Bliss (Dawn)

[Wren O'Hara]

Despite a long day of classes, Wren was feeling rather pleased. For one thing, he’d gotten a nice, long swim in that morning, which helped to assuage his guilt over the Halloween candy he’d been pigging out on since last Thursday. As an added bonus, he had found the student lounge completely empty on his way back from Home Economics. It wasn’t that he minded the other students, per se; he could often be found in the lounge even when it was crowded, passively laughing at other people’s conversations and watching with interest as his peers fought over the television remote.

It was just that finding it empty for once was a nice change of pace, and he wasn’t about to complain about the lack of distractions for a few moments before he had to high-tail it to math class.

With all of this in mind, he allowed his bag to slide off of his muscled arm and onto the floor, where it landed with a dull thump on the carpet. Then, he made his way over to the drink machine and, with practiced efficiency, inserted two quarters which he’d retrieved from the pocket of his shorts. He pressed the third button down, and a can of grape soda tumbled out.

He pulled the tab back; the soda popped open with a carbonated hiss, and he took only a second to relish the first sip before settling onto the couch in front of the television.

Ah. Bliss.

As an afterthought, he rummaged around in the front pocket of his bag for his hard-won spoils of the previous class: three cubes of individually-wrapped semi-sweet baking chocolate, which had been left over when Wren’s group had finished making their confection. It was hard-won because he’d won an arm wrestling match for it, fair and square, and he reminded himself of this as he unwrapped the first piece and bit off the first corner.

Satisfied, he reached for the television remote and began flipping through channels slowly, because of the time it took him to read the captions on the digital catalog.

[Deleted]

Dawn sighed as she stared at her pockets in defeat. Out of all the chocolate candy she bought she ate all of it in a weak. Only Oriel would understand how impossible that would sound, two full bags of candy bars...She sighed and slowly made her way to the lounge room. Hmm...nothin' interesting here right now...She glanced at some boy at the soda machine and then sat down nonchalantly.

She didn't know the guy and she didn't even feel like introducing herself, so she didn't. Instead she just took out her journal and a pencil and went back to the page where she had been drawing a panther. She started to color in the eyes, making sure that she didn't mess up the elegance of the panther's eyes. She was so wrapped up in what she was doing that she almost didn't notice the boy having chocolate in his  hands...almost

She looked up and stared at the chocolate as if it was the last food on earth. She was as still as a statue except for her eyes and her that licked her lips from time to time. She wanted that chocolate, it wouldn't be mean to ask and even if it was she didn't care. "'Scuse me..." She then slowly got up and walked over to him, never taking her eyes off the chocolate. "May I have one?....p-pl-please." One day I will be able to say that word without stutterin'.

[Wren O'Hara]

Wren had only just settled on a channel – ESPN 2 – when his rare moment of solitude was interrupted by an underclassman with bright red hair. He didn’t recognize her, and so he took a single moment to take a visual inventory of her before looking away; she seemed content to sit in silence, and if she was, then so was he.

He settled back into the couch as though nothing had happened, still nibbling happy at his square of baking chocolate and turning his focus to the panelists on First Take, who were discussing a heated naming controversy involving a popular professional football team.

It took him a few moments to realize that the girl had stood up; he hadn’t heard her initial words, and so he looked up to find her blinking down at the chocolate in his hand hungrily. He gave her a polite, slightly bewildered look.

“Huh?” he said, eloquently, as per. He looked back down at the two untouched squares of baking chocolate that he’d rested on the arm of the couch. “Sure.”

He took a moment to rub off some melted chocolate onto his shorts before fumbling for one of the wax-paper-wrapped cubes.

“It’s baking chocolate, though,” he informed her, because he felt that she deserved to know. Baking chocolate wasn’t exactly everyone’s taste. “I mean, it just has sugar and cocoa in it. It doesn’t have milk or anything.”

Satisfied that his civic duty had been done, he handed over the chocolate.

[Deleted]

Dawn listened to the sound of some talk show. Something about football which she cared nothing about. She watched as he explained to her what chocolate it was. Like she cared, it was chocolate! Chocolate anything was what she ate. She smiled at the happiness of it all and nodded her head. She then grabbed the chocolate and went back to her seat. She didn't like football so she saw no reason to sit by him.

"Thanks..uh...what's your name?" She didn't want to just call him that-guy-that-gave-me-some-chocolate...that was just weird. She then took a mini bite out of the chocolate...not bad. Tasted weird without the milk but it still had chocolate which was she cared about. "You know...the only chocolate I don't like is the one with fruit in it, toffee and sherbert." She shivered in her seat at the horror of eating those things..."And don't get me started with fruitcake." Yeah...she pretty much tried all the chocolate in the world, even chocolate pizza!!

[Wren O'Hara]

The girl took the chocolate readily, seeming unfazed by the lack of milk. Wren, who made something of a hobby out of being silent until he was spoken to most of the time, turned back to the television.

A beat of silence passed before she engaged him in conversation again. He looked over and made his best effort at being attentive. As an afterthought, he wiped at the corner of his mouth to remove any excess chocolate from it.

