22 The Question Game: Part 2
"- the name of your mother?" Mark asked.
"Ferona," Amelia voice rang with a melancholy as she remembered her mother. However she asked her question again quickly.
"Why's blue your favorite color?"
"Because it's the color I saw every time I woke up," he answered. Amelia tilted her head at his answer, already deciding what she would ask next.
"My turn again. Do you have any family besides your deceased mother?" asked Mark.
"That's mean, you don't hold your punches with the questions you ask at all," pouting once again during this game she said without melancholy this time, "I have any other family. My mother's parents died when she was young and she never told me anything about my father."
"Why did you see blue everytime you woke up?" She asked to answer the question she thought of when he answered her last one.
"Well, I lived outside. When I woke up, the sky was always what I would see," he answered and then asked his question, "What's your favorite color?"
"*Hmmph*, I won't be mean like you. My favorite color is red. It's my favorite because of how beautiful my mother looked when she wore red, especially when she used her fire magic," Amelia explained and then teased, "That's how your supposed to answer a question, meanie."
"Now answer properly this time, do you have any family?"
"No," Mark answered. After speaking he waited for Amelia.
"I just told yo-" Mark continued before Amelia finished.
"I was orphaned, so I don't know anything about my family," finished Mark. "You don't need to be so jumpy you know? You didn't even let me finish before you started yelling at me," he teased back at her.
"You!" Amelia glared at him for his teasing. He had set her up by waiting until she started speaking.
"Calm down… I really think this is what they called a period," he said the last part quietly and continued speaking before Amelia could comprehend what he whispered, "It's my turn to ask a question."
"I refuse," Amelia said.
"What?"
"I refuse to lose to you. That was your question, so it's my turn now," she said. That was her way of keeping the upper hand.
"That's chea-"
"What do you consider me as?" She asked him, interrupting whatever he was going to say.
"What do you mean?" Mark asked, not hearing the first part of what she said and not understanding the second half. The way Amelia talked with him kept most conversation from being depressive, but she also had more control over the conversations they had because she had more experience talking with people, although Mark was not like other people to Amelia.
"Still my turn, so answer the question," she said forcefully and moved a step closer to Mark. Mark couldn't back up since the inside of their stall wasn't that big.
"Um, but I don't understand what you mean," said Mark. He didn't know how he should answer a question he doesn't understand.
"Just answer how you feel," she said.
"Would you at least repeat the question?" Mark asked.
"I can, but then I get to ask another question after it," Amelia bargained, thinking that Mark wasn't very good at this game.
"Okay then, just repeat the question," Mark decisively answered.
"What do you consider me as?" She repeated.
She said that he should answer how he feels, so he didn't think and just spoke, which would probably affect the rest of his life drastically, "Strange, I think you are strange," he said as he considered the way he made him feel.
"How so?" She asked with curiosity and a bit of sadness.
"Well," Mark spoke again and noted that that was her second question, so he answered the same way as before and just spoke as the words came to his mind, "There are a lot of reason why. Talking and being around you is similar to talking to a friend, though I've only ever had one, yet very different."
He continued explaining after remembering how she had told him to answer questions, "I have fun being with you, and there is never not something to talk about, but the similarity ends there. My emotions… or feelings, are different when I'm with you," he said, "My emotions seem to jump all over the place, unlike how they were when I talked with my friend. Sometimes I feel like there is something bubbling in my chest, sometimes I feel shaky and find it difficult to think, while other times its as if there would never be enough time for me to say what I want to, like now."
"So I don't know what to consider you. I've had a friend before, but your not the same as one. I know what an enemy is, and you're definitely not one. From what I know, there is no single word I can use to, as you said, "consider me as", so I can only call you strange," his long analysis and description ended there.
"U-um, wow," Amelia spoke as she processed what he said in a daze. He might not have a word to appropriately describe how he "considered her as", but Amelia did. In fact, she could think of a couple different ones.
She went over what he said several times in her mind, and the blush on her face grew deeper as she did. She stepped back, for she had slowly walked closer to him as he spoke to hear him better, suddenly feeling like she was too close to him.
"I-it's your turn now," spoke Amelia to give herself a chance to calm down the beating in her chest.
"What do you consider me as?" Mark asked back.
"Wh-what?" Amelia asked. She had entered her own world as she thought about what he had said.
"That means you owe me another question after this one," Mark smirked because he felt like he got the advantage back, "I said, "What do you consider me as?"
Amelia payed attention that time but refuted, "That's not fair! You can't ask the same question as me," she pouted once again, but this time the truth was that she just didn't want to answer that question, it would be too embarrassing.
"Not fair this, not fair that. You cheated earlier, so just answer the question," he said.
"I won't! I'll just take that as losing a point,*hmmph*," she said, feeling as though that was the best choice, yet she felt like she was forgetting something…
"Fine then, I'm one point in the lead," Mark smiled, "But you still have to answer that question."
"What, no I don't! I already lost a point," Amelia said.
"Hm, yes, that's true, but I'm asking the same question again."
"That's chea-"
"What do you consider me as?" Mark repeated for the third time. Amelia couldn't say anything to that, she had done the same thing to him earlier.
"*Grrr*, I'll just lose another point then," she felt like she was forgetting something even more now…
"I win," Mark said.
"Wait what, how did you win…" Amelia trailed off as she remembered the conditions to win the game.
*Flashback*
Amelia was about to play the game with her mother after she finished explaining how the game worked.
"Okay sweetie. Now that you know the rules, I'll tell you how you can win," her mother, Ferona, smiled a motherly smile, "If you want to win you either have to get one hundred points first, or get the other person to not answer a question two times in a row." Amelia's mother's smile grew wider, as she knew that Amelia would fall asleep before one hundred questions were asked.
"That's too easy. How come they only get two chances to answer questions, but if they don't they lose?" Amelia asked back. She wanted to spend more time with her mother before she had to go to sleep, so she didn't want her to lose too easily.
"Silly, that's because this is a game of trust." Ferona didn't answer the question farther than that. Amelia had to learn what she meant later on in life, as she couldn't completely understand what that meant with her little three year old mind.
*End flashback*
"How do you already know the rules of this game!?" Amelia asked.
"From the customers, duh," Mark answered. This was a popular game in this world, so you could hear people playing it all around Ventus.
"*Uggh*, fine then, just ask the question. I don't want to play this game with you again," Amelia complained the later half what she said under her breath.
"Okay, this time you have no choice but to answer," Amelia's face turned red from both anger and embarrassment as she released what he was going to ask, "What do you consider me as?"
