A Cool Lazy Day PV Santario Martin Finished

Santario was a quiet and small girl, sometimes easy to miss when you weren’t looking for her or didn’t want to be found. Then again, just about anyone was little when Quinn Healey was considered, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Not to her anyway. She had been tucked away under one of the archways shaded from the sun, just enjoying the day and watching the people go about their lives. Until, of course, someone she recognized entered the area. She watched him smile and wave to people as he made his way through the courtyard.

Her sneakered feet dropped to the ground as she propelled herself to a standing position. Santario started walking over towards the half-giant, her school robes swishing around her feet. She stopped next to him just in time to hear his opinion on the flowers in bloom on the tree. “Nature always is fascinating, Pumpkin.” A new friendly nickname for the boy referencing for her both his orangeness and his kindness. “Fascinating, beautiful, and oftentimes deadly. Then again, what beautiful thing isn’t a little deadly?" Most of the people who knew her by now understood that she had a fascination around the more deadly plants and potion ingredients. While these particular flowers weren't considered one of the deadly types she reckoned that if you ingested enough of them you would probably still get sick.

“How have you been, Quinn?” She had, of course, been at the quidditch game that summer and even had a few good shots of him brilliantly in action, but she hadn’t heard anything about what happened at St. Mungos. And the only time she had seen him over the summer was during the match. The last month of summer had had her wrapped up in her own little world dealing with her own demons, fighting with her cousin, meeting a friend, and worrying about another.

@Santario Martin

Five simple words that created an innocent and seemingly simple question. Yet the reality for Quinn was that the truth was much more complicated. The following few months had been a blur truthfully and had been admittedly hectic. There was a lot Quinn had to deal with especially after what happened at St. Mungo's. Though thankfully Quinn was truly getting the help he needed. Only a few knew he visited the hospital wing every week, and even fewer knew the real reason he did. But all that wasn't necessary for her question.

After a moment of awkward silence Quinn smiled sheepishly realizing he was staring down at Sanrio, "I've been alright. It's...complicated but I'm doing much better now. Honestly better then I've felt in a long while." His smile widened into a grin. "So...pumpkin huh? I like that is that me new nickname?" He tilted his head laughing as he crouched down to be eye level more or less with Sanrio. "And you? How have ye been Sanrio. Ah feel like it's been ages since ah saw ye. Ah think the last time ah saw ye was back in the um...hospital wing last year...has it really been that long now?" He looked surprised as he asked the question. How time flew huh.

"So what brings ye to this fine courtyard on this chilly day?" He started to absently scratch at his facial hair.

She laughed softly with him laughter, always being a little infectious as she craned her neck to look up at him. “Well, regardless of the complications, what matters is that you’re doing better now. And Yes, Pumpkin. Because you’re orange and a warm-hearted person, and pumpkins make me think of the Autumn, which reminds me of hot cocoa and warm fires. Seems fitting enough for me anyways.” Santario was thankful when Quinn decided to crouch down, making it easier for them to look at each other. His question about how she was doing could have warranted two different answers from her, but this particular situation deserved the half-lie. “Maybe sitting on the edge of the fountain would be more comfortable for you? And I’ve been alright, summer was… Interesting, to say the least. Got some great shots from the quidditch match. Then August was spent with my cousin in the manner. It was… well, we don’t exactly get along, but it wasn’t terrible.” She easily skipped over her parents' death and just how much the Slytherin underground fights had affected her even though he probably didn’t know those even happened.

“But, yeah, I don’t think we’ve had a proper conversation since last Halloween. Hopefully, your birthday is less violent this year.” Yes, she remembered when his birthday was; it was just another one of the things that she was good at if she was given the information in the first place. “As far as here, well just relaxing really. I think it’s nice out. Oh, I just got co-captain for our duelling team. So that’s really exciting!” Duelling was one of the main reasons she had quit quidditch in the first place, while the other was to continue to avoid a specific person duelling had always been more important to her. What better way to refine your skill and see where you need to improve before going after the big game in your life?

@Santario Martin

"That sounds right lovely now dunnit?" He stood up and walked towards the fountain with you. He stopped just short of the fountain when he heard the fantastic news. Dropping his sketchbook and pencil the pencil lead broke but Quinn presumably had a sharpener or spares. When his sketchbook dropped however a small gentle breeze had caused some of the pages on it to flip over fairly quickly revealing some beautifully rough sketches of nature. Though that was short lived as seconds later progressively darker and more chaotically rough sketches came about. The imagery was disturbingly dark and very gritty. Two words continuously kept popping up on the sketches though Harlin and Aeron.

