Blackened Heart {Rose Wilson}

Thirteen

The Wilson Family has been cast for the Titans DCUniverse show and I may have to update my cast.

Also I had a TON of fun writing this chapter and it shows.

Rose woke up with a certain knowledge of two things.

The first was that she was completely and utterly in love with Kaldur'ahm to the point that she was pretty sure she was willing to die for him, whether or not it was her job to keep him safe.

The second was that she had a headache the size of Slade's ego.

She was so scatterbrained as she grabbed her cinnamon raisin bagels out of the toaster that she dropped them from the heat. Only then did she notice that Kaldur was in line at the breakfast buffet behind her.

"Good morning," Kaldur's suit allowed him to handle the hot pastry even with his Atlantean weakness.

"I hope you didn't take the last one," He said, a twinkle in his eye.

It took Rose a moment to realize what he was saying. "Oh no! There's a couple more." She promised.

"Scrambled eggs?" Kaldur offered, taking four precious eggs, saved especially for Kaldur and his father to enjoy.

She was about to run off and enjoy her bagel in a place where she could sort out her thoughts before Kaldur could see her red cheeks when her stomach grumbled. Loudly.

"Love some." She smiled effortlessly.

Kaldur nodded, the slightest upturn in the corner of his mouth.

Rose didn't notice how quiet the troopers in the mess had become until they started whispering again, louder and more frantic this time.

Rose was feeling much better after eating a plate of Kaldur's scrambled eggs in companionable silence. She'd almost forgotten about everything she'd been worried about.

"What's on the schedule today?" She asked.

Kaldur took a long sip of his coffee. "Restocking, mostly. My father has ordered all personnel off the ship while he converses with the rest of the Light over negotiations with a new partner."

"Already?" Having forgotten a coffee for herself, Rose grabbed Kaldur's mug as she was used to doing with Tara and whatever the thirteen-year-old drank. She absently took a sip, and gagged it down.

"Do you put salt in your coffee, Kaldur?" she demanded through a round of coughs that turned into hiccups.

Kaldur couldn't keep from laughing as he quickly procured her a glass of (clean) water. "I require a higher salt intake than most. Putting it in my coffee disguises the taste."

"As if!" Rose shook her head at the naive man. Taking a deep breath, she chugged the glass of water, sating her hiccups, for now.

Having thoroughly made an embarrassment of herself in front of the whole ship, she stood up and brushed the crumbs off her pants in a nonchalant manner.

"If we're all required to go ashore today, I think I'll go change," She nodded resolutely, all but marching out of the mess to the chortles of the troopers. Hopefully something interesting enough would happen once they docked, leaving her mishaps in the past.

Hope, however, had never been on her side, so she knew to never rely on that.

Snug in her leather jacket and baseball cap, Rose was one of the last of the Manta Sub, docked in Sicily, Italy.

Michael, one of the few troopers still hanging around to decide what to do, grinned and ran up to Rose when he saw her. It was weird seeing all of them out of uniform.