[FIN][Yael] Room for Two [Kaleth | Ko]

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Lurin’s Preparatory Academy for Boys was no longer just for boys. In the last decade, a separate wing had been built onto the east side, which now served as the girl’s dormitories, though because of its long history, the boy’s section still took up a notably more sizeable portion of campus space. Accepting students of all ages fourteen and above, it sold itself predominantly as a private academy with a focus on preparing young men and women for combat-oriented class paths of all stripes, ranging from the purely physical, to both offensive and defensive magic learning. Centrally located on the outer edge of Pajore, it was one of the most distinguished options for education and training of caliber for its price range, and boasted a sizable and growing student body by the year.

Kaleth made the trip himself.

Though his aunt had offered to see him off, he insisted he could manage it, and did. It wasn’t as though he had much to burden him, all of his relevant belongings fitting in one large sack that he could tout on a shoulder, and the registration process had already been handled. Besides, he was all too accustomed to starting over at this point. Thus far, every attempt by his guardians to ‘settle’ him someplace had ended the same.

He’s too violent. It’s unmanageable, and a danger to our other students. If someone does not get through to that boy…it will only be a matter of time before he is in the same place as his father or worse.

Kaleth rolled his shoulders as he made his way across the complex, eyeing the new space with passive disinterest as he sought out his designated housing space. On the one hand, he almost felt bad for his aunt and uncle. Little as he wanted them as parental replacements, he understood at least that they were trying in the best ways they knew how, and it wasn’t really their fault that nowhere wanted him. His aunt had practically begged him at his last departure not to make any more trouble than necessary. She ‘knew’ he was a ‘smart boy’ and that if he could just try to manage his temper-

But Kaleth was tired of trying, and tired of new spaces. Tired of the looks and attitudes he got just standing around his ‘peers.’ Tired of starting over. He didn’t expect this place would be any different, but at least it was physically focussed and regimented. Hopefully, with just enough persistence, he could manage at least to prove himself competent enough to make a soldier of himself. Someone that would be wanted around just for his capacity as a fighter if nothing else.

And then it wouldn’t matter if he got angry.

The last of summer was dying out in the air, early autumn winds dry as they whispered around the building and between the long sections of dorm rooms. Finding ‘his’ was easy enough, at least, his key fit, and upon entering, the space was blessedly empty. Though there were two beds, it didn’t look as though anyone else had come to claim the space yet, and he dropped his bags with a thud to the floor at the foot of one before stretching and giving a slow inspection of what would be his quarters for the coming weeks.

Maybe if he was lucky, the school had heard of his record and chosen not to ‘risk’ putting him with a roommate. He snorted.

That would suit him just fine.  

[MissMisnomer]

With a soft hissing, Ko dragged his chest the last few feet to the door indicated on his map, circled with dark green ink. His mum had made sure the man at the desk made the directions extra clear, giving him one icy motherly glare when he had started rolling his eyes. She was probably scarier than any drill Sergent, if his immediate action without further protest had meant anything. The trip had not been short, and he was already puffing with flushed cheeks by the time he had hauled his trunk up the two flights of stairs and down the halls.

Maybe he should not have brought his collection of rocks after all.

But it wasn't like he could have just left them: one of the twins would have probably taken them and pawned them off for favors with the local kids. And Ko had worked too long at this to have his treasure trove plundered. So all the other strange knickknacks had made the trip as well, shoved inside the chest along with his clothes and other possessions.

But he'd made the journey, at the finish line at last. Ko fished the key out of his pocket with a triumphant grin, slotting it inside the lock as he pushed the door open.

The room was the same stone as the hallways, with the same flooring, and the same ceiling. It was not remarkable, or large, barely furnished with simply the essentials. But in Ko's eyes, it was like discovering a secret cave leading to another world, eyes wide as saucers as he took in the space he would be living in. Every hero had a starting point, and this was his.

And then he noticed the person resting on the other bed in the room. His new roommate. Ko waved, grinning as he came inside. “Hello there! Salutations and greetings, fellow warrior! My name is Ko!” He stopped at the opposite bed, ogling it in obvious surprise. “Holy heck! This bed is huge! You could fit Uzi’s bunk and mine together on this thing!”

