Revamped!

[Guess who wrote her last exams today and can now update the rest of this arc before summer school starts?

Don't worry, my lovely readers, there will be Kaider in this arc soon enough. There is a whole chapter a few updates away dedicated to them. As for now, all you Cresswell and Wolflet lovers will be stoked for what's ahead.]

Act of Kai-ndness: Part Three

As Kai pulls up the driveway, he sees Torin's car parked on the curb of the road in front of his house. He enters the driveway and steps out to see Torin sitting on the front patio's bench. Oh, he's definitely in trouble. When Kai gets out of the car with his backpack thrown over his shoulder, Torin stands up and that's when Kai knows that he's been waiting. Kai quickly pulls out his phone from his pocket and sees endless missed calls from Torin. He slips his phone back in his pocket and pretends he never saw which is a lie that will never pass.

Kai only came to his first home to grab some things, not for an intervention.

"Hey," Kai greets when he approaches Torin.

"Hey?" Torin repeats angered. "That's all you can say?"

Kai nods, keeping the rhyme comment to himself.

Torin sighs irritatedly. "Where were you?"

"School and other places. I can't pick up the phone while driving."

"Look, I know that I'm not your father so I can't parent like him or boss you around, but you have to answer your phone because someone has to watch you and that someone is me."

"I know," Kai replies, "but like my dad, you're busy and for the same reasons."

Torin sadly nods. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Election season was always the busiest time of year."

"Kai, I know that you've been telling your friends that you're fine when you're not."

Kai looks at him in shock. "How the stars do you know that?"

"Levana told me. She said that one of her girls told her. And Skylar and Quinn always tell me and Mal."

Kai groans, narrowing his eyes. His friends know that he's not okay with his life now and they're probably treading on the water around him because they don't know how to approach him on this sensitive topic for him. Kai appreciates them even if he doesn't feel like he doesn't want to. If anything, he wants to be alone with this which he already is. He doesn't want to talk about any of this at all because he already thinks about it enough and he doesn't have the energy or willpower to do so. And of course Torin's twin girls know. Their rooms are next to his.

"Let them in, Kai," Torin encourages softly, "they'll be there for you. If not me and Mal, then at least your friends."

Kai nods, avoiding Torin's eyes as he looks in his backpack for his keys. Once he pulls them out, he holds the small metal object in his hands as Torin's last words loop in his mind. All he knows is that when Torin leaves for the night, Kai has another sudden errand to run.

-o-

Wolf opens his door and walks inside first followed by Scarlet. Once Scarlet's inside, Wolf closes the door and his mom comes from somewhere else in the house. When she sees them, Scarlet says hello as Wolf's mom sighs out of pure relief which confuses them (Wolf more than Scarlet).

"Ma, what is it?" Wolf asks not wanting to hear the answer to that.

"Oh, just thanking the stars that you're home," Maha responds.

"Where would we be?"

Maha shrugs casually. "Oh, I'm not sure, try France!"

Wolf rolls his eyes as Maha mutters in Hebrew when she walks away from them. Scarlet chuckles which annoys Wolf even more than when his mom mockingly reprimanded him. That wasn't the first time his mom pulled something like that on him and it won't be the last.

"You do know she was addressing you as well," Wolf tells her.

"Whatever makes you happy, babe," Scarlet responds as she grins at him.

-o-

After being told directions by the secretary, Winter makes her way through the city's municipal headquarters. Although Winter knows the directions, she could still find her way based on the growing chaos around her. It's election time and Winter didn't expect it to be calm around here, especially after the sudden death of Mayor Rikan. Winter thinks of all this cacophony as an accurate representation of what her mind looked like when she wasn't okay just exchanging policies for blood.

Finally, Winter arrives at Levana's office. She knocks as she opens the door just to see Levana as busy as everyone else just without the franticness.

"Winter?" Levana questions. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be with Dr. Darnel?"

"I was on my way but forgot that I didn't have to go in this week," Winter responds.

"It must be a good thing if you don't have to go in as often. He's doing a good job, right? If not, then this move was pointless."

"Oh, he's great and I'm not being biased because I'm friends with Cress. What makes him different from any of those past therapists is that he knows that people can never truly get fixed. He says that we have to make peace with who we were and glorify everything that we are now. It helps that he doesn't point fingers at my Blackburn name although I'm not a Blackburn by blood."

"I was scared he would do that when I first found him considering he was a Lunar who left when Channary's fires were still smoking." Levana sighs contently as she looks at Winter. "Still, what you said about him was nice. You should be the face of this campaign."

Winter scoffs. "I doubt that they would want someone with three scars as their face for the campaign."

"Nonsense, Winter, you're beautiful because of your experiences - the good, the bad, and the imperfect. That's how you're truly a Blackburn, blood or not: you go through the worse and still come out picture perfect."

Winter smiles. "Thanks, Levana. Are you here alone?"

"For the moment, yes. Torin stepped out to check up on Kai. How's he doing, by the way?"

Winter shrugs. "He's grieving and pretending to be okay when he isn't. He's not at the point where he's seeing things like I was but Mayor Rikan's death hit him hard."

Levana nods. "I figured."

"Why'd you ask about Kai?"

"I was wondering how he could grieve if he could barely breathe."

-o-

Having come straight from school, Thorne enters a building he has been aware of but never ventured inside: the public library. He had to look up directions. Thorne walks inside and notices that it smells like he expected it would: old books. To be frank, Thorne isn't sure of the last time he read a book and he isn't in the mood to change that answer. Instead, he's on a mission to look for someone who has an answer he desperately needs.

"Crescent Moon!" Thorne yells.

Thorne jumps when everyone shushes him. He mumbles a series of apologies and starts walking around to try and find her. Thorne walks up and down a series of bookshelves, wondering why a library has to have so many of these books. He didn't think or want this to be an adventure because he's on the quest for an answer and he won't rest until he knows the facts.

From his perspective, there wasn't a more reputable source that Crescent Moon Darnel.

Finally, he sees his Crescent Moon in the corner of the library. She's seated at a table tutoring a little boy. Thorne runs over and Cress looks up at him in shock since he's here.

"Do girls have testosterone?" Thorne exclaims, not apologizing for all the shushing he received this time.

At first, Cress doesn't respond because she's confused on why Thorne is here, why he asked that weird question, and why he came here to ask her that question. She also isn't sure why Thorne seems so determined on getting that answer.

"Yes," the little boy being tutored by Cress says to Thorne.

"He's right," Cress responds, keeping her eyes on Thorne. "Why are you asking me and not the internet?"

"Because we were always taught us not to trust everything online," Thorne responds in a whisper, looking around as if the government is listening to him. He figures that the local government isn't because of the election, but everyone else in the library is eavesdropping.

Cress pauses because although Thorne has a point, this should be the one time he trusts the internet because he will get the same answer from any and every website. "Maybe you could ask the librarian for a book or academic journal on the human body."

"Why would I need a book on something that I am?" Thorne yells but with a whispering volume this time.

"Because you don't have an understanding on what you are."

Once he realizes that's true, Thorne nods in agreement with her. He looks like he's having an existential crisis as he runs off to go look for a book on the human body. Cress grins to herself, believing (or hoping) that Thorne will be fine and returns her attention back to the little boy she was tutoring.

"Was that your boyfriend?" The little boy asks.

"Yes," Cress says with a smile. Even to this day, it still makes her happy to be able to say that.

"He's stupid."

"I know."

[For those of you who are interested, I have two new stories up. One is a Cloak & Dagger one-shot and the other is a humorous Avengers: Endgame AU/Prequel based on Clint Barton.] [2020: Not to brag but those are some pretty good stories.]