CHAPTER TWO
( BACK AT CAMP, SAFE & SOUND )
AS SHE RAN BACK up the stairs to the apartment, Kali ignored everyone else. She ran as fast as she could as hard as she could, and didn't even bother to apologize when she almost knocked someone over. She was too scared to care.
A Kindly One – at her apartment building. Far too close to Naia and Makoa for comfort.
Admittedly, Kali didn't know much about them. She knew they worked for Hades, and that they tortured souls for various bad reasons she had yet to look into, and that they were extremely dangerous, but other than that her knowledge about them was basically nothing. Still, she was terrified of them. The Underworld as a whole gave her a sense of unease but the Kindly Ones were something else. They worked directly for the King of the Underworld. That was enough for Kali to never want to even see one, let alone fight one. Unfortunately for her, both of those two things just happened.
It was gone now, was the thing Kali had to loop over and over in her head. It was gone. Turned into monster dust and now in Tartarus, waiting to reform hopefully not any time soon. Naia and Makoa were safe. Even though it probably never would have gone for either of them, the thought still worried her. She began to repeat that in her head instead – they were safe.
They were safe. Naia and Makoa were safe.
Kali bursted through the apartment's door not thinking about doing the knock, not even computing the it was unlocked in the first place. She just needed to see her brother and sister.
Instead she saw Ralph rummaging in the kitchen and Naia and Makoa halfway down the hall to their rooms. They stood so close together it was almost like they were trying to merge into one person. It was clear they didn't know whether to hide in their room or come down the hall to see their dad. It was then Kali noticed the turned off TV. She began to wonder how long Ralph had been back.
The door shut behind her. It slammed a little. Naia and Makoa jumped slightly; Kali had been too stunned at seeing her adoptive father to turn around and shut it gently, and she flinched a little too. Ralph didn't move other than to keep pulling out things to make a snack of some sort.
Kali took a moment to glance around quickly. His work shoes were off by the door. His things now cluttered the small dining table. There were already two empty beer bottles on the counter near him. Her grip tightened subconsciously on her dagger and she rubbed her thumb on the crossbar of the handle as the fear of the Fury went away, only to grow back tenfold with Ralph home. It was so strong she was frozen, worse than usual because of the night before. She tried not to show it. Naia and Makoa were watching her.
"What have I told you about running inside?" Ralph asked without even looking at her. "And slamming doors?"
"To– to not to," Kali said, and winced as she stuttered. Lately she wondered what was worse: frozen with fear and barely being able to speak, or angry and stupid and mouthing off at every chance? Lately it's always been a toss up on which it would be. Either way it never ended well for her most of the time. She hoped calmly speaking would work better with Ralph than it did the Kindly One. "I'm sorry, it won't happen again."
"Damn right it won't," he grumbled. He slammed a knife into the counter. Kali vaguely realized he was about to make a roast beef sandwich.
Kali licked her lips. "Where's Ruby?" she blurted. Ruby was supposed to be here, not Ralph. Kali wanted to see her, not him.
"Sick. I had to ask off work to come here."
Kali started to nod, and hoped that would be it. He didn't sound happy at all, as she wanted to disappear into her room with Naia and Makoa until Argus came by. Of course, nothing ever went as she wanted.
"You see, I did the responsible thing, unlike you who left my two children alone for over fifteen minutes. I would expect even someone dumb enough to flunk out of school to know better than to do that," he said.
"I'm sorry, it won't happen again," she repeated, and ignored the jab at her terrible grades. It was what last night was about. She didn't want a repeat. "I had to take the trash out. They're picking it up in the morning."
"So what I'm hearing is that trash is more important than my kids?" Ralph asked, and finally looked at her.
Ralph Beaumont was tall – six feet, maybe a little taller – with tons of muscles. Back in Hawaii he had been a firefighter but ever since New York, he now worked as a construction worker, unable to get a firefighter job. He had soft features; Auli'i said he got them from his Polynesian mother while everything else came from his European father, both deceased so none of the kids had ever met them. Truly, he sometimes looked kind. Kali kind of thought of as a human bear: kind and soft looking, but very capable of hurting others.
