a spark {closed}

Morgan Laiten sat alone in the lounge while it seemed like the rest of the school was running around outside and enjoying the lovely day. That had never been her cup of tea. The last time she'd tried to enjoy the fresh air and the scenery of nature, she'd nearly caught the entire courtyard on fire when she fell asleep in the grass. In retrospect, not her best idea, but she'd been bored staying in all day reading. Which is what she was doing in that moment, actually. A textbook sat in her lap and she peered at it through black rimmed reading glasses. She laid across the entirety of the couch, but didn't think much of it as nobody else was currently in the lounge, and she doubted anyone would come by.

It's not like she wanted to be studying on a beautiful day. Finals were coming up, however, and the Spring wanted to be on her A game when they came around. Anyways, it was probably best for her to stay away from the rest of the world. She already felt like she did more harm than good, and she didn't want to ruin anyone's perfect day.

Far and away the most influential change of the postwar decades lay in the Great Depression. If World War I represented the political collapse of Europe, this catastrophic downturn suggested that Western capitalism was likewise failing... Morgan was about to doze off when she heard the door open behind her. Pretending like she didn't notice whoever was there, she tried her best to pay attention to the Great Depression, which wasn't exactly a cheerful nor interesting time in her eyes. While she seemed relaxed, her back was rigid and she was on edge, hoping whoever showed up just left once seeing the room was occupied.

When a male's voice called out, she sighed. He could only be talking to her. Looking up from her book and peering over the top of her reading glasses, she raised an eyebrow, trying to seem indifferent as she studied him. She noticed his clothing choice first, then the way his shirt clung to his body. Doing her best to move on from that detail, she studied his face. The way his pale pink hair was still damp from what she presumed was a shower, (maybe swimming, hopefully not sweat.) the duffle bag on his shoulder, a noticeable Australian accent, a friendly smile on his face. Morgan supposed she couldn't be too upset. This was a public lounge, after all. With the intent of being used by people of all different houses. It was merely serving its purpose.

Morgan turned back to her book as she spoke, trying to make it seem like she didn't care either way. In reality, she didn't mind the company. It had been a bit too quiet in the large room, a bit too lonely. "It's not my lounge, so I can't exactly stop you." It was flat, but there was a bit of a smirk present as she spoke.

Morgan tried to stay interested in her textbook, she really did. Unfortunately, she hadn't done anything interesting all day and now that there was finally a way out from the torture of studying, her mind kept pushing her to take it. Without her control, her eyes occasionally migrated upward to the stranger, before she caught herself and looked away. She didn't know what was so interesting. It was just some guy.

She raised an eyebrow when he spoke, looking up from her book and trying to appear uninterest while she made note of his name. "I'm Morgan. I've been here for years." She said flatly. Still, she felt her cheeks heating up without her consent. "I just don't get out much..." It was true, people often asked her that very question. In reality, Morgan just tended to focus on her studies and did her best to stay away from the student body.

Peering up from under her bangs, Morgan noticed his discomfort in bringing it up and she felt herself smirk a bit. It's not that she enjoyed making him uncomfortable, and she could tell that he was trying. Still, she didn't mind making the conversation a bit difficult for him. She wasn't used to talking to strangers, and it filled her with anxiety and made her want to get up and dart away, but she had to stay where she was and face it like an adult. "Really? You seem pretty social to me." Considering he wouldn't leave her alone. Besides, she was fairly certain he was just saying that to make her feel better, and she needed no sympathy from him. Morgan chose to be a recluse, she accepted it. She didn't need him to pretend to empathise with her.

A bit annoyed, she turned back to her textbook and attempted to read, but it didn't take long for him to speak again. At first she rolled her eyes, but she could hear the compliment in his words, and couldn't prevent her cheeks from flushing again. She looked up and saw the tilt of his head and he really did look pretty, even though she was fairly sure that he was trying, which should make it obnoxious and pretentious and she was even more annoyed because somehow it wasn't. "Spring." Was all she said, and it came out a bit harsher than she intended. She really should try to be nicer.

She smiled despite herself, a contrast to her earlier coldness. It was a small smile, but it was a real one and the first that she let slide during the whole conversation. Still, she didn't bother with a response, as he immediately dived into another subject. She didn't want to be interested, she really didn't. But when he talked like that, she could practically see him lost in a memory of home, and it fascinated her. The way he made it sound, it made her wish she could go outside and appreciate the day even more. But she knew that it was a bad idea, and pushed the idea out of her head, turning back to her textbook, with the full intention of studying. There was a long moment of silence between them as he stared at the ceiling, and she stared at the same sentence she had for the last five minutes.

