Boy of Light and Dust

Ica

Ica tried his best to relax in his room after letting Dayin return to his own room by himself. It had been a long time since he'd left the school grounds and an even longer time since he'd openly talked about how weak his magic was to anyone. He still wasn't entirely sure why he'd mentioned it to Dayin. It's not like he really cared or even understood.

Max was in a relatively good mood when he'd opened the door. He'd done as Ica had asked him and picked up his blankets that had previously layered the living area. In fact, by the time he'd gotten back from helping Dayin, Max was already in his pajamas and sitting on the sofa, waiting for Ica to get back.

"I like him," Max said with a smile as Ica sat down on the couch beside him. "He was nice."

Ica pressed a smile. "He was pretty nice," he agreed. "But I'm gonna need you to leave him alone for a bit. He's not used to people like us—"

"Like us?" Max said with his head cocked to the side in question, his brown hair falling into his eyes. "He seemed pretty normal to me."

He almost laughed at his little brother. "He's used to royalty stuff, Max," he said. "He's not used to normal people. He'll get used to us. But for now, I need you to not do what you usually do with new people—"

Max frowned. "But he's interesting," he sighed, flopping on to the pillow on the arm of the couch, looking sad. "I just want new friends. Jenny won't let me talk to Samantha."

"That's because he's a dick."

"I thought you said that was a bad word."

"For you," Ica said, mussing up Max's hair with his hand. He grinned at him. "For me, no."

Max sat up and brushed his hair flat against his skull and glared at Ica. "That's not fair."

"Life isn't fair, Max," Ica laughed as he pushed himself off the couch. "You wanna come down to the food port with me? No, you don't have to change out of your pajamas. Nobody is going to care."

Max brightened at that. "Sure!" he said as he jumped to his feet. "Maybe Samantha will be there, and Jenny won't."

"I wouldn't count on it," Ica said with a frown as he walked toward the door with Max at his heels. "Jensen seems to be everywhere we don't want him to be."

"Maybe that's his magic," Max suggested. Ica snorted. "I mean, he always seems to be wherever we're at."

"Tracking magic?" Ica asked with an eyebrow raised, allowing Max to follow him through the door before he turned to close it behind them. "Is that the word you're looking for?"

"Yeah! That one," Max laughed. "Maybe Jenny studies that one."

"Maybe," Ica agreed, though he knew tracking magic wasn't Jensen's specialty. Jensen focused on healing magic more so than any other magic, though he was very talented when it came to defensive and offensive magic as well; he knew from experience. They tended to take their arguments too far, and they usually ended up with at least one of them in the infirmary after Chloe stopped them from hurting each other even more.

"Ica?" Max asked, his voice low as they started down the torturous stairs.

"Hm?"

"I'm sorry that Jensen's so mean to you," Max said, sounding sad. Ica felt his heart ache for his little brother, who didn't understand. "Finn and Samantha are so nice... Why is he so mean?"

Ica glanced at his little brother with a small, sad smile. "Oh, Max. It's nothing you need to worry about. Jensen's just got a stick stuck up his ass. Eventually, he'll figure out how to remove it, and maybe he'll be a decent human being." He had to stifle his laughter because, while what he said was amusing, it was still serious. Max didn't need to worry about his issues with Jensen. He just wished that Jensen would leave Max out of it. It wasn't like Max understood.