youfeelluckypunk | (no subject)

Reid supposed he could have chosen a place just slightly farther away from Graymark Books than Petros Park but in all fairness, it's a very nice day outside and it'd seemed like a neutral enough meeting site when he'd suggested it to Hild via text this morning.

If it means it'd given him the chance to stop by to see Luke and take his friend a cup of coffee, so be it. Whether he'd needed to bring along the sandwich from a particular deli Reid had gone out of his way to visit isn't a necessary topic of discussion and anyway, only the customers in the shop who'd seen him and said hello upon recognizing him know that so he doesn't know what he's getting so internally worked up about as he wanders toward Hild at the particular bench near the fountain he'd mentioned with rapidly flushing cheeks.

"Hi," he greets, holding out another coffee cup to her that he plucks from the tray in his other hand--because he's not so completely blinded by the feelings he's not talking about that he hadn't thought to get a beverage for Hild, too, just in case. "It's black coffee, I don't know if you like that. I like tons of sugar in mine, so I brought extra just in case. Have you had coffee yet? I definitely came straight from the cafe and stopped nowhere else."

He frowns at himself, narrowing his eyes before nodding toward the bench and falling into Latin. "I am going to... just sit. And while I do, you should tell me how you are."

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"Have you asked?"

Reid is very well aware that's rich, especially coming from him and even more especially in light of the conversation they've just had, but Hild isn't like him. She's so much more vibrant, and she's bold, bold in a way that makes her likable as opposed to the way it can make Reid alienating, and he admires her for that.

It's still strange to think of her as the lead of a narrative he's read, though he tries not to think of her in that way because the Hild he knows is the only Hild he wants to know, a vastly intelligent, kind, and courageous young woman who observes her surroundings to collect more knowledge of a world she's meant to light; and she is a light, as her mother had told her in the novel. She's proven to be a good friend to him, an even more excellent confidante, and Reid would rather think of her in those terms than on those of the author who'd created her.

"When you find the strength, you shall be rewarded," he tells her with a teasing smile, "though admittedly, you will find that while the search for someone to be with might be similar to what you know, the rules are a bit different. In terms of the city and the people in it, you would be seen as a bit too young for those who I would imagine are more likely to interest you."

She laughed when he turned her words around against her. It was not the same and Hild would have argued it if she did not understand his meaning and if it were not advice she would take. Spencer had strong feelings for Luke and vice versa; they knew each other well, even if this obvious fact was lost on both of them. They knew what to expect from each other, could forgive each other's flaws and missteps. They walked an unfamiliar path, but side by side, though they did not know yet that the other was there to reach out and touch. Hild was almost entirely in the dark.

However, she knew how to dispel that darkness and had no fear of it. It might slow her, but it would never stop her full out. She could ask, try, be bold if she truly felt the desire. For now, she did not. She wished often for another warm body to share her bed. Loneliness loved to catch her at night in this way. But that was fear of being alone, and she refused to let fear control her.

"Mm, yes," she said, her smile slight and amused. The city's preoccupation with arbitrary age had not escaped her. "If I find someone who believes I am too young, I will just have to convince them otherwise," Hild decided. "I am known by some to be very persuasive."

"That comes as no surprise to me," Reid tells her, for more than just one reason, and he ducks his head to laugh softly to himself. Hild is unlike most of the young people he's come across in Darrow so far (thought admittedly, that number isn't especially high), but he finds her to be so much easier to talk to than he might have expected. With all that he's known she's done and seen, Reid so appreciates her matter-of-fact view of the world because it's one he generally shares himself; except, obviously, when it comes to matters of the heart. His own, in particular.

Just as he doesn't think it's right for people to treat, for example, a person with schizophrenia as a potential future convict, Reid wouldn't want to treat Hild like she knows nothing of the world just because of her age. It would be clear to anyone within just a few moments that the opposite is true, and he admires her greatly for that. He'd be proud to be able to call her a friend no matter what her age.

"It is a social construct," he says. "Very different from where you're from, I'm sure. But somehow, I don't think you'll have much trouble finding ways to bend the rules."