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Um...I actually have no idea. I don't have a preference if that's what you're asking. I was living off of bags of crisps and apples for a while, I don't exactly have reasons to be picky this time 'round.

[He almost looks embarrassed for babbling, but it's actually a glimpse of the old, normal Draco Malfoy.] Those four were dormmates, yeah. Pansy was in the same house at school but obviously she lived in the girls' dormitory. I've known them all since I was a child, too.

No, but it just makes you all ridiculous and only seeing what you think you want to see. [No, Draco, they're seeing what you refuse to see. Doofus.] Well the thing about Jade and I is that we had both apparently been in the city prior to our arrivals, but neither of us remembered such an event. That's initially why I talked to her because she was the first one I'd met that was experiencing the same weird thing I was.

I'm asking what you like. Or liked. You couldn't have gotten to that tall on nothing but apples and crisps.

[she is completely ignoring his embarrassment, because it's silly and she genuinely doesn't mind storytime with draco malfoy] You really did have a lot of friends. So Blaise was the quickest, and you were protecting Crabbe and Goyle.

[he gets an earflick for that, but it's light and painless, unlike her previous threat] You should mind what you assume about people for being girls, Draco. You've apparently befriended a lot of us. And that makes sense. That would be...disconcerting. I think I'd have likely gone to ground if complete strangers had started recognizing me.

Growing up I never was really picky. [Though sometimes as a child he'd be an asshole and send food back just to terrorize Dobby, but.] If you make it I'll probably eat it, let's leave it at that.

It's arguable, all of that. Blaise was smart but not nearly so much as Theo. Theo and I have always had sort of an antagonistic friendship though. Friends on the surface, but he's also the only one besides Pansy who's ever come to the Manor. He never idolized me like everyone else, and looking back on it that's probably for the best. Crabbe and Goyle's fathers were Death Eaters, too, but they weren't really in any sort of position to understand the gravity of it, I suppose. They were sort of idiotic. [He winces though...because. Welp. Granger told him what happens to Crabbe. Not pleasant.] Blaise and I did have a different level of friendship that people didn't see, and I think he knew but he's never confirmed because he knows better. Blaise would be the only one to ever know just how genuinely terrified I was. The girls never really noticed. Pansy and Daphne were always just...Pans and Daph. Things didn't concern them. They were safe because they were pureblooded and followed ideals.

[He swats at her hand for real this time.] Considering the girls I used to befriend at Hogwarts, you can't exactly blame me. Disconcerting's one word for it, but then again that's how I met Euri in the first place. She recognized me from my first time in the city. Jade on the other hand had a lot of friends from her universe here waiting for her. I just had Granger. Not this version of her, different one.

Fair enough. I'll be sure to feed you something, then.

Coming to the manor is a point against friendship because...? You live in a strange world, Draco, that they could be kept safe by what put you in danger. Why was Blaise the only one who noticed? You must have looked ill, if it was worse then than it is now.

[she lets him get her before she goes back to working the knot out of his neck] Disconcerting may be something of an understatement. I'd have reacted...poorly. [another understatement, that] Mm, so she had parts of her life already here, and you had a different Hermione and strangers who knew another you before. How did she end up adopting you, then?

That's all I ask. Let me know if I have to bring you anything.

All of my relationships back in my world are completely arse-backwards if you really must know. Blaise is probably the only one who noticed because Blaise is the only one who was paying attention. Crabbe and Goyle let me get away with whatever I want, Pansy just wanted to know why I was pulling away from her, Theo was busy just keeping me at a safe distance to make sure I didn't destroy everything, and so that left Blaise. [He looks terrible and he knew it.] How do you think I got away with it, Sophie? I lied. A lot. That's what I do.

Exactly that. And I don't know, that's a story you'll have to ask her. That's like asking how did you become friends with the people you've met here.

...actually, yes, how did that happen? Connor I understand, but you don't strike me as the type to readily trust anyone who comes in your path.

No, don't worry about that at all. [she pauses for a moment] ...I suppose it would be fair to warn you that we don't have a table, but obviously you don't mind the floor.

[she takes a moment from working on his neck to pet his hair, because being a lying liar who lies is a familiar place for her.] People don't see what they don't want to see, I suppose.

[that makes her chuckle, and she runs her thumbs up and down the back of his neck, fingers braced on his shoulders]

No, I don't. That hasn't changed much. When I first arrived, I was...angry. [by which she means terrified.] Helpless and cornered. But nobody here knew who I was or what I was or that I don't have a soul or any of the things that mattered at home. The Doctor got to me, I think, and Conan. It's hard to hate everything when the Doctor's around, constantly pointing out things that are amazing. And Conan...is very smart. He talked me into teaching him how to cook, got me doing a lot of little things. By accident, really. But by the time the plague happened, I was...involved, I suppose. I don't have to trust people to do things, they just have to trust me to do them.

...how can you not have a table?

People are good at turning a blind eye when there's actual danger.

[Mmmm. Good Sophie, best Sophie. Again.] Like a wild animal. [It's not meant to be an insult, but it sure sounds like one.] The Doctor gets to everyone, I think. But he's not human either, did you know? I think he's an alien. How does that work though? In order to do things and get people to trust you, don't you have to trust them first?

[she shrugs.] The apartment didn't come with one, and it's not that important? We eat on the couch or the floor. It's not as though we don't have plates or utensils.

Hnnnn. Yes, they are.

[what does it say about sophie that she's not even insulted?] More or less a wild animal. Still, in some ways, although I've gotten better about people.

