Silence is tricky. Let it stretch too long and it becomes uncomfortable, but too short a silence before a response can be just as damaging.

Unless, of course, you find one of [i]those[/i] friends, you know the kind. The kind of friend where silence isn't demanding or questioning or nervous, but is as natural as breathing because [i]they're[/i] the one you're breathing with. Entire afternoons spent with hardly a word--walking, looking at the world, enjoying being alive, coming home to do entirely different things, just so long as you're able to do those things in the same room as them.

… And when they leave, doesn't that silence just feel so much more empty than before?

Her tutors kept acting surprised both that she understood it perfectly, and that she still kept ignoring the things she knew. Because silence is also [i]painful,[/i] isn't it, when you have a million whirlwind thoughts that are all waiting for someone else to finish their thought so you can respond to what they said a minute ago like a detective saying "one more thing."

A hundred times, she feels the urge to speak. And a hundred times, she clamps down on it. She's asked a question, she's getting an answer, this is the perfect time to shut the fuck up and let Violet mouth out the words and show that you care for the actual answer by listening for once in your life.

… do you think she could emulate that flip of her hair? She doesn't have bangs to flip, but surely the right series of silver links--possibly embedded with rubies--could mimic that--

The cough makes the hand in hers feel like fire, and she resists the urge to pull back as if burned. Or, now that she thinks of it, to run her other hand through those bangs, and expose those eyes again, just for her own pleasure.

Instead, she makes as if to stand, still holding that hand, still holding her, less a dog on a leash and more pspspsing a kitty that might bolt away if startled. Come, come, there's someone you need to say all this to, you know. And if, say, you might need Dyssia to leave the hot springs for, oh, about an hour to, aha, sort out some feelings and feelings up, that's also an option.