[multiple locks]

[doyoulikecake]

[locked to Molly]

Quit breaking my toys, will you? :P

[locked to Lily]

[in Japanese] I have a couple surprises for you. I miss you, kiddo.

Comments

[continuing off above thread]

[doyoulikecake]

The hospital tends to make an exception for wards visiting Guardians. Given that this is the kind of hospital that has Healing Angels on staff just in case, it can only be expected that they'd be understanding about it. And they've noticed that Lily does better -- usually -- when Kaden's around. So as long as he shows up at a reasonable hour, they tend to let him stay a bit later than they might anyone else

[idontlikecake]

"A case study on AoVs," Lily says, sighing. "I got it off the AoKBoS, through my magical powers of persuasion, but it seems they don't have any decent data on them."

Or at least, they don't have any data on them that they were willing to share with her. Her name might get her access to a lot of their data, but at the same time, it is an ethics-violation warning flag, even if nothing can be proven.

"Also, you're late." This, according to her tone, is far more important than the research she is doing. She stiffens slightly, staring down at the papers in front of her intently. She's not returning his gestures of affection until he apologizes for making her think he wasn't coming. Of course, it's not like she has a lot of room to talk, in regards to abandonment issues.

[doyoulikecake]

Kaden notices the stiffening, the way she doesn't return the gesture, and stifles a frown. Fine, if she wants to be like that. So he just ruffles her hair, messing it up extra, and goes to sit at the foot of her bed, crosslegged. Getting his shoes all over your blankets: it's what he do. At least, it's what he do to his sister.

"This still part of your pet project?" he asks. "You might have better luck asking about the wingless, rather than AoVs specifically. Or you could prod around the family and see if anyone has any leftover data lying around." Most of the data from WWII was put away, but he knows that they'd be able to get their hands on it if they asked the right relatives.

He shrugs. "And I was late because I got halfway here and then realized I left the pictures at home," he says, leaning across the bed to grab his coat. "Did Midori tell you we have a new sister?"

[idontlikecake]

"Yeah, because if I go poking around the Board asking for data on the wingless, they'll totally hand it right over to me!" Lily says, sounding annoyed. "Just because my family did some not-exactly kosher things during the war doesn't mean that all of us spend our spare time torturing people in the name of science. And they should just give me their stupid data."

Not that the Board would be giving her any data, if it weren't for her name. She sighs, putting down her highlighter and shrugging. "And it's difficult for me to tell if old wingless data will even do that much for me. AoVs are different. Their Callings manifest so specifically and focus so hard. I'm not sure that studying, say, a guardian or a children's angel with no wings will give anything near the kind of results I need. The only comparable Callings I can think of would be the ones in our family, and I doubt there's any data in that range

[doyoulikecake]

"That's why I amended my suggestion," Kaden points out. "Family's a lot less likely to hoard information for the sake of hoarding information." That's not entirely a lie; the family's more likely to hoard the information to get something out of whoever wants said information. That's easier to work with than a bunch of stuffy Board of the Sciences librarians anyway

[idontlikecake]

Lily takes the pictures from her brother, dropping them on top of the papers she's working on. She was trying to remove some of the sketch from what she's working on, by covering it with adorable pictures of her baby sister, but instead, it only seems to make things sketchier. She pushes the pictures to the side

[doyoulikecake]

Kaden's noticed how she's acting, but he's not going to give up the fight yet. If she's upset, she can either quit being a child about it or sit there and sulk and he'll talk about what he wants. If she doesn't want to enjoy his company, that's her own problem.

Besides, she's the one who keeps trying to escape him, by any means possible. She doesn't get to be hurt that he didn't show up immediately, if she doesn't even really want him there in the first place.

So all he says on the matter is, "Not absolutely no way." But he's not going to promise her anything. Not while she's acting like this. "Apparently she's being a right terror, which is, you know, what babies do. I wonder if Midori'd forgotten that or if she was just so desperate to replace us that she didn't care."