She couldn't get him out of her head. Something about the way he talked about his home made her feel a bit better about being here, distant from the world. It made her miss her old home a bit too. Not the one she had been at before coming to Beata, but when she lived with her mother and father and got to feel what a happy life was like before she burned it all down. So she nudged at the subject. "Australia, right? What was it like?" The redhead asked a bit timidly, totally alien to her previous tone, and she looked at him with a shy gaze as she waited for an answer.

It all sounded so different to her. It sounded strange and beautiful, but she enjoyed hearing Jonathan talk about it more than the description itself. He sounded like he was in love with it, and was caught in a happy memory, which she could understand. Some places just brought joy to your heart when you thought of them. For her, it was Brazil. Definitely not Ohio.

When he complained about the winter, she smiled softly. For her, weather was never a problem. In the summer, she was used to the heat, and nothing could beat the temperature of her body. In the winter, she was automatically warm, and didn't feel the bite of the cold the same way everyone else did. The one and only advantage of her power, she found.

When Jonno asked her a question, Morgan blinked in surprise. She hadn't actually expected to talk about home, but after all of his sharing, she did feel a bit more comfortable, and wanted to reminisce about her country the way he had. "Yeah. I miss it." She pulled her sleeves over her hands in a nervous gesture, looking up at the ceiling as she remembered her childhood. "I grew up in a city right in the middle of the Amazon. The rainforest was beautiful. My mom would take me out there and we'd spend hours exploring. The weather was a bit shit, though. Humid and always raining, but the rain made everything so much more vibrant and alive and it was like a living piece of the jungle." She had a faint smile on her face as she spoke and even after she was done, still caught in the memory.

It took his voice to shock her out of thought, and she hadn't realized she'd been sitting there smiling like an idiot until she came back to herself. Flushing a little with embarrassment, she almost went back to scowling and pretending to be uninterested, but something made her want to keep talking. She blamed it on the fact that she was talking about Brazil, not on the fact that she was actually enjoying talking to Jonathan. Because she wasn't. She couldn't care less, really.

A bit more timid yet again, she nodded as she looked down at her hands. "It was beautiful." She murmured, before looking up. "I moved to Ohio when my parents divorced, and nothing can be more boring than that. Here's not that bad. Especially considering it's all about magic." She said, shrugging. She actually enjoyed being at Beata, though she treated it like any other school. There was always something interesting going on that she never really participated in, but at least it saved her from boredom.

Morgan couldn't even imagine who Princess could be. A girlfriend? A pet? "Princess?" She asked cautiously, unsure of the answer she'd get.

Morgan frowned a bit. So he had been through the same thing as her. It hadn't been fun, having to hear her parents fight nearly every night after everything had been so perfect. It hadn't been fun, having to hold her little sister and cover her ears so she could fall asleep without hearing the family falling apart. Or having to leave the only home she had ever knew, to move to a weird and boring city in America when her english was bad and people either obsessed over her or made fun of her.

For the first time, Morgan almost laughed along with him. She hadn't expected Princess to be a bird, but she supposed that was better than some cringy nickname for a girl. Not that she would have cared if he had a girlfriend. "She sounds lovely. I only have a pet rock." She said, before she could stop herself. After the words came out, she blushed. She hadn't realized how comfortable she'd gotten in the conversation, how she had stopped overthinking everything she said. And now she'd gone and said something embarrassing like that.

Orange pulp. She let out a sharp, bright laugh, the first actual laugh he had gotten out of her since he'd arrived in the longue and forced a conversation on her. Not that she minded too much. She hadn't really made any friends at the school, despite how long she'd been there. Though she wouldn't consider this a friendship just yet, it was a pleasant change to have a casual conversation like this, something she didn't know that she lacked in her life.

"I'd say that's weird, but I suppose I have no room to judge, since I still have one now. His name is Jimmy." She tucked her hair behind her ear, looking away. "My mom gave him to me when I was a kid. It's probably stupid to still have, but oh well." Morgan hadn't known at the time that her mother had a power like hers. For the longest time, a pet rock had just been a childhood pet rock, but then her mother had left and she developed her power and realized why she had given it to her all those years ago. Tantalum didn't melt, and she didn't heat up when she touched it. Plus, she could never have a living pet. And sometimes, that just got lonely.

I think it's kinda cute, like you. Oh god. Her cheeks flushed and automatically she clammed up, a slight frown on her face. She had been opening up, slowly growing more comfortable throughout their conversation, but the compliment wasn't something she was used to, and the way she dealt with things like that was... well, she didn't really know how to deal with it, actually, other than shutting him out again.

Morgan listened to Jonathan try to change the subject, frown still etched on her face. But she was just as welcoming of a distraction as he was, so she nodded to the window. "Are you going to show me, then?" She asked, eyebrow raised as if to say she wasn't impressed until he proved it.

