Chapter 11
"A Newfound Attraction"
Song: Miracle, Vertical Horizon "Would it be so wrong to find someone… is there a trace inside a face of a lonely miracle?"
Kashi sighed, totally exhausted, as Kidd shut the door behind her. Kashi just stared at the door, unbelieving that the only person she had left, was technically gone.
Suddenly a voice broke her out of her daze and she looked to her right to see Kidd standing there, ready to touch her with a concerned hand. "Are you okay?"
Kashi nodded. "Yeah. Just a lot for one day."
Kidd smiled, wider than he ever smiled towards Soul, Maka, or even Liz and Patty. He let his hand fall back down to his side, knowing Kashi wouldn't like to be touched anyway. "Yeah. You deserve some rest. But may I ask one question?"
She took a second to clear her mind of her floating thoughts and nodded. "Shoot."
Kidd placed a hand on his chin in thought. "How did you get to know each other?"
Kashi chuckled. "That was the story I was going to leave for later. But I suppose I can tell you." She walked over to the couch and plopped herself down on one side of it, and Kidd joined her, with a respectful distance between them. "I had just joined the guild, and she was the loudest one there. So of course, I hated her." Kidd blinked, and adjusted his position on the couch to face Kashi more. "What? You hated her?"
She nodded, her red bangs covering her face for a moment, before she pushed them out of the way. She brought a knee up and wrapped her arms around it. "Yeah. I… used to live in a forest, by myself, so I was used to 'quiet'. The boys would fight, and that was amusing, but then she would come in and stop them with her loud voice, and I just didn't like her." She paused to see Kidd was listening to her with enthusiasm. "One day she came up asking who I was, because up until that point I had stayed pretty much invisible. I told her I wasn't staying, so she didn't need to know me. Her exact words were: "This guild is a family. If you don't intend to stay, you shouldn't have come here at all." Those words hit a nerve in me."
Kidd looked confused, his golden eyes glittering with curiosity. "So what did you do?" Kashi smiled. "I realized that I'd never had a family before, and I spent the entire night thinking about it. The next day I watched everyone in the guild and came to the conclusion that, if this is what a family is like, then I want to be a part of it." Kidd's smile widened at the words, and Kashi avoided his gaze. She felt that if she looked into his eyes while confessing something so personal that it would enable him to read her whole mind. She took a deep breath and continued. "So from then on I started attempting to talk to people, starting with her. I was blunt, and asked her to help me meet everyone properly. It was really hard, but Naomi made it easier. She would always step in and save me from personal questions, and would sometimes start conversations for me and then leave so I could finish them. I came to really like her."
Kidd was pondering what to say when Kashi broke out in a giggle. She met his gaze with hers and she smiled. "And this one guy, the infamous Gildarts. He's like 8 foot tall, ginger hair and always had a stubbly beard. He's a super outgoing guy, and super intimidating. He never came around much; he was always out on missions. Anyway, the first time he came back to the guild, I had met pretty much everyone except him, so Naomi drug me over to say hi. I was so terrified he laughed at me. I remember, he said "someone that shy should be super tough. Let's go train together later!" I tried to get out of it, but Naomi forced me to go. I was still small, so he towered over me, but I gave up a good fight, and he took off a few months to help train me. That might not seem like a big deal, but it is. He never stayed at the guild for more than a week, and Natsu, one of the other members, had begged him for a fight for YEARS."
Kidd ran a hand though his hair, awe-struck that the shy-girl he met earlier was just spewing out her past like she'd known him forever. "It sounds like he was a father-figure to you."
