Algid (#TronnorAU)

Chapter 13: Rain

-"Oh!"—she said—"Then, if you mind me asking, what was it?"

Well, there it was again. The keen interest in entering his head, knowing what was going on. The eternal struggle of the student of the mind, like all shrinks, applied just as perfectly to Lisbug and her quest into figuring out Connor. And like usual, he wouldn't give her the way in. However, this time, the tables had slightly turned.

Connor crossed his arms and sighed. For the first time ever since he had gotten this stupid punishment of sorts, life was giving him a chance to actually use it for something. He had the whole entire story down to the tip of his tongue. And he would have been lying to himself if he'd say he didn't want to talk about it. But this was way out of his character, and for pride purposes he would never budge that easily.

But he was all out of pride.

-"... Something happened."—he said, finally—"On Tuesday. And ever since, I've been bummed out. I skipped Wednesday's meeting because I've been avoiding... talking. To anyone. Not just you."

Lisbug nodded, and then took out her trademark notebook and a pen, and started writing down some things.

-"So let me guess..."—she said—"You still don't want to talk about what happened, don't you?"

She didn't need to raise her head to see Connor nodding, since she already knew the answer to that. Instead she took out her phone, and started scrolling through something Connor couldn't see.

-"... What exactly are you... doing?"—Connor questioned, a little baffled at her sudden lack of interest.

-"Well... I thought I'd show you something."

She kept scrolling through her phone, and kept talking while Connor actually did listen intently.

-"You see I thought that I would try something different with you. You don't like sharing your stuff with me, and I understand that. I'm not going to force you too if you don't want to, of course... but that doesn't mean we can just stop meeting each other."—she then looked at Connor and grinned—"So I figured that I'd try sharing some things about me with you first."

At this proposition, Connor raised his eyebrow, interested in what sort of theory she had come up with.

-"Like this, maybe one day you will grow to know me better enough... to talk to me about the things that bother you. For real."

The idea sort of made sense, if it were meant to be an equivalent exchange of sorts. But to Connor it still sounded a bit silly.

-"So, an eye for an eye and a deep dark confession for a deep dark confession?"—he asked—"It sounds like a longshot."

-"Which is why we're... starting slow!"—she said, finally stopping her scrolling down, and then showing Connor her phone.

A picture was up on the screen, one several kids in costumes that looked young enough to be in elementary school. They were all dressed as farmers of sorts and some others as animals of all kinds, and they seemed to be on some sort of stage. They were smiling, and looked genuinely happy. Lisa pointed towards one of them.

-"Looks familiar?"—she asked.

Connor scooted closer to the picture and squinted his eyes to see better, and noticed the red and black patters of a ladybug in the costume worn by a short, smiling blonde little girl. She had a huge pair of circled glasses that weren't flattering to look at all. Suddenly it made sense, and his eyes widened in surprise.

-"Yup! That's me!"—Lisbug announced, putting her phone away—"That was the first play ever I did, and well, I have to say I've been stuck with the hobby ever since..."