Now it starts a lullaby, a season where it lies.

But which season is that?

Why, it's Springtime, of course!
 

"I see you've turned on that music box.  I never could understand why you liked this lullaby tune."
 

Springtime in January?  Springtime in February?

Springtime in March?  Or Springtime in May?

It is now Springtime, forever ever Springtime,

So I hope you enjoy it, it's Springtime in April.
 

"Why am I helping you?  She asked me to serve her lord when she died."
 

Springtime brings flowers, lovely lovely flowers,

A lovely lovely Spring, so take it to heart.

It is now Springtime, lovely lovely Springtime,

but now I think it's time for it to stop.
 

"Oh don't look at me like that.  Here, you'll need all the help you can get.  You'll need this."
 

If I were to die here, forever ever lie here.

Would anybody care and shed a tear?

Now it is Springtime, how can you tell?

I hope you enjoy it, it's Springtime for Avelle.
 

"It's a funny thing, now.  Quite silly, even.  But when you wear one, you can do things that you never thought you could bring yourself to do."
 

Now pretty soldier, ever pretty soldier,

Take now this mask and now end the lie.

Bring forth the Summer!  End now the Springtime,

Bess will stop Avelle, and she will die.
 

"Because it was someone else that did it.  Anonymity is a powerful thing."
 

Come now, it's Springtime, an end now to Springtime,

Summer has knocked it down the waterfall.

Bess ended Springtime, forever ended Springtime.

So I hope you enjoyed it, your Springtime for you, Avelle...
 

"Now Bess will be revived.  So I hope you enjoyed your Springtime, oh wonderful Miss Avelle..."

L'Aprile First Springtime, the very first bar that was visited so long ago by a certain red-haired ex-agent who at that time, was just looking for a new purpose.  It was a beautiful Spring that day.

It was currently an ugly rainstorm today, though.

And the scene inside the bar wasn't very pretty either.

"What!?"

Jonas handed Avelle the report as Terrace and Juni sat next to her at the counter.  All of Avelle's best hunters were crowded into the bar, frantically trying to think up of a new plan.

"A Soul Bee group?  How many bees were there!?"

"The reports seem to indicate that it was maximum hive size."  Jonas replied.  "There must have at least been one hundred and fifty of them!"

 "One hundred and fifty, at least!?"  Avelle stared at the piece of paper in shock.  "How...?"

"There were reports in New York after we left."  Terrace anxiously stated.  "Blooddrained victims... a vampire with strange summoning powers..."

"Why didn't I hear about this!?"

"The vampire lord spotted in Latveria is probably stronger than before!  The church wasn't able to stave him off at all!"  Another scout reported.  "Some of the world's best hunters were lost when they thought they could take him!"

"Those idiots!"  Avelle scowled, getting extremely frustrated.  "All they did was add to his power!"

"Did you hear about the slaughter in the city of Cairo?"  Another hunter said to one of his allies.

"We couldn't stop him!"  Jettaron continued at Avelle.  "Where were you to lead us?!"

"Rumours that the dark Messiah were awakening again have started."  Another hunter replied.  "Recent events point to this."

"The Dark Messiah?!?"  Yet another man in the group was stunned.  "But how did he get a soul powerful enough to revive?"

"You're the one who's supposed to be the oh so great Avelle!  I thought you had access to one of the best information networks in the world!"  Jettaran snapped.  "Why the hell didn't you monitor it, yourself?!?"

"Stop it!"  Juni yelled.  "The network was down!  It was impossible to keep up!"

"You should be the one to talk!"  He yelled back.  "You're just a pathetic Avelle wannabe!"

Juni stared at Jettaron in shock at his comment.

"Shut up!"  Avelle angrily glared at him.  "How dare you!  I can come up with a plan for this.  We can still salvage things.  What we have to do is..."

Before she could continue, she caught from the corner of her eye a hooded masked figure walking by the bar outside the window.  For a brief second, time froze as she realized who it was.

"Oh my god..."  Avelle muttered.  "No... not now... not now!!"

"What?"  Jettaron stared at her.

Terrace noticed it too.  "What's wrong?"

She was stunned.  "Bess..."

"B... Bess?!?"  Her right hand man was shocked with anxiety.  "No, you don't mean... she's really still alive!?"

