What the hell was up with Deneli's expression? It was so bizzare, even while glancing at her through the corner of his eyes. Still, her message was sent clearly enough.

"I'm not ignoring you." Why was that so hard to understand? "I'm ignoring that . . . that thing around your neck." 'That thing' was harsh terminology, even for him, but he had to use it. He felt sorry for the poor necklace-- it wasn't its fault. Really, it wasn't. It was all his. Ambrose's eyes snapped over inevetably to Deneli, though, when she spoke.

"Don't touch that," he immediately growled, not able to realize just how close Deneli was to tears already. "Don't--" He cleared his throat, frowning more at himself than anyone else. He tried again: "Don't . . . touch that. It's a momento of sorts."

Luppa . . .

(( I'm not ignoring you, Henry, but all of Ambrose's focus is pointed at Deneli. Sorry. ))

(its fine, henry doesnt care haha)

Henry was completely baffled by the girl. She was so... emotional? She kept going from giggling to hiding to giggles and then angry! What was up with her! What ever she was doing it was getting on his nerves. Ambrose's reply to her told Henry that Ambrose never meant to strangle her. At least he didn't have to stay around long to 'protect' the brat.
It stunk that the guy liked the necklace so much. Maybe he had an issue.

The next thing to happen was totally more annoying. Gosh couldn't the girl keep to herself? Poor Ambrose, she wouldn't leave him alone! Henry hung back not wanting to get in this. Ambrose seemed like a strong enough guy to handle her.

While he watched he noticed a fork in Ambrose's pocket. He must like eating.

Deneli looked down at her necklace to confirm which one she was wearing today. She had been grateful for receiving the gold necklace, simply the design of it didn't allow for her to be able to wear her pearls at the same time. In truth, she didn't really like the pearls. It always seemed like she had an obligation to wear them though. Recently, she'd been opting to wear the gold chain instead for this exact reason.

Though she hadn't been told it directly, Deneli was beginning to make note of something of a gold obsession in Ambrose. She took the necklace by the charm and dropped it so it was hidden by her shirt. Would that help...? Ambrose voice startled her and she jumped. She looked at him with an apologetic pout. "Sorry.." She was managing to keep tears from welling in her eyes, but the sensation that she was about to cry was still there. She shook her head. No! She especially wasn't supposed to cry in front of strangers! And if Ambrose made her cry in front of a stranger again then she'd definitely be mad at him. Even if it wasn't his fault this time.

Deneli looked back at the wing again but didn't make any motion towards it. "What is it though? It looks familiar."

Ambrose glanced towards Deneli as she apologized. . . . Good. The gold was gone now. He wouldn't be tempted anymore. The topic of the wing was nevertheless a sore subject. He moved from where he was and towards the meregirl.

"It probably is familiar to most . . ." he admitted, glancing down at the wing before pocketing as it was before. He avoided Deneli's gaze before sitting back down where he was previously, picking up an old-fashioned #2 pencil and spinning it in his right hand.

A distraction . . . Yes, the new boy would do.

"Why are you attending the academy?" Ambrose asked directly, directing all of his focus now towards the new boy in an effort to throw-off Deneli. He hated to do this, but . . . he wasn't ready to talk about Luppa. Not yet, anyways.

It was amusing to see the two acting together. He didn't meet many people and he was interested in the two new personalities in front of him, even if one was annoying and the other was crazy.Oh he was being talked to now? Why the sudden interest? Not that he minded, or cared really.

"I had to get away from my village. It was to depressing. I took a look here at the party thing you guys had and thought it was a beautiful castle." Henry nodded towards Ambrose in a matter of returning the questions, "My names Henry by the way."

Deneli's gaze remained glued to the wing as Ambrose put it in his pocket, then her pout returned to her face. She'd wanted to look at it a moment longer. She was on the verge of remembering where else she'd seen it. And Ambrose hadn't answered her!!

Deneli had always thought that Ambrose was smart, but he didn't seem to realize that when she was ignored it only served to, in general, make her more pushy. She may not have been altogether observant, but she noticed when she was being ignored, even if it was just one question or one statement.

At Henry's introduction, she'd also noticed that she had yet to introduce herself to him. But she didn't want to be on the verge of tears when she gave him her name. What sort of impression would that leave?? No, she had to wait until she was happy again. Then she could apologize for not introducing herself earlier, and it would all be okay.

Deneli aimed a poke at the back of Ambrose's shoulder, since that was currently what she was looking at, his back.. The first signs of tears were beginning to form in her eyes, but she fought them back. "Ambrose, you're being mean!" She left it at this for the moment, decided the best first step was to inform him that he was in fact being mean.

The party . . . Ah, yes. The New Year's celebration. Something he would rather forget.

"Henry," he repeated, sounding out the name. Ambrose wouldn't have usually bothered learning this boy's name, but he despirately needed this distraction, expecially when Deneli dared to touch him again. Stop that. "I'm not quite sure about the castle being beautiful, but--"

Deneli's remark broke through.

What had he done now? Yes, he was ignoring her; no, he wasn't being mean. Being mean to someone meant that he had injured them in some way-- Deneli was, clearly, unharmed. Physically, at least. Did she even know what such a simple word meant? Or, did it mean something completely different to the merpeople? Either way, he couldn't ignore her anymore. He turned in his chair . . .