Morgan didn't want to smile, and she most certainly didn't want to find it cute the way he leaned out the window (which probably wasn't very safe) to call out into the sunny day. She only smiled because of how ridiculous he was being. Yeah. That was it. She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for his pet bird to come flying in on command like he claimed she would.

Only when she heard the bird did she believe Jonathan. Her eyes widened, and she got caught up in excitement for a moment, moving towards the window to stand by him. How bizarre was it to have a pet bird that came to you on command? "I'm impressed. Jimmy never does that for me." She said, deadpan, though she couldn't hide the subtle upturn of a smirk.

Morgan smirked, rolling her eyes at his bad pun. Still, she couldn't help finding him funny, as much as she tried to appear otherwise.

Pet her... Morgan's smile dropped, replaced by a deep sadness in her eyes. She held herself closer and looked away from Jonathan and his bird. This is why she didn't talk to people. While they had their little conversation, she had actually begun to enjoy herself, and now that there was a blaring reminder of her unfortunate predicament, she felt her mood come crashing down again. Just fucking great. "Oh, I'm sure she is. I don't think Princess would want me to pet her, though." While she talked, she didn't even notice the fact that her pout grow more and more prominent. "I kind of burn anything one I touch... pretty black birds included." She mumbled out as an explanation.

You could still pet her, if you want... No, that's the point. She couldn't touch anyone. It wasn't a power, it was a curse. So why did he look so happy? She listened to him with narrowed eyes as he explained to her, using all dramatics, what his power was. Instantly forgetting her earlier glumness, her eyes widened in surprise. So her power wouldn't work? She could actually act like a normal human for once and not have to cower away?

She studied his hand for a moment, her cheeks flushing, heating up even more than her already high temperature. She'd never held someone's hand before, if you didn't count her little sister or her parents. And even then, that was years ago, when she was just a child, before her powers manifested. She looked between Jonathan's expecting face and his outstretched hand, trying to work up the nerve to take it. It's not that she didn't believe him, it was just that her brain was hardwired to stay away from contact. What if he was wrong, and she did burn him? She reached out slowly, before gently placing her hand in his.

Nothing happened. He didn't back away in pain, didn't glare at her with angry eyes. His hand felt cold and soft and nice in her's, which was a strange feeling. She could feel the heat of her body begin to drop down to what she assumed was a normal temperature, as if all the pent up heat within her was just... gone. Still, the heat on her face only grew, and she couldn't make eye contact with Jonathan as she clung on to his hand.

Morgan stepped forward, tugging him along with her until she stood in front of Princess. The bird gave her a curious look, and Morgan smiled sincerely. "Hi, pretty." She'd never been this close to a bird without it flying away. It's eyes were black and focused on her, but they didn't appear to be malicious. She reached forward with her free hand, still wary of hurting the creature, but she squeezed Jonathan's hand as if to remind her that there was nothing to be afraid of. For this moment, she wasn't a monster. When her hand began to stroke down the bird's back in the way she'd watched Jonathan, the bird appeared to lean into her touch. 

Looking up at Jonathan, she smiled, completely and utterly open and happy. She didn't know how to thank him for this moment. Her eyes were a little glassy, but if anyone ever asked about the time she got teary eyed over a bird, she'd set them on fire.

In the quiet serenity of the moment, Morgan could hear students laughing and talking outside, the general hubbub of school life. For once, it didn't irritate her. She didn't find it annoying or obnoxious that they were enjoying their day. From the open window, she felt the sun soak her skin, warming her up. That in itself was a new feeling to her, something she hadn't even known her power prevented her from feeling. It was like she was seeing the world in a completely new light.

Morgan had completely forgotten about all things studying and textbooks, her's still left open on the couch. Normally, she wouldn't do something as careless as leaving an expensive textbook in a public place, but this wasn't a normal exchange in the least. It had been ages since she had a meaningful conversation with someone, especially one that involved black birds and holding hands upon their first meeting. Caught up in all the excitement and new sensations, she had quickly agreed to go with him, nodding her head a bit too enthusiastically without a second thought. Inwardly, she winced at her readiness to agree. In the back of her head she thought about how unlike her this all was. She really had to rein in all this bubbly, girly shit that had seemed to take over her in the last few minutes. It was embarrassing, really.

"I mean, I don't have anything better to do." She replied coolly, trying to appear aloof once again. She turned away from him, her hair hiding her face as she reached out her arm to Princess, a gentle smile once again gracing her face as the bird flapped her wings and made her way onto Morgan's arm. She was quickly becoming fond of this bird, and though she'd never admit it out loud, she couldn't help feeling a growing affinity for her owner as well.