Young Writers Society

He looked over at Hali and raised an eyebrow.

"W-You guys were trying to run away. That means you were scared of something." He turned back to his game, easily focusing on it instead of the discussion going on around him. "And when you're scared, the best thing to do is to find a place to hide."

"So that includes you," said Hali. "If we're all here because we fear something, you must be afraid too."

James looked over to Hali and Aen, who were talking in the language he couldn't understand.

"I don't know exactly why," he said to Kratzer. "Clearly it's because of some common trait we all share. Or our similar situations."

"I would assume the latter," Kratzer replies. "I doubt we are similar as individuals, at least as far as personality goes."

He hopped to his feet, clutching the tablet close to his chest and scooting away from Hali. Hali was right, but he couldn't accept that someone had figured him out. If he just avoided the question, he'd be alright!

"It's because you were running!" he interrupted, trying his hardest not to look in Hali's direction. He made sure to use the language the other people would understand. "You were scared, so you hid!"

"The two of us were, but what about Hali there, or you, Aen?" Kratzer points out.

"Hali was!" he quickly replied, then promptly shut his mouth. They weren't going to get him to say the truth. Not when that would mean going back to the city. He ran over to the corner of the cabin that was farthest from everyone else, sat down and went back to playing on his tablet.

James watched in genuine, amused awe as Aen literally fled to the other side of the room to avoid the question.

"You know, even if you don't admit it with your words, you did just confirm it in your actions, Aen," he said. "It's okay to be afraid. We all get scared sometimes."

He shook his head. "I'd only be scared if I was running away. And I wasn't running away!"

"Nein, you were just...running," Kratzer says dryly.

"Exactly!" he said, nodding.

The German scoffs.

“Aen, we all can see through your denial. It’s not a big deal that you were running from something. We’re all coming from similar situations.”

Hali's expression softened further. He quickly crossed the room and bent down to give Aen a gentle hug. That was the action of affection or comfort he'd learned from some of the humans he'd lived with, so he figured it would be okay in this situation. Children liked hugs, didn't they?

"It's okay," he said in the human language. "It's okay, Aen."

It was weird getting a hug from someone who was still kind of a stranger, but he didn't struggle. The hug admittedly felt nice, especially when Odris didn't exactly understand that he liked them.

He looked at the people in the cabin suspiciously. "You're not-you're not going to take me back if I tell you, will you?" He ducked his head down and stared at Hali's arm. "Because I don't wanna go back. I want to stay here."