DRFB: Chpt 30
Slice of life
-
Sorry for the late update
"You good back there Kaiya?" Twist asked.
Kaiya only ignored him and focused on driving the mecha holding their luggage.
She was still bitter from their last time together.
Nicole wisely decided to remain silent.
Right now, Kaiya was a ticking time bomb.
The trio continued on in silence.
Nicole shot a puzzled look at Twist as Kaiya stopped in front of a towering rock face.
"Here we are! Home sweet home!"
She spread her arms wide as Jet barked happily towards the grey wall adorned with moss and surrounded by ferns
Her two teammates kept silent, silently hoping for an explanation.
It was soon delivered.
"Park your mechas over here." Kaiya steered her ride over to the indicated spot, Nicole and Twist doing the same.
"So now what?" Nicole asked, hopping off and walking over, Twist in tow.
"This!" With a flourish Kaiya placed her palm against an elevated part of the rock face.
Her gloves controls glowed bright blue and a circle of blue light surrounded the mecha beasts.
The holographic grass peeled away to reveal an asphalt platform, which then slowly vanished into a huge cave that had just opened up.
Nicole watched wide-eyed as part of the cliff face cracked open then slid upwards, revealing a small cylindrical room.
"You built this yourself?" She asked incredously.
Kaiya was grinning in a way they had never seen her before but when Nicole asked she just scoffed
"No way, I'm not this talented or patient. I bought the place, well the reserve actually. the only reason i bought the slug reserve was because I had found this while I was practicing out my older models of Skies. I found it, hacked the system and 'Ta-da!'"
She spread her arms wide as she stepped into the room.
Nicole just shook her head and followed while Twist grinned at her pose.
Their female host was beside herself, completely forgetting her cold personality as the doors slid shut and they were rocketed skywards.
"This is pretty complex." Nicole was impressed, "To be able to install a working elevator inside a cliff face, not to mention multiple ones, would need a huge amount of gold and hard workers. If you didn't have it built then whose was it?"
Kaiya paused in her excited antics to shrug, "No clue."
Jet barked as the elevator slid to a stop, her thin tail whipping Nicoles legs.
"OW! He-" she was interrupted by Kaiya.
"WE'RE HERE!" She crowed excitedly as the doors slid open to reveal a lavish, if rather dusty, apartment.
Nicole coughed as Kaiya stepped out.
"Yeah, it's *cough* a bit dusty. I haven't been here in months!"
She immediately made her way to the ranch doors, leading out onto a large balcony with curvaceous iron railing over looking the reserve.
Kaiya slid both glass doors open, allowing fresh air into the apartment.
"Wow, Kaiya. This is some view!" Twist complemented as him and Nicole came to join her as she leaned out.
"Mm-hm. Man, I missed this." She took a deep breath as a small breeze tickled her face.
Jet stuck her head through the railings and let out a deep bark, which carried far, the echoes adding volume until the bark had been transformed into a thunder storm.
Kaiya grinned and stroked Jet as Nicole took in the view.
A blur of green and blue edged with dark brown cliffs, decorated with intricate buildings and roads, all bright colours standing out against the aqua blur of the landscape.
In the distance was the bright orange glow from Scorched Sparks.
"You can see Scorched Sparks from here." Twist murmured.
Kaiya turned and smiled at him as she over heard.
Twist froze and pretended he didn't see while Nicole watched out of the corner of her eye.
Kaiya had just smiled at Twist.
Kaiya. In her torn leather jacket and scratched glasses.
Who happily hated his guts and would never admit she liked him.
Just smiled at him.
"Come on!" She laughed, "I'll give you the tour!" She broke into a smile and raced back inside, Jet barking at her heels.
"What's with her?"
"She's excited to be back home. And have friends around." Twist answered.
Nicole looked at him as he strode inside, "How would you know that?"
Twist stopped, "Whaddya mean?"
"That she's just excited?"
