In the Willows

Chapter Thirty-Three: Vanguard

Two Months Later:

You wake up in the house you share with Alec. You sit up and look at the mysterious hat laying on your nightstand. You pick it up and fiddle with it hoping to get any memory from looking at it. The hat is stained with blood and the letter D is falling off.  You set the hat down and throw off the covers. You swing your legs over the side of the bed and walk to the door. You stop suddenly almost hitting the side of the doorframe. You step around and make it out the door and into the kitchen seeing an unfamiliar girl in a flannel shirt drinking from a coffee cup.

She stares at you then looks away "Hey, um..... "

You ignore her and grab your own coffee cup and fill it with coffee from the pot.

"Good morning Kai, plan on going out or staying inside again?" says Alec stepping out of his bedroom.

"I'm not in the mood Alec." you respond and finish your drink.

Alec turns to the girl and whispers something to her. She nods and retreats to Alec's bedroom.

"Interesting night I see." you say leaning on the counter.

"If you went out with me last night maybe it would've been interesting for you as well."

"And get gawked at? No, thank you."

"Kai you can't- "

"Its been two months!" you yell throwing your mug, "I can't go out like you can, be a functional human being without hearing about my fucking face!"

Alec steps forward and places a hand on your shoulder, "Stop letting people affect you man, fuck whatever they say because I know you're just as normal as anyone else."

You sigh rubbing your forehead in frustration, "I can't be working at the stables all my life."

"Then don't, you still need to see the King."

"Yeah, once I can stand on my own." you say motioning to the cane hanging by the door.

Alec walks to the door taking the cane and tosses it across the room, "You don't need that shit. You've been working on your coordination. Hell, you can ride a horse pretty good too."

You nod, "Maybe you're right. I'm just overthinking."

"You don't need the cane Kai. You can do it." he says patting your shoulder

The girl walks out Alec's room, "Alec I- "

"Yeah I had fun too, you know the usual spiel."

"Fucking asshole." she says storming out.

You look at Alec, "The usual spiel?"

Alec pushes you to the door, "You owe me a new mug."

Louis' POV:

You look at the people going about their day from the rocking chair on your porch. Omar has already left to work at the Tipsy Bison, leaving you alone. You rock back and forth seeing Josephine walking up.

"Morning." you say.

"Good morning to you." responds Josephine taking a seat on the other rocking chair.

Josephine has been training you as well as Kyan.

"How's Clementine?"

She shrugs her shoulders, "She's still giving me the cold shoulder, don't expect her to like me anytime soon."

"She still sick?"

"Yeah, sounded horrible this morning. Can't keep anything down still."

"Is she getting checked out today?"