[FIN][Yael] Not Far From The Tree [Kaleth | Ko]

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Not Far From The Tree

The first time, it had been a noose. They’d stuck it to the door of his dorm with a knife, crudely tied and left entirely to send a message. Kal had considered it some miracle he’d found it before Ko, yanking it down the moment he saw it and temporarily boxing the channels of rage and disgust it inspired.

He should have been hanged.

It wasn’t as though Kaleth hadn’t heard it before—more frequently, when he was younger and the hurt was still fresh among many families. Prison wasn’t enough, they thought, for the crimes they imagined his father committed. Only death could account for some sins. Of course they didn’t understand, and of course he made certain to give his thoughts, often in the form of fists, when such opinions were expressed in his presence. But that only caused some to make their aggressions more subtle, putting a safe space between themselves and their message.

Kaleth had experienced it at other schools in various forms, but after a time of nothing here, he had thought maybe he’d escape it at this one. Perhaps his peers simply didn’t know. Or didn’t care. Or didn’t care enough to incite trouble. But, that had been a hope eventually doused, and as he had disposed of the rope, he felt specifically reminded why he avoided most people.

Worse still, there was no way to track down the culprit.

Kaleth preferred to address his issues head on, as immediately as possible. This left him instead with a private, festering need to lash out at something—but with no indication of a target. Two weeks passed without incident or indication of a perpetrator. He considered that perhaps it was time he mentioned something to Ko about himself in that respect, to see if there was any chance Ko had heard something or had any insight of his own. But he then opted against that, too.

It didn’t matter.

If whoever it was was too much of a coward to face him, then one gimmick surely wasn’t worth his time fretting over. This was what he told himself, and still the attitude he was attempting to maintain on this day, as they came in from a morning of field practice, all filing into the first room before the wash house with all of their personal lockers. Because they roomed together, Ko’s and Kal’s were adjacent, and in retrospect, Kaleth couldn’t have said what exactly was running through his mind as they approached, in the moments before he opened his.

But when he did, there came first the thick, throat-stopping scent of rotting meat, and an instant later the source — the decapitated body of a freshly slaughtered keldari — slid from his cubby and fell with a wet drop to the floor at his feet like a fleshy, bleeding rope. The world, for a moment, seemed to slow down around him, and Kaleth stood perfectly still, hand still stiff on the handle of his locker door.  

[MissMisnomer]

“There's absolutely no way a sprite would ever fall for a trick that poorly planned out! That's the problem with amateurs, they think you can just spread some jam on a shoe and they'll come flying over, but it's not that easy, you've got to at least consider the difference between using a sandal or a slipper or a boot ― do you smell something?” Ko asked his roommate, switching the direction of his thoughts mid sentence as they approached their cubbies.

“It smells worse in here than usual, not like the usual old sock smell, like, something has gone bad―”

Suddenly the odor got ten times worse as something fell out of Kal's locker and landed with a wet slap at his feet. Ko's immediate reaction was to jump, startled easily, putting a hand over his face both to stifle a yelp and hopefully block the smell from reaching further into his nostrils.

“Mother above! What-?” he squinted, eyebrows going from shocked arches to a distressed line over his wide eyes. “Is that a keldari?? How did it get ― the poor thing, why would ― Kal, what-”

His face grew pale, staring at the trail of gore its corpse left on the locker wall. “There's blood.”

[1/10]  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Kaleth could feel his pulse between his temples, under his skin as his fingertips flexed and pushed into his palms. Ko was speaking, but the words were as behind glass—indistinct under the sound of his own experience and out of focus. Even if it weren’t true, in that moment Kaleth knew as fact that whoever had done this would have wanted to witness the reveal, and was somewhere in this room, watching at this moment. And if they were looking for a reaction, they could have one. He whipped on his gathered peers, most all of them looking now (for who could blame them, though that did not occur to him in the moment).

“Alright,” he barked, “who the f—ck wants to go?” His eyes swept the room, scanning for a suspicious target as the boys about him shuffled uncertainly, the disgusted and startled chatter that had come with the smell — ‘Oh, gods, what’s that?’ — quieting at his demand of an inquiry. His attention stopped on one boy with the misfortune of meeting his gaze, and he stalked forward.

