Arc 1 - Chapter III: ASL
Bright amber-colored eyes snapped open as their own gasped a deep breath, only to cough it due to the dusty air from the rubble. Looking around himself, Kairi found that he was lying on the floor of the chamber.
"Sleeper?"
I'm still here… but taking that explosion, shielding you from it… it took a lot of me. Need time to rest.
"Hey, you do you, man, don't worry," Kairi replied as he got to his feet, brushing some dust off himself as he peered around. "Thanks for saving me, by the way."
You're welcome… nighty night.
As Sleeper's presence in his mind withdrew, Kairi started moving. He needed to find Spider-man, with Sleeper out of commission, the spider-themed hero was his only way out of here. Pushing past some rubble and into a clearing, he paused when he saw the motionless hand of the Green Goblin coming from beneath a pile of metal and concrete that had to be at least two tons, probably more.
And not far, was Spider-man.
"Oh shit," Kairi breathed before he ran to the hero and knelt at his side, removing a few pieces of debris off of him. "Whoa, hey, are you okay?"
Spider-man weakly turned his head. One of the lenses of his mask had shattered, revealing a bright blue eye behind the mask. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just resting."
"Can you stand?" Kairi asked, looking over the battered form of the hero. It didn't look good.
"Yeah," Spider-man chuckled weakly. "Yeah, I always get up." But then he released some gravely, ragged coughs. "Oh, coughing's probably not a good sign."
Hearing a voice in the distance, Kairi's gaze snapped towards its direction and his trepidation grew when he saw the light from a flashlight appear not that far away. "Oh god," he muttered. With Spider-man down and Sleeper too tired, it was just him. Too bad he didn't bring one of his swords…
Spider-man grabbed Kairi's shoulder, "Listen, kid, we gotta team up here. We don't have much time." He then pressed a flash drive into the teen's hand, "This override key is the only way to stop the collider. Get up to that panel on the ceiling, use this key, push the button and blow it up. You're going to have to hide your face again, kiddo. Don't tell anyone who you are, all right?" He grabbed the teen's shoulder again, "No one can know, he's got everyone in his pocket."
"What? But I…?" Kairi could only stare at Spider-man, dumbfounded.
"If he turns the machine on again, everything you know will disappear," Spider-man pressed on. "Your family, your friends, everyone. Everyone. Promise me you'll do this."
Seeing a glimpse behind the mask, the conviction in his tone, Kairi gave a shaky nod. "Yeah… I promise," he whispered. "I promise."
"Good. Now go, destroy the collider," Spider-man said around another cough, waving the teen away. "I'll come and find you. It's gonna be okay, you'll see." As he watched the teen leave, climbing onto the rubble, the hero let his head fall back onto the piece of rubble behind him. He felt crappy about lying to the kid.
Reaching the top of what used to be a metal frame, Kairi looked up at the revealed panel up on the ceiling. How the hell was he going to get up there? When he heard more voices, he crouched low behind a piece of concrete, spotting a large man, a scientist, Vulture, and a guy with albino skin and hair. Tombstone?
The large man then turned around towards Spider-man, with Vulture and Tombstone following him. "I'd like to say it's good to see you, Spider-man," the large bald man drawled. "But it's not."
"Hey, Kingpin," rasped Spider-man, "how's business?"
"Boomin,' heh heh," Kingpin chuckled. "Sometimes I kill myself, I swear." He then reached forward and grabbed the hero's mask, ripping it off.
"Ah, that's a no-no," Spider-man sighed as his face was revealed. Something that got Kairi to stare, dumbfounded as he saw the identity of New York's very own superhero. "Look, Kingpin, your project, it might open a black hole under Brooklyn, it can't be worth the risk."
Kingpin scoffed as he bent down, "It's not always about the money, Spider-man."
The Vulture stepped forward, brandishing his wings, completely intent on using his razor-sharp feathers to silence the spider-themed hero.
"Don't you want to know what I saw in there?" Spider-man raised a brow at Kingpin.
