Owen, Owen, Owen. Ignoring Nina never did anyone any good and, after yesterday's talk with Prompto... well, it had only meant that she was even more determined to seek out the other boy who was avoiding her.

(Besides, she'd been unable to sleep very well anyway, mulling over everything she'd learned and everything that she needed to learn.)

So, Nina had actually beaten Owen to the shop and had been killing time reading history books until about when he was supposed to show up. Sure, he might not have showed up and she might have had to go back to the dorms to hunt him down, but at that point, she'd have had even more reason to go break his door in...

Nina had watched him show up and, upon his being stymied by the front door, she leaned over the roof edge, so he'd see her if he looked up, and called down, "There's a ladder around the side!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Not even a little bit of escaping now!

"It's been a bit," Nina called back, deceptively mild. "And this water is, like, a total pain!!!!!!!!!!"

"They're having a blast!!!!!!!!!!!" she chirped back, since that was true and also Nina enjoyed watching them. "They're swimming about like fish!!!!!!!!!!"

"Does it count as a hallucination if I've sent video to people off island and they can see the same thing I see??????????" Nina wondered.

That was a pretty sturdy hallucination, if so.

"I want to say those don't exist," Nina said, "but given where we are, they probably exist somewhere."

She stood, waiting for him to get off that ladder.

"Come on, we can get in through the roof."

The apartment he'd find himself in was sparsely decorated and had that dusty feel of a place not used recently, but it was dry. Nina had been here a while, with a thermos and her tablet hanging out on a side table by a couch.

"I think that, like, might actually be a thing," Nina said, stepping back and out of his way. "Under the island, I mean??????????? Old radio podcasts mention stuff like that sometimes."

But who knew, with radio.

"So I guess you could, like, be right??????????"

"There are worse things than silly Cataclysms," Nina said, thought she didn't really understand the sense that Owen meant with it. "The water hasn't been that bad????????????"

"There's towels in the bathroom, if you want to dry off," she said, tilting her head towards the hallway. "Bathroom works, too, which is nice."

Made it easier to lurk like a giant creeper while waiting for someone.

"Technically, it belongs to the owner of the bookshop," Nina said cheerfully. "Which means Rufus and I co-own it, so we can totally use it!!!!!!!!!"

And that, since neither of them had bothered to try and rent it out, was actually the truth!

"I like the dorms better," Nina said honestly, since she'd grown up in dorms and the idea of living on her own left her feeling, well, lonely. It was hard to imagine staying anywhere by herself for long.

She stared at him, slightly vexed at how his sitting had ruined her plans.

"Even if some people avoid me in the dorms," she said, figuring that, whatever, her plan could still work. It would just need some modifications.

"It is a bit rude," she declared, wandering over to him. At least sitting made it a little easier. "It's rude to worry a lady, Owen."

Which would be why, yes, she was going to give him a hug.

Shut up. She'd promised his future self that he'd get hugs if he needed and Nina figured, if his present self had hid for a week, he needed a hug pretty badly.

His hug back only really made her think of how much more awkward older-his hug had been.

And also, possibly, how much more genuine it had been.

Nina stood up again, surveying him.

"You're such a liar," she said, which was the pot calling the kettle black, for sure, "and, like, I don't know how much you remember of that weekend. But, like, thanks. For being so... for caring, that I'd died."

It was still weird to think that people would.

"Prompto said he didn't blame you," she offered. "Said that, had you decked him, he'd have thought he deserved it."

Which was both kind of gallant on Prompto's part and also very stupid.

Boys were stupid, really, especially all of this for a dead girl.

"There's nothing wrong with your arms," she said, feeling slightly embarrassed to say that. It wasn't a thing ladies were supposed to say to boys they... weren't crushing on, right? "You're strong enough, Owen."

"No," Nina said thoughtfully, "I think he'd just have taken it. And he was..."

Well, he'd been busy dying. She didn't think he'd have hit back.

"I like your face better the way it is now, than it was in the future too," she added, quietly.

And it was cruel, wasn't it, for her to keep pushing? But she wanted to push because she was pretty sure the boy behind the smile needed to talk.

Nina always had been bad at leaving things alone.

"Do you know what happened?" she asked.

Nina would be very, very confused by drunken apology letters.

"Tell me about your javelin," she said, since that sounded a) important and b) like he might talk about it and c) did not sound like the sort of javelin she knew. "Like, how'd you get one??????"

Nina squinted at him as she settled herself on the couch too, her ankles primly crossed.

"I think, like, he was grumpy about the extreme scarring, the white eyes, and how lonely he was," Nina pointed out, because no, no she was not going to stop talking about it.

"We're definitely going to make sure it doesn't happen," Nina said, nodding firmly. "Since, after all, now you know you're stuck with me."

Until, like, she died.

Small details.

"Oh, Owen," she sighed, though it didn't sound annoyed. More amused. "Didn't you, like, get bored hiding in your room all week???????????"