The wood-nymph is curled up at the foot of an armchair, legs folded beside her and a book balanced on her thigh. Her hair falls down around her face in disarray, half-hiding her features--but the tip of her tongue can be seen, touching her upper lip. She occasionally shapes a word with her mouth, or whispers it. "Start-ling."

There's a burst of cold air, and the door slams shut again, admitting Serendipity (the one and only). He slides his coat off, hangs it up, and stretches, wincing slightly, as he glances around the room. "...heyyy, beautiful," he greets Safi, catching sight of her hair, "Good book?"

Safi lifts her head, to give him a wide-eyed, guarded look. She nods mutely, the gesture small and quick.

Serendipity approaches at an idle saunter, moving... a little stiffly, actually. Maybe the cold's got into his bones today. "Whatcha reading, then?"

She lifts the book up to show him the spine. 'GREAT EXPECTATIONS.' Her head tips slightly, and her brow furrows. "Ex-pec-ta-tions," she says quietly. "It is hard to say. Are you...?" She folds the book closed, freeing one hand to brush dark hair out of her eyes.  Safi's study of him is sharp, focused, her eyes unnaturally bright in the daylight.

Safi pages: Is he injured, or ill?
You paged Safi with 'He's pretty sore, but nothing serious. :) A few bruises, maybe, though they probably don't show.'.

Serendipity brushes off the seat of the chair Safi's curled at the foot of, and gets into it himself -- by way of the armrest, careful not to make any actual physical contact with the girl. "Am I what?" he asks, tilting his head a little to regard her.

Safi pages: They do ze way she's looking. :> She's checking out his pattern.
Long distance to Safi: Serendipity grins. Cool, then. There could be scratches, too, hell, I'm not sure. :)

She cranes her neck, twisting about to follow his movements. /She/ doesn't have to be careful; after he sits down, she peers up at him with her chin almost touching his knee. Her expression is a dark, worried frown. "Did Jack hurt you?"

Serendipity blinks, and then laughs, getting comfortable across the chair and its arms. "Nah. Why, was it on his to do list? You'd warn me if it was, wouldn'tcha, lovely?"

Safi's scowl only darkens further. "Who hurt you, zen?"

Serendipity looks slightly bemused. "No one, recently. I'm fine. Hell, I'm great..." He trails off, making a connection, and grins suddenly. "...oh. Heh. Sean, I guess, but you don't hafta worry over it. Didn't break that doctor oath or anything."

Safi frowns. "Why?" She wiggles and shifts, until she sits crosslegged facing the chair, the book set aside, her head tipped up to look at him.

Serendipity hesitates a moment, studying the young woman. "...Why what?" he asks, after appparently discarding a reply or two.

"Why would ze doctor hurt you?" Her brow is furrowed, her expression brooding.

Serendipity shrugs, grinning again. "Eh, we were just playin' around. You know. ...remember what we were talking 'bout last time I ran into you here?" He arches a brow slightly, and waits, watching for the moment enlightenment dawns in Safi's eyes.

Safi tips her head, regarding him doubtfully. "Mating? Did you fight over a woman?"

Serendipity laughs, letting his head drop back so he's staring heavenward -- or at least at the ceiling. "No, kitten, we didn't fight over a woman. Didn't fight at all. 'fact, he'n' I get on pretty damn well." He twists to sit himself crosslegged, and rests his elbows on his knees, chin balanced on the backs of his fingers, and just looks at Safi for a moment or two, before arching a brow and grinning crookedly. "I'm told a gen'leman shouldn't say, but hey, if it'll make you feel better -- we were fucking."

Safi swallows, eyes widening. "Oh," she says quietly.

Serendipity's expression softens a bit, as he watches her. "...so honest... I'm fine. More'n fine. But it's nice t'know you care, beautiful. Thanks."

Safi turns her face away, hands fidgeting in her lap. "I thought maybe Jack hurt you. He was very angry. I am glad not."

Serendipity hehs. "Me too," he replies wryly, eyes still on her. "What's he so angry about, anyway? An'- is he still?"

Safi flushes slightly. "You and I. And... I do not know. If he is... still."

Serendipity half-smiles, and rolls his eyes a little. "Fft. 's not like we even =did= anything. Some guys are a touch heavy handed on the possessiveness thing."

Safi tips her head. "Jack's hands are not... it is a-- a, um, how do you call?"

Safi frowns. "It does not mean what ze words say."

The coyote Kin thinks a moment. "Metaphor?" he suggests, "...figure of speech, anyway, Yeah. It means, like... overdoing it."

Safi swallows, and lowers her eyes with a nod of assent. "Jack," she murmurs, "he is... like an animal that mate for life. One and one."

