Kid walked over to the door and leaned down a little to look through the peephole, seeing a man who appeared to be in his mid fifties, with salt and pepper streaked dark brown hair, the same steel grey eyes as Nia, and the same peach toned complexion.

"Yeah?" Kid asked through the door.

"I'm Nia's grandfather," the man replied. Kid unlocked the door and opened it.

"I'm Kid Eustass," the redhead introduced himself, holding his hand out for the man before him.

The man accepted Kid's hand, giving it a slight shake as he returned, "Chief Corbin. That's a firm hand shake, Eustass."

Kid gave a slight small smirk and a slight nod of his head in acknowledgement. Chief Corbin surmised that the boy wasn't much of a talker, but noting the amount of makeup on Kid's face he relaxed more at the idea of Nia being alone with him.

He handed the duffle bag over to Kid, explaining, "there's a change of clothes, pyjamas her asthma medicine, and I included a list of her asthma triggers as well as my emergency contact information if anything happens. I added a deck of cards, and a few movies although I see you don't even have a TV."

'Asthma medicine? So it's more than the one inhaler? Huh, didn't realize that,' Kid thought to himself. He nodded a little as he replied, "Alright. No, no TV but if they're DVDs the laptop can play most of them."

The older man regarded the teenager as he inquired, "You got first aid training son?"

Kid reached into his back pocket, pulling out his wallet and presented his level C first aid certification, it was still valid for another four months.

"I'm getting recertified through work in three months, before it runs out," Kid added. The Chief nodded his head in acknowledgement, patting the boys' shoulder as he stated, "Good man."

He looked to Nia and said he'd see her tomorrow. Nia nodded in agreement as she replied, "I'll see you tomorrow, Grandpa."

The Chief smiled and waved to Nia as he turned and headed out of the building. Kid closed and locked the door. He glanced over to Nia and asked, "okay—so how many medications do you take for your asthma?"

"Umm well there's the Ventolin which I always have on me—then there's Symbicort, a pill that I can never properly pronounce, and I always have steroids and antibiotics on standby at the pharmacy in case I get a sinus infection, oh and I'm on a nasal spray," she listed off.

Kid blinked repeatedly the most he ever took was advil for a bad headache or muscle aches, maybe Pepto-Bismol if his stomach was upset.

"Wow," he commented, looking over the medications as he pulled them out of the bag and placed them on the counter. There was a white tubular shaped object which he learned was the Symbicort inhaler, a pill bottle that looking at the label contained 'Montelukast', he guessed that was the asthma control pill she had been talking about. Then a nasal spray called omnaris.

He looked at her and asked, "you take that every day, just so you can breathe?"

Nia nodded her head in agreement. Kid raised his eyebrows then shook his head in disbelief admitting, "I can't imagine what that's like."

"I've never known anything different, so I guess that kinda helps," she confessed as she stood next to him.

"Hmm yeah, I'd bet it does Pipsqueak," he agreed.

He was surprised when she tried to shove him, but didn't lose his balance. She glared up at him, her steel coloured eyes narrowed as she growled out, "I told you my name. Why are you still calling me that?"

"Well it's either Pipsqueak or Sandcat. Take your pick," he answered.

"How about Nia?"

He chuckled, realizing then what her issue was. He held his hand over his mouth for a moment as he quietly laughed at how innocent she was. He then looked at her and stated, "you haven't had many guy friends lately. Maybe when you were younger, like in elementary school but I'm betting that's gotten less since you hit double digits, right?"

"It's that obvious?"

He nodded, still smirking as he moved his hand away from his mouth. He then advised her, "when I'm calling you 'pipsqueak', it isn't to tease or insult you—it's a way of socially marking you. Kinda like letting other guys know that we have some kind of connection between us. That if they mess with your or hurt you and you can't handle them alone they'll be facing me."

He avoided her gaze while confessing, "and trust me when I say my reputation precedes me. One of the reasons I don't have many friends. Best believe I won't let shit slide."

"Okay, you wanna elaborate a little?"

Kid felt a pit forming in his stomach as he contemplated about telling her the full truth or just telling her the highlights. If they kept hanging out, eventually she'd hear the truth or some warped version of it.

"I was arrested two years ago, got a juvie record for assault. It's not a secret. Most people at school know about it and stay away from me," he revealed.

He shrugged a little as he headed towards his room, "told you I'm an asshole."

"Why?"

He glanced back at her, wondering which 'why' she was asking about. "Why'd you attack the other person?"

"I was dating a girl back then, we were at this dance and this one guy kept hassling her, she kept telling him she wasn't interested but the dude wouldn't listen to words, so I let my fists translate. Though not before the creep tried to cop a feel of her," he recounted. He was omitting quite a few things but figured he'd fill her in on those parts as they came up.

He shook his head before adding, "I didn't realize he was the son of someone affiliated with a gang though, and even worse was that gang has connections in the legal system. I mean dirty cops and the like. If it wasn't for that it wouldn't have been as big a deal, just some entitled snob getting a hard lesson."

"I'm sorry, Kid," she sympathized.

She shook her head as she added, "you didn't deserve that."

"Yeah well, it was a mistake anyway. She wasn't worth it," he rambled, then stopped himself, he apologized for continuing on and asked her to forget he mentioned that.

"Sounds like thirteen was a rough age for you," Nia offered.

He nodded his head in agreement before asking, "So cards, movie, or you wanna get to know each other's taste in music?"

When he mentioned music she visibly blushed, causing him to get curious. She glanced down at her shoes before mumbling something incoherently. He lent down a little as he asked, "pardon?"

"I don't like typically 'girly' music," she repeated with disdain. She wet her lips as she added, "So grandpa doesn't usually let me listen to the music I like."

"I'm more into rock music. Punk, Metal, Alternative sorta into hiphop but not a huge favourite," Kid offered.

"We might like a few of the same bands then," Nia revealed. Kid grinned; music was the winning starting point. Nia bit her lip before adding, "and I guess pipsqueak's not the worst. I am short."