Neurodiversity

Sameen sighed.

Fourteen thousand, four hundred and eighteen seconds now, and all she really wanted to do was to cuddle up in her blankets and sleep. She wondered what Bear was doing at the moment. Probably being a slug as usual, curled up and waiting for her return. She did leave him his dinner in the morning… God, she missed her bed. And her fluffy blanket. Sameen made a promise to herself to find a new bunk that was just as comfy and stay in bed for a week after she got out. Fudge all.

The tight constraints around her arms and legs didn’t bother her as much as the awfully familiar stench seeping through the black bag over her face. Unnecessary. Really. She already knew where she was. It was a lovely little ten by ten room with painted grey walls. A single steel chair, and a whole lot of fun. Give or take a couple of needles, knuckles, and an electric rod. They called it The Abyss, but Sameen referred to it endearingly as “the furthest point you could get from sleep”. A euphemism that earned her the record of enjoying most of the room’s subtleties in her training years.

On a good day, which was every day since graduation, Sameen would be on the other side of the glass in front of her. Unfortunately, she found herself in be in a bit of a situation. She had just put a bullet in the head of her handler after all. And her team, unfortunately, had to go as well. She had almost made it out of the country a few hours ago until she found a very delicate needle pierce her skin and the sweet feeling of dropping in her fluffy brain once again. She couldn’t even turn fast enough to catch a glimpse of who did it. But in this case, Sameen knew that someone was watching her in that very moment. Some sick, twisted person who was playing with her mind. Sameen would have just let her boredom help her drop off to slumber, but there was something off about this particular person that drew out her stubbornness. He, or she, knew what Sameen hated the most.

Waiting.

Sameen hated waiting, and she didn’t like explaining why almost as much as the wait itself.

Fourteen thousand, five hundred seconds.

She was going to break the neck of whoever stepped into the room next. Unless it was Bear.  

The handle clicked, and the door opened.

A small set of heels walked into the room.

The darkness lifted, and Shaw found herself staring wearily at a dark-haired girl who smiled brightly back at her. She looked almost pixie-like, with her small stature, sharp nose-bridge, and brown, flowy hair that rested lusciously on her shoulders. The thing that really upset Sameen was the girl’s apparent cheerful, nonchalant demeanour, practically prancing as the latter found a seat opposite herself.

“You look awful, sweetie,” the girl crooned, her smile still as bright as the first time Sameen saw it. “Are you feeling okay?”

“How old are you, anyway?”

Sameen decided to go with nonchalance. She was pretty much screwed the moment she got caught, god knows where she was, and she was honestly, endlessly tired. Three full-day missions and a ton of coffee did that to her. Nevertheless, she thought that if she could bait her captor, she would be able to grab her the moment she got close. That was the plan. So far.  

“Sam, you know it’s rude to ask a girl for her age, don’t you?” Pixie replied with a slight tilt of her head, clearly staying in the safe radius outside of Sameen’s potential attack radius, reading into the latter’s prying eyes. The way her hair flicked along with her head stirred something weird within Sameen’s heart, but the latter was more focused on digging into the cables around her wrists at that moment.

Out of nowhere, Pixie reached forward and caressed  Sameen’s cheek with the palm of her hand.

It took everything in Sameen not to flinch.

“You’re a little cold. And pale. Maybe I shouldn’t have waited so long.”

Pixie seemed to be concerned. Genuinely concerned. Which was confused Sameen to no end. But more importantly, Pixie seemed to almost be talking to herself rather than to Sameen herself, shaking her head a little in disappointment.

Weird.

“Maybe you should just let me go, pixie dixie,” Sameen replied in similar fashion, rolling her eyes as she gave a patronising smile. The cable tie was really hurting now. Pixie had really made sure to pull it down to the last tooth. She was pretty sure the wetness around her wrists was blood, not sweat, but she could use anything she could get to slip out of her cuffs.

She was almost there, just one… maybe two inches more.

“I can’t do that. Not yet, anyway,” the girl replied with a brief shake of her head in a really, childish way.

There was something inexplicably seductive about the girl in front of her. A leopard, observing – staring – and playing with her food. Something intensely captivating that Sameen couldn’t shake her eye contact. Her face was inches away now – too close – Sameen hated it when people got this close. She couldn’t explain why but she just hated it. Stop.

She tugged just a little harder, and the cuffs slipped.

“Getting framed sucks, don’t you think?” she asked, with the same amount of nonchalance just as Sameen mentally punched her in the throat with as much force as she could master.

“What?”

Sameen was confused once again, her clenched fist held behind her back.

“I said, getting framed sucks, don’t you think?” Pixie repeated herself, leaning back a little as a small smile began to grow on her lips again. “It’s one of the downsides of being a NOC.”

“So you know about what happened?” Sameen enunciated each word one after the other, trying to put everything together. It didn’t fit.

“Of course. It’s part of my job and I’m very good at what I do.”

“Then what is all this for?” Sameen raised her hands, gesturing to her own body, as the realization that she could have been sleeping in her bunk instead of playing games came to her.

Now she really wanted to break her neck.

Root tilted her head to the side again, letting her wavy hair fall a little as her perfect canines glinted under the light.

“I couldn’t understand Sameen Shaw when I got her file a few days ago,” Pixie said softly, “Even after meeting you, I still can’t quite understand you yet, Sameen, and it bothers me.”

Pixie’s smile fell from her face, and Sameen had never felt a mixture of being utterly confused, annoyed, and angry as much as how she felt in that moment before.

“It bothers you? Really?” Sameen raised her eyebrows, feeling the numbness set around her wrists. She picked at cable ties around her legs, ripping them off, then came to her feet.

Amidst her fit, Sameen realized that Pixie was actually just a little taller than herself. Perhaps the childish demeanour just made her that much more… It didn’t matter. The only thing Sameen wanted in this moment was to get out of this freak show and put her head on a pillow, so she simply ignored the concerned, weird look on Pixie’s face and stormed off.

To hell with who she was, or what she actually wanted.

Just another day in paradise.

Just another day dealing with the world’s bullshit.

Yet, as Sameen reached the door, something, perhaps that strange feeling in her heart, made her stop in her tracks.

A little light in the void.

Turning around slowly, she met the curious eyes of Pixie with a cold look.

“Who are you, anyway?” she asked, “Some freak from Intelligence or Command?”

A small smile grew on the girl’s face.

“A little bit of both. I’m your new handler. Most people call me ma’am, but for you sweetie…

You can call me Root.”