hair. More buff somehow (she'll say something like he's slightly broader in the shoulder). Softer Indian accent. And his eyes are the same, of course; if suddenly calmer.
Oho, right... Had to include that, sorry...

In the split second it took for Arihant to reply, Kira felt like she was gazing upon a beautiful- if changing- eternity.
Kira’s memory- though a little groggy in his absence- was no fool. It knew a flaw when presented with one, and when several flaws occurred at once, it folded in on itself. Somewhere along the line, Kira had been tricked. Was this perfect vision a fake; or had her eyes simply forgotten how to see?
For all of a sudden, the dear, dark little world that was Arihant’s eyes was extinguished. The change was called to her attention so abruptly, she couldn't tell whether it had been that way ever since they’d first begun to talk, or if it was truly as sudden as it seemed.
... though she was certainly more inclined towards the latter.
The change was remarkable.
Arihant's eyes hardened; and any panic or nerves that had been there mere seconds ago seemed to vanish behind a solid wall of black. His shoulders- she noticed- seemed broader somehow... or perhaps he was just holding them higher. His hair, though it'd presumably been trimmed in her absence, was longer than she remembered it, hanging just below his ears. Her own light curls were just the slightest bit longer. A smile now stretched his lips... and while... she couldn't call it a relaxed smile... it seemed... different, somehow.
His clothes remained the same; she would spot those tan gloves a mile off... though one of the sleeves of his jumper was a little up his arm. Kira caught a glimpse of his dark skin underneath it, and couldn't help but catch her breath a little. It was held taut with muscle that had not been there before...
Confident.
That was the alien adjective Kira found herself applying to Arihant. He looked- he exuded confidence. What had made him this way...?
Kira observed and digested this information in the space of roughly 2 seconds.
His sudden laughter of the following third caught her off-guard. "I'm sorry about that - but in my defence, I have to say, I barely recognised you."
God knows, you could say that again.
"How have you been?"
There was another observation. The cogs in Kira's brain were over-tiring from exhaustion. Where had the thick rise and fall of syllables his Indian accent created gone? He spoke far more softly now...
And his diction was incredible.
"I... fine," Kira shook herself slightly, relieved that the cool pressure of the glass on her back stopped the heat from rushing to her face. "You?"

[Arihant]

ooc: Lol, of course!

The Delaney-smile stayed firm on Arihant's face, even while he could see Kira's eyes widen, almost imperceptibly, at the way he was acting. He couldn't blame her, he supposed. He'd been acting like this for several weeks now - it felt like it was almost normal. Almost. Like maybe if he stayed like this for a while, he would actually become...
He didn't know what. Kennedy, he guessed. That would probably be a good thing. Kennedy didn't seem to be harbouring any illicit romantic feelings for Kira, so far as he knew. Being Kennedy would probably be a hell of a lot easier than being him just now.
"I... fine. You?"
He hadn't thought that he had forgotten what her voice had sounded like, but apparently he had. It had been higher in his memory, the accent softer. Sometimes she had even been speaking Hindi in his dre-
No.
He couldn't think about those dreams right now. Or really, while he was conscious at all. Dreams that had you waking up shivering like you were having some sort of mild seizure were not suitable thought material for daylight hours.
"Pretty good," he said, mask holding up well. "Well, I've been busy, of course. I still am, actually. Upper sixth is not a fun year of school to be in. I don't really have time for anything."
Funny how Arihant could do that, say all those things so casually while his brain was racing at around a hundred miles a minute.
You can't say you've been bad, you can't tell her anything like that. She might ask why if you do. - 'Pretty good.'
But then, if you've been pretty good, why haven't you seen her? Why have you been avoiding her? You need to think of something. Fast. - 'Well, I've been busy, of course.'
...Fantastic, Arihant, really. OK, so you've been 'busy', that's why you couldn't see her. And you still can't see her now, apart from tonight - and you're getting out of this quickly. You have to. So what do you say to - 'I still am, actually. Upper sixth is not a fun year of school to be in. I don't really have time for anything.'
Apparently, he was going mad.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