Kingpin frowned, using his large arm to block the Vulture's path, "Wait."
"I know what you're trying to do," said Spider-man. "It won't work, Fisk…they're gone. You can't bring them back."
Kingpin stared at the man for a moment, before he raised his fists and slammed them down on Spider-man's chest with a loud roar. Kairi could only gasp as he witnessed the death of Spider-man, rooted to where he was.
This was all just a dream, right?
Spider-man couldn't be dead. He fought Kraven the Hunter, Shocker, Mysterio, the Lizard, and Hydro-man and always came out on top, always saving the day. He couldn't go out like this…
But before he knew it, a hand slipped around his mouth. His fight-or-flight response kicked in as he prepared to shove whoever had their hold on him, but paused when he heard a familiar voice.
"Kairi, it's me..."
Realizing it was Wanda, he turned his head but had a double-take when he saw what she was wearing. A black, white, and pink outfit with teal ballet shoes, overall it looked similar to Spider-man's suit though she had a hood on hers and her mask was in her other hand.
"Wanda?" he whispered after moving her hand away. "What are you…"
"Explanations will have to come later," she replied, taking a look down and bit back a wince. "Look, we can't stay here, alright? We have to go."
"But what about Spider-man?" he protested.
"I'm sorry, Kairi," she shook her head as she tugged on his shoulder. "But we have to go, they'll kill us if they find us here."
Biting his lip as emotions swirled inside him, he looked back one last time at Spider-man's corpse, as Kingpin, Vulture, and Tombstone had already left. He looked back at Wanda's insistent stare and nodded.
"Good, now hold tight," she warned him before she shot a string of webbing and grabbed him around his shoulders. As if he weighed like paper, she easily swung in the direction of the subway entrance of the chamber, bypassing all the debris.
Once in the maintenance tunnel, the two of them quickly moved through it, intent on putting as much space between them and Fisk's facility.
"Wait, hold up," Wanda said as they neared the entrance of the maintenance tunnel, heading towards a pipe. "I stashed a bag here and I need to change out of this before we get to public space." Pulling her backpack out from its hiding spot, she looked over at him. "Keep an eye out, would you?"
"Sure," he nodded before training his eyes on the tunnel behind them.
Honestly, a part of him was hoping that Kingpin would come around looking if only because he really could punch the guy in the nards. The guy deserved at least that for killing Spider-man. But the logical part of his brain knew that he wouldn't stand a chance, not as he was.
A few moments later, Wanda spoke up again, "All right, I'm done."
Breaking from his train of thought, Kairi looked back at her, she had changed into the Visions Academy uniform. Her backpack was slung over her shoulder, her costume more than likely being stashed in there. "We should head back to the school," she said as she adjusted the strap on her shoulder. "We can talk there."
He nodded before the two of them made their way to the nearby subway station, though Kairi kept glancing back, just in case Kingpin or his goons came a coming. That or a subway train. But neither came and they wordlessly got on a train that would get them in the direction of where they were going.
The whole trip was somberly silent, a word wasn't spoken between them as they sat next to each other on the subway train. But Kairi was cool with that, he didn't want to talk right now. And honestly, what he really wanted was to go home, pull the covers over his head, and pray that all of this was just one terrible, horrible nightmare.
And honestly, if Wanda hadn't been there, he was sure he would've been wandering aimlessly. It was she who prodded him when they had to get off at a stop, and pull him into their next subway. Even when they arrived in the neighborhood of Visions, he just followed her. He could sometimes feel her stare at him sometimes or at least, he thought he did. Honestly, his gaze was kept towards the ground nearly the whole time.
And before he knew it, he was in Wanda's dorm room. Though he noted that it was dark out now. How long had he been down in that facility?
"You can sit wherever," said Wanda as she closed the door behind them and sat down on the edge of the bottom bunk of the bunkbeds supplied by the academy. Though he remained standing in the middle of the room."You want to talk about it?"
"What's there to talk about?" he replied hoarsely.