He whirled back around, pointing up at his face. “Is this just FOR ME?! NO WAY!” Tossing his bag aside with an audible crunch as it hit the floorboards, he lept onto it, whooping as he landed on the less than plush mattress.  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Scccrrrrrrrrcccchhhhhhhhssssssssss...ssssssssss….ssssssssccccccchhhrrrsshhhh…

Kaleth, who had been laying on his bunk enjoying a moment’s respite as classes wouldn’t be beginning until the next day regardless and it wasn’t quite late enough to go out in search of the evening meal, found himself stirring and blinking up at the ceiling, drawn out of a light doze by the most peculiar sound going on outside. It sounded like—something being dragged?

Something heavy.

Probably just someone else moving in. Someone who didn’t understand the concept of packing lightly. Idiots. What did anyone who came here think they would need much for? The whole idea was to become a competent combatant and surely that involved minimalism and practicality, not an extensive wardrobe or-

His glowing eyes snapped to the door, his door, as it rattled, and a grimace was already pulling at his lips. Perhaps he wasn’t to be alone after all. But that was fine. It was probably too good to be true, to think that he might actually be left entirely to his own devices, and whoever it was, he could just ignore them and if they were anything like anyone else he’d ever dealt with, they would learn soon enough to stay out of his business. Kaleth figured he was prepared.

But, whatever it was he was anticipating, the bright, beaming little face that popped in past the threshold, flushed and wide-eyed, surrounded by bouncing curls and smattered with sunshine freckles, was not it. And for a moment, he was so taken aback, he could only stare. The boy looked—aglow in more than just the typical way, and almost like a joke in the context of where they were. Unreal, somehow. Not because he was especially beautiful or regal, just-

Adorable?

Kaleth’s eyes narrowed, an irritated flush warming his own features at the thought, because no, that couldn’t be right. Just ridiculous. And tiny. The thought that he could not possibly be in the right place circulated back around Kaleth’s mind, and he shifted, pushing himself up to a sit as the other boy dragged his things in—and finally noticed him.

Salutations and greetings-!

He had not realized it could get worse. Not only did the boy look like a bouncing pile of sunshine five years underage, but he spoke and—he was so loud. Kaleth hadn’t realized it was possible for anyone to sound so happy. And about what. And where did he fit all that energy. As the boy, ‘Ko’, whooped and leapt onto his mattress, Kaleth felt he wanted to disappear into his own. Surely no one could be expected to live with that on a daily basis.

There had to be some mistake.

Perhaps for now, though, the best course of action would be his original one: ignoring him entirely. If he just didn’t acknowledge the boy, maybe he would get the idea that his company wasn’t really needed and both of them could peacefully go along not infringing on each other’s existence. He rolled back onto the bed, turning to give the boy his back.  

[MissMisnomer]

Ko wriggled on the crisp bedding, messing it up as he inhaled the scent on the pillow. Which wasn't much, just the faintest whisper of regular soap. But it was different than how his own had smelt, which made it new and exciting.

Sitting back up, he fixed his straw hat back onto his head, knocked askew as he had jumped onto the bed. “HhhHHHNNnn, this is so EXCITING, I wonder what the other rooms look like are they all the same DOES EVERYONE HAVE A WINDOW??!”

As that information finally registered, he jumped off the bed to rush to the closed portal, fiddling with the mechanism until he was successfully able to lift the glass up. He pushed the shutters aside so quickly he lost his footing, teetering precariously over the lip of the open window as he yelped in surprise, the dregs of sunlight filling the darkened room. It was a moment before his toes were all back safely on the ground.

Looking out across the grounds of the academy, he took in the sights, dark trees twisting out of the dirt spotting the cobblestones with shadows, a fountain here or there, sparse decorative shrubbery. He rested his elbows on the ledge, chin perched between his palms as he sighed happily.

“This is the coolest thing that's ever happened in the history of ever. It's like some kind of story, and I get to live it…” Looking up at the rosy sky, he grinned, making a quick sign as he closed his eyes. “Thank you for giving me this chance…I'm not going to let you down. I'm going to use this for good, and help this country, and protect people. I promise.”  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

He kept talking.