"Jettaron!"  Avelle frantically commanded.  "Take some men with you and go scout out the remote areas where the hive was spotted!  Johas, take the rest and find out what you can about the dark messiah.  Just do what you can, as long as you leave, now!"

All of the hunters stared at her in surprise.

"Well?!?"  Avelle glared at them all.  "We can meet back in L'Aprile Four Score.  Hurry up!  This is urgent!  We have a world that's falling apart, here!  And Terrace, that goes for you, too!"

"But I..."

A look from Avelle told him that she wasn't going to change her mind.  Hesitantly, Terrace ran to join the rest of the hunters as they all quickly left to see if they could stave off the incoming storm on the horizon.  In an instant, only Juni and Avelle were left behind.  Avelle quickly addressed the other girl who stayed.

"You know who Bess is, right?"

"Please... don't say it's her..."

"You're coming with me.  We can throw her off.  We can eliminate her now."

"Avelle, I can't..."  Juni bowed her head down.

In response, the red-haired huntress grabbed her.  "You said you wanted to be like me.  You have to take control of yourself.  Since you're now one of us, she'll hunt you down and try to terminate you just like she did for me, and you'll never be able to escape her.  She won't care about who you are.  She won't care about any friendships you once had.  All she'll care about is her mission.  Her mission to kill you."

The poor blonde girl was unable to reply.  Avelle spoke up again.

"You know where to meet me.  And where to meet her.  I expect you to be there."

With that, she ran off.

Juni stared around the empty room for a full minute, then closed her eyes.
 

"I've sadly let Avelle's little Springtime last for too long."

"You're... going to go back to terminate Avelle?"

Juli stood up.  "Of course.  It's too late to make things better for me, but that doesn't excuse me from leaving the job unfinished."
 

"Juli... please don't..."  Some tears formed in Juni's eyes.  "What about me?"
 

Juni slowly exitted the bar, and stared at the cliffs and the grand waterfall in the distance.  Lightning blasted across the sky once again, as the thunderstorm continued.  She didn't have an umbrella, or even a coat, but those were the least of her problems.  She had other things to worry about.  With that, she started to walk to meet her.  To meet her fate.

"Wait."  Until young man with a red jacket interupted her.  "Juni, you're going, just like Avelle did, huh?"

Terrace had waited outside the bar for Juni to leave the entire time, ignoring the rain as it poured over him.

"Terrace, I have to."  Juni sadly replied without turning around.

"Please stop, Juni."  Terrace pleaded.  "Not you too..."

"Bess will try to do kill me just like she is trying to kill Avelle.  I have to..."

"What about us?"  Terrace asked.  "Why can't I at least come with you?"

"It's a personal matter."  She sighed.  "I have to do this."

"It's also a personal matter for me!"  Terrace cried, trying to hold back.  "I can't let you do this.  It's my fault that you're here when I invited you into Avelle's group.  If you die, it'll be my fault for that, too."

Juni slowly turned her eyes towards him then finally faced him..

"When Bess first came... she wore a mask.  Avelle couldn't recognize her.  I invited her to join us.  She promised she'd take it off.  But behind that mask was a monster."  The hunter stated, his voice shaking and his eyes becoming watery from something else besides the rain.  "My weakness of having to be polite to any lady made me let my guard down.  It was my fault that Bess was allowed to almost kill me.  It was my fault that after that, Avelle decided to take out Bess by herself for revenge.  It was my fault that Avelle died.  And now, look at this mess that we're in because of it."

Juni looked down to the ground.  By now her hair was soaking wet, but she didn't notice.  "The Avelle that's leading you now is just an imposter..."

"The Avelle that's leading us brought life back into us!"  He couldn't contain his own tears.  "She gave us a reason to keep on going once again.  She gave us a leader.  Before she came along, we were just waiting, hoping for the day that Avelle would come back to us, yet knowing deep down inside that she wouldn't.  But now we're going to lose her... and with her, we're going to lose you, too.  Please don't do this, Juni.  We won't be able to go on without you to take Avelle's place."

"I'm not Avelle."  Her eyes closed, and her tears were also joining the rain that was falling to the ground.  "Did you see the way Jettaron looked at me?  How he and the others talked about me?  They'll be able to go on without me."

"You might be right.  I don't know whether they'll be able to go on without you."  Terrace walked up to her, grabbed her hand, and held it against his chest then stared at her with pleading eyes.  "But I know that I won't..."

