One painful recounting of the past later…
“...And that’s it,” Keiji said with a sigh, “In short, my family screwed me over at every turn and I wasn’t able to find any safety until I came here.”
“Damn…” Tiara looked down at the pool--she was unable to face him after the chilling tale that she was just told. “That’s…horrible. I don’t have any siblings myself, but if they treated me like that I’d…I don’t know what I’d do.”
“Yeah well, save your sympathy,” he replied, “It’s in the past now. It can’t hurt me anymore…for the most part.”
At last, she turned to him. “...What do you mean by that?”
He put his hands down, and scoffed as he kicked some of the pool water. “Tch. Would you believe me if I told you I’m deathly afraid of being chased? Just…the sensation of something after me that I can’t fight against--it…sends chills up my spine. Pathetic, eh?”
“...What? No…” Tiara put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s not pathetic at all. In fact, it’s…reasonable. You’ve been through a lot. And this ‘Starswirl’ bastard seems like someone who wants to abuse his power for the sake of serving as someone who claims to be ‘good.’” She let him go and used air quotes to emphasize her point. “I know because I’ve seen loads of people who use their wealth for corrupt means. It sounds like magic is essentially the currency of Equestria--it’s really not all that different from here.”
The boy fell silent as he listened to what she had to say. Maybe his fears weren’t abnormal? If someone like Diamond Tiara was willing to hear him out, then was he really the self-proclaimed ‘asshole’ he thought he was?
“...This chick is like a freakin’ morality angel on my shoulder. Blech.” His thoughts betrayed how he truly felt. He was genuinely grateful for her words as her well-being served as one of his few motivators.
“Well…I suppose you’re right. Fear is a natural thing that keeps us alive and all that jazz so…yeah.”
Diamond looked down at the water once more, and eventually came to a conclusion. “...You know what? I think I wanna be a sister to you as well. Just like the Sirens.”
“Oh god, not you too--” he rolled his eyes and casually licked his fangs, “Does everyone in this world just take pity on me?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that. It’s more like…I’ve seen a lot of similar abuse cases where a kid gets abandoned because they have a terrible family or none at all.” She put her arm around his shoulder. “I don’t want that for you, ya know? I guess you can see it as me wanting to be your friend?”
Keiji sighed, but knew that it would be much more trouble to deny her offer. So he relented. “...Fiiine. I guess that works.”
Tiara dealt a playful punch to his arm. “It’s better than me having unfounded affections for you. No offense, but you’re not my type at all.”
“Thank goodness,” he returned the gesture with a friendly elbow to her midsection, “If I had to marry into your family, that’d be…hell no.”
Tiara raised a brow, then snickered as she watched her parents kissing each other from afar. “Blech. You’re right. Though, it’s nice to see them not fighting for a change…”
“I concur. It means things are gonna get better for you, which is all I really care about anyways.”
For all his arrogance, Keiji proved to be more sensitive than Tiara could’ve imagined. She was all too eager to point out this fact. “Ya know…for someone who turns into a demon bat just to kill things, you’re pretty nice. It’s like you’re the brother I never had--”
“Pfft. If anything, you’re stronger than I am,” he muttered as he stood up, “You’re willing to stand your ground against your parents. That’s something I wish I could’ve done when I was younger.”
“...Maybe, but still. Don’t sell yourself short, okay?” Tiara suggested with a well-meaning tone, “You’re a good guy with a messy past. I’m just…trying not to fall into the stereotypes of other rich teenage valley girls.”
Keiji stretched his arms out, crossing one over the other. It appeared that he was preparing to dive in. “Well, you’ve already done that much so don’t trip over yourself. Gotta say, this was weirdly…nice--talking things out, I mean. I should do this more often. Maybe I won’t feel annoyed all the time.”
“Hm…” Tiara subtly scooched over until she was positioned right behind him…
And he didn’t notice yet. “I mean, I was never given much of a chance to talk to anyone back home, so I guess I felt a bit weird regarding…speech with others. Believe it or not. Sorry--I’m just a bundle of issues, aren’t I?”
“No, not at all…” the pink girl assured him as she slowly raised her legs out of the water, “In fact, you’ve given me someone to listen to, so it’s worked out in the end.”
“Yeah, anyway--BWAH!”
SPLASH!
With a swift, albeit gentle push from her feet, Diamond Tiara pushed Keiji into the water. “Oops!” she giggled as she leaned forward and watched the green boy sputter about in the water until he realized he was floating. “Sorry about--WAGH!”
SPLASH!
In a quick turn of events, Keiji grabbed her hand and pulled her into the water after him, causing her to slash around nearby. “Gotcha.”
Tiara rose out of the water with a death-glare on her face which quickly turned into a series of light-hearted laughs. “Haha! I’ve been waiting to see how good you are at swimming. It felt like you were stalling for a bit there, KK,” she said with a teasing grin.
“Please, of course I can swim,” the vamp-boy flipped onto his back and started doing the backstroke casually. “I pretty much taught myself how when I arrived in this world near the oceans.”
“Woah, what?” Tiara gazed at him with wide eyes while holding onto a nearby floatie, “Tell me about--”
A familiar voice interrupted them. “Ahem.”
They both stopped on a dime and looked over at the sliding glass door where Silver Spoon was standing. She had on a basic purple, one-piece swimsuit and stared at them both through her glasses, pushing them up by the rims. “Am I interrupting a special little moment between you two or what?”