[but if he thinks about it, he might remember that she rarely turns her back to people she doesn't trust, that she sits in corners facing doorways, that she bares her teeth sometimes when they spar and never lets his strikes get anywhere near her neck. and he's someone she does trust.]

The Doctor does get to everyone. He's so old, but he still loves everything, most of the time. He's told me a little about his people. Time Lords. And his ship is here, did you know? She's a person right now, and that's a bit odd, but she's here. He's the first person to hold my hand, at least since I was very small. [she makes an amused sound, and her mouth quirks] No, not really. All I have to trust is that they'll do as they said or be as they are. There's no vulnerability there. One of the people I teach, I've put him on his back quite a few times, but I'm still not sure he wouldn't attack me if he was as strong as he should be. It doesn't really matter, I can slit his throat before he could possibly hurt me. I like him well enough, but that's not trust. Apparently all it takes to be 'nice' here is expecting people to be what they are.

Edited 2013-04-03 15:56 (UTC)

[It's sort of just a foreign concept for him. Not that he hasn't eaten on his couch a few times, but it's still weird.]

[It says a lot about her that Draco will probably someday take advantage of, to be honest.] The problem with people though is that they can be quite terrifying if you let them be. [He's met enough people he's pretty terrified of. He can only vaguely imagine Sophie's life.]

...his ship's a person? [Nope, he missed that memo. Instead though he's going to pause, thinking over that last bit.] What's the likelihood of someone turning on you here anyway?

[he already does, in a way. just don't corner the animal, nobody's entirely safe if she panics hard enough]

Of course they can. And are. But being scared isn't exactly new territory for me. Being trusted is.

His ship is a person here. Not usually. She's nice enough, it seems.

[she shrugs]

I don't know. Certainly not everyone in my House is exactly harmless, and there are those who think poorly of us based on reputation alone. But I'm not intending to find out the hard way.

[Oh he's blatantly aware. He's in a similar fashion, really. What was it that Dumbledore had said about him that he's completely unaware of? "A frightened teenage boy is a danger to himself and others." He gets what happens when a person corners you a little too much.]

I can count the number of people I trust on one hand, so consider yourself lucky I'm here at all. The ironic part of it is that trust is also one of the most terrifying things to have.

...I think I'll have to get back to you on that. I can't even imagine such a thing. [He frowns though.] I don't even have to tell you to be careful, do I.

[this is one of the many reasons she likes him so much]

You think me unaware? Trust creates vulnerability, on both sides. [her hands, after all, are on his neck, can feel all the delicate workings of him under her fingers. she could kill him before he could even move. but instead she just keeps gently working out the knots]

As a ship that's a person? It's...odd. But he's happier to have her. [she smiles, although it's not really a happy smile] Draco, I am probably nearly the best weapon I can make myself here. Perhaps I'm reckless, but not stupidly so.

...I do appreciate it, though.

...are you calling me vulnerable because I'm laying here and letting you fix everything? [Because somehow that never occurred to him. He thought of it more as getting his own way.]

A ship can't be a person, and a person can't be a ship. It doesn't work that way...but as long as he's happy, I suppose. [Crackpot doctor. You're lucky Draco likes you, Eleven.] ...yeah I know. Jade says the same thing a lot, that she's perfectly capable of using her powers to make herself her best defense. Forgive me for being raised to protect my own.

You are. [she runs her thumbs down the veins of his neck, very gentle. there's no threat in it, she's just pointing out what's very obvious to her] I wouldn't. But it's still trust.

It doesn't, usually. The ship always has a soul, though, so I suppose it was just a matter of giving that a body.

...your own. [that made her face and hands go still, masked because she's not sure how to feel so many things at once, which means that all expressiveness shuts down]

[It results in a small twitch from him. He's not that comfortable just yet.] But still.

...that's almost being far too optimistic about inanimate objects.

[...he can't exactly see her face from his angle, but he knows the hands stopped and he knows he did something wrong.] ...people I care about, whatever.

[she goes back to what she was doing, but closer to his shoulders] But still?

I'm not sure the TARDIS is exactly inanimate ever, from what he's said.

[it takes her a moment, and she almost seems to reboot] You didn't say anything wrong. Just not something someone's said to me before.

[A sigh.] Don't worry about it.

I'll have to have another talk with the Doctor, I think. He neglected to tell me any of this when we were talking of space travel.

[He gives her a curious look then.] I'm not sure if I should be proud or disturbed I just threw you off.

Draco. I'll worry about what I like.

In fairness, she might not have been here at the time.

[she hums a little, almost amused]

I'd go with proud, personally, but I don't see why it's disturbing.

[He's going to ignore all of that, storing it for another time.] Because if I'm the first person to say something to that effect? Says quite a bit about you.

[guess who probably took that the wrong way]

Nothing good, really.

...not exactly what I meant, and you know it.

Hnn.

[actually, she really doesn't. not even a little. but sophie never asks for reassurance, because it has never been forthcoming]

...Sophie. I just mean it says a lot about the type of people you've grown up around.

[she stops breathing, her hands trembling on the back of his neck. she lets her head drop forward, which makes her hair fall onto his shoulders. the only reason she didn't blow it off is because she trusts him not to lie about something like that, but it's still a struggle to believe. if he looks up, he'll find her eyes squeezed tightly shut, lower lip held hard between her teeth. then she lets out that breath]

All right. I suppose it does. Sorry.

[He can see in his peripheral vision, and because of that he doesn't say anything for quite some time.]

...you've a hard time believing stuff like that, too, don't you?

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