AN: So far this has been very Echo and Rythian focussed so I thought I'd do a chapter mainly on Kim... Enjoy and leave a review if you like this! :)
Kim and Echo waited for the invite from Teep which never came as the weekend drew to a close, having spent the majority of it unpacking the rest of Echo's items. When Kim finally texted Teep, she received a reply that Rythian hadn't contacted him. Intent on confronting him, the three agreed to march in early and try and find some form of communicating with him. However, Rythian didn't appear all day, or the next. By Wednesday, Kim and Echo were struggling to maintain their neutral facades in front of the others.
"You alright Kim?" Chris asked as Kim suddenly snapped back into reality. They were all sitting in a circle, eating lunch outside by the oak tree Rythian had taken them to the other day as they enjoyed the sunshine. She smiled.
"Yeah, just soaking up the sun!" She grinned as she closed her eyes, sinking into the grass as she replied. Luckily for her, Duncan and Lewis had volunteered to help with Simons session of Diggy Diggy Hole, which involved making volcanoes. Simon, having never cared for science, had begged them both before they agreed. Teep had gone to see Hannah and Zoey's art work whilst Echo, Sjin and Sips were at the shop... Which left her with babysitting the Hat Trio.
She heard a shuffle next to her and cracked an eye open to see Ross had laid down next to her. She closed her eyes again, opening them a few seconds later; Ross was watching her, a hand propping his head up as he looked at her, smiling slightly. Kim closed her eyes again, ignoring the strange sensation in her chest at the look Ross was giving her.
"Alex! Ross is being a pervert!" Kim called as she heard Ross instantly splutter beside her as Chris laughed. She kept her eyes closed, smirking as Alex replied.
"He can't help himself! We're all perverts!" Alex almost sang, as Kim heard movement beside her followed by a hitting noise and a complaint from Alex as she sat up, opening her eyes. Ross had hit Alex and Alex was looking up at Chris with big, sad eyes.
"Chris, Ross hit me!" He whined as Chris grinned wickedly at him.
"Well, you can't really tell him off without being a hypocrite... We should be calling you a pervert...pervert...pervert..." He repeated mockingly as Alex flushed a dark red and Ross laughed loudly as Kim shook her head.
"Why am I the one who babysits you? Also, why is Alex a hypocrite?" She asked curiously as Ross and Chris stopped laughing, looking over at Kim smugly.
"Well, it seems that someone has taken a fancy to someone lately..." Ross snickered as Alex scowled at him. Chris motioned towards Ross, eyes shining.
"Or, how about that he is feeling relative-lay happily for some reason?" Chris joked, Alex leaping over to mock strangle him as Chris gave up quickly. Alex turned around, sitting on Chris and refusing to budge as he stared at Ross innocently, ignoring the protests that the smaller person was making beneath him.
"Well, Ross, aren't you a hypocrite too? I can't help notice that you've become incredibly distracted when we are in form lately..." He said innocently as it was Ross's turn to flush a red. He sat up straight as he shrugged his shoulders, flexing them as if preparing to fight.
"Boys, I am going to fetch Mr Strife if you don't shut up. I'm serious, lunch is for relaxing..." She glared at them all before lying back down. There was a small scuffle before three shapes sailed into her vision as she instinctively rolled out of the way. Ross, Chris and Alex came tumbling onto the grass, attempting to make snow angels... Well, grass angels.
Kim watched them fondly as they continued to laugh, Ross and Alex rolling Chris between them as he tried to get up, failing miserably each time one of the other two pushed him back down. Her eyes drifted towards Ross when he noticed her watching and winked cheekily at her. Winking back, Kim stuck her tongue out at him as Chris managed to finally stand up as Ross was distracted by Kim.
"Thank you, Ross." Chris said curtly as he wobbled past Kim, pulling a book out of his bag. Ross snorted as Alex tried to snatch the book out of his hand, only to be pinned down by Kim.
"Alex, behave!" Kim said sternly as Alex sulked, Chris looking slightly relieved.
"I need to learn this passage by tomorrow and knowing you two, you'll end up distracting me tonight with some game!" Chris looked back at his book as Alex sighed dramatically.
"Used to be Rythian who read all the time..." Ross commented without thinking as Kim glanced from him to Chris.
