Back at the motel saw us shower and change, with me rummaging through the duffel bag I had tucked away under the bed, looking for a shirt. I grunted, long streaks of black hair getting in my face and soon forcing me to abandon my search to go hunting for a band and sit to braid my hair back into obedience.

"So you really think the Keepers will ever find me?" Layla called out from the shower. "It's not like they've done a stellar job so far."

"Because I have kept a weather eye out," I called back over the roar of the water. I found a comb and started brushing, working to de-tangle the knots before braiding. "I move us before Keepers can get a fix on our location."

"And they'd actually do all the things you warn me about?"

"And worse."

"How do you know?"

I hesitated, chewing on my answer for a moment and letting the rush of water in the other room fill the silence.

"…Kashi?"

I took a breath and focused on the strokes of my brush. "…because," I finally called back. "I have seen it before."

There was a long pause.

"You mean like…personally?"

The sound of water hitting the tile floor of the shower filled the space between us.

"Yes."

Splash, splash, splash. The squeak of her feet on the wet tile as she turned, likely fidgeting. The faint sound of her heart beating faster in anxiety. The scrape of the comb teeth running through my hair.

"…You never told me that before."

"Because I did not want to frighten you."

There was a small snort of a laugh.

"Frighten beyond reason," I added with a growl.

Splash. Scrape.

"Is that how you got all those scars you refuse to talk about?"

I glanced at my bare forearms. My torso. Knew there were more hidden under the cloth wrapped around my legs. Hidden by my boots. "Some," I confessed. "But not all."

I switched from brushing to braiding, the simple repetitive act something I'd learned as almost meditative. It helped to grind the shadows of the past under my heel. Keep them where they belonged.

The metal wheel squeaked and the water ceased, the pipes groaning in protest at the change in pressure. I heard her get out. Slide a towel around her.

Then heard the scrape of metal against the counter top, the sound slight but evident. I smirked. So, she had learned something in all her time with me. Sneaking whatever that was inside the bathroom with her and keeping it…mostly secret.

I tied off as much of the braid as I had, half of my hair still swinging free as I padded to the thin wall separating the bathroom from the beds. To her credit, her pace never really faltered. Her steps were even and natural as she dried herself off. If I had missed the scraping noise I might have been taken by surprise.

I heard the floor and the doorframe creak as she peeked around the corner and the silence stretched as she considered her actions.

"…Kashi?" she finally called out.

"Still here," I called back, knowing her ear would flinch to try and determine where the voice was coming from. I adjusted the bedside table with my foot, nudging it enough to rattle it. "Looking for a damn matchbook."

"Why?"

"Because I need one."

She hesitated. I could almost feel the gears working in her mind, trying their best to determine the next course of action. The innocent bravado of youth won out, in the end, as Layla moved further into the room and rounded the corner with a sharpened bit of metal in her hand and aimed out. She had decided on trying to rear back and swing at me as soon as she turned the corner, cheeky devil.

I reached out and caught her wrist, bending down to give her a small snarl of a smile.

"Nice try," I said, reaching with my other hand and plucking the metal out of her hand. She pouted and told me that it wasn't fair. I grunted and inspected the metal, asking, "where did you even get this?"

Her ears perked up as she brightly answered, "outside. It was when I fell over. I saw it on the ground and grabbed it. Because you never know, right?"

I grunted but smirked in approval, letting her hand go and handing it back to her.

"No," I answered. "You never do. It was a good plan, just not on one like me."

With that I returned to my hunt for a shirt, my hair tamed enough for said hunt to continue.