Chapter 109: slippery like snakes
Hill had gotten the colour back in her face, and she cleared her throat. Once done, she turned to the two of them, interested.
"You’re going to spar your sister? Oh right! You did ask for a sparring partner when you came here to test your new abilities. Honestly, now that Brent is here I thought he was going to fill the gap." Kellen chuckled at her attempted nonchalant tone. He swore he could still see her sweating.
"Brent probably will become my sparring partner, but sometimes he doesn’t like wearing his prosthetic. Today he’s fine, but every once in a while it bugs him. Plus, I’ve already run into Gwen, and it would be a good idea to check where she’s at with her training, and how much work Mom put into her for the Esper games." Gwen seemed frozen by something Kellen had said. Given what he had just done, it could have been anything.
"Wait, Brent has a prosthetic? I never would have guessed." Gwen’s face was slightly flushed, and she seemed...confused? Kellen had no idea why, but a suspicious feeling was overcoming his body.
"Does it matter that he has one?" He asked her, confused since he had never seen her behave like this. She was shifting on her feet, her face flushed, and she was behaving like she was nervous. Honestly, sometimes Kellen worried about what would come out of her mouth. Gwen sometimes did say off the cuff stuff, but he really hoped she wasn’t about to disparage people who’d lost limbs.
"It doesn’t really matter, I’m just shocked. It didn’t seem like he had one at all." Kellen was even more bewildered as he looked over at her. She was playing with her fingers, and even Hill was staring at her. Hill’s expression, though, was calculating, while Kellen was just confused.
"He doesn’t make it a big deal, you’re right about that. He just likes to be treated like a normal human? Is that a problem, Gwen?" It was the only logical jump Kellen could make. Gwen had a problem with people who were amputees.
However, Gwen’s face flushed more, and Hill whistled. She unwrapped a lollipop as she approached them and began to circle them, or more, circling Gwen. Her eyes were only on Gwen, watching her shift and twitch, and it made Gwen shrink in on herself.
"I don’t think she cares about it in the way you’re worried about, Kellen." Hill’s smile was all mischief, and her words made Gwen duck her head for a moment before she raised it again, her face determined.
"I’m not against people who have different bodies, Kellen! That’s so rude to assume." She was right. It was rude to assume, but Kellen had dealt with worse in Brent’s place before. Sometimes, when people found out he was an amputee, they wanted to cancel their contracts. It was a knee jerk reaction to protect someone he cared about, even from a person he cared about. He couldn’t help being sensitive about it.
"I just realised we’d never had this kind of conversation before, so I was worried you weren’t going to be a good person about it. Sorry for assuming you were going to be an asshole about it, but you can see where my concern was coming from, right? That was a weird reaction to finding out Brent has a prosthetic." Hill laughed as Kellen’s words made Gwen seethe. Hill turned sparkling eyes in his direction.