In this moment he looked nothing but scary. No softness in sight.
Kali's 4'8" skinny and lanky stature was completely dwarfed by him.
"No, that's not–," she tried, but he cut her off.
"I don't have time for this and your bratty excuses," he snapped. He turned back to fixing his food. "You're lucky I even leave you alone with them after what happened with Auli'i."
Immediately, Kali scowled. She wanted to snap back and remind him for the millionth time that Auli'i's death wasn't her fault. But she held her tongue. The other two were still watching her, her cheek stung and she didn't know if it was phantom pain or real, and she didn't want another fight. So she stayed quiet.
"Now get the hell out of here. The weird guy from that stupid camp you like is waiting in the parking lot."
Relief flooded her. Not a lot, because she would much rather be leaving Naia and Makoa with Ruby, but the feeling was still there.
(She did her best to ignore the guilt that swelled because of the relief.)
She began to walk away to her room to grab her things when Ralph added, voice raised so she could hear him, "And if you have a brain up in your head at all, you won't come back!"
Kali just ducked her head and hurried to her room. Naia and Makoa followed when she passed them.
"You will come back, right?" Makoa asked in a small voice once her bedroom door was closed.
Kali sheathed her dagger and tucked it back where it had been. Neither Naia nor Makoa questioned it, whatever they saw because of the Mist. She smiled reassuringly the best she could. "Of course I will," she said. "Always. I'll always come back for you two."
Naia frowned. "Why? You said the camp allows people to stay year round. Daddy doesn't hurt us as much as he does you. Don't you want to stay away?"
It was Kali's turn to frown. "I'm your big sister. It's my job to protect you. I may like camp but I hate leaving." She paused as she pulled out an already packed suitcase and backpack from under her bed. "I'd stay here if I could, but I have to go. I'll be back by the end of summer."
"Promise?" Naia asked.
Kali turned back and stuck out both of her pinkies. "Promise." They linked their pinkies with hers, and she smiled, which grew a little when they hesitantly returned it. She shook her hands to wiggle their arms and grinned triumphantly when Naia and Makoa both giggled quietly.
Kali then kicked off her flip flops and found a pair of socks and an old, worn pair of black high top converse to put on after quickly bandaging her new cuts. Naia and Makoa got worried when they noticed them, but she quickly assured them it was nothing to worry about and lied how the cuts didn't even hurt. (They did. They hurt a lot, and stung so bad tears gathered in her eyes, but she acted as if it they were nothing.) She hurriedly made sure she didn't need anything else and gathered her suitcase and backpack. After giving hugs and saying goodbyes to Naia and Makoa, Kali left the apartment and headed down to Argus.
+++
The ride to Camp Half-Blood was filled with silence. Argus didn't talk; he never did, apparently because he had an eye on his tongue that he didn't want anyone to see. Kali didn't know how true that was but considering how Argus had eyes all over his body, she wouldn't be surprised if it was. Other than that, he was a regular, blond, surfer-looking guy. He was pretty cool and the camp's designated bodyguard of sorts. She liked him a lot and honestly trusted him as much as she trusted Chiron, Luke, and Lee.
When they met up in the parking lot, Argus had tried giving her some ambrosia to help heal the wounds she had but she declined. She had no idea what would happen with her stitches and she didn't exactly want to find out. She explained as much, and he thankfully didn't push. Argus just let her load into the camp's van disguised as a mover for the strawberry farm, and drove off.
The silence allowed Kali's mind to wander. It mostly kept circling around what happened in the basement. It was jarring, honestly. And a bit confusing, now that she properly thought about it. Why a Kindly One thought she had something was beyond her knowledge. She knew she should probably tell Chiron about it when she got to camp, but a part of her wanted to stay quiet about it. She didn't need to be worried about by others, not with whatever was already stressing the centaur out enough to sometimes send a young satyr named Grover to just check up on her during the weekends every once in a while for the past six months. It was nice to know they cared, though.