Quinn didn't notice as he suddenly squealed and quite literally scooped Sanrio off of her feet embracing her in a warm and affectionate hug. It was a firm one but surprisingly wasn't a crushing one this time. His growing but very short beard would tickle her cheek. It was a very Quinn reaction to the say the least and one he did usually involuntarily. "Oh me god Sanrio. That is fantastic!! Congratulations ye've joined me in the captain club!!" He exclaimed absolutely excited.

If San just so happened to look down she would see the sketches that Quinn hadn't noticed were being flipped through by the breeze. Quinn had gotten into his own little world to preoccupied with congratulating Sanrio and probably invading her personal space too much. Quinn had a bad habit of getting a little too excited at times but he couldn't help he had missed talking to her. Hopefully Sanrio wasn't afraid of heights as she would be more then 7 feet off the ground.

Santario’s eyes fell as his sketchbook did, always having to observe the moving object. She had never seen Quinn’s sketches before; in fact, she hadn’t even known he was an artist, so naturally, curiosity got the best of her. The first few pages were beautiful nature sketches, rough or not as they may be, she could see the blossoming skill as an artist herself. It made her think that she could give Quinn some photographs of flowers that she had taken for him to practice with, especially in the winter months… Probably would make a good birthday present now that she thought about it.

Then, however, the pages got darker, mimicking the things she often felt in her own heart. Something unbeknownst to most of those around her. Hiding the darkness inside was a form of survival because if people didn’t think her capable of it, they would never suspect her of doing it. Underestimation was a weapon, and she planned on letting it be used. A common denominator of these darker sketches was Harlin and Aeron… words? No… Names? Where these two people hurting Quinn? It was hard to think of anyone trying to bully the half-giant besides maybe Erin Ryan, but it was not out of the question.

Quinn squealed and scooped her up into his arms before she could properly react or ask, congratulating her on her captaincy. Her tiny hands would rest on his shoulders as she giggled a little, pushing away from his face gently so that she could look at him and not be tickled by his facial hair. “Thank you, Quinn!” The smile she gave him was genuine, but it was short-lived as she looked at him. She, out of most people, knew how dangerous it could be to bring up a bad subject while being held by the large boy; while she didn’t exactly know why she also didn’t think he would actually hurt her. “Quinn… We need to talk about that." She motioned her head towards his sketchbook. "No getting out of it. Are those people hurting you?” She asked genuinely concerned, it was not faked; after all, Santario was the girl who tackled a werewolf for him last Halloween. “I remember last year there was something you were close to wanting to talk about, and then we never did. I didn’t want to press, but if your art reflects such darkness. We need to talk about it.”

@Santario Martin

"Talk about wh...at..." As he was speaking he looked to where she was pointing and saw the drawings. His eyes slowly widened and he trailed off going completely silent. His face retained its surprised expression as he gently set Santario down, and picked up his sketchbook sighing heavily as his expression darkened slightly. The air around him and his mood didn't really change much if anything he just seemed to become a bit more Solemn.

Quinn took a seat on the edge of the fountain and patted the seat next to him, "Ye know Sanrio I really dislike how observant you are sometimes." He sighed again rubbing the back of his neck getting a little nervous as he chewed on his lower lip out of habit. "...Ah'll tell ye everything about them, about last year, about the truth of this summer but ye gotta do me something in return." He paused for a moment to let his words sink in fully.

"Ah may not have known you for very long but ah've developed a good thing for telling when people are hidin things. Was forced to ah suppose there are very few people who have given me good reasons to trust them, and yet ah still try I suppose." He explained pausing once more as if in thought as he narrowed his eyes looking away for a moment before turning his attention back to Santario and having his eyes soften. "Anyway back to the point. I've been getting this feeling ever since the conversation started that you're hiding things like myself. So if I tell ye this how about ye do the same. It doesn't have to be everything but ah think it only fair, don't you?"

Santario carefully observed Quinn as it registered just what she was talking about. While she had been confident that he wasn’t going to start to freak out, it was still a small relief when he gently put her down and picked up his sketchbook. Regardless of his feelings of her having seen the sketches or not, it was better than it had been San and not some random kid. The last thing that Quinn needed was someone else spreading rumors around about it, and Erin was bad enough, but at least most people knew that she was missing more than her fair share of marbles.

