Sensory Overload

[Arihant]

So this is Orchid

Arihant readjusted the strap of his bag and stared up at the building ahead of him. He hadn't thought it would be- Well, was it really necessary for it- Why was it so big?

He'd seen plenty of tall buildings in his time, sure. Having lived in the capital of Austria for about a quarter of his life it would be pretty much impossible for him not to be well-acquainted with such eyesores as the 'skyscraper' (an invention that he was quite certain the world could have done well enough without, population explosion or no population explosion.)

But this was... different. Those buildings had been offices and apartments, for the most part - grey, obviously giving preference to utility over aesthetics. This building was unlike anything he had ever seen before. Hell, it was like something out of a fairytale. So large, so aristocratic... It was opulent.

To be honest, Arihant had never been entirely comfortable with opulence.

He swallowed nervously and shifted his violin case from hand to hand. He had to stop staring, really - he was beginning to get strange looks from the various people milling around the front gate. But it was hard. Every facet of this building fascinated him, but at the same time terrified him out of his senses. At first glance he was able to think of, on the spot, about a dozen reasons why he wouldn't fit in here, and that number was steadily increasing with each passing second. He was fighting the temptation to just turn tail and run while he still could.

But he had to remind himself that this couldn't be done logically. No matter how many reasons he found to outweigh his decision to come, he couldn't leave now. What he came to find was worth... everything. More important than anything else in his life, especially any trifling discomfort that he would feel being surrounded by these rich people in this fantastically massive building.

OK, so he wasn't actually sure if they were rich. He managed to get in, after all. But they'd at least be used to it. The strange looks he was getting for continuing to gawk were rapidly increasing in number and incredulousness.

Unfortunately, he couldn't make himself go in just yet. He'd need a little time to... recuperate himself. If anyone asked he could always claim jet lag, after all. They didn't need to know that his flight had only been three hours, and that he was pretty much in the same condition as he had been this morning.

He set his violin and laptop bag carefully at the base of the stairs that led up to the front door, being extremely cautious not to harm his most prized belongings, and, sighing, sat on the third step.

He'd just need a minute, that's all.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

So this was it.
Kira was just going to do it. She was just gonna... gonna go down there and end it. She was going to go to Deron and... and... they wouldn't shout or anything... maybe they would a little... or... argh... she'd... she'd...
First of all, she'd ask for an explanation. Why Steve? Why attack him- and why would you actually attack the others to get to him? Those were her friends; Macy and Jude mattered to her, and although she didn't know Steve very well, she knew how much he mattered to them. And Deron had... she...
She guessed she didn't know what to make of it.
The sad part was, she knew one thing for certain: she wasn't surprised.
Kira stepped outside the doors; outside onto the steps, to join the throng of pupils that ran in the snow outside. Soon, she reckoned, soon it would melt. Today was the first day of February- that's when it got warm again, wasn't it? Well, it didn't feel it. Kira pulled her coat around her more tightly, tugging on her scarf. A small boy pushed past her, pulling a girl behind him, who was laughing, and Kira caught her breath.
God. Since when did first-years get it right? Stupid romance. Stupid... stupid...
Eugh.
Just break up with him. Then... then come back here, sit in the Dorm and look at yourself in the mirror for a bit. Look in the mirror, and remind yourself why it didn't work out, why it will never work out, and why she should just... not.
Kira had gotten the bad blood from her Aunt Black, she supposed. That must be why it didn't work out for her. Lee and Bethany were her cousins, and both were engaged before they were 18. That was insane. But Kira's aunt had been a different story. She'd been... well, there were guys, but it'd never worked. That's what Kira's mum had told her.
And that was why Kira should just not bother. Because she'd end up just like her aunt. Deron was just the first.
So let him be the last.
Kira stood still, looking down the steps; then, with a sigh, she took one step. Then another. A third and she stumbled slightly.
As she looked up she saw a boy, sitting on the step below her and... well, he was just sitting.
Kira stood behind him, certain he wasn't even aware of her presence; yet she watched him keenly. He was new. Look at that; a violin. Kira caught her breath. She'd always wanted to learn the violin. And... something else. A computer thing. Like what non-magic folk used. It looked a bit flat though. Did it get squashed?
The other students stared at him; some, at least, with the decency to pretend they weren't, even though they were. But they all moved on; they all places to go. Half of the people who walked by were hand in hand. But this guy...
He was alone.
Why was that?
Kira, realising she'd just found a good distraction, sat down beside him, and smiled at him.
"Are you okay?"