"Kairi," she placed a hand on his arm, "you just watched a man die, you watched Spider-man die." At his continued silence, she tried again standing up to grab him by the shoulders and force him to look at her. "Look, I know what it's like to see someone die, all right? I know how awful you must feel and trust me, that isn't something you want to be dealing with alone."
"So then what, I'm just supposed to get over it and just talk about it like nothing happened, Wanda?" he snapped, but Wanda's expression remained unchanged.
"No," she shook her head as she pulled her arms from his shoulders, lowering them to her sides, "you're going to have to learn to live with it. But on that note, I realize we should do some proper introductions."
Wait, what?
He frowned at her, his confusion unveiled.
"My name," she sighed, "my real name is Gwen, Gwen Stacy. And I know this may sound weird, but I'm from another dimension." She waited for his reaction, even if he was in a funk, he would've at least shown some surprise if only to think she was crazy.
"Yeah, that isn't the first time I heard that today."
Wait, hold the phone. What? What did he mean?
"Huh?" she looked at him incredulously. "What do you mean?"
"Right, well, remember my headaches?" he replied as he sheepishly scratched the back of his neck.
"Yeah?" she frowned.
He shrugged helplessly, "Turns out what I thought were voices in my head was actually an alien that bonded to my physiology and is able to speak to me within my mind."
…
Her stare of incredulity did not change one bit.
"I can't tell if you're messing with me or not," she released a sigh as she massaged her temples. "I really, really can't."
He grumbled, "How do you think I feel?" He really wanted to take a nap right now, this day was just way too much.
"Is it talking to you right now?" she asked curiously.
"No," he shook his head, "Sleeper, that's his name, by the way, he protected me from the explosion in Fisk's underground lab or whatever it is but it took a lot out of him, so he went down for a recharge. First time today he isn't talking if you can believe it. Anyway, Sleeper's from another dimension too, that's why we were down there in the lab, hoping to see if Alchemax had something on interdimensional travel or something that could get Sleeper home."
"Huh, weird," Gwen hummed. After a moment she shook her head, "Anyway, from my dimension I was bitten by a radioactive spider, and for the last two years, I was the one and only Ghost-Spider. I joined a band, saved my dad but… couldn't save my best friend, Peter Parker, so I started saving everyone else." Releasing a sigh, she went to sit back on her bed again, though this time Kairi had followed and took a seat next to her.
"And one day, this weird thing happened," she continued, "And I mean, like, really weird. I was blown into last week, literally. I landed in New York, but not my New York. My spider-sense, this feeling I get usually when I'm in danger, told me to head to Visions Academy. I wasn't sure why until I met you."
"Me?" he frowned. "Why?"
"I think you can help me get home, to my dimension," she replied. "Well, you and your alien friend."
"Honestly, it'd be a stretch to call him my friend, I only just met him today," he shrugged.
That got a laugh from Gwen as she shook her head. Well, at least he seemed to be out of his funk a bit.
Aww, I'm not your friend?
Oh, great… you're awake…
And how! So what'd I miss? Oh, we're back at Wanda's. Hi Wanda!
Well, first off, her name's not Wanda, it's Gwen actually. Second, get this, she's from a different dimension like you. And also like you, she's trying to get to her home.
Huh, no kidding.
Yup and she wants my help in getting her home. I swear, what is it about me that draws interdimensional travelers? Do I have a sign floating above me saying 'Interdimensional Travel help' or something?
Maybe it's your personality.
Gwen watched with a brow cocked as Kairi's face seemed to go through a small range of emotions. From idle to exacerbated, to slightly annoyed, and then back to idle. It was kinda weird actually, it was as if he was having… another conversation.
"Wait," she spoke up, "is the alien awake?"
"Yup," he nodded with a sigh. "He says hi, by the way."
She frowned unsurely, "Um, hi back?"
"It's a pleasure to meet you!"