“H-hey,” the boy, whose name Kaleth didn’t know, shook his head, “I don’t-”

Kaleth’s palms knocked flat against the boy’s chest, sending him tripping back two paces into the lockers behind him. “Who thinks this was funny? Did you want my attention, huh?”

“I-”

“Well you’ve got it-”

“I don’t know what that is! It smells wretched…but don’t shove me! I’ve’n’t got nothin’ to do with it-”

“Aye!”

At the new voice from across the room, like a bull whistled to to redirect the course of its attack, Kaleth turned, and in the time it took for him to release his grip on the first boy, it appeared the second was already re-examining the wisdom of his choice to call attention to himself. After a moment, though, he seemed to come to a decision of sorts, shifting his stance where he stood between three other boys. Kaleth sized them as he approached, mentally cataloguing each: chunky, average, tall—his focus, though, was the speaker. Average height, perhaps, but built to move stones for a living. The sort you expected to see carrying a shield half his size around like a large dinner plate.

“Maybe you should watch where you step, Galhn…”

Maybe Kaleth imagined it, but the sentence seemed to hesitate on its way along when his step did not—until he was within half a foot of the boy, eyes down and rooted on his. There was a zit over his left eyebrow. Kaleth grimaced. “I’m stepping right here. You have something to say to me?”

There was a breath where Kaleth wasn’t sure if anything would be said at all. Those who Kaleth assumed to be the boy’s ‘friends’ or lackies, shifted on either side of him, but said nothing. Then, their ring leader’s lip curled back.

“Your father’s head should have gone on a pike. Like that ******** snake’s…”

When Kaleth’s fist hit, his mind was like a blank, white canvas, busied with nothing but a single, high pitched ring over the drum of his heart.

He could kill him.

The thought, while not concrete enough to be intention, flit like a shadow at one corner of the canvas and tightened the rhythm of his pulse.

He could kill him, and he would probably deserve it.  

[MissMisnomer]

Still recovering from the shock of death being brought into his personal world where he least expected it, Ko stared at the bloody stump on the floor ― transfixed ― as if the snake’s head was still there, looking up at him. That is, until the volume was suddenly raised beside his ear as someone shouted. Ko winced, looking up from the ground to see Kaleth staring down the crowd of their classmates, like a lion looking for the weakest member of the pack.

And apparently, he found it.

Just like that he was on the move, accosting the boy ― who quite understandably ― looked terrified. Though it was practically ingrained into his subconscious to stay out of any and all conflicts, Ko felt a surge of empathy that made him take a hesitant step forward, a sea bird approaching a typhoon.

“Kal, I don’t think he-”

But his efforts were not needed, as Kal had already moved on to the next target. Three boys, who for all their hesitance, still looked like they were ready for a fight. One Kaleth was more than ready to give.

Ko was used to fighting. In a household of clashing opinions and spirited individuals, each growing and changing at different rates, arguments were going to happen. This usually entailed who could yell the loudest, throw the meanest insult, perhaps destroy a prized personal possession. Sometimes, it got physical. He’d patched up more than one brothers’ busted lip. It was unpleasant, and he tried to avoid confrontations when he saw the storm brewing. He’d been caught in a few.

But nothing in his fourteen years of experience prepared him for the immediate ― brutal ― attack when it came.

There was no hesitation, or pause to consider consequences. Only bones meeting other bones, a wholly primal sound. Blood flowed freely from the newly opened wound on the instigator’s face.

Ko would have moved, or formed his own thoughts, something besides simply watching the events unfold. But seeing the look on Kal’s face, he found himself frozen in his skin.

If Kal had been angry at Ko before, it was nothing compared to what he was seeing now.

This is what rage looked like.

[2/10]  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

It wasn’t that the other boy was small, or weak, or even that he wasn’t fighting back — though, as many were, he was caught obviously off-guard by the abruptness of Kaleth’s initiation, reducing his retaliation to a floundering attempt to gain traction — but Kaleth fought without regard to the blows dealt him. In these moments, they were distractions that could be examined later. Right now, he existed with a single purpose: to beat regret and concession out of his target until it stopped moving, until he himself became exhausted, or until some exterior force intervened to supercede his intentions.

Around him, there was a flurry of activity. Some of the boys had drawn back, anxious at the turns in events and concerned for their safety or others. Someone would be scrambling off to find a professor. A few voices attempted to verbally call a halt to things — “Someone is going to get hurt!” — though few were bold enough to put themselves within the range of crossfire. And still others, arguably a large majority, had turned to moving in as near as they dared, trying to get a better vantage point on the action and beginning to cheer it on, like a c**k fight.