Juni slowly pulled her hand back then looked at Terrace.  "I'm sorry, Terrace."

With that, she continued on to the waterfall, as the man with the red jacket watched her leave.  He didn't try to stop her.  All he knew he could do was accept fate, knowing that it was his fault that history had repeated once again.
 

My name is Juli.  An agent sent on a mission.  A mission to terminate one who was once one of us.  I received the mission because I was one of the best.  But I wasn't exactly the best.  The very one I was hunting now had a higher efficiency rating than me, a higher proficiency rating than me, and a group of skilled mercenaries to back her up.

Lord Bison.... if I were to die here, left to forever lie here, would you shed a tear for me?

I... I don't want to die.

Thunder clapped through the air as the brunette stared at the large rocks scattered around on both sides of the running river bank, then looked into the distance off the cliff from her high vantage point as the sound of running water from the nearby waterfall that she was on top of continued.

"I was designated Juli.  A doll following her programming code.  A code which decreed that I must now terminate one who was of faulty programming.  But despite that, her coding efficiency surpassed all of mine.  But I failed.  I failed to make sure that the termination process went through.  The rumours of Avelle still being online are too many to be false.  I must now finish the job and terminate Avelle to finish the program that was started."

Agent Juli sighed as lightning flashed.  The day wasn't even nice enough to be beautiful like her last fight with Avelle.

"Lord Bison... this time one of us will die.  It will most likely be me.  Because Bess isn't here to help me anymore.  But in the end, it won't matter.  Because we don't matter..."

Juli stared at the mask that she was holding.  The mask that Fokken gave her.  Just then, Avelle's voice called out to her once again.

"Juli, darling, this time I spared you the trouble of beating up my favorite hunter.  I do hope you appreciate it.  But where is your mask?  Where is Bess?"

"Bess is dead."  Juli replied as she put the face mask onto the ground.  "Bess was a girl with spirit.  With morale.  An optimistic naive girl who didn't know anything.  But now the mask over her life is off, and she can see everything for what it is.  But this has led to her death, leaving only me behind."

"Masks are a funny thing."  Avelle's silhouette appeared from behind one of the rocks in the distance, holding up a face mask of her own. "They make one completely anonymous.  They allow one to do things which they otherwise could not bring themselves to do.  If you don't wish to use yours, then permit me to use mine."

The silhouette of the ex-agent looked slightly different from how Juli remembered her, but then again it's been a long time since she saw Avelle.

"If you wish."  Juli shrugged.  "It won't stop the inevitable."

"Ah yes, the inevitable."  Avelle put on the mask then drew her gun.  "Let us stop stalling then.  Too bad that it did have to come to this."

And with that, she pointed her gun at the attacking agent.  Instead of attacking straight on with a sniping arrow like she did long ago, Juli leaped to the side and ducked behind one of the rocks as a laser ray beamed by.  She quickly leapt on top of the rock, then flipped over to the ground dodging another blast.  The minute she landed, she then finally did a sniping arrow kick which slammed right into the short red-haired hunter's face, cracking the mask a bit as it sent Avelle flying back.

Avelle flipped back to her feet as a clap of thunder burst in the distance again, before she quickly dashed right through Juli, catching her completely off guard and surprised at the sudden revelation that Avelle could do a mach slide.  She ended up getting kicked in the back by Avelle's cannon spike, causing her to slam to the ground head first.  A fast roll out of the way allowed Juli to avoid a round shot which hit where she used to be then exploded.  Quickly getting back up, Juli leapt over a large ray blast of circular rings from Avelle's gun before hitting Avelle with a kick from the air.  Juli followed up by planting her hand to the ground and roundhouse kicking from there, but Avelle also responded by leaping over the attack then came slamming down hard upon Juli with a fast downward dive kick, followed up with a two fisted punch which knocked Juli dangerously close to the rapids in the river.

The brunnette took cover again behind another rock as another laser ray flew by.  Avelle must have decided to use the time to recoup too, as she didn't pursue.  Juli closed her eyes.

Avelle's even faster than last time... how did she learn to do a cannon dive kick and a mach slide?  How am I supposed to win?

"Juli, please, it still isn't too late!"  Avelle called out.  "If you don't stop, I will have to kill you."

Please?!  She's trying to toy with my mind, but I have to do this.  I can't oppose the only reason why I exist.