“I’m Wren,” he supplied politely. He thought about asking for her name, too, but by the time his mind had caught up to real life, she was already talking again. He listened patiently, nodding. He personally enjoyed toffee and chocolate with fruit in it, but then, he wasn’t exactly known for being a picky eater.

His lips quirked into a small, amused smile at her reaction to the thought of fruitcake.

“Yeah, fruitcake is gross,” he agreed, taking another nibble from his own piece of chocolate; it was almost gone. “I had chocolate with cayenne pepper in it once. My sister bought it for me as a gag gift.”

He paused for only a moment before pushing the remainder of the chocolate into his mouth.

“It was pretty good, though, actually,” he finished, his words slightly slurred due to the chewing.

[Deleted]

Dawn nodded and ate the rest of her chocolate. Then she sighed in satisfaction and didn't really say anything for a while. This usually happened to her during and after eating chocolate. It was as if someone gave you drugs, they did whatever with it and then stayed silent in their stupidity. Dawn smirked at the thought and closed her eyes. "Pepper? I don't care much for spicy foods, but I will try it one day...ever have chocolate pizza?"

Food talk was so easy, you could probably get her to talk about food forever. She then wiped the crumbs off her paper and drew in the outline of the panther's nose. "What else you like?" Her voice had an uncaring tone to it, not that she meant to. It was just that she wasn't really involved with people when she was concentrating, in fact she didn't like getting involved with people...it just seemed to happen.

[Wren O'Hara]

After they’d both finished their chocolate, there was a long, peaceful silence that was broken, once again, by his new companion.

“It’s worth it,” Wren assured her. He perked up noticeably at the mention of chocolate pizza, as though he couldn’t possibly hope for such a wonderful thing to exist in real life. “No. Where do you get that?” he asked, visibly interested. Chocolate pizza sounded like the perfect thing to eat for dessert after a dinner of nachos; he approved heartily.

Meanwhile, he stared pensively at the last remaining square of chocolate. Once again, however, she caught his attention, and he blinked politely.

What else did he like? He pondered it for a split second.

“Swimming,” he said truthfully. He realized a moment too late that she had probably been talking about food, and he let his eyes linger on the carpet for a moment, embarrassed. “Uh, nachos. They’re my favorite food.”

He watched the end of her pencil move for a little bit, mesmerized. Then, he unwrapped the lonely cube of chocolate and split it in half with strong hands. He held the other half out to her, reaching over the arm of the couch in a slightly uncomfortable stretch.

“Split?” he asked amicably. “Whatcha drawing?”

[Deleted]

Dawn nodded with a huge smile on her face. "Oh yeah! It was at some restaurant...forgot where sorry. There are recipes on the internet! Really tasty...they put chocolate pudding instead of tomato sauce, chocolate chips instead of sausage...it's brilliant!" She then stopped smiling to concentrate on her work again. She really didn't pay attention to anything after that outburst of hers.

She then nodded slowly, never leaving her eyes off the panther...almost done. "That's fun..swimming calms down nerves. Nachos ain't half bad either. I prefer Italian food the most, I don't care what's healthy and what's not." She smirked as she finally finished her drawing. She then remembered something and started to color in the face lightly so that it would look grey, that way people could tell what animal it was.

She looked up at Wren and smirked, he was stretching too far. She almost wanted him to give it to her that way, but she was too nice, whether she admitted that or not. She grabbed the chocolate while leaning so he didn't hurt anything and then mumbled a thanks. "My name's Dawn by the way..." She wasn't used to introductions anymore, ever since this gift she had been nothing but uncaring...well ever since this year anyway. "Oh! It's a panther...what you think?" She held up the picture to him with a small smile. It was a good drawing, not an artist's drawing of one but not bad.

[Wren O'Hara]

Wren listened carefully as the girl detailed the exact components of chocolate pizza. It made him hungry; he wished he was a little better at cooking. Maybe by the end of the semester… Yeah, for sure. At the end of the semester, chocolate pizza would definitely be had.

“That sounds amazing,” he said, pining after the mental image without reservation. His eyes glazed over dreamily; he was still thinking about pizza by the time Dawn had moved on to swimming. He snapped back to attention, surveying her again.

“Yeah, it does,” he agreed, smiling a small, warm smile. There were few things more calming than a few good laps around the pool, in his opinion. “The diner in town makes really good nachos. You ever been?” he asked, curiously. Now that he thought about it, she looked a little new; or, rather, Wren thought to himself, she didn’t strike him as weird enough to have been at Hammel for very long.

He was relieved when she met him halfway to grab the chocolate, and let the quirk of his lip advertise it. He leaned back into the sofa and nursed his gently fizzing grape soda with a few sips.

He was also relieved when she offered her name without being prompted – Wren probably wouldn’t have asked otherwise. He was always conscious of the natural flow of a conversation, and didn’t like to disturb it much.

“That’s really good,” he praised, examining her panther drawing with interest. “A lot better than I could ever do. I like how you shaded the face; makes it more panther-y.”

