I was in an indoor public pool (where no one wore swimsuits), talking with several people in the deep end as we all held on to the wall. Then I noticed Christa just lying on the bottom of the pool, gazing into the distance. I realized ze could breathe the water and watched, fascinated. After a few minutes ze felt my attention and looked up and we made eye contact for a little while (I got the feeling ze was analyzing me, 'reading' me). Then ze swam up and very tenderly kissed the spot over my heart and I was flooded with awe over the amount of honor in that one action. (I had the impression that ze was thanking me) We hugged for a little while.

Suddenly we were in a different part of the pool, on a bed with my five-year-old little sib, who was asking me to find a hair clip that would actually stay in zir (extremely-fine and short) hair, as it was picture day at school. The weird bit was that there was a claw clip all tangled up and buried already -- which I removed to replace with a snap clip. I started to talk with Christa again afterward, but then my alarm woke me.

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Christa and I had a long conversation yesterday -- ze shared a lot with me and I felt really touched to be so trusted. I'd been worried before that ze felt unsafe because I'm becoming part of zir life through my bonds with zir family and that's creating change in zir life (not saying this is zir worry, but it's how I might feel if I were in zir shoes). But I think ze has to feel at least somewhat safe with me to have such an open conversation with me. I was also a little worried that ze just plain wouldn't like me as a person because we seemed to be so different, but after that conversation I feel like we have a lot more in common than I'd have guessed (and few people bother to share with someone they dislike). I'm happy to be getting to know zir more ♥