She refused to think about Naia and Makoa longer than a few minutes, though. It only made her anxious.
Kali was more than glad when they finally made it to Camp Half-Blood.
It looked just the same as the summer before. On the hill, the large pine tree – which used to be someone named Thalia, as Luke had solemnly told her the summer before – was still there, as were the invisible boarders that kept mortals and monsters out. Then below on the other side of the hill sat the camp itself. The twelve cabins, the amphitheater, the lake and woods and pegasi stables, and everything else. All of it she had missed terribly.
It reminded her of Hawaii a bit. The valley where the camp sat was away from the hustle and bustle of the city life and nestled in a beautiful area on Long Island. Camp Half-Blood was just a bunch of demigod children living in nature, really, and Kali loved it. Sure they had to train how to fight and learn about things normal kids didn't to stay alive in certain situations, but it was still home to a lot of them.
Looking at it, for the first time in months Kali felt safe.
Kali was out of the van before it even stopped completely. She stumbled a bit but caught herself and rushed to get her things out. Argus appeared beside her and grabbed the strap of her backpack. She looked up, ready to protest.
He shook his head.
"I can take it, Argus," she insisted.
He shook his head and then gestured towards the camp with a hand as if to say, Go on.
She looked back and forth, unsure. "But..." She almost made a grab for the backpack but noticed how all of eyes were looking at her. Kind but serious and assuring. "Are you sure?"
He nodded. Made that motion with his hand again. And that was really all it it took.
She tried to bite back a huge grin and tried not to leave Argus behind so quickly, shouting a thanks to him as she did so, but she was still just a kid. The moment freedom of responsibility of anything minor was given, Kali dashed off. She ran down the hill. Her eyes raked over the campers milling about, and she grinned when she spotted a familiar blond with a long scar on his face. He was talking with a girl just a year or so older than herself – Annabeth Chase, Kali realized when she got closer.
"Luke!" Kali called out.
Luke looked up at the call of his name. He was confused at first, but his face broke out into a grin when he noticed her. "Kali!" he shouted back. "You made it back safely, that's good– oof." Kali ran into him for a hug full force. He chuckled as he returned the hug. "Hey, it's good to see you too."
Kali pulled away with a grin. "Where's Grant and Arianna?" Then, as an after thought, "Hey, Annabeth."
"Hi," said Annabeth. She gave a slightly stiff smile. The two of them weren't close; not friends, not enemies, acquaintances at most, but Annabeth did get snippy with her easier for some reason or another that Kali couldn't care less about.
"They're probably with some dryads or by the pier, one of those two," Luke said. His eyes landed on her cheek. "Hey, what–?"
Kali ran off as quick as she came. "Great, thanks, Luke!"
"Wait, Kali, what happened to your cheek?!"
"Nothing!"
"I'm going to send Lee to find you later!"
"Bye!"
Luke might have said something else, but she didn't hear it. Kali continued her run to where Arianna Chapman, a daughter of Demeter, regularly spent time with the dryads. Grant Holloway, a son of Hermes and one of Luke's younger brothers, often accompanied her in various attempts to talk Arianna and some of the dryads into help either him or one of his siblings such as Travis or Connor Stoll in a prank. Arianna was just a year older while Grant was her age, and both leave at the end of summer like her unlike their other friend from the Ares cabin, Adelaide Rivera. One thing they all had in common was that all of them were somewhat new to the camp.
Kali and Grant came around to the same time the previous summer, and during the one night she spent at the Hermes cabin the two formed a strong bond. They had shared a corner of the extremely crowded Hermes cabin. Unfortunately their time together didn't last long but their friendship had. Arianna came halfway through the summer; her dad dropped her off and the two had shared a five minute long hug at the boarder. After being shown around, Arianna decided to stick close to Kali and Grant simply because of the fact it was their first year too. Out of the four of them, Adelaide had been here the longest. She got there the February before them all with help from one of the satyrs.
