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Things were weird between Molly and Kai today.
Where Molly used to value silence between them, it now felt like the most awkward period of time in existence. He'd even gotten up to put on music to try and avoid the painful silence.
Molly sat on the floor, her hair braided into two loose braids, as she worked on putting the ascendant back together on the coffee table in front of her.
Kai, who, for the first time, asked Molly's permission to take her magic, was practicing spells in the opposite corner of the living room.
Molly had only little bits of memory from last night. She woke up at around six and barfed up half her weight. She's been up chugging water since then.
Kai, had left Molly's room about an hour after she fell asleep. He knew that if she woke up and saw him there she'd have another freak out, and he wasn't really in the mood to handle one of those.
And he couldn't get the image of her holding a gun to her temple out of his head. But it was strangely comforting to know that other people dealt with things he has dealt with— and that he wasn't entirely alone.
Molly rubs her eyes and lets out a frustrated sigh. "Can you practice spells somewhere else?" She says, glancing up at Kai.
"Nope." Kai says.
"I can't focus." Molly says, after a pause.
"Not my problem." Kai says sending her a smile.
"It is, actually." Molly raises her eyebrows. "If I don't fix the ascendant, then what's the point of practicing your spells."
Kai rolls his eyes. "Fine." He walks over to her and plops down beside her, smiling at her cheekily as he waits for her response.
Molly decides to put the bickering aside. "Have you made any progress?" She asks.
"I might've." Kai responds.
She narrows her eyebrows at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"I might've made progress." He says, giving her the same confused look she gave him. "I thought you were supposed to be smart." Kai flicked her forehead and she swat his hand away.
"So now we're being secretive?" Molly says.
"Just making sure we're really on the same side before I tell you the real way out." He smiles. "Tactful thinking." He says as he shrugs happily. Molly sighs and turns back to face the ascendant. "Why does that look more broken than how it was when I gave it to you?" He questions.
"Because it's about as fragile as a flower and every time I touch it a new piece decides to break off." She rubs the corners of her eyes with her thumb and index finger in frustration and exhaustion. "Can't we just use the pile of pieces and hope it works. Like does it have to be put together?" She groans.
