A/N: Well, this was a long chapter…relatively… it makes up for all the work I've not been doing, I guess. Well, enjoy!
By holding their thumbs out and looking miserable, they managed to get a bus to pull over and take them in. It was a normal public transport bus, not packed with people but full enough that Reyna and Hylla had to stand. Reyna had never been on a bus like this one, and wasn't entirely sure how it worked, but because Hylla seemed to like being in charge anyway she decided Hylla would figure it out. Because apparently, she always did. And if something went wrong, well then, surely it was Reyna's fault.
Reyna didn't realize Hylla had noticed her fuming until she turned to face her. "You don't have to be so childish all the time, you know."
Reyna let out a bitter laugh. "Really?"
"Really," Hylla said, misinterpreting her sister's meaning.
"When was I ever childish? Oh, before now," Reyna added irritably as Hylla gave her a meaningful look.
"Back home. In San Juan. You were always complaining about how I didn't let you walk to school."
"I didn't even want to walk, I just wanted you to let Gomez's parents drive me. He and Maria were going together."
"Then on Circe's island, you kept pouting about having to stay."
"She was literally bewitching you. We were—we are— daughters of Bellona. We're supposed to… lead armies, not play dress up."
Hylla snorted. "I'm trying to imagine you ever leading an army."
They were silent for a minute while Reyna bandaged her pride and Hylla reveled in her victory. Then, "I hate you sometimes."
Hylla raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Sometimes?"
Reyna scowled. She couldn't very well get on Hylla's nerves if everything she said slid off of her like water on a freshly waxed car. And she needed to get on Hylla's nerves to get her to listen. "Why do you always have to have the last word?"
"Because I'm me."
"No, really. Why? Everything I try to do you shoot me down. Everything I try to accomplish, you've already done. Every time I try to make you listen—"
"Look," Hylla said, facing Reyna as the bus swayed to a halt and people got up to leave. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry if that's how you feel but it's just not true. I never asked where you and Gomez and Juan and Maria went off to every time you vanished into thin air. I never questioned why you took ages to do everything Miss Becca asked. I never tried to get you to learn magic or take up theater or anything I wanted you to do. I keep trying to protect you, from dad or from strangers or whatever, so why don't you stop being all indignant and self-righteous and listen to me for once?"
That effectively shut Reyna up. A more total silence was draped around the two of them as the noisy bus filled again.
"Where are we going, anyway?" Hylla muttered, looking around for a map. A rain-washed cityscape rolled outside the bus windows. Reyna managed to find a shred of pride in the fact that for once she knew where they were headed and Hylla didn't. "Denver. Ever heard of it?"
Reyna shrugged, determined not to speak and determined not to admit that she didn't know. The movement did nothing good to her growing headache, and she remembered for the first time that she had a head wound. The couple in front of her were staring at it. She pressed her palm to her head and it came away streaked with red.
"It's in America," Hylla confirmed, trying to salvage any kind of superiority from the situation.
"How would you go from the east coast of the United States to the west coast without staying in the country?" Reyna scoffed. Then, in a whisper, "Can you do something with the Mist? The people keep staring at me."
"We're soaking wet and not carrying more than a wallet," Hylla pointed out without looking up, waving around the tiny bag which held all of their money.
"No, I mean the blood."
Hylla's head shot up in alarm, and she noticed for the first time the red liquid seeping out from Reyna's hairline. "Gods. Yeah, alright."
The mortals stopped staring. Hylla didn't. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah."
"Sure?"
"I'm as okay as I've ever been for the last four months."
Their conversation seemed to be coming in waves, and now it was calm. Both just wrapped an arm around one of the vertical metal poles and stared out the window over the heads of those sitting. They both ignored the jostling best they could.
"That probably won't need stitches."
"I know, thanks."
And silence. The bus made it's third stop since they had gotten on. Since they had moved into a city, the person to space ratio had been decreasing. A pretty blonde woman with a messenger bag and cup of what Reyna assumed was coffee wound up between her and Hylla. She didn't look much older than Hylla, although the daughter of Bellona looked old for her age. The woman was so absorbed in the papers she held in her hands that she didn't look up until the bus had started moving again. She visibly reared back when she saw Reyna. "Whoa, what happened to your head?"
Reyna felt a drop of blood roll down the outside of her eye and start to trek down her cheek. She flicked it off. "Just a bit unlucky."
"Does that need stitches? It looks like it needs stitches. How old are you? There's a hospital just down the road—" The woman probably would have wound on forever until Hylla stopped her.