Gwen scrambled backward to the head of her bed when she saw a black and yellow head with four red eyes form from Kairi's shoulder. "Holy crap!" she exclaimed, her eyes widened at the thing. "You're actually real?"
Kairi tilted his head to the side, a brow raised. "What, did you think I was lying?"
"No," she shook her head, her eyes still on Sleeper's head. "But uh, you know, seeing is believing and all that."
Sleeper tilted its head back to share a look with its current host before both shrugged.
"Fair enough," Kairi replied.
"So you're basically the costume, huh," Gwen directed her question to Sleeper.
"I'm not a costume!" Sleeper frowned. "If anything, I stretch my form around Kairi's here. So basically, I'm like a bubble, like in that Bubble Boy movie, just a hundred times more awesome!"
Gwen raised a brow, "You've seen Bubble Boy?"
"Who hasn't?" Sleeper looked at her incredulously.
"Riiiiight," she drew the word out. After a moment of silence, she shook her head. "Anyway, maybe between the three of us, Sleeper and I can get back to our respective dimensions and go home."
"Oh, yes, please. I need to see if my dad's all right."
"Did something happen?" Kairi asked curiously.
Sleeper's head drooped, "We were attacked by some guys from my world's Alchemax corporation. My dad sent me through an open portal to keep me safe while he dealt with them, but I don't think he intended to send me to a whole new dimension. It must've been an accident because he would've opened another portal to get me by now."
"Don't worry, buddy, I'll get you home," he assured the symbiote. He then looked up to meet Gwen's eyes. "Both of you, I promise to get the both of you home. If Alchemax is building machines capable of opening interdimensional portals, then maybe we can sneak in and use it and send you guys home before I blow up the machine."
"Blow it up?" Gwen frowned.
"I made a promise to Spider-man," he nodded. "Blow up the Kingpin's machine to stop it from destroying my world. I intend to keep it."
Gwen could only nod in response. Before anyone could get another word in, however, she grunted in pain as her very being felt like it was being torn. But to Kairi and Sleeper, it looked like she was glitching out like something on a computer as she fell back onto her bed.
"What the heck was that?"
He got closer to her, but truth be told, he had no idea what to do to help or if it was even possible for him to help her at all. "Gwen, are you okay?" he asked in concern.
"Ugh, yeah, I think so," Gwen grunted with a wince, holding her hand up to see if her body was still glitching. "That wasn't fun."
He frowned at her, "Considering how much pain you were in, I'd be surprised if it was."
That got a reluctant laugh out of her as she sat back up, "Yeah, no kidding."
"Still, are you sure you're okay?" he asked, still concerned. "It looked like you were literally glitching out."
"Yeah, I'm fine," she gave a reluctant nod. For now. She then frowned in contemplation, "As for what just happened to me, well, maybe since this isn't my dimension, maybe your dimension is trying to correct that or something. Or maybe, just being in a different dimension is bad for one's health anyhow."
Kairi frowned before looking over at Sleeper's head, who looked back in curiosity.
"What?"
"If that's true, then why aren't you glitching?" he asked.
Gwen shrugged, "Maybe it's because you're his host? Basically an anchor for him here. Plus, this is all theory. It's not like I'm an expert." She was only a senior in high school after all.
He looked to Sleeper for confirmation.
"Don't look at me, I'm an alien, not an expert on interdimensional travel. I'm just in the dark as you."
Kairi looked up at Gwen, who could only shrug in reply.
"So then, what's our next move?" he asked.
"Well, first we need to-" Gwen began, only to be interrupted.
"Yeah, first thing's first, we need to complete the bonding process, Kairi," Sleeper interjected. "Our… ahem, little issue, before, yeah, that shouldn't have happened. I come from a long line of symbiotes who've taken hosts before and nothing we experienced happened to them. Maybe small changes in personality or behavior in the host as the symbiote bonded to them, but uh, not we experienced. And honestly, after watching Spider-man fight the Green Goblin, a lot of info just came to me about how symbiotes help their hosts fight."
Kairi frowned, "So what, you can do more than keep my identity a secret?"
