Don't Blame Me {a Kas/Eddie Munson story}

22: It Takes Two To Tango***

"I can see it clear as day
You don't really need a break
Wanna see what you can take
You should really run away

I wanna do bad things to you
I wanna make you yell
I wanna do bad things to you
Don't wanna treat you well

Can't take it back once it's been set in motion
You know I need you for the oxytocin
If you find it hard to swallow, I can loosen up your collar
'Cause as long as you're still breathing
Don't you even think of leaving..."

-"Oxytocin", Billie Eilish

*****

Valentina Griffin had generally considered herself a strong person. She did her best to keep it together for Amelia when their mom was killed. She did her best to hold her head up high as she then tried to raise Amelia. Now that she had special abilities, Valentina felt as though it was her duty to master those skills and use them for the greater good. The practice felt relentless and every day Valentina had to dig into that inter strength to keep pushing forward. After two weeks of working around the clock with Kas and Eleven, she was finally getting the hang of it. She was getting stronger.

Except for today. Today was a fluke.

She'd been working on controlling lightning, a feat that even astounded Eleven herself, and there had been a...misfire of sorts. Valentina had been trying to guide the lightning to a pile of wood that Steve had spent a couple hours chopping and putting together. None of the women present complained about the view. But when it came to particularly massive bolts of lightning, Valentina was still struggling to get them under control. So instead of striking the wood pile, it struck the roof of Hopper's cabin. By this point, he was used to his immediate surroundings being in constant danger of destruction, so he just waltzed outside and stared at the flames on top of the cabin and sighed.

Thankfully, Valentina picked up on controlling the rain rather quickly. She'd heard that her mother was gifted with the elements, and credited her natural ability to her. Her use of fire was also something she felt much more comfortable with. She saw her friends every day, and every day they commented on her progress. They also commented on her growing array of minor injuries. On this particular day, it was a cut to her arm, just under her shoulder.

When she wasn't with the gang or Blake, she was with Kas. Kas picked up on her affinity for knives and had been working with her on fighting with them. They both agreed if there was anyone who should face the possibility of getting stabbed repeatedly by Valentina it should be him, considering the degree to which Valentina simply wanted to stab him, and his unique ability to recover quickly from each cut.

Kas was willing push Valentina to her comfort zone. He would put her in scenarios where she feared for her life and forced her to fight to survive. As much as she hated to admit it, it really did get easier every single time. But the night prior, she was trying to spin away from Kas when he went to stab her and grazed her arm with the blade. Valentina was only frustrated with herself for losing focus, not at Kas for actually hurting her. Valentina had no idea that if Kas had actually managed to get the blade to her chest, he'd never have actually stabbed her, so when she fought with him, she fought like her life was truly on the line.

Nowadays while Valentina was busy working or training, Kas had shifted his focus to a single target.

Blake Turner.

Kas followed him around from the time he woke up until he showed up at the autobody shop and all the way up until the moment he'd meet up with Valentina for one of their dates. Much to his aggravation, Valentina was still dating the guy. Though more aggravatingly, Kas couldn't find a single thing wrong with him. The only calls he made were to family and to his friends. He hung out with some of the guys in town and whenever Kas followed them he'd get so bored with their inane sports chatter or discussions about cars that he wanted to gouge his own eyes out. There were no secret girlfriends or secret lairs Blake snuck off to, and that made Kas want to send the demobats after him anyways.