Perspectives

Chapter 12

As he had been talking to his father, Kalen had been keenly aware of the small body being held against his chest in the inner pocket of his vest. He could even feel the tiny movements caused by her breathing, his own breathing in comparison felt so oversized. It was a sharp contrast to be sure.

And then there was the fact that she had heard every word of the conversation between him and his father. His relationship with his parents was complicated, and he didn't want anyone, especially this human, judging it based on a conversation they'd just overheard. He was well aware that his relationship with his parents was...difficult, but an outsider like Piper just wouldn't understand.

"Damn override code." Kalen grumbled in irritation, cursing the code his parents possessed that allowed them to override the electronic lock on his bedroom door. Were it not for his quick reaction in getting Piper hidden, she would have been revealed to his father. Not only had Kalen been ordered by Rothgard not to make the human's existence known to anyone else before the meeting, but for whatever reason Kalen didn't like the idea of his father knowing of Piper's presence, at least not yet.

Kalen made his way over to his bed before he slipped his fingers into the pocket in his vest containing Piper. It took only a moment for his fingers to locate her small squirming body and pull her out. The feeling of holding a living person in his hand was still as strange and electric as before, he wondered if it'd ever lose its novelty. 

After depositing Piper on the left side of the bed, Kalen moved around to the other side and sprawled himself out, leaning against the large wooden headboard with his pillow behind him. The amount of space his body took up in comparison to Piper's was laughable, even the pillow would be too big to be a bed for her. Pictures in textbooks really didn't get across just how tiny humans were.

Kalen glanced down and watched as Piper turned to look at him, jumping a good distance into the air as she took notice of him laying there. 

"Oh, Jesus." She breathed, pressing a hand against her chest as if trying to slow her erratic heartbeat. "How the hell can someone so massive sneak up on me?" She asked, running a hand down her face.

Kalen chuckled, "Must not be very perceptive." Kalen earned an eye roll in response.

"My eyes were adjusting to the light after being taken out of your dark ass pocket. Thanks for that by the way." Piper shot back irritably.

"Would you have preferred I let my father see you? Something tells me you're not particularly eager to be exposed to other 'giants'." Kalen conjectured, using his fingers to create air-quotes around the word giants. 

Despite how small her face was, Kalen noticed a tinge of red forming on Piper's face. Clearly he had hit the nail on the head with that guess.

"Doesn't mean I want to be stuffed into your stupid pocket." Kalen could just barely hear Piper's low grumbling. She always seemed to want to get in the last word, a trait Kalen shared.

Kalen glanced down to see Piper trying to make her way towards the pillow on that side of the bed. However the cushiony surface of the bed was proving to be a challenge for her to gain good footing. Kalen snickered as he watched her trudge her way towards the pillow, it was like watching someone trying to walk through loose sand on the beach.

"Just shut up, Kal." Piper called without removing focus from her trek across the bed.

Kalen eyebrows shot up at Piper's reference to him as 'Kal'. Did she just give him a nickname? Nicknames weren't common in Amasis among those over the age of 12. It was considered childish and improper, especially from someone you didn't know all that well. And yet Piper, someone he had not only met just yesterday, but had met in incredibly unusual circumstances, had just given him one. "Did you just call me 'Kal'?" He asked her.

Piper, who had finally made it to the pillow and slumped down in front of it, shrugged. "Yeah, Kalen..Kal, just shortened your name to less syllables to make it easier for me." She said casually.

Kalen made a tch sound and rolled his eyes. "Oh, should I call you 'Pipe' then, to make it easier on me?" He asked, raising an impish eyebrow at her.

Piper snorted, "Yeah, maybe if I was stoner." Kalen hadn't the slightest clue what a 'stoner' was. He figured it must be a human thing. He could only guess it was someone who collected stones or something. 

Piper must have took notice of the look of confusion on Kalen's face as she sniggered lightly before asking, "Do you not know what that means?"

Kalen scoffed, "Well sorry if I don't know all of your silly human words." Piper just chuckled in response.

"A stoner is what you call someone who smokes a lot of weed. You do know what weed is, right?" She asked with a smirk.

"Other than the plants that you pull out of a garden?" Kalen asked. He was vaguely aware that humans often smoked things like tobacco for pleasure or whatever. It was a habit humans had that Amasisians, himself included, often looked down on. It was horrible for health, a fact humans were aware of, and yet they did it anyway. He didn't understand why they'd knowingly do something so careless and idiotic. Regardless, he couldn't imagine why anyone would smoke a weed.

"Well, it is a plant, but not the kind you just find in your garden. It's a drug." Piper explained with a smirk. "Do you have drugs in this dimension?" She asked with a raised brow.

"Medicinal ones, yes. There are some who abuse them, but it's not a common practice." He told her. The government had cracked down hard on illegal drug use decades ago. Nowadays very few risked abusing drugs, as getting caught would land them half a lifetime in prison detention.

"Huh, weird. I know of at least like twenty people at my school who do some kind of drugs on the regular." She said, a distant look coming over her face as though she was remembering something. Kalen wondered if she was missing her home, her dimension. She hadn't been here even a full day yet, but in that time she had learned that the universe was a lot bigger than she had known.

Kalen had gotten himself lost in thought, he was pulled out when Piper suddenly spoke up again. "So you don't have anything better to do than just sit around in your room? I thought you were some big important Lord guy or whatever." She commented.

"It's my day off. Normally I'd have lessons." He told her with a shrug. The timing had worked out well. Had he had his lessons he wouldn't have been able to keep an eye on the human and instead would have had to keep her locked away somewhere. 

"So what do you usually do on your days off?" Piper questioned, now leaning back on her hands with her legs out in front of her.

If Kalen was honest, he usually spent his time off of his responsibilities just sitting in his room watching movies and television programs. Occasionally he'd go out with a friend, though the word 'friend' was subjective. More often than not they were professional acquaintances he knew through his parents, and time spent with them mostly consisted of work related discussion.

Normally Kalen would turn on the news, as knowing what was going on in the world was an important part of what would one day be his job as Lord. However he had a feeling the Sovereign Council would see allowing the human to watch the news as giving her too much information on Amasis. He wondered if a movie would be fine, as long as it wasn't based on reality or anything. They needed something to pass the time anyway.

Kalen glanced down at Piper who was looking up at him, still waiting for his response. He gave her a smirk, "How about a movie?"