"I have to follow Lord Bison's orders, Avelle!"  Juli called back as she dashed to another nearby rock, putting the river behind Avelle.  "One of us will have to die!"

Avelle stepped out from behind another rock, the running river behind her.  Thunder sounded again.  "So that's it then.  I guess there couldn't be any other way."

Spotting her chance, Juli quickly leapt out from behind the rock with another sniping arrow directly for Avelle.  The surprised opponent quickly drew her gun and pointed it at Juli and prepared to fire.

And did.

A lightning blast slammed right into Juli's chest and sent her flying back, slamming into the rock before Juli could hit her target.  Juli slowly looked upwards and tried to get up, but couldn't.  She glanced around and saw blood all over the ground.

Her blood.

Inwardly, she was struggling to remain conscious.  She was struggling to open her eyes.  She looked up, and saw Avelle standing over her.  The mask was still cracked on the left side, but Avelle's now orange-red hair was over her eyes there, anyway.

The gun slowly pointed at Juli.

"Juli, I'm sorry..."

That and one final thunderclap was the last thing Juli heard before blacking out.
 

Lord Bison, you gave me my life.  And I returned it to you in every way possible.  My whole life, I worked for you, I did anything for you, and now I die for you.  Perhaps that means you never did give me my life at all.  You simply created it then held onto it for yourself.  Now that I die, will you cry for me?  Will anyone?  No one cares about us... because we aren't human...
 

"Waaaaaaaah!!!!  Juli!!!"

Juli opened her eyes and found Juni hugging her and crying over her.  By now, the thunderstorm had subsided and the sky was bright again.  She stared in surprise as Juni held her tighter.

"I'm so sorry, Juli!  I couldn't do it... but I had to!  But I can't... I can't!"

The brunette blinked.  "Huh?"

"I wanted to be like Avelle.  All I wanted to do was try out a dream... just for a little while."  Juni continued to sob.  "But everything... it just... it couldn't be that way because Avelle would have to die."

"Avelle?"  Juli stared in surprise, not knowing what was going on besides how Juni must have healed her, then she quickly looked around.  "Where is she?"

"She's gone, Juli..."  Juli's partner was still crying.  "But only for a short time.  I managed to stop her but she'll be back.  I can't stop her.  I can't give everything up now.  Please, Juli... please stop trying to kill Avelle.  Please..."

Juli looked downwards at her crying partner.  "Do you care about Avelle that much?"

"I... I care about what Avelle did for me."  Juni responded.  "But I care about you, too.  Please, Juli..."

"I'm... sorry, Juni."  The other girl sadly replied.  "I didn't know that you felt this way, but it can't fix anything.  I have to kill Avelle.  Because it's what... it's what I was meant to do.  I can't fight against it.  If I could help it, I would, but I can't make my own decisions for my life."

She stood up as Juni let go of her, then glanced back at her.

"I'm going back to base now."  Juli sighed.  "A failure.  Again.  Juni, will you be coming with me?"

"I... I'll catch up."  Juni replied, her eyes still filled tears.  "I... I need to go back to somewhere.  I need to see if I can do this...  I need to find out who I care about..."

Juli stared at her, then nodded.  "I understand.  I'll be waiting for you, then."
 

"I have to kill Avelle.  Because it's what... it's what I was meant to do.  I can't fight against it.  If I could help it, I would, but I can't make my own decisions for my life."

Because we are not human.  We are just dolls.

Hell, I'm not even a GOOD doll.  All I am is a failure...
 

"Agent Juli, I was looking for you."  The environmentalist and tracker specialist agent, Olvere, surprised Juli by greeting her when she came back to Mrigranka.  Her pet monkey happily crawled around on her shoulder.  "They told me that you were going out to finish your mission to terminate Avelle.  You realize that I was given the task of tracking down Avelle to make sure the deed was done, am I correct?"

Juli slowly turned to her.  "Why didn't you terminate Avelle when you had the chance?  Didn't you see her when Juni ran off with her back during that time?  You said you saw Juni with Avelle's group."

"So?"  Olvere replied.  "I smacked Juni on the head with my spear back then too, but she wasn't Avelle.  I even warned her later on that I'd have to do it again because she was being so disobedient, but she's not Avelle so I didn't have to kill her."

Juli blinked.  "Huh?"

