Chapter 43 | Being Taken Care Of By My WIves

Chapter 43: Chapter 43 | Being Taken Care Of By My WIves

Kai woke up and immediately knew two things.

One. His ribs were worse than yesterday.

Two. Someone was in the kitchen.

He pressed his palm to the couch.

Shira. Her room. Still sleeping. Her rhythm deep and even.

Mira. The kitchen.

He sat up slowly. The left side registered its complaint with the specific unhappy quality of bruised bone that had stiffened overnight. He breathed through it and swung his legs off the couch.

He looked at the kitchen doorway.

Mira was standing at the counter. Cane in her right hand. Her left hand moving along the counter surface with the careful deliberate touch of someone navigating by memory. She found the kettle. Filled it at the tap. Set it back on the base.

She pressed the switch.

She stood there waiting for it to boil.

Kai sat on the couch and watched her.

She was in her sleeping clothes. Hair loose. The scarf she usually wore around her neck was not there and without it the thin scar line along the left side of her throat was visible in the early morning light.

He looked away from the scar immediately.

’That’s not your thing to look at,’ he thought.

He looked at the window instead.

The kettle clicked.

He heard her pour. The specific sounds of someone who had memorized the location of everything. Cup from the third cabinet. The cup setting down on the counter with exactly the right placement. No fumbling.

Then a second cup.

She poured a second cup.

She turned from the counter.

She aimed toward the couch with the accuracy she had been developing over three weeks. Her free hand came forward slightly, the cane sweeping once.

She held out the second cup in his direction.

Not quite the right angle. About ten centimeters off.

Kai reached out and closed the gap.

His fingers touched hers around the cup for a half second before she released it.

She was already turning back toward her room.

"Thank you," Kai said.

She stopped.

She did not turn around.

She stood in the kitchen doorway for a moment with her back to him.

Then she continued to her room and closed the door.

Kai sat on the couch with the cup in his hands.

’She made tea,’ he thought. ’At five in the morning. She was already up. She made two cups. She knew I was awake.’

He drank the tea.

’When did she start knowing when I’m awake,’ he thought.

He did not have an answer for that.

He drank the tea and watched the morning come in through the window and thought about something practical instead which was the formation age reading ability the system had unlocked and how to apply it in run two.

He was mostly successful at thinking about that.

—----------------------

Shira came out at seven.

She looked at him immediately. Left side. Same as yesterday.

"How bad," she said.

"Manageable," Kai said.

"That means worse than yesterday," she said.

"It means manageable," he said.

She looked at his left side for another moment with the expression she used when she was deciding whether to push the point.

She did not push the point.

She positioned herself at the table.

He set her bowl in front of her.

She looked at it.

Then she looked at him.

"Sit down," she said.

"I’m making Mira’s bowl," he said.

"I can see that," she said. "After that. Sit down."

He made Mira’s bowl and knocked on her door. Three knocks. She opened it and took the bowl herself which she had started doing three days ago and he had adapted to without comment.

He sat down across from Shira.

She was already eating. She waited until he picked up his spoon.

Then she said: "The ribs. You need to strap them before run two."

"I know," he said.

"Han Dori will have sports strapping in his kit," she said. "If he doesn’t you can get it from the equipment district. It won’t fix the bruising but it will stabilize the intercostal movement so the pain doesn’t affect your rotation."

"How do you know he’ll have it," Kai said.

"Every assessor carries a basic medical kit," Shira said. "It’s licensing board protocol."

Kai nodded. He wrote it in his head.

Strapping before run two. Ask Han Dori.

Shira ate.

"The formation age scan," Kai said. "The system unlocked it after run one. It reads the crystallization density of the elemental’s joint structure before engagement. Older formation means faster response interval."

Shira looked at her bowl.

"Two seconds of Nerve Sense focus before engagement gives you the formation reading," she said. "At your current range you can do it from ten meters without the elemental registering your presence. Stone elementals have a standard detection threshold of seven meters."

Kai looked at her.

"You know the detection threshold," he said.

"I cleared the Verren Caverns twice in my second year," she said. "B-tier run. The formation reading gives you the response interval in advance so you can preset your own timing before the engagement starts."

She said this to her bowl.

’She cleared the same dungeon I just ran,’ Kai thought. ’Twice. Second year. And she sat at home yesterday while I went in and counted it as a win when I came out with bruised ribs.’

He looked at her.

She was eating without looking at him. Hair slightly loose from the morning. The brace on her arm catching the kitchen light at a particular angle.

He looked at his bowl.

’Stop that,’ he thought. ’Eat your breakfast.’

He ate his breakfast.

—-----------

Mira came out after he had finished his bowl.

She navigated to the table and sat and found her bowl and ate without her whiteboard for the first morning he could remember. Just eating. Quietly.

Kai watched her eat without appearing to watch her eat.

She was doing the thing with her face that she did when she was thinking about something she had not decided to share yet. Her jaw had a particular set to it. Not tense. Considered.

Halfway through the bowl she put her spoon down.

She reached for the marker.

She held it for a moment.

She put it down without writing anything.

She picked up her spoon and kept eating.

Kai looked at his cup.

’She was going to write something,’ he thought. ’She decided not to.’

He did not ask what it was.

He refilled his tea and left a refill beside her hand where she would find it.

She found it about a minute later when she reached to set her spoon down. Her fingers touched the cup.

She paused.

She wrapped both hands around it.

She did not write anything about it.

She just held it.