--- Kat ---

Appoline had promised to work on a basic list of the poisons Kat should be worried about and get back to her. The general idea was to outline, how expensive they’d be, how long they last, and ultimately, which ones Greaves could have access to. Kat politely decided not to mention that there was no way that the character Appoline was meant to be playing would have any idea about such an extensive range of poisons available to someone outside of the tournament... but Thyme didn’t seem to be stepping in either so... free information.

After dinner, Kat had checked up on Lily, at least to the best of her ability. Lily was still blocking her out, but not in a very solid way. It was actually interesting to experience. It was sort of like Lily had put up a curtain with a ’please stay out’ sign on it. Sure it was ’just a curtain’ and so Kat could get through it easily without needing to force things, but she didn’t want to break Lily’s trust like that. Plus, she could somewhat feel Lily’s state through the curtain. Not her specific emotions or thoughts, but Kat could tell she was at least ’fine’. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

So Kat tried to sleep. After everything with Greaves, as well as the long hours of carefully making use of her demonic energy Kat decided it was probably worth it. She was... somewhat successful. Kat managed to nod off for a little bit... but truthfully it was more of a nap then anything else. She was awake inside of an hour and then spent another hour trying to go back to sleep before settling into meditation instead. It wasn’t quite the same, but it was much easier to settle into.

It was an unknown amount of time later Kat felt a slight disturbance. It wasn’t something that seemed to be worrying her, which was a worry in and of itself until she realised that it was sort of like knocking from Lily’s side of the link. Kat took a moment to wake up and check their connection where she could now physically feel Lily’s attention. *Good morning.* Kat didn’t know it was morning of course, but it seemed the right thing to say.

[Morning? Yeah that makes sense.]

*You sound... hmm... I’m not really sure. A bit off perhaps? If you’re just confused about my greeting, I just stopped meditating. Kat glanced at the window. And I think it’s morning? It’s still dark out but I’m pretty sure we’re past midnight.*

[Ah... yeah I guess I am. I did a few things that were silly and one thing that was stupid and now I’m feeling like a bit of a fool. I mean... the silly stuff was probably fine but... urgh I don’t know how to explain it.]

*You don’t have to if you don’t want to.* Kat paused for a few moments before deciding it’d be better to ask then not. *Are you feeling better?*

[I am feeling better and... I dunno I think it’d be worse if I hid it from you, and most of the stuff isn’t so bad. I wouldn’t say I’m GOOD exactly but I’m not about to spiral into despair at just the mere thought of things. I guess we’ll have to see if it keeps coming back or something.]

*Yeah we can keep an eye on it if you want. How often do you want me to mention things? Because while making sure you’re fine IS my highest priority, constantly asking if you’re ok is annoying, and even just the occasional ask could still mean bringing up a traumatic memory every few days which... seems like not the best idea.*

Kat also privately added. *Then again, considering you seems to have forgotten about the issues in the warehouse maybe just not mentioning it for a little bit would be fine.*

Lily, apparently too distracted with her current worries over her own bits of hidden information, didn’t notice Kat’s slide deception here. [Um... hmm... I’m not too sure. Can you like... peak into my mind and just sort of check somehow?]

*I mean... probably? Yes, yes I think it’s possible... but theory is different to practice. I’m not sure I can deliberately check something like that without it being super obvious what I’m doing. I can certainly keep an eye on your thoughts through our link and either slap down, or just catalogue all the times it comes up or causes you issues... but hmmm... I’m sure there’s a better way to do this. I just don’t know it.*

[It’s fine, I’m not too worried. It just would’ve been a nice thing to have. To... backtrack a bit about what I’ve been up to. The easy stuff first. I mostly just played around. Not sure if you’d be annoyed that I wasn’t in that little hidden away nook we made but I was just exploring the dorms for the most part. Though, wait, even before that I had a bunch of fun being silly on the stairs by making myself into a shadow monster and walking up the stairs in the most amusing ways possible.]

*Hmmm... can’t quite see the appeal of doing something like that myself, the stair part not the exploration. Even still, I wish I would’ve been around to see it.*

[That’s just because you want to see me embarrassed.]

*I want to see you all the time. The embarrassment is secondary.* Kat could feel Lily mentally rolling her eyes at the statement.

[Yeah sure. Though... yes I do agree it was silly and I’m sure you would’ve found it endearing if you were there for it... but one of the reasons I was fine with messing around like that was because you weren’t there to make embarrassing comments.]

*Ah. A bit of a shame... but I mean, I just can’t not tease you over something like that when it comes up. You’re too adorable.*

[Yeah yeah. After I did the stairs stuff I just sort of explored a bit. It was alright... but making a blanket fort after was even better. I then got to bounce around inside of it. Because I automatically designed it for a human-sized guest, because that’s what I have experience with, the fort itself was huge compared to my current size. I got to bounce around it and have a lot of fun.]

*Another cute moment I missed out on.*

[Yeah... but it was less embarrassing. Maybe we can set one up with Kamiko and Sue next time we spend time together. It was surprisingly fun.]

*I’d be down for that. It really does sound like a good time. I feel like they’d also both enjoy it... if for different reasons.*

[Hmmm... I wonder if Sue is still trying to go light on the lewds. We could do a bunch of silly things that are almost sexual to bait her into teasing us!]

Kat raised a mental eyebrow. *Lily you’d fold immediately. It would be more embarrassing for you then annoying for Sue.*

[Ok yeah I would... but it’s still a fun idea in concept.] Kat nodded along, waiting for Lily to continue, perhaps move onto the topic she’d been avoiding for a while now... but there was just mental silence. Kat made her mental gaze a bit stronger. *So... want to talk about your last little adventure now?*

[So... I might have gone to explore a few bits of the facility that we never got to.]

*Was it interesting at least?*

[You’re not mad?]

*Lily, you’re my girlfriend not my child. While I never want you to get hurt, and I DO need to hold myself back from defending you all of the time... I’m not going to get annoyed at you for doing a bit of exploring in an area that shouldn’t be that dangerous to someone at Rank 2.*

[Ah... well... it might be a touch worse then just that...] Kat let off a mental sigh. [See... um... it may or may not have been a dark, rundown area with a bunch of holes all over the place and weird noises that I still can’t identify.]

*Wait STILL?*

[Err... so I know a light spell, sort of. It captures the light in an area and puts it into a paper lantern I can then keep working with additional mana... but I can’t really cast it well. So I had a tiny, flickering light to fight back the shadows and I never actually saw what was making the noise.]

Kat snickered. [Are you laughing at me!]

*Yes.*

[Kat this is serious.]

*It is also, quite amusing.*

[Why aren’t you annoyed! I was so worried you’d be yelling at me for being an idiot... and you think it’s funny?!]

*Look... I do agree that if I knew in the moment, or had to let you go off to investigate that sort of thing by yourself I’d probably be worrying... but the event is over now and you’re fine. I can tell that much. You never got hurt... so... yeah I kinda of do find it funny.*

[Meany.]