She groaned as she was waking up. Blinking, her vision came blurry. She slowly raised an arm and wiped off the remaining crust out of her eyes. For whatever reason, it was harder to get them out than usual. It was the kind of inconvenience that wasn’t big enough to be a problem, but still enough to be annoying.

‘What, why…?’ Every single one of the ‘W’ questions went through her head. Visible confusion was present on her face as her eyes met with clean, white sheets. She could distinctly remember having blue bedsheets…

She jolted in her place. Surprise, disbelief, fear and frustration immediately roared alive within her chest.

The girl stared at a wall as she recalled the events prior to her loss of consciousness. She wouldn’t say that she felt like she was reliving the events but a few close-calls definitely sent chills up her spine. How did she dodge that– she doesn’t know! But the rush of memories confirmed her suspicions.

She has magic.

A trickle of annoyance bubbled in her chest. This line of thought had already gone through her head multiple times and a part of her still didn’t want to believe it. She couldn’t believe it. Because if she had magic– the word was just barely choked out even in her head– that meant a lot of things. So many bad things that she can’t even recall a single one. It was just bad, period.

Despite that, she just couldn’t help but… close her eyes. And feel.

What was she feeling? It was the strange, warm feeling behind her eyes– or was it in front of her eyes? Oddly enough, there probably wasn’t a proper answer. It wasn’t that there was something there, at least physically, but she knew and could feel that there’s something there.

She wondered how- “Hey! You’re awake!”

An embarrassing squeak came out of her mouth. She was feeling mortified, but then froze at the sight of the children from the orphanage.

A conflicted expression settled on her face before she could hide it. She didn’t even think for a moment about what they would think of her, thought if they would look down on her. Her mind immediately went into overdrive, she had to escape, escape. They were going to kill her, going to–

“Hey—?” The deeper voice of a teenager could be heard.

She slowly craned her neck to look at him. From what it seems, he realized her panic and raised his arms in surrender, trying to calm her down. She untensed, if only because she didn’t know what else to do. The jumpiness didn’t leave her system and continued to stalk her insides.

“I.. um.” The girl cursed herself for opening her mouth without thinking.

“Hey miss Witch… can you do that thing that makes the leaves fly?” It was the familiar boy that whined when she first introduced herself.

‘Oh right,’ She thought. The wind that she cloaked herself with blew away the scattered leaves. One of them even flew into the mouth of a teen who was yelling out a warcry, making him choke for a few moments before coughing out the leaf.

Said teen was at the back, scowling. She didn’t realize that she was giggling until she realized he was scowling at her. How he realized what she was thinking she didn’t know, but out of respect she chose not to mention the rather comedic moment.

Some of them continued talking, but she was only half-listening. At one point, it was only fear that plagued her thoughts. She had subconsciously voided her newest bonds and thought that meeting them once more would only be trouble.

But perhaps, it hadn’t been. She wondered if she could hold onto this warmth forever.

Feeling calmer, she smiled. It was small and barely noticeable, but it was there. She wasn’t even sure why they were worrying about her so much. They’ve only known each other for a few hours at most, yet they worry about her like family.

In a fleeting moment of hope, so brief and sudden, she thought, ‘Perhaps… they do think of me as family.’

To her, it was foreign. The feeling of reliance on another, that is. Even if it was only recently that she was left alone and forced to face the world by herself, she still couldn’t get the mindset of distancing herself from people to fully disappear. Thomas is an exception, the boy didn’t look like he could hurt a fly without tripping on himself. ‘No offense, Thomas.’

This warmth however, she couldn’t accept— Not fully anyway. Not now. But maybe… she looked up, breathing in the air and feeling it fill her lungs, maybe… in the future.

–

Time continued to pass in… wherever she was. The girl was sat up on the bed, finding it rude to talk to people while lying down. The tightening feeling from her body not moving the entire day was annoying. Despite that, she would admit that today wasn’t entirely wasted. She got to learn more about the other children. Finding them interesting, she compared it to being introduced to new characters in a book.

One girl was named Rosiana. She was very sweet and– as one would expect– had bright red hair. Apparently, she very much likes music, as she harped on about it when the conversation went from traveling merchants that sold random stuff to the church choir’s singing that you could encounter while traversing through the village.

The next was the unshameful boy who said what was the first thing on his mind. He broke the ice both when she first met the kids at the orphanage and now, when she feared that they would hurt her for being a witch.

