Stoicism And Whimsy. An Unusual Mix. (Diana, Sabriel)

Sabriel's words told Diana that the former had indeed seen the light blush on her face. That was to be expected because the Arrancar seemed to be the observant type and she was standing rather close to the Quincy. Diana was unused to physical contact with others and she had never had a beautiful young woman treat her so gently, facts which contributed to the blonde blushing. Diana had no romantic attraction to Sabriel, but the other woman was beautiful and the former could not ignore that.

As she listened to Sabriel talk Diana was not certain as to how exactly an Arrancar with the aspect of Desire could help her, but she kept that doubt to herself. Part of her felt like the dark-haired young woman was trying to get information to use against her should they ever become enemies. However, it was too late to worry about protecting sensitive information now because she had already told Sabriel where she lived, how she lived, and that her parents were dead. All Diana could do was hope that they remained good acquaintances or became something approaching friends.

"You are beautiful too." Diana calmly and freely returned the compliment she had been given. She was not saying that out of attraction to the Arrancar or to curry favor with the latter. The Quincy was simply telling the truth and she would stand by what she had said.

Sabriel's bold move had caused the conversation to take an unexpected turn, but Diana was interested in seeing where it went from here. She remained silent and calm as she waited for the Arrancar to speak. The blush remained on her face... whether it would eventually go away or get redder depended on what Sabriel did next.

The unexpected turn the conversation had taken sudenly took another turn as Sabriel made another bold move and actually kissed her after gently placing a soft hand on one of her cheeks. To Diana's surprise she did not pull away or try to gently guide the Arrancar's face away from her own with a hand. Instead the blonde simply let it happen for reasons she did not fully understand. Her blush turned a deeper shade of red as she maintained eye contact with Sabriel while wondering why she did not stop the kiss.

Diana's solitary lifestyle led her to keeping people at arm's length and not fully trusting anyone no matter how friendly they seemed. Maybe on some level she was tired of living that way. Maybe she wanted to finally find a good acquaintance... or a friend.

Or was it comfort that she really wanted?

Diana was not sure if wanting comfort was why she had let Sabriel get close, but what she knew for certain was that the Arrancar's kiss had been pleasant. Sabriel had been so gentle and considerate of the Quincy's personal boundaries and that kindness increased Diana's respect for her. Seeing the look in the other young woman's eyes kept Diana's face a deep shade of red as the latter spoke.

"You are as gentle as you are beautiful, Sabriel." Diana repeated her earlier compliment and added another one. Again it was not a piece of flattery. It was the truth.

Diana could not help but to get the impression that Sabriel used such honeyed words with every young woman who caught her eye, but the blonde had no problem with sweet talk. The Quincy also did not mind being kissed by someone who respected her boundaries enough to not take things any further than that without her consent. Sabriel's gentle approach made Diana feel a measure of comfort beyond any physical contact... it felt like the dark-haired young woman really cared about her. However, the blonde who had spent so much time alone could not just drop the habit that had kept her alive at the drop of a hat.

When the possibility of them becoming more than just acquaintances came up Diana did not hesitate to address it.

"Perhaps we can. I feel that we are already making progress towards that." Diana stated that the possibility had a good chance of becoming reality if the conversation remained on the track it was on. Maybe the blonde was tired of being alone with no one to trust. Or maybe she was just charmed by Sabriel's beautiful appearance and way with words. Either way Diana sort of liked the Arrancar and wanted to at least become an acquaintance of the latter.

Judging from Sabriel's words it sounded like Diana was far from the only one who occasionally got tired of being a lone wanderer and she learned that Sabriel tried to combat that feeling by endeavoring to make friends. That was a lot different from Diana's approach, which was to justify the solitude as a necessity for survival and downplay the feelings of loneliness that resulted from constantly keeping people at arm's length. Maybe becoming at least an acquaintance of Sabriel's could offer a better way to cope with the demands of her lifestyle.

Diana tended to keep to herself out of force of habit, but meeting the brown-haired stranger back home in Georgia, Doku, Meninas, Stella, and now Sabriel had made reverting to that behavior much harder. One reason was that they were interesting people to be around. Another reason was that they had opened her eyes to life outside of the backwoods of Georgia. It was not an exaggeration to say that traveling to Japan to meet most of them was a life-changing experience for the blonde, who had never been outside her home state, let alone her country of birth. Changing focus from that train of thought, Diana recalled Sabriel's advice to seek out a few people she could actually trust enough to call "friends" but to exercise good judgment when looking for those individuals.

"I may do that." Diana hinted at the possibility that she might actually act on Sabriel's advice. When the blonde stated earlier in the conversation that she valued her independence that did not just mean remaining unaffiliated with an organization so that she was not taking orders from anyone. It also meant that she chose who she associated with. Diana was exercising that freedom by speaking to Sabriel, who had proven to be a rather interesting person to talk to in more ways than one. The conversation had taken a few unexpected turns and it was likely that there would be at least one more turn before the two parted ways, but at this point Diana was curious enough to be willing to wait and see what happened from here.

"I am going to head back to my home state in North America." Diana answered truthfully and without hesitation. She had spent nearly her entire travel budget for the trip and needed to return home so that she did not risk stranding herself in a foreign country with no money. One day she would return to Japan and on that day she would do her best to make sure that her budget was big enough to allow her to spend more than three days in the country. Diana would need to work hard and spend little to make that plan possible, but if she had saved enough for this trip she could save enough for another one.

"Where will you go from here, Sabriel?" Diana asked the dark-haired young woman standing before her. She suspected that the Arrancar was not content with just going home after spending time in Japan. Once they parted ways Sabriel might go somewhere else and look for another person to try to befriend or she might travel for the sake of traveling. That was fine with Diana, who tended to travel a lot herself and could understand the appeal of seeing new places.

While Diana waited for an answer she wondered if there would be any work for her back home. If there was she could earn back everything she had spent on travel by guiding six or seven hunting trips. If there was not she would have to be frugal with her money until she could find someone who needed a hunting guide.