Chap 188: What I Like About You

With Tee spending her time in the Primus Vergant village, Kie had to wash the dishes alone. Saeda wouldn’t help since she cleaned whatever the drones didn’t. Zod and Miko made all the food. If anything, it felt like part of his demotion.

As he scrubbed the dirty pots by himself, he admitted he was at a low point in his life. Dish duty at Mid-Guard wasn’t a one-man job, and it certainly wasn’t meant to be done alone in a room. He missed washing dishes with Tee. He remembered showing her how to wash the plates properly and smiled at how clueless she’d been.

Another week passed, and he and his remaining members received another Leak mission. The mission was a blur—they defeated the monster quickly. All Kie could think about was getting another telecom to talk to Tee. The Lieutenant noticed he kept another telecom while placing the dead one in the chemical basket. The Sentinels were still young, and maybe he had a good reason, so she let him have his way.

That night, hearing Tee’s voice again put a wide smile on his face.

“The way you just hung up on me last time—”

Kie was quick to defend himself. “No. The telecom. Its battery died.”

Tee, resting on her elbows and lying flat on her bed, stared at her telecom. She grinned. “I’m just messing with you. I figured something like that happened.”

Kie sighed and leaned back to stare at the ceiling. It was easier to focus on her voice that way.

Like previous nights, they talked about nothing important and made each other laugh. She eventually told him about a lake in the Primus village that lit up at night under the moon. Kie wanted to see it, and they decided to meet the next day to go camping. Since it was in Primus, they didn’t need the Commander’s permission. They would go straight after training, which meant missing dinner. Kie agreed to bring two tents, and they would both bring some food.

“Great,” Tee said with a smile.

“It’s settled. And don’t be late,” he said.

It wasn’t hard for them to meet up. They used their telecoms to find each other’s exact location. They passed through thick blue and green trees, sunlight streaking through the leaves from the lively sun. Insects and small critters filled the air with sound, and the trickle of water streams gave life to it all.

Kie found Tee standing on a river cliff, taking in the view. Watching from the trees behind her, he decided to frighten her—but he’d barely taken a step when she turned around, eyes wide open. She had been using her foreseeing vision.

He dropped his shoulders in defeat. “Darn it.”

Tee smiled. “Took you long enough.”

He walked out with a large knapsack on his back and eyed her up and down, brows knitted.

“I thought we agreed to bring food. Looks like you brought nothing but yourself,” he scoffed.

Tee opened her cloak, revealing the various tea bags she’d brought.

“Psyche,” she said.

“Wow, tea. You’re so thoughtful.” He dropped the knapsack and added, “We’ll need to get some logs to start a fire.” He began taking out the igloo.

Tee took off her white robe. Underneath, she wore a white half-sleeve shirt, a skirt that ended at her knees, and a thick pair of brown boots.

“Yes, sir.”

Kie took off his black shirt, revealing his white mariner, while keeping on his sweatpants. Seeing his actions, Tee decided to remove her boots as well.

“I can’t afford for these to get wet,” she said.

Kie glanced at her boots standing upright as they walked down from the cliff to the riverbank. He shook his head and smirked.

“I remember at my orphanage, I only had one pair of shoes,” he told her.

“Really?” Tee said, her tone rising.

As they neared the water, she began telling him how many boots she had before joining Mid-Guard—about a hundred pairs. Of course, she’d give some away each year to make room for new ones. Kie’s brows rose higher with every word.

“But when my clinic got destroyed, most of them went with it…”

“Wow,” he said. “If reincarnation was real, you’d have to have been a centipede in your last life, with the amount of shoes you had.”

Tee gasped, and Kie burst out laughing. But his smile didn’t last long when his senses alerted him to a massive wave headed straight for him. In seconds, he was flung underwater, bubbles everywhere. When he surfaced, Tee was laughing her head off.

“You want to play, huh?” he said.

With his hand glowing, he blasted the water near her, sending a splash crashing over her.

As they played in the water—floating, swimming beside each other—they kept talking.

Tee told him about following in Tetra’s footsteps in trying to find a cure. She mentioned the monthly meetings, which naturally led her to mention Jack—her former best friend. He had turned into a jerk after finding out she was covert too. He wouldn’t answer her calls.

“What if the guy was busy?” Kie asked. “You’re being irrational.”

Tee scrunched her nose. “No. I hid behind a wall and called him once. I saw with my own eyes when he looked at the caller and shoved the phone into his pocket.”

“Ouch,” Kie said.

Tee continued telling him about the bad things Jack had done to her. She confessed that her first love didn’t die from lupoids. The covert guy she had been crying over after their first Xenosapian hunt at her old academy was Jack. He had mutated.

He wondered what else she hadn’t come clean about. Seeing how sad she became made him hold back his scolding. Instead, he said, “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Silence stretched before he added, “You really need to stop lying.”