Kali had a fourth friend, Oliver Knowels. It was his third summer at CHB, he was almost two years older than her and a son of Aphrodite, and he only became part of their friend group because Charles Beckendorf talked him into making sure Kali, Arianna, Grant, and Adelaide didn't cause too much trouble on a particularly boring day last summer. Beckendorf's plan backfired spectacularly. By the time dinner started that day, all five of them had been chased at least twice by various Apollo kids, dryads, nymphs, and even almost had to have a talk with Mr. D since Chiron at the time had been wrangling the rest of the Ares and Hermes kids who started a somewhat violent prank war. Ever since, the five were as thick as thieves.
Grant and Arianna were the two Kali was closest with, though. Some of the older campers called them the three musketeers because they were seen together more often than not. A few times over the past year, the three even sent a some emails back and forth. On the other side of things, Oliver and Adelaide had a closer friendship as well. Both were year rounders unlike the other three.
Excitement bubbled in her when she finally caught sight of them in a small shaded area with three or so trees. Arianna sat cross legged, eyes closed as she concentrated on what Kali could only guess were her abilities similar to her godly mother's. Oliver sat behind her as he focused intently on braiding her hair; he had never been good at it, and near the end of the previous summer Arianna, Kali, and Adelaide all allowed him to practice with their hair with various degrees of complaints. Grant, meanwhile, laid in grass. His feet were in Arianna's lap and his eyes were closed with an arm over his face. Finally, Adelaide was slumped against a tree clearly asleep. Two dryads crouched beside her, gently sticking twigs and leaves in her hair as they quietly giggled.
While Oliver and Adelaide wore the orange camp shirt and shorts, Grant still had on his school's uniform – khaki shorts and a black polo shirt – and Arianna wore a skirt with a gray t-shirt. They must have gotten to camp earlier.
"Arianna! Guys!"
Arianna snapped her eyes open and gasped. A grin broke out on her face the same time a fully grown flower with tons of white pedals sprung from the earth in front of her – a chrysmum-something or other, a favorite of Arianna's. "Kali!" she shouted. She pushed Grant's feet from her lap and hurried to stand up. Oliver made a noise of protest as he lost his grip on her strawberry blonde hair and Grant groaned dramatically at his loss of a foot rest, only to stop short.
He shot up into sitting position. Pieces of grass were stuck into his brown hair. "Wait, Kali's here?" Grant looked around until he spotted her – just in time to see the girls crash into a hug, laughing as they almost tumbled to the ground. "Yes! Finally!"
"I didn't think you were going to make it today," Arianna said, rocking side to side on her feet as she continued to hug Kali tightly.
Kali laughed some more. "One more day in the city I might've bursted into flames."
"If that ever happens please record it somehow," Grant said as he walked up. He began to try and pry Arianna from her, but had no luck. He grunted when he tried again, and then yelped as Ariana swatted at him. "Ari, let me hug her! You're not the only one who missed her!"
"No. Girls' rights."
"That makes no sense!"
"Hey, what about us?" Oliver asked. He walked up too with Adelaide, who rubbed sleep from her eyes. "You guys at least got to email her. Adelaide and I haven't spoken to her since August."
Kali twisted until she could see them both better, and grinned. "Hey, guys. I missed you too."
Arianna stuck out arm. "Addie! Come."
Adelaide looked ready to protest, but Arianna continued to wave her over and Kali stuck out her bottom lip to give her best puppy dog eyes. Adelaide gave in immediately with a resigned sigh. The boys stepped forward to join in but Arianna held up a finger.
"Girls only!" she protested.
"That's not fair!" Grant whined.
"What's not fair is that I was separated from my best friend for months," Arianna said. "I was stuck in the middle of nowhere, Louisiana all year!"
Grant raised an eyebrow. "And you think Georgia is any better?"
"The camp was pretty nice," Oliver said, and smirked at three summer time campers withering expressions.
Adelaide chuckled. "You're all so dramatic."
"Thank you," said Grant.
"It wasn't a compliment."
"When is it ever?"
