Fresh Kill

[MK Kilmarnock]

Tuesday meant fish sticks. Whoever worked for the cafeteria staff and decided that a specific day should be dedicated towards frozen seafood had an interesting thought process, to say the least.

Hades was one of the first people in line at the start of the lunch period. He owed this stroke of good luck to having a study hall in the library nearby. When that bell rang, anybody in the library was typically first to lunch. Of that small subset of kids, he was the last in line to get food. He didn't need to be first, he just had to beat the crowd and sit down, eat his food, and listen to music. When it was his turn to shuffle along with his tray from station to station, he did so with the usual lack of eye contact. It'd been four years; he didn't get the funny looks anymore like he used to.

He peered down at his tray when a scoop of goopy-looking mashed potatoes was stuck onto the tray. Hades figured he could probably turn the tray upside down and those mashed potatoes weren't going anywhere. Of course, then he'd be spilling fish sticks, ketchup, and corn all over the floor, so the theory would have to remain a theory until he dunked the tray out over a trash can at the end of lunch. He didn't trust those potatoes... they could stay right where they were until end of lunchtime.

Grabbing a carton of chocolate milk from the open cooler at the end of the line before the cashier, the tired-looking boy trudged to the lady at the register and rattled off the same student ID he'd grown accustomed to for the past three years. She nodded, muttered 'free lunch' as if this was some kind of news, and let him be on his way. The usual lunch period on the usual Tuesday with the usual fish sticks. Hades walked to the usual table and placed his tray down before sitting himself, stepping with one leg and throwing the other over once seated. He pulled up on the bottoms of his jacket to make sure he wasn't sitting on any part of it before he got comfortable on that hard wooden bench. It was probably more like plywood, actually, but whatever, it did the trick.

Positioning the tray in such a way that those menacing mashed potatoes with an indeterminate percentage of sawdust in them were on the far side, Hades ripped open the little plastic container that had a napkin, salt and pepper packets, and a spork. With that out of the way, he pulled a pair of wireless earbuds from his pocket. Even in the earlier minutes of the period, the noise in the cafeteria was picking up to a dull roar... just in time to get his music started. Withdrawing his phone and taking just a moment to choose a playlist, he waited for his earbuds to connect and blast sound into his ears.

Tuesday meant fish sticks. But if it was like any other Tuesday, Hades wondered when she might show up.

[VoltTurtle]

Katelyn hovered just behind where Hades was sitting with a big smile plastered on her face, her friend none the wiser, and her body almost vibrating with excitement. The cafeteria was just as loud as ever today, and she hated that, but it was all okay, because she had her friend here, like always. Friends make everything better. Just being with one of her friends made that gaping hole where her heart should be feel just a little less empty, and that's all that mattered!

"Hades!" she squeaked, "looooord of the deaaaad!"

She had used that line nearly every time she saw him. She would not stop, except if he asked, which he hadn't yet, and she hoped that wasn't because he was too nice to say otherwise. He probably thought it was a cute quirk, or maybe he didn't think much of it. Or she hoped that was the case, at least. It'd be so much easier if she could read people's minds. Then again, her therapist always said that she worries too much about what other people think of her. He was still friends with her and not avoiding her and therefore she wouldn't worry about it until she needed to! Otherwise she would go crazy!

Her lunch tray was plopped down next to Hades as she took her seat. Everything was there on it--her chocolate milk, the potato flavored goop, sixteen entire packets of ketchup, and most importantly, the fish sticks! Fish was her favorite meat that wasn't chicken or lamb or venison or especially beef. She had some beef jerky tucked away in her backpack. Maybe she would munch on that after she got done with the fish sticks? Only if she wasn't full though, except- wait! She had something to show Hades!

"Hades, Hades!" she chanted, "I d-did a thing!"

She whipped her backpack out so fast that she nearly sent her tray flying. It looked like a cat and was covered in lots of little pins. Most of them cats, some of them were fandom pins. It was cute, not like her, but at least it matched up with her aesthetic. Her outfit was cat-like, and her leggings had cats on them. Along with cat hair, though that was hard to see, Mr. Kitty just shed so much!

