Arfa had been walking.
After that meeting with Amena and Ayesha, she'd gotten enough information to know where in this academy she could find hidden places to think.
'That girl Ayesha was too trusting, even if she looked smart and acted so with all her babbling.'
So here she was. Leaping atop the stairs two stairs at a time, her coat flaring behind her.
Which she didn't know why she was still wearing, really.
It was Bangalore she was in, and the streets of asphalt might have just melted under the sun.
Just as she reached the end of the flight of stairs, a wild breeze raked through her hair, as if materialising from nowhere but the cloudy, bright blue sky where the skyline of tall buildings wasn't all that visible here on the outskirts.
Her hand had been raised over her eyes as she walked further, gaze down before her feet met a dead end against another pair of shoes, shined yet scuffed at the toes.
She looked up. Her dark gaze met a pair of golden brown ones.
The boy standing in front of her blinked. Then smiled.
Arfa first noticed his Drive signature.
'What an odd person... His energy feels like loneliness and warmth at the same time. Quite a contradiction, as if the sun and the rain had emerged together over flat fields in a strange union.'
His hand raised, possibly in a greeting.
'Oh, not a greeting.'
The hand moved to her shoulder, brushing off dust delicately where it'd settled like a clingy lover, then immediately lowering after.
"You must be the new student Arun brought in. Pleasure to meet you. I'm Sanjeev."
The boy smiled, only slight, but the dimples on his cheeks showed anyway.
Stubborn marks claiming his beauty.
"Sanjeev Chincholi."
She blinked up at him.
Blinked at this strange, almost scenic moment, with the large and swindling campus trees fluttering there leaves in the wind like shy maidens with fans.
"Hah? Yeah. If you mean that guy with sunglasses, then yes, I'm Arfa. Arfa Sayeed."
She spoke up not with tremor, but with softness.
A rare thing to form on her mouth, because her voice always slightly cracked when speaking.
"Well, Arfa. I hope we didn't give you too much trouble."
She blinked. 'So polite.'
"And by we, you mean—"
The boy sighed, almost exasperated. "Yes, I mean Madhav Sir."
Arfa laughed, shaking her head and turning to the fields sprawling behind the academy campus.
A breeze ruffled through their clothes as he took a slight step back.
"That man is the epitome of ego, flaunting and preening exactly like a peacock would. I would have had it with him, if he wasn't actively shielding me from whatever threats he thinks are coming."
Sanjeev tilted his head at that.
Arfa narrowed her eyes at the skyline.
He seemed to have caught on to her implication at the end.
"Well, whatever is after you..." His hand slammed lightly against the railing, with him leaning over it far more than what was considered safe.
Arfa's eyes went wide. Not in shock, just in attentiveness.
'Surely, he isn't as theatrical as I am. He doesn't look like the type to indulge in dramatics.
Not his own, anyway.'
"I'm sure Madhav sir's got it handled. He's reliable like that, even if he pretends otherwise, hiding behind his mask of charm."
She smirks. 'Yeah, I got that much figured.'
"Wow. You close to him? You've got the full psychoanalysis down and everything."
She leaned over the railing as well, but standing far too close to him than what was necessary.
Which, really, was for no other reason than to just bask in the presence of his shimmering aura.
'A dawn whose rays scattered through drops of drizzle, much like beams those passing through a suncatcher and dowsing the space in an ethereal glow.
Ah, I think I'm too ornate.'
She sighed internally, but still dramatic.
Arfa liked his energy.
It pleased the artist in her.
Pleased the little beast of human nature in her that knew no emotion other than wonder.
"Your Drive. Arfa, it's..." He paused, lips pursing together as of in some deep thought that'd be imprinted in the Enochian book.
Arfa wondered if his words were poetry as well.
"Your Drive signature is extremely off the charts! Are you okay, like mentally?" He asked, hands fluttering over her shoulders.
Her face went flat.
'Okay, so not as poetic as expected.'
"I can't tell you if I'm okay mentally, but I see. to not have spontaneously combusted, so..." she shrugs, eyes half-lidded in slight amusement. "I'm fine."
Amusement in his behaviour, of all things.
"That's what you all say before packing a punch aimed at a Hollow you sought out for fun after lunch because apparently, food didn't satisfy your appetite!"
The boy seemed to be whining slightly now.
Arfa stared him for a beat longer, smile still fixed on her face. But softer now.
She stepped away from the railing, shoving her hands into her pockets.
"Say, Sanjeev. Can you show me where the arcade is in this city?"
She tilted her head at him, that same wilted breeze carrying a faint evergreen bark aroma carding through their hair.
"I'm pretty sure I was far away enough while to make me forget all civilizations and maps," she chuckled quietly to herself.
Only she knew why.
At least, that's what Sanjeev thought when he looked at this strange girl.
With the bandages wound tight around her neck and arms, trailing behind and into her sleeves, as if becoming the very metaphor for her Drive that was held together with immaculate restraint.
He sighed, throwing his head back to face the sky, ruffling his hair more than the wind ever did, and somehow, still looking charming despite it.
Arfa stared at him.
"Come on, Sayeed. Let's show you around the city before a Hollow alert falls in our lap."
He turned to the stairs, walking ahead, hands in trouser pockets, cardigan shirt ruffling in the wind.
Arfa huffed a laugh. Quiet.
He looked as though he stepped out the 90s, with his style of clothes, manner of speaking, and...?
Arfa squinted, before her jaw went slack and she caught up to him, stopping him to ogle at the leather belt-whip-thing, whatever it was, that was faintly emanating Drive leaks.
'Huh. Energy infused weapons. Not that I didn't expect it, but still...'
"Wait, wait! I didn't know you could infuse Drive into weapons of all things!"
He blinked at her, tilting his head before sighing exasperatedly.
"I see Arun has told you absolutely nothing."
"Nada."
He slung his arm over her shoulders, pulling her in as if this kind of closeness was normal. It was, probably, to him.
He grinned, all sunbeam and bright synth sounds.
"Well, buddy, it's just you and me and the arcade against the lectures I'm going to give you about Drive!"
She scowled, almost comically,
"Lectures? I'd rather Mahendra give me notes or even scrolls to refer for this ridiculous energy system."
He laughed. She smiled, patting his shoulder.
The two walked in tow, against the wind, against the backdrop of a washed out blue sky as the sun rose a bit higher.
And his arm was still warm around her shoulders. A blanket of comfort.
He's meant to be so, she thinks.
'Meant to be like warm evening sunlight, spilling through haze and canopy.'
And she wondered. Briefly.
'Is he an omen for the worse about to come?'