" Just because I'm an orphan doesn't mean I didn't have a home at some point!"
"What!? I..I didn't mean that!"
Kaiya popped her head around a corner, "Come on! Don't you wanna know where you'll be sleeping?
"Girl, you're crazy." Nicole studied the small yet cozy room that was her room for the week.
There was a gorgeous view of the cavern out of the French balcony doors that could be seen by the Queen sized bed in the middle of the room.
Of to the right hand side was a touch-screen desk next to the door and on the left hand side was a small chest of draws.
"Well?" Kaiya asked lying on the bed.
"It's great! Ah, it'll be nice to relax without having to be worried about Blakk, though I might miss him."
"Glad you like it. You'll be staying in it for a week," Kaiya got up and passed her," I'll leave you to unpack."
Nicole had grabbed her bags from the Mecha-beast trailer parked in the lounge on the elevator platform behind a glass wall. Obviously, Kaiya would have parked Black Skies there, if he was here.
Quickly unpacking, throwing the bag on her bed, she left her room for a solo tour of the house.
The apartment was quite open, with only a small wall separating her room from the main lounge, filling the space with natural light.
Entering the lounge she saw multiple slug houses on the wall, each glowing with dull yellow lights.
Walking over she showed her slugs "Check it out guys! Comfy, huh?"
Her slugs squeaked in agreement and hopped in.
'Strange, Kaiya doesn't have any slugs. Wonder why she kept them around.'
Nicole walked through the lounge, running her fingers over soft white upholstery facing a large flat screen T.V. mounted on a brown brick wall above a soft black and blue rug.
Most furniture seemed slug-friendly.
Further along was a large table, complete with a digital large scale map of Slugterra.
"A tactical advantage." She murmured, sliding her finger over the table, zooming in on different caverns. Bright red V's popped up in on of the caverns she zoomed in on.
"Blakks henchmen."
Then, six orange stars zoomed in from the left and immediately stopped at the red V's.
"The Shane Gang!"
As soon as the two icons met, they started buzzing around, the Red V's blinking out one by one.
"Poor guys, they were only following orders." Nicole felt sorry for them. Most henchmen were really nice guys that just needed the money for family.
Leaving the table she entered the kitchen with it's stainless steel finish.
Standing with her hand on her hips, Nicole grinned, "Now this is a kitchen!"
Her stomach growled in agreement.
Walking up to the fridge, she went to open it but stopped. She probably needed to ask first, Nicole thought.
"Kaiya!" She yelled.
"Yeah?" Kaiya popped her head around the door looking surprised.
Then, seeing the fridge she just relaxed, "Go ahead. This is your place as much as mine."
Nicole smiled and pulled out an apple, taking a crunchy bite, "Thanks, Kaiya."
"Happy to help!"
Kaiya walked back to her own room, passing the door to Twists room.
She stopped and knocked on the door.
"Yeah?"
"It's me." She said slowly.
There's a pause from Twist, before "Come in."
Kaiya gingerly opened the door, peeking in to find Twist lying on his bed, playing with Loki.
"Hey."
"Hey."
He sat up as Kaiya sat down on the bed.
"Yeah?" Loki growled a hello as she avoided eye-contact.
"Uh, well...I just wanted to know if.. Argh!" She put her face in her hands an fell over backwards, "Why is this so hard!"
Twist just watched amusedly as Kaiya whined.
"You're really happy to be back, aren't you?" He asked.
Peeking out from under her hands, she sighed and sat up, "Yeah. It's nice to be back in a happy place that isn't so gloomy."
Twist nodded, "So, what did you want to ask me?"
Kaiya froze and blushed, glaring at him, "I wanted...to-to know...if uh, if...if you like your room!"
The change of sentence was obvious.
Twist just raised and eyebrow but played along with it, "It's nice. Nice and bright and spacious. No hard, cold lights or metal corridors and it's got the purest view ever!"