Kali managed to wiggle out of the group hug, much to Adelaide's relief. She sent the taller girl a small smile; Adelaide returned it, paired with a short nod as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. The smile vanished a second later as she finally noticed the twigs and leaves in her curly hair. She grumbled and began the process of pulling them out.
"Compliment or insult, it's good to be back," Kali said. She allowed Grant to pull her into a short, tight hug, and then did the same with Oliver.
"It is! Sending emails just isn't the same," Arianna said. "I even kinda missed Mr. D."
Adelaide made a face. "Seriously? That guy?"
"I think he secretly cares about us deep down," Arianna insisted and crossed her arms.
Grant snorted and said, "Deep, deep, deep down."
"Speaking of Mr. D," Kali butted in before the topic could change too much, "has he acted weird lately?" The question was directed at Adelaide and Oliver. They both glance at each other and, after a moment's thought, shook their heads.
"Not really," Oliver admitted.
"Weird how?" asked Adelaide.
Kali shrugged. "I dunno... Chiron Iris-Messaged me a month or so ago and asked if I wanted to come back to camp early, and the weather has been freaky – my dad and Zeus are upset about something, I think. I just thought maybe Mr. D's been acting different than usual too." She paused for a short moment. "I think something might be happening."
"I'm sure it's nothing," Oliver tried to assure her. "The gods are temperamental. Mr. D has been his usual indifferent and uncaring self. But Chiron..." He trailed off.
She rubbed at her forearm, right where her bandaged cuts were. She hid a wince. "But what? Is Chiron okay?"
"Yes, he's fine, I promise. But if anyone's acting weird it's him," Oliver said quickly.
"Chiron left back in January," Adelaide explained. "He came back today too. Something about a house call, left the camp in the hands of Mr. D and Argus."
"He seemed fine when he left, but I saw him at lunch time and he was deep in thought."
"So," Grant started, "something is happening?"
Oliver hesitated. "No." They all looked at him with matching expressions of disbelief. He groaned. "I don't know, okay! It's possible but it could be nothing. Chiron's a serious centaur."
A somewhat tense silence fell over the group, and Kali grimaced with guilt. "I'm sorry for the bringing the mood down." She had just been curious and a bit worried.
Arianna's brown eyes grew wide and earnest. "No, don't be! You have nothing to be sorry about."
"Ari's right," Grant said.
"I mean, she is the one who started the conversation," mumbled Adelaide.
Arianna pursed her lips and smacked her shoulder.
"Wha– hey!"
"It's not like she brought it up to purposely make us all worried," Adelaide defended.
"Sheesh, okay! I was just saying..."
"Hey, let's just hang out for a bit, okay?" Oliver suggested. He grinned at them, and the short dreads his hair were twisted in swung slightly in the wind. "If we had anything to worry about Chiron would tell us, so forget about that for now and focus on that fact that our resident Ares kid finally found her weapon while you guys were away."
At that, Adelaide perked up. Her slightly sour mood disappeared in an instant. "It's a double headed battle axe, and it's so freaking awesome! Come on, I'll show it to you now! I think it even made Clarisse a little jealous. C'mon!" She dashed off and impatiently motioned for everyone to follow. Oliver did in a heartbeat and Grant was right behind them both.
Arianna and Kali followed as well, but at a slower pace. The former of the two gently took the other's arm gently as they did so. "Kal... Are you okay?"
She was taken back by the question, and a little confused too until she noticed Arianna eyeing the bandages and the stitches up cut. Kali bumped her shoulder with hers. "Yeah, of course I am. Just had a run in with a monster before I got here. I just didn't have any ambrosia or nectar – you know I'm not the best fighter."
Arianna relaxed some at that. It made Kali feel a bit guilty again since she didn't tell her the entire truth, but she didn't want to bring the mood down for a second time in less than a minute.
"Yeah. Yeah, I know. I'm glad you came back," Arianna said.
Kali's lips quirked up. "Always will, Ari," she promised.
