(flashback) A Sign (Hadrian)

[Hana]

1st of Spring, 509 While most of the time Ha’na would have shied away from larger crowds, she was in fact quite comfortable in a market. This market, though, was a completely new world to her. Not only had she never been, but the food was of a different variety. Along with that, in her basket was a card of some sort for rations. She had a list in her hand that she’d made while talking to the cook of the household she was working for as an overseeing housekeeper of sorts. She’d started off simply as a maid, but when the original housekeeper had finally had enough of the tyrant bread winner it seemed Ha’na had been pushed into the position. She had a decent amount of patience, so the job had yet to make her truly miserable. The children of the house, though, she was rather sure that they had been born simply to vex her and make her hide in closets to cry. It was part of the reason why she had decided she would take on the job of shopping on top of her long list. She needed time out and away from the little monsters. As she moved into the market, though, there were people standing around a posted sign. She stopped, too, thinking perhaps if she stood there long enough she would pick up on what everyone was saying. Of course with that many people talking around her, she found herself too overwhelmed and her brain struggled to understand the Common being spoken – She floundered and failed miserably. Her face fell into a mix of frustration and despair as she backed up slowly from the crowd, cursing silently that in all of her years she’d never been alone in her travels, so the need for anything beyond speaking Common was unneeded. What was worse, though, was the sting of not being able to hide the look of disappointment on her face – The lady of the house she worked for strictly forbid her wearing any veil. It was at that point Ha’na felt all too exposed in a world that was far too large for her.

[Hadrian]

Hadrian was craning his neck, trying to zoom his vision in on the rations list, when a woman that smelled of exotic things backed into him. His hands came up instinctively to steady her; the woman was so slight that there was no real danger of him falling over, tall and gangly though he might have been. Zeltiva was home now, and he had become adept at storing up food to get him through the occasional famine. Those things being rationed, he already had small stocks of; what was plentiful today would line his little larder for the future. "Pardon," he said politely, checking to make sure it was just an innocent bump and that the woman wasn't in some sort of distress.

[Hana]

Even under the warm color of her skin that typically hid a blush rather well, her cheeks colored rather darkly. When her head turned towards the man kind enough to steady her, light blue eyes were suddenly filling with tears even as she moved to put a little distance between them. She looked absolutely defeated. “Ex-excuse me,” she said quietly, eyes falling then to the ground as she swallowed hard. She bit her bottom lip. A blind panic was creeping up on her out of seemingly no where, and she found herself rather cemented in place as the world about her started to spin.

[Hadrian]

"I'm sorry..." He blinked chlorine blue eyes at her, gone suddenly wide with surprise. It wasn't entirely uncommon to get jostled by someone in a crowd. It wasn't even all that rare for a woman to be beautiful. But here was some foreign woman bumping into him and then freezing like a prey animal sighting a coiled snake. He just wasn't used to people looking at him with that sort of a look. "I apologize," he said slowly, "if I bumped into you. And for touching you. I meant no disrespect." Suddenly his fair skin was flushing and he felt too warm. Perhaps he would come back to shop later.

[Hana]

“I…” She looked up then at him helplessly, attempting to bat away the threatening tears with a few blinks of long lashes and eyelids lined with metallic dust. Her head turned back to the sign. The world pressed into her. That was when she broke down into a long pathetic sob as she turned back to him. Shoulders, frail from grueling travels and a rather impoverished diet, slumped and shook violently.

[Hadrian]

"I..." he echoed, hands coming up to hover over her shaking form, but not daring to touch her because this was what happened the last time he made that well-meaning mistake. "I'm sorry," he said again. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... I'm sorry..." He wasn't good at crying women, especially when he was wondering if her tears would make the metallic augmentation of her eyes run like glittering veins of ore, and... shyke.

[Hana]

Her hand went up to cover her mouth and her eyes squeezed shut, hoping that would calm her just a little. Instead she felt her gut tighten all the more as he started to apologize. She shook her head, the panic finally coming down over her like a tidal wave. As she started to hyperventilate, she managed to get out, “Not…” There was that strange sensation of shrinking down to a pin hole. “You…” The world was going to swallow her at any moment, she was sure of it. She could barely get a cry out by that point. “Sorry.”

[Hadrian]

"I don't know what's happening," he said, but he tried to man up. The woman was obviously in some kind of distress, so his social anxiety was trumped in this instance. "Can I do anything to help? Do you need anything?" Other people were staring, but most of them were moving off. Either they assumed that he had it under control or that his working with the strange woman let them off the hook. His hovering hands were pulled back slightly so as not to further alarm her, but they were kept at the ready in case she swooned and needed help remaining uninjured.

[Hana]

Though she didn't seem to be able to answer him, a hand moved quickly to grab onto the fabric of his sleeve. Whether he wanted to be or not, he was suddenly enlisted in helping her. Later she would realize that he wanted to, but for now she could barely hear him over the roar of her own rapid-fire thoughts. Her light eyes searched frantically for some place to go and hide - Some place safe and without people in the busy market. She finally found a place at the edge. Her eyes shot back to the man that had temporarily became her safety despite the fact that he could very well have been dangerous considering what she now understood of the world - Hence the panic. She tipped her head, trying to point as best she could to the spot while gasping for air like a fish out of water. She looked at him pleadingly for help.

[Hadrian]

Given her mimed answer, he had something to go off of, so he put his arm around her--the other still trapped in her hand--and led her off to the empty spot where she seemed to see a safe harbor. As he walked her slowly in that direction for fear that her feet might go out from under her, he noticed again that she was beautiful, and then wondered if he was a bad person for noticing such a thing when she was undergoing some nervous crisis and silently pleading for his help. At the edge of the market square, he looked around quickly, and then tried to get her to sit down on mortar-and-stone wall that rose up to knee level before sprouting wrought iron bars. There she could sit and put her head between her legs and get her bearings. Or something.