Kaleth had not even acknowledged him and the boy was still talking—and with no less volume, for that matter. It was as though his entire being was made of enthusiasm and Kaleth-

Kaleth was not ready. There was simply nothing of excitement going on, and the kid was practically bursting. He could not even imagine what he might be like when there was actual cause for reaction. DOES EVERYONE HAVE A WINDOW? Kaleth found himself glowering at the far wall, willing himself not to move. Or say anything. If he spoke, it would just draw more attention to himself, though at this point he wasn’t certain it could get any worse.

Probably everyone had windows, but who cared? And what was so wonderful about-

There was a rapid tapping of footsteps and a clattering, and Kaleth wasn’t certain what inspired him to look, just some gut pull of instinct telling him that this boy couldn’t be trusted with even the remotest caution, and sure enough just as he glanced, Ko yelped, tiny feet losing traction—and quite in spite of himself, Kal’s heart dropped with panic, his body snapping upright. This kid was going to die and it wasn’t even his fault-

Fortunately, he did not in fact manage to go tipping all the way over, though Kaleth still managed to feel irrationally irritated by it all and the lingering swells of anxiety in his chest. Who had sent this kid here? He shifted, moving his feet off the bed, and stood. Wordlessly, he stalked over to his new ‘roommate.’

I’m going to use this for good, and help this country…

He squinted skeptically.

This boy could not be real.

Yet, here he was. In Kaleth’s room, taking up Kaleth’s space, breathing Kaleth’s air. He reached, gripping at the back collar of the boy’s shirt and turning him effortlessly to see to it that he had his full attention as he stared down—there must have been a full foot of height difference between them, and being up close seemed only to further emphasize his first impressions. He persisted. Clearly, some things needed to be made evident between them and there was never a better time than the present.

“My name…” he said, “is Kaleth. I don’t know what possessed you to be here, and if you were bright, you might still have time to scurry on back to your mother or whoever else made the mistake of thinking this was a good place for you…but until that time, if we are going to be sharing space, there are some things I expect you to understand. Everything on that side of the room…” Kaleth gestured with his free hand, “is my space. I don’t want your hands, your things, or your noise intruding upon it. Everything on this side of the room…” He gestured, “is yours, and you are free to do whatever you please so long as it does not interfere with mine. I did not come here to make friends, and I may not be here for very long. The easier you make it for me to pretend you don’t exist, the happier I will be and the less chance there is we will have any problems. Am I clear?”  

[MissMisnomer]

Suddenly Ko was dragged away from his happy sentimental perch by a very rough tug, flipped around to face his roommate. Who in all honesty…he'd forgotten about for a moment. Whoops.

He blinked up at the darker boy, Kaleth, small mountain more like it, already growing hair on his chin and voice having gone through all it's cracking, gravely and deep. He was exactly what Ko had imagined the other students here might look like, tall and muscular and ready to become fighters for Yael. Like he could wrestle a Limbara with his bare hands, or jump off of cliffs into the ocean and fight a sea monster or pirates. His mouth might have dropped a tad.

Ah poop, he was supposed to be listening.

Ko tried to smile as pleasantly as he could as he jumped back into the boy’s speech, catching up with his words.

I may not be here for long

He nodded earnestly, head bobbing as his curls whipped against his forehead. “Don't worry, I'm real good at being ignored! You won't even know I'm here! I don't take up much space, cuz I'm kind of ridiculously tiny, mum says it's because I don't guard my plate at dinner, I say it's because the Binbods must be pushing me down at night or something, it's the only possible reason I'm the shortest one in my family, since I should have gotten bigger by now, everyone else did by my age…”

Pausing, he tried to recall where he was going with that.

Oh yes, why he wasn't going to be a nuisance!

“But yeah, so, anyways, I won't bother you if you don't want me to! But I think we should really try to be friends, don't you?” His eyes lit up, hopping on the balls of his feet. “You're going to be a warrior after all, you'll need backup! I could do that! Brothers in arms, fighting for the good of the land together! I can do magic, that's why I'm here, I did an examination and everything!”