"Head wounds bleed a lot. It's really just a scrape."
The woman looked them up and down, assessing them. "You two look terrible. Were you just in that plane crash?" Apparently their looks reflected the answer she wanted, because her eyes went wide. "Did you see those things, then, on the plane? There's footage of it going down online already, it's amazing…but did you see those big black dog creatures? They practically ripped the cabin apart…"
The woman spoke like this was all a wonderfully extraordinary event, clearly ignorant of the terrifying experience that was a plane crashing. Hylla looked at Reyna over her blonde head and mouthed, Not normal. Reyna mentally thanked Hylla for that helpful hint. The woman was clearly one of those few mortals with the ability to see through the Mist.
"No one at work believes me, of course," the woman added mournfully. "They thought I was playing a joke, so I left early. I'm a reporter for the Denver Post, by the way. Cassidy White. Nice to meet you. Could I maybe interview you about the crash?"
Before Reyna and Hylla could say either 'yes' or 'no', Cassidy was fishing a pen out of her messenger bag, clearly intending to write on the backs of the papers she had been reading earlier. "Okay, to start, why did you leave the scene?"
"To avoid speaking with reporters," Hylla answered scathingly. "No, we wouldn't like an interview. If you could give us the name of a cheap hotel, that'd be great. We're only here for one night."
Cassidy looked a little shocked at Hylla's blunt response, but quickly recovered and stuffed her things back into her bag. She looked at Hylla searchingly. "How old are you?"
"Sixteen," Hylla answered, truthfully for once. "My sister's eleven."
"What makes you think that you have the skills or the means to care for yourself and your little sister?" Cassidy asked, her whole manner changing from friendly to brisk in an instant.
It was Hylla's turn to look a little shocked as someone she barely knew questioned her authority. Reyna hung back. No one she ever knew opposed Hylla, but most everyone she knew was aware that they were demigods, raised from a young age to fend for themselves against a pantheon of fractious deities and terrifying monsters. "I've taken care of her since she was little, that's what."
"She is little," Cassidy argued. Both Hylla and Cassidy ignored Reyna's indignant interjection of, "Hey!"
"She's my sister, and I'll take care of her how I want to," Hylla replied icily. The bus came to a stop at a random street corner and Hylla grabbed Reyna's arm. "Thank you very much, Cassidy White, and goodbye."
It was a very conclusive 'goodbye', delivered with all the anti-charm Hylla could muster, but Cassidy followed them off the bus. It wasn't until her voice chimed out over the hiss of the tires that they realized they had a shadow. "She needs medical attention."
"I'll get her medical attention," Hylla assured her.
"I'll get me medical attention," Reyna contradicted. As always, she was ignored.
"That looks like it needs stitches," Cassidy repeated.
"It doesn't need stitches, it just needs a butterfly patch, or whatever you call them here in America." Hylla continued walking, maintaining a tight grip on Reyna's wrist. Cassidy stubbornly kept their pace, which Reyna doubted was easy in the reporter's three-inch heels.
"You aren't even from this country," Cassidy realized. "How will you know what to ask for at the hospital if you don't know how things work?"
"We're not going to a hospital," Hylla growled, staring down Cassidy with her obsidian eyes. Her thin form seemed to expand with her anger. Reyna knew larger and stronger women (and men) than Cassidy to back down when Hylla got 'that look', but the reporter, in tribute to her temerity, stood her ground.
"Come back to my house," Cassidy offered. "One night. That's all. I have a guest bedroom and a med kit you can use free of charge. Then you can go."
"How do I know you aren't some child kidnapper?" Hylla pointed out roughly.
Cassidy gestured to her thin form and slender build. "Do I look like a kidnapper?" When Hylla didn't look convinced, she stopped them, putting her hands on Hylla's shoulders. Reyna thought that was a good way to lose an arm. "I just want to make sure that she—and you— get taken care of. Properly. My neighbor's a nurse."
"Isn't that fantastic," Hylla drawled. "And complete coincidence, I'm sure."
Cassidy drew herself up to her full height, making her about an inch shorter than Hylla. "For goodness sake—"
"Hylla," Reyna interrupted Cassidy. For the first time, they both turned to look at her. "Listen to me. One time."
Hylla said nothing.
"It's one night. No money involved."
Cassidy confirmed that statement with an emphatic nod.
"I say we go for it."
Reyna would remember that one instance as the sole time Hylla listened to her.