Kaden had been trying his best not to act like he needed help since they got back. It meant avoiding the urge to get up and pace the halls late at night so Marcie didn’t worry about him not sleeping enough, and not letting himself admit in her hearing that college was a bit of a long shot since he figured it was more likely some Olympian’d pick him off before then. It meant hiding the fact that the charms he could see round the hotel played funny tricks with his eyes, too, and the vivid dreams of running across grass on four legs.
The biggest thing of all, though, the thing he was sure was gonna reignite discussions about therapy if Marcie found out, was all based round one little thing.
One little biiiig thing.
Which was why he’d wanted her out of the hotel before he approached it, so she wouldn’t look at him sideways and go umm in that I don’t know what to do about what’s wrong with you Marcie way.
On Thanksgiving, while Marcie was out, Kaden wandered down the Enodia halls like he was casual, like he wasn’t doing anything in particular, like he had no destination, like it was a surprise when he ended up at the room down on the third floor where Hecate was staying to be close by while they settled in. Hecate and her baby.
The baby she’d taken from the mother and was hiding from the father and the baby who was bigger than Lil T was when Kaden knew him but a lot smaller than Lil T would be now. That baby. The baby he found himself gravitating to, almost on the daily, now. Clementine whose father was bad, although that was all Hecate would tell him. Her father was terrible and her mother could not mother her and so Hecate was keeping her safe and every day Kaden would sit beside her and watch her sleep, or lie on the floor with her and watch her smile, or feel like she was detonating all ability he had to think when she cried.
He didn’t think Hecate was encouraging him but nor was she stopping him. She watched him walk Clementine down the halls or round the roof courtyard and whatever she was thinking, she kept to herself, and Kaden definitely wasn’t going to ask. Hecate just kept working on whatever little project she was working on (always the same one, whenever he saw her, the same small black drawstring bag tied to her belt) and sometimes she’d smile and sometimes she’d run a hand over his hair.
Kaden liked that, the hair thing. Almost worth coming back to NYC for.
~
Doing school online was rubbish, though. Kaden’s motivation was in the gutter, but he’d promised Marcie, and so every morning he got up and slumped out to the kitchen to pile breakfast onto his plate. A big breakfast, every morning, and not just because he was hungry every morning but because it meant he could take a good long time eating it before he had to open his laptop.
It wasn’t the topics, so much, it was just… doing it by himself wasn’t school. He missed fighting Ruth for top of the class. Kaden couldn’t find any desire to be top of the class on his own.
He was rubbing at a dried patch of drool on his cheek as he walked past Marcie on the couch on his way to the kitchen, buried underneath a fuzzy blanket. “You want maybe sausages for breakfast?” he asked, by way of greeting, opening the fridge to peer through the options.