Chapter 68: Rooftop ~ 2
Madeline’s mouth closed, and her shoulders pulled inward. Her eyes dropped to her hands, and he watched her purse her lips tight.
"I... it’s not... I don’t mean to, I just..."
"I’m not saying it’s a bad thing," Dion continued, giving away a slight laugh. He turned back to look ahead at the city, soothing, "It means you’re actually thinking about what you’re going to say before you say it. I think that’s a good thing."
She looked up at him, her eyes a little wider, and her grip on her own hands loosened slightly.
"...Most people just tell me I should lead to spit it out."
"Well, especially in our times... or what should have been a modern age, many people hardly know how to pay the person before them at least the equivalent attention they’re being honoured with. That lean to self-regard has everyone imposing however they’d prefer the next person to speak to them."
Colour rose in her cheeks, and she didn’t say anything to that.
The wind shifted, and something distant in the city collapsed in the distance, the sound releasing a low crumble that rolled across the rooftops and thinned out for the most part before at least Madeline could hear it properly.
"You have a really nice voice."
Dion’s brows rose at the sudden compliment, his head turning to her. She only lingered looking at him for a few moments as their eyes met, before she seemingly realised what she had said.
Madeline quickly turned her head away to look out at the city, the words spilling from her desperately, as her hands rose to clutch the railing:
"I mean, you know, it has a really, I don’t know how to describe it, but its... its like listening to the ocean."
There, Dion hadn’t been able to respond immediately because as soon as she had said so, and he had immediately had thoughts of the memory association that her mentioning the ocean had brought to him, he saw a chronicle message before his eyes.
{ Laudations, Dion! You have uncovered a sub-attribute of the main attribute: Born of the Sea }
{ Attribute: Canorous }
{ Description: Your voice soothes and thunders, just as the ocean does as it flows according to its state. }
’Sub-attribute? What the...’
Dion found himself stunned silent for a few seconds looking at the information, and thus, a brief silence lingered.
Beside him, Madeline was warring with herself internally.
Why in the world would she suddenly blurt out something like that?!
Now he was going to think she was even more of a weirdo than she already knew she came off as!
Just when it looked like she was managing to find someone so comfortable to talk to!
"Thank you for that... No one’s ever compared my voice to the ocean before."
Dion’s faint laugh as he said so doused her with a much-needed relief that next moment before her thoughts spiralled even more.
"So, how did you end up with them?" Dion asked, glancing over to her as he dismissed the chronicle information.
Things like sub-attributes and all that, he could try to figure out at a later time.
Madeline suddenly felt all the urgency within herself drain away, and her shoulders eased.
She took a few moments to breathe and sighed that little bit.
"Irvin and I were from the same place before all of this. We were interns in the same company, attending an early morning workshop, and Marcus is one of Irvin’s friends." She paused faintly, leaning a little more onto the railing, "And when everything fell apart, he was the one who moved first, and I just... followed him. I didn’t know what else to do."
Dion nodded a little at that, asking then, "And Anton?"
"We found them soon after everything. Anton had already taken in most of the people and set up the floor with Yara, and Irvin was already really strong by then, just about to get his class, so..." She glanced at Dion, who had been looking ahead by then, his expression just as calm as she felt his voice was. "He immediately welcomed us in."
They stood there for a moment with the wind between them, and Madeline glanced back ahead to the city.
Her blush eased a little without disappearing, and she smiled to herself faintly.
"What about you? How... have you spent the last two days?"
"For the most part..." He began, his voice falling a little, "I’ve been out fighting alone. Most of the people I could have survived with didn’t make it, and the few that have aren’t with me right now."
Madeline’s eyes widened a little. "You have a small group? Do you... want to bring them back here?"
Dion shook his head a little, glancing to her briefly, meeting her eyes. Then he looked ahead, only saying, "They aren’t in any state to travel right now. But I need to get to Novamed for one of them, and get back."
"... You’re... not staying?"
When Dion had looked back at her then, he found her eyes wider, and her heart that had been calming raced a little more.
"I am for now. But depending on the rain..."
Madeline’s lips pursed a little. Then her head turned back ahead, and she held the railing a little tighter.
"There’s... actually another reason I came up here."
"Oh?"
"Basil asked me to come see if you’d be willing to help him distribute water to the people that are awake, and check on them. Something happened to one of the pipes apparently, and the water pressure is kind of low on these upper levels, so we have to go down to the ninth floor to get it."
Dion faintly nodded at that, and turning, he said, "Then, do lead the way. I should make myself useful while I’m here at least."
Madeline turned as well, and they began making their way down from the rooftop.
Dion almost felt as if his efforts had been spat on right when they walked back into the building.
He walked in, and immediately, a good chunk of the calm that he had brought himself was worn down.
It wasn’t as bad as when he had first walked in, but it was still dangerously apparent that the smell of that special blood was affecting him.
’And I can’t exactly refuse to come down here to help... the man is definitely suspecting me.’
He only gritted his teeth at the understanding, releasing a slightly stronger breath through his nose as they descended the staircase.