"Agent Juli, you seem depressed."  Olvere shrugged.  "Desire told me that it was due to some sort of soul mate thing, but I'm thinking it's about Avelle, isn't it?  I guess I should have told you sooner but it would have destroyed the illusion.  I was sent after Avelle as a red herring to the world so they would think that she was still alive.  It wouldn't have been good for Shadaloo morale to know that we were the type of organization that eliminated our own so quickly."

"I saw Avelle."  Juli bluntly replied.

"You saw someone who was just like Avelle."  The other agent remarked.  "Don't worry yourself so much over this.  If it's about how Bison chose Cammy afterwards in order to 'punish you'... well, he would have done that anyway.  That damn girl had taken Bison away from us long before then.  It was only around then that it was finally made official."

"......."  Juli closed her eyes.  "If you say so... I think I need to go back to my room.  I need to lie down."

She continued down the hall past Olvere and headed to her room.  As she stopped as she overheard Serina and Marzche talking about Avelle in the hall.  The fact that Juli was a failure was evident everywhere, it seemed.

"Yea, isn't it great?  Wonderful Miss Avelle will bring back Sailor Moon!"  Serina happily piped.  "Though I don't think Mr. Vega would appreciate her stealing one of his masks.  Ah well.  You're not too mad about the hair-dye thing, are you?"

"Hmm.  Whatever."  Marzche blew another bubble gum, which popped, then closed her eyes.  "I'll go ask for my red dye back, later."

She couldn't stand to hear about it anymore.  Walking past them, Juli entered her room that she shared with her partner.  She slowly glanced around the room that she had known as her home for as long as she could remember.  Because what she could remember was just something programmed into her.  What she decided or did, she did because she was programmed to.  Because she wasn't human.  Because she was just a doll.  And a failure of a doll, even.  Her eyes turned over to look at the kitty plushy lying on her bed.

I was only programmed to like cats.

They then turned over to look at the kitty plushy on Juni's bed, which varied in looks only a little.

Juni was only programmed to like cats, too.

She then glanced at a picture on Juni's desk, which was of the two 'sister' agents together.

Juni was only programmed to admire me.

She walked over to the desk, looked at the picture, then looked at another picture behind it that was of Dr. Bremare Yamoto.

I was only programmed to like Bremare Y... wait a minute.

Her eyes turned to look at the Avelle poster hanging over Juni's bed about how April showers brought Maytime flowers.

Juni was only programmed to like me, but Yamoto said she picked up that Avelle thing, herself...

She stared in surprise, then shook her head.  "That... that doesn't mean anything.  Maybe a fluke.  Just like how Avelle running off was bugged programming.  A bug which apparently was fixed.  We can't make our own choices, we don't have our own self-consciousness.  I just... I just need to accept this."

Juli sighed and turned on Juni's computer.

"Maybe some Minesweeper..."

Maybe a game would cheer her up.  For a brief moment when Serina suggested it to her back at Rose's house, she forgot about everything.  And that was what she needed at the moment.

"Hmm..."  Juli stared quizzically at the screen.  "Juni has an icon for notepad here that she labelled MIRShadowlaw.  Blah, damn Bremare and his faulty programming.  I wonder what it was, this time.  Maybe she thinks she can write her own Metal Gear Solid fanfic or something and then display it to the world on MIRS chat."

Out of curiousity, she opened up the icon to be greeted with a chat log of Juni talking with Avelle.  She sighed to herself.  Someday, she would have to kill Avelle finally... or maybe someday, when she tried to, Juli herself wouldn't be so lucky.

Of course, there was the really odd discrepancy that the network was down on the date that the log said this chat took place.  Juli remembered that because Serina during that time couldn't put the minesweeper high scores or input the data about Rose onto the network while the encryption was taking place.

Juli blinked.  She tried to think about how this could be, but the only thing she could figure out was that Juni...

Juni typed this chat log of her talking to Avelle by herself.  But why would she...?

She slowly closed her eyes, and tried to get everything sorted out.
 

"So?"  Olvere replied.  "I smacked Juni on the head with my spear back then too, but she wasn't Avelle.  I even warned her later on that I'd have to do it again because she was being so disobedient."
 

Fokken shook his head.  "You might have trouble terminating Avelle this time.  The new Avelle... I'm not even sure if you'll be able to bring yourself to do it."
 

