“So should we dress?” Callahan says, “Or...”
Kingston shakes his head. “No. No. I mean, you can bout afterwards, if you want, but…I just figured this was the best place to do this.” He exhales sharply. “I know it's strange to even consider talking about next season, but?—”
“Ha.” Kai breathes out. “Understatement.”
“—the fact is,” Kingston goes on without missing a beat, “we should probably just continue as if everything's going to be normal. Same prep, same opponents.”
“You really think they'll send St. Ignaty’s over?” I mutter. “Come on.”
Kingston presses his lips together. “Regardless,” he says, voice slightly more taut, “I just think we should be prepared and not get caught unawares. And I think…” he trails off slightly. “I think a sport like this, the discipline is the point. And I don't mean that in my stupid, hard-ass way, like usual,” he says before Kai can even get a word in edgewise. “I just mean…there's a reason that this is the sport that we pursue alongside everything else we do, you know? It's centering, dignified. It requires precision and aggression, but also decorum and restraint. It's a balance.”
Or a contradiction, I think. But whatever.
“It's about more than just fencing,” Kingston concludes. “But it is, also, about fencing. So...” He exhales again. “I'm making Kai team captain.”
No one, and I mean no one, anticipates this coming from Kingston's mouth. Callahan's jaw drops. I hear myself gasp, which is kind of embarrassing. And Kai just looks…shell-shocked. Totally and completely stunned.
But only for a second or two. Then he smirks and shakes his head.
“Very funny, King,” he says. “Especially after all that stuff about discipline. You got me there. But seriously?—”
“Iamserious,” Kingston says. And his tone sounds it. “You're a better strategist, you're a more decisive leader, you're better with weaponry, you don’t…hesitate, you?—”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.” Kai swipes through the air like he's trying to push away Kingston's words. But he blinks, opens his mouth, shuts it. “King, she picked you. The fucking…spirit of theplace, or whatever. The lady. You held that crusty old sword and she hit you with lightning or whatever and?—”
“She's not on the team,” Kingston says dryly. “And also…” He struggles. “Also, I don’t care. Whatever help she's given us has been given. The sword's imbued if we ever need it for anything. And I just don’t…” Again he trails off. “It just should be you, Kai.”
The salle goes quiet. I stare at Kai, and then at Callahan for some reason, a prickling feeling of resentment rising in my stomach that has nothing to do with the topic at hand.
Then, finally, Kai sucks in a big dramatic breath, slaps his knees, and stands. “Kingston, respectfully, I decline.”
Kingston blinks. “What?”
“I decline,” Kai repeats. “I don't want it. Uneasy lies the head and all that.” He folds his arms. “I mean, look, it's not that I'm not power-hungry. I totally am. And I probably would be better at a lot of captaining stuff than you are, as you so kindly pointed out. But, like, that's the problem.”
Kingston, too, folds his arms. “I don't follow.”
“I want it,” Kai says. “I'm, like, passionate and aggro and all the things you just said. I'd probably let it go to my head. And,” he adds, “if I'm being perfectly honest? I don't want the responsibility. I don't want it to be my fault if something doesn't work out.” He pauses. “I'd rather let someone else be the whipping boy.”
He and Kingston lock eyes for a moment.
“So to speak,” Kai adds in a lower voice.
Kingston purses his lips, like he really hadn't anticipated something like this, and to be honest, I wouldn't have either. But I gotta hand it to Kai. It’s pretty mature of him. Mature of anyone, really, but extra if you’re Kai and starting from a disadvantage on that front.
“We could put it to a vote,” Cal offers. “I know that’s not how stuff works here, but?—”
Kingston considers. “You would all just vote for me anyway.”
“Yeah,” Cal admits. Kingston looks to me, and I nod, too.
“I mean, obviously, dude,” I say. “I’ve known you, like, forever. I trust you more than anyone else I know, I think.”
Kingston smiles, faintly but genuinely.
"All right," he says. Well... He lifts his hands and lowers them, letting them smack against his legs. "I guess I've been overruled."
"Long live the king," says Kai, smacking him on the back.