[Arihant]

He flinched violently in shock.

Well, why wouldn't he? After all the strange looks people had been giving him - he tried to tell himself that he couldn't care less about them - he wouldn't have thought that someone would actually approach him. People rarely did, after all - he was a master of invisibility. Of just becoming part of the backdrop that other people led their lives in front of.

But that was how it worked in the city. It wasn't going to be the same here. He had only been to one school in his life, it was true, and that one had been relatively small, but still - Everyone knew everybody. And new meat was always intriguing.

He must look like a gormless fool now, he realised, glancing at her smiling face. "Are you OK?" she asked.

"Um... Yes," he answered, his voice a little breathless from the shock she'd given him, and turned to face her (trying to subtly move a little further away in the process). He smiled back, but was certain he must look ridiculously apprehensive. He wasn't tremendous at the whole contact thing. "I- You-"

OK, this wasn't working. He spoke English fluently, but it wasn't his mother tongue and it would never be his instinct. He swallowed and laughed bashfully, starting again - "I'm sorry, you just startled me a little. Hello." He offered her one gloved hand.

He couldn't meet her gaze for more than a second. As usual, he thought sadly, being sure to keep all traces of this from showing on his face. Well, he didn't want to scare her off.

Not yet, anyway.

"My name's Arihant," he said softly, continuing to stare down at the ground between them, but at least managing to keep the smile on his face. "I'm new here."

[Kira & Lee Norris]

"My name's Arihant." He kept his eyes to the ground the whole time; seemingly oblivious to Kira's attempts to catch his eye. "I'm new here."
Confused, but intrigued, Kira reached out, and shook his gloved hand. Gloved... because of the weather? Yes, probably. Kira frowned at herself. Why would she even think otherwise? Oh, right. She had that over-active imagination thing going on.
"Yeah," she giggled. "I guessed. The violin and computer bag were a bit of a giveaway..."
She paused, still watching him carefully. Then, suddenly, she let go of his hand, and her own fell to her side. He didn't look too eager to make conversation- or at least, he'd been confused by her approaching him. Had she been too forward?
"I'm Kira," she said, after the silence had begun to get to her.

[Arihant]

He sighed a little. It was obvious that he was making her uncomfortable - far too obvious for his liking - and he really, really didn't want to. It wasn't his fault that he was shy, but... it wasn't her fault either.

He raised her eyes to meet hers, and was promptly quite startled. He hadn't ever seen such a startling shade of blue before in his entire life - no one had had eyes like that in India, and he hadn't exactly socialised a lot in Austria. They're really pretty, he thought before he could stop himself, then promptly flushed a little. He thanked God that his skin was dark enough that she probably wouldn't be able to tell.

It wasn't going to be easy to break eye contact now.

OK, time to try and put her a little more at ease. He smiled shyly (he found it rather difficult to smile any other way) and brought his hand back down to rest on his laptop bag.

"Kira..." he said, the word sounding completely different when he said it with his quiet Indian accent. It wasn't overly noticeable, but it was still there. "That's a really pretty name."

Actually, come to think of it, her accent had sounded rather unfamiliar too.

"Sorry if I'm mistaken, but... Are you from here?"

He sounded ridiculously bashful, but at least he was trying. It was more than he'd spoken to any other person for a very long time, after all.

((OK, two information things I'm putting in here that I'm not entirely sure about, namely that Kira's eyes are blue and that she doesn't have an English accent (which is what Ari's expecting to hear). If either of these aren't true, I'll be happy to take them out XD))

[Kira & Lee Norris]

((Yeah, lol, you're fine. Kira's eyes are blue, and she's actually Irish.))

"Here?"
What did that mean? Scotland? Orchid?
"You mean... Orchid Hill?" she said, and flushed, feeling incredibly stupid. "Er... sorry. Right. I'm from Ireland; you know, near Dublin."
She smiled awkwardly at him; hoping that he wouldn't take her to be a complete idiot. She couldn't really tell what he thought though; he didn't really give much away with his eyes. But then again, Kira thought to herself, why would he? He was just being polite.
"You're from... India, aren't you?"
It didn't really need to be asked. His looks gave him away; his dark skin, dark eyes and dark curls.
But his accent... it was quite faint. And he spoke very good English. That told her he was probably from quite an educated background... either that, or he'd moved from India to an English-speaking country.
Orchid Hill was such a long way from India... was he really well-travelled?