He gestured with his hands, miming the events. “There were these tests, and I made a cup tip over isn't that the coolest thing you've ever heard of?? This hawk faced lady was watching and goodness I was scared to bits of her but I did it anyways because it would have been awful rude to invite her over to the house and everything if I couldn't even do magic after all! And whoosh, it just moved, because I wanted it to, I had the tingles all day after, I could barely sleep I was so excited!”  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Kaleth watched, and he could say at least the initial gawking was promising, and about what he’d hoped for: silence, awe, hopefully intimidation and—then he was smiling, bobbing his head earnestly with enough glee Kal felt sure he could only have picked up on half the conversation after all.

You won’t even know I’m here!

It was what Kaleth hoped for, but somehow more difficult to believe by the moment. True, the boy was tiny, and didn’t take up much raw physical space, but he clearly had less than zero concept of quiet, subtlety, or calm, and while perhaps he was good at being ignored, Kal had to wonder if that wasn’t merely because those around him had become especially practiced at it rather than thanks to a special talent for quiet and non-presence on Ko’s part.

The Binbods…

What was he even on about?

I think we should really try to be friends, don’t you?

Kaleth released a soft puff of a sigh and relaxed his grip, watching with miffed skepticism, disbelief, and mild fascination as the boy began bouncing on his feet before him and recounting his story of arrival. It seemed impossible he was old enough to be here. ‘No one wants to be my friend, trust me,’ came near to the tip of his tongue, but in the end, Kaleth opted against it. He was accustomed to people backing down quickly when pressed—or otherwise butting heads almost immediately—and in his interactions with his peers, those seemed to be the predominant or even only two options.

Already, though, this boy did not seem to fit in any box he knew how to handle. He wasn’t intimidated, he wasn’t listening, he wasn’t aggressive, and as frustrating as it was, and irritating to deal with, neither could Kaleth seem to justify being truly cross with him. He wanted him to calm himself—but beyond that, he seemed so genuinely positive, it was difficult to be anything more than begrudgingly resigned for the moment. Annoying, perhaps. But harmless, and so hopeful.

“That’s…nice,” he said. “How…old are you…?”

Although Kaleth was sixteen himself, he knew he was beginning older than many who started here, but also that the youngest they took was fourteen summers, and this boy barely looked that. Perhaps it made sense that since he was also ‘new’ here, he would be rooming with someone at the bottom of the age spectrum, but Kaleth felt suspicious there might be other motives at play. Was this boy disposable? A thief? Dangerous? Somehow the latter seemed impossible, and he supposed only time would tell.

He was just having difficulty looking at this boy’s face and bright eyes and fathoming who had thought a combat academy was the place for him and why. If the student body was anything he expected it to be, he felt suspiciously that he would be eaten alive even if he didn’t manage the task himself personally.

Maybe at least then he would have the room to himself for a time.  

[MissMisnomer]

He didn’t really say much, but Ko was just glad that Kaleth was even talking to him at all. And the tone of the boy’s voice was similar to the kind Ko had heard many times before, right before his parents told him to slow down and take a breath. He was being polite, but was irritated. He might not care to hear everything Ko wanted to say. So he pursed his lips, attempting to be more selective with his words so as not to overwhelm his new roommate.

“I turned fourteen this year. I was born around the same time of year as my brother Trystaan, so we always just kind of lump the two together. Mum made this pie with SIX TYPES OF BERRIES, can you believe it?”

Ko laced his fingers behind his back, rocking onto his heels as he tipped his head curiously. “How old are you? You look like a grown up practically already! And you’re SO TALL! Even when I stand on my tiptoes my HAIR doesn’t touch your chin!” As if to demonstrate, he stood as tall as he could, arms out for balance as he craned his head. Which lasted for all of two seconds before he was wobbling, feet flat on the floor as he puffed his cheeks in defeat.  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Kaleth—relaxed, in spite of himself.

He had been ready for the worst. He wasn’t certain he wanted to be here, and he had certainly had enough unpleasant experiences with his peers that he wasn’t looking forward to living with someone he couldn’t manage, but—this boy was harmless. He was happy. He seemed innocent in a way Kaleth couldn’t fully pinpoint. Not worth his ire. And even his irritation felt unfair. Six types of berries… He glanced down again to the boy, watching as he tipped and rocked as though he were eager just to have someone to be around.

