Aqualad (Aquagirl Companion)

17

Even as focused as I was, I could feel the curious eyes drilling into my back. The fine hairs on my neck and arms stood on end, and panic raced through my spine. I froze in the middle of punch, before following through it. A loud thud echoed through the training room, and blood spattered from my hand. Kaldur kept watching me. I knew it was him. The judgement, the gaze that picked apart my every movement, I'd know it anywhere.

I sucked in a deep breath, pressed my forehead to the bag, and waited.

"I thought that--"

"You thought what?" I asked. "That I do not know what you've said? That I would care enough to abide by it?"

Kaldur sighed. His hand brushed my shoulder before falling away. A cruel mockery of what it should have been. "If you cannot care for yourself, how can I trust you not to put the others in danger?"

I glared at him. "You know I won't."

"Do I?" He raised an eyebrow, and I scowled. "How many died? How many people have ended up dead and dying around you?" His eyes widened when I yanked him down by his shirt. Anger coursed through my veins. Pipes rattled in the wall. 

"Never think that I wanted that to happen."

He wrapped his hand around my wrist, and I didn't expect the surge of anger from him. "It came to pass all the same," he said. Then he tugged at my hand. It came free from his shirt, and he looked at it. "You have done a number on yourself," he mumbled, probably not realizing he said it. His lips twisted into a frown. The soft pad of his thumb brushed along the ridges of my knuckles. I swallowed. His eyes flicked to mine. He stopped. For a moment, I thought, I really really thought, he would grab the bandages on the bench and help me the way he always did. Sit me down and scold me in the same tone Mother used. He'd wrap my hands until I couldn't move my fingers. He'd pull me into a tight hug and rock me while calling me stupid in the nicest ways he could think of.

He didn't.

And so I had to do that myself. The entire time, he watched me. As I berated myself for getting caught, for not being smarter, I found myself wanting to turn to him. A part of me wanted to ask him for help. Just to get some sad mockery.

I didn't.

"Either you prove to me you can handle being here, both emotionally and physically, or you leave," said Kaldur.

"What are you going to do? Fight me and force me to leave?"

"If it comes down to it."

"Why are you being such a jerk?"

His eyes met mine. "I am treating you the way you deserve to be. The way that deep down you know you deserve to be treated."

I fell back a step. The bench dug into the back of my knees. "I can't...I cannot believe you."

"Slip up?" An eyebrow quirked up, before quickly being worked back into his scowl. "You cannot believe I am calling you out for all of the things that you have brought about? All of the deaths that have happened around you despite all your promises?" I flinched back at his volume. "You cannot believe I wish to keep my friends from falling victim to the same fates?"

My breathing hitched. I looked away. The walls of the room were all so interesting, far more so than Kaldur.

"Stop crying," he said. "You have always said that life is like a game to you, so why should this matter be any different? It's not serious." He sighed. "You of all people should understand why I push this, and just how much you mess things up. Why did our king bring you here in the first place? All you ever do is bring suffering and death."

I gritted my teeth. I'd planned on going back to sleep. Guess that wasn't going to happen. Thud. Thud. Thud. Over and over, the noises allowed me to lose myself. At the very least, it allowed that until the hard chink of a chain snapping which sent the bag crashing to the ground. My chest heaved. I couldn't suck in enough air.

Why.

Why does he have to do this to me?

"Why are you even still here?" I wheezed. His hands brushed over my arms, giving enough pressure to steady me. Something clicked in his pocket. I didn't ask, not even when his hands moved past my head.

The beads pressed tight into my neck. For a moment, I was back on the battlefield. The blood dripping from my hands, the ache in my muscles, all of it was the same. My fingers scrambled to gain purchase, locking around the leather cord and breaking it with a snap. Clay beads scattered across the floor. All instincts sent me curling in on myself, crying withheld until one sob came loose. "Why-" I said. "Why would you do that?!"

"Percy."

"Go. If you are going to keep lecturing me, just- just leave me alone." I sank to the floor before pressing my forehead against the cold stone floor. No matter how much I touched my throat, I could still feel the cord there.

"You have one more chance. This is the final one I will give you, so I suggest you do not screw it up." The door closed behind him, as he left me to cry. This isn't how this should be. I wanted him to sit next to me and hold me. Pull me against him and tell me everything would be fine. Sing that old lullaby Mother taught us and let me fall asleep on his shoulder. We're twins. We shouldn't be at each others throats. Not like this at the very least. Nothing should be making him tell me this, and nothing would under normal circumstances, so am I really that messed up?

I sniffled and picked myself up. The answer didn't really matter, did it? Even if I am, it didn't give him the right to treat me like this.

I am actually alive hello!

And now i shall disappear back into the void (And potentially edit this chapter. Remember to vote and comment!)

See yah