Alex smirked. "Yeah, but he might have had his eyeballs out by now... Reckon he has lost a leg or something by now too?" Chris looked at him suddenly, shaking his head disapprovingly whilst Ross glared angrily at Alex. Kim looked at Ross suspiciously as Alex suddenly stopped speaking, looking like he had said too much as he glanced at his shoes.
"Why would Rythian have lost a leg?" She asked, bewildered as Ross looked at her unhappily. Ross took a deep breath before addressing the question.
"Well, you know Rythian hasn't been in these last few days...?" Ross began, Kim watching him as he looked uncomfortable.
"He's been in hospital. Some operation or something, Ross here was betting on his..." Alex cut across before being silenced by Ross by a frantic shake of the head. Kim had heard enough though.
"And no one told me this because...?" Kim asked dangerously, Chris looking up from his book as Alex lost the smirk from his face.
"Well, Duncan said not to mention it..." Chris said hesitantly, shrinking away as Kim turned his glare on him.
"And when has Duncan ever told you three what to do? When have you three ever decided to listen to anyone?" Kim looked at the three of them as they avoided her gaze. Kim gave a small laugh in disbelief as she stood up, swinging her bag over her shoulder.
"Kim..." Ross began, silencing under the look Kim gave him.
"You know how I feel about Rythian. Whatever you three believe, I think it was really, really unkind of you to keep this from me." Kim ignored the pained look in Ross's face as she said this, turning around and marching towards the Geography and History building. There was no excuse whatsoever for Duncan deliberately keeping this from her, or Hat Films; none at all.
Kim walked purposely into the building, people subconsciously avoiding her as she muttered angrily to herself. She opened the door into the Diggy Diggy Hole Club with slightly more force than needed as it hit the wall slightly before bouncing back. Everyone looked up at her as Simon waved.
"Hi Kim! You here to help with the volcanoes?" Simon asked before his attention was drawn to an exploding volcano, with a very uncertain year 7 looking confused and worried beside it. Lewis and Simon were over in a second, Lewis explaining about how much powder to put in and Simon acting as comforter, reassuring the year 7 it was perfectly safe. Duncan finished measuring out the substances with a group before heading over to Kim.
"Hey Kim; whatcha doing here?" He said causally, wiping his hands on a paper towel. Kim tried to sound pleasant.
"I need to talk to you. Now." Kim said, barely keeping the growl out of her voice. Duncan paused, looking at her in concern.
"Sure, what's wrong?" He asked, noting her angry expression. Kim motioned her head curtly to the door and walked through, Duncan following her instantly. He looked at her curiously as she waited for him to speak.
"Kim, you look severely annoyed, mind helping me out here? What have I done now?" He asked tiredly, avoiding Kim's gaze as she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.
"I can't help notice that you haven't mentioned Rythian in the last few days." Kim began, looking at Duncan pointedly. Duncan shrugged.
"Well, he hasn't been in, so nothing to report." Duncan said, folding his arms across his chest and looking uncomfortable. Kim stared at him in disbelief.
"I can't believe you are standing there like you've done nothing wrong!" Kim exclaimed as Duncan shrugged again, shaking his head.
"I have no idea..." Duncan started before Kim cut savagely across him.
"Hospital, Duncan. You didn't tell any of us that one of our friends was in hospital. How could you?" Kim asked at Duncan, taking a small step back as she said this, unable to speak as a wave of nausea passed through her. Duncan and her had there secrets over the years but he always told her when something was wrong. This... This was wrong. One of her closest friends was in the wrong.
Duncan looked at her sadly. "Look, people like you and Zoey would have worried... I was trying to help." Duncan said miserably, looking at Kim with puppy dog eyes. "I didn't want you to worry, and he's not taking visitors so there's nothing we can do. I'm not even sure what he's in there for." Duncan tried to say this as quickly and as normally as possible but Kim picked up in an instant what he had said.
"You visited him?" She asked, her anger loosening its grip on her slightly. At least he hadn't ignored it... And it would have caused people to worry if they knew Rythian was lying in hospital somewhere...
Duncan nodded dully. "Yes, but they wouldn't tell me anything apart from he wasn't accepting visitors. All I know is he was in the operation unit, so it seemed serious." Duncan nodded thoughtfully as Kim looked at him, panicked. "This is why I didn't want to tell you..." Duncan added as Kim nodded, looking devastated as Duncan pulled her into a hug instinctively. Kim didn't know what to do. Rythian was in hospital for some reason and there was nothing she could do about it.
