Change in Heart ▪ Enoch O'Connor

XIX.

Ashnar stood in the mirror, going back and forth between her two pairs of gloves. She loved the black lace ones, but the brown leather ones were more protecting.

She questioned if it was a dumb choice, if she was just overreacting. But she didn't want to take a chance, not with how she was getting closer to people. Enoch had seemed to be warming up to the girl. He would join her on walks in the garden, and he would sit comfortably with her as she read and he built his creatures. Ash had found that she was less anxious and on edge around the boy. He hadn't been snapping at her, or anyone, for that matter. She didn't want to think that it was for any reason, but the other peculiars had noticed a source for this change.

"I think the brown ones go best with the blue." Emma's voice chimed in from her bed.

Ash whipped around to look at the blonde. "I'm sorry, I didn't even notice you were there."

"I know you didn't notice, you were too busy staring at the floor to notice. Obviously thinking about something. What is it, Enoch?" Emma replied, giving a devilish grin toward the girl.

"Emma, I was not thinking about Enoch." Ash emphasized, smoothing her navy blue dress down in the mirror.

"Yeah, yeah, sure. I'm thinking he is thinking of you much more though."

"What do you mean?" Ash questioned, turning around to look at Emma.

Emma shrugged her shoulders with the same smile on her face. She stood from her bed and left the room, twiddling her fingers at Ash as she left. Ash rolled her eyes and threw the lace gloves down, slipping on her brown leather ones and following suit.

▪︎▪︎▪︎

"Listen, all I'm saying is that it probably isn't good that you hang around Enoch." Hugh stated, crossing his arms.

The pair went on a little sibling chat after lunch, Hugh feeling like his sister and Enoch would be a problem. Hugh had watched how Enoch has interacted with the lot of them. He was mainly okay with the boys, but was overall bitter and moody with everyone. Not to mention his bipolar outbursts, which made Hugh angry sometimes. He couldn't understand what had Enoch all wound up, or why he was so uptight.

"But why? He is finally being nice enough to me, and most of the time, he comes to me."

"Exactly, he took all that time of being rude and just plain stupid, and now he is doing the bare minimum a human can, and you're just fine with it."

Ash halted her retort and just crossed her arms. "Well, it isn't like I've had much human interaction in my life. I just see he is making an effort and is making a change, so I don't mind it."

Hugh just stared at her with an eyebrow raised, blowing a strand of chestnut hair out of his eye that wasn't pinned back by his goggles. He heavily debated unleashing one of his bees on her as they got into a staring match.

She turned on heel in a huff and started to walk away from her brother, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back around. "Wait. You know what I think, so make sure you think about it too. And if he ever harms you in any way, come to me."

"Enoch wouldn't hurt me. He hasn't hurt anyone since I've been here."

Hugh tilted his head, and Ash took it as something he didn't want to tell her. She eyed him, before rolling her eyes and shaking her head. "Whatever, I don't think he is much of a problem other than little things here and there."

"Just use some of that tiny brain up there." Hugh said, patting her on the top of her head. Millard came running up to the pair, clutching his cap on his head so that it wouldn't fly off.