Katelyn rummaged through the disordered mess inside her backpack, looking for her sketchbook. She always brought it with her when she went to school. It's how she squeezed in extra drawing practice while sitting around bored in class. School was too easy, art was hard, and she liked the challenge!

Eventually she found it, riffling through the pages at mach speed until she arrived at her latest drawing, placing the sketchpad gently between their lunch trays. It was a portrait-style drawing made with a mechanical pencil, fully shaded but not colored, in a semi-realistic style that had just a touch of stylization to it.

"I-It's you!" she chirped, "I drew it from m-memory so maybe it's not as good as it could be, b-but I did my best! And that's what matters, like my mom always told me!"

Her lips curled into a frown, briefly.

"You like it, r-right?"

[MK Kilmarnock]

Amidst the blaring of sirens and electronic drumbeats starting to kick in, Hades thought he heard that familiar chant that he'd been expecting. When Kitty started doing that, it made him jump out of his skin. He'd gotten more used to it but she could still catch him off guard, and he was genuinely impressed she kept managing to get behind him like that. Granted, there was now KMFDM's Stray Bullet blasting in his ears; an elephant could probably sneak up on him right now. The music dulling the sudden callout saved him from falling out of his seat at the very least. Hades smiled with a shake of the head and pulled one earbud out, letting it dangle over his shoulder.

Sliding his tray over just a little bit and scooting to make sure that she had room to sit down, Hades threw a nod to Kitty and opened up his chocolate milk. "Hey," he said quietly, resting his farther elbow on the table to angle himself slightly toward her. This was the usual ritual of the day when they had this bell schedule -- practically on cue, he thought, listening to her chirp about her accomplishments as she rummaged through her bag. Despite the bags under Hades' eyes, he probably couldn't have higher anticipation for whatever it was she'd drawn today.

When the pad of drawing paper was slid over to him, Hades could tell right away what it was before Kitty explained it. His eyes opened wider for a second while he adjusted the hand of the arm he leaned on, cupping it against his chin to support it and also to hide his mouth with a few fingers in order to obscure the grin growing across his lips. He stifled it just as quickly, quietly contemplating what he was looking at.

It was most definitely a portrait of himself, which Kitty helpfully told him, though his options were pretty slim since Kitty probably didn't know anybody else with that hairstyle (which she captured pretty well, and didn't even flip it to the wrong side). The artwork was pretty well done, probably a bit better looking in black-and-white than if it had been in color. After about a minute of studying, Hades slid it back to her.

"It's a little too handsome," he said with a smirk, straightening up to free his arm and then slouching again. "Nah. I like it." The most impressive thing to him was that she apparently thought about him over the day enough to draw him at some point. He didn't ask when. "It's flattering."

These fish sticks looked a little hazardous. Maybe he should have grabbed more ketchup.

[VoltTurtle]

"If anything, I didn't capture your looks well enough!" Katelyn pouted, "you're already so c-cool and tall and handsome as-is!"

She stopped as she began to blush, realizing she probably went overboard with the compliments again. She looked away, and began to paw at her dragon's hoard worth of ketchup packets, just to keep her mind at ease and give her fingers something to do. She couldn't handle her own awkwardness half the time, and she always wondered how her friends were able to tolerate it so well.

"B-But, um, thank you," she followed up, unable to maintain eye-contact.

She always had a hard time believing compliments, it was always so much easier for her to see the problems, whether it be in her drawing or writing or her appearance, but hearing kind words from friends never failed to make her feel all warm and fuzzy inside anyway. She wished that she could take them at face value, but it was always so much easier to assume they were just sparing her feelings by hiding their real thoughts or that they just had really low standards. So many other people were better artists and writers and certainly much prettier than her, after all.

Then again, her therapist always said she was just overthinking.

Whatever, she had milk to drink, fish to eat, and lots of ketchup to go along with it!

Katelyn hands drifted over to open her milk carton before returning to the ketchup packets, ripping them open one by one and drizzling the contents onto her fish sticks. All in all, she ended up using fourteen of the sixteen packets, making sure that each fish stick was absolutely coated in ketchup top to bottom. Most people would probably find this disgusting, but really, these school fish sticks weren't actually that good. And ketchup was like blood! Tomato blood! And blood was delicious.