"You got Dr. Yamoto to give you Avelle's journal disks?  I didn't even know she HAD a journal on disk.  How did you do that?"

Arching her eyebrows, Juni leaned forward and slowly smiled.  "I was very persuasive."

"Ew.... ew ew ugh yuck!  That's... ack!  DON'T DO THAT!  It makes you seem like Avelle, and you have no idea how much that freaks me out."
 

"You'd better hurry."  Olvere put Tams down on the ground and he ran off.  "Agent Juni was every bit as disagreeable and stubborn as Agent Avelle.  She was practically the exact likeness of her, sans the hair."
 

Serina happily piped.  "Though I don't think Mr. Vega would appreciate her stealing one of his masks.  Ah well.  You're not too mad about the hair-dye thing, are you?"

 "Hmm.  Whatever."  Marzche blew another bubble gum, which popped, then closed her eyes.  "I'll go ask for my red dye back, later."
 

"You're doing your Avelle impersonation again.  Quit joking around with that.  It's not funny.  And this time, it's even more like Avelle than last time."

"I like Juni's Avelle impersonations."  Serina happily beeped.  "They're the bestest!  And they're obviously working, too."
 

"Juli, please don't!"  Juni pleaded.  "What about me?"

"What about you?  Please don't tell me that you're more loyal to Avelle than Lord Bison.  I've been told that you joined Avelle's group.  I know that you've seen her."

"I...  I'm not loyal to Avelle.  I'm... loyal to myself."  Juni stutterred.
 

"You were... loyal to yourself."  Juli opened her eyes, then slowly glanced at the poster of Avelle, again.  "So that's it then.  Juni, you did it all of your own free will.  That's..."

She closed her eyes and smiled.  She finally figured it out.
 

The truth could hurt.  It might have been better that I never discovered the truth at all, but at least now I know that there is at least one good truth that I can hold onto.  A truth that we are more than just dolls.  A truth that we do have some free will.  A truth that all of our feelings and emotions aren't just pre-programmed into us.  A truth that some of our feelings are our own.  It is a truth that, despite all of it, is what makes us human.
 

Now it starts a lullaby, a season where it lies.

But which season is that?

Why, it's Springtime, of course!
 

"You're back!!!!!"  Terrace hugged Avelle as she entered the bar.  She was surprised to see all of the hunters there, raising their mugs to her and cheering.

Avelle blinked.  "Huh?"
 

Springtime in January?  Springtime in February?

Springtime in March?  Or Springtime in May?

It is now Springtime, forever ever Springtime,

So I hope you enjoy it, it's Springtime in April.
 

"You did it!!  I'm so happy!  I was so worried about you!"  Terrace remarked, still hugging her.

"Impressive."  Jettaron remarked.  "I didn't think you'd be able to do it.  But you killed Bess.  That's like... wow!"
 

Springtime brings flowers, lovely lovely flowers,

A lovely lovely Spring, so take it to heart.

It is now Springtime, lovely lovely Springtime,

And it is only now beginning to start."
 

"But Bess is..."  Avelle looked at him in surprise, but was interrupted as Terrace handed her Bess's mask.

A smile was on his face.  "Juli sent us this."
 

I won't have to die here, forever ever lie here,

From now on you won't have to shed a tear.

Now it is Springtime, how can you tell?

I hope you enjoy it, it's Springtime for you, Avelle.
 

Terrace held her tighter as he cried.  "Everyone laughed when I referred to you as 'Avelle' back in that bar.  You even said that you were just a young inexperienced girl and it was a stupid decision to take you along.  But you proved them all wrong, didn't you?"
 

Now pretty soldier, ever pretty soldier,

Take off this mask and now end the lie.

Bring forth the Summer!  Join it with Springtime,

Now the Springtime takes place in June and July.
 

As the hunters cheered her on, they didn't notice a cloaked and hooded figure watching from the corner of the bar.
 

Springtime in January?  Springtime in February?

Springtime in March?  Or Springtime in May?

It is now Springtime, it's Springtime for Juni!!!

So I hope you enjoy it, your Springtime for you, oh Wonderful Miss Avelle...
 

Bess simply smiled as she watched the men continue to cheer on the blonde girl, who by then noticed her, and smiled back as she waved.

The brunette laughed a little in response.  "It's Springtime, oh wonderful Miss Avelle.  I hope you enjoy it."