She sits on the floor, using her sharp thumbnails to tear into a bloody hunk of seared beef.  She snips off the cooked surface with her teeth, swallows it, and sucks greedily at the red meat.  She leans back, relaxing into herself and her meal; her eyes close and she clutches the meat to her mouth.
   The boy in the leather cuffs points at the girl with one black-tipped finger.  "Do you realize you look like an animal?"
   She opens her eyes and gazes at the boy.  "Do I?"
   He nods.  "You're tearing at it like a cat."
   "Have any more remarks on my eating habits?"
   He nods again.  "You were getting all figdetty.  Then you started sucking on that meat and you got calm.  Like it did something."
   She tilts her head from side to side, weighing this statement.  "It's the blood," she says, and slips the beef back into her mouth, like a pacifier.