Flies on Fire

Lito's POV: I just kept on blinking at her. In my head, I kept on trying to come up with an answer to her question, but I didn't think, "I wanted to come over and see if your people looked as creepy as my friend described you," would go over well. I rubbed at the back of my neck and glanced down at my hand and then back up at her. I looked to see if she was getting agitated or upset that I was taking so long to answer, but her face remained a calm mask as she watched me.

She reminded me of a deer.  Her eyes seemed to hold a pool of deep expression that could lead me to get lost in if I wasn't careful. Every movement that I made was taken in with quick flicks of the eye and then filed away between her lashes. Her form was delicate, yet underneath it, I sensed an edge.

"I wanted to see what your side was like. I've heard...stories but have never been able to find whether there is truth in them or not."

"Stories?" her eyes narrowed as the word passed her lips.

"Mhmm." Please don't ask. Please don't ask.

"I'm curious. What kind of stories have you heard?" Her head tilted to the side and a small smile peaked out, but there was no emotion behind it.

Crud. "I've heard that your people look very different from us and because it's so dark over here we can't see anything." There, that's not technically a lie.

"We can't see anything on your side either."

"Really?"

"It's so blindingly bright on your side that it hurts our eyes so your people just end up looking blurry when we look at you." She sounded cross about this as if she hated it as much as I did.

"Huh, " I had never taken into account that they might have similar problems as we do with seeing them. The only people aware of what both sides are really like is Queen Elaine and King Otieno, and they both lived on small estates in their respective kingdoms and said nothing of the other side except that we have no need to fear each other. A sharp wind blasted through me, causing a shudder to work its way through my body.

"Your cold, " she whispered as she reached out a hand and gently touched my forearm. Her brow wrinkled as her fingers stretched out until her whole hand laid against my arm. Do girls normally do this to random guys? "You look cold but your skin feels like it's burning up." She looked up at him with her eyes wide and concerned. Her kindness was making my heart pound. I had several brothers and sisters and while my mom did her best to love and care for each of us it was still hard to do. She was like a curious baby deer that was trying to decide if I was safe to be around.

I smiled at her and placed my fingers on her brow smoothing the crease out. "I'm usually always this warm."

"Oh..." She whispered and then ducked her head and stood up so fast that sand landed on my pants. Walking swiftly away from me she bent down. "What are you—"

Before I could finish, she had picked up her tunic on the sand and began shaking the sand out of it. She must have taken off when she went in to get me. She shocked me when instead of putting it around herself she instead threw it around my shoulders. She was far smaller than me, so it looked a bit like a cape. A small laugh escaped me as I reached my hands up and pulled it tighter around my neck. "Thank you." I received a small smile in return as she settled back down farther away from me. I frowned but wasn't going to bring that up. "What do you do for your family?"

"No family."

"Who takes care of you then."

She took a lot longer to answer this and said, "Grandmother, " but something sounded off when she said it. It wasn't my place to pry yet, since we didn't know each other well, but I hoped that would change.

"What do you do for a living?" She looked grateful at the change of subject and answered,

"I sew." Her answers were clipped and short but she didn't seem like she did it on purpose. Rather she clasped at her hands tightly and would rub her wrists really hard until a small mark seemed to be appearing.

"I work in the fields for my family. I don't know who my real parents are but I was fortunate enough that a couple took me in who were not able to have kids. Although," I chuckled at this, "it seems that as soon as they took me in my mom was blessed with a child, after that she had many more. They say that I'm lucky because of that." My voice trailed off as my eyes settled on the tiny ripples in her hair.

"I don't know who my parents are either." I jerked my head up as she said this.

"You don't?" I asked. She shook her head.

"Me either, " I said grinning.

"I know. You just told me, " she broke off grinning. Laughter filled the quiet night air as we chuckled. It was such an odd thing to laugh about but it was nice to have something in common with her. "Have you ever seen fireflies?" she asked.

"You have flies that are on fire? Aren't regular flies bad enough as it is?"

"No, silly, " she said laughing, "they glow in the dark." I must have looked thoroughly confused because she then asked, "Would you like me to show them to you tomorrow?" Her hand covered her mouth as it slipped out past her lips. Her eyes must have been wide as mine for I hadn't expected her to tell me that.

"I mean—"

"You probably don't—"

"You won't—"

"Never mind."

And then she promptly took off.

"Wait, what's your name?"

She was far enough into the folds of the darkness that I could no longer see her, except for her whisper that answered, "Koko."

"Okay, Koko, I would love to see the burning fireflies tomorrow."

"Okay, " was the whisper of an answer that I received.

And I'm pretty sure I grinned the entire time I swam back to my side and climbed the rock to lift myself up onto solid ground again.