Xaviers!

His mood darkened. "It's not the same. I don't care what mental component the doctors said chose this body, this thing I've become isn't some hidden part of me. I don't even feel like me anymore."

"Do you want me to judge you for this?" She quirks a ginger brow.

"No. But pretending this is in any way normal is almost worse. Just be honest," he answered.

"I'm being honest. Normal is extremely relative for people like us."

"It's easy for you to feel that way. You aren't a freak," he spat.

"...you don't know what I am," she frowns.

He knew he had hit a sore spot. The Scorpion wanted him to press the attack; to drive her off before he opened up any further. The Lion wanted him to pry and find an excuse to connect with her.

"And what is that?" he asked with just enough venom to satisfy The Scorpion. A medicinal dose, one could say.

"I'm a little girl's nightmares. I'm a wolf that would gnaw its own leg off to get out of a snare, but I'm also the patient one that would wait for the hunter to return so I could devour him."

It may well be Leo's imagination, but as Sam is talking she seems to cast three separate shadows.

"I'm a flock of crows picking over a battlefield. I'm the last thing you'll see when you leave this world because in the end the crows are the only ones who win in wars."

Leo starts to get the impression of hundreds of eyes watching him from all around them.

"I'm the cuckoo's egg nobody expected, who can't be contained by her own skin, and I had to fight for years to figure out how to just be..."

The shadows settle back into one, and the sensation of being watched fades.

"...to be Sam."

Leo took a nervous step back. "Wh-what was that?" he asked, looking at her like she had three heads.

"That was a taste of what I cram down into the body of a ginger university student every day."

"Jesus... How is that not overwhelming? I can barely hold my head together and I'm nothing like that."

"Who's saying it isn't overwhelming?" She says, starting to walk back towards the edge of the woods.

He trotted after her, fixing his mussed mane as he caught up.

"Then how aren't you crazy by now?"

"Good question. Might have to get back to you on that."

"Why did you trust me with that anyway? You barely know me."

The Lion wanted to believe he could learn to trust her. But The Scorpion knew better, for he had been burned too many times. Friends weren't real. He needed to remember that.

"You'd have found out eventually. It's not a secret."

He seemed surprised by that. "Is everyone here so loose with what they share?"

"Why should I have to hide this? From humans maybe, but why from you?"

"Because you never know who might use something against you."

"People don't stop trying to hurt you when you hide what you are."

"Everyone hides what they are. It's what people are best at," he said cynically.

"You're missing the point."

"Or dodging it."

"And what is your point? Be upfront with people since you'll get hurt either way?"

He certainly had a one-track mind about other people.

"Only one side of that you can affect, Leo."

"People can't betray you if you don't trust them to begin with," he said, looking away.

"And if they're not going to accept you, then what have you got to be ashamed about?"

"It's their problem, not yours."

He was quiet for a long moment as he considered saying something personal. Instead, he said, "You don't know what you're talking about."

"Really? That's where we're landing?"

The Scorpion had had enough and so did what scorpions do.

"Fine," he growled, "You want to know what I am? I'm what nobody wants around. So save us both the disappointment and don't try to be my friend."

"You think you're stinging me, but your aim is off," she says flatly, heading for the dorms.

Leo watched her go with a guilty feeling weighing heavily on his heart. And the realization that she was right, his words had hurt himself more than her. He always felt the urge to push people away just when he started to feel close to them, ever since his mother died and he had to move to London. While he had gotten past that with new friends, it all came back when they turned their backs on him when he needed them most. Was being safe from rejection really worth being alone? With such thoughts crawling around his brain, he headed for the dorms.