"A lot more," Sleeper nodded. "I just don't know why I forgot all about it, a lot of it is instinctual for us symbiotes."
"Maybe it's the whole dimensional hopping," Gwen suggested.
"Could be," Sleeper's eyes slanted in a frown. "Who knows? I sure as hell don't."
"So then what exactly can you do for Kairi?" Gwen asked.
"Basically everything Spider-man can do, enhanced agility, strength, speed. I can even make my version of his webs and even create weapons like blades or spikes."
Kairi gave a low whistle, impressed. "Damn, nice."
"Why thank you!"
Gwen frowned unsurely at the mention of blades. If Sleeper basically turned Kairi into a spider-person, she could work with that and help them train to be this Earth's next Spider-man, but as some who kicked butt instead of killing, she wasn't exactly all right with the blades thing. Though maybe Kairi could use them as a tool instead of a weapon.
"And unlike other symbiotes, I can manipulate ambient light and various forms of hormones, as well as create a variety of chemicals, liquid or aerosol." And with that, its head receded back into Kairi's body.
Gwen's jaw dropped, a motion that had been mirrored by Kairi. "Huh, that can certainly be useful," she hummed. That certainly opened a lot of options. "Anyway, I can help with the first set of abilities since my powers are the same as Spider-man's, but the others are gonna be on you, Kai."
He looked over at her in surprise.
"What?" she frowned. "Not a fan of nicknames?"
He shook his head, "No, just… never heard someone else call me that before." His mother couldn't, for obvious reasons. His grandmother had her own nickname for him and his uncle just called him by his given name. Hell, even Elsa never called him by any nickname when they had been dating. But he just always attributed that to her needing everything to be prim and proper. Some people tried shortening his name, but it never sounded right to him.
Until now.
"Oh." She then gave a shrug as she favored him with a smirk, "Well, I guess you'll have to get used to me calling you that then." She glanced at the clock at her desk, "Anyway, it's getting around to dinner time, so we should probably head to the cafeteria and eat something. I don't know about you, but I am starving."
It was then that Kairi's stomach decided to make itself known and grumble from missing lunch this afternoon. He froze, completely mortified as his face began both to pale and redden all at the same time. Slowly, he averted his gaze from her direction as he tried to will a hole to appear below him to swallow him up and bury him.
"Haha," Gwen tried to stifle her laughter for his sake, but a giggle still managed to escape her before she put her fist in front of her mouth to prevent any more from escaping. "I guess that means you agree," she faked a cough to cover up another laugh.
"Someone just kill me now," he groaned pitifully, his shoulders slumping.
Aww, this is adorable~
Shut up, you!
"Sorry, Kai, but I'm a hero," Gwen laughed. "I don't kill."
He released a low grunt, still thoroughly embarrassed. And Sleeper's laughter in the back of his head wasn't helping at all, not one bit. In fact, it just made him even more embarrassed.
Deciding to take pity on him as she managed to completely stifle her laughter, she stood up from her bed and faced him, offering a hand to help pull him up. "C'mon, let's head to the cafeteria," she smiled at him. "If I remember correctly, tonight's pizza night."
Still red-faced, Kairi managed not to look Gwen in the eye, and upon seeing her earnest expression, he sighed as he took her hand and let her help him get onto his feet. "There better be one with sausage and olives," he muttered, still feeling the lingering warmth of embarrassment in his cheeks.
Gwen raised a brow at his choice in pizza toppings but filed that away for later.
Oh, are we getting food? Get some chocolate and tater tots while you're at it.
…A few minutes later…
As Kairi and Gwen entered the cafeteria, they noticed that nearly everyone basically had their face buried in their phones as a somber atmosphere enveloped the room, with a few people making quiet mutterings to each other. What was going on? Pulling out her phone, Gwen's eyes widened by the notifications she saw.
Spider-man found dead.
Peter Parker, the man behind Spider-man's mask is found dead by Alchemax.
