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Sevika was just on her way to the Doctor's lab when something caught her eye.
She'd been heading over there more and more as of late, not only because she had a tendency to get herself into trouble that every now and again was more than she could handle, but also because a small part of her couldn't help but be intrigued by the man and the work he did. Maybe she also felt a strange obligation to visit, so she could bring him supplies he needed after he'd helped her and Mateo back then.
She just tried to time her visits to when the runt wasn't around.
And speak of the devil, there he was, stood by the river, as timid as ever, leaned over his cane like an old man would despite only being about ten. And in front of him stood a bunch of kids, maybe slightly older or maybe they were just less malnourished. The kids were laughing and grinning but it was clear from the cornered look in the boy's eye that this was in no way a friendly altercation.
Sevika couldn't catch the whole conversation from where she was stood but she was certainly able to pick out some choice words the group of kids were shouting.
Though Sevika had to admit she wasn't an exception from saying these sorts of things to the kid — he could be a real smart arse sometimes — but there was a clear difference between her kicking the boy's notes over as she walked through the lab to inconvenience him and the way these kids were starting to close in around him, backing him up against the earthy walls of the ditch, even if she wasn't sure how to put said difference into words.
Maybe the difference was that deep down she didn't actually mean any of the stuff she said and that deep down, she perhaps even cared about the kid in a distant sort of way, but she quickly shoved that thought to the side.
One of the kids finally made a move and in one quick swoop, kicked the boy's cane out from under him, setting him off balance and causing him to crash to the ground alongside his cane. This got a chorus of laughter from the kids.
"That's what you get for sabotaging me, fucking cripple." One of the taller boys spat, looking to his friends for some sort of approval at the insult.
"I wasn't trying to!" The runt argued, trying to pull himself back on his feet before one of the girls kicked him back down again.
"Well thanks to your fucking meddling, I'm days behind in work. Do you know how many meals you've cost me?"
"Your machine was broken! I tried to fix it. If I hadn't, you might even be dead."
"Yeah well great lot of help you were in fixing it, huh?"
"I could have figured it out if you hadn't interrupted. I can try and fix it properly this time, if you'll let me?"
"Don't bother, you've already caused enough trouble. Why don't we fix you instead? That ruined leg of yours looks like an awful lot of dead weight." The boy said. Sevika could hear the telltale clink of a pocket knife snapping into place as he walked towards the boy on the ground who quickly tried to push himself back. It wasn't long till his back hit the wall and he had nowhere else to go.
The other kids seemed riled up by the display, chanting for the older boy as he twirled the knife around his fingers teasingly.
Now, Sevika could have walked away. She could have turned her back on the Doctor's apprentice and forgotten about the whole thing. If anything, this was doing her a favour, she wouldn't have to deal with his snarky, know-it-all attitude anymore, she wouldn't have to deal with his weird Piltie obsession anymore, he wouldn't be around to be a pain in her backside anymore.
All things considered, she should have walked away.
Should have.
Not would have.
Squaring her shoulders to make herself look bigger than she already was, she pulled out her trusty knife — stained with old blood for effect — and cleared her throat. "Hey, squirts."
The kids paused momentarily to see who had interrupted their little show. The boy on the ground paled (if that were even possible with his already pasty complexion) at the sight of her.
The kids seemed to have different reactions. Some seemed confused, some seemed unbothered, others seemed scared. Good.
"What do you want?" The boy with the knife challenged, one of the more unbothered of the kids, "You want to get a hit in at the cripple?"
Sevika didn't even need to reply, one of the other boys was already desperately nudging his friend, cringing at his words. "Dude, do you not know who that is?!" He whisper shouted.
"That's Sevika," One of the girls chimed in, "My big sister saw her fight, says she crushed a guy's entire skull in one punch."
That was a bit of an exaggeration, it had only been his left temple she'd caved in, but they didn't have to know that.
The boy with the knife returned his gaze to her. Though not much had changed on the surface, she could sense a new feeling of nervousness from him. "So, what do you want scary lady?"
"Get lost, the lot of you." She ordered, flicking her knife to the side to gesture for them to leave. The runt was still staring at her, shaking like he was the one being threatened.
Knife-boy scoffed, tossing his weapon from his right hand to his left and then back again. "Or what? You gonna stare me to death."
In one quick, fluid motion, she tossed the knife directly at the boy's head. He barely had time to duck before it flew past him, burying itself into the dirt wall on the opposite side of the ditch. All of the kids stared at her in shock.
All it took was one gesture of her thumb to the right and the kids were scurrying away, probably wetting themselves if their faces were anything to go by.
Once they were out of sight and she'd had a quick chuckle to herself, Sevika slid down the side of the ditch, retrieving her knife, and going to check up on the kid.
