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Kal rushes through the halls, staying away from Aloe as he hides her sketchbook in his kilt. He's just got to get around this corner; then, he can disappear into the kitchen while he fumbles with his magic pockets. His corner comes around, and Lonely's footsteps approach at a rapid pace. Something sounds to his side, distracting Kal just enough for Lona to crash into him, sending them both tumbling to the floor.
"Got it!" His sister calls as she picks up the discarded book. Kal doesn't care. He's got something new to hold his attention. "What's got your attention now?" She asks, looking around to see if she can spot it.
"Dunno," Kal mumbles, trying to listen. "Thought I heard something."
"It's noisy here. You probably heard one of the servants." Kal doesn't respond, listening intently to see if that sound plays again. "Well, whatever. You enjoy standing here in the hallway, doing whatever it is you're doing." ALoe stalks off, more than pleased to have her sketchbook back.
"Stab you later." Kal mumbles, not caring if he's heard.
It takes nearly ten minutes before that quiet, muffled shuffling is heard again. To his right and down towards the kitchens. Not all the way, though. Whatever it is, it's probably hiding in one of the alcoves. Using all of his stealth training, Kal approaches the suspected location in silence.
Another small shuffle, then a quiet squeak followed by a shush. Kal's right beside it. Looking over the short wall and into the storage alcove, Kal finds himself looking down at a small, white-haired, elven boy with a mouse in his hands. The boy freezes, wide eyes locked on Kal. The only reason Kal recognizes the fear in the boy's posture is because Viago's been working with Kal on recognizing emotions.
"Who're you?" He asks in his usual, emotion-free way.
The boy squeaks, his voice wobbly and uncertain as he all but whispers. "M-Monello....that's what the man calls me..." The man? He means Viago, right?
"Where'd you find the mouse?"
"Around?"
"Are you a de Riva, too?" Moni nods shakily, still eyeing Kal up. "I'm Kal. Wait here." He rushes over to the kitchen, digging in the pantry for his stash of chocolate chip cookies.
"Yer gonna ruin yer dinner if ya eat too many." The head chef, Lucas, reminds.
"It's not for me," Kal promises. Lucas gives him the standard 'you better not be lying' glance before shooing Kal away. Rude. Kal's always honest.
Well, whatever. It's not like Kal really cares. Besides, he's got a new sibling to return to.
"Hey, Moni," Kal calls, looking over the short barrier once more. "Here. I brought you a snack. You can share it with your mouse."
"It's not going to hurt me?" He shakes out.
"Why would I do that? You're family, and I eat these, too. I'm not Viago. I won't slip poison into the things I bake." Moni finally takes the cookie from him, taking a nibble before giving a crumb to his mouse. Kal feels warm inside, so he gives Moni a little smile. He hasn't had a brother before. If it's anything like this, Kal thinks it'll be nice.
"Aloe!" Kal calls, bounding into her library. "Did you know we have a brother now?"
Lonely blinks at him. "Do we, Karl? You sure you aren't imagining things? Viago hasn't said anything." Kal nods, handing her one of his cookies.
"I found him hiding near the kitchen. His name's Moni. I think he's scared."
"What did you do this time?" His sister accuses.
Kal pouts. "It wasn't me! He was like that when I found him!" She raises a brow at him, her stormy, blue-green eyes looking him over in an attempt to sense the falsehood that's not there.
"Wonder if Esha knows." Aloe muses eventually. "I'm going to go find out!" She grabs her sketchbook and shoves it under her arm as passive-aggressively as possible before getting up to stalk out of the room. "Stab you later!"
Kal wanders the halls in search of his new brother, a collection of sweets in his hands, and his ears peeled for any sounds. Moni wasn't in his alcove when Kal returned, so now Kal's got to search the estate for him. Moni wasn't in the kitchen, or the training room, or the bedrooms, or Viago's study, or any of the other fifteen places Kal searched.
Kal's just about to give it up for now. Or he was when he heard a soft gasp and quick scuttle to his left. "Moni?" Kal only just catches that white hair disappearing around the corner. "Why are you running?" He inquires as he gives chase. "I'm not going to hurt you. I brought sweets." Moni may be a fast boy, but Kal's faster. It's only a matter of time before he catches up.
They pass Aloe sketching something by one of the windows. She mutters something as they pass. Soon enough, Kal's close enough to see the mouse scurrying around Moni's shoulders, squeaking frantically. The smaller boy looks back, spots Kal, and immediately trips. He whines, frightened tears wetting his eyes.
Kal kneels, cocking his head. "Why are you scared? I said I'm not going to hurt you. See?" He hands the boy his pile of sweets. Moni's mouse squeaks at him confrontational. "Does your friend have a name?" Moni backs up, fear clear enough that even Kal can easily recognize it.
"Nib-Nibbles." Moni chokes out.
