A Lesson Worth Remembering - Ran and Orion

“Ran, I have a question.” It was Orion, again. He looked perhaps a touch anxious, but a different kind of anxiety than his usual. 

Usually, when Orion felt anxiety, everything about him seemed quickened. He existed in a heightened state of awareness, and everything was all too much for him. Right now, as opposed to a quickened way of existence, he seemed slowed. As if he felt hesitant, perhaps.

Instead of responding, Ran simply waited patiently. He already knew he could ask her questions, and if she was to offer him an easy out by speaking up now, then she might be setting him back. 

Though he had been doing mostly well lately, she knew healing was not linear. She had agreed to help him with his healing and to do that meant not giving the easy way out, at times.

After a pause, he finally spoke up again. “You don’t like talking.”

Ran waited for the question part for a bit longer, then she realized that he seemed to be expecting a reply this time. “That was a statement, not a question,” she pointed out, more than a bit confused by his words.

Another moment of quietness, and she could feel it again, that odd hesitance. “Why don’t you like talking?” he finally asked.

She hummed, thinking less on the answer to give and more on her remaining confusion. Ran did not know why Orion had chosen this particular topic today. 

“It is easy to not say what you mean with words, either on purpose or by accident. And then even if you are precise, others can end up misinterpreting your meaning still. Words are an imprecise way of communication,” she explained, her words evenly paced as ever. 

Orion seemed to shrink some into himself at her answer, which had not been her intention at all.

“What did I say?” Ran questioned Orion.

Orion’s response was less a word and more of a sound of confusion of his own.

“You had been avoiding asking what you truly meant to ask. And now, you are upset, but you are not saying why,” she observed.

“Oh,” Orion acknowledged, and it seemed to take him a long moment to formulate what he should say. “You don’t like talking, but I asked you for help, so you talk to me. I just thought… Aren’t I annoying to you?”

And this was why Ran didn’t like talking, she thought to herself. It was just so imprecise. His conclusions had not at all been what she meant, but since Orion had the thought on his mind already, he had heard something entirely different than what she had said.

“No, you are not annoying. Yes, I don’t like talking. And no, the reason I talk to you more often has nothing to do with you asking me for help. It is simply because I like you more than most other esk, Orion,” she explained, covering the bases more thoroughly.

“But you’re annoyed right now!” Orion protested.

Ran gave a long sigh. “Yes, I am. But not at you. I am annoyed because if I was still a grey whale, you would have already realized what I meant from my song.”

“…Oh,” Orion spoke with a dawning realization. “Oh! So when you said you disliked words, you were meaning… You dislike them compared to how you used to speak.”

“Yes, Orion,” but rather than sounding annoyed, Ran sounded more amused than not, now that the misunderstanding had been cleared up.

“You really like me more than others?” Orion wondered.

“Yes, Orion,” she repeated, words infused with the same fondness.

“Can you say things other than ‘Yes, Orion’?” he inquired, lightheartedness infusing him now as well.

She did not bother giving a response to that.

He laughed, joyous now that his fears were cleared and not minding her ‘ignoring’ him. He had known what to expect with that last question of his.

And if in her own mind, she felt the same joy, she was not telling the little prince that.

Later on, she asked him, “Did you learn anything today?” It was a common question she used to end a day they had shared together.

Some days, there was no answer he could think of. And that was alright too. But some days there were.

“Whale song is far superior to lowly speech,” he stated playfully, a laugh quick to follow.

She sighed at the time, more for show than for anything else, but she would never forget his easy delight towards the end of that day.

Because for the first time, it felt as if he had learned a lesson of happiness, not just a lesson of coping, and Ran felt gifted that she had been able to inspire such happiness in the younger esk she cared about.