It was the dead of night. How coincidental.

The young ghost drifted slowly over the side walk, gliding was more like it. Dressed in a [once black, now silveryish] short evening dress with a rose clutched lightly in her hand, she moved silently. No sound was emitted from her; she could merley have passed as a trick of the light or one's eyes.

But she wasn't. This was Corine Astor, and she was a ghost. A lonely ghost.

Without realizing it, the rose slipped from between her fingers and she continued moving onwards, gazing sorrowfully at the closed doors of the theatre. She had loved to act when she was alive; in highschool she had been one of the best in all of her drama classes.

But now, she was dead, and couldn't even speak.

Nick had been floating invisibly on the breeze when he spotted Corine. He hadn't intended to leave his flight for the ground this evening, but a silvery, gliding woman was not something that he saw every day (or ever), so he touched down lightly. Becoming somewhat visible, though still transparent, he followed behind her for a few steps, before leaning down to pick up the rose she had dropped.
He started, surprised, and nearly returned it to the pavement.
He could feel it. The petals were soft, and the stem was hard and cool, and it had a faint scent...
He almost began to cry.
"I...miss...you dropped something. It's...beautiful."

The young ghost hadn't expected a voice to sound from behind her; calling for her. At first she thought it may have been Alan, a man she had met a short while ago at the Waterfront. He saw her, and wasn't afraid of her .. And that caused happiness to well up inside of her.

But when she slowly turned around, and her dark gaze met the figure of the young man, she almost fainted. Well .. I don't really know if she can faint. But she was very, very suprised.

Of course she remained silent, because she did not know how to speak in her new form. Corine moved forwards, absolutely fascinated by the other .. ghost! After a few minutes of thoroughly looking at him, she realized how rude she was being by staring at him.

The female's eyes lowered to the rose in his hands; her precious, precious rose. One of the very few reminders that she had once been alive. Corine stood in silence, her argent body shimmering and flickering slightly in the night.

Nick held out the rose to her and took his hat off in his other hand, twirling it around his fingers. He had a clumsy sort of smile on his face.
"Here. Take it. Er...I...apologize for the mess I'm in, I didn't think to bring my coat. W...what's your name?"

Corine just then realized he was rather .. bloody. She was at first, alarmed, then was suddenly aware that he was already dead. Luckily, she couldn't talk, so she didn't say anything regretful like, 'Oh, are you alright?!' or 'We have to get you to a hospital!' Because she would have said that.

She was a normal woman before she died, you know.

The young ghost smiled with understanding as he apologized, then asked for her name. She couldn't tell him; she doesn't know how to speak. Her expression turned to one of slight sorrow, and she reached for the rose before taking it delicately in her hand.

Moving her other slim hand near her mouth, she opened and closed it a few times--mimicking speach .. however, no sound escaped. She shook her head to try to show him that she did not know how to, and couldn't.

Her gaze lowered to the ground and that faint, faint hint of pink tinged her cheeks in a ghostly blush.

"You can't speak?"
He took a halting step forward, his eyes falling to her throat. It didn't look as if her vocal cords were cut or anything, so...
Oh.
"Was it recent? I'm so sorry."

Was it recent? Quite. She nodded her head sadley and toyed almost nervousley with the rose in her hand.

Glancing back up to him, she tilted her head very, very slightly in a questioning manner. How were they going to communicate? There was no sand for her to write in .. And she doubted her mouthing words to him would get either of them very far. So, Corine stood there as she began to feel more and more awkward waiting for something to happen.

"Well, you're doing much better than I was. It was weeks before I could even be visible." He grinned, a bit embarassedly, because it seemed strange to be smiling about things like this. "I could...I think I could try to teach you."

Light, airy laughter seemed to escape the translucent woman at his first words. She grinned back at him when he smiled as if he were embarrassed; she didn't really pick up on the fact that it was sort of odd to laugh about such things. Well, not then and there, anyways.

When he offered to teach her, she absolutely beamed at him. Her body became alittle more defined and she nodded her head quickly, clasping her hands together for a moment before she moved forwards and threw her arms around him in a very happy hug.

She pulled back, and more of the light airy laughter escaped her.

Well, Nick had just brightened up her night.

Nick was staring at her as if...
As if...
Please pardon the expression.
As if he'd seen a ghost.

He'd felt her. She felt solid and real, and he imagined that he could smell her hair...and...gods. It had been so long since he'd truly touched anyone...Almost ninety years. Please excuse him for mentally flatlining.

"...I..."

He was very confused.

Corine stopped laughing, and her smile faded alittle. He seemed very suprised; maybe she'd done something very offensive. She stepped back and watched him, knowing she couldn't very well appologize. With what voice would she do so?

"You..."
Haltingly, he stepped towards her, raising a hand, letting his fingers brush ever so lightly against her hair. Then, shocked at his own audacity, he shoved his hand into his pocket and took two rapid steps back.
"Um. We should get started, then. I...I see you can already laugh. It's similar to that...um..."

Corine's eyes widened slightly, and her jaw lowered a tiny bit as he lightly brushed his fingers against her hair. The female wondered if he had ever seen another like her .. was there something different about her, or was he just astonished to see another ghost? But her thoughts on this were pushed aside for the time being as he spoke again. So .. it was like laughing? Corine was happy to have someone teaching her .. but she wanted to know more about his shock, his suprise.