"Do I really have to?"
She tugged on the hand that she was holding, looking up at the older angel that had walked with her to the garden, her wide eyes met those of her older friend and he smiled down at her.
"I could always persuade you if its needed."
"No that's okay, you're points been made."
The older angel smiled and shook his head at her, she was lucky she was cute, and sometimes he was sure that she knew that too.
"Can you please try and be nice to him?"
"I make no promises and if I go to punch him I trust you'll stop me?"
"You know it."
"Darn…"
He walked with her into the garden, and the sound of voices drifted over to them, her eyes brightened at the sight of Titus, she really loved the Powers and they all loved her to pieces. And then her eyes darkened when they met the site of the boy whom she was no fan of.
Paul had been trying to apologize for what could have been about two weeks, and at every turn he was met with anger and revulsion, Akeelah was a hard cookie to crack unless you knew which buttons to push. And the chief Power knew the buttons one must push. It had been trial and error for them nearly every day, with various different Power's coming back with the same response to him, and with his work out of the way Nisroc decided it was time to take over for his own.
"Now, you remember what I said would happen if you decided to be nasty?"
"That you would convince me to be nice again."
"Good fledgling."
"Like that'll work."
"What?"
"Nothing!", the fledgling smiled up at him brightly and he shook his head with narrowed eyes, no matter, they'd come back to it later. Right now, the task at hand was at least getting her to talk to the young trainee. Akeelah was stubborn, one of the most stubborn fledglings he's had the pleasure of meeting, and he's met many in his lifetime.
They walked into the garden hand in hand, the little fledgling swinging their hands back and forth happily as they did, Titus saw them first and waved in greeting. The fledgling waved back excitedly, letting for of the older angel's hand in order to run forward to hug her friend.
Nisroc stopped next to the young trainee, setting a hand on his shoulder in comfort, "Akeelah."
She huffed in annoyance and turned to look at her friend and the other one.
"But I don't want to!", she whined softly, taking Titus's hand and stepping back. The Chief Power shook his head in warning. "Remember what I told you."
Akeelah knew she as at a crossroads, she knew for a fact that Nisroc never said anything he didn't mean, and that she also didn't want to talk to the meanie. It was time to pick and choose the battle. On one hand she could remain adamant about her stance in not wanting to talk to him or on the other she could be taken by Nisroc again and spend another night at the Pavilion (which hadn't been a bad time last time either). Sighing heavily she nodded, leaning against Titus's side instead, turning an uninterested gaze towards the younger angel standing in front of the Lieutenant.
"What?"
They figured it was as good as they were going to get and didn't push her on the matter of being respectful to someone she did not care for. Paul played with his fingers again and looked down to his feet in shame.
"I'm sorry for being so mean to you."
"You should be, I didn' do nothin' to you!"
He bit his lip to keep from lashing out, he knew it would be a poor decision with two Power's standing nearby, but he couldn't help it sometimes, she could just get on his nerves like nothing else sometimes.
"And for hurting your friend."
"You should be for that too. He didn' do nothin' to you either."
"Little warrior, he is trying."
"So what."
"Baby Power", Titus kneeled down to look her in the eye, "Do you remember how frightened you were to meet us all? And it took most of us actually apologizing to get you to start to?", she nodded silently, "He is trying to make amends, it does not mean you can't still be mad at him, he is just trying to right a wrong."
She huffed and nodded, the Power standing back up, giving her little hand a gentle squeeze.
"I forgive you but I still don't like you."
They heaved a sigh. One step at a time.