--- Kat ---
"That’s enough depressing talk from me," cut in Gramps as he brushed some of the food gunk off his old shirt. It was falling apart with holes all over it and was barely hanging on. Which Kat supposed made it good for this sort of work. "Why don’t you tell me about something brighter, like how your relationship with Lily is going?"
"Um…" Kat glanced at Lily who was still asleep off in the corner.
"I can ask Lily about her own thoughts later if she wakes up. Let your girlfriend sleep if she wants to. I’m asking for YOUR thoughts on things right now," stated Gramps with a firm core of power in his words.
"Ah… alright. Um… I’m not sure that our relationship has really changed all that much, especially not recently. We avoid a lot of the common pitfalls I’m guessing ordinary couples fall into because we’re forced to share our thoughts. So little miscommunications never explode into