Do You Blame Yourself?

[Chapter 6] - Strings and Kits

Some things never change. Kwazii woke up at around 5 AM once again and walked out of his pod. As he walked towards the kitchen, he noticed light pouring out of the crack in between the sick bay door and the floor. Kwazii walked over to the door and he raised his hand to open the door, but he stopped.

He just couldn't, and he didn't know why.

His hands were shaking and he felt as if he were sinking into the floor. He felt as if something was pulling him away from the door with invisible strings. Kwazii could feel himself tensing up, and he backed away from the door. Then, he reluctantly moved forwards and opened the door. He looked around, and in the corner of the room, just sitting there, was Peso.
"Peso?" Kwazii asked. Peso whipped his head around, his hair falling in front of his eyes.
"Oh, hi Kwazii!" he said, brushing his hair away from his eyes.
"Why are you awake? It's five in the morning," Kwazii said, stepping into the room.
"I'm trying to find something," Peso stated, turning around and going back to searching through a cardboard box.

"Well, I bet I can help, what are ya looking for?" Kwazii questioned.
"Nothing of importance. If I don't find it, it won't be that big of a deal," Peso said. Kwazii rolled his eyes and wandered over to the corner.
"Let me help."
"Kwaz, I'm fine-"
"Just let me help," Kwazii demanded before crouching down. The two were now at the same level. They looked at each other.
"I'm just looking for a case of craft supplies," Peso said, glancing at Kwazii. "Is that what you wanted to hear?"

Kwazii shrugged. "Wasn't what I was expecting, but go off I guess." Peso sighed quietly.
"Are you a bad mood today or something? Is something wrong?" Kwazii asked.
Peso looked over at Kwazii with a frown. "No, everything is fine. I'm just a bit stressed," he said, looking back to the box.

Kwazii had no idea what to do. He wasn't the greatest at comforting people, he would just let the person rant to him. He was never good at physically comforting a person. He sat down on the floor and put a hand on Peso's back.

Something the captain always does whenever Kwazii was upset.

"It's all right to be stressed. Life can be overwhelming, and sometimes it swallows us in darkness. But there's always light at the end of the tunnel, matey!" Kwazii exclaimed. Peso looked at him, and then back to the box.
"But what if that light is coming from an oncoming train?" he asked.
"Well- actually I've never thought of it like that," Kwazii said.
"Kwaz, you're an optimistic person. You look at life in a good way. I don't. I look at every other possibility that could happen in a situation," Peso said.
"I look at life like it's a giant sea monster when it's really just a crab," Kwazii pointed out.
Peso chuckled and smiled. "I guess you do have a point," he said. He glanced over towards a metal shelf next to the cardboard box. His eyes sparkled and he sat up and reached for the handle. The two looked inside just to see a dark blue case.

"There it is!" Peso exclaimed, grabbing the case and holding it high in the air.
"What's in there?" Kwazii asked, tilting his head in wonder. Peso opened the case to see what was inside. He didn't even remember, and he was the one who put it there. Inside the case, there were small sections filled with different colored rubber bands.
"Ooh, I remember these now!" Peso said smiling.
"Are those what you use when you make those rubber bracelets?" Kwazii asked. Peso nodded. "Oh..." he managed to say before his words trailed off.
"Wanna try and make some bracelets?" Peso asked. "I mean, only if you want to, that is," he said. Kwazii smiled.
"Sure, but we'd have to go to one of our pods so we don't wake up the others," Kwazii pointed out.
"We could just go to mine," they both said at the same time. They stared at each other with wide eyes.
"Uh..." Kwazii muttered.
"That was weird," Peso said with a laugh.
"Yeah, definitely," Kwazii said, laughing.

"Let's just go to my pod," Peso said, standing up. He held both his hands out to Kwazii to help him up. "You're taller than me, so I'm gonna need a whole lot of strength for this," Peso said. He hoisted Kwazii up onto his feet and he grabbed the case.

"Come on, we've got no time to waste!" Peso said, grabbing Kwazii's right hand. He was very cautious when it came to doing stuff like that. He didn't want to accidentally grab Kwazii's left hand and hurt his arm.

"All right, do you know how to make these?" Peso asked, flopping onto his bed and reopening the case of rubber bands.
"I remember a bit, but that's about it, matey," Kwazii said, sitting down in front of Peso.
"That's okay! I can teach you a few things," Peso said, grinning like a little kid. Kwazii smiled softly as Peso explained everything you had to do to make specific bracelets.

A few hours might have passed by now, and everyone was doing their own thing.
"Hey, has anyone seen Kwazii and Peso today?" Tweak asked. Everyone stopped.
"Tweak has a point. Where are they?" Dashi asked.
Shellington snickered. "Put two and two together," he said. Barnacles looked over at Shellington and paused.
"Maybe Peso is talking to Kwazii about something to do with his injury," Inkling said.
"Hmm... maybe," Barnacles stated.
"Probably. They'll be out in a minute," Dashi said.

"I can't seem to get this one down," Kwazii said, positioning his fingers so he could wrap yet another rubber band around them.
"That one is kind of hard. It's okay if you don't get it on the first try," Peso said, smiling.
"Because if it looks bad on the first try, you just have to keep trying until you get it done the right way," Kwazii said. Peso looked up.
"Yeah. Exactly."

Words: 1037 Words
you guys: we need more kwaso chapters
me: sad kwaso chapters
you guys: wait no
here is the calm before the storm
;)