She laughed softly. "Yeah. Lower sixth, meanwhile, is a dawdle."
With their GCSEs booted out of the way (so many people arrived at so many different times, and covered such a wide range of subjects, most had an exam timetable unique to themselves) Orchid Hill was giving the Year 13s an easy ride- and extra Group sessions. Upon arriving back at Orchid Hill, Kira had never felt under more pressure to forful her duties as Head. No instructions were coming from Hoodham; everything was routine; but without Lisle and Seamus, Kira was struggling more and more to keep up.
It was gradually becoming obvious that she needed to appoint a second-in-command.
And fast.
After their summer, her Spies were getting lazy. And Kira could do sod all about it. All she had to offer them was look-out duty.
Look-out duty.
Not like they ever found anything anyway.
Still, it gave her a good chance to see which teams worked best together. Despite their relationship, every trace of the romance between Jude and Ailith disappeared when they were on a mission, and they were fast-becoming one of the strongest pairs she had. Despite her initial bad feelings towards Sophie Mathieu (for even French tarts had their merits) Kira had to grudgingly admit she did not ask for all the attention she got. She just sort of... attracted it, like a skinny blonde magnet. Even more grudgingly, Kira had been forced to recognise Lee and Sophie also made a fantastic pairing.
Kennedy Delaney had lately been coming more into his own. Kira had become more aware of him thanks to Arihant, and she'd lately started to wonder whether his progress had anything to do with his pretty twin sister, Lynn.
Jethro- he was in Jude's form, right?- too had caught her eye as of late. And there was something fascinating about that new Spy, Ienzo...
Screw Madeleine's army. Kira was training the Elites.
"I've been... busy, too," she said, after a slight pause. "I'm a Head. It happens."

[Arihant]

"I can certainly believe that," he said, itching to cross his arms for some reason he didn't really comprehend. Maybe he just wanted to put another barrier between them; as if there weren't enough already. He really didn't understand himself most of the time. "Groups are time-consuming enough just to be in; I can't imagine what it must be like to run one."
Warrior training had got a lot more hectic lately - or it had for him, anyway. In what had been the biggest of Lynn's numerous Arihant-improvement projects to date (said projects were vastly varied in size and nature, ranging from teaching him her special way of eating Oreos to versing him thoroughly in the various group prejudices and stereotypes that flowed so rampantly through Orchid - and which were, in her words, "total bollocks, because I dated a male Carer and I can tell you right here and now, there were no problems in that department"), she had decided to take him under her wing - words that had terrified him at the time - and teach him how to be a proper Warrior.
He hadn't thought that it would work to begin with, learning how to be a Warrior. Despite the cause being fairly admirable and all, Arihant couldn't deny it: he had never been enthustiastic about being a soldier, although, of course, he hid this firmly away in training sessions - he didn't want to offend Madeleine.
But Lynn spent a lot more time with him than Madeleine did, and she did pay attention, so it didn't take her very long to figure out that he wasn't enthuasiastic, and with the opening of the new term she had forced him down to the arena with her every evening, brought him running with her most mornings.
And after a while, he was kind of horrified to find out that he actually liked it. He liked running, he liked training, he liked pushing his good power to the limits and seeing just how far he could take it. And even less expected than how his mind had taken to the training was how his body had taken to it.
Arihant had always been a scrawny child; there was no doubt about it. Bhadraksh had towered over him more than a brother only two years older really should have, Vidya approached him in height. And in height, he had eventually averaged out, more or less, with his 5'11", but in terms of physique, he hadn't been quite so lucky.
Until now, apparently. The bands of muscle around his arms even felt alien, so suddenly had they sprung up. They weren't particularly obvious, of course, because even with his enhancements, he'd only really been working out for a couple of months, but they still felt, to him, like they shouldn't have been there at all. His arms felt heavy, his chest weighed down, and now he had to take even more care not to break things when he held them; he had to constantly be aware of his own strength.
But even then, he had to admit...
Part of him liked it. A big part. There wasn't much he could do about that, now.
"I've actually been doing a lot more warrior stuff lately," he said. There was no harm in telling her that, was there? After all, he'd been busy. "Lynn kind of kicked my arse" - and there was a phrase that he'd never said before - "about not being really... well, good, so she's started this sort of extra training routine for me. Attendance compulsory, obviously." He shrugged, his still-fixed-in-place-smile growing a little more bashful, although not at all in the way that he had been before. "It's... interesting."