Kaleth processed none of it beyond a dull roar in the background. No one existed but those in his immediate periphery. When the first ceased to be a responsive target, he turned his attention to the next in his vicinity. His fists — designed by the gods on a day they were feeling especially cruel, perhaps — were wet with a dark red on black, the rocky crystals wedged between his knuckles doing more damage than empty handed strikes alone ever would have otherwise, though they were no gentle delivery in themselves. Much like the mindset he entered when pushing his body to the point of vomiting, he maintained no sense of restraint or moderation, consequence or forbearance.

An arm attempted to yank him backward. He threw his elbow back with some substantial portion of his weight behind it, sending whoever it had been staggering at least for a moment, at which point he bunched his fists in the shirt of the boy before him — both of them at this point grounded — dragging him upwards, and then driving down with both, bashing him to the floor below and knocking whatever wind might have remained in his ribcage out.

“Fight! Fight! Fight!”

“Oooohhh-!”

“He’s bleeding-”

“Knock him out! Knock him out!”

“-he dead?!”

“Fight! Fight!”

“-professors here yet?”

Kaleth’s lip was throbbing, wet with blood. His mouth tasted like salt and iron.

Your father is in prison, Kaleth, and he may be staying there for a very long time. He isn’t coming home.

Your father’s head should have gone on a pike…  

[MissMisnomer]

In a shocked daze, Ko remained a silent bystander as the fight ― no, slaughter more like it ― raged on, noise rising where once there had been hushed silence. If the other boys had been too afraid to say anything before, that wasn’t stopping them now, adding to the tumultuous chaos with their jeers and hollers. Like a pack of sharks that had picked up the scent of blood, they circled the fight, honed in on the bloody drama unfolding for their enjoyment. Ko was pushed forward merely by virtue of being closer to Kal when it had started, with front row seats of the carnage.

He had thought, perhaps naively, that he would be ready to face the world when it saw fit to thrust him into the life of a warrior. That one day, he’d come face to face with evil, and all fear and doubt would leave his heart, like some kind of internal compass would point him in the right direction to uphold justice. He could be the hero he'd always wanted to be.

But looking at the bloodied bodies of the perpetrators lying in broken heaps on the floor where they’d fallen, overtaken by a force they had not been prepared to reckon with, he wasn’t sure anymore. They had done wrong, killed another animal, tormented his friend. They deserved to be punished, this should be justice.

But it wasn’t; it was an execution.

“Stop.”

Driven by a force he wasn’t expecting to find in himself, he raised his voice, fists bunching. “Stop it! Stop it Kal!”

But he was just one voice in many, easily drowned out. Cupping his hands like a megaphone, he yelled louder, “THAT’S ENOUGH!!”

The other boy wasn’t listening, smashing his opponent into the ground repeatedly. Ko thought he heard something crack. He rushed forward, throwing himself to the ground to kneel in front of Kaleth, beside the body he was beating into submission. His hair stood on end, eyes glowing brighter under his crumpled brow. “YOU WON, STOP FIGHTING!”

When that failed to end the avalanche of fury, his hands came up, shoving them against Kal’s clavicle in an explosion of energy, pushing with more otherworldly force than he carried in his small body as his voice boomed. “YOU’RE GONNA KILL HIM KAL!!!!”

[3/10]  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Kaleth was barely processing the rest of the world beyond his pulse and the pressure under his fists, lost in a cycle that perpetuated itself, the tendons of his muscle stinging with tension and exertion. Somewhere in the back of his mind there was an echo through the unintelligible crowing of the gathered boys. Something familiar and more important than the rest.

But he didn’t yet have the focus for it.

YOU WON, STOP FIGHTING!

He frowned, a strange heat crawling up his skin, and though his body continued to move, as if reflexively, his movements were slowing. He could feel a throbbing throughout himself, followed by a strange dizziness and sense of disassociation that swept him, as if for an instant, he wasn’t driving his actions at all.

Then, a force knocked into him, alive with pulsing energy and forcing him back a fraction. Words cut sharply into his awareness, clearer than before. “YOU’RE GONNA KILL HIM, KAL!!!!”