Before she began to dig in, she couldn't help but notice that Hades didn't have any ketchup of his own. Certainly he'd want some, right?

"Um... do you want any k-ketchup for your fish sticks? I still have t-two packets."

[MK Kilmarnock]

Kitty's rapid-fire string of compliments left Hades chewing awkwardly on one of his lip piercings. The right corner of his mouth turned up again and he scratched some of the shorter hair on the same side of his head. He appreciated Kitty for taking him as he was. Dressing like this, he was aware, drew eyes to him, and in some respect that was one of the many purposes behind it. It played second fiddle to carving out his identity and being him, but when you take efforts to stand out in a crowd, it'd be silly to complain about being stared at. Still, just treating it like him being him and not being a 'freak' was refreshing.

Oh, Kitty had definitely made comments and remarks about his appearance before, but they'd always come off as... well, observations? Hades imagined she was the type of person who would, going down the road, see a cow and go 'cow!' Like... yeah, no shit, it's a cow. He'd call it childlike and innocent of her if that wasn't infantilizing. Short of nothing else, he just considered it 'very Kitty'.

On the flipside of things, there was an unfortunately well-populated contingent of their lovely little high school that mocked Kitty for being her. Hades could get that; he didn't condone treating her harshly at all, but he definitely got how she could be a handful. She was, to be sure. But people were give-and-take, and if you gave a little ground, Hades found, people could be tolerable or even fun. It was awfully funny that the people least willing to give anybody ground, then, were the same people who would walk all over you for your generosity and understanding.

She said something at him, and Hades made a noise in his throat as he came back to the land of the living. Oh, right. Ketchup.

"Yeeeah, I probably should," Hades said while rolling his shoulder, the tired stretch elongating the first word in a sleepy-sounding groan. "I think these are still frozen or like... something." He picked up one of the breaded rectangles and dropped it onto his tray with a curiously hard-sounding thud. "Tasting ketchup is better than nothing." He lazily offered a hand palm-up to accept the two remaining packets. He eyed the huge mound of red goop that had accumulated on her own tray. "... Guess you agree."

[VoltTurtle]

"Eheh, yeah I g-guess so!" Katelyn squeaked, "and yeah, you can have my leftover ones..."

She quickly pawed up the two remaining ketchup packets, and jerked them with a bit too much gusto towards her friend's tray, only to feel her hand collide with her milk carton as she did so. It took her a moment to realize what had happened immediately afterwards, slowly looking down as she watched nearly all of her milk splosh directly onto her sketchpad.

Katelyn sat there stock-still in silence for a few seconds, visibly processing what had just happened as her smile slowly disappeared.

The realization of what she had just done on accident threw her into a panic.

"Oh no! No, no, no!" she wailed, "are you f-fucking kidding me?"

In a panic, she tried to dab up the milk with her extra napkins, but the damage had already been done. She had fucked up yet again and completely ruined the drawing she had done of Hades, not to mention the rest of that sketchbook. That was just like her, to ruin something for someone else just by existing and being herself.

Tears started to well up in her eyes. Why was she so stupid?

"N-no, f-fuck," she choked out, her voice interrupted by pitched sobs, "I'm s-so sorry, H-Hades."

She didn't feel hungry anymore.

[MK Kilmarnock]

Ever since the milk hit, Hades had been leaning back away from the table with both of his hands up, letting Kitty scramble and do what she had to. Between the initial shock of the spillage and her immediate... reaction, at least he was certainly awake now. Hades was fully alert, standing, and looking down at the table. There were their trays, there was the sketchbook, and there was the sopping wet mess. What was that thing boomers liked to say about spilled milk?

Hades' tongue played with one of his lip piercings pensively as he waited for the initial stages of Kitty's emotions to take over. He definitely wasn't an expert on this stuff but he'd learned through experience as well as the mistakes of others that smothering her or impeding her instinctive responses was only going to make matters worse. She started apologizing to him in a way he knew was objectively a bit strange and nonsensical; she hadn't wronged him in any way and here she was, needing condolences and giving them to HIM instead. Three years ago, maybe he would have been confused. Now that apology was his cue to step in.