He smiled at her and she blushed before reply, "Yeah. Home is great. It's were you can shed your reputation and just be your weird self instead of the rough and tough person people think you are. You can act without people judging you or teasing you. You can be forgiving without setting a bad image or ruining it. Hmm, there's no place like home."
Twist wasn't too sure what she meant by that statement but at least it answered Nicoles' question.
He lay down next to her, "It's nice to see you like this. Much more relaxed. Like when I met you at Healer Springs."
Kaiya chuckled, "I remember that. I couldn't hit a rock wall with my slinging abilities. And along you come with your shoulder."
Twist poked her in the ribs.
"Hey!"
"I even remember you had slugs. What happened to them?"
"I gave them to Eli Shane after my first big race with Skies. I one I owned you in."
Twist sat up on his elbows, "Why'd you do that?"
Kaiya shrugged, "I didn't need them and I wanted them gone. He was the first person I met after the race. He came to get Lucky fixed."
Twist mutters something under his breath.
Kaiya turns and faces him, "I've shared a secret with you, now it's your turn!"
Twist stops and thinks for a moment then turned away from her," You know, some secrets aren't worth sharing. I can't tell, sorry."
Kaiyas' face grew angry, "Why won't you trust me with anything?! I'm your closest friend, the one person you can trust and you still choose to lie to me? Good luck making any new friends, dick."
With that she got up and left, slamming the door behind her in a huff.
Back in the hallway, Kaiya ground her teeth in frustration.
She couldn't trust anyone!
With a heavy heart and a short temper she stalked to her room, which she hadn't visited in 10 months.
Her anger had been smothered by her curiosity as she reached the weathered white door.
Jet sniffed the door, eagerly wagging her tail.
She took deep breath and stepped forward, the door sliding open and revealing her old room.
It was untouched by time, just how she had left it when her big break with Blakk had arrived.
Her old sketchbooks were still strewn out on her desk, her bed was unmade and clothes littered the floor.
Her pictures on the wall were still there, along with her old tools.
But everything was covered with a layer of dust.
The sudden gust of wind from the door opening sent the dust swirling in the air, leaving Kaiya in a coughing fit and Jet sneezing.
She walked in and opened a window, taking off her leather jacket and chucking it on the bed.
"Jeez, it's dusty in here. I really need to get some fresh air in he..." She trailed off as she caught sight of a certain picture frame, showing a bright blue sky and shining green hills.
A lump caught in her throat as memories from her old home came flooding back.
Her mum, her dad her annoying little brother.
They'd hate her if they saw her now.
Even with all she'd accomplished...
She gently picked up the photo and bent down, showing it to Jet, who just licks her face.
"Heh.." She laughed quietly, brushing strands of brown hair out of her face.
She set the photo back down and started flipping through her old sketchbooks.
Her eyes lit up as she came across an old design, "I remember this...'
Nicole and Twist walked out in the early morning of the day, both bleary eyed and in their sleepwear.
Loud noises had woken them up, the walls muffling them and making them unidentifiable.
Walking into the lounge they saw the whole place had been turned into a garage, with Kaiya working on Skies.
"Wha- When did Skies get here?" Nicole mumbled, rubbing her eyes.
"He arrived early this morning. I wanted him out of the Fortress before Blakk had a fiddle with him."
Twist fell down on the couch, wincing as the cold upholstery chilled his skin, "It's 9:00am. How early did he show up?"
"Four. Now, if you two want to go back to sleep, be my guests."
Nicole just rolled her eyes and walked back to her room as the buzzing of the drill started up again, "How can she get up so early?"
Twist was more reluctant but he knew he should leave as soon as possible.
Stumbling up he dragged his feet back to his room, tripping over two long thin rods of metal.
"Wha-Ow." He muttered as he picked himself up and shuffled to his room, content to sleep the noise away.
Three noisy hours later the sound dies down and Nicole takes the pillow off her head.
"She must be done." She muttered, before rolling over and falling asleep once more.