No More Dreaming Like a Girl (Tag: Sinbad)

Mulan scoffs again, officially bored with this conversation. She lies back down.

"Well fuck you too, then." He grumbles, picking up another three pieces of paper to make another ball.

Mulan poorly stifles back her laughter. "It's all love Sinny."

"Yeah, yeah." He replies distractedly. "You say that, but I just can't feel the love."

Mulan frowns, "Well how do you feel it then?" She asks curiously. She was never one to express her emotions. Except ones that were anger related.

He looks over at her, and the ball lands on his face, getting him right in the eye. "For fucks sake!" He snaps, rubbing at his eye.

"I was just being a smart ass." He replies. "But... you could have a little more emotion in your voice, Kid. Or worship me as the God I am." He shrugs, grinning. "Your choice."

"I think my voice expresses enough emotion!" She snaps. "What's it supposed to sound like? Happy or something?" Mulan demands.

"Yeah, when you're angry, or confrontational - like now." He points out, still throwing the ball. "But, didn't you catch the joke in what I said, or...?"

"If you hadn't noticed, I tend to be very confrontational. And which one? The one about worshipping you? Because I chose to ignore it." Mulan retorts bluntly.

"That wasn't a joke." He replies, straight faced. "And yeah, that's your problem. Being as confrontation as your are can get you killed."

He's silent for a moment, thoughtful. "I was a lot like you when I was younger."

"So you have no right to judge then." Mulan smirks. "It's a joke to me. You know how old are you anyways?" She asks sitting up and leaning on her elbow.

"I do, actually - because I grew up." He points out.

"And I'm not at that age where I get offended over it yet, Kid, so don't even try."

"Touchy, it was just a question. Can I just be a normal curious teenage girl? And if you aren't offended, why not tell me?" Mulan rolls back over onto her back.

"Because you're not!" He snaps, sitting up, eyes narrowed. "You're in prison, filled with rapists, murderers - pedophiles. And you're not the ugliest thing in here, either - they'll see you as an easy target." He takes a deep breath, massaging his temple.

"You're not a 'normal curious teenage girl' anymore, and I have a feeling that you won't grasp the reality of that until someone attacks you, and you lose."

He says it gently but -

He wants to scare sense into her - wants her to know and understand that things are different here. They've grabbed the worst of the worst and shoved them into one place, and she doesn't seem to understand that she isn't the worst thing in here.

Mulan flinched at the sudden change of tone. "So you're not going to tell me how old you are?" She teases before sitting up. "I mean, I've suffered through worse than what the prisoners can do. It's the faculty that scares me." Mulan chews her lip a moment. "I've lost before. It's nothing new."

"Maybe it's not the prisoners we should be worried about, then." He mumbles, scratching the back of his head, slightly uncomfortable now.

"It's not. So are you gonna tell me how old you are now?" Mulan requests once again. "But thanks for worrying about me..." Mulan hesitates. "But at the same time don't. Nothing good has come of people who do." She warns solemnly.

"Yeah, well, what's the worst that could happen now? I die?" He scoffs, playing at indifference. He didn't necessarily want to die but - he isn't getting out of here anytime this century, so...

"If you'd read the files, you'd now how old I am." He replies smugly. "I'm 29."

Mulan stares at him solemnly. He doesn't understand. "Have I ever told you about my mom?" She asks, ignoring everything else he said.

"No." He replies, watching her curiously.

Mulan watches him again. "Well... I was... a problem child of you will. I was always fighting in school, out of school, at home just anywhere. My Dad... wasn't around and my mom was angry because of that. She always worried about me." Mulan takes  a deep breath. "We became broke really quickly, yeah I know what I said about being rich I just said it to piss you off. And I was still fighting and ignoring what adults were telling me so she was scared I'd end up dead." 
Mulan runs a hand through her hair. "She was always worrying about me and that's when she asked my trainer, Aiko to show me how to effectively protect myself... I guess. She never stopped thinking about me, and one day I... picked the wrong fight and my mom's... dead." Mulan chokes on her last sentence, covering her mouth.

He's silent for a while, watching her closely.

"How did she die?" He asks, voice low.

A painful gasp escapes Mulan's lips. "She.. was murdered."

"By the person you had a fight with?" He asks, fingers twitching.

It seems insensitive - that he isn't offering up a form of comfort, lying that it was all going to be okay, but he pushes for more. "Was it a revenge thing?"

"Um... Yeah. Something like that. In simplistic terms." Mulan nods once.