But someone had attacked him, and for a split second when his focus moved, it was to the next target with a snarl. Because whoever dared get in his way-

But, then, like fragments of a drunken night coming back to one’s memory through a hangover, his eyes locked with a familiar, sharply glowing stare that challenged his—and the world began coming messily back together. The drumming in his ears was still there, but quieting like a receding wave so that the noises around him began to sound more real again, replacing the hive drone. The boys around them were speaking actual words that he could comprehend if he listened.

And it was Ko kneeling before him.

Kaleth’s breathing was heavy, loose and ragged. He sat, perched on his knees—over an unconscious, bleeding boy he didn’t know. A shaking exhale left his lips, and he frowned. His hands ached. His jaw hurt. His left eye felt tingling and numb as though it might be beginning to swell.

He didn’t want to kill anyone. Not here. No matter how much they deserved to feel pain. And certainly not in front of Ko. He shuddered, and shifted his weight back, his frown deepening as he began looking around again in earnest. None of his ‘opponents’ were conscious.

An adult was arriving.

He heard the voice of authority before he saw them through the throng of boys, and suddenly, the entire tone was shifting, everyone all too eager to relate what had gone on as his fate encroached on him. His shoulders sank, and he pulled his fists back, unclenching them and stretching his fingers with a grimace.

“…f—k,” he muttered beneath his breath. “I’m gonna have a crick in the neck…”

“Kaleth Galhn!”

He shut his eyes, his words a low groan. “And this is going to take forever…”

“This is Professor Kantrath—step away from that student immediately, rise, and put your hands behind your head. You are hereby suspended until further notice and being taken in for questioning for acts of violence against a classmate.”  

[MissMisnomer]

It took a mere half second for Kaleth to turn all of his violent intentions drastically towards the new source of the attack, dropping the body held in his hands. His eyes flared with murder and his fist reared, time slowing to a crawl around them. He could see every drop of sweat on Kal's face, light reflecting on the white of his snarl.

A fraction of his mind told him to run, get away, avoid the attack before it was too late. But that part of himself wasn't steering the ship, not at this moment. No, he was going to face the storm head on, no matter the damage. He remained where he was, bristling with power held on a thin leash ready to snap, drilling into Kal's eyes with his own.

Just try it you stupid boy.

But the blow never came. Something shifted in Kal's face, like a curtain drawn to let the sunshine into a darkened room. His posture changed, sagged, relaxing the tightness that had been needed to inflict these levels of damage.

He'd come back.

Ko released his breath, energy receding back to wherever it was that it lived inside of him, leaving his skin feeling tingly and numb all at the same time. He had a headache. But all those things played second fiddle, they weren't important. Not now, when a professor was rushing in, barking orders at his roommate.

Reaching, he touched the pads of his fingers to Kal's thigh, looking up at him with plaintive eyes. “Kal,” he said, quietly, as if talking to a wild beast. “Do what he says, Kal. Come on…”

[4/10]  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Kaleth didn’t want to go anywhere. As was often the case in the immediate aftermath of such outbursts, he felt disproportionally exhausted. Not so much because he was worn physically — though that was a factor, and he hadn’t exactly come through entirely unscathed, either — but because the return to reality meant the return to the tumultuous crashing beat of emotions that had swelled together into the single, cohesive force of moments before. Except now he had to deal with them instead of channel them into a unified, simpler objective. They sloshed messily in his gut.

When a hand contacted his shoulder, pulling to encourage him up, he jerked from it, gritting his teeth. But Ko was right there still. Do what he says, Kal. Come on… And Kaleth set his hands on his head with a softer mutter. “Don’t pull me. I’m getting up…” The addition, ‘And they’re fine, everyone’s still breathing…’ came near to his tongue, only for a knot of unasked for uncertainty to twist in him.

They were fine, weren’t they?

Someone would have said something if they weren’t. Ko would have looked more distressed. Right?

Cuffs, warm with spell enhancements, clipped to his wrists, and Kaleth pushed to a stand, his eyes moving back to focus on Ko—as if he could find his reassurance there, in the expression of a gaze alone. The professor said something, but Kaleth wasn’t really paying attention. Around him, the reactions of his peers processed in fragments.

“Oooohh…”


“-trouble…”

“-for class? And is that thing still gonna be here when we come back?”

