The Imperial Warrior

Chapter 11- Scars to Your Beautiful

When he woke up, his mind felt clear after what felt like a month to him. His sleep had been so restless lately that he was glad Khia had to stab him to get that wonderous sleep. He wasn't going to tell her that though. He was rubbing his eyes when he realized that he wasn't in the testing room any longer. He was in a clean room which looked like it belonged to a patient and Kyle thought that the compound was more like a hospital. He knew he was in a hospital bed because his bed was slightly arched in a sitting position. He hoped Khia wasn't the one who took him to this room.

He stretched, testing the rigidity in his muscles as he went along. Once he was sure that he could at least walk, he hoped out of bed. For a second, the world swiveled around him and he braced his arms against a wall to stabilize himself. He was a little wobbly but he decided he could make do.

He opened the door and figured he could wander around until he saw someone and ask for the Aukland siblings. He saw a set of stairs on his right and decided to go down to the reception. But when he reached the second floor, he saw a sign which told him that there was a cafeteria somewhere on that floor. His stomach took the lead for him.

Kyle felt strange. He could say he was giddy but he didn't understand why. It was the most peculiar feeling- like he had one coffee too many. He trotted down the hallway following what he felt was the most wonderful aroma in the world. Whoever their chef was, he was good. He remembered how his mother used to tell him that you could tell what a chef was worth from the smell that came from his food cooked and smiled. He loved when his brain could recall details about his mother. After her death, he had suppressed her memory to the point that his own mother was a stranger to him. She felt like an unknown in his life and Kyle hated that. He wanted to know so many things about her but his father pretended she didn't even exist so that wasn't a wound he was taking the initiative of opening.

He knew he was smiling like a lunatic when he entered the cafeteria though it should have been called a kitchen. There was something so homey and comfortable about the place that he wondered if his entire week had just been an awful dream and he was entering Alex's house for one of Mrs. Mathews' beautiful lasagnas. It was such a contrast from the rest of the building too. While everything else was clinical and commercial with white being the color of the day, this room had a tapestry of them.

Jars of spices and condiments were lined on shelves racked to the wall. Plates of every shape and size were neatly arranged and adorned on the racks. Whoever was in charge of the space clearly loved it. Their heart was in the place; and from the looks of it, it was in the coffee of the place. In the corner, he saw that a French Press was kept along with an espresso machine. Beside that was a mountain of coffee mugs with arbitrary designs. Kyle's father would have loved this place.

There was a white counter which ran along the entire back half of the room, separating the cooking space from the dining. The table was set with some beautiful red roses and Kyle took one out of the vase to smell it. It was definitely picked today. His smile got even wider. He loved flowers. He loved anything that stayed in its true nature its entire lifespan. The moment we process nature, he thought to himself, we ruin it.

"Oh!" He yelled. It was like a bulb flashed in its brain. Imperials were processed true-blooded. That is why they were ruined. He wished he wasn't ruined. There was so much left to do in his life. So many more flowers to smell.

He kept the flower back in the vase and looked up to see Khia frowning at him. He didn't understand why she kept that sad expression on her face all the time. She made a good job covering it up when she thought she wasn't being noticed but Kyle had. Khia was sad and Kyle couldn't stand it,

"Why are you always so sad, Khia?"

Her eyes became pointed as he asked her that question. He wanted to tell her that it wasn't a crime. She was allowed to be sad for whatever reason she had. He knew he had been blue since the day his mother had died. He giggled at his use of the word blue in his mind.

"Kyle Jones, first you call me sad and then you laugh about it." She made a mock show of crossing her arms as she came out from behind the counter. Once Kyle could see the whole of her, he blew out a whistle. Literally.

"Woo-hoo, Khia Aukland in an apron. Will you tell me what you are cooking? Okay, don't tell me, just please please give it to me. I'm starving." He stretched his voice at the last syllable and he felt like a kid asking for chocolate. He tried to give her his best smile so that she would take some pity on him and give him whatever delicious thing that smell was coming from.

"Are you high, Kyle?" He nodded his head feverously and burst out laughing.

"I'm taller than you, Khiaaaa."

Khia just started to nod her head as if she was disapproving but Kyle could see the smile she was trying to suppress. "No. Please don't hide it." He told her.

"Hide what?"

"Your smile. It's the most beautiful thing for my desolate soul. Or so Dickens would put it."

