This Is Me

[Sonia Vanderberg]

"I know Coach, I won't forget, I promise."

Sonia placed her broom back in it's case and placed it carefully in the shelving provided. She didn't often come to this place to train, but it was a lovely arena to train in. The surrounding woods provided great obstacle courses to run through and Sonia really needed to work on her high speed turns anyway. Her training broom was an older make, decommissioned now. They didn't make broom like these anymore because they were hard to handle and volatile, so she couldn't use it for any official races, but she loved it because she knew that if she could handle it, she could handle a much smoother broom. Though, truth be told, she wasn't sure how much longer she would be in this racing gambit. It was starting to become tiring, boring. She run all the courses three or four times already and won a couple of them too. She held a couple of records and she had more accidents than she used to. The one a couple of months back had put her out of commission for three races, something she seriously worried over. She'd gotten back into shape fairly quickly, but it wasn't something she looked forward to repeating any time soon. The other factor affecting her, was her desire to possibly look at starting to settle down, but she wasn't sure about that yet. There were still some things she had to speak to people about and she couldn't very well just stop racing all of a sudden, there was a process to these things.

Leaving the arena, Sonia headed to the cafe she'd asked Ty to meet her at. She liked him, she liked him a lot, but she'd never really given it much of a chance to develop into anything deeper. She was scared her job and the fame that surrounded it would scare him off, but had neglected to actually say anything about that to him. She thought this might all be on her end, but if there was even the slightest chance that he might be interested in her, she wanted to give it a go and see where it led them. Stepping into the cafe, Sonia was glad that the air seemed to be much cooler inside than it was outside. Summer was never great for training, especially in Africa, she'd almost dehydrated once because she hadn't expected the weather. She was much more knowledgeable now, but at the time it had been a problem. Spotting Ty almost immediately, Sonia headed over and sat across from him and smiled. "Hey, It's good to see you. Have you had a good day?" She couldn't jump straight to the point, she thought, it would be strange to suddenly lay everything on him, she had to give him a chance to catch up with her at least.
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[Tybalt Archer]

To say that Tybalt was satisfied with his life was a little complicated now. He hadn't expected to still be single at this point in his life. He was increasingly jealous of his cousin for his wholesome family life, and even to an extent now his younger sister. Already married. He was left just day in day out, doing the job he had always wanted to do, and though he was achieving highly with that, the boy felt like his life wasn't moving. That it was completely stationary, and though he might not have minded this some years before, as he grew older, he didn't want to sleep with random people or go on a couple of dates, he wanted to settle down. But, his current fling wasn't really helping that. It was a problem because he like Sonia, he just didn't know if they were on the same page, if they wanted the same things from life. He knew her career meant the most to her and he would never, ever say that she had to quit her dream for him, that was absurd the plainest sense of the word. He just needed to know, if she wanted to settle down. If she did, he would happily move forward with her, but if she didn't, there was no point in moving forward, they would be interested in different things. He would be disappointed, but thus was life it seemed.

Ty arrived to meet Sonia, where she'd invited him to meet with her, and he could feel that this conversation was coming, that he desired to know where she was, he wanted to know where they stood, so he welcomed it. The healer took a seat at one of the tables and ordered a coffee. He had the next few days off, but the long shifts mean he was usually tired on his first day off. Tybalt had to admit that being a healer was everything he had hoped for an more. He had worked hard for it in school and he was happy it paid off. The man took the drink as it was handed to him and thanked the barista. He took a small sip and watched towards the door as he waited eventually, though not long after he'd arrived, Sonia appeared, he smiled at her, giving a small wave over, "Hey," he replied softly, having lost all of what had been his old accent, a more neutral kiwi accent sat in it's place, "First day off all week, so yeah, it's nice to go outside," he replied with a small laugh, though it was obvious he loved his job. "What about for you? Good practice?" Though Ty had played quidditch and seen matches and races, he still didn't know entirely how to phrased it when speaking with Sonia.
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[Sonia Vanderberg]

It was good to simply be in Ty's presence. She missed him when he wasn't around and she wanted him to know how much she valued him. But she didn't want to suddenly rush head long into the conversation. She had to work up to it. "I bet you don't see much of the sun in your line of work, huh? Too busy helping sick people." She laughed slightly. Sonia's own sun-kissed skin was a physical indicator on how much time she spent soaking up the rays. Her uneven skin tone accounted for about forty percent of her visible skin. She wasn't even sure she could be pale, given she didn't think she could ever spend too much time cooped up inside. She loved the sun too much, the way the wind flew through her hair made her happy, even if she was thinking about giving up racing, she'd never stop flying, not entirely. "It was, mostly, uneventful. My one of my training partners smashed his leg in a tree and broke it in three places. I don't think he'll be making the race next week." Though bones were easily fixed, the weakness of the leg itself could continue for days afterwards and the higher ups always liked to keep racers fit and healthy, meaning they had to stay out if they were injured. She felt sorry for the guy, but one less competitor was one less competitor. "He's new to the circuit I think, I've not seen him in a race before, he'll learn though, he's a good little flyer."

When she said little, she meant little, he was barely at her shoulders standing at a short 5'3. Sonia herself was nearly 5'7 so it was strange to have such a short training partner. She could tell that there would be many great races in his future and it was making her think about her own future. Ending on a high would be much more appealing than ending on a low, in a race she loses terribly. Great racers were hard to come by and though Sonia was good, she was hardly a once in a generation great. It would be nice if she was, but there were other things she was passionate about, not just racing. "I actually have something I want to talk to you about, if you'll allow me." She said, looking at him cautiously. She wasn't sure how this conversation was going to go, but she knew she absolutely needed to have it.
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[Tybalt Archer]

Tybalt gave a little smile at her words, "We don't," he agreed with her comment, a little laugh from his lips. He was often too busy to spend time outside during his shift, and occasionally the shifts went so long that he spent a lot of time that sometimes it was difficult to get all the sunlight necessary, but Tybalt did still love his work, he loved being a healer, it was everything he had wanted from life after school. it was also turning out to be better than he could've ever hoped for. The man listened as she talked about her day, and he couldn't help but grimace as she told him what happened to one of her partners. He was glad he'd given up quidditch all those years ago, it was still dangerous, it had always been very dangerous, perhaps though he was only realising it now. His little sister played, and it was dangerous, though he knew that what Sonia did was far more dangerous. She flew but she also raced, and going at those speeds on the brooms was certainly going to result in people getting into various accidents. He also couldn't help but wonder why after that any person would get back on to the broom. Ty had to hope the other person learned or it might be worse the next time he got hurt.

"Your work is so dangerous," he said this lightly, a smile on his face but it was a true comment, and while the nature of their relationship was still in the somewhat unknown elements, he couldn't but still be worried about her. He knew she could handle herself, but it was still dangerous regardless of how hard a person worked to try and ensure that they were safe. He took a sip of his coffee and looked at her, as she said she had something to talk to him about. Those were never good words to hear, but he thought it was likely a good time to have them, he couldn't help but agree that they did need to talk, but he would let her say what she needed to before he jumped in and gave his piece, perhaps they were on the same page about it. "Go ahead," he encouraged, keeping his gaze on her and showing her that he was listening.
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