“-who has to clean it up…”

Kaleth frowned, his attention still holding to Ko, struck by a peculiar sense: he didn’t want to be alone. “Hey…can you-?” But what, another part of him challenged, ‘ …come with me?’ Already, it was a ridiculous request. Ko had other classes to attend to. He wasn’t hurt, and Kal’s problems weren’t his burden.

A strange tightness congealed in his throat, and he swallowed, clearing it, and looking away.

“Sorry,” he said instead. “I’m sorry you had to-” ‘…see that? Deal with this? Deal with me?’ He breathed out, uncalled for guilt settling like a fog, and he gave up on articulating it any more specifically. “Sorry.” He shouldn’t need to be babied, and Ko probably wanted to be nowhere near him at the moment.

Someone was discussing the need for visits to the infirmary, and when instructed, Kaleth moved without resistance.  

[MissMisnomer]

For a moment, Ko was worried that Kal might try to fight back, which would be bad ― to say the least. Students were one thing, but attacking a staff member was on a whole other level. He'd be lucky to only be suspended. Ko breathed a sigh of relief, taking in the scene. It was weird being one of the people left standing after a fight; he wasn't used to coming out of it without any bruises. Well, he hadn't really been in the fight, but still. His heart was pounding in his chest either way.

Kal kept looking his way through it all, even as the professor shackled him up. Handcuffs were surely a bit much, right? But then again, remembering the way Kaleth had snapped so suddenly, he had to admit that perhaps they weren’t so far fetched a safety measure. He watched from his spot on the ground as they were placed on his friend, keeping an eye out for anything that might indicate Kal would go on a rampage again.

But the look had long left his eyes, and in its place, something else, something that Kal was trying his best to hide. He stumbled over half formed apologies, and even as oblivious as Ko was, he could tell Kal was struggling. He was asking for help.

Ko curled his fingers into his palms, swallowing.

“I used magic!”

Professor Kantrath looked up from inspecting the fallen boys, directing students in how best to stabilize them until more help arrived. “Excuse me?”

“I-I used magic, against another student! Without permission!” Ko stated, holding up his hands, as if that might prove something. “That’s against the rules!”

The older man gave him a passing look before sighing, rubbing the bridge between his eyes. “Yes, I’ve heard. But according to the other students, you did it to stop Galhn from inflicting any more damage, so I will let it go this once. I’ll collect your statement when we are done here.”

Ko looked up at Kaleth, biting the inside of his cheek. “But…”

“I don’t feel well,” he whined, wrapping his arms around his stomach. “I think I shouldn’t have done that, I’m too tiny and weak, I feel faint…”

The man glanced over.

Ko did his best to look as despicable as possible. It wasn’t too hard; his head still hurt, he was shaky, there was second-hand blood on his fingers. He keened quietly for good measure, letting the sides of his mouth sag.

It might not have seemed possible to sigh louder, but somehow, the man did. “I swear the gods are testing me this day…” he muttered, standing. “Fine, come with us. I don’t want to deal with a student passing out on us. Not another one. Keep up, but don’t exert yourself, not till we get a healer to look at you.”

As the man turned away, Ko slipped a hand off of his gut, giving Kal a tiny thumbs-up as he smiled. Then went back to looking as awful as possible, at least until everyone inevitably stopped caring that he existed once again.

[5/10]  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

But…

Kaleth felt himself hold a breath. I don’t feel well… His pulse was light and quick in his throat, waiting and watching the professor’s expression with intent as he turned to watch Ko’s display. Was he buying it? And then, Fine, come with us… Kaleth exhaled, the muscles in his shoulders easing as he let his bound hands come to rest in front of himself, pulse easing.

When the degree of relief dawned on him, however, a frustrated flush climbed his cheeks and out into his ears as he frowned. Had he not just beaten three boys into the ground? Why did he feel so powerless and anxious for company? Just Ko’s presence made him feel easier, and the surreptitious thumbs up and smile inspired something tight in his chest to relax with an unexplained touch of warmth.

But he oughtn’t feel vulnerable to begin with. It was the very thing he avoided most, and yet…

He may have ‘won’, but it hardly felt like a victory when what he lost was control. No matter how furious he was, and no matter how it seemed they deserved it in the instant, they had set the stage, asked for a fight, and baited him. By engaging the way he had, he’d already lost, but more critically, it went far beyond that.