She just shook her head once more and ducked before Kyle could see the red rising on her face. She brought out a plate with a huge pile of noodles and dumped it in front of Kyle. He could kiss her at that moment. His stomach groaned in affirmation of that statement as he wolfed down the entire plate. He realized Khia was still in the room but he had lost sight of her as he finished his plate. He took it and walked into the kitchen.

The kitchen was even more beautiful than the dining area. It had a huge glass window that looked out towards the city. It was big enough that it covered three-fourth of the wall and Kyle once again whistled. He double-checked himself then. What was up with him whistling. He didn't whistle, at least he couldn't the last time he had tried. Maybe he was high after all. Khia had her back towards him and sat on the edge of the window, her head titled skyward.

"Can I have more? This is absolutely amazing, by the way. You know, when I first saw you, I didn't peg you for a cook."

She turned and he could see her putting up her mask again, a front for the world. Suddenly, Kyle wanted to see her face as she looked at the stars.

"Sure, it's right—" She trailed off as she saw that Kyle had already located them and was helping himself to another generous pile. Her own plate was kept beside her, food evidently untouched. He came and sat beside her on the edge of the windowpane. He felt like he was on the edge of something himself. Perhaps, a new life, he tried telling himself.

He was dangling his legs, his delight clear with every movement.

"It's the medicine I gave you!" Khia announced into the night as if finally getting the answer to a riddle she had been solving for a while.

"The lights, the medicine- all that is having a different effect on you than what it has been designed for. They are making you high." She explained. Kyle was nodding his head but truth be told, he didn't really understand how antibiotics were making him stoned and he didn't want to bother finding out at that moment.

"It feels like we are sitting on the edge of the world." He told her. Khia looked sidewards at him with that same expression she had been giving him since the moment he had stabbed himself with that pen. He touched his arm warily at that thought.

"I wouldn't mind, you know," He added as an afterthought, "If it really were the edge of the world. I wouldn't mind sitting there with you."

"I wouldn't mind either, Kyle." The distance between their fingertips had dawned on him and he moved his just one more inch so that the edges of their fingers touched too. Her hand was cold, like it had been when she was tending to his arm. He realized he didn't mind that either.

The stars were so much more visible here, away from the chaotic noise and smoke of the city, that Kyle wondered, "Do you believe in a god, Khia?"

He thought she wouldn't have answered or deflect it off like the Auklands usually did to his questions but she did, "No. Do you?"

"Not really. But you know, on nights like these, with a sky full of stars and the city lights blurring my logic, you can't help but wonder... Something so beautiful can't just be a combination of random atoms, right?" The earnest tone in his voice was enough to let her know that he had thought about this before but just hadn't voiced his thoughts aloud. So, she decided she owed him honestly in return too.

"There is a god, Kyle. I just think he left this place a long time ago."

It was his turn to look at her like he didn't understand her. It was weird but he didn't really want to understand her, not just yet. At that moment, he simply wanted to be on the edge of the world with her.

A light breeze was blowing and it caused a wisp of her hair to fall into her eyes. Kyle knew then he was definitely high; for if he hadn't been, he wouldn't have the courage to take his hand and remove that strand from her eyes. His hand lingered on her cheek for a second longer than it needed to as he looked into her eyes. He didn't know if it was the dark playing tricks on him or if he was seeing things, but before where her eyes were dark brown, were black then. Darker than the night sky around them and deep enough that he could imagine onyx wells forming in them. He didn't care. They were the most wonderous things he had ever seen.

Once he had taken his hand down, Khia turned towards the sky with a wistful longing of someone quite used to bargaining for things she couldn't get with the stars. He knew because he had the same expression every time, he looked up to search for his mother and found nothing but emptiness in return.

She shifted in her seat and turned sideways. Kyle thought she was going to leave so he followed suit but halfway as he had, Khia leaned in and kissed him with the utmost tenderness. Her lips were so incredibly soft that he thought they were clouds. Beautiful clouds which left him with a sort of desire he couldn't describe.

Khia was smiling as she got down from the pane, took her plate of uneaten food, and kept it in the refrigerator. Kyle was so taken aback by that kiss that he didn't even realize she had gotten down. He reciprocated Khia's smile tenfold.

"You never told me what house you were in." He called after her as she was preparing to leave. The room felt too big now and he wanted to close the distance between them. He had to plant his feet into the ground even more for him to keep at his spot as she said, "Why, Slytherin of course."

With unabashed pride, she retreated from the room.