Someone made public of Spider-man's death and she had little doubt that Fisk capitalized on that. While the city would mourn, he was using it as a message to everyone else that was an enemy of Spider-man, 'I killed Spider-man, I can kill you too.' New York City was Fisk's now.
"Kai, you seeing this?" she asked.
…
At the silence, she frowned. "Kai?" she looked over and paused when she saw his pale face as he stared wide-eyed at the screen of his phone. And his fear was abundantly clear for everyone to see. "Kai?"
"Oh, hey, Kairi," a random student passed by. "By the way, your roommate was looking for you earlier, looked kinda frantic actually."
It was then that it hit her, Kairi had gone to the nurse earlier today and had gotten the day off and of course, his roommate would've found out. And the guy probably panicked when he found the room empty with Kairi nowhere in sight.
"Ohhhh," Kairi moaned pitifully. "I'm dead, I'm so dead. My mom's gonna kill me."
"It can't be that bad, right?" she grinned unsurely.
Palming his face with his free hand, Kairi tilted his phone screen in Gwen's direction, revealing over two hundred texts. And a large majority of them came from one contact on his phone; Mom.
"Kairi!"
The two looked up to see Miles at the entrance of the cafeteria, looking quite haggard as he took in deep breaths. Taking in one more, he ran over to Kairi and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Dude, where have you been?" he demanded. "You didn't answer any of my texts or calls and when you were gone for over four hours, I panicked, man. Panicked! I had to text your mom, dude."
"You didn't know about the texts until now?" Gwen raised a brow at Kairi.
"I put my phone on silent this morning," he groaned poignantly. "I didn't even realize it until now." He then looked at Miles frantically. "Dude, I'm sorry I didn't respond, but my mom, how'd she take it?"
"How do you think?" Miles looked at him incredulously. "Everyone thought you had been kidnapped or got delirious from your headaches and might've walked into traffic, she even went to the police, my dad's out there looking. So imagine my surprise when someone said that you were spotted entering the front entrance earlier. I had to let your mom know, she's on her way."
Kairi gripped the sides of his head in his hands, "Okay, okay. I can get through this without being grounded until the day I die, I can."
"More like the end of time, dude. And are you sure about that?" Miles looked at him dubiously, crossing his arms. It was then he noticed Gwen. "Oh, sorry, realize you were here. I'm Miles."
"Hi, I'm Gwen," she replied with a nod. "And I don't blame you given the whole craziness so far. To be honest, I didn't think Kai would attract this kind of commotion."
Miles blinked before giving his friend a big grin. "'Kai,' huh?" he elbowed Kairi's arm. "When did that start? I think your mom is gonna have a cow when not only did you disappear, you came back with a girlfriend. Your decision to start dating again now of all times aside, it is about time."
Gwen's face began to pink as she averted her gaze, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she shifted from one foot to another. "Uh, no. No, no. I'm not his girlfriend," she spluttered awkwardly. "Really."
Kairi's face began to redden again as he glared at Miles. "This isn't the time, Miles!" he exclaimed. "Look, I'm gonna need your help here so that my mom won't kill me," he then looked over at Gwen, "both of your help, actually."
Oooh, can I help?
Sleeper, no offense, but I don't think you can contribute here. And if I revealed you, it'd just make things worse and we'd probably be carted off to Area 51.
Aww…
Gwen raised a brow, "What do you have in mind?"
Quickly, he told them their plan.
"Dude, that isn't going to work," Miles stared at his friend in disbelief, doubt etched all over his face. "It's not going to work."
"It will!" Kairi insisted. "Look, just help me do this, and I will allow you to choose the subject matter on our next collaboration project."
Miles's eyes narrowed, "The next ten."
"Three."
"Eight."
"Five"
"Deal."
The two teens shook on it.
Gwen rolled her eyes at the two's antics, but she considered Kai's plan. As far as excuses go, it wasn't terrible, god knows how many lame-ass excuses she had to pull out of her ass when her two different lives as Ghost-Spider and Gwen Stacy overlapped. Seriously, it sucked sometimes. And Kairi's story did have a little bit of truth in them, so it wasn't too far-fetched considering.