Tee wondered if she should mention the MG officers she’d slaughtered with her metal claws in their hideout cabin. No… they had killed innocents. They deserved it.

Guilt pushed her to confess anyway. “Kie, I’m sorry for what I did to you. You were right to call me a deadhearted whore.”

Silence returned. They floated on their backs, arms and legs gently flapping, before she spoke again.

“Tell me about your brother.”

Kie didn’t stop moving. He closed his eyes for a moment before saying, “Those memories are dead and buried.”

Tee grinned. “You are so savage.” But she pressed on. “Why are you so mad at him? Is it because he left you at the orphanage when you were little?”

Kie shifted upright in the water. “I’m getting hungry. We should make a fire.”

Tee agreed. They gathered large logs to sit on and smaller ones for the fire. Using sorcery, Tee increased the kinetic energy of the atoms and molecules in the wood, causing them to vibrate faster—just enough heat to spark the fire.

Kie grabbed a bag and said, “Guess what I got?”

Tee’s mind immediately went to iced coffee, and she got excited.

He pulled out a long piece of bread. “Fancy garlic roll from the one-stop market.”

Her shoulders dropped. “Since we’re not together, you can’t bring me back iced coffee—the only thing I want?”

“Try it,” he said, handing it to her.

She took it and tossed it straight into the fire.

Kie blinked three times. “Did you just throw a perfectly good roll into the fire?” He leaned forward, brows knitted. “When I was on the streets, I felt like crawling on broken glass for one of those.”

Tee folded her arms. “At least you weren’t a Xeno-victim. Starvation would’ve been the least of your worries.”

Her mind drifted back to the swerve bombing.

Kie ended up telling Tee a story from the Death-Guard Saga. It was one of the funnier ones, and Tee couldn’t stop laughing. At the end of it, he asked her a serious question.

“Tee, do you want kids?”

She thought for a moment before answering.

“I’ll be single forever. I’m a Xeno-victim, remember? I’ll die lonely.” She gave him a devious smile and met his eyes. “Unless you’re proposing something.”

“That was a yes-or-no question,” Kie said flatly.

Tee thought of all the times she’d asked him where he got his eyes from. What went around came around.

The sky had begun to turn orange, and night critters started to stir. The worst of them were fleeches—swarming in numbers, flying low, latching onto skin to draw blood.

Kie swatted a few away before asking, “Can’t you do something about the fleeches?”

“I’m a sorceress in training, not your personal magician. Well, I do have a solution, but it would require me sitting next to you.”

Kie shrugged off the thought of anything bad happening. She sat beside him and whatever she did next, he didn’t know—but the fleeches stopped.

They ate while seated beside each other, knees nearly touching. At some point, they both turned at the same time, and Tee noticed a smear of food on his lip. Without thinking, she leaned in and wiped it away with her thumb.

Kie froze—then immediately looked away.

And suddenly everything made sense to him. That was why he didn’t want them sitting so close.

Before Tee could say anything, he stood abruptly. “I’m… going to pee.”

Tee blinked. “Oh.” She hesitated, then added lightly, “Well, take your time. I might not even be here when you get back.”

The words slipped out sharper than she meant—frustration bubbling beneath the surface, upset with herself for ruining the moment.

Kie frowned. “I doubt that. And I will.”

As he walked off toward the trees, both of them were left alone with their thoughts.

Tee stared into the fire, heart tightening. Jack’s words burned through her memory—how he would leave, reject spending time with her, make her feel disposable. That felt too familiar, she thought. Too close.

Kie, on the other hand, found himself replaying the way her thumb had brushed his lip. How natural it felt. How dangerous it felt.

When he returned, Tee was still staring into the fire. She didn’t look up even as he approached.

“Well,” he said lightly, “what a surprise. You didn’t leave.”

She kept her gaze down.

He sat beside her again. “You could’ve gone too.”

“Vergants don’t need to pee,” she replied, then added quietly, “But I did eat and drink, so it would come soon.”

His mind short-circuited.

“…What?”

She looked at him then. “Why did you ask me to come out here with you?”

Her eyes searched his face, waiting.

Kie went silent. “You didn’t have to come.”

Tee said nothing.

He noticed her eyes drift away, her lips pressing into a small pout. She looked… sad.

That wasn’t the right answer, he realized.

He reached out and brushed a strand of hair from her face. Tee went still, warmth blooming in her chest. Why did the smallest things he did drive her crazy? If she were cheese she would melt.

She shuffled closer and leaned against him.

He didn’t push her away.

They stared into the fire together, drowsy and quiet, their shoulders touching as they spoke softly.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to grow old with someone?” Tee murmured.

