Bus Stop

Anicka heard music everywhere she went and in everything she passed. The sole of shoes tapping or dragging over concrete or tiles on the street. The pitches in people’s voices. The rustling of the leafs when a wind passed through a crown of trees in the park. Doors opening and closing, some slamming. Or rather than that she heard music, she simply picked up on the tones. Because there was rarely an actual melody in the things she heard around her. Not in the same way as an actual music piece. It was a distinct harmony of life, yes, but all it really did for the vampire was the ability to better distinguish. Listening to life had no cohesive thread running through it like a composed song. It really wasn’t any useful skill for someone like her to have.
But a purposefully rhythmic humming; that was music and it pieced like a cotton point through the rest of the noise of busy and energetic life into her ears, that almost would have seemed to have perked up like a cats, given a little wiggle, had they anatomically been able to do so. Instead her head turned discreetly in the direction over her shoulder, her eyes moved from the bus-time table to attempt at sneaking a glance from where she hear the humming - that at that point had gotten company of a few trying words. Her jaw clenched up for a second - a reaction provoked by both the tones but also the realization of how she was trespassing on someone else’s business. It was rude to stare. Rude to listen in like that. But upon catching that glimpse of the humming bird - a young male - he’d broken his humming and brought out a bright smile towards.. someone. Automatically she looked towards this stranger as well with suddenly less apprehensiveness than what she’d presented when looking back at him. She even openly followed the stranger as she walked, with confident strides in her steps, through the gap between the time table and the bench; meaning the gap between the man on the bench and the blue-eyed girl, making it even more obvious with how Anicka twisted her body. And unfortunately it created an unavoidable moment, where her eyes fell more direct on the young man when reverting back to her previous task. And man if she didn’t quickly returned attention fully to the time table. It would be.. so rude. Wouldn’t it?

Without sound she breathed in a little deeper and finally stepped away from the sign, already having gotten too distracted to even figure out what she’d been searching for on it. If she really wanted to take the bus then it would come eventually, right?
Consciously, she sharpened her hearing as she stepped over to stand more or less beside him, as if she was waiting on a bus that could arrive any minute. It took a bit extra from her to do it but after no more than a second she - .. “Maybe -” Instantly, she felt her voice sounding weird although it sounded nothing different from normal. But he had already broken silence and was already turning to look towards him, so she was stuck in whatever her spike of courage had gotten her into. So she sucked it up. “The G sharp on your ’and’ is throwing the melody a little off. Try and go down on just a flat G2. You know;” It was extremely nerve wrecking and yet she managed not only to make a sound but hit the note as intended, just loud enough that he’d be able to hear it - she hoped. She wasn’t about to sing loudly and with much power in the middle of a public area. “Instead of;” She effortlessly changed the pitched for the sharp. “You can hear the small difference if you sound them out aside each other.. Ehm, sorry.” Afterwards she closed her lips and pressed them firmly together, watching anxiously after any expected annoyance in the stranger on the bench. Maybe she should just turn around and go back to minding her own. That was probably best. She’d given him her two cent..

There was no way for her to hide just how caught off guard she got when the stranger suddenly jumped up from his seat and she’d just about ended up jolting in startlement. Shoulders tense and eyes wide in surprise as they were forced to look at him by his approaching energy. Even more baffled, she became when he properly opened his mouth and his voice carried just a distinct proof not being from Gaia originally as her own East European accent. His humming and faint mumbling that she’d listened to before hadn’t warned her the slightest about it. But at least she didn’t have to strain herself to understand him as she’d had with… someone else. Still, it left her standing with an open mouth for a good while . “..O-..Oh! No, no,” she quickly blurted out as soon as she re-figured out how to speak, how to not only make her mouth move but also get sound to come out and thereby not look like a goldfish. “I do not-.. It is a new song you are working on, yes? I do not have any experience with writing songs or anything like that. I just-..” She gulped as discreetly as she could possibly do it, which was to say; not to a preferable extend since it would still be pretty obvious simply from the way it halted her in her sentence. “Sound,” she ended on after a short moment and for some reason her baffled mind had decided that using a singular word to explain what she was trying to convey was the best way. Oh, and an added gesture of her hands.
How else was she going to explain what had compelled her to intervene when English – out of practically nowhere – had turned into a difficult language. It wasn’t her first language but she had lived long enough with study of it that it shouldn’t be any problem for her. And yet..

But Anicka wasn’t entirely sure if he’d even been listening or anything from how hyperactively he’d jumped from the next thing to the other. To her it felt like his attention on her was like on a spring. One moment it was on her – intensely – the next it was not. And then it returned with same power.

Maverick. She glanced down at his hand as if she was taking some time to think about what she wanted to do with his introduction. There was always that part of her that wanted to run away, screaming – of course that part was something intrusive and not actually her – so eventually she turned properly around to face him and not stand all twisted like a wringed rag and much gentler and unsure she took his hand, gave it a polished squeeze as she’d been taught to do. Her shoulders fell as she did too. Released the tension. “Anicka.” She could instantly hear a scuff in the back of her mind from the casual way she returned the introduction but she masterly wiped it away. “I did not mean to correct you like that. It just sounded wrong but of course, wrong is a very subjective thing in this case.” She could feel it. How she was balancing on the verge of spiralling and didn’t she then fold and press her lips together so much so the fullness of them disappeared completely to a thing line, she would have for sure just continues talking. Apologizing. Explaining. Digging her own grave.
She attempted a smile as she relaxed her lips again. And it didn’t completely fail. Just like she managed to keep her eyes on Maverick with some poise.