Gaia humd rather happily as she skipped through the halls.
She humd audibly to herself and with the added clinking of her favorite jewelry, it was like her world was full of music.
"Why are you so happy..?" Bashenga trailed behind her slightly, sohow even more quiet than normal.
Gaia spun around with a relaxed look on her face. "Hmm... no reason, I suppose. But it might have sothing to do with the fact that this is the first ti you have voluntarily sought out on your own. And you’re not even yelling at !"
Bashenga looked away in mild annoyance. "...It’s not the first ti."
"Well even if it isn’t, do you see how it happens so rarely that I could make that mistake?"
Bashenga did, in fact, see her point.
"Well, I had no choice but to seek you out since you haven’t co back to the room in so ti."
Gaia’s face twitched unconsciously as if she were having a stroke.
"What in the seven hells is wrong with you..?" Bashenga was starting to get worried.
"S-Sorry, it’s just... you’re seeking out and waiting for to co back in the sa day, and I think it might have overloaded my brain."
"I’m not a frigid enough person to warrant this kind of reaction."
"Remind again, when’s the last ti you hugged your dad?"
"Four years ago. It was his requested Christmas present." Belloc did not understand the correlation.
Gaia stared at him blankly.
"...Playing my words back in my mind, I hear them now."
"I was hoping you would."
Bashenga daringly intruded into Gaia’s personal space. Her entire body nearly turned scarlet.
He lifted a hand to her face and gently brushed aside the hair covering her left eye.
Gaia still bore a rather a rather bitter-looking scar from the venom that splashed on her face.
Bashtnga’s heart clenched from the sight. Gaia suddenly beca timid.
"Y-Your mother is making a salve to help with the scarring. By tomorrow, I should be my perfectly normal and radiant self." She smiled cheerfully.
Her bright deanor didn’t exactly help Bashenga’s mood improve.
"This never should have happened."
"Oh, there’s no need for any sour faces. I was the one who made the decision to join the battle, and I accepted every possible outco in doing so. I am alive at least, so there’s nothing to be remorseful about-"
"There will be retribution for this, I swear. Percival will pay with everything he has to give."
In the face of a clear and apparent threat on soone else’s life, Gaia smiled like it was the most romantic thing she’d ever heard.
"...Be careful now, young man. Talk like that might make a woman think you have so real feelings for her." Gaia chuckled.
Instead of shrugging off Gaia’s words with a casual eye-roll, Bashenga stared at her calculatively.
He chose his next words very carefully before speaking.
"Do you... think I have no mories of the ti we spent together? That I have no attachnt to you..?"
Gaia’s cheeks beca redder and redder. "Well, I know you do, but I thought this was more of a friend/roommate thing..?"
Bashenga swallowed.
"...Maybe that’s not all it has to be."
Even the air was in disbelief over the words flowing through it.
Unsure of what to make of things, Gaia let out a small scoff as she started to turn around.
"You’re just saying that because you’re still in shock. You almost lost your mother, and you were in your first fight in years, so you’re looking for sothing warm and fuzzy to cling to, and-"
"Do you think I am that flippant?"
Gaia froze in her tracks. The atmosphere between the two beca heavier.
"I... don’t know." She admitted. "You like to pretend that you don’t need comfort, but you are the single most comfort-seeking man I’ve ever t. And I am sothing familiar to you, and comfortable, and maybe that would be a good thing if... we didn’t just have the day we just had."
Bashenga nodded slowly. "You think I’m using you." He realized.
Gaia hated to admit it. "I an... doesn’t it make sense?"
Bashenga couldn’t really deny that. Today’s events had certainly rattled him, just as they had for everyone in the house.
It made perfect sense for him to gravitate towards sothing sweet, comforting, and familiar.
He couldn’t bla Gaia for questioning his motivations. Perhaps if he were in her sa position, he would be just as skeptical.
Hell, he was unsure about the things he was saying himself. But there was only one way for him to make things crystal clear.
Taking a short breath, he took two steps to invade Gaia’s personal space.
Leaning down, he placed a small kiss on Gaia’s cheek.