Putting one of his knees on the bench but not yet fully sitting, Hades picked up the sketchbook and set about carefully separating the pages between what used to be an immaculate picture of him and the rest of the sketchbook. He assessed the damage before saying anything: milk had gotten all over one edge which probably wasn't too bad. The picture had soaked entirely through his portrait and the dabbing with napkins had only served to make it blurry. Ruined. The next few pages down were probably soaked too. He leafed through roughly until he could find a dry one and stuck a finger in between to part them.

"It's alright, let's see what we got..." he said, taking great care to keep his voice even and calm. The picture of him was definitely ruined and he was struggling with finding the best way, or any way at all, to make her feel better. "Is- there's something I want to try. Is it alright if I take these pages out?"

[VoltTurtle]

Tears streaked down Katelyn's face as she sniffled between chocked sobs, trying her best to keep any snot from leaking out of her nose. She already looked like garbage twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, but she still didn't want to look like even worse garbage by being a big, blubbering baby. Though, maybe that didn't matter, since the tears were probably ruining what little makeup she had put on earlier that morning in an effort to feel better about herself. Not that drenching her eyes in eyeshadow did all that much good distracting from her scars anyway.

Katelyn tried to speak, to say something else to Hades, but her throat closed up, her body failing her mind yet again.

She inhaled sharply between her sobs as Hades took a look at the sketchbook. If her sister Ash was here right now, seeing all this, what would she say? Probably something about not looking weak by crying over something so inconsequential. Not that Ash's advice mattered at all. She didn't actually respect Katelyn, so Katelyn was in no position to respect her even in the hypothetical. She might be useless and weak-minded and generally good-for-nothing, but she didn't need someone else validating those feelings for her.

Her therapist's advice might suit her better than that of her older sister. What was she supposed to do in these situations again, when she felt like the whole world was crumbling down around her and it was all her fault? Something about taking a step back, taking a deep breath, and temporarily distracting herself, because sitting there crying and beating herself up wouldn't help.

Katelyn inhaled abruptly, held the breath for a few seconds, and then exhaled.

She had to do her best to calm down, and then maybe she could salvage this.

Katelyn inhaled again, this time more naturally. She held the breath just a bit longer this time, and exhaled again.

Something might have been permanently lost, but maybe she could still fix it as best she could, or failing that, maybe she could learn a lesson or two.

One last time, Katelyn inhaled, no longer interrupted by her sobs, and held the breath for another few moments.

Then, she let out a long, tired sigh.

The world hadn't ended. It was just an accident, and sometimes those happen. She wasn't a bad person because she spilled some milk and ruined a drawing. This too, would pass, and she would move on, and in time it would be nothing more than a bad memory. Time the healer would mend this wound, as it eventually mended all others. Even the worst moment of her entire life felt distant all these years later, and this was nothing compared to that.

Her hands drifted back to her backpack, opening up the pocket that she kept her beef jerky in. Comfort food would help her calm herself, if all else failed. Even if she wasn't hungry anymore, it'd certainly be better than the fish sticks that the cafeteria served.

Finally, Katelyn tried again to speak, only to instead nod at Hades, answering his question in spite of the fact that her throat still refused to let her talk.

[MK Kilmarnock]

Hades didn't ask again. Kitty had heard him, so instead of asking again and repeating himself, he waited. Occasionally he would look to her out of the corner of his eye waiting for a response and when he saw the nod signaling he could take out the damaged pages, he went to work.

As he'd previously noted, the damage was mostly done to his portrait and the immediate page under it was also pretty much a lost cause, and the one after that was fairly damp and couldn't properly be used. All three were swiftly but carefully torn from the ring binding; he could handle the perforation or cutting later if he really had to. He left the second page under the portrait for stability but discarded the third and set it aside. Pushing his lunch tray back, Hades sat with his back to Kitty and began finagling with the drawing.