As much as he personally pushed others away, he couldn’t really fault him for that. He understood the desire, even if he had long since decided he was more likely to find peace and satisfaction on his own.

The tiniest hint of a smile pulled at his cheeks as the other boy wobbled and puffed before Kaleth glanced away, and grunted. “Sixteen,” he said. “You’re…small, for your age. I hope they are not starting you with anything too intense…”

Because he hadn’t yet, then, he moved back, away from crowding Ko’s space to instead begin unpacking some of his things, and his stomach reminded him it was approaching mealtime. His gaze flit to Ko. They would be spending a significant enough amount of time around one another whether he liked it or not, perhaps it wouldn’t be the worst to at least have some sense of him.

“Why are you here?” he asked, pulling clothes from his sack and settling them into the single, simple set of drawers on his side of the room. “You don’t…look like what I would expect for someone at a military academy. You must be dedicated to your magic…”  

[MissMisnomer]

Eyebrows rising in surprise, Ko followed after Kaleth as he walked off, like a smaller brown shadow. “Wow, sixteen? I woulda thought you were eighteen, at least! You must be really strong, you could fit like...three of my arms in yours I bet!” He stopped in his tracks, holding his arm out next to Kaleth’s for comparison as he unpacked. “Maybe if you like...cut it up into pieces first and we took out all your bones too…”

But that train of thought had him imagining more gistly details that were rather unpleasant, so Ko quickly changed course from there.

Why was he here?

Ko walked over to his own discarded bag, following the larger boy’s example as he stooped to pick it up. “I just found out a few weeks ago that I could use magic. Everyone was very surprised, specially mum and dad―” With a wince, he could hear broken glass clinking against each other in the cloth sack.

That would be the bottle of ointment he kept with him.

Sighing heavily, Ko mentally smacked himself upside the head for being so dumb. That’s what he gets for being careless with his stuff. He carefully set it down, opting to deal with the broken glass later as he moved instead for the large chest.

“But yeah, so, anyways! That kinda came out of nowhere, and none of us really knew what to do. So my dad asked around, and he heard about this place from one of his friends who’d sent his son here.” He looked around, and upon spotting a nice empty spot on his side of the room, proceeded to push the heavy chest across the floorboards. “Mum seemed a little worried about...picking this place when he told her about it. But he thought that it might―”

He paused, struggling to get the darn thing over the rug and new texture on the floor. “Might...help toughen me up a bit…’spend some time away from the safety of the nest’...” With a huff, he moved around to the other side, pulling on the handle as he tried to lift the edge over the rough weave.

“And so she asked me what I wanted to do. And I thought: what the heck!? I spend so much time thinking about adventures anyways―silly, dumb boy that I am―I might as well follow the path that the gods were setting for me...” Straining his already fatigued arms, he managed to get the stone laden chest onto the damn rug, grunting as he dragged it over. “Which...seemed to be leading...to this place…”

Scooting around one last time, he leaned his weight back against the large piece of portable furniture as his ankles slid on the floor, inching the thing backwards until it slotted into the nook. Sliding down to sit on the floor, he raised his arms triumphantly, lactic acid making them shake as he smiled through his labored breathing.

“So...that’s why I’m here!”  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Kal was accustomed to being taken for older than he was. He was tall and had developed early, even including the beginnings of facial hair at a young age, his body putting on size and muscle such that after several years of hormonal growth he was already larger than a fair number of fully adult men in both height and breadth—and he had yet to cease growing, so far as he could tell.

It didn’t bother him, but it did lead to misunderstandings and overestimates of his maturity on occasion certainly. This, though—he couldn’t help but feel weirdly flattered by his roommate’s enthusiasm. Most of the time, at the very least among his peers, his size was a source of upset in various forms, either jealousy or fear and intimidation—which of course he did nothing to ease and in fact often intentionally exacerbated simply to be left alone, a fact he fully acknowledged.

But this bubbling excitement by contrast was new, and not bad. Amusing, even. Almost pleasant.

It was nice to be complimented.