He was once the son of a merchant, explaining his lack of hesitance in engaging into conversation with strangers. How did she know that? Well he dove straight first into the conversation when they were talking about traveling merchants; Opening with a “My dad was a merchant too! That was before he was killed.” His voice was chirpy but held sadness underneath.

Needless to say, everyone was silent for a few moments, even the ones that already knew. But the boy seemed eager to continue the conversation, unbothered by the darker topic. So they continued, trying to keep their minds off his words.

“You’ve all skipped lunch, so at least eat your dinner!” It was old lady Quentin.

It was true. The girl realized that she felt horrible physically because she hadn’t eaten either. Suddenly, the familiar feather-light sensation on her fingers made more sense. It wasn’t the first time she had gotten herself to move with barely any energy after all.

“– Hey c’mon, let’s see what’s on the menu!–”

“– Oi, Oi! Don’t leave without me!–”

Looking around, she could see other children also recovering in their own beds. Their friends were still in clumps of groups talking to one another. Though, they slowly gravitated towards the door, which leads to the kitchen. She assumed they were going to get food for their stay-in-bed friends. Which brought the question;

How was she going to eat? Or more specifically; get up, walk across the room, get a bowl of food and come back? The rumble in her stomach did little but emphasize the helpless situation she found herself in. You could practically see a tiny cloud of depression forming over her head.

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“H-hey, you look hungry… Do you need help?”

The girl made a strange sound that resembled a yelp of surprise despite being muffled by her hands. Behind her, she could hear a nervous half-laugh half-cry. Quickly turning her head, she came face to face… With another girl!

Unlike her, she instead had beautiful golden hair. Her simple clothes usually worn by commoners were in bright, vibrant colors that could be seen in only the rarest of flowers. ‘I didn’t even know it was possible to use dye to that extent…’ The little witch thought. She didn’t have the chance to think of a good name for the colors in front of her since she forced herself to respond.

“O-oh, you’re…” She stuttered, before abandoning her own words, not actually knowing what the girl’s name was. “U-um, yes! I-I do need help…” The first half of her sentence was filled with energy, only to quickly dwindle in her own anxiety. ‘Why am I like this?’ The witch internally cried.

Unbeknownst to her, the blonde girl was practically in the same boat. ‘Wah… I shouldn’t have said anything… I’m embarrassing myself…’ She thought, pinching the ends of her vibrant shirt. She usually wore a large, dark coat; Not unlike what anyone suspicious trying to hide would wear.

“O-Ogey…” And her tongue was tied, butchering ‘okay.’ Neither of the two even specified what the witch needed help with, essentially letting the other guess what they were thinking. Being too awkward to really say anymore words, the blonde-haired girl went to the kitchen area with hasty steps.

‘That was weird…’ The witch could easily admit that neither of them really participated in the conversation. Nonetheless, she had to swallow the lingering– Instinctual– Fear that she feels around people. She clenched her hands hard, as hard as her weakened state allowed anyway.

This fear, it may have helped her at the start, but she can’t live like this… Can’t survive like this. To her annoyance, she could compare herself to a stray cat on the road; Fearful and untrusting, unsightly. Full of resolve, she thought to try her hardest to break out of her shell.

Just as she was thinking that however, her mind quickly shifted to panic as somewhat-familiar rapid footsteps could be heard. Why? In front of her… the same girl from earlier was carrying several plates on each hand!

“L-let me—” The witch practically flew out of her bed to reach for the girl, who was still carrying plates of food with shaking hands.

It was a bit of an understatement to say that she miscalculated her current strength.

“—Aah!—”

“—W-woah!—”

Both of them fell on one another, the witch girl pathetically catching her own leg with a foot and the vibrant girl from the sheer weight she was carrying. Naturally, everyone in the orphanage took very keen notice of the sound of breaking plates, as well as confidence. Yay for anxiety.

–

“—Achoo!” Sniff.

Much to their eternal relief, the headmaster only punished them by having them clean up the rooms before bed-time for a few days. Apparently, she saw the entire interaction and felt pity for both of them. When she said that, the vibrant girl made a quiet sound like she was dying inside while the witch girl seemed too shocked to even react.

Click

The witch girl sighed, she stopped wiping the floor for a moment and went to close the open door. For whatever reason, it opened and closed as it liked. There isn't even wind inside! After that however, she took a moment to think. Working with someone wasn’t as bad as she thought…

She blinked, then again; Neither of them were engaging in conversation. The vibrant girl made an effort not to meet with her eyes, not that she noticed, she does the exact same thing.