Kashi's green eyes lost a bit of their luster, and looked sad. He held back a curse as he realized he'd hit a nerve. She wasn't going to be sharing anymore tonight. She nodded, breaking their eye contact. "Yeah. He was." They sat in silence, and the tick of a nearby clock was all they heard. Liz and Patty's shuffles had stopped, meaning they must be in bed already. Kashi sighed, and Kidd got up off the couch. Kashi watched him. He stuffed his hands in his pockets. He defaulted to his usual perfect posture and calm, mature demeanor. "I'm heading to bed. Thank you, for talking with me. I'll see you tomorrow?" Kashi nodded, showing no signs of following. He listened to the horrible sound of his footfalls disturb the silence as he headed up the stairs. He stopped halfway up, and turned back to Kashi. "You remember how to get to your room, right?" She jumped, already deep in thought. She looked up to him and nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine." He nodded, and rubbed the back of his neck. "Alright. Remember, my room's right across from yours if you need anything." She smiled, and looked back down at the floor.
He made his way to his room, and stopped in the hallway between the two rooms. He gazed his golden eyes into her room, and saw a sketchbook laying open on the bed. Probably got it from Patty. He listened, and when he was sure Kashi wasn't coming up the stairs, he snuck into her room and looked at the sketchbook. There was a sketch of a guy with spiky hair, pointy teeth and a weird looking cat with wings on the open page. He carefully picked up the book, and gingerly flipped the page. There was a drawing of Soul and Maka holding hands. He smiled at the depiction of his friends. He flipped to the next page, and saw a beautiful horse drawing, and various other animals, nothing worth noting. Beautiful and talented drawings, just not important. Just things she likes, he guessed to himself. He wasn't sure why he felt disappointed; like he was hoping to learn more about her by her drawings, and all he'd deduced was that she liked animals.
When he flipped to the next page though, his heart skipped a beat and he couldn't believe his eyes. It was a portrait of… him?! He tried to swallow the knot of confusion in his throat, but it stayed there. He felt like he had discovered a deep secret that nobody was supposed to know about, and his face flushed as he flipped the sketchbook back to the page that was originally up, and set it back down where he had found it. Breath escaped him as he silently slipped into his own room, and shut the door behind him. He let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, and put a hand to his forehead. He didn't know why he would be one of the only four people in her sketchbook. And it was the most nicely done drawing, too. She obviously spent a lot of time and effort on it. He shook his head. "Don't be crazy. There doesn't have to be a reason." He took a shower and got changed, and slipped into bed. But sleep escaped him, and he heard Kashi when she finally came up to her room an hour later.
He thought about Kashi.
When she heard Kidd stop moving around in his room, she decided it was safe to go up to her own room and take a shower. She just had one the night before, but didn't know how often she would be alone enough to be comfortable showering again, so she just took one. The life of a person with social anxiety… she thought to herself. She blushed, thinking back to a little while ago. She never, ever told anyone about her past, especially without being prompted to. And certainly not to such detail. She felt comfortable around him, and couldn't figure out why. That bothered her.
She slipped into her pajamas and flopped onto the bed. Turning on one of the bed-side lamps, she flipped her sketchbook to the drawing of Kidd. Her cheeks flushed an even darker shade, and she rubbed them to try and calm herself down. "Why did I even draw this?" She shook her head, and ripped out the page. "I can't have anyone finding this…" She looked around the room, and decided her underwear drawer was the best spot for it. If anyone opened it and saw her undergarments, surely, they would close it right back up without question. Nobody wants to dig through someone's undies. She placed the picture face-down in the bottom of the drawer. She didn't have more than a dozen pair, and only two bras, but it was enough to cover it up. She closed the drawer and sighed. "I don't know what I'd do if Kidd ever saw that."
She crawled into bed for real this time, but she didn't get much sleep. She tried to understand why she felt so differently about Kidd than she had towards any other human being. Literally, the only other thing she had openly talked to like that was a squirrel. Her brows furrowed as she clutched tightly to one of the many pillows on the bed, and stared at the wall facing Kidd's room. She secretly hoped he would need something and would keep her company, but that didn't happen. It was only when the sun started lighting the sky that she was able to turn off her brain long enough to get a few hours' sleep, completely oblivious to the fact that Kidd had that exact same thought, and hadn't gotten any sleep, either.
And suddenly there was a loud knock on the front door.