Kaleth glanced over at the sound of something breaking—though it looked to be contained at least, not immediately visible despite being audible—and from there, he could only stare, paused in a miffed crouch as he witnessed the smaller boy scramble and puff in his efforts to arrange his largest piece of luggage. It occurred to Kaleth, as Ko’s small limbs strained with effort, that he could have offered to help — …toughen me up a bit… — but instead, he found an unasked for smile pulling at the corner of his lip at the sheer entertainment factor, eyes lit with rare humor, and he waited, watching. When Ko finally managed to get it to the location he seemed to be intending and sank, arms up in victory but quivering from the exertion, Kaleth couldn’t help but note that—it looked as though it might be facing the wrong direction.

With a grunt, he finished setting away the last of his things. He hadn’t brought much, and then stood and walked over, glancing down. “…do you want me to…” He made a flipping gesture with his fingers, “…turn that, for you…?” He glanced to the door. “And I am hungry. If you wanted…we could go look for the mess hall together.”

A part of him mentally warned he shouldn’t be trying to make friends. He didn’t like people. He probably wouldn’t be here long, and maybe after Ko found out who he was-

But at the same time, in spite of himself, he found it difficult to believe Ko would judge anyone, and for all that his noise and jabbering was initially startling and off-putting, Kaleth found that he wasn’t really bothered in the end. The tiny boy at his feet was difficult to be legitimately cross with, and perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to eat with company for once, even if neither of them were necessarily bound to last, for differing reasons.  

[MissMisnomer]

Letting his arms fall back down, he felt another swell of joy re-energize his fatigued soul, thrilled by the concept of actually being invited out to eat with the other boy. Together. They were totally going to become best friends at this rate: it was only the first day after all!

“Absolutely, let's go eat! I bet the place is going to be so big, with how many doors I passed on the way up here!” He stuffed his hand back into his pocket, pulling out the folded papers there. “And I actually have a map there too, so we won't get lost! It'll be our first quest together!”

And as the other statement tacked into Kaleth’s phrase finally registered, Ko squinted quizzically up at Kal, tipping his head in confusion as he held the folded maps.

“Wait…whad’ya mean, turn it? ” He rotated where he sat, scooting to look behind him at the chest he'd struggled with moving the couple yards across the room and saw that-

“NooOOoo are you kidding me!?” he groaned, smacking a hand over his eyes as he fell back onto the floor, giving the chest a frustrated kick with his little foot. “I can't believe I didn't notice that!”

He let his arms fall limply out to either side of his head on the rug, looking pathetically up at Kaleth standing over him. He didn't want to admit it, had been so proud of getting the damn thing into his room in the first place all by himself, but…

His admission came in a pink faced mumble, succumbing to the embarrassment.

“I don't think I can move it anymore…would you mind…” He couldn't finish the request, feeling small and weak enough as it was already without sacrificing any more of his meager pride.
 

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

Quest together…

It occurred to Kaleth to make clarifications: they weren’t actually friends, he just thought it made sense since they were sharing a room, it wasn’t an adventure it was just dinner, there was no need to be quite so excited and could you please calm yourself before I regret my choices—but in the end, none of this seemed important enough to voice. Ko was just too bubbling for it to be worth it to attempt to crush his spirit, and as reluctant as Kal was to let the boy assume too much—there was probably no harm in letting it go.

This time. For now.

And then Ko’s attention latched on to the earlier part of his statement, and Kaleth had the privilege of watching as his face fell. It probably shouldn’t have all been so amusing. But Kaleth couldn’t help it. For all his tiny stature, Ko had the biggest reactions to things, and clearly, even if the results hadn’t been quite what he was aiming for, he had put in admirable effort. He looked exhausted, as though he quite literally could not physically manage to push it about any more than he had.

Kaleth shook his head, stepping around the boy to eye the chest, and then crouch and yank. It was actually fairly heavy, and although it was far from anything Kal couldn’t handle and simple enough to pull out, twist, and shove back into place without much exertion, he could at least appreciate that it must have involved significantly more effort for Ko to manage moving it at all, let alone getting it all the way here from wherever he’d come. After he’d gotten it into place, he looked down to his roommate.

“I’m surprised you got it all the way up here,” he admitted. “That’s…sort of impressive, for your size. What are you keeping in there, rocks?”

