"a-alizia," maybe it was the way she'd stuttered or the way she'd pronounced it as ah-lee-zah but there was something about her. sure, there was alize or eliza or even eloise but never the way she'd said it.

maybe he just loved her voice.

she was dazed, her mind foggy and unaware of the fact that she'd broken her own rule.
she'd spoken in front of him.
she'd spoken to rkyer.

"say it again."

slow and suctioned like quicksand, she spoke, her lips curving experimentally around he words. her voice was chopped for not having spoken in months, the simple action of sounding out syllables being too much for her but ryker had barely noticed.
she had a frequent stutter, accompanied by a small lisp and
the boy
could not be
more
in love.

"my-my... name is alizia."

"alizia," he'd repeated, hoping he did her justice, in awe of how easily she'd turned from shards to a person with a pulse and a name. "that's beautiful."

she had a name.

she smiled
wide as all of seirra leone
teeth as bright as the sun
eyes as united as all of england.

and a spark had flown through him, leaning up in his bed and taking her hand in his, ignoring how weak she had been. he could only focus on the thing she'd kept hidden.
the bleeding had stopped.

"could you say my name?"

everything had stopped.

"ryker."

and he could finally feel.

"i like your voice, alizia. why don't you speak?"
but that was another story for another time and all at once,
she'd said too much, done too much.
so with a shake of her head, she curled beside the sighing boy.

and she counted his heartbeats.
she was an artist
although she didn't like to admit that he had changed her,
she was an artist.

"could you say my name again?"