"Nibbles is pretty cute. Do you want me to help you hide him?" Moni aggressively shakes his head, declining the offer. "Alright! Stab you later!" He should see Moni at dinner. Maybe Kal can get Moni to talk to him then.
As it turned out, Moni did show up at dinner. Only he was directly behind an annoyed Viago. "Kalias de Riva." Hm? "Do you have nothing better to do than hunt Moni through the villa? I can increase your training if you're bored."
"You will?!" Trainings fun! He gets to zap and stab to his heart's content!
Viago sighs. "Fine. Just please stop threatening your brother."
Huh? "When did I do that?" Kal could swear he just saw Viago lose a little bit more of his sanity at the question.
"Kal. I know you somehow still don't understand common sense, but you can't just tell someone you just met that you'll 'stab them later' and not expect them to take it badly."
"But--"
"You and I know what you meant. Esha and Allona know what you meant. Monello did not."
"Oh..."
"Now. Everyone's going to eat dinner and then you're afternoon training will begin." A chorus of various responses sounds out, creating a melody in the large space.
Kal cracks his eyes open tiredly, finding himself lying on his back in the hallway, staring up at the high ceiling. His tattoos sting but don't burn. Right. They had training, and Kal went a little overboard again. He's still tired. Should he just go back to sleep?
Out of the corner of his eye, Kal sees a white blob. Only moving his eyes, he manages to recognize Moni staring at him from around a corner. Why's he there? Doesn't Kal scare him? Something sniffs at his face. Blinking slowly, Kal turns his head to find Nibbles investigating him. It squeaks inquisitively, tilting its head and sniffing around. Kal just blinks at it.
It taps a tiny foot on his cheek before running back to Moni. How cute.
Kal decides to simply go back to sleep where he lays.
There are many things Kal expects walking down the halls. Perhaps Lona or Esha will jump out at him or prank him. Perhaps he'll run into Viago. Perhaps he decides he's tired and just falls asleep wherever he is. The one thing Kal doesn't expect is to see Moni in the middle of the hall looking like he's moments from crying.
"Moni?" Kal tries. The other boy flinches and then eyes him with what Kal thinks could be hope mixed with fear. "What's wrong?"
"...Viago took Nibbles."
Kal shifts in an instant. "Where did he go?" Kal demands.
Moni points down the hall. "It's only been a minute or two..."
"Wait here." Kal orders before marching down the hall, pulling at his magic. No one gets to hurt his little brother! Not even Viago! He starts running, using his lightning to propel himself forward even faster as he searches the halls.
It only takes him a minute to find Viago walking down one of the side halls, Nibbles held away from him by its tail. Nibbles squeaks when it sees Kal, giving away his position. Viago turns as Kal lunges for the mouse, missing his target but grazing Viago on the way down.
"Kalias. What are you doing?" Viago demands.
Kal prepares to pounce as he answers. "You have Nibbles. You're going to give him back." Kal launches himself at Viago, lightning tearing into the man's armor at the close pass.
"I'm not going to give you the pest I found in the larder. Stop this at once." A part of Kal wants to, but the larger part of Kal is determined to get Nibbles back.
"You will." Kal demands, swiping Viago's feet out from under him. Viago falls on his back, nearly losing his grip on Nibbles. "You're making Moni upset. Moni needs to be happy." Kal states as he puts a foot on Viago's neck. "Give him back."
"This is insubordination," Viago states, gripping Kal's ankle with his free hand. It won't matter what Viago wants to call it if Kal deals with him here and now. Kal presses his foot further into the neck, lightning sparking and leaving little burns around the contact point.
Viago sighs. "Fine. Take it, but we're going to discuss this later." Kal grins, gathering up the panicky mouse carefully in his hands so he can rush back to Moni .
His magic cuts out as he starts his trip back. Tsk. He should have expected Viago would poison him. Kal's probably got five minutes at most before he's unconscious. He should hurry.
By the time Kal makes it back to Moni with Nibbles in tow, he's struggling to stay conscious. It's really a miracle he hasn't passed out, given how lightheaded he is and how dark his vision's grown.
"Here." He's pretty sure he manages to hand off the tiny rodent before his world turns black.
The next thing Kal knows, he's blinking awake with a pillow under his head and a blanket covering him. Moni's leaning over him, surprise and worry lining his features in equal measure.
"You're alive!" Moni cries. It hurts Kal's head, but it's nowhere near as bad as the way the blanket irritates him.
Kal groans. "Not the first time I've been poisoned." He tries for a smile. "You stayed around."
Moni twitches nervously. "You saved Nibbles..." It's barely even a whisper, but Kal hears it all the same.
"Of course!" Kal beams. "He's important to you!" Moni doesn't seem like he knows how to process that, so he instead remains silent and pets Nibbles' tiny head.
