Kat had just finished making breakfast while the rest of the group were setting up the table. Nixilei had grabbed everyone else when she awoke and saw Kat cooking. Well, everyone except Lily who was asleep next to the stovetop, enjoying the heat of it. Kat was a little concerned, but when Lily dipped her tail into the fire and then kept sleeping, Kat relaxed. *Apparently a flame of that power isn’t even enough to hurt Lily anymore. Which is weird. I keep thinking of her as a slightly enhanced normal Kat but that was real fire. I would know, I’m cooking with it.*

Regardless of that newfound realisation, Kat didn’t plan to treat Lily any differently. As such Kat carefully scooped Lily up and lay her around her neck while carrying the food out to everyone else. Nixilei was smiling at the table, Kress was looking up and the sky, while Gareth and Green sat together on one chair. With Green still dozing and Gareth rubbing his throat.

Kat raised an eyebrow at that. Catching Nixilei’s attention, Kat jerked her eyes toward Gareth’s neck, asking the silent question. "I decided that Gareth and Green hadn’t yet earnt the privilege of my healing just yet. While I understand the need to vent due to grief, I also believe taking it to the point you both NEED to be healed is a sure sign that you took things too far. It takes a lot of effort to wreck the voice of someone past Rank 1. The fact they both managed it says some unpleasant things about their self control,"

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Gareth rubbed his throat a bit more than replied, in a small harsh voice, "We both know that, and maybe we should have stopped but it kept us from moping, didn’t it?"

Nixilei rolled her eyes, "As your doctor it is my opinion that you should stop talking in order not to further aggravate your sore throat," Gareth rolled his eyes, "and further, it may have stopped you moping about your grandfather but you immediately came to me to start moping about your sore throat, so it really wasn’t much better for me"

Gareth refused to answer, simply placing a series of kisses on Green until she was eventually pulled to the waking world then the two got started on food. Kress was still looking at the sky so Kat asked, "What’s with Kress?"

"Well… one of the things I forgot to mention when it comes to cloud powder is that it has minimal, if any effect on your memory of events after the fact. Just one more reason it’s better than alcohol. It seems that whatever Kress’ batch was mixed with, didn’t hurt his memory at all, he now remembers EVERYTHING from yesterday," said Nixilei with a grin.

"Yes, I do. I have rather mixed feelings about the whole day now," grumbled Kress, as he fell forward. Kat noticed that, while mostly gone, Kress still had traces of the black eye from yesterday.

"Why is that?" asked Kat as Lily transformed and took a seat on Kat’s lap. Kat had already eaten one of the fruits when she was cooking for everyone else. That alongside a good dinner yesterday meant Kat wasn’t hungry at all. So the food in front of the pair was just for Lily.

"It all made so much sense at the time, and if I think about it hard enough I can even follow my train of logic from yesterday. Which is a bit weird… and I’m no longer depressed. The cloud powder helped me move past any feelings of sadness I now have… but I can’t figure out if I’m meant to be embarrassed or not," answered Kress.

"Why is it a question?" asked Kat. "Surely you’re either embarrassed, or you’re not?"

Kress shrugged, as he dug into his food, taking a few bites before answering, "This is pretty good. I’m surprised you handled the ingredients so well," Kat acknowledge the praise. "As for the embarrassment… well I suppose it’s partially a mindset thing. Yesterday I wasn’t embarrassed at all, and if I think back, immerse myself in the memories of that day, I don’t feel any embarrassment at all.

"I feel a sort of… echo of the feelings I did at that time. Now, my memory isn’t bad, but it’s not normally this good so I think whatever was added to the cloud powder sort of… stamped the day in my memory. When I’m focused on the specifics, I can almost feel myself sliding back towards those happy times…

"But it also means that when I think about it in the abstract I can understand and appreciate how mortifying it should have been. If I try to picture the situation playing out in more normal circumstances, well… I start to wonder if I need to hit myself with that shovel a few more times. Remove the memory completely," explained Kress.

"As your medical advisor, I recommend against such an action," sneered Nixilei.

Kress, with all the maturity of an adult in his twenties… used his fork to launch a berry towards Nixilei in retaliation. Nixilei, watching Kress’ attempt, just opened her mouth to catch it. "Was that meant to be hard?" asked Nixilei.

Kress decided to answer that by sticking his tongue out at Nixilei. "Wow… you seem… and I hope this isn’t offensive but… you seem remarkably chill at the moment Kress,"

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Kress nodded, "Yeah. I’m sure I’ll find something else to be mad at eventually… but I’m still feeling pretty great. I’m not even mad Nixilei managed to catch that bit of fruit, I was aiming for her face after all. So it seems despite my slightly weird head, my aim is still good," _{Please visit f𝙧ee𝙬ℯ𝐛𝓃𝐨𝚟𝒆𝘭. c𝒐𝓂}

"Right… so you don’t think this is permanent?" asked Lily.

Kress snorted and returned with, "Would you rather it was?"

"I mean… hmm…" Lily didn’t know how to answer that question.

[I’m really not sure. I mean… I wouldn’t want Kress to go back to being an ass… but he really wasn’t too bad last time we were here… and this just feels… wrong. Not that Kress should always be angry… but having him stay so chill even after he spent yesterday acting like a clown? It’s a bit too much like he’s an entirely knew person. Which… well I suppose that’s something that CAN happen… but Thyme will notice right?]

*Well I can say it isn’t an illusion. Though you do bring up a good point, so I get what you’re saying. I’m not sure what I’d want either. Do I want Kress to act more like himself? Or like less of an ass? Perhaps a mix of both? Less of an ass, but more like the person we recognise?*

"You know, now that I’m paying attention, it’s really easy to see when they discuss with each other isn’t it?" asked Kress, directing the question mostly to Nixilei.

"Indeed," agreed Nixilei, "They’d make horrible spies because they both do it. I wonder if the link they share has a hormonal element, or if they really are just that sappy. It’s probably just the latter because I can imagine Green and Gareth doing something similar… but they were at last taught how to hold a pokerface for noble politics,"

Kat and Lily looked at each other and grinned. Kat decided to sneak in a kiss as well, turning Lily red. The Memphis just mumbled and turned back to her food so she could pretend to be less embarrassed. Green leaned over and gave Gareth a kiss of his own. Kress rolled his eyes, "Ah yes, the joys of being single. Unless you want to give me a kiss Nixilei?"

"I’d rather kiss the ashes of your ’honourable companion Shovel’ " said Nixilei, though she gave a slight smile at the end.

Kress, put a hand over his heart, and reeled back in shock, "So… he was a traitor long before his sneak attack against my illustrious person," Kress kept leaning until he looked like he should be falling off the chair, but he had one leg wrapped around the chair, and the other the table to stabilise him as he ’fell’. "He hath gone behind my back to woo my fair maiden love. Yes. It is good that he is now naught but ashes. Truly, he deserved a harsher fate,"

Kress eventually leaned back far enough for him to let go with his feet, and fall the last few centimetres to the ground. "Now you’ll have to deal with having sand in your clothes for the rest of the day," pointed out Nixilei.

Kress shot up to his feet, walking back away from the table and started to shake his clothes out, "Shit. I didn’t think of that…" grumbled Kress. Despite his clear annoyance, he didn’t sound half as annoyed as he did on a normal day.

"Indeed… ten out of ten for the performance," said Gareth, "but 4 out of ten for preparation and thoughtfulness,"

"Why are you giving him four?" asked Green.

"Well, he at least knew to lower himself with his legs, so he deserves a few points for that," offered Gareth.

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