”Not just students.” Sam said not mentioning how he felt isolated most of his life. It was only in the past few years he was able to be free enough to do that. Sam felt her hand on his arm and he sighed slightly. Allowing the silence to settle for a few moments he wasn’t exactly sure how to respond to her. Sometimes silence said enough.

When she asked the questions Sam struggled a little bit both to stand and form a coherent answer. Most of the time he didn’t, it was only close friends and ex-girlfriends who know much of anything about him. ”Good question.” he said finally getting to his feet. He offered a hand to Juliette to help her up. He didn’t answer right away, in fact he made sure to make it seem like he wasn’t going to answer it.

Sam created a few foot sized ice pillars again that rose from the ground until they were even with the trailer they were standing on. Sam took a step forward as a few more formed lower that the previous ones. ”It varies. I try not to really talk about it. I almost like forgetting about it sometimes. I try to keep it simple. I was an orphan.” he explained, ”most of the time people don’t ask more than that.” speaking from experience. Most people assume it is a touchy subject and leave it at that.

”Depends who asks and who finds out.” Sam said thinking about a better way to say it. He pointed to himself and then to his date. ”Case in point.”

Juliette stood to follow him, not taking his offer of a hand. She was capable of standing by herself, and it looked like it had been painful for him to get up at all. She didn't want to add to it if she didn't need to. She walked over to the stairs leading down from the wagon, locking the door behind them as Sam took his own way down.

For a while, it seemed as though he wasn't going to answer her question, but then he replied with an answer that was very much like what she had expected. It made sense, and it was probably what she would have done in his situation. It also shed some light onto how much trust it must have taken him to tell her.

Juliette nodded as she stepped onto the grass and looked toward where Sam's car was parked. She longed to be inside the cabin with all the interior lights turned up to full. There, she could have the conversation without the uneasy feeling that loomed over her. However, she wasn't about to rush her injured date, so she didn't say anything on the matter. In the very least, they seemed to be headed that way anyway.

"Well, if you need someone to talk to about things, I'm here. It's cliché, I know, but sometimes it's good to talk about things," she added a little shrug. She knew from personal experience that talking to people did a lot more good than bottling things up, and from the sounds of it, Sam had spent a large amount of time doing the latter.  

Doing his best to pretend he wasn’t injured Sam attempted to be half a step in front of Juliette. While he wanted to go home after the conversation and pretend that it didn’t happen he was still on a date and had the full intention of finishing it, which was why he was heading directly to the main cabin where all the lights happened to be. Somewhere he knew Juliette wanted to be. The ice-mancer however had no idea what would be in store for them when they arrived there, it didn’t matter though he was with his girlfriend. That was all he cared about, not his injuries or his past.

”Thank you.” Sam said trying to sound sincere as possible. He had heard it before and knew that she was sincere however talking about his problems was something Sam was never good at. He was doing his best to not seem weak but the more he was talking about himself the more he felt it. ”Things I can talk about” he paused, ”past… way harder.” he said with a slight shrug glad the ice around his ribs was dulling the pain.

”I want to be honest with you… but it might take a little time. Baby steps I guess?” he said trying not to notice his own hobbling that prevented him from getting much further in front of Juliette. ”Was digging the light beams earlier by the way…” Sam followed with a playful lean into her.

“Baby steps it is,” Juliette agreed with a half-smile, “but you might want to take the same approach to your walking. You’re not fooling anyone with that hobble there.”

She eyed the cabin that they were headed toward warily. She did want to go inside and sit somewhere well-lit, but more than that, she wanted to stop seeing Sam in pain. Sure, the night had been eventful, but she would rather have it end early than for him to puncture a lung with a piece of rib bone.

“Thanks,” she smiled at little at the light beam comment, “they're one of the occasional perks of being a light mutant, you know.” Her smile shifted as he leaned into her. It felt playful, sure, but it was also worrying.

The cabin grew quickly in the distance, and soon they were near the front steps. Juliette stopped in front of it and turned to her date, lines of worry creasing her forehead. “I don’t want you to overexert yourself just for the sake of doing it. We can still go back to the mansion and get you looked at. I know you want to act tough and seem like nothing bothers you, but you barely made it across that field. I really don’t mind cutting things short, I mean, there are plenty of things we can do back there.”