He plopped the entire half-block of chocolate into his mouth at once, then, shifting his body so that he took up a little more of the couch. He’d been almost certain that more people would be pouring into the student lounge by now, but apparently someone had failed to let down the floodgate for the afternoon.

[Deleted]

Dawn made a small smile and stretched, hearing change in her pocket. "Oh yay!!" She didn't even realize she had change...She picked up the change and counted 50 cents from it, then she looked at the Coke machine with a huge smile. She went over there fast, put the coins in, grabbed the drink and then sat back down again.

"Yeah I do that a lot..." She smirked as she recalled talking to her Mom about what she wanted to do when she grew up when all of a sudden she saw something that entranced her. "Thanks by the way, I like cats..a lot. I would hurt you if you hurt an animal." She nodded seriously so he knew she was being serious. Then she drank some of the coke and chuckled for no good reason. "What's your power, gift or curse?" She smirked at the different nicknames that people have told her about.

[Wren O'Hara]

Wren watched with interest as Dawn discovered the change in her pocket and ran over to the drink machine. She was a very straight-forward girl, he thought to himself.

She also said whatever was on her mind, apparently, and her serious warning about animal abuse caught Wren off his guard.

“I would never do that,” he replied, equally seriously. He made eye contact so she knew that he meant it. “I like cats. I mean, I don’t have any,” he admitted. His sister was allergic. “We have a dog at home. But I like cats.”

He suddenly felt a pang of longing for home, for his teasing, allergic-to-cats sister and for his greyhound Frida and her goofy, adorable spotted face. It was over quickly, considering; the longer he stayed at Hammel, the easier it got.

Abandoning all consideration for anyone else who might enter the lounge, Wren threw his legs over the other arm of the couch and laid on it in earnest. He positioned his neck comfortably on the other arm, so that he could look at Dawn upside-down.

He snorted. Curse was a good word for it, in his opinion.

“Uh, I turn invisible in water,” he informed her, ready for the laugh. It almost always happened – either they laughed, or they gave him that subdued, politely amused face that read wow, that sounds like the most useless power ever.

“What’s yours?”

[Deleted]

She watched Wren's face turn to a serious one as he talked about his animal and what he would never do to an animal. This caused her to smile happily, she didn't have to whack someone today. "Good...I have a cat. Not much of a dog person really. Fluffy is my cat's name." She found herself looking at the ground as she remembered Fluffy cuddling up her leg. "I'm gonna miss that fur puff..."

She smiled wide once she heard what he could do. Awesome!! He could freak people out, sneak up on people, drown people...so many things!! "Awesome!! You could do so much." What could she do?...She looked at the ceiling with a huge 'look-what-I-can-do' expression. "Heal fast...very fast. I love experimenting, but I know it ain't good to do."

[Wren O'Hara]

Dawn smiled, and Wren smiled in return. Chocolate could do a lot for a budding friendship.

He nodded sympathetically as she talked about her cat; yeah, he definitely knew that feeling. He wanted to tell her that it would go away, but his conscience, which was incredibly active, refused to let him lie.

He looked up to see her still smiling, which made him feel better. It wasn’t something he was used to, though; seriously, everybody laughed. She insisted that he could do a lot of things with his power, and he quirked an eyebrow, amused.

“Like what?” he asked, genuinely curious. “I could use the ideas. I’ve always thought it was kind of a pain,” he admitted.

Cell regeneration, on the other hand, was very cool, in Wren’s opinion.

“That’s very cool,” he said longingly. “Useful. I could have used it the other day. I had a bruise the size of…” he trailed off, struggling to think of something very large. He’d never been much for geography. “Canada,” he finished lamely.

[Deleted]

Like what? She gapped at him as he asked that strange question. "You could sneak up on people, drown people, scare people, pull people in the water, cheat on a swim race...you name it!" Sure most of that, if not all, were morally bad ideas, but she was a bad role model which is why she didn't want kids, well one of the reasons.

She chuckled as he said it was useful. Yeah it was! She could go get a sunburn and once she got home it would be a tan! Okay..maybe that was a lie but who cared? " Canada is pretty big." She laughed and sighed. She then looked at the TV. "Why do you like football?" Maybe he didn't but she had to ask anyway.

[Wren O'Hara]

“I think I’d get arrested if I did all of that,” Wren said with a crooked grin. “They test everyone in swimming competitions now, anyway,” he added with a little less enthusiasm. He knew this, of course, because he’d tried to sign up for a junior championship after his manifestation and had been denied.

He looked away for a moment, pensive.

“It is,” he agreed with her comment about Canada. “I went to a swim meet in Montreal once. It’s a nice place.”

They sat in silence for a few moments after that; on the television, the panelists had moved on from the NFL naming controversy and were now showing a college football highlight reel from the previous week.

He looked over at her question, which caught him a little off guard.

“Um,” he said. “I mean, I don’t love it, or anything. I just like sports in general, I guess.”

He felt like that wasn’t really the best answer, so he decided to elaborate.

“I admire them because it takes a lot of stamina to sprint like that for a whole game,” he added. “And ‘cause I grew up watching it, I guess. It just seems like fun.”

He paused.

“Do you not like sports?” he asked, not unkindly.