"What exactly do you mean by that word?" Ambrose questioned in all seriousness. He was lost-- what did she mean, 'mean'? He was being nice to her, to both of them! He wasn't telling them that Luppa was dead!

Henry let his temper get to him and he looked at the girl, "Would you just shut up?" His fists clenched but he moved his focus away for her and looked at Ambrose and took a deep breath. "It's my more beautiful than my village, the architecture is very Nordic"
Not wanting to deal with the drama Henry walked over to a table. He looked at a book and started to read it. Let them settle their issues.

Deneli crossed her arms, opting to ignore Henry entirely. Shut up wasn't a very nice thing to say either.

She looked at Ambrose almost like she were scolding him. "Mean. It's when you're not being nice. Ignoring people isn't very nice, Ambrose!" She let the explanation "set in" before continuing. "What is that thing?" A memory came to her in a flash. The cocktail party. Richard! He turned into a bat! The thing Ambrose had kind of looked the bat's wing. Didn't it? "A wing?" She blinked once and some of her tears spilled over, but they only succeeded in moistening the kin of her eyelids. She quickly wiped the back of her hand over her left eye in a weak attempt to keep anyone from noticing.

He couldn't keep-up conversation with Henry-- all of Ambrose's attention was now on Deneli.

The opposite of 'nice' . . . Then, what exactly did 'nice' mean to Deneli? The defintion didn't help nearly as much as it should have. Still, considering the circumstances (her yelling at him), Ambrose did not bring this issue up but rather remained silent.

A wing . . . she figured it out. Ambrose turned his gaze away from the scene and onto the floor.

"You recognize it." How couldn't she? Luppa had been a vital part of the castle for so long. He was going to be missed.

He didn't care right now-- yell, scream. She could do whatever she wanted to Ambrose.

He deserved it.

Henry frowned as the two moved on to personal stuff. He really didn't care. So much for making 'friends'. He was here to learn anyway. Looking around the rest of the room Henry decided he was growing bored of the setting. Maybe a change of scene and people would be nice. Maybe he could find Ambrose when there wasn't an annoying girl around. He had a feeling the boy would be pretty cool if he wasn't acting strange or around annoying little girls with cute frizzy hair. He tossed out a hand as he turned to leave, ""bye." He didn't care if they heard, but he felt rude just leaving.

Deneli thought hard for a moment. She did recognize it. Definitely. She looked briefly at Henry as he left. She wanted say bye, or rather, properly introduce herself and then say bye, but she was on a roll now and didn't want to get distracted. She was going to figure who's wing it was.

Deneli created a mental list of all the people she'd met with wings or wing-like appendages, but she wasn't sure she'd met many. There was Richard, that girl Jami had pretty wings, but they were different. The wing Ambrose had was small.. Then she remembered and her mouth became a little "o" in realization.

"It's the Prince's wing!" Deneli shook her head a bit, realizing Ambrose wouldn't recognize him by the joke of a nickname she'd given to him. "Why do you have Luppa's wing??" She remembered Luppa had only had one wing, but she'd assumed he'd always been like that. She thought he'd lost his other wing some time ago, but if Ambrose had it now, then it couldn't have been that long. She wanted to see the wing again, confirm that it really was Luppa's.

Ambrose didn't even hear the farewell. He was too preoccupied with Deneli's string of conversation. He didn't care what sort of forces ruled the world, but if They could just stop her from realizing--

Damn it.

Of course They wouldn't interfeer. It was far too entertaining to stop.

Ambrose froze in his tracks, his gaze directed towards the ground. His hands curled-up defensively into fists, shaking slightly. His skin seemed paler than before, almost . . . with fright. Slowly, he raised his eyes towards the wing-- but haulted before he saw too much. It was too much of a reminder, too much of a . . .

He tried to gather the words, but what could he say? Nothing. He was unconcious for most of it, but from what Disaster told him . . . still not much.

Luppa drowned.

It was his damn fault.

Deneli took Ambrose's silence to mean that she was right. It was Luppa's wing. But why did he have it? And for that matter, when did he get it?

Deneli's tone became reprimanding once more. "Ambrose, Luppa can't fly without his wing." A certain sadness could be heard in her voice. She'd felt bad that Luppa only had one wing. But here the other wing was. Maybe there was a way it could be salvaged. After all, her Uncle So-ho had lost one of his but he could still swim. Maybe flying wasn't the same way but...

Deneli raised an index finger to Ambrose, another scolding action. "You need to give it back to him. And" there was an emphasis on the 'and' so Ambrose wouldn't say anything before she was finished. "You need to apologize."

With each of Deneli's words, metaphysical daggers shot up Ambrose's spine. Yes, he couldn't fly. Yes, he needed to give it back. Yes, he need to apologize . . . Right on all three accounts.

How he wished he could.

With each of the orange-haired girl's demands, Ambrose slunked his head into and deeper, deeper into the recesses of his arms. She was right, for once: he was being 'mean.' He needed to do all of those things . . . but, no matter how he rolled the facts around, he couldn't. He simply couldn't.

Luppa was gone. That was a fact, an unbendable fact of his life now. Nothing could change this. Nothing.

He shoulders shook slightly, and, in probably the smallest voice he had ever emmitted:

"I know."

The voice was defeated. Devestated. Broken.