If his ribs weren’t in pain he would have grabbed the back of his head like he normally did when someone called him out on something he had done or said. ”That bad?” Sam said shifting his weight to try and fix his hobble. ”Thought I was doing a good job hiding it.”

A disco ball came into his mind when she mentioned the perks of a light mutant. He didn’t know why that was the first thought but he suddenly wanted to create one. Maybe when they were on a mission or in a fight with someone or… Sam smirked slightly and decided to save the idea for later.

His thoughts briefly distracted him from his pain and their distance to the cabin.
When they got there and Juliette stopped short and it caused Sam to kick some dirt, which didn’t feel great on his ankle. Something Sam of course he kept to himself. She clearly didn’t want to give her a reason to leave early.

Sam started to laugh, ”What and sit in Doc’s office while he debates on healing me for forty minutes only to decide he will? I might be in a little pain but this is my first time picking pumpkins.” Sam folded his arms trying to look tough but then stopped short because he suddenly felt a pang in his side. ”Unless… we can come back? Pie still hasn’t been had.” Sam said still trying to sound tough.

“Better than most,” Juliette agreed, “but you forget, I’m trained to do this. You’re not good enough to fool me.” She eyed his hobble carefully, trying to gauge just how injured he actually was. Despite what she said, he clearly had a lot of practice hiding injuries.

“A forty minutes better spent than having to rush you back there because of internal bleeding,” she countered. As someone that had seen the worst, her mind immediately jumped to that place. “Let’s not make it your last time. And yes, we can always come back. Wait here for a sec, alright?”

Before he could argue, she walked off and disappeared into the little house, confident that she could out-walk him. There was a little gift shop in the lower level, and there was a table with pies for sale. She dug around in her pocket and took out some money to buy a pumpkin one. With the pie in hand, she went back out to meet her date.

“Maybe this will make the wait time a little easier?”

”And I was trained to fool people.” the icemancer retorted quickly before he had time to process what he had said. It sounded a lot worse off than it was but it was the truth. He was gifted in lying; at least he thought he was once upon a time. Maybe not now or around people he cared for.

Sam didn’t argue about the internal bleeding he knew what it felt like when that happened and at the moment he didn’t feel sick like that. He could still focus which meant he didn’t lose that much blood and for the most part he could walk in a straight line. Sam knew however that he’d lose an argument with Juliette, she knew more about medicine and injuries than he did. Even if he had broken almost every bone in his body at some point in his life. ”Fine…” the icemancer grumbled as he started to hobble off to his truck. He was glad she cared but was also upset about the lack of pie.

Turning his body slowly Sam raised an eyebrow and was about to ask what for when she took off towards the little house. Maybe she was going to pick up a schedule. Debating on going to get the truck and come back to pick her up Sam waited patiently deciding that she would have made it to the truck before she did. He was moving slower than usual.

When she returned Sam smiled and started to laugh, ”Be still my heart.” the icemancer looked to the pie then to his girlfriend. ”Marry me.” he said joking knowing that this was the second time he made the joke. ”The pie definitely makes the wait time better.” Sam reached into his pocket and pulled his keys out. ”I guess we got to go then.” Sam waited till Juliette was close then kissed her on the cheek. ”This is mine.” he then grabbed the pie from her, ”This is mine.” then jingled up the keys. ”and these are yours.” he smirked. ”You might be better off driving.”

A grin formed on Juliette’s lips at Sam’s response to the pie. She wasn’t happy about having to make him leave early from his first pumpkin picking experience, but at least it had ended on a good note. Plus, she didn’t have to make the pie now.

She cleared her throat awkwardly at the second proposition of marriage, deciding not to comment on it. It had, in the very least, been more of an off-hand thing than the first one. At that moment, she didn’t even want to consider marriage, especially considering she still had a lot to digest from what Sam had told her before.

Juliette took the keys from him, agreeing with his statement. It was a much better idea to have him drive than her, and it wasn’t like she was going to complain about driving his pick-up. “That’s a good idea. Can I trust you not to eat the pie while I drive, though?” The question was more rhetorical than serious, so she circled around to the driver’s door and got in the car.

The engine started, and she backed out of the lot once Sam had joined her. As the tires spun, she silently realized that after everything, they had forgotten to get any pumpkins.

((OOC: I think that’s a good place to leave it, unless you have more to add?))