She sighed. “I should’ve been in Mid-Guard, making MG offs’ lives miserable. I’d be wearing turtlenecks even when my concealer ran out. That was my life purpose—making grown adults cry.” She smiled faintly. “Instead, I’m fighting Xenosapians, monsters from across the Veil, and Harbingers—followers of Severin, the monster who caused Apocalypse Two. Anything but.”

Kie listened, the firelight flickering across his face. He was glad to be away from Mid-Guard. Glad to forget about Karen.

Later that night, they stood at the lake, moonlight shimmering across the water.

“It’s beautiful,” Tee whispered.

Both of them stood there alone, quietly glad they’d come. Tee thought of the beautiful places she’d only seen from the pod—and at the moment she was standing in one, with someone she cared about. It felt perfect. She tried to take in as much as she could, knowing it would soon be only a memory.

After a while, they sat down to talk again.

“You know Vergants have these twig-like foods,” Tee said, pulling a small stick from her pouch. “It tastes like chicken. You have to try it.”

Kie examined it. It looked dry. Crusty. It smelled like dirt.

“I’m not eating that,” he said, tossing it aside.

She chuckled and pulled out another. “No, seriously. Try it.”

“It looks dry, not chewy.”

“I know. It’s unbelievable.” Her wide white eyes locked onto his. “Trust me.”

He sighed and took a bite.

The moment he realized what he’d done, he spat it out. “Dammit!”

Tee burst into laughter, slapping the ground, tears streaming from her eyes. “Tastes like chicken? And you believed me?”

He grabbed his drink and rinsed his mouth out, smiling despite himself. “No one at Mid-Guard would ever try something like that with me.”

While she laughed with her back turned, mostly lying flat, he found himself staring at her neck.

She finally calmed down, lay on the blanket, and turned to face him.

“Do you know you have a really nice neck?” he said.

“What?” She stopped laughing, leaned on one elbow, facing him. “Keep talking. What else do you like about me?”

“That’s it,” he said, lying back and staring at the stars.

She kept looking at him.

“You already know I like your eyes,” she said softly. “But it’s not just that.”

He stayed silent.

“You have the cutest dimples I’ve ever seen. I love when you laugh because I get to see them. Your back is gorgeous. Especially when your shirt is off.” She bit her lip. “The hair at your nape has the hottest shape, especially when it’s almost hidden by your Mid-Guard jacket. You have beautiful hands. The veins—especially when they’re wet.” She paused, then added, “Actually, your entire build is gorgeous. Even your large forehead.”

He felt it. But he hid it.

“I like that subtle head shake you do to move your bangs without using your hands. I love that deep stare—like when you were telling us that Xenosapian story by the campfire. Or the same stare you gave me when you would look into my eyes.” Her voice softened. “I love the way you tell stories. You’re really good at it. And your sense of humor. I liked it when you used to wash dishes with me too. When you find your soulmate, keep doing that.”

She hesitated.

“And… I’m not sure about this one, but… I miss those soft pinches on my neck.”

Kie turned onto his side, his back facing her, trying to shut it all out.

Later, they lay on their backs, staring at the stars, a small space between them. They talked about everything and nothing. Neither of them wanted to sleep.

“Tee,” Kie said quietly.

“Yeah?”

“Tell me more about your family.” She hesitated, then smiled sadly. “I’m going to die soon anyway. I’m the perfect confidant.”

He tsked. “I hate when you say that.”

“I’m cold,” Tee said lightly. “Can I stay next to you?”

“No.”

She gasped dramatically. “That feeling—ugh. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of it. You inside of me—”

“Time for bed,” he cut in quickly. 

“We can share a tent,” Tee suggested lightly.

“Why?” Kie frowned. “We have two.”

Instead of answering, she summoned a glowing orb, wrapped it around her tent, and set it ablaze. The flames devoured it until only smoke and ash remained.

Kie exhaled. “You are… something else.”

She yawned and walked toward his tent.

“Tee,” he called, warning in his voice.

She ignored him and slipped inside.

They lay side by side in silence, the canvas walls holding in the weight of everything unsaid. For several minutes, only their breathing filled the dark.

“Kie,” she murmured.

He turned.

She closed the distance, fingers brushing his lips.

“I thought you were tired,” he teased.

“I never said I was tired,” she whispered.

His gaze dropped to her mouth, a storm flickering in his eyes. “We’re too alike,” he muttered. “Always playing with danger.”

“I love danger,” she whispered, pressing closer.

Darkness crossed his face. Karren’s shadow intruded like an unwanted ghost. Rage and shame twisted inside him. He caught Tee’s wrist, grip firm, voice low.

“We can’t do this.”

He turned onto his other side so his back faced her and shut his eyes tight. In the dark, it was too dangerous to use telepathy. The last thing he wanted was to see Karen’s face again—or worse, hurt Tee by mistake.

He had been a fool back then.

And the shame still burned.