Thankfully, Kitty had used pencil to draw the picture. Ink would have bled in spots. Being monochrome helped a little bit, too. As the portrait she had envisioned, it was still ruined and existed only in the mind of the artist and the only other person to see it. The pencil lead was still smudged and there was nothing to be done about that. Smudging from the moisture was inevitable, so any clean lines... weren't. The portrait couldn't serve its original purpose anymore.

So the solution, to Hades, was to turn it into something else. Using his thumb and carefully applying pressure as to not tear the weakened paper, he began to intentionally smudge the drawing even more. He brought streaks down from the eyes, darkening the detail under his brows as if utilizing chiaroscuro to blot out detail completely and form dark 'tears' streaming down his cheek. Deciding he liked the look of that, he began to muss up the rest of the picture to match, blocking out sections such as the two horns of hair running down the opposite side of his face, his cheek, and the inside of his pinna. When all was said and done, what was once a realistic portrait, then ruined, now resembled somewhere between the melted haziness of a Gogh self-portrait and the bleakness of Darkest Dungeon's aesthetics.

Satisfied with what he'd accomplished, Hades showed her what he had done and started to explain. "I want to take this," he said, gesticulating toward the drawing with his now-gray and slightly shiny thumb, "and scan it when it's dry. I like... saw it, and immediately saw myself behind a haze like I was in a smoke-filled room. If I mess around with it digitally and send it to Travis, I think he'd use it as a cover for an album." Hades leaned his side into the edge of the table, hoping to have cheered Kitty up by her knowing he still saw value in the work. "Or at least a single."

[VoltTurtle]

"S-Sure," she croaked.

A small smile crept onto Katelyn's face, contrasting the tears that continued to flow. The modifications that Hades made to her initial drawing looked very nice. The original drawing she made may have been destroyed, but the thought that something else might be birthed from its ashes helped a wave of calmness wash over her.

"Th-that's," she stuttered, her throat relaxing enough for her normal speech to resume, "actually a r-really cool idea."

She briefly made eye contact with Hades as she spoke, only to shy away and focus her attention on his neckline instead. Maintaining eye contact was really hard for her at the best of times. It made her anxious, like she was staring into the eyes of a predator waiting to take a bite out of her, even if that so-called predator was actually a dear friend that she loved. She had gotten better about it over the years, sometimes she could even maintain it for a full conversation! But it took a lot out of her to do that, so she still didn't do it most of the time.

"Y-You know, the Japanese have a philosophy about stuff like this, I th-think it's called kintsugi." She began to fidget with her backpack as she spoke, pulling out her phone and her pack of beef jerky. "They say accidents are a part of an object's history, n-not something to hide away. Beautiful in their own right, r-rather than diminished."

Her breathing had returned to normal. The tears had stopped. Everything was going to be okay. She had a whole shelf full of sketchbooks with plenty of other drawings back home, she didn't necessarily need this one. If all else fails, she could always draw it again, and that was okay. That being said, she'd really like to stop thinking about this specifically right now.

"Just make sure to s-send the album to me, when you're done!" she chirped, "I-In the meantime, I had an idea."

She gestured to her phone. A change of subject was in order, and Katelyn was awfully good at drifting to whatever happened to pop into her mind.

"I wrote a l-little snippet a few days ago for a short story I was working on. Do you w-wanna hear it?"

[MK Kilmarnock]

That seemed to be a genuine reaction of happiness from her, and that was good enough for him. Hades grabbed his backpack from underneath the bench and opened it, tucking the repurposed portrait into a laminated folder and zipping everything back up.

"That's the thing with the broken bowls or vases, right?" he asked, referring to that Japanese philosophy. He'd seen a few images online dealing with it and found it to be a neat concept, regardless of whether or not he fully agreed with the philosophy attached to it. If that's what it reminded Kitty of, then she really did take something from what he'd done. That was good. Hades felt like he could breathe a bit easier now.

Noticing her drop from eye contact was no big deal to him. He turned back to his tray, drowning a tasteless fish stick in ketchup and taking a bite. Just like he figured, he tasted ketchup and nothing else. Well, ketchup was better than 'nothing else.' Chewing, he just turned back up to look in Kitty's direction, nodded to confirm he did in fact want to hear her work, and then resumed chewing.