Kaleth of course intended the question as a joke of sorts, and took a step toward the door after asking, ready to head out, but he was curious what such a small boy would think he needed that involved so much notable weight. Heavy weaponry? Armor? He had said he’d come thanks to a promising show of magic, so Kaleth doubted either of those guesses made sense, but maybe the boy had some kind of odd hobby and thought he needed to bring his entire collection of obscure trinkets of some sort.

Kaleth certainly wouldn’t have put that past him.

Still, little as he thought he needed a map and epic quest line, upon glancing out at the grounds, he had to admit he didn’t actually know what direction to head first, so since Ko had the information, there was no reason not to wait in the door for him. At least it was a pleasant evening, and if Kal admitted it to himself, it wasn’t going as poorly as it could have so far.  

[MissMisnomer]

Ko watched with embarrassed gratitude as Kaleth so easily moved the trunk that had been giving him issues all day, both humbled and amazed at the same time. That was what he wanted: to be stronger. To be able to help people out when they couldn't do it themselves. Right now he may have been on the receiving end, but hopefully, if he tried hard enough and trained, he could start giving back to the world instead of always needing favors.

It was inspiring in its own way, enough so to take the frown off his face and sit up once again, soaking up the half hearted compliment Kaleth gave him.

He'd take ‘sort of impressive’ any day!

Giving his cheeks a good smack between his hands, Ko hopped up, never one to stay down for long. “Thanks! It is rocks! Plus all my other stuff, that bag over there is just the one I take with me everywhere!”

He flicked the latch on the chest, lifting the hefty lid to rummage, pulling out a large red stone with golden veins running through it. “Pretty cool right?! I found this one at the beach when we went fishing one time. I thought it was a crab from far away, till it started moving, scared me to bits! Ooh, and this one!” He set the stone aside to heft a jagged green rock with a blue and purple luster. “My sister gave me this one in exchange for a week worth of chores! Totally worth it, look how pretty it is, like dragon scales!”

Closing the lid again, he sat on the trunk, wrapping his puffy purple scarf around his neck, tucked snuggly into his coat. “I thought it'd be safest to bring them along, so no one can steal them while I'm gone!” He hopped off, standing beside the door with the map open before him. “Were you going to put on a sweater or anything? It's getting a little chilly out there!”  

[Miss Chief aka Uke]

When Ko did not immediately follow after, Kaleth glanced back to watch, and — Thanks! It is rocks! — for a moment, he could only stare. Somehow it is rocks had never occurred to him, at least not as a real answer, but as soon as the words came out of the boy, he decided it probably shouldn’t be surprising given what he had already seen of his character, just—ridiculous. Ko had brought a literal collection of stones with him, and Kaleth couldn’t decide which was more bizarre: the fact that he had one to begin with, or the fact that he thought he would need to bring it here.

‘So that no one could steal them.’

Kaleth scoffed.

Because clearly everyone would want to steal gravel. Though, Kaleth had to very, very privately admit that at least the two Ko first chose to beam at were unique, and pretty in their own way. Not necessary. Not worth a week of labor. Not anything for a tiny boy to be attempting to lug up stairs. But interesting. He hummed, and glanced to the map, ignoring the prickle of chill that climbed his arms at a gust, as though it had been bidden forth just to make a point of what Ko was saying.

“No,” he said. “I’m fine.” After noting where their dorm space was clearly highlighted and circled in color, he judged direction and exited with Ko, pulling the door shut and locking it behind them before starting out. “Why would you think a stone was a crab until it started moving?” he asked with passive curiosity. “Crabs move and stones don’t…usually.”

His eyes casually scanned the campus as they went, making note of where he’d been already and where the cafeteria fit in with the rest of it. Fortunately, it wasn’t even that far away, nested between the dorm spaces and the buildings where classes and training would be held. His mind, though, kept flitting back to what Ko had shared. He didn’t have any siblings himself, though after his father had been taken into confinement and he had relocated to live with his aunt and uncle, they had their two daughters—they had been older, though, and mostly involved already in their own lives or becoming so just as Kaleth had been dropped in, so he never developed an especially close relationship with either of them.

Again, a part of his mind suggested that he didn’t really need to ask; his relationship with this boy wouldn’t last long. But still the question came in spite of himself, and he chalked it up to curiosity.

“Do you have…just a sister?”