"I'm down," she shrugged.
"Thank you," Kairi breathed a sigh of relief.
"But I want something out of this too if Miles is."
He stared at her in disbelief as she stared back with a smirk, crossing her arms. "Fine," he groaned, he didn't have time to argue. "What do you want?" He needed her to say what she wanted quickly before his mother burst through the door like water through a broken dam. And no, that wasn't a simile, he's seen his mother do that before.
"Hmm," she hummed in thought, her finger tapping her chin, before deciding, "I'll let you know when the time comes."
He glared at her and he released an irritated groan before sighing in defeat, "Fine."
Miles looked at him incredulously, "What? All I get is 'next art project decisions' while she gets a blank check? What the hell, man?"
"Then you should've negotiated harder," Kairi remarked sarcastically.
"She didn't even negotiate at all!" Miles cried out. "Are you sure the two of you aren't dating? Cuz, that's some real level bias, dude."
Kairi groaned as he buried his face in his hands to prevent anyone from seeing his blushing face. While Gwen averted her gaze as she bit her bottom lip, a light pink dusting the cheeks on her face. However, another word could not be put in for the cafeteria entrance doors were slammed open by a heeled boot, silencing everyone in the room.
Standing there was a middle-aged woman of Hispanic and Native American descent, her long hair tied into a bun with two feathers keeping it in place. Her eyes scanned the room for a moment before training onto Kairi, scowling when her eyes found him.
Oh, shit, is that your mom?
Kairi whimpered.
The room remained silent as the woman stalked forward, the only sound that was made was the clacks of her heels impacting on the tiled floor. Her facial expression never changed even as she arrived to stand in front of her son. But it softened when quickly wrapped her arms around him and brought him in for a hug. Everyone nearly breathed out a sigh of relief with some conversations resuming.
That is, until she karate chopped the top of Kairi's head, causing him to fall onto the floor as he held his head in pain.
Oh my god, that even hurt me!
Wincing, Kairi looked up at his mother as she glared at him. She took in a deep breath before she lifted her hands to sign.
[Where have you been?]
[Mom, look-]
[Don't you 'Mom look' me, young man. You were gone for almost five hours. At least! Do you know how worried I was when I got Miles's text? I had him contact his father so that the police could go out looking for you!]
"Is… are they signing?" Gwen whispered, a little perplexed.
"Yeah," Miles nodded, also keeping his voice down to a whisper. "Kairi's mom was born deaf, so Kairi was taught how to sign at the same time he learned how to speak. And FYI, Ms. Lopez knows how to read lip, so really just keep that in mind."
"Got it," she nodded.
[I'm sorry, Mom. Really I am, but I have a really good reason why I didn't answer you or anyone's texts or calls.]
Kairi's mother paused, a brow raised with her arms crossed. The universal sign for; I'm waiting.
[So, I woke up with this really bad headache, okay? I had to go to the nurse and everything, Miles can back me up on that. My headaches were bad, really bad. I took naps all day because the pills the nurse prescribed were making me drowsy and I remember going out of the room to do something, honestly, I don't remember what. But I actually wandered out of the school, probably during class since no one saw me leave. And it was Gwen here, the girl I met the other day, who actually found me a few hours ago in the city.]
Kairi's mother's gaze snapped to Gwen, who looked back at her like a deer caught in a pair of headlights. The blonde offered a hesitant wave with a nervous smile because honestly, she didn't know what else to do and she honestly had no idea what Kai was saying. His mother's eyes narrowed for a moment before she shifted to look back at her son again, motioning for him to continue.
[I was going in and out, so she had me sit down at a park until I could get my bearings so that I could get back to campus. It wasn't until a few minutes when Miles found me here in the cafeteria that I realized that I had my phone on silent this whole time so that I could sleep during my naps. And again I'm sorry, Mom. Really, really sorry.]