[VoltTurtle]

Katelyn's lips curled up into a toothy smile. She could feel her fake fangs poking out, but she hoped they made her look cute in the quirky-girl-next-door way rather than stupid in the teenage-outcast-that-makes-you-cringe way. She was delighted that Hades was interested in her writing, but she was also equally nervous about it. She hadn't shown Hades any of her writing before, and she wasn't quite sure how he'd take it. He probably would like it. He should like it.

She hoped.

"I, um, d-don't normally share," she said, tapping her phone screen with her thumb to bring up the cloud service where she kept everything she wrote, "but I'll do my best."

She really wasn't a very good writer. She had received enough compliments on her artwork at this point to be able to say she's probably halfway decent at that, but her writing was a completely different story. Only the folks in her writing group ever saw what she wrote, and most of the time they didn't actually read it. The radio silence made it difficult for her to tell if anyone actually liked what she made, but she couldn't really blame them for that, since she only read ever read some of their writing in return.

"S-So, uh," she continued, just as her writing finally loaded, "I'll j-just, read it out t-to you..."

Her heartbeat began to speed up. Her therapist said she should share what she made more often. The first few times might be hard, but it would get easier. That's what she was told at least. Her own prior experience also supported that, but now that she was in the moment, she was starting to have doubts. Screw those doubts, though. She couldn't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, and she really liked omelets, even if breaking the eggs was hard and she usually got her fingers all gooey.

"A young, lone girl sat below a covered window, the dingy lighting straining her eyes and the rough, old floorboards prickling her feet. Small clouds of mist forming in front of her face with each breath as the cold air nipped at her fingers and toes. Small rays of sunset light filtered in through the curtains above. The c-coming night was going to be difficult, with her only clothes being her raincoat and an old, tattered dress."

As she read her story aloud, she tried to go slowly and enunciate. She usually used this kind of speaking voice during class projects, since it helped her avoid stuttering out of nervousness, though it didn't completely solve the issue. Volume was a bigger concern than the stuttering, since the ambient clusterfuck of noise that was the JEM cafeteria didn't exactly make for a good reading room, but if Hades couldn't make everything out, she could always send it to him later.

Oh gosh, what if he actually asked, would she actually send it? It might be easier for him to notice all the problems it had then. Except, no, she shouldn't worry about that, that's bad, worrying about stuff like that is bad. She should have faith, try not to lose herself to another downward spiral of self-loathing.

"She looked at the pile of empty cans and the empty water jug to her left, as she listened to the cries echoing outside. It was easy to tune out the constant, muffled sobbing once you were used to it. The long-limbed, bug-eyed monsters outside only ever stopped when it happened to rain."

"For a time, the girl stared off into space, trying to imagine herself exploring some forgotten woods with her friends. She m-missed them terribly, almost as much as she missed her parents. All of them were still out there, somewhere, but not as she once knew them. Sometimes, she swore she saw them out in the crowds, singing along with the rest. She hoped they were happy like they were, now."

Katelyn paused to sniffle. Guess she wasn't quite done with the milk freak-out just yet. That was okay, though. It was important to let her emotions return to normal on their own. Trying to force it wouldn't help.

"The darkness of night finally setting in was what finally woke from her stupor. She felt her stomach begin to growl, and she pulled out her can opener from her coat's pocket, only to stop in place when she looked back down at the empty cans and remembered. She leaned her head to one side, catching a glimpse of the empty k-kitchen one room over, all its cupboard doors thrown open, and most of its contents spilled out onto the floor. There wasn't any food left here, she had to hold out for it to rain again. She hoped the next house would have plenty of food for when winter really set in."

"Gingerly, she stood up, and pulled apart the curtain just enough so that one eye could see out, fear beginning to creep into her chest, muttering a prayer that there wouldn't be one of them just outside. She had already experienced enough near-misses getting spotted that way for one lifetime. When her eyes adjusted and she was greeted by an empty p-porch, she breathed a sigh of relief. Their big bug eyes weren't all that good, but unlike their shrunken ears, they actually worked, and she couldn't afford to be spotted, not unless it was raining."

