The Custodes

Chapter 10 - Kayla's Reveal

Neo ended up becoming completely and utterly lost in his thoughts, so when Kelsie poked her head out of the kitchen doorway it took a good four tries to actually get the boy's attention "Neo!" She shouted, with his head suddenly jolting up slightly "Wha-? What is it?" He asked, clearly surprised by her loudness. "Jesus, how caught up in your thoughts were you? The food's almost ready, can you do me a favour and wake Noah up?" "Oh, yeah, sure." Neo said with a quick nod, receiving a grateful smile from Kelsie in return before she darted back into the kitchen. The boy slowly pushed himself to his feet, rubbing his eyes a little and trying to fight away his tiredness, which he found strange considering he'd woken up not too long ago. Maybe it was a side effect from the coma? He probably should've asked one of the doctors about it before he and Noah left the hospital but it was too late to go back now. Being a little tired wasn't a huge deal anyway. He made his way to Kelsie's parents bedroom and found Noah still sleeping soundly in the dark. A small smirk appeared on his face as he walked to the window, then yanked the curtains open and let the sunlight shine through. "Wake up sunshine!" He called to Noah, hearing the boy groan and stir as he began to awaken. "Stop..." Noah murmured into his pillow, swiping his hand in Neo's direction like he was trying to actually hit the boy. "Kelsie asked me to wake you. Hurry up, she's making food." Neo said to him, as the boy let out a mumbled response that sounded like something to do with 'preferring sleeping instead'. "You'd rather sleep than enjoy something Kelsie made with you in mind?" Neo spoke with a hint of amused teasing in his voice, as Noah grew silent. He sat upright suddenly, though his eyes were still shut and his body hung loose with drowsiness. "You're right...I take it back..." He said with a sigh, rubbing his eyes as Neo laughed and moved towards the door. "Best get yourself to the kitchen then." He said with a grin, before slipping out of the room and moving towards the kitchen himself. Upon entering he spotted Kelsie standing over by the cooker with an apron tied around her waist while Kayla unenthusiastically set out four plates and sets of cutlery at the table. Neo was immediately hit with the smell of sizzling sausages, bacon and eggs cooking in the frying pan over by Kelsie, with some pancakes seemingly cooking in a pan too, and the aroma alone suddenly reminded him of how unbearably hungry he was. Somehow he'd managed to neglect it to the point of not even noticing it until now, but he realised that he hadn't actually eaten a single thing since waking up from the coma. Granted, it was only a few hours ago that happened, but it still felt like some feat going that long without food. "Feel free to take any seat, food will just be another sec" Kelsie called as she began using a spatula to check on the things cooking, with Neo happily dropping down onto one of the seats at the table and trying to ignore the rumbles of his stomach. "How come you ended up on dish duty?" Neo asked Kayla, curious to see if she were up to talking after what went down earlier, but she responded without hesitation as though nothing even happened between them "Kelse got mad cause I got in her way and told me to do this instead." "I did not get mad!" Kelsie said defensively, turning around to look at Kayla in horror at such an accusation. "You threatened me with a whisk." Kayla said, her back deliberately turned away from Kelsie so the girl couldn't see the tiny smirk on her face. "The whisk just happened to be in my hand while I was making gestures." Kelsie explained, a hint of embarrassment on her face, though whether she was talking more for Neo's sake or Kayla's the boy didn't know. "You told me you were gonna shove it up-" "That's enough!" Kelsie shrieked, mortified as she quickly turned back to her cooker. Kayla let out a small laugh, looking at Neo, but just as he was about to speak he watched her look past him, her brow furrowed "What's wrong?" Neo turned to look where Kayla was, finding Noah standing just past the doorway to the kitchen and looking at the small piece of paper in his hand with an indifferent expression. The boy spared a glance in the pair's direction, then looked at Kelsie as the girl turned to face him "I found this on the floor by the front door. Someone must've slid it under." He held out the note for her to take, turning to look at Neo as she plucked it from his hand "You remember that one guy...Kyro?" Neo nodded, remembering the blonde haired boy that'd pinned him to a wall not that long ago. "The old man wants to see you. Go to the alleyway and he'll get you from there." Kelsie read the note aloud, looking extremely puzzled by what it could possibly mean. "It's not signed or anything. Who delivered this?" "My guess is that Kyro guy. We mentioned him, he's the one who kidnapped us and ended up subduing Neo." The boy gave a huff of annoyance as his name was mentioned, but Noah pushed on "He called Hector 'old man' a lot while we were there. And he doesn't seem like someone who'd put a lot of effort into writing a detailed note if he was delivering one." "So he wants to meet you guys again? What about the rest of us?" Kayla questioned, with Noah sighing slightly "Naturally, Kyro never specified who he meant. I think there's no harm if we all go however." "Actually, I was kinda planning on going to see my parents in the hospital today." Kelsie said as she handed Noah his note back, flashing an apologetic smile "The place is really crowded from what I've heard. I want to see what I can do to help." "You're not planning on healing people, are you?" Noah asked curiously, with Kelsie shaking her hand and giving a look as though the answer was obviously "Course not, I was just gonna-" She paused as Noah narrowed his eyes at her, then she let out a defeated sigh and began fidgeting with her hands slightly "Look, I just thought that if there was anytime to use them it would be now. Imagine how packed the place is, with all their normal patients plus all the ones that had to evacuate the previous one." Noah watched her sternly for a second, before ultimately crumbling and letting out an exhale "I doubt I could stop you if I tried. You just better hope Axel doesn't hear about you putting your identity at risk." "Who cares! He's way too paranoid about that stuff anyway!" Kelsie said, before a grin made its way to her face now that Noah had backed down. "Alright well, seems we have a few things to talk to Hector about anyway. Kayla, you coming along to meet him?" Neo asked her, receiving a shrug and a small smile "I don't see why not. He seems interesting, maybe I'll ask him a few questions about my powers and stuff." "It's settled then. We'll head to that alleyway after the food's ready." "Speaking of!" Kelsie carried a dish filled with all of the things she was making over to the table, with more than enough there to feed all of them. Noah quickly sat down, as did Kayla, before they all started to dig in hungrily.