"...and are you?" Ren asks, quiet and rather gentle. It actually doesn't sound as though it's intended to be a come-on, though some might deny such a thing could occur.

Color touches the dusky cheeks. She does not look at him, but gives a tiny shake of her head. The light catches a glint in her eyes, a shimmer--tears?

"...aw, kitten," Serendipity sympathises softly, looking as though the impulse to pull her into his lap or at least stroke her hair is tough to resist. He manages, barely. "I'm sorry." He's quiet for a few seconds, then, "...so he's never been with anyone but you either, huh?"

Safi swallows, and presses her lips together a moment. "There were ozzer... before. Not... not now. He does not want anyone, love anyone else. But I do."

Serendipity nods a little, and there's still some tension in his arms and hands as he keeps them steadfastly where they are. "Figure he doesn't know?" he asks.

Safi looks into the middle distance, unhappily. "He knows," she whispers. "We... do not hide from each ozzer."

Serendipity arches a brow. "But he's more concerned over whether he gets to own you than whether you're happy that way or not?" he asks, and can't completely keep a certain dryness out of the tone.

Safi's brow furrows. "I am happy, wis' him. When we are togezzer. And Justin--" Something twists across her face, a look of mingled hurt and bitterness. "Justinn, he has someone now, he can be happy and he is not alone."

Serendipity hehs, softly, at something that seems to privately amuse him. "...what, you can be in love with two people, but he can't?" he inquires lightly, tilting his head at her a bit. "How d'you know he doesn't feel the same way, not bein' able to be with you anyway? How 'bout when you find someone else you love, too? An' maybe =he= won't have someone else. Then what?" He shrugs a little. "I'm not sayin' you oughta leave the guy, just... maybe it's him who's gotta make some adjustments, an' not you."

Pressing her lips together, Safi glances up, giving him a hurt look through dark tangles. "He will not. And I love him, so I stay wis' him. I know... what is in his mind. His heart. Because we--" She averts her eyes. "We ...touch. Not ze same, as Justin and I, but we share, sometimes. I cannot hide nossing from him, or he-- he is angry."

"Well, if he loves you so much, why won't he?" Ren counters reasonably. "...an' I'm pretty sure that any relationship where you gotta base what you do around whether someone's gonna be angry isn't exactly healthy, but hey, what do I know? I'm just me, right?" A quick grin, and rather less quick shrug. "Anyway, it seems a waste. Not everyone even falls in love with one person, y'know? Sad t'see it get ignored."

Safi shakes her head minutely, lowering her eyes. "Not ignored," she says softly. "He knows, how much I love him."

"...less'n Jack and his anger, 'parently," Ren remarks, quietly, but pretty nonjudgementally, considering. "Hey, if it works for you all, great. Just, it doesn't look like it's working too great for you, beautiful. But you're the only one who knows what you want, right?"

Safi wraps both arms around herself tightly. "I do not know anysing," she says quietly. "Not about... people. Ze way people live, togezzer, and how to... make a life, among zem."

"...I'd touch you," Ren murmurs, "-- y'know, platonic-like -- 'cept I promised not to, an' all." He sighs, and shifts in his seat, trapping his hands between him and the cushions. "People're people, y'know? Everywhere. But the way they live together's different different places. Mostly you gotta just watch 'n' learn... an' be yourself, 'cause hell, who else're you gonna be, really?" He shrugs, resting his head on the arm of the chair and turning it to still regard her. "Where'd you grow up?"

"North," she says softly. "My island. It is far north."

Serendipity mms. "I haven't been far north of here, yet. Mostly south 'n' west. Could kinda say that's where my folks're based. So there's not a lotta people, up on your island, huh?"

Safi shakes her head minutely. "Zere was only me, as long as I remember. And later, my teacher came. And zen... K'tahdin call me, and I come here."

Serendipity quirks a brow. "=Just= you? Where'd you come from, then?" he asks, shifting position again. "You been takin' care of yourself since you were born?"

Safi shakes her head minutely. "No, I know zis could not be. But... I do not remembair, before my island..." She swallows, and glances up to him. "I read now. Do you want to read, find a book."

"Or you could read out loud to me," Ren suggests, curling into the corner of the chair like a pet cat. "'s good practice, y'know."

Bemusement comes to her expression, and she wrinkles her nose, an odd little smile baring the flash of teeth as she tips her head. After a moment she nods. "Okay I read you somesing hard...." Leaning to one side of the chair, she grabs up a thick, heavy Shakespeare collection from the floor, and curls up at his feet, leaning against the body of the chair and propping the book on bare, muddy knees. After much flipping of pages, she settles on 'The Tempest' and begins reading to him in her accented voice, stopping often to get his help with strange Elizabethan words.