In Quinn’s defense, most people didn’t like how observant Santario was, but sometimes observance is what they needed. However, when Quinn offered her an ultimatum, her right eyebrow slowly arched up in unamusement. “Disliking observance goes both ways, but I’ve always said you were far more intelligent than other people would give you credit for.” Naturally, most people would assume he was stupid because he was half-giant as it was no doubt getting harder and harder to hide his heritage as he got older. Santario, on the other hand, recognized his intelligence the first time they met, and Quinn was far from stupid.

Santario’s façade dropped, and the girl that stood before Quinn was drastically different than the girl he met a year ago. Instead of being solely kind and innocent, her eyes were sharp, critical, and burned with an underlying determination. While the determination might have always been there, it hadn’t been nearly as intense. The smile that he had grown accustomed to seeing was also gone.

“I cannot deny your logic, nor will I. So I’ll make it easier on you since your story is probably longer than mine. My parents were murdered last year, I watched it happen while hidden in a closet, and I will do everything it takes to pay the three who did it back with the same kindness they showed my parents. Anyone who gets in my way will be put down with no less prejudice.” The words spit out like acid, and it would be clear that she wasn’t leaving a whole lot of room for further discussion on the matter. It could also be surprising that Santario had adopted you’re either with me or against me mentality, but she didn’t care what people thought about her. In fact, she preferred people to continue to believe that she was the quiet camera girl with no real ambition in life. Underestimation was such an excellent weapon to use. “Your turn.”

@Santario Martin

In what would no doubt be an extremely strange reaction for Quinn considering how he tended to react normally to things (Overly-enthusiastic and 1000% dramatically extra) Quinn's smile grew into a comfortably wide closed lip smile. His eyes softened extremely as well and he leaned over placing a massive hand on her shoul-well really it enveloped pretty much the upper half of her right side his hand was so big. He gently squeezed it as he peered down at her with the most gentle of eyes and demeanor.

"Santario I am truly sorry from the bottom of my heart. I will not say I know exactly what ye're going through but I will say ah know what it is like to lose the foundation of your whole life. Do what must be done me friend and make them wish they never existed." He spoke with such genuine sincerity but the most chilling thing about the whole thing was the uncharacteristically calm and sweet voice he spoke with. His body language never betrayed the truth of what his words actually meant.

"I will help ye in anyway ah possibly can. Afterall whose gonna question a big dumb Half Giant." He laughed softly removing his hand and leaning back flashing his usual happy go lucky smile. "Everyone thinks me kind and a little slow, but if they even knew a quarter of the pain i've experienced then they would know...I am not to be fucked with" Quinn started to blush faintly covering his mouth and chuckling. "Oops I let that side of me slip. Anyway where would you like me to begin? The very beginning right?"

Quinn’s hand enveloped her shoulder with a gentle squeeze that she allowed to happen, and while he looked at her sympathetically, her demeanor would remain unchanged. Indignation fueled her, and it would no doubt be her mood for the rest of the day now. “Oh, I thoroughly intend it. No matter what.” No matter what was a bit of a harsh statement, there were situations that she would like to think that she’d turn away from it for, but in the end, Santario still questioned who she was willing to sacrifice to achieve her goals. If it was the choice between Thomas, Erik, and/or Quinn or taking them out… Would she choose to offer any of them to get her revenge? In truth, she’d like to think she wouldn’t, but San also wasn’t sure she could ever answer that question with any certainty. A sentiment she had kept very much to herself and didn’t see that changing any time soon.

Her eyes narrowed at him slightly as he spoke again. He wasn’t a big dumb half-giant, but she was pretty sure he already knew she didn’t think of him that way. His Freudian slip made here right brow rise up in amusement and intrigue. “There might be a time where I take you up on that offer. Just remember the names Gideon, Abbandon, and Loralei because it is them I hunt. The beginning is usually the place that makes the most sense. Because this is not the first time, I’ve heard different connotations in your voice.” She remembered the ball almost a year ago now. While she had been focused on stopping another, it didn’t mean her ears had been turned off. She recognized the voice that came from him, a voice that wasn’t necessarily his but still his all simultaneously. “So yes, regale me from the beginning.”