(OOG: I suck in this scene. ^^ Enough said. Jo, I figured it was time to kick it to Nisan, so let the fun begin... Sorry for being so quiet, but a little thing like school happened, among other things that should not be spoken of.)

Funny, how things ended up turning out.

"We're almost to Nisan," Elanore murmured quietly from her stool, kicking her legs back and forth as she strained to adjust her eyes to the dimness of the infirmary. Kandi had called for 'lights out' more than an hour ago, and that left them in the dark with everyone else. Kyoko's pallid face was easy enough to see, but her eyes were eerily shadowed - it was hard to tell if they were open or closed.

But then again, if she ever really wanted to see if her friend was asleep... the snoring would probably give it away.

"How much longer?" Kyo deserved credit; she may have been weak and sick, but her voice was still strong. "I'm getting tired of the whole sand-cruiser thing. When it crashes to a stop like this every night, anyway."

Elanore smiled and shrugged, stilling her legs and propping them up on the metal frame of her friend's bed. "Marien says we should get there some time tomorrow. I don't know if they'll let Darius off the ship until he's done with his part of the repairs, but they're going to send you off to someone for treatment." If Nisan was anything like Aveh, she wasn't sure a doctor there would be any better than the Ygg's infirmary - which wasn't /bad/, but it was nothing like home - but who was she to say? It wasn't as if she'd ever seen Nisan before, much less been there long enough to assess their technological competency. "I'll probably stay with you."

Kyo snorted. "/Probably/? Ha. You know you will." She flicked Elly's leg with a finger and leveled those dark shadows of eyes. There was just no hint of expression to draw on at all, and it made Elly nervous for some reason she couldn't define. It was times like this that she realized just how much eyes revealed about a person's thoughts and feelings; it was a convenience she just took for granted most of the time. "You should make him work for it, you know. Don't be such a softie. Guys like to take advantage of that."

"I'm not being soft..."

"Like hell. You fall on your face every time you're around him. Don't you have any experience with this sort of thing?" Only Kyo's tone felt gentle - the rest struck Elly with something akin to shame. "You really should get away from him for awhile. Sure, he's a great guy and he likes to fall on his face for you too, but... come on."

Elly hesitated, biting into her lip. Her teeth settled into a familiar groove - it didn't seem to ever heal, and she was starting to grow accustomed to the coppery taste of blood. "Come on... what? I don't quite-"

"We met him a little over a month ago. Now, I'm not going to tell you that I don't believe in 'love at first sight' and all of that stuff, but I /am/ going to tell you to slow it down and give it a rest for awhile. Take it from someone who's had lots of relationships and not much success, okay?" Kyo shifted, pushed herself up against the pillow until she was sitting up somewhat stiffly. It seemed to pain her, but she waved the offered hand away. No, she was definitely not one to be weak... "If you guys are in love, it's not going to go away if you don't see him for a week. And if you're not, then you should probably figure it out now before you get too serious. It doesn't take a genius to do it - just a little patience."

"Wait, wait..." Elly scraped her lip with her teeth and winced - that one went a little too deep. Maybe she should take up biting her nails instead? "Who's talking about... about love? I mean..."

Her friend's eyebrow arched. "What else is it? Doesn't look like a stupid crush to /me/... not that I'm an expert or anything."

In love with Darius? Things were going a little fast, but... love? She remembered love, vaguely, in some shadow of her mind that she had not been able to unlock yet. She remembered infatuation, back at Jugend when Lacan had... But no, it was nothing quite like what she was dealing with here, with Darius. He was very, very different somehow, and she just couldn't put her finger on /why/.

Was it... love?

"No... no, I don't think it's that serious. I can't... love someone when I can't even remember my own parents' names. Or where I grew up, or how I got here, or whether or not Lacan is..." She snapped her teeth shut and bit her lip again with a vengence. Blood wasn't so bad, suddenly - not if she didn't swallow it. Then she'd just be sick.

"Lacan...?" Kyo grinned crookedly, eyebrows raised. "You've got a regular fan club, don't you? I wish I could be that popular with the guys. Who's this Lacan fellow?"

"Just... just someone from school..." /Why/ was she blushing over this? It was just all of this talk about Darius - Lacan had only ever been just a friend. That was all. And Darius... well, he was undefined at the moment. She couldn't very well slap a label on him if she didn't know what she felt for him.