[Arihant]

"Good guess," he said, smiling self-consciously. "Yes, I was born in India - in a little town near Bangladesh."

He wanted to tell her more - he didn't quite know why, he supposed it was just intoxicating to be speaking to someone else after so long. But it was more than that, there was something... different about her. Something that made him want to tell her everything.

He guessed she was more dangerous than he'd originally thought. Not that she meant to be - at least, he thought she didn't mean to be - but it was definitely dangerous for him to be around someone who filled him with the urge to divulge his deepest and darkest secrets. And there were plenty of them, to be sure.

He tried to turn the conversation back to her. It wouldn't be safe for him to keep talking about himself. "Ireland..." He thought for a moment. "I've always wanted to go there," he said, and thankfully he was telling the truth for once. "They have such beautiful violin music."

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Kira smiled. "There's good things to be said about it, for sure..."
She loved Irish music too. And Irish dancing- the watching, not the doing of. She'd never proven herself to be particularly apt at it, though she always thought she'd have liked to have tried her hand at ballet. The sad thing was, though, Kira wasn't in the least bit accomplished in any performing arts- she'd like to be... she just... wasn't.
Maybe one day she'd learn to sing. Maybe one day she'd teach herself piano. Maybe one day...
Heck, Arihant could even teach her violin!
Looking back at him for a second, she laughed a little self-consiously, aware she'd just drifted off for a couple of seconds. "The music doesn't make up for the wet, though. It's always green- I bet you don't get any of that in India?"
Now... what would he say next? Tell her about India... or tell her he lived somewhere else?

[Arihant]

He was taken aback when he heard her laugh. No one had laughed around him for a very long time now - he didn't know what it was, but something about him just seemed to make people... more tense than usual. Of course, he knew that they had good reason to be, but he was never completely sure how people just seemed to know what he was. What he could do. It was always better to assume that people noticed more than they got credit for, after all - if he hadn't, he doubted he would have managed to evade the police long enough to come here.

He knew it would be safer for this girl to treat him like the others did, but all the same... it was nice. Just sitting, in the snow, talking, getting to know each other - a lot of people would take it for granted, he knew, but he'd never be able to.

He decided he should make the most of it while he could. He'd tell her about India, hard though it was... Well, he'd had enough practice at pushing away unpleasant thoughts.

"No," he said slowly and seriously, the smile falling from his face as he concentrated. "There's... very little green there. Well, except for some of the saris, but that's much brighter than this." - He gestured at the tall, snow-covered trees - "It's too hot for a lot of these plants to grow there, you see.
"It's mostly reds - well, reds, golds, oranges, browns, yellows - all the warm colours. And noisy. The streets are always busy with children and merchants, even at night. I know, it sounds horrible, but after a while you get used to it.
"I suppose... well, no matter what's wrong with it, it'll always be home, right?"

He was practically whispering by the end of this unusually long speech (well, unusually for him), because he knew that that bright, bustling place would never truly be his home again - it would only ever exist for him in memories. It was hard to talk about it - harder than he thought it would be. Too hard.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

Reds, golds, oranges, browns, yellows; all of those warm, rich, autumn colours... Arihant hadn't gone into a lot of detail, but somehow... somehow he'd still managed to paint the picture vividly before her. She could picture it all so clearly too; the dusty Indian street, blistering in the yellow, wavering sun. And she could see the merchants, calling out to passers-by, as children ran, shouting and laughing...
Drawn irresistably to his dark eyes as he spoke, Kira smiled at his memories, and at his voice as it seemed to soften...
"... it'll always be home, right?"
"Home," Kira echoed, a little foolishly, then sat up straight. "Yes. It doesn't sound horrible... just... not horrible," she couldn't think of a proper word for it. "Um... do you miss it?"

[Arihant]

"Do you miss it?"

That just about did it.

"I, uh... I- I-" He tried to answer, but the words seemed to seize up in his throat, sounding more like gasps than any human language. He did miss it. He missed it so much. He missed... he missed them.

The thought of it - of home - thinking of it at all had been harder than he had thought it would be, but this... This was different. This was... this hurt!

His hand went involuntarily to his throat as he tried to calm the lump that was rapidly growing there - for the first time in months he saw them consciously. It was different to seeing them in dreams. The dreams were usually a relief, because he was able to forget what he was in them. It was almost like it had - he had never happened to them.

