Out By The Milliways Lake

[argyle_princess]

She's not dressed for it, and it's cold, and she ought to go back to history class, but some days, after some conversations, a girl just has to run. This is one of those days, and that was one of those conversations.

And so Hannah is running. She's running and she's not thinking about anything but running and that suits her just fine.

And if her eyes are watering, it's just from the cold air out around the lake.

Comments

[politestpirate.livejournal.com]

He shakes his head, quietly.

"Hannah, obviously something has happened, and things are not exactly fine- which you do never have to tell me, if you do not wish. But just that they have, and have upset you-"

Wellard smiles sadly.

"If you cannot go to pieces here, where else can you go?"

[argyle_princess]

"I can't. Someday. Maybe. But not right now . . . I just can't talk about it," she says miserably. "I'm sorry."

A moment, and then she says more firmly. "I don't like going to pieces."

[politestpirate.livejournal.com]

Wellard starts to raise one hand- then lets it drop back to his side as he bites his lip.

"And if it ends up being never, that's quite alright." Softly.

"I don't think anyone does."

[argyle_princess]

"I'm not sure it is quite all right," she says. "I just know I can't get into it now."

She looks over at him and there's a smile -- small but real.

"Thank you. I think you're the kindest person I know."

[politestpirate.livejournal.com]

Wellard blinks, and chuckles quietly. "If you do say so, Hannah. But it is just what anyone really should do."

[argyle_princess]

"Maybe," she says quietly. "But I don't think it's what most people would do."

[politestpirate.livejournal.com]

"... Perhaps. But a good portion of the world..." Wellard bites his lip.

"A good portion of the world is those sorts of people. That doesn't mean you or I should be them- and I would dare say that most people here are unlike most of the world- worlds, even- either." He takes a deep breath, and gives her a faint smile.

"So, that is what we do then, even if most people won't. Because that is who we are."

[argyle_princess]

"I live in a world with very few people like you, Henry. Very few," she says, so quietly that he might have trouble hearing her.

And she's not sure that's she's one of them.

[politestpirate.livejournal.com]

Wellard bites his lip, then reaches over to lightly touch Hannah's arm.

"Mores the pity, then. You certainly deserve someplace better."

[argyle_princess]

A slight shrug. "The world is what it is."

And by "world" she, of course, means "high school."

"Anyway," she says, voice getting a little stronger, "at least I have here, right? To visit."

[politestpirate.livejournal.com]

He nods, smiling faintly. "You do have Milliways, thankfully."

[argyle_princess]

"Yeah," she says.

"You're gonna get cold if we just stand around, you know."

[politestpirate.livejournal.com]

... Not that he would really admit if he was, but Wellard still nods.

"We could go to the bar, or to the Pearl, if you'd like. Either or."

There are not really a lot of options for places to go, here.

[argyle_princess]

"I don't think I'm ready to go back to the bar," she says. "Sometimes it's a little . . . too much to take in?"

It's sort of like a decision.

Kind of.

[politestpirate.livejournal.com]

"Too much noise, too many people, all at once." He nods.

"Would you like to go out to the Pearl, then?"

[argyle_princess]

"I think I'd rather walk, if you don't mind."

Or run, but that makes conversation difficult.

[politestpirate.livejournal.com]

"Not at all." He turns, to both motion to the path along the shoreline, and to offer her his arm.

"... Apparently this whole place, back here, that's supposed to be Scotland? Was made by magic."

[argyle_princess]

Hannah takes his arm.

"I wonder why anyone would go to that much trouble, and then pick Scotland."

[politestpirate.livejournal.com]

"Maybe that's where they were from, and felt homesick." He smiles a bit wryly. "That is the best explanation I can think for it, picking a place you missed, like that."

"Though someplace warmer may not have been a bad choice either."

[argyle_princess]

"I guess everywhere is home for someone," says Hannah. "Accept places that are uninhabited."

And then smiles, because there's something absurd about that statement.

"What do you think of as home?"

[politestpirate.livejournal.com]

He opens his mouth to reply-

Then closes it, thinking.

"I- well, I grew up in London, but... The house in Bloomsbury has long since been sold off by now. Then I lived in Kent, at my great-uncle's." Wellard shrugs, biting his lip.

[argyle_princess]

"I've been to London, though I think it's probably very different now, but I don't know anything about Kent.

"Home can be more than one place."

[politestpirate.livejournal.com]

"I would guess so." Quietly.

"Its... a place you're from, and seek to return to, I warrent. At least, so it seems."

[argyle_princess]

"My parents are divorced," she says. "I don't think that's real big in your time, but it's pretty common in mine. And they sold the house I grew up in when they split up. So when I say 'home,' sometimes I mean Mom's and sometimes I mean my dad's. And sometimes I still mean the house I grew up in."

[politestpirate.livejournal.com]

"Its not that common." He shakes his head, then takes a deep breath.

"They died when I was eight. First my father, then my mother. My grandparents- my mother's parents, were lost at sea about a year before that, and my father didn't have any family, nor did my grandfather, really. My grandmother's family, the Brights-" Wellard bites his lip, thinking of how best to explain this.

"My grandfather, Henry Morrison, was self made. He was in the navy and saved a duke's life. He ended up with being knighted, and awarded some money, which he used to start his company." He smiles a bit wryly.

"Not high born. A commoner, starting a shipping and trading company, free from the East India Company- and even worse-

"He did quite well at it. He then met my grandmother, and they ran off to Gretna Green, against her family's wishes. They didn't have much to do with her, after that- I only met my great uncle after my parents died." Quietly. "My mother contacted him, after she fell ill."