Kim pulled away as Duncan smiled at her. "Do you want to help scare some year 7s? I'm almost convinced Lewis is deliberately overloading some of these measurements..." He added teasingly as Kim laughed shakily. Duncan smiled to see her perk up a little bit at his joke.
"No, I just need some time..." Kim trailed off as footsteps echoed up the corridor and she turned to see Alex and Chris approaching, looking at her worriedly.
"Hi Kim... You alright?" Alex asked far too casually as Kim attempted to smile at him.
"Yeah, sorry for blowing up before... It just wasn't a good way to find out..." Kim muttered as Ross walked up behind them, anxiously scanning Kim and checking she was okay as he approached. Duncan frowned at Kim's visibly upset face before looked at Alex.
"Why? What did you say?" Duncan asked angrily to Alex, who coughed in reply. Ross heard Duncan and spoke up as he reached Kim.
"We made a joke about him losing his leg or something. It was really stupid of us..." Ross managed to get in before Duncan swung his fist into the side of his face, Ross stumbling and falling backwards. Alex and Chris looked at Ross in horror and disbelief as he blinked, feeling his jaw uncertainly whilst Kim watched Duncan walk back into the room, shutting the door behind him.
There was a moments silence before Chris spoke up. "... Did Duncan just punch Ross?" He asked uncertainly as Ross got to his feet, wincing slightly.
"Good, you saw that too..." Alex said, stunned as Ross looked at Kim, who was still looking at the door, trying to process what had happened. By the time she turned around, Ross had picked up his bags and was rejecting help from the others.
"Ross, are you alright? Let me see..." Kim began, reaching for Ross's face. Ross flinched away and Kim stopped, letting her hand hover in the air as she looked at him, unsure of herself. Before anyone else could say anything Ross had turned and quickly walked away, making it halfway down the corridor before Alex ran after him, calling his name.
Chris looked at Kim, who was still frozen. "We weren't going to keep it from you... But Ross insisted on wanting to tell you himself when you were alone. I doubt he's going to want to talk to any of us for a while..." He guessed jokingly before giving Kim a one armed hug and running after his two best friends.
Kim allowed her hand to drop before her body took control, turning the door handle into the club room. Lewis and Simon looked up at her, instantly frowning when they saw the blind fury in her eyes.
"Kim?" Simon asked warily as Kim slowly walked over to Duncan, who turned around at the sound of her name. He smiled at her, holding his hands up defensively.
"Ross was an ass for telling you like that, alright? He should have told you better or something and I know I was an ass for keeping it from you but now Ross and I are even. Let's leave it now, alright?" He said quickly as Kim still approached, grabbing a chair and dragging it behind her. Kim slammed the chair in front of Duncan, who looked continuously confused as she climbed onto it, now taller than Duncan.
"Dunc..." Lewis managed to say warningly but too late, as Kim slapped Duncan with all her might, causing him to stumble into the desk beside him. The whole class let out an appreciative 'ooh' as Kim left the chair and walked out, ignoring her name being called as she turned around.
"Now you're even." She said, tears threatening to spill over her eyes as Duncan looked at her in defeat, rubbing the side of his face in bewilderment and panic. Lewis and Simon were looking between them in total shock, oblivious to the erupting volcano between them. Kim slammed the door behind her and marched straight to the oak tree, hoping to find Ross, but stopped as she spotted Echo there, whistling happily. She stopped whistling as soon as she saw Kim, running over to her.
"Kim, are you okay?!" Echo asked as Kim cradled her hand to herself; she didn't know who would be hurting more; her, Duncan or Ross. She looked up at Echo and burst into tears.
Echo sat her down by the oak tree and held her, completely bewildered as Kim continued to cry on her shoulder. Echo clenched her fists, realising in that moment it didn't matter if she hadn't fully accepted that Kim was her long lost twin, or that no one else knew. Someone or something had hurt her twin, and Echo was the other part of Kim that she so desperately needed to make things okay right now. The bell rang but Echo ignored it, whispering words of comfort as Kim continued to sob as she pictured Ross's face flinching away from her and the hurt in Duncan's eyes.