Kid and Nia had left the party soon after she left the washroom, explaining she didn't feel well. Law, who had already cooked up their portions packaged their food to go so they could eat them later and they jumped ahead to Ava blowing out her candles so they could take a couple slices of cake home with them.

As soon as they got back to the apartment, Nia went into the washroom and was sick. Kid put the food away and started boiling the kettle for a hot water bottle. Nia left the washroom and flopped down onto the couch before curling up into a ball. Kid watched her for a moment, silently wondering if what he was going to reveal to her would cause her to push away from him.

He took the kettle off the boil as it began to whistle. He poured the water into the hot water bottle, then grabbed two clean dish towels from a drawer and wrapped them around the hot water bottle. He carried it over to Nia, offering it to her while suggesting, "put this against your stomach. I've been told it helps."

Nia accepted the towel wrapped hot water bottle and held it against her abdomen while asking, "Who told you that?"

"My ex, Victoria. You sort of met her today. She's the older teenager that came and dragged her brother off calling him a maggot," Kid revealed.

Nia hummed in response. She took a deep breath and asked, "why did that kid call Ace a Priate?"

"Right- you're newer to town so you may not know," Kid reasoned with himself out loud. He took a deep breath and answered, "Pirates and Celestial Dragons are rival gangs in this part—and Ace's Dad was once the leader of the Pirates. He passed away from ALS a few months before Ace was born."

Nia's brow furrowed as she expressed, "Oh—how do you know that?"

"Well, at least that's what I heard," Kid corrected himself, silently hoping that she'd let it go.

Nia kept her steel grey eyes on him as she gently pressed, "Where would you have heard something like that?"

Kid wet his lips and found himself playing with the top of the towel around his waist before standing up from his spot on the couch and heading into his room to change out of his swimming trunks.

He quickly found a pair of basketball shorts and pulled those on, keeping the same grey muscle shirt he ran his fingers though his hair, and practiced box breathing. Inhale for ten seconds, hold for three, exhale or ten.

He could feel his stomach tensing and his heart resembled the pace of a frightened rabbit evading a predator. If it kept beating that hard and fast he was sure it would leave an imprint on his ribcage. He sat on the edge of the bed, and gently rocked himself, still practicing box breathing, but not finding any relief from it. He hadn't heard her get up off of the couch, he hadn't noticed her standing in the doorway watching him pace, pull at the strands of his hair, and utilizing the breathing technique he'd learned from his therapist in Juvie.

He hadn't noticed her approaching him until her hand gently placed itself over his, her delicate, nimble fingers easing his grip off of his hair.

He chanced a glance at her and caught her gaze. She wasn't upset with him, but she was definitely concerned. Kid took a shaky breath but as he went to speak she cut him off, "you know—because you're a pirate, aren't you?"

Kid shook his head from side to side, "no—but I was for about a year before I went to Juvie. The guy I hit was a Celestial Dragon, and they were able to peg me as a member of the Pirates. The Judge didn't take too lightly to two gang members beating one another at a dance. So he sent me away, otherwise for a 13-year-old first offender it's usually a ten thousand dollar fine for the damages I caused."

"Damages? What'd you do, bust his nose?"

"And shatter his cheek bone, and his jaw. The dude had groped Victoria, that's when I snapped. Juvie and court mandated anger management," Kid recounted.

"But something happened," Nia realied.

Kid nodded as he confessed, "I was attacked while I was inside. That scar you saw—it was a shiv. Punctured my kidney but didn't really cause much damage beyond that. I didn't need a transplant or anything they just treated me for it in hospital for a few days and let me go home to be on bed rest for the next six weeks. I finished my sentence on house arrest with an anklet tracking my every move."

"Geez," Nia breathed. She didn't hesitate as she leaned in closer to Kid, resting her head against his neck while her arms wrapped around him as best as she could manage. Kid blinked repeatedly before returning her hug. His arms wrapping around her upper back.

"I'm okay," he assured her.

"Are you though? You were panicking when I came in here," she reminded him.

He hadn't thought of it before but maybe her Dad had some kind of mental health issue and that's why he wasn't around. He swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat before admitting, "I don't have many friends. Fact is—you're it, Pipsqueak. I had to cut ties with everyone else. I was okay with that – but—it's been nice. Having someone close to my age to talk to again—I don't want to lose you. I was scared that if I told you the truth about me you'd run."

Nia gained a small smirk as she inquired, "Does it look like I'm running?"

Kid shook his head from side to side while he confirmed, "No. I was panicking over nothing."

"I wanna curl up with a movie—and ice cream," Nia commented as she pulled away from him. Kid loosened his embrace on her as he regarded her expression during the comment. This made Kid laugh a little although he nodded while suggesting, "I think there's some strawberry in the freezer. You wanna pick the movie while I get the ice cream?"

Nia nodded as she headed back to the living room with Kid following her. He entered the kitchen and got down two bowls, looking in the freezer he fished out the ice cream that they had been slowly eating since his birthday in January. Strawberry wasn't his absolute favourite but it was up there. There was enough left in the tub for two scoops each. He placed a few spoons in the bowls and carried them out to the living room.

She'd selected an older movie from the 70's, Star Wars. This wasn't objectable to Kid, but he had to admit he'd never seen it before. They sat watching the video as they ate the ice cream. When Kid saw her getting a bit groggy he placed a pillow over his lap, encouraging her to lay down. He gently played with her hair absent mindedly while he paused the movie and opened a new browser tab incognito. He didn't want Killer knowing that he was looking into this.

He carefully typed into the search engine: mechanical engineering program admission requirements. He liked cars well enough, and being a mechanic would be a good plan B, but if he was being honest with himself, he wanted to build cars and engineer new technology for them. He was well aware of how tight money was though, and he was hoping he could save up, maybe even get a scholarship to help pay for the course. If he didn't succeed in that, he felt confident he'd be happy as a mechanic.

He felt her grasp at the pillow in her sleep, and couldn't help the smile that spread across his face as he read the information he'd found. Engineering school was expensive, thankfully a bachlore's was usually sufficient, but some fields of engineering required a master's degree, which was another two or three years of school ontop of the initial four.

He shook his head and closed the private tab, feeling a familiar lump forming in his throat. If only he hadn't been so stupid when he was younger.