....it's probably the right thing to do.

"Delilah?" You ask, cautiously. It didn't take long to find where she was sulking, because she didn't go far. She's sitting in the grass against the outside Gymnasium wall, bent forwards with her head between her raised knees. Her arms are linked around her knees as well, and her uniform looks like it's been pulled on very haphazardly.

"Go away." She says into the ground.

You hesitate. What do you do, in a situation like this? She probably wouldn't like it if you went over and put an arm around her, or patted her on the back.... or if you tried to say something to make her feel better. Any one of those would probably just make her more upset, and then she'd get up and run to somewhere else, so....

You silently sit yourself down in the grass next to her, but not too close, and lean back against the wall. The two of you stay next to each other like that for a while, not saying anything.

Delilah sniffs. You look over to her. Even though it's hard to see her face with her posture, you think she might be crying, just from the sound. Oh no, now you're really feeling bad -- she isn't, right? Ah!

Delilah lifts her head up from between her knees and glares over to you at that moment, catching you looking at her. Her eyes are definitely a little bit red and teary, but they also look very cross.

"Stop it with that concerned face!" She says, between sniffs and the occasional hic. "You won again, didn't you?"{if@ H-how's Delilah looking? <100}

"Again?" You ask, confused.

"You're always winning!" Delilah shouts. What is she talking about? She {else} Delilah {endif}reaches up and wipes some tears away from her eye with the base of her palm. "Why are you still here? Do you like watching this?!"

You feel something heavy in your throat, and don't know what to say. You just want to reach out and give her a big hug, but you know you can't, but you can't think of anything else to do.... feeling useless, you actually feel your own eyes start to well up just a little.

"No!" Delilah yells. "No, stop that! Don't do that!"

You sniff, and try to hold it back, but in the end the overload of emotions is just too much and you can't stop yourself. The tears start coming out, and you can't help but wail as you rush forward and take Delilah into a big hug, bawling your eyes out in a reaction much bigger than just her slightly-wet eyes.

"Get off of me!" Delilah says, struggling to push you off of her, and clearly very irritated by how you just burst into tears. Eventually, she succeeds, and shoves you off by your shoulders. You flop back uselessly onto the grass and lie there, sniffling and trying to bring all the tears back into your body. Delilah doesn't move and you don't get up, and for a while, both of you just stay quiet.

................

"..........I'm sorry." Delilah says, quietly.

Wait, what? With one last sniff, you wipe your eyes and sit up again, looking at her. She doesn't look at you.

"Just stop crying like an idiot." She says, staring down at the grass with still-puffy eyes. "You won, so you should be celebrating."

"But....." You say, mostly recovered from your big cry, but still a bit teary and with some lingering sniffles. "It was supposed to be to make us better friends, wasn't it? That's what Professor Phoebe said, so.... if that hasn't happened, then I don't think I really won at all."

Delilah twitches as if she was just hit by something, and drops her head down between her knees again.

"Yeah, well, I still don't like you." She says, after a pause of silence. "So if you're looking at it like that, then I guess we're both losers."

That heavy feeling comes back to your throat again. Surprisingly, this whole situation is making you feel much more helpless than any Combat training you've done so far.

".....I'm sorry too." You say, finally. "I haven't really given you enough of a chance, I think, and-"

"Don't." Delilah cuts you off, pulling her knees in closer with her arms. "Just don't."

............

You lean back against the wall again, resting your head on it. That was pretty much all you had, and you're pretty sure you meant it, at least right now while you're caught up in all of these emotions of the moment. But at least she heard the first two words of it, which was the most important part. The two of you have apologised, now, so that's probably it, and you can get up and go if you want to.

..............

"....Delilah?" You say.

"What."

"Would I be going too far if I asked if we could be friends?" You try. "I know you don't think I'm cool or nice, but we're both going to be in the same class for the next three years, and we're both trying to become Warriors which means we probably have some stuff in common, and....." You trail off.

Delilah sniffs, waits for a long time, then lifts her head up again and looks at you. She seems to have mostly gone back to normal now, except that her expression is a little bit softer.

"I don't know." She says, honestly. It takes you a while to realise what she said, because you were pretty much expecting either silence or a 'no', and weren't calibrated for a response like this. "But it's not that I don't think you're.... cool. Or nice. You.... you probably..... I guess you could be one or both of those." She pauses, then adds "Since I haven't cared to look, I mean."

You feel your eyes well up again slightly at a sudden overwhelming rush of good emotions, as a smile threatens to take to your face. You work hard to keep both of those in so that you don't scare Delilah off again. You think she just said something nice about you, almost!

"I think you are very cool and nice too!" You say, the words rushing out of your happy mouth. "Or, at least, I think you're very cool. You're probably going to be an awesome Warrior one day, no doubt!"

Delilah's eyes flash with anger, and her scowl returns.

"What." She says, the single word threatening you more than anything you've ever faced before in your life and forcing you to lean back.

"A-ah, what did I say? I just mean I th-think it's really cool how you fight so well, is all...." You stammer, lifting your arms defensively and shaking a little bit.

"You think I'm not nice?" Delilah spits out. Your eyes go huge.

"N-no, that's not what I- I mean, to be fair, you haven't really been that.... b-but, that's not to say that you couldn't, I just-"

With an angry huff, Delilah rises up to her feet, turns, and marches off to the Courtyard in a rage, leaving you alone on the grass by the Gymnasium. You lower your defensive arms, rest your head back against the wall, and sigh, closing your eyes. You felt like you were maybe doing some good work just now, but you're pretty sure you just undid it all with that blunder.

A small smile comes back to your face. You open your eyes and lift your head again to watch her walking off. You might have not done a perfect job just now, but still, that interaction and her ability to talk with you like that gave you a real feeling that one day the two of you could actually be proper friends. Err.... if you watch your wording, that is.

Still smiling to yourself, you push up off the wall again, stuff your hands into your pockets, and walk off to have your Free Time. You might not have gotten to cum, but at least you learned that Delilah isn't totally impossible to talk to, and that's much better! And it's not even dirty. Even better!