You know, for all that it annoyed Xanthippe that it had taken until her very last day of high school for them to actually meet in any significant kind of way... Maybe it was for the best. Because maybe if they'd met much earlier, he would've written her off as a a spoiled rich girl.

And he would've been right to, because that was about the extent of what she'd been.

But Xanthippe at 19 kind of marvelled at him seeming so uncomfortable sharing a dream that... just seemed to make sense? It wasn't even that small, really: it involved owning a business and buildings, which was the language of her people, really.

She frowned a little, as she brushed some of the hair away from her face. "That's not nothing."