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Kota didn’t protest, instead running ahead, getting doors for Victor.
Victor carried me all the way up the stairs to his bathroom.
“It’s ready,” Gabriel said. “It just warmed up. It’ll fill in a few minutes.”
Victor put me down delicately on the edge of the tub, remaining close. I glanced over and saw Kota, standing in the doorway, looking in. His eyes were wide, his lips pressed together like he wanted to say something, but he didn’t.
Victor was breathing a little heavily as he cupped my cheek. “Is this okay?”
I nodded.
“Do you want Gabriel to stay in here with you?”
I nodded again.
“Okay,” he said and he smiled tightly. “He’s going to stay here with you. I’ll get some breakfast for us. Do you want pancakes? Chocolate chip, right?”
I nodded, realizing how hungry I was, and yet still sorry for what had happened with Kota. Victor had yelled at him. I didn’t want them to hate each other now.
I thought after I was clean, and we had some breakfast, I would talk to them about it.
Victor turned halfway around, the full fire in his eyes an explosion as he faced Kota again. “Out,” he said. “Now.”
“I don’t...” Kota mumbled then glanced at me pleadingly before looking back at Victor. “I wanted to...”
“I don’t care what you want right now,” Victor said. He snapped his fingers, clapped once and then made a shooing motion toward him. “Get out.”
“I need to talk to her.”
“She’s had enough of you right now,” Victor said. “Trust me. Trust Gabriel. We’ve got her. Just step back and let her get herself together. Give her some time.”
Kota bowed his head and walked back out into the bedroom.
I let out a slow breath, still trembling, still feeling the cold of the concrete from the latrine at my back, despite having been in the car for so long. It was the first time I’d seen them have an out and out fight, and it was about me.
A minute later, Victor left, too, but before he closed the door, he looked at me and then at Gabriel. “No one comes in here until she’s ready.”
“Hell fucking right,” Gabriel said.
Victor twisted the lock on the door until it was set and closed it. The lock clicked into place as the door closed.
Gabriel reached for me. He was still wearing the pajamas. “Come on,” he said, in a much gentler voice. “The tub has enough water in it.”
Gabriel got me to release the towel, and I eased back slowly into the tub. I was still in my underwear, and I left them on. They were now dingy, dark pink material, possibly ruined, not that it mattered now.
The moment the water enveloped me, I felt all the dirt and sand again, the grossness of my hair, the stain of tears across my cheeks. I must have looked like a monster.
Victor’s tub was so big and round, that when I sat back where the seat bench was, Gabriel was too far away to reach.
He frowned. “Hey,” he said. “If I leave my boxers on, can I get in?”
I nodded and waved him in.
He stripped down, although his cheeks and ears turned bright red. His lean body wasn’t as dirty as mine, but he still had some splotches of dirt around his feet and some along his arms. His hair was wild, the brown sticking up at the back, the blond mixed in.
He left in his earrings, the pink crystal studs, the three black rings, and the one pink ring.
He lowered himself in, and then eased his way over until he was sitting beside me. “Okay,” he said with a sigh as he put a hand on my knee. “Now, sit back. Let’s just chill out for a minute.”
We found rolled-up towels nearby and used them as pillows. Once they were under our heads, we could relax in the tub and almost nap.
I didn’t want to nap, but it helped to calm my nerves. The water was still. Gabriel remained still.
Slowly, it started to sink in that we were back. Despite Kota and Victor being upset and how I needed to try to smooth things over with them, we were back home.
We had survived the week. And we had won.
“Gabriel,” I whispered.
“Hmmm,” he said, his eyes closed.
“I’m here for another six months,” I said. “At least until the school job is done.”
“I know,” he said and opened his eyes, lifting up his head. His crystal eyes glowed and his grin came back. “That’s plenty of time.”
“Is it?” I asked.
“Sure,” he said. “We’ll work on our family dynamic here. Kota knows now, well, we still need to tell him the details, but he seems willing. I mean, he doesn’t really understand, of course, but I bet once they’re done fighting, and we’ve all calmed down, we can work it out.”
I smiled, reaching for his hand. I squeezed it. “And then we can talk to council and make it official?”
“That’ll probably happen,” he said. “But next time, we’ll be ready for it.”
“You think they’ll let me in on the team?”
“Trouble, now that they know you’re a ghost, and how talented you are, I bet they’re out there right now thinking of what they could bribe you with to get you to stay.”
“I told them I just wanted...I wanted for me to be able to pay my own way in with favors and cash.”
He laughed. “You know what’s funny?”
I shook my head.
“They offered us to pay off all of our debts just to encourage you to join Carla and Lake. At least, up until you freaked out and came to them crying. We couldn’t do it. We said no.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Did you even know we said that?”
I shook my head, surprised. “You didn’t?”
“We were letting you make your own decision. We said we wouldn’t encourage you one way or the other.”
My heart pounded. They had given up favors and cash? “You...”
“We would have graduated, all of us in one day,” he said with a smile. “It was tempting. I couldn’t go through with it, though. My heart wasn’t in it. Neither were the others’.”
I sighed. “Maybe I should have asked them to graduate you all, too.”
“We’re fine,” he said. “Actually, with your coming into the Academy now, we’re still in the same place, just we don’t have to worry about any more costs on your part.” He lifted an eyebrow. “You know what? I don’t know what that means now. Does that mean everything until you’re an official member, or just your cost of membership, what they usually take in favors from us to bring in another team member?”
I wasn’t sure. “We’ll have to ask Kota. He was there. He could tell us.”
Gabriel was about to say something else when raised voices came through the closed door.
I groaned and braced to get up from the water.
Gabriel reached for me, taking my hand and tugging me back down. “Hang on,” he said. “Don’t worry. They won’t come in. They said not to let anyone in...”
“I just don’t want Victor yelling at Kota anymore,” I said. I pulled away from him. “Not about the shower.”
“They might not be yelling about that,” he said, getting up, the water flowing off him, the boxers clinging to his body.
“I’ll listen,” I said, standing up beside him. “If it’s about something else, I’ll come back.” I threw the towel I’d brought in to the floor and stepped on it so I wouldn’t drip all over the place.
Gabriel followed. He wasn’t going to give me an inch of space, and I didn’t mind.
No matter what, we’d get through it. It’d be fine.
I put my ear to the door and listened.
Gabriel did as well.
And we heard it all.
~ A ~