+++
So Adelaide didn't lie when she said the double headed battle axe was freaking awesome. Even Oliver, who really only liked knives or his fists as his weapons of choice when he decided to fight, fawned over it. The weapon was made out of celestial bronze just like all the others, and the blades were engraved decoratively with swirls and lines. The edges curved, sharp and dangerous, and it was so obviously meant to be used by an Ares kid that Kali was surprised none of the others had taken it for their own.
There was only problem: it was huge.
"Can you even hold it?" Grant asked from his spot between Kali and Arianna. The three of them plus Oliver were in a line while Adelaide stood in front of them at the wall where the axe was held.
Adelaide grinned brightly. "Nope! But a few of my brothers and even Beckendorf gave me some tips on how to build up muscle so I can! Just watch, guys, in no time I'm going to be the biggest badass with this bad boy."
Oliver gasped. "Ooh, you said a bad word," he teased.
She rolled her eyes. "Shut up."
Everyone laughed.
"That really is an awesome axe," Kali said, still eyeing the weapon. Whoever wielded that thing would not be someone easy to beat. She could see how Clarisse might be jealous of it.
Adelaide puffed with pride. "Thank you, Beaumont."
"You're welcome, Rivera."
"Someone please tell me Adelaide isn't holding the battle axe again, because I do not need a repeat of what happened last time," a familiar voice said.
Arianna raised an eyebrow. "Do we want to know?"
"Probably not," Adelaide admitted.
"She almost cut off her own foot," Lee Fletcher explained, a bit of frustration showing through his usual laid back persona as he got to the group. The archer's eyes landed on Kali immediately and she abruptly remembered what Luke had shouted when she ran off to find her friends. "But I'm not here about that," he added over the sounds of Adelaide groaning how it was an accident and she hadn't actually cut off anything to the now concerned Arianna and Grant.
Kali was momentarily distracted by finally being found by Lee to properly react to her friend's almost self-amputation. "I'm fine," she insisted. "Got all my limbs and everything." She wiggled her arms and a foot for emphasis.
"Yeah, I see that," Lee said, almost sounding amused, "but Luke's worried. He said you got a stitches pretty close to your eye and wanted me to check 'em out. Kinda thought he was exaggerating until now."
Her brows furrowed. It was similar to what Mr. Alba had said. "It's not that close to my eye," she argued.
A few aborted noises of disagreement came from one or two of her friends. She gaped at them in betrayal. They weren't supposed to agree with Lee.
Lee chuckled at them. "No, it is. Just come with me, alright? Let me look at them, and those bandages on your arm there. Or do you want me to get my brothers and sisters to wake you up the same time our dad does tomorrow?"
Kali blanched. Apollo seemed like a cool god from what she knew of him, and his half-blood kids were fun to hang out with, especially during the campfires, but waking up before dawn to watch him bring the sun across the sky? In Kali's book, that was torture. She liked sleeping in, thank you very much. Lee knew that. "Okay, okay, fine! I'll come."
Lee laughed. "Knew that would work. Okay, let's go."
She scowled at him as he turned and walked away. She crossed her arms as she started to follow him, and grumbled under her breath.
"See you at dinner, Kal!" Arianna called after her.
She waved half heartedly without turning around. "Yeah, see ya!"
They were out of the weapons shed and on their way to the camp's infirmary when Lee spoke up again, "Have a good school year? I know you said something about going to a Catholic school. That had to be interesting after your first summer here." He chuckled lightly, obviously somewhat amused at the thought.
Kali subconsciously scowled even more. She knew he was just attempting at making small talk with her, but the thought of school put a big damper on her mood with just the mention of it. She looked to the ground and away from him, glad that she walked on his right side so he couldn't see her stitches at the moment. Her shoulders even tensed up.
Lee noticed. He sighed sympathetically. "That bad, huh? Is it the grades, terrible food, any bullies?"
She shrugged, shrinking in a little on herself. "...I flunked out," she admitted after what felt like half a minute went by. "I dunno if I'm staying at the same school but I'm repeating the grade either way."
A sharp breath of air escaped through clenched teeth. "Yikes. That sucks, I'm sorry, Kali."
