Out of Step ~ Open

Cody turned to the girl that was approaching him, his own silvery bangs and face easily visible even with his hood hiding the rest of his messy mop of hair. Her face was warm and kind, even though she had probably dealt with her own hardships. It had always been a mystery to Cody how one could deal with so many deaths and disappearance of friends and family and remain smiling. After everything, Cody just kept shying away from everyone else, not trying to reach out more. Was he being selfish for not wanting to be hurt again? Everyone he had loved had disappeared, and deep down, he was always scared that if he started to care for anyone else they would too.

But he couldn't just ignore Angelica and pretend she wasn't there, could he? He looked at her again, realizing that her own hair was a soft, pure white as well as his. At the very least she wouldn't be able to make fun of his hair. The halfbloods didn't really do it as much anyway, though years of habit caused Cody to try and hide it anyway. He felt exposed when it wasn't covered now.

"Fine," he replied, trying not to seem rude, but at the same time not so sure about how to go with his reply. He didn't notice that he had just lied. "I'm Cody."

At the mention of Logan, Cody's eyes widened and he stiffened. His hand came up to rub his upper right arm, the bandages from the wound he received from Logan in their worst encounter long gone, but the memory of the injury and that day was clear. His cheeks heated up with guilt. He had been there when Serenity had been hurt. It was because of him that she had gotten hurt in the first place. She had been defending Cody, and her only reward had been that she had been injured more than Logan's favorite prey had been. The pink on his cheeks contrasted against his pale skin more than he would have liked.

Despite that being a small factor and one of the many reasons that Cody was more afraid to venture alone, it wasn't why he was hiding away. His blue eyes lowered, he found himself unable to look at the face of Serenity's sister without guilt overwhelming him. The fact that the two sisters looked alike just made everything worse.

"That's not why I'm hiding," he admitted. "I'm Logan's favorite target, but he's still not the reason I don't like to be around anyone else."

Cody bit the inside of his lip, his eyes lowering to the ground, flickering between that and Angelica uncertainly. Deep inside he knew just what he was afraid of. And it was that fear that kept him from answering the wolf half-blood. It was his fear that kept him from admitting in front of her just what he was afraid of.

"I...I don't want to talk about it," he said quietly, stuttering slightly.

"I guess I'm one of the first people that came here, yeah," he remembered. His brother had been one of the first accepted, and so Cody had arrived with him. With a pang, Cody remembered he wasn't here anymore. He was gone, and he didn't know if Alec was ever coming back.

"I came here with Alec West in the first days of the Academy," he replied, a small attempt to start a conversation, despite the effort already being painful for Cody. "He's not here anymore, but I am. I don't exactly have anywhere else to go..."