Random Writings Of A Random Writer

A Bad Day - Tesserya and Kaiden

Tessa sat in her room, idly skimming the pages if a book she's read dozens of times. She was waiting for something, actually, someone. Her carracorri was late. She and Kaiden had agreed they'd hang out tonight, Read some books, talk, just be in each other's presence. Yet here Tessa was, and Kaiden wasn't. This has happened before, Kaiden would go home for a minute and get caught up one of his projects or his parents would need him at home. In the latter case he always made sure to contact Tessa and let her know, yet there had been no word from the boy. Tessa wasn't worried. But she couldn't help but be slightly perturbed at his disappearance.

Finally, almost two hours after the set time they wanted to meet, she heard the front door open and a familar voice called out her name. Tessa almost jumped from her seat and ran, but she contained herself and pretended not to hear. He reached her bedroom doorway with frantic breath. She looked up at with a half irritated, half concerned expression and was met with tired oakwood eyes and a face contorted in shame.

"Hey Tessa I'm so sorry. I know you wanted to hang out but I've had such a busy day and I lost track of time. I am really, really sorry." Kaiden blabbed with his hands gesturing wildly. He was clearly upset at having messed up with his timing yet again. One look at the boy told of how exhausted he was, and Tessa could hardly stay annoyed with him.

"You're alright Kay. What's wrong? You look upset." Tessa prodded as she stood up from the small couch. Kaiden took a small breath and answered.

"I'm ok, just a had a long day that's all." Tessa didn't buy it. Without word, she opened her arms invitingly and gave him an understanding smile. He sighed and walked straight into her arms, slumping his forehead onto her shoulder with a weary groan. Her arms found their way around him.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Tessa asked politely, knowing at times Kaiden would rather be comforted then interrogated, and vis versa.

"I can talk about it. Though there's not really an 'it' to talk about, I'm just tired." He mumbled. Tessa nodded and let go, walking over to the small sofa and patting the space next to her. Kaiden plodded over and sat down. She repeated the invitation and once again he flopped into her embrace. This time he hugged her back and rested his chin on her shoulder. She gave him a reassuring squeeze and waited patiently for him to continue.

"Well, I may or may not have stayed up super late because I was caught up on a project that I need to get done. And because of that I was late to academy. The day went by so slowly, I couldn't focus in class no matter how much I tried! And then I had combat practice because of course I did. I was doing really good until I shifted my weight the wrong way on my leg and lost balance. I was sparing with Rāsa, and you know how he is, so he laughed at me for falling." He paused to take a breath, letting it out in a frustarted sigh. "It's just that...no matter how much I improve my legs they'll never be as flexible or stable as real ones. I just- I just want to be normal." He finished his rant with a dramatic huff. Tessa humed sympathetically.  She brought a hand up to rub between his shoulder blades as she spoke.

"That sounds awful Kaiden, I'm sorry you had such a terrible day." She took a deep breath and hugged him tighter. "I want you to remember that your legs don't define you. I know how hard you've worked on them, but you're just as amazing with or without them. And I love you just as much." She encouraged.

Kaiden relaxed under her soft touch. Releasing a sigh and blushing slightly at her words. "Thank you, Tess. I love you."  He hummed. leaning his head against hers. They stayed like that for a few minutes before Tessa leaned back just enough to kiss his cheek. She patted his shoulder and pulled away fully. Kaiden leaned back with a much more content look on his face. Tessa smiled and stood.

"Are you feeling a little bit better?" She asked.

"Yeah." He responded.

"Good. Do you want to stay here and read for awhile?"

"Yeah."

"Ok great. I'm going to go get snacks, you want some?"

"Yeah."

Tessa rolled her eyes. "Is that the only thing you can say now?"

"...yeah." Kaiden flashed her a cheeky grin and she laughed, pushing his shoulder playfully as she walked by.

Once Tessa had come back with the snacks the two sat together contently on her couch. They held a book between them, both reading from the same page as they enjoyed their time together.