When he pulled away, her face was slack, and a bouquet of flowers had sprouted out of her hair.
"W-W-W-W-W-Wha-Wha-Wha-Wha-Wha...??"
"I guess we’ll know better where we stand when I get back. We should revisit this conversation then."
Bashenga moved past Gaia, who was completely stuck in place and unable to get any of her words out.
It was a pity that she couldn’t turn around in ti. She would have loved to see the genuine smile on his face.
-
"Where is it... where is it..."
The sound of tal hitting the floor was all that could be heard in Karliah’s bedroom.
As she rustled through a chest, she started pulling out everything from maces to heavy halberds that were twice the size of her body.
And yet, Karliah still couldn’t find what she was looking for.
"Havin’ so trouble there, ma?"
Karliah looked over her shoulder in true surprise.
Bekka was sprawled in her bed, wearing an unusual smile. She was the very last thing that her mother had ever expected to see.
No one ever really ca into Karliah’s room, as a matter of fact. Everyone in the house was petrified of what they might witness inside.
"Hey, kiddo.... The hell are you doing in here?"
"Just coming in here to check on you, mama. I wanted to see how you were handling everything."
Karliah’s face soured. "Bah, don’t co in here with any of that daffodil shit, girlie. You know it takes a lot more than so whiny little shit to get the better of . They don’t make bitches tougher than your mom nowadays... They don’t make them fine like either, but that’s another story."
Bekka laughed in earnest. "Well, at least you were kind enough to pass so of the fine down instead of keeping it all for yourself."
"I know, right? And Yara and Imani think they’re the only maternal ones in this house!" Karliah made an unkind gesture with her finger.
The mother-daughter duo laughed together. It was a happy, light sound that could only have co from their bright personalities.
But Karliah noticed that Bekka was still staring at her hard.
In a mont that was quite unlike her, Karliah placed her hand on her daughter’s shoulder and spoke in a softer voice than normal.
"Are you sure you’re alright, kid? You seed a little different since earlier."
Bekka smiled wryly and placed her hand over her mother’s.
"I dunno... just got worried I might’ve lost you there, ma. Who knows what that asshole could have done..?"
"More like what I could have done to his asshole if he tried sothing."
"Mama."
"Fine, fine..." Karliah sighed as she went back to rummaging through her chest.
"I guess you being concerned about is nice and shit, but I really don’t need you to waste your energy on that, kid. If you’re really in need of sothing to do, help find my goddamned iklwa..."
Bekka flinched.
"I swear to god I put it in here, but I can’t find it for anything..." Karliah continued. Growing desperate, she stuck her head in the chest and began trying to coax her weapon out of hiding. "Here, little stabby-stabby... Big-Mama doesn’t want to go horror hunting without you."
"What if you didn’t go?" Bekka suddenly said.
Karliah scoffed and laughed off her remark. "As if I would miss a chance to get out and explore a bit. I gotta make sure I get stronger than that runt Kanami too, so that I can pay her pint-size ass back for punching ."
"Mama..."
"You know, she thinks she can do whatever she wants because she’s fucking hot. But if I ever get my hands on her or her husband, I’ll have them trained so good they won’t-"
"I’d like it if you didn’t go with everyone else."
"Yeah, and I’d like a good rimjob, but all i’ve been matching with lately is fucking prudes who act like they’re scared to lick a little.."
Karliah’s eyes widened as her daughter’s words finally sank in.
She turned around slowly and stared at Bekka with a look of incredulity.
"....Ass." She finished.
Bekka took a deep breath.
"I think that with everything that’s been going on lately, going to run around the multiverse is the last thing you need to be doing. I want you to stay with and the others so that I can protect you."
Karliah was many things. But a sheltered sheep wasn’t one of them.
Earlier in the day, she couldn’t place why Bekka’s treatnt of her had changed.
But now she knew. Her daughter was afraid of losing her. So much so that she was willing to stand in her way.
It should have been the ti for a conversation and reassurance.
But Karliah was feeling so many new things at once that she didn’t know how to process them.
So, she decided to do what she did best.
et uncertainty with anger.
Reviews
All reviews (0)