He knew his behavior was extreme, volatile, dangerous—and he hadn’t managed to keep a grip on himself. It was immature, like a child without impulse control, except that he was far from that benign stage of youthful harmlessness. He may not have been fully grown yet, but he had a body to rival fully grown men and the strength to back it up. When a five year old threw a tantrum, it was one thing. When he did, it was something else entirely.

He had come out of this fight not knowing for certain whether or not he was a murderer. And that was unsettling—and unacceptable.

If he couldn’t manage his actions in times like these, what was to keep that reckless violence from bleeding into other aspects of his life? It had already disrupted his education multiple times. What if it later carried over into his love life? He didn’t like to imagine himself as that kind of person, but the fact that he hadn’t been thinking and allowed himself to be so overcome by an untethered rage here made him an unreliable subject. He couldn’t trust himself.

And if he couldn’t trust himself, how could he expect anyone else to?

He had to get a hold on this. And in the meantime, the lingering anxiousness with regard to his own lack of control perhaps explained in part his relief at Ko’s presence. He couldn’t have blamed him if Ko didn’t want to be near him. He wouldn’t have wanted to be near himself in Ko’s shoes. But at the same time, however logical it might have been for Ko to put his guard up and keep his distance, Kaleth didn’t want him in particular to think he was a monster.

He didn’t want Ko to be afraid of him.

And having Ko around made him feel like there was less reason for everyone else to be. He felt more grounded, less at odds with the universe. It was difficult to feel hate, with Ko in one’s periphery.  

[MissMisnomer]

Now that one challenge had been taken care of, Ko took a moment to gain his bearings amongst the commotion. The throng of boys was being broken up, other adults arriving to usher them on their way, working crowd control. He spared a moment to get whatever look he could manage of the three that had started this whole thing, having to crane his head as arms and legs of activity crossed his line of sight.

It wasn't looking good.

He didn't need to get close to realize that.

If any good could be brought out of this sordid affair, it might be that perhaps, others might think twice before trying to start something with Kaleth in the future. Not that he understood why someone would want to in the first place. Kal was so quiet, and kept to himself. Aside from his competitive nature ― and sometimes being more honest with his opinions than he probably should ― Ko couldn't see why someone would consider Kal their enemy?

But perhaps signs had been there all along, and he just hadn't made the connection? Rooms growing quieter when he entered, people making more space whenever he was around, rumors that Kal had a violent history. Kal didn't really talk about what he'd done before he came here ― he didn't really talk at all.

Maybe it was time that changed?

Something had triggered him to lash out, a comment made about his father? Ko aimed to find out what it was.

That is…if Kal would even let him. He couldn't deny he felt a fearful hesitancy to broach the topic, after seeing the results.

But he'd have to trust that their friendship would be enough to protect him from the same reaction.

He'd have to trust Kal, to trust him.

After receiving some prompting, Ko got to his feet, shuffling ahead as their processional started moving towards the infirmary. He tried to stay under the radar ― something he was good at. But even still, he wasn't able to walk next to Kaleth, as the same professor from earlier was running a tight ship on his prisoner. However, that didn't stop him from walking in front of the pair, looking over his shoulder from time to time to keep an eye on Kal as they crossed the campus.

Eventually they rounded the corner to the emergency room, and without prompting, Ko moved ahead, holding the door open as the boys were brought in on stretchers. And as the opportunity showed itself, he reached, touching Kal's cuffed hands for a brief moment. He smiled without showing teeth, gave him a nod, and resumed his position at the door as he was led by, closing it behind them.

[6/10]  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Kaleth moved with a mechanical silence as he was lead along. He had no intention of causing further trouble, and plenty on his mind besides to keep his focus occupied. He needed little outward awareness to put one foot in front of the other, and to minimize his interactions with others seemed the safest route at present. He was ready to be wherever they were going and then left alone—preferably with Ko, though if he thought on it, the chances of that were likely low.

He didn’t dwell.

Instead, they made it to their destination before he knew it, and he was still lost mostly in his own thoughts when he passed through the door—and fingers brushed his. His gaze snapped to Ko’s, momentarily startled. Then, that warm kernel somewhere in his chest from the last time Ko had snuck him a smile blossomed, and he felt his face heat. What was that boy doing?

And then, he was being ushered in.

