Nessa's in for a surprise...

Mal nodded. At least they were making progress and she was talking to him now. Well sort of. More mumbling. "Who's your sister?"

"N-Nessa..." She glanced at him, but quickly looked away "W-will you go away n-now?"

Mal faltered a moment, then decided he'd ask about it later. "You can trust me," he said, giving her another reassuring smile. "Me and your sister are friends."

"I-I don't believe you..." She was staring at the ground, not comfortable being near him

"Do you think she would just dump you off with a total stranger?" She would, but since Lizzie seemed to actually like Nessa, he counted on her not knowing that.

"Y-yeah... she hates me a-anyways"

"I'm sure she doesn't... Well not that much..." Mal shrugged. "Besides you seem nice, I bet she doesn't hate you."

"Sh-She does... why else would she leave me with you?"

"Nessa can only be around other people so long before she gets pissed off," Mal explained, even if it wasn't completely true. "And hey, I'm not so bad. Give me a chance."

"Y-you're scary..." She insisted

"I'm pretty sure you're the first person ever to actually think that."

"Th-that's because everyone e-else is even scarier..."

"That's 'cause I'm not scary at all," Mal said, giving her a childish grin. It was a strange idea to him that anyone would find him scary.

'Y-yeah you are.."

"How so?"

"Y-you.. u-um..." He actually happened to look like someone she was scared of, so that really didn't help the fact she was scared of mostly everything

"Come on, I'm like a teddy bear. At least that's what people tell me."

"... I like teddy bears.' She still didn't like Mal though

"See? Teddy bears aren't scary, just like me," Mal said.

"Y-you're a lot scarier than a teddy bear.."

"I don't think so." Mal pouted. "You still haven't told me why I'm scary though."

"Y-you just are..." She mumbled, inching away a bit

"Listen, if you tell me what I'm doing that's scaring you, I'll apologize and leave you alone, okay?" Mal said softly, giving her another smile.

"Y-you just... r-remind me of..." She just shook her head, sighing. It was never good if she was scared because you looked like someone

"Hey, it's okay. Whoever it is I remind you of, I'm not him... Or her I guess." Mal shrugged. "I'm a nice guy, honest. There's no reason to be scared of me."