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uch. Acts kind of snobby, actually."
"Perhaps he is just shy," T'Shaul suggested in Rio's quiet voice.
"Yeah, well... I wouldn't be surprised, I doubt he's been able to get any
girlfriends with his looks..." The student immediately looked embarrassed and
hurried off. T'Shaul had easily felt his reaction, though, to Rio's own
appearance. It was a typically shallow emotional reaction for a human. Yet it
somehow disturbed T'Shaul slightly. Rio Kitajima had not admitted, even to herself, that
her appearance was part of the reason for Rio's isolation.
It was towards the end of the course when T'Shaul discovered Ethan in the
desert, crying, one night. Rio Kitajima had been frequenting it herself because of the
effectiveness of the sterile environment when meditating. One night Rio Kitajima came to
a small outcropping of rock, still radiating heat absorbed from Vulcans brilliant sun, which had set. Rio's first reaction upon seeing the human, bent up
against the rock and sobbing into his hands, was to leave immediately. It was a
display of emotion distasteful to any vulcan, even from a human. But she
recognized that it was Ethan, and
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