Despite there being nobody in the way to stop him, he didn't make any moves to get up, instead continuing to sit there miserably in the dirt.
"You gonna get up?" Sevika raised a brow.
Not looking up, the boy gestured to his cane, not too far away from him which had been snapped in half at some point during the altercation.
She scoffed. "And you're not even going to try?"
"My leg hurts." He mumbled, barely loud enough for her to hear. She sighed in response. "If you're just going to be mean then you can—"
She cut him off by kneeling down in the dirt in front of him and pulling his arms over her shoulders.
"What are you doing?!" He asked frantically.
"If your leg's sore I guess I'll have to carry you, now shut up and hold on."
Seemingly too stunned by her sudden act of kindness (though she'd never admit that was what it was) to speak, he obliged and linked his arms over her shoulders as she hauled him up and carried him on her back all the way to the Doctor's lab. She didn't comment on the wet patch on her shirt where he buried his face in her shoulder.
Upon barging through the door to the lab (just the way she always did because she knew how much it irritated both the boy and the Doctor) she found it strangely empty, except for the weird pink lizard creature that she didn't know why they had and wasn't sure she wanted to ask. Said lizard slithered over and followed her as she sat the boy down on one of the tables, carelessly brushing notes to the side to make space which got a visible cringe from him. Once she stepped away, the lizard clambered up onto the table too and rested its head on the boy's lap, emitting a strange purring sound.
Weird.
"The Doctor is out today." The boy mentioned, stroking the scales of the huge fucking lizard creature he seemed completely unbothered by.
Sevika hummed, grabbing a random clean-ish looking cloth from beside the sink, wet it under the tap, and then tossed it over to the boy, laughing when it made a splatting sound against his face.
After peeling it off his face, he made sure to scowl at her before wiping it across his cheek to try and clean the dirt off. After a few minutes of watching him struggle without a way of seeing himself, she walked over, snatched the cloth from him, and began aggressively scrubbing his face with it.
He yelped in surprise and swatted at her but considering he was really fucking scrawny and really fucking weak it didn't do a whole lot.
Finally pulling the cloth away revealed a very unhappy expression on his now bright red face after having been rubbed raw by the rough cloth. "You're mean." He grumbled.
"Yeah, well it's a good thing I am or you would have gotten your ass kicked."
"Сука."
"Brat."
He stared her down for a moment until his expression became more sad and his gaze dipped down to the floor instead. Sevika wasn't sure why but seeing that caused her stomach to squirm.
"Come on now, wipe that look off your face or I'll do it myself." She said, holding the cloth up threateningly.
"Why did you help me?" He asked, not really bothering to change his face. She still very well meant that threat but she'd give him a minute.
"Was already on my way here." She shrugged, hoping he'd drop the topic because she really didn't feel like defending herself against him (and also had no clue how she'd manage without admitting that she didn't hate him which she still wasn't 100% sure was true)
Of course, he didn't care and continued anyway. "But you didn't need to stop. You could have left me but you didn't. I thought you'd want me to get hurt."
"I don't want you to get hurt." She settled for saying, sticking to the simple facts. "I never said that."
"But you hate me?"
"Well, what if you'd seen someone trying to hurt me — and hypothetically you were stronger than them in some strange, fucked up world — would you have left me?"
She was oddly pleased to see him shake his head.
"There. So, I dunno why I did it but you would have done the same so I don't need to explain myself."
He cracked a smile and then a small laugh. "Maybe you don't know how to admit you actually do care about me."
She threw the cloth back over his face. "There, much better. Now I don't have to listen to your stupid voice or look at your ugly mug."
She was pretty surprised when the cloth came flying right back at her, smacking her in the face this time.
"Thank Janna, the ogre is gone."
She ripped the cloth off her face and glared at him. "Excuse me? You want to try that again, runt?" She picked up another wet cloth out of the sink and brandished both like weapons.
"You're still not scary." He taunted.
She smacked both clothes on his face and began scrubbing, causing him to erupt in giggles. "Here, let me get all the ugly off. Oh wait, my mistake, that's just your face."
The lizard that had so far been content silently watching from the boy's lap suddenly leapt forward and bit her arm. It wasn't a painful bite considering the thing was about the same as someone's toothless grandma but it was enough of a surprise for her to drop the cloths.
The boy laughed and hugged the lizard. "My hero. You got rid of the big ugly ogre. Thank you, Rio."
Sevika glared down at the thing. "Weird fucking lizard..."
The thing hissed at her in response.
"It's alright, Rio. She can be annoying but she isn't that bad." The kid said slightly quieter this time, looking up at her as if he were speaking directly to her.
"Annoying? Says you." She scoffed.
His expression softened a little. "Thank you for helping me."
She covered her smile with an eye roll. "Don't go all soft on me."
"Fine. I'll just insult you instead."