For a second time she just shrugged. "Not your fault I can barely read English."
All half-bloods and demigods had trouble reading English. Their brains were hardwired to read Ancient Greek, and therefore every single one of them had issues with reading out in the mortal world. Some had it worse, some didn't. Kali unfortunately fell into the former category. Chiron suspected it was because she had two godly parents rather the usual one, and it didn't help that her first four years of her life weren't spent in the mortal world. Not that she remembered much of those years, anyway.
Back in Hawaii, Auli'i homeschooled her. Her adoptive mother was patient and kind, and did her best to help with Kali's extreme dyslexia to the best of her abilities. But in New York? At a private Catholic school? The faculty there only helped her a few handful of times and got frustrated with her when she didn't improve. Ralph of course didn't try to help either, so she was left to flounder alone and she reaped the benefits: she flunked.
And that didn't include her ADHD – hyperactive battle instincts that showed as an attention disorder in the mortal world. Kali couldn't even count amount of times teachers had given out various detentions slips to her, made her sit outside in the hallway, or sent her to the principal's office.
Honestly, school was hell. She loathed going despite liking to learn. It was such a relief that it was summer.
At Camp Half-Blood everything was written in Greek. Everything was tailored towards the kids' ADHD. Kali didn't need to worry about failing anything.
"I feel kinda stupid," she admitted to Lee just as they made it to the infirmary building.
"What? For flunking out?" Lee asked. He guided her to a open bed and patted the mattress. She climbed on with no complaints. "The mortal school system isn't made right for us demigods to learn like we should. You're a smart kid, Kali. I mean, you picked up pinochle like that when you got dragged into a game with Chiron and Mr. D, didn't you?"
She shrugged again. "I guess."
He looked at her as if waiting for something, and then sighed quietly. "That's the best I'm getting from you, isn't it?"
She sheepishly nodded. "Yeah. Sorry."
"Better than an actual disagreement, I guess. We'll work on it. Alright, let's get this over with. I don't know about you, but I don't want to miss dinner."
Lee worked quietly. Well, as quietly as two kids with ADHD could work, so it really wasn't that quiet. He didn't get distracted by anything but the two of them kept up a somewhat steady stream of small talk that ranged from Kali telling him about the college kid she saw dressed as a hotdog on the subway to Lee talking about Michael Yew's most recent outburst of anger at the Stoll twins.
("Such a little ball of sunshine, isn't he?" Kali laughed.
Lee joined in. "Oh, my gods, please say that to his face!")
Lee ended up taking out the stitches, because he gave her some ambrosia to help heal the deep cuts the Kindly One gave her. Those worried him, she could tell, but rather than fuss over her he just chastised her for not cleaning the wounds before bandaging them. It gave her mixed feelings of relief and anxiety. She didn't want to talk about what happened in the building's basement but Lee's laidback nature kept her more calm.
When he was done, he leaned back away from her and eyed his work. He nodded, satisfied. "The one on your face is already completely healed. It will most likely leave a scar, so sorry about that. The ones on your arm should be gone by tomorrow. They might scar too, I'm not sure."
Kali nodded. "Thank you, Lee," she said, a bit absentmindedly.
"Just doing my job," he said. "Nothing hurts? You're better now?"
The process of cleaning the cuts on her arm had stung badly, and the stitches being removed was a weird feeling, but everything felt better now. She told him as much, which he was pleased about. Nothing else needed to be done afterwards, so while Lee was stuck with cleaning the area up, Kali left to find her friends again, mind still stuck on the Kindly One.
Hopefully she would find something to distract herself with.
————
A/N— Fun fact: the flower that came up when Arianna saw Kali was a white chrysanthemum, and those types of flowers in general symbolizes stuff like loyalty, honestly, happiness, joy, longevity, and (in some countries) death :)
Also I forgot that Lee can sing to heal wounds until, like, five minutes ago and I absolutely do not want to rewrite/edit this chapter any more than I already have, so let's just turn a blind eye to my stupidness, please and thanks.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please don't forget to vote & comment x