Who is Magpie?

“Ezekiel?” Magpie asked, having sat in silence until she heard Tidas close the second door at the top of the stairs.

He loved the way she said his name, with a hint of an accent she didn’t remember getting that rolled through the letters in a tone no one could possibly imitate. Dwelling on her calling him almost made him forget to answer her, but as she said his name he wanted to say hers as well. He gently cleared his throat and when she looked up at him he almost lost the word.

“Yes Magpie?” Her heart skipped a beat at him saying the name she had heard hundreds of times from anyone else but never before from him.

She felt more heated, like her face was on fire but also like she wanted to be sick. If she had had a panic attack before she would have guessed this is how it would feel, as her heart also raced along and contributed to her overwhelming feeling of unwell. She stared at him for only a minute through her lashes before looking down again.

“Why did you stay?” He didn’t understand the question, looking vaguely at her, so she continued. “When your father left, his fake errand would have been more convincing if it had included you.”

Ezekiel had become distracted, staring at her lips as she spoke, so it took him a moment to reply. “Honestly? It’s a lot up there right now, and I’m exhausted.” He lied terribly, but Magpie couldn’t see how his presence could hurt her when he’d already spared her life so she didn’t pursue it.

Letting the moment drag Magpie smirked and gave a short, light laugh. “Ezekiel?”

This time he was faster on the draw. “Yes Magpie?”

“Is it really already night?” She asked, feeling slightly hungry but not willing to admit to it.

He nodded, smiling at her. “It is, probably at least eight or nine by now.”

She nodded as well but then muttered. “I can’t believe it took me a whole day to learn that flip.” She touched her shoulder at the memories of learning slowly.

“To learn that? In just one day? That’s wonderful, I don’t know many who be able to do the same.” Ezekiel praised, interrupting her self-deprecations.

She wasn’t easily swayed. “Not where I’m from. That is a major disappointment. I was often called a slow learner, I thought I was passed that.” She sighed, ending her thought there instead of with her saying out loud how she was a disappointment until the end.

“I can’t imagine anyone thinking of such a thing as a failure.” He replied honestly, keeping his eyes level with hers.

“Thank you.” She tilted her head like another angle would help her understand him better, but it didn’t so she asked. “Why are you being kind?” He returned her confused tilt. “The other cells don’t have any mattresses, so I know the padded floor isn’t normal. You’re talking to me like someone you met at the bus stop often, not like someone who has tried to stab you while you slept. You have nothing to gain by being nice, I was caught red handed, you don’t need all this extra information.”

Starting off by sitting in the open space his father left, he sighed. “I wouldn’t begin to know how to describe it, but I don’t believe you’re the same person you entered my home as.”

She laughed again, and she was sure this was the most she had ever laughed. “I wouldn’t begin to know how to understand that.”

He chuckled. “I know.”

She could see the exhaustion in his face, and, despite knowing that it was her fault he hadn’t slept, she worried. “You should get some sleep.” She spoke softly, and the change in her tone caught his attention.

He wanted to ask her, but from the research he had done on the Mensdillia flower during the day he knew she wouldn’t be able to understand why or how her tone was different; just like she didn’t know why she didn’t normally laugh. Ezekiel sat for longer than necessary playing those five words over in his head. He wanted to remember exactly how she said it, every inflexion, every syllable, even how she looked at him like she was looking at him as a person and not her target.

“Yea.” He finally replied, standing up. “I’ll send someone to clean the glass.” He considered sending Bronx, as he was the only person he trusted, but them remembered he has seen her earlier without checking in with him.

As he turned to go Magpie suddenly felt a pang of something. She thought it was fear, but she wasn’t sure what the fear could be for. Loneliness wasn’t something she had worried about before.

“Ezekiel?” She said suddenly, just as he was approaching the door, and he turned to her, trying to hide his surprise and joy that she had called him again.

“Yes Magpie?”

She was going to ask for dinner, but the thought suddenly made her feel ill. “Would it be too much to ask for another blanket?” She amended. “I’ll pay the price.”

He chuckled. “You can have another, free of charge.”

She smiled warmly, and he went to the cupboard to pull out another, cringing slightly at the scratchy material. Returning to her cell he tilted the bundle to fit through the bars. Magpie went to the very edge of the cot, trying to keep off the floor and stretched as far as she could.

She wasn’t incredibly tall, but between the two of them reaching she was almost there. Just as she was about to close her hands around the blanket her hand around the chain, that hung the bed like a laundry shoot door from the wall, slipped and her hand closed around his.

Electricity.

Their eyes locked and her heavy breathing increased. She felt a heaviness in her chest with an inability to understand why she felt this way. Ezekiel let his thumb curl up and rub over the back of her hand. The skin there was smooth but wavy, and he noticed lines of scarring that ran across and over her knuckles.

When she saw his eyes shift from her to those scars she pulled her hand and the blanket back. “Thank you.”

“My pleasure.” Was all he said before leaving, and both parties were left in very different phases of wonder.