Kal pouts, disliking the stupid, itchy fabric he's being forced to wear. He'd take it off, but he doesn't know how to undo the clasp keeping it in place. Stupid Viago. Stupid punishment. He didn't even do anything wrong.
"Just to be clear, you're not being punished for sticking up for Monello. You're being punished for trying to kill me."
"I wouldn't have had to if you didn't try to feed Nibbles to your snakes."
Viago doesn't seem impressed. "You know as well as I do that there was no possible way I would have known Moni was caring for the mouse. Now, keep that on for the rest of the day, or no training for a week." Ugh. Viago leaves him alone, only for Aloe to walk past the room he's in and look inside.
"Oh! Someone's in trouble!" That's it. He's going to hide all her clothes in Viago's room. Maybe find one of his novelty fake beards and glue it to her face while she sleeps.
"Kal. Today, you're training with Monello. Practice weapons only." Kal deflates as Viago explains, "He's not a mage, so just bladework." He nods, grabbing his weapon. Moni holds his single wooden dagger awkwardly. Has he never had any training? Kal blinks and walks up to him.
"Here. You hold it like this." Moni's stiff as Kal adjusts his hands, but the younger boy doesn't complain. "That's better. Now, you just need to get your footing right. You'll be useless in a fight with bad footing." Kal pushes Moni's feet into the right positions with his own, ensuring the shorter boy gets a chance when Kal inevitably launches a few strikes at him.
"Good! Now, you just have to try to stay on your feet and stop me from hitting you." Kal takes a few steps back, grabs his weapon, and feels his magic prick at his skin, ready to go. Pushing that down, he takes the first few swipes at Moni. It's awkward and clumsy, but he does a half-decent job. Kal smiles, picking up the pace a little until he breaks Moni's guard.
Moni falls on his ass, dropping his weapon before scrambling back up. Kal watches and waits as he gets back into position, only having to adjust his footing a bit and just slightly correcting the way he's holding his weapon. It's only a minute before Kal can go back to playfully swiping at him. One, two, three. One, two, three. Moni's getting the hang of short bursts quicker than he'd thought. Maybe he'll be fun to train with!
Kal adds in a fourth and fifth attack, clearly taking Moni off his guard. It's not long before he's on the floor again. He gives Moni a moment to right himself, checking over his posture for any flaws before starting in again. The cycle continues, repeating dozens of times until Kal's nearly flying at Moni with lightning sparking across his skin and down the wooden weapon.
It's not until Kal accidentally hits Moni full force with a lightning-infused strike that he realizes what he's doing and drops his weapon immediately. It takes Moni a while to regroup after that, clearly in pain from the heavy strike and out of breath.
"Kalias! I told you no magic!" Viago scolds from his place on the sidelines. Lonely never gets scolded like this.
"Sorry," Kal states, even though he doesn't see the point in apologies. "I shouldn't have lost it like that." He helps Moni up. "I didn't hurt you too badly, did I?" He knows he did. He can smell the charred flesh from here. Moni shakes his head. Kal'll have to ask Lonely to heal the other boy later since he's not going to fess up to the injury. "Ok. We'll continue, then?" Moni nods, so Kal starts the cycle again, only more aware of what his magic's doing this time around.
"...If we're not slaves, then why don't you wear clothes?" Moni asks him as they walk down the halls.
The question surprised Kal, so it took him a moment to answer. "Because I don't like them? You see my tattoos? They're lyrium. I've had them for as long as I can remember, but I've also always hated how clothes feel rubbing against them. Viago says I can't walk around naked, so he found my kilts."
"Oh." Kal manages a smile despite the lackluster response. Moni finally asked him something!
Kal blinks awake, finding himself under a table. He doesn't remember falling asleep here, but that's hardly unusual. What is unusual is the pillow under his head and the blanket covering him. It's one of the rough, itchy blankets, but Kal rarely wakes up with one at all, so it's still a pleasant surprise.
There's movement to his side. Moni slides to the ground, clearly asleep himself with a blanket wrapped around him. Kal shuffles over to him, pillow in tow, and situates himself so that they can share the pillow. It's only right after his little brother went through all this effort.
"Kal?" A soft, uncertain voice calls, bringing him from his nice, peaceful sleep. He blinks awake, finding a blob in front of his bed. There's a splotch of white on top that lets him know who it is.
"Moni?" Kal asks sleepily. "What's wrong?"
Moni hesitates for a moment before finding the courage to use his words. "Can I sleep with you? I had a nightmare."
"Yeah..." Kal mumbles sleepily, scooting over to make room for his brother. Moni takes his chance, snuggling close to Kal and getting comfortable. Kal's nearly back asleep when he hears a quiet 'thanks' sound beside him. It's nice, trusting, even. It makes Kal warm in a way that only family causes.
He just hopes Moni will come to see Kal the same way.