Memories of them swirled in front of him, with little regard to the fact that he was shaking with near-horror. His mother's gentle mouth and resonant voice, his younger sister's eyebrows, arched in irritation, his proud brother's defensive eyes and his father's large, placid forehead - strange, disconnected pictures, to be sure, but it was them, they were alive, they were safe, happy -

Then he remembered the screams.

He squeezed his eyes closed for a second and focused on pushing them away, keeping them out of his mind, stopping them from haunting him every waking moment as they had for so long. He knew he deserved every second of pain he felt, but he just... he couldn't stop himself from blocking them out. It was too hard.

After a moment, their clamouring presences faded to a beautiful, peaceful... nothing.

He only realised what he was doing when it was too late - he must look so... so bloody psychopathic sitting here, arched forward as if he was in pain, clutching his throat with one hand and his stomach with the other and breathing so heavily and shakily. He froze for a second, not knowing how to proceed. This poor girl - Kira - she must be deeply disturbed.

"I'm... I'm sorry," he apologised shakily, moving slowly out of his hunched position. "I just... I..."

Tell the truth, dammit.

"I thought of something that I shouldn't have."

[Kira & Lee Norris]

As Arihant slumped forward; his hands flying to his throat, Kira was immediately struck by some horrible instinct that she'd over-stepped her mark, and said something... something wrong. And as she watched the back of his dark curls, a deep, incredible concern swept over her... and a sudden, strange desire to put her hand on his shoulder, and comfort him...
... except... except what would she say when she didn't know what was wrong?
Finally, he moved, shakily. "I'm... I'm sorry. I just... I... I thought of something that I shouldn't have."
Kira stared at him for a couple of seconds, chewing her lip. "No... I'm sorry. You don't have to apologise for anything."
She raised her hand for a second, about to place it on his shoulder, when, suddenly, she caught herself, and let it drop.
"I've always been too nosy for my own good," she muttered, looking away.

[Arihant]

He stared at her incredulously while she was apologising to him. Why was- He didn't- He couldn't understand why she was doing it. He'd just... looked mad. Mad. That was what he was, anyway. He must have been.

Sometimes it felt like insanity would be a relief.

"No... I'm sorry. You shouldn't have to apologise for anything."

She made as if she was going to touch him for a moment, and for once he - he tensed. He couldn't turn away. He didn't... want to.

This girl really was dangerous.

He breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed once she'd moved her hand away. He wouldn't have been able to stop her.

"I've always been too nosy for my own good," she murmured.

And he was doing it again. "No, no," he said, quickly and nervously, able to look at her face without shame now that her eyes weren't on him. She was unlike anything he'd ever seen before, so light, so pale... She almost looked like a fairy. An upset fairy.

He didn't want her to stay that way. He spoke to her, his voice still a little shaky, but much improved. There was nothing like present drama to keep your mind off the past.

"It's not your fault, really. It's not, I just - Well, you know."

He paused for a moment, making sure that the pictures wouldn't come back.

"Bad memories," he said, trying to smile.

[Kira & Lee Norris]

No, she didn't know.
And, suddenly, unexpectedly, Kira felt a spark of annoyance. Never mind that they'd just met; were just random acquaintences- she didn't really think about that. She just knew that she wanted to know more...
God, she was a nosy pig, wasn't she?
So, Kira suppressed her questions; her familiar, burning curiosity, and nodded, and smiled, pretending to understand him.
"Come on," she said, standing up. "I'll help you take in your stuff. Orchid Hill's a bit of a maze when you first arrive..."

[Arihant]

He smiled back at her from his seat for a moment, forgetting to be bashful and avert his gaze as he usually did. He was just so relieved that she wasn't upset anymore. "Thank you very much," he said gratefully, ever polite.

He continued speaking, a little more nervously than usual (Why?), as he picked up his violin and his laptop, and adjusted his backpack. "You're right, it did strike me as really... intimidating when I first got here. That's why I was down there." He gestured towards the ground.

Why did I tell her that? He froze for a moment, a little perturbed, but then continued as before. It didn't matter if she at least knew that much.

He slung the computer bag deftly and gracefully over his shoulder and secured his scarf, then he swang his violin into the other hand. At least one good part of... of what he was was that clumsy activities like this were a good deal less... clunky.

Then he stood up straight and looked down at her. There wasn't a tremdendous difference between their heights, he realised. He felt rather short for a moment, but shook it off quickly. "OK, I'm all set," he said, glancing towards the large and intimidating front door.