~

"Do you believe in good and evil?" asked a little boy while twisting a dandelion stem in his hands.

"Yes! The good people are the knights on white horses who rescue the princesses from the evil dragons!" The boy gave a wry little smile at the girl's response, wondering if she even realized she was using his namesake as an example for evil. He twisted the dandelion a bit more, until the juices spilled onto his fingers and dyed his fingernails green.

~

An erratic wind snaked the girl's hair out of her messy braid, spreading its titian beauty across the sky in sharp contrast to the summery blue of the sky. She stood on a plateau with a boy, nothing in sight but the grass waving in the breezes and clouds trailing across the sky, blotting out the afternoon sun. She twirled in a circle at the euphoria of temporarily escaping overprotective parents, and grinned at the boy, inviting him to smile back.

He didn't. Instead, he looked at her seriously, and asked her if she would miss him in the fall when he went to boarding school.

"Yes. I want to enjoy the summer while it lasts though, and next year I'll be in school with you too!"

His mouth set in a grim line, and he replied, "A year is a long time to be away from home."

Instead of agreeing with him, she touched his arm, and told him she'd always be there for him when he got back.

~

As he waited to go on the train, unhappily awaiting his departure, she walked up to him and hugged him, for the first time, smiling wanly.

"You'll be fine, it's only a year, after all... right?"

He smiled, mostly for her, and stoically replied, "Right. I'll send you letters and tell you all about it, and soon enough you'll be there too." He ruffled her hair, and got on one of the last cars. Sitting in his seat, he stared at his hand, where one of her vermillion hairs had stuck to his hand. He brushed it off sadly, watching it fall to the floor, and then stared out the window into the greying sky as the steam engine started its journey to its seemingly-distant destination.

~

She looked out the window, watching the snow flurries pile up higher and higher, replacing the world's grey, brown, and green hues with white, blue, and black ones. The sun was setting as she looked out the frosty panes of glass, seeking escape from her boisterous family. After almost four months of solitude and quiet in the house, she was being driven crazy with four of her brothers back home.

~

At home, for the first time since September, the boy sat in his room after a silent, tense dinner with his parents. His father had inquired with the headmaster of his school for reports of his progress, and had not been pleased by the reports. He had escaped from dinner to his bedroom on the fifth floor, overlooking the estates.

He wondered if she was looking outside, at the cold scenery and pale snow, if she noticed how the moonlight reflected itself off the almost-smooth surface. Looking outside, he remembered her letter that he hadn't had time to open, and read it, and find out if there was a time they could see each other before his winter holiday was over.

~

She hadn't been able to convince her parents to let her visit him, because they wanted her to spend time with the family, and so he would have to go back to boarding school without seeing her. He missed her, and if he would throw away his pride he would admit to himself that he loved her like she was his sister, and hated being away from her. She could always turn his frosty glares into unguarded smiles, his angry, sullen moods into happiness, and his depression into hope. He wanted her with him, to ease the darkness of his misery at school.

But she wasn't there, and wouldn't be. Not until summer, and how unbearably far away that seemed from now. He shrugged his shoulders, tilted his chin up, and got off the train, ready to return to the dark stone walls of the school, if it only meant that he'd be gone from there sooner.

~

When they first saw each other, it was summer again, and they hugged and looked over how the other had changed over the last year.

"Your hair's longer, you know... it's close to your waist now, and has more gold in it than it did last summer. And more of those abominable freckles, I see," he teased, as he ruffled her hair. She grinned at him, swatting his hand away.

"You grew," she commented, staring at him with an odd expression. "And you have a different look about you... you were unhappy, weren't you? Even though you kept telling me that you were fine, and were just focusing on your work."

He stared down at his bare feet, curling them to feel the grass poking his toes, unwilling to look her in the eye and have to admit she was right. Sometimes he hated how she always seemed to know him, sometimes even revealing things about himself that he hadn't figured out yet. She grabbed his chin, forcing him to look at her, and told him that it was okay, because she'd be there this time and she'd be there for him.

~

Sitting in the grass together, hours later, as the sun was close to setting, he stroked her hair and stared at the blue sky that was swiftly turning darker as thunderclouds formed in the distance.

"Do you remember when I asked you whether you believe in good and evil?"

"Yes."

"Do you still?"

"Yes. Good is when you do something honorable... something worthy. Good is truth and justice. Evil is all things dark, everything that intentionally hurts another or defiles it, it's wickedness."

"But everyone has some of both. How can you tell if a person is good or if they're evil, then?"

"If they're being intentionally evil... then they're evil. If they're trying to be good, then they're good. Like you and me, we try to do good things... we're good," she grinned at him.

He tried to smile back, but couldn't stop himself from wanting her to hang onto the illusion that he was good.

~

He was sitting in his compartment on the train, contemplating the windy day, when the door slowly glided open, and she came in the room, grinning at him.

"Hiding away, are you?"

"Yes. I don't want to deal with those stupid oafs who call me their 'friend.' I thought you were with your brother and his friends, saying goodbye to your parents," he said quietly as she sat down beside him, crossing her legs on the cushioned seat.

She smiled a bit wistfully at him, and replied, "I was... but he has his own friends, you know. I'm lonely when I'm with them; I'm completely superfluous. Besides, I haven't talked to you in ages, and I wanted to ask you what you think of this..." Her sentence trailed off as she dug around in a black bag and brought out an old, leatherbound book. "My da got it for me, I thought it would be interesting to start a diary this year."

"A diary? You don't write in diaries," he scoffed, not hiding his disgust at her childishness well.

"What's wrong with a diary? It's just writing things down," she muttered defensively, frowning and holding it to her chest.

They were halted from continuing their conversation when the compartment door opened again, and a few of his friends sauntered into the compartment, sneering at the sight of her, with her tangled auburn hair, multitude of freckles, and worn out clothes. His expression closed off, and he rose from his seat, saying smoothly, "Boys, may I introduce you to-"

"Introduce us to what? We don't see anything worth introducing here," the leader of the group said contemptuously, brushing imaginary lint off his immaculate black clothing.

There was a pause, and the silence stratched out, taut and rigid in its unfriendliness. She stared at them, keeping her face impassive as she stared at the hostile expressions of all but her friend, who was clearly deciding whether he should stick up for her or whether he should give in to them. She decided to make it easy for him.

"Well. I suppose I'll go, then. It's rather clear that there's not enough room in the compartment for all of us," she said blandly, sparing a glare for him as she strode out of the room. He stared after her, and then followed her out.

He looked around, spotting a flash of brilliant red hair hair disappearing into another compartment. Racing after her, he bolted into the compartment, where he was confronted by her hurt, angry eyes.

"How could you do that to me? Either I'm your friend, or I'm not your friend, it's as simple as that. I thought I was your friend, but I'm beginning to doubt it now," she said accusingly.

"Look, it's not all black and white for me," he said to her, turning to leave.

"What's that supposed to mean?" But it was too late, the door was already sliding closed behind him. She sunk down into the seat cushions and cried for her lost friend, still clutching the forgotten diary to her chest.

~

He strode back into the compartment as nonchalantly as he could manage, and to their questioning, challenging glances he replied, "I was just making sure she didn't come back."

The leader of his little group smirked.

~