“...Hey, can you pass me the broom…” The witch whispered, she kept glancing every so often at the other girl’s side of the room, making sure she finished before offering her rag to switch with her broom. Without seeing much room to argue, the vibrant-clothed girl wordlessly handed her the broom and vice versa.

The room was quiet, if you took out the sounds of sweeping dust and soaked rags running across the surroundings that is. Both of the girls could feel the thick air just barely sliding into their throats, in the manner one would call ‘breathing.’ Nervousness was crawling inside their bodies like pestering mice that never leaves. Despite the mutual feeling, neither seemed to notice it in the other.

…

But what if they had? Or what if one had noticed? The witch girl tried to glance discreetly at her cleaning partner, checking to see if her eyes were fooling her. She could see it; Tenseness and a certain lightness in every movement, nervousness. ‘Like me…’ She thought.

A storm of internal arguments brewed inside her. If every string of words were a person, it would form the mental imagery of a whole mob chaotically pushing and swatting at one another. It was a standstill, and yet, she couldn’t help but recall back to her own words. Not that she ever uttered them into this realm we call physical, but even in her mind, it still stands.

For what she's about to do, the girl could feel something in her chest building up. An emotion that was blending and mixing into the lightness of both hunger and nervousness, making her feel woozy just for a moment.

The little witch girl turned to her partner cleaning some shelves, “H-hey, it’d be weird not knowing each other’s names right?” She stuttered, forcing the words out of her throat like the innards of an animal falling out, nervousness included. Rapidly, she spoke before the girl could even open her mouth, not wanting to make a bad impression. “Of c-course– I need to say my name first, since I’m the one who brought it up!” She added hastily.

With a blank face as though she was still processing it, the vibrant girl nodded. A shaky smile formed on the witch’s face, “It-it’s…” Mentally, she swallowed her fears, “Livith...” Abruptly, she caught her tongue, keeping herself from saying her surname. She wants to say it, ‘cause not doing it feels like she feels ashamed of her mother, but she also knew that it could call trouble to say it outloud.

In the back of her mind, Livith finds it ironic that she finally tells someone her name on purpose and not from being forced on the spot. She notes the feeling of fear and something else building up moments before, almost as if saying her name had both relieved and erupted those said feelings she felt. She watches the vibrant girl’s reaction, maybe she should run away in advance, just in case?

“Mine’s Allie…”

After a few seconds, Livith blinked in surprise. She responded quickly, making sure that she didn’t get lost in her thoughts again. “Allie? That-That’s a nice name.” She said. “I got so nervous just talking to someone…” The words slipped out her mouth before she could close it. Allie’s smile wasn’t something she expected in return to her statement.

“I-I felt the same way.”

“Really?” ‘That’s a stupid question.’ Livith thought. “Actually, we should eat…” She muttered, not sure if it was for herself or for both of them. Either way, the feather-like lightness that wasn’t nervousness continued to dance in every twitch of movement. Hunger, Livith could feel her mouth water.

Instead of responding verbally, Allie turned to the two plates of food covered by a clean piece of cloth.

‘It wouldn’t do for it to get dirty while we’re cleaning after all.’ Livith thought. Out of guilt, both the girls refused to eat their dinner until they finished cleaning at least this room. They're going to need the energy to socially interact with the others outside after all.

The two continued to talk, most of the topics being the most random you could think of. Honestly, from an outside perspective, it would seem like the two were being held hostage and forced to pretend to be friends, but that was quite from the truth. Both were just a social wreck, that’s it.

“These mashed potatoes taste really good!”

“Right?! They do…”

At some point, they finished up their food, resuming their work. In the end, two more rooms were cleaned up hastily. The headmaster wanted them to do a bit more but decided to spare them, having seen the two interact quietly.

Personally, the witch didn’t think they were friends quite yet. Mutually, they were wary of the other, but they were also wary of other people either way. It’s this strange kinship that draws them together, as well as the constant internal suffering of being anxious while talking to other people.

For a single moment, Livith thought of what might be the blonde’s reaction when she finds out what her mom was… Then again, the kids of the orphanage know what she is, so maybe it won’t be like she was expecting…

Livith chose not to tell the rest of them her name just yet, it was already a big step for her to do so with Allie. Thinking to herself, she hoped to find the courage again. ‘They seem like amazing people.’ She thought. On that same note, she couldn’t help but feel that she was forgetting something…