His mother stared at him, looking for any sign of wavering in his eyes. Taking in a deep breath, she looked toward Miles and began signing.
"Is what Kairi said true?" Kairi translated for his mother. "Did he have a headache this morning?"
"Mmhmm," Miles nodded, comfortable with being honest. "He was really out of it, Miss Lopez, barely made it to his bunk. I offered him my bed for the day, but you know how stubborn he can be sometimes."
Kairi's mother rolled her eyes before sending her son a half-hearted glare, who had the decency to look sheepish. She then looked to Gwen, who stood a little straighter at the mother's stare.
"And you must be Gwen," Kairi continued translating when his mother lifted her hands to sign again. "Thank you for taking care of my- Hey!" He looked at his mother indignantly, who only gave him another look, which got him to slump a little and sighed before resuming. "Thank you for taking care of my foolish, irresponsible son and I apologize that you had to take care of him."
"Uh, don't worry about it," Gwen waved off. "It was my pleasure. It's nice to meet you, by the way, Miss Lopez." She offered a hand to shake in greeting.
Kairi's mother raised a brow at the blonde, considering her for a moment before she too lifted the appropriate hand to shake the blonde's hand. And the pondering stare continued, making Gwen a little uncomfortable, even when their hands let go of one another and dropped to their respective sides. Even Miles and especially Kairi were starting to feel a little anxious at this point.
Eventually, Kair's mother smirked and broke her gaze off of Gwen, nudging Kairi's shoulder and signing something to him. [I like her. Keep her around, maybe she can keep your head on straight better than Elsa ever could.]
That got Kairi to give her a baffled look as he felt his blush coming back in full force. This was the last thing he needed, his mother talking about his ex to him while the girl he maybe/probably/more than likely liked was standing right there. He was just glad Gwen didn't understand what his mother was saying.
When he didn't respond, his mother rolled her eyes before bringing him in for another hug. It lasted for a few moments before she pulled back and raised her hands to sign again. [You won't be grounded. This time. Since you had a very good reason, but if this ever happens again…]
Kairi nodded to show he understood. [Got it. And it won't.]
His mother gave a sigh. Honestly, knowing her son, she wouldn't put it past him in this kind of thing happening again. Which is why she wished that her son took a bit more after his father more than he did her. She then turned to Miles and raised her hands.
"It was nice seeing you again, Miles," Kairi translated. "Say hi to your parents for me."
"Will do, Ms. L," he nodded.
His mother then turned towards Gwen.
"And it was nice meeting you too, Gwen. And if you could, can you keep-"
Kairi gave her another baffled look, causing his mother to roll her eyes and smack his shoulder when he stopped. "Ow!" he frowned petulantly before continuing. "And if you could, can you keep an eye on my troublesome son here, I'd appreciate it. Apparently, you're the only one here who can. No offense Miles."
"None taken," Miles waved off.
Gwen laughed, "I'll try."
His mother favored the blonde with a smile before looking at Kairi and signed, [I have to get back to the house, I love you, son.]
[Love you too, Mom,] he replied back.
She gave him another hug before she turned on her heel to leave.
I like your mom, she seems awesome!
Kairi breathed out a sigh.
"Well that was something," Gwen remarked.
… With Kairi's mother…
Once the woman entered her car, she released a large sigh of relief as she leaned back in the driver's seat, thanking whatever deity that was out there and listening to her thoughts that her son was safe. Letting out another sigh, she leaned back to look at a bag that was in the backseat of her car, its contents peaking out; two nunchakus and two katanas along with a black and gold ninja-esque mask. Stuffing the items into the bag, she zipped the bag up fully before starting her car to leave.
AN:
Whoo! Another semester's over and done with!
... And I'm completely exhausted.
Anyway, in celebration, I decided to update this story even if most of my readers would rather I update Cats & Dogs given the traffic I've seen on that story. Which I will get to... eventually.
As always, stay safe, stay healthy, and you all have a good day.