"Has anyone seen Katherine?"
Jane glanced up from her phone the next morning, arching a brow at Anne who practically stormed into the kitchen.
"Which one? We live with three?" She retorted, earning a huff.
"My cousin, Princess Bubblegum. I swear my favorite jacket is gone and I'm supposed to meet Maggie for coffee and Kat isn't in her room and I know Parr is still asleep and Aragon would never wear my clothes." Anne retorted, just as Aragon came into the room, practically shoving her out of the doorway.
"You have that right. There is no way I would be caught dead in your clothes."
Jane however was on high alert, especially because Katherine was so young.
"Do you know where she could have gone to?" She asked, causing Aragon to groan.
"Who or what went missing now?"
Anne just shrugged "hell if I know...as for who...My jacket stealing brat of a cousin."
Aragon just rolled her eyes and mumbled something incoherent before making a beeline for the coffee pot.
"If she doesn't turn up soon I'll go look for her. I'm the only one in this darn house who remembers she's a seventeen year old girl reincarnated in a strange world where she can act on her lack of impulse control."
"Why would she though? I mean she knows…." Jane began, earning a scoff.
"Mary literally lived in a palace where people obeyed her because of who her father was and yet she still felt the need to go gallivanting off on a damned horse at the break of dawn. Kat's a teenager, Jane. She's going to do dumb shit." Aragon retorted before motioning toward Anne and adding "plus she's related to that one. Did you think she'd be a hundred percent sweet or innocent?"
Anne just stuck her tongue out at Aragon before opening the fridge.
"I was just about to cook something." Jane commented, earning a shrug
"Yeah well, Excuse me if our history makes me not exactly trust you ...Although I know that it wasn't completely your fault." Anne retorted, earning a sigh.
"I didn't mean for any of that to happen...I just…I literally thought he loved me, you know? I thought it would be like what happened with Aragon. I didn't mean to get someone killed or to make you lose the baby." Jane replied, earning a sigh
"Yeah...You fell for the same shit the rest of us did. I don't think Henry loved anyone."
. . . .______________★_______________
When I find that kid I am going to kill her .
Aragon thought as she drove through the neighborhood, muttering curses as she tried to keep an eye out for a neon green jacket or neon pink hair. She could hear her phone buzzing in the cup holder, but she ignored it.
"Jane...Stop texting me. I haven't found the little punk yet."
She grumbled, having to hit her breaks hard because of the car in front of her suddenly turning off without a signal.
"Move you idiot! Do you want to get ran over!" She grumbled before sighing and pulling off in front of a small cafe.
If I'm going to deal with teenage shenanigans and dumb ass drivers, I'm going to need more caffiene.
As soon as she walked into the cafe, however, she saw the person she was looking for.
" Katherine Howard , what in the hell were you trying to prove?" She exclaimed, storming over to the girl who shrank back slightly at the sudden appearance of the angry woman.
"What does it matter? I'm not a baby."
Aragon could see that the defiance was more or less just a show, especially with how wide the girls eyes had gotten, however the smart aleck response was enough to irritate her further.
"No, but you're seventeen and don't know anything about the city. Also you work everyone half to death by just suddenly vanishing." Aragon grumbled, taking hold of the back of the girl's collar before adding "you're lucky it was me and not Anne because you made her late for her thing with Maggie."
Katherine tried to slow her heart rate as she was hauled to her feet, waiting for the woman to hit her, however she was just pushed toward the door.
"Come on, let's go."
Katherine glared at Aragon, trying her best to look unphased by the whole thing.
"What if I don't want to go home?". She challenged, only to shrink under the look she got.
"Too bad. I didn't drive through the neighborhood twice and nearly run over some moron who got their licenses from a claw machine just to let you do whatever you want."
. . . .______________★_______________
"You made a scene!"
Katherine exclaimed, earning a look from Aragon.
"Oh I made a scene? You brought this on yourself...You worried everyone and you know this city about as well as I would know Canada. What if you had got lost, or worse? We wouldn't have known where to find you."
Closing her eyes, Katherine tried to not think about what the worse could have meant. She didn't want to start crying, not now, she didn't want to make Aragon think she was sorry about it.
She wasn't, was she?
"Tell me what you were thinking?"
Aragon's question came out calm, almost gentle then and it caught Katherine off guard.
Wasn't she mad?
"I...I don't know."
She answered, not wanting to tell the truth about the whole situation. She fully expected a burst of anger then, or a slap. However, Aragon just sighed.
"Kid, I like you but you're going to have to start making better decisions. I don't want to see you hurt."
Katherine couldn't keep the tears from coming then, although she did her best to hide the fact from the other woman, who wordlessly reached over and put a hand on her shoulder, the warmth seeping through the drenched fabric.
"You're going to catch your death from cold going out in this weather. Couldn't you at least steal one of Anne's leather jackets?"