Because he wasn’t undamaged himself, he was to be seen to by a nurse before whatever interrogation they had lined up for him, but since he was notably in far less immediate need of attention, he wasn’t to be seen to first either. Rather, once in and only after assurances to his original captor that he wasn’t attempting to try anything here, his care was relinquished temporarily to one of the medical staff, who saw him to his own cot distinctly separate from the space his ‘victims’ were taken. And then, after the briefest check to assure he was indeed not in need of immediate attention, he was left, for a moment, alone.

He perched his weight at the edge of the cot, shut his eyes, and breathed out.  

[MissMisnomer]

It didn't take long after they'd entered the space for Ko to be led away from the clearly more mangled of the boys collected. And after a brief inspection, they were indeed able to conclude that Ko was not damaged at all. Surprisingly. He could be discharged.

But still Ko insisted that something was surely wrong with him, his brain felt like it got fried (it felt fine), look at his pupils, don't they look weird?? The nurse couldn't be bothered to care about convincing one tiny hypochondriac that he was a perfectly healthy ― if delusional ― individual, so rather than waste any more time on valuable staff resources, they gave him a little packet of herbs to swallow, waved a crystal around his head muttering nonsense, and instructed him to go lay down with a bandage wrapped around his forehead. What exactly the bandage was supposed to be for was left unclear; all Ko cared about was that he wasn't kicked out of the ward. As he was led to his designated cot, he kept an eye out for Kal, until he spotted him in the far corner of the room.

Target acquired.

With a healthy dose of pitiful moaning, he laid down on the utilitarian bed, hands pressed to his forehead until the nurse left the room. At which point he stopped, cast a speculative eye for any more staff that might be popping in, and shoved some pillows under the cover, puffing them up into a convincing shape. The next step in his battle plan was to drop down to the ground, crawling on his belly across the wooden floor.

“Hey Kal.”

He popped his head out from underneath Kal's cot, looking up at him from between his legs. Glancing around, he put a finger to his lips, whispering. “Don't say anything too loud, I don't think I'm supposed to be talking to you. Is the coast clear up there?”

[7/10]  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Despite his relief that Ko had managed to come along initially, and his surprise touch at the door, it felt after entering that that was probably the last he’d be able to see of him for now. A farewell gesture, as Ko wasn’t actually sick and it was only a matter of time before he was ousted from the infirmary. But Kaleth supposed he ought to be grateful he accompanied him this far and had at least tried to stick near.

Still, though there was plenty else to think about, he found his thoughts continuing to stray that way—wondering where Ko would be taken, what they would ask him. What Ko would think of him, once he had more time to process everything that had happened. Kaleth’s brow furrowed, pushing at the dark crystals embedded there and throbbing with the beginnings of a headache. Though he’d had confrontations of a similar variety at other schools, he had never done so here.

Given their interactions to date, Kaleth had to assume Ko knew nothing personal about him beyond the few facts he’d shared and whatever whispers he might have picked up on over their months together at school. But no matter what he’d heard, he had never seen it, that much Kal knew. Not until today. And the longer he sat, the more convinced Kaleth became that regardless of his attitude in the immediate aftermath, once he really had time to himself to think and after others had drilled him on the events—Ko’s opinion of him might never be the same.

YOU’RE GONNA KILL HIM, KAL!

Kaleth’s tongue pressed to the roof of his mouth, a stiff lump reforming in his throat, and somehow, this thought was worse than concern of exterior punishment. He needed to apologize again, properly. He’d have to explain—what? Was there anything to explain? Maybe he wouldn’t even want to hear it, and Kaleth wasn’t certain he knew what to say. There wasn’t really excuse, though there always felt like ample in the momen-

“Hey Kal.”

“F—k-” Kaleth started with abrupt surprise, eyes snapping open—and down, between his feet, to where Ko lay on the floor, looking up at him. He blinked once, staring and waiting as though expecting a hallucination conjured by his overstimulated mind that would ripple out of existence again at any moment. But seconds passed Ko remained solid and present beneath him. He slid a foot gently inward, tapping a boot to Ko’s side.

Real.

“What are…you…?”

Don’t say anything too loud…

“Oh.” Clearing his throat and doing his best to ignore the returning, startled heat climbing up his neck, he tried not to look overly pleased to see Ko—and probably failed. At the inquiry, he spared a glance around, and then nodded. “It…yeah. Clear enough…”

What to say, though, now that he was here, remained a mystery.

“…hi…”