"Look, Elanore..."

Elly shook her head with a wave of hair, and licked her lip in hopes of stopping the blood. "Yeah, I know. Don't worry about it." She let her feet fall and crossed her ankles, hating that everything on the sandcruiser /had/ to be metal - it was starting to get really cold, and all she had to protect her from the temperature was Kandi's thin dress. She hoped there was still a blanket or two left in the cabinets. "I'll try to take your advice. Maybe... maybe I am being a little too clingy to him right now."

A /little/ clingy? Kyo was right - she was practically trying to attach herself to Darius. She liked him... /really/ liked him... But what if it was all just an illusion? What if they were clinging to each other just because they needed some kind of comfortable space to wait in until they managed to recover? She was slowly regaining her awareness of her past... but it was still a long way away, and it would be a /long/ time before she felt ready to go home. What if all of this was just her mind's way of fooling her into feeling 'safe' until she could get her real security back?

There was nothing bad about seeking sanctuary with people... But building up pretenses of emotion just to suit that need... that was a bad thing. And she didn't want to end up hurting someone if that's all this was.

It didn't feel so insignificant... but... But maybe Kyo really was right. Maybe she should obey her friend's instincts with this, since her own seemed to shut down whenever she was around Darius.

"You know..." Kyo's casual drawl brought Elanore out of her thoughts, and she lifted her eyes to the shadows obscuring her friend's face again. "Marien's not bad."

Elly stared. "What?"

Another grin plastered itself on her friend's face. "He's a little older than what I usually look at, but... he's not bad. Kind of pretty, actually. Maybe you should enlist him to give you a tour of Nisan when we get there - it sounds like he'd know his way around."

She opened her mouth to reply... and closed it again. The drugs were probably just making Kyoko crazy. "You /must/ be joking. /What/?!"

A laugh, quickly stifled with a glance to Kandi's side of the infirmary, burst from Kyo's lips. "Ask him to escort you. I'm sure he'd be happy to do it - I bet he's /such/ a gentleman."

Elanore stared again, open-mouthed, as her friend snickered. How could she suggest that? It was so... so /wrong/. After they were just talking about how she felt about Darius, and... "/Where/ did that come from? Are you crazy?" She could feel her cheeks growing warm again, and felt rather grateful that the room was as dark as it was.

"I told you, make Darius work for you a little." Another snicker, and Kyo spread her hands innocently. "I didn't say go smooch Marien in a corner. I told you to have him give you a tour around the city - you get the benefit of knowing where we're going when it's time to start wandering around, and he gets to dig about whatever it is he's so interested in about you. Win-win situation."

"You're... crazy," Elanore replied faintly, at a loss for anything else to say. It wasn't a bad idea, but with the way Kyoko presented it...

Kyo continued relentlessly. "Just watch - Darius will start getting shifty and jealous. Maybe it'll make /him/ think about this situation too, if he thinks he's got to fight for you. If he feels it's worth it, I guess there's not a problem." She shrugged nonchalantly, sliding a few inches beneath the blanket. "Meanwhile, you get to walk around with mister knight-in-shining-armor, thank him for saving you, and.... well, that's up to you."

Elanore pressed her lips shut and half-glared at her companion, not trusting herself to comment on the suggestions quite yet. After a moment, Kyoko rolled her eyes - a gesture only discernable by the way she tilted her head, since her eyes were shadowed - and started again.

"Just go with it, Elly. Marien's a nice guy, no need to worry. He'll probably know what's going on the minute he sees you wave mournfully to Darius." Elanore kicked the bed, and Kyoko laughed again, this time more softly. "I hear there's a festival coming up - perfect atmosphere for lightening things up, don't you think?"

Elanore surrendered with a shrug and a sigh, and a meaningful look in her friend's general direction. "Fine, but no more ideas out of you for awhile. I'm starting to think those pain-killers they're giving you are warping your mind - as if it wasn't warped enough already."

Kyoko's trademark insolent grin was her reward. "Just try it, eh, Elly? If I'm wrong, you can yell at me - and if I'm right... I get Marien."

Elly snickered and tried to hide her grin, only to fail miserably. If only they knew...

(Summary: Elanore informs Kyoko that the Yggdrasil will arrive in Nisan shortly, and they discuss what will happen with Darius and the crew when they arrive.)