[idontlikecake]

"Well, I guess if I gave them decent enough blackmail on myself and submitted a decent enough proposal, they can't say no," she says, picking her highlighter up again. She almost immediately puts it back down, reminding herself that this isn't the time to even be thinking about her research. She needs to be making appropriate small talk with her brother about their terror of a sibling. Sibling that she didn't know about

[doyoulikecake]

"That was a concern," he says. "Whether or not she could handle Naomi. She was worried she wasn't going to be able to make it to Christmas this year -- still doesn't know if she will." He shrugs, staring up at the ceiling. "I guess it'd be as good an excuse as any

[idontlikecake]

The only problem here, Kaden, is that your sister knows you almost as well as you know her. Which is why she's not really going to put up with this smalltalk bullshit much longer.

However, she does need to say, "I guess we'll have to drop by before we go to Japan, and say hello to both of them, then." Apparently she needs to get the last smalltalk in or something. It doesn't even matter.

Which is why she finally says, "But that's not even what you want to talk about." She presses her lips together, and takes in a long breath through her nose, doing her best not to look huffy. "So do you mind respecting me enough to tell me what you actually came here for?"

She pauses, looking appalled. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for that to come out like that..."

[doyoulikecake]

He nods. "I figured we were going to do that anyway, given we're booked to fly out of LAX, not O'Hare. Well, rather, that we're flying out of LAX to go to Japan. O'Hare's kind of unavoidable if we want to get home."

He just stares at her when she brings up the fact that he doesn't want to talk about it. Of course he doesn't want to talk about it. But he'd rather talk about visiting the family than her stupid research, right now.

And like hell he's going to bring up what he actually wants to say. He knows how that conversation will go.

"I'm going to detox next week," he says with a shrug.

[idontlikecake]

Well, that rips her attention from her research rather quickly. She just stares at her brother, almost afraid to blink.

"You know," she says, choosing her words carefully. "When you said you had two surprises for me, I didn't imagine one of them would be so unpleasant."

Who is she kidding? This is Kaden, after all. She should be pleasantly surprised that one of them was nice at all. Even if she can't properly focus on the pictures. She'll be happy enough to sort through them later.

She shouldn't have let herself dig through this paper, right before he was about to get here, but he was late, and she hadn't really thought he was coming.

[doyoulikecake]

"Did I ever promise just two?" he quips, still not looking at her. Of course she'll care if it's something that hurts her. It seems that's the only time she's paid much attention to him at all, lately. It's part of why he's spending so much time on his experiments, both at work and at the Kashtta.

If she wanted him to pay more attention to her, maybe she shouldn't have called Ken.

"It's better if I do it now, while you're here, rather than incapacitating you when you have class and work to deal with," he continues, finally dropping his eyes to look at her, meet her stare. "Particularly since I know the staff here will understand that it's not you. And it's not like it's even going to last half as long as a reset."

[idontlikecake]

"Well, you said a couple, so I figured it was two," Lily says, trying not to be angry at him. But she's so frustrated from his reset and while he says that they understand it's not her, they don't really. They don't understand how much Kaden affects her. How strong their bond is.

The moment his eyes meet hers, she looks away, not able to take his gaze. "It's not like I get any say in the matter," she says, doing her best to keep her tone level.

It's not like she's had any autonomy since he's come back. It's just been more and more hurt. Nothing else.

[doyoulikecake]

He shrugs. Outwardly, he looks perfectly fine, relaxed even. But he knows she can feel his frustration and his hurt, and he knows she doesn't care, which is starting to make him angry. And when he speaks again, his voice is getting closer and closer to deadpan. "Might be, as I think I left all the rest of the good surprises at home."

But for all that his voice is flattening out, his tone is still even, amiable. "If you're not going to have any say, then I guess you wouldn't, but if you have a better idea, by all means, let me know."

[idontlikecake]

"Like you'd even listen to anything I had to say if I said it," Lily says, blinking slowly. She seems calm herself, but he can read her tells, that slight twitch there, her breathing just a bit too fast. She's not very happy about Halloween. Not at all. And the fact that he didn't even bring her stuff only makes things worse. Of course he didn't. He's punishing her for things that he did.

"I'm the stupid one, remember?"

Because she is feeling stupid right now. Stupid. Left out. Discarded. Unloved. She did everything for him, because she loved him, and then he treats her like this? This -- this isn't even how he usually treats her when he's feeling this way, which scares her. She thought she knew him.

Apparently, he's changed. That part wasn't a lie, at least.