"She spotted ten shambling figures outside. It didn't look like any were trying to wander their way in here, so she should be safe for the night. She closed the curtain back, trying her best to ignore the tightness in her belly and the dryness of her tongue, the empty c-cans and her long-depleted water jug mocking her as she trudged into this house's bedroom and curled up beneath its sheets."

"Morning seemed to come not long after she shut her eyes. She sat up abruptly, f-feeling a wave of calm wash over her as she began to hear the gentle pitter-patter of raindrops on the house's roof. Not long after came that same, eerie singing. She could never quite tell if there was a song in all those long, d-dissonant notes, but the sound was still music to her ears."

"She threw open the bedroom curtain, taking a good, l-long look at the creatures below. Their long, crooked teeth gnashed the air as they stared at the sky, their long, thick lips curling in time with their song. The n-neighborhood around them was just as wrecked as the last time she saw it. Only four houses were left on this street, before she would have to m-move onto another."

Katelyn stopped there, letting out a sigh of relief, the tension that had been building up in her mouth finally being released.

"Th-that's a-all I-I've g-got s-so far," she stammered out, "i-it's n-not th-that good, a-and I-I'm n-not s-so s-sure I'll m-make it i-into anything, b-but..."

She trailed off, unable to stutter out anything else, and unsure of how to finish her thought. Maybe Hades would finish it for her.

[MK Kilmarnock]

Hades waited for Kitty to finish, listening all the while.

He closed his eyes when listening to the story. Aside from the occasional stutter, it was like listening to an audiobook. Hades preferred those to regular books; closing his eyes freed him from visual distractions and let him visualize what he was hearing, which allowed him to more easily immerse himself in the material. A guidance counselor once told him that he was an auditory learner rather than a visual one. Maybe he had a point.

When no more words came, the mental image was brought to an abrupt halt. Hades opened his eyes, playing with one of his lip rings with his tongue as he considered what he'd just heard. "I knew there was a reason I liked the rain," he joked as the first thing that came to mind. He followed it with a more serious thought: "I was really wanting to know what happened next. I hope you keep it going." He stopped the subtle praise there, carefully meting it out since Kitty could get overwhelmed at times. After the remark, he looked up at her, smiled, and swung his leg back so he was sitting straight again.

"Let me know if you do."

[VoltTurtle]

"Y-you mean it?!"

The excitement in her voice was so palpable that Katelyn felt as if her eyes were sparkling. This was the first time she had actually shared her writing with anyone outside her writing group, and he actually liked it! For the briefest instant, she felt so happy that it was almost overwhelming. She could hardly even remember why she had been so upset just a few moments ago.

"I'll try to f-finish it! But my focus t-tends to change around a lot."

Katelyn looked away and pawed at her pack of beef jerky, peeling open the packaging like she were opening a fresh carcass. She briefly looked at her tray and the mess it had become, but pushed it an inch away and then bit off a chunk of the jerky. Just like always, it was dry, chewy, salty, but most importantly, delicious and densely meaty. It wasn't quite the same as biting into a nice, fresh, lightly roasted kill, but it was meat, and she could never complain about meat.

She swallowed her first bite, and looked back over at Hades.

"Um, wanna just... sit and enjoy each other's company n-now? Like normal?"

[MK Kilmarnock]

Hades shook his head a little bit, watching Kitty tear into the jerky. The girl was as close to an actual cat as a girl could get. He poked at the fish sticks on his tray as he pondered her question.

This was an unusually eventful lunch period. Normally how it went was, he sat down, she came, and they'd sit in silence for a while and eat. Hades didn't like to talk while eating, but listening was fine. Today had been a special case - Kitty needed him there for a little bit. She was okay now, so they could perhaps have a return to normal or whatever passed for it. "Sure," he said, taking a moment to think about something to get Kitty talking and keep her energy up. More importantly, something for him to listen to.

"Have you seen 'Happy Death Day'?" Hades asked, playing on their mutual love for horror. "I've been thinking about checking it out."

He dipped a fish stick into his ketchup and swirled it, leaning his chin on one hand.