[b]"So you're kind of... our age relative to how long we can live, then?"[/b] Rhiannon asked, curious. Then a familiar feeling welled up in her chest and she looked around them. [b]"I'll be right back, you guys go on ahead. Just need to freshen up a little."[/b]

She skipped over to the ladies' room she had spotted and slipped inside before rushing, less gracefully, towards a sink and coughing blood into it. She groaned at the pain in her chest as she washed her mouth out, spitting it out into the sink before taking a tiny, refillable, tube of mouthwash from a pocket in her skirt and rinsing her mouth out.

[b]"You should probably stop singing so much."[/b] The male voice would have made her jump but she was used to his random appearances, although she hadn't seen him for a few days now. Luckily there was no one else in the room. She looked up into the mirror and saw him leaning casually against one of the cubicle's dividers. Blond, her height and with a lean body, he had been her friend for many years now but still she knew so little about him.

[b]"We both know that's not why it happens, Julius."[/b] She retorted as she patted her lips dry with a paper towel. The boy shrugged, acknowledging the point without a fight before he pushed himself off the divider and walked over to her, hands in his pockets.

[b]"True, but it doesn't help your weak body to put strain on it by appearing more energetic and healthy than you really are."[/b] He prodded her chest for emphasis, highlighting the particular weakness she suffered from in her lungs.

[b]"I'm an [i]Ellyll[/i], our bodies repair themselves. We don't suffer from the same illnesses as humans."[/b] They had had this argument several times but she always came out losing; always to the same point which she could never defy.

[b]"Yes, but your mother was human. Your body repairs the damage but still receives the damage from human illnesses; you go through the pain but heal quickly. Is it worth pushing yourself just because you know it will heal?"[/b]

Before Rhiannon could reply another girl walked in, this one with massive angelic wings, looking around curiously.

[b]"Were you talking to someone?"[/b] She asked as she headed to the sinks, preening her wings in the mirror. Julius had disappeared the moment the door had moved, without a trace. Rhiannon laughed nervously and shook her head as she walked out to rejoin the others.

[b]"No, no. Just talking to myself, that's all. First day here and all that."[/b]