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Lynn and Ari?
Training?
It sounded more than interesting…
But it did explain the sudden strength to his arms and shoulders. Kira’s eyes gave his arms another surreptitious sweep as he folded them, hotly aware of the sudden tension of his biceps-
“Madeleine must be pleased,” Kira overheard herself saying, “she doesn’t like slackers.”
She remembered Lynn far too well for only having met the girl once. She remembered her smile, and her voice and her freckles. Hadn’t she been taller than Kira… or was Kira’s memory just playing tricks again with her? Arihant’s change was beginning to make her uneasy. As with his confidence. There was something disconcerting about his expression; too many teeth were showing. His eyes were too bright.
He looked so good, though. He looked… seemed so… strong. Confident.
But no-one at ease crossed their arms.
“Well,” Kira cleared her throat, resisting the urge to cross her own. “I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself... Selves.”

[Arihant]

ooc: Honest to God, this was supposed to be a short reply, but... well. You know Arihant :/

"Uh, yeah, I suppose," he replied, distracted. Something in Kira's tone confused Arihant, but he didn't really understand exactly what it was.
Did Kira... He didn't know. Did she not like Lynn? It wouldn't be dreadfully surprising, if that were true. Lynn, while undeniably the more social (and less prone to foot-shoving-in-mouth-idiocy when talking to others) of the Delaneys, was still more or less an... acquired taste, to put it mildly. She came on too strongly, sometimes. Too loudly, too boisterously, too strongly. Some had held grudges against her for making jok-
Ahh.
The thing, months ago - Lynn's telling him that he blushed around Kira, that he had a crush on her. He didn't hold anything against her for that, now, because it had been true, hadn't it? More true than Lynn could have realised.
But maybe Kira hadn't been so forgiving. Maybe she had been offended. He realised that he couldn't know, and that saddened him - the realisation that as much and as painfully as he loved Kira, he still didn't know what it was like to be her friend. A proper friend. Had he ever joked with her like he did with the Delaneys? Had he ever made her laugh?
An awkward silence had passed while he thought of those words, and he found himself at a loss of what to say. It had never been this bad before, had it?
"But enjoying yourself is kind of relative, I guess," he said quietly, glancing away, the mask falling away briefly as he agonised over just how far this had gone, this ignoring her. All the months he'd missed... Could he really say he'd enjoyed himself during that time? No, of course not. It hadn't been him.
And the sickening thing was that, when you considered what he'd set out to do, you'd have to say that he was doing well.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

"Yes," Kira's eyes slid to the floor. "I suppose it is."
The cool glass of the window was starting to burn.
"How is Lynn, anyway?" she asked him.
Funny, wasn't it, how when she spoke, her voice the perfect imitation of cheerfulness? It was just ringing with hollow joy. Did happiness always sound so superficial, or was it just her pretence of it that it sounded so... fake?
Fake to her ears, anyway.
For all she knew, she had him fooled.
And why shouldn't she? They barely knew each other. He didn't know all the little signs that gave away her true feelings- Lee, for example, would be able to say-
Or... wait, would he still be able to, after all this time?
"And Kennedy, of course."
She hated the way she was using their names. She was talking about the Delaney twins as they were old friends of hers; not just random acquaintances. She was talking about them as though she known them for years, not just a few short months.
It was just another lie.
Funny. She wasn't telling the lie- not directly. It was her tone; her smile; the bright empty look in her eyes was telling it for her.
I'm happy, Arihant.
Let's see if he takes the bait...

[Arihant]

He bit his lip briefly, out of impulse, but quickly stopped and raised his smile again, cheered by the thought that he'd just had. He could get out of here soon, if she'd mentioned the Delaneys. He could say...
God, he didn't know, but he could say something.
"The Delaneys are... much the same as ever, I guess," he said, his unnatural smile beginning to make his cheeks ache. "Kennedy, at least, hasn't changed at all. Lynn hasn't changed, really, either, except that when I see her with Jamie - oh, she's an Academic in my year, you probably don't know her - she's a good deal more irritated than usual, because Jamie's managed to get it into her head that Lynn and the guy she walks her dog with - Madeleine's cousin - are romantically involved, and she's decided to bring it up to taunt it with her on every occasion she can find."
And with the mention of Jamie, a way to get out of this conversation became very, very evident.
"Actually, speaking of Jamie, I probably should be going now," he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the broken metronome. Luckily, he was certain that Kira couldn't tell that it was broken - even if she had seen one before, it just looked like it was switched off. "She needs this for her electricity coursework, apparently, and if I don't get it up to her pretty soon she may well murder me."
Lies, lies, lies. He was such a wonderful person.
"It's..."
He swallowed. He didn't want to leave, the gods only knew that he didn't want to leave, but it had to be done. This one meeting could end up being a massive setback for months of progress, and he just couldn't afford that right now. Things were going well, for God's sake!
"It's been nice seeing you again."

[Kira & Lee Norris]

… Russ and Lynn?
As much as Lynn probably wanted to avoid becoming another notch on Russ Ford’s belt- or bedpost, as the case was likely to be- Kira couldn’t help but be mildly intrigued by the fact they were… er… ‘dog-walking’. Though Lynn may deny it, Kira knew Russ. Russ flirted with everybody. Russ had even flirted with her on one occasion, even though neither had any real romantic interest in the other.
Lynn was pretty. Lynn was also a Warrior.
The combination must no doubt be a tantalising challenge for such a well-known Casanova…
Looking at Arihant, Kira felt an unexpected surge of cheerfulness. Improved though his biceps may be, Arihant couldn’t hold a candle to Russ Ford.
The cheerfulness was slapped off her face by the next sentence-
“Actually, speaking of Jamie, I probably should be going now. She needs this for her electricity coursework, apparently, and if I don't get it up to her pretty soon she may well murder me. It's…”
Another girl. Great.
She was being blown off for another girl. Another friend. Just like he’d blown her off for Lynn Delaney… and no doubt countless others. Kira wondered- with a surge of venom equally as powerful as that of her cheerfulness mere seconds before- just what she had done to deserve this. They were friends, were they not? Or had been. She’d been the one who’d convinced him to stay; his first acquaintance at Orchid Hill; she knew the truth about his powers-
Why did all of that suddenly not matter?
Was he even going to acknowledge it?
Any of it?
She waited patiently for him to finish his sentence.
“It's been nice seeing you again.”
That‘s… it?
She couldn’t help it. Her temper snapped.
“Arihant,” Kira cleared her throat, stepping forward and relieving her back of the chill of the frozen glass pane. “I don’t mean to be rude… or anything… but what the hell?”

[Arihant]

Oh, God.
He shouldn't have been surprised. He shouldn't have been, at all. He shouldn't have just expected her to let him go. After all, the last time he had tried that one on Kira had been Valentine's Day, and that hadn't exactly worked out well, had it?
No. No, he didn't mean that. It had worked out well. It had. He was happy here. He was happier than he'd been since his family had died. All of this was possible because of her...
... and yet, she was the one who he was avoiding and who he was hurting like this. And right now, he wasn't thinking that it was some ridiculous overexaggeration of his relationship with her, because he could tell she was hurt. Or angry, but it all amounted to the same thing anyway.
And for a moment, all he wanted to do was apologise and beg for her forgiveness, but he couldn't let himself do that.
He needed to keep going.
He was protecting her.
And so, instead of giving into his instinct and letting her know just how completely, horribly, achingly sorry he was for doing this to her, he kept the mask in full force and played dumb.
"I'm sorry?" he asked, his voice just ringing with fake politeness.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Funny. Kira had thought she had made herself perfectly clear.
After all! These days, Kira and Arihant at all. That greatly limited the amount of subjects she could be demanding an answer to.
In fact, it limited the amount of subjects to one.
A very obvious one, at that.
Why were they like this now?
Why was he being this way- and avoiding her?
Why... well, weren't they friends... anymore?
"You're sorry?" she echoed dumbly, a little astounded by the callous nature of his reply. "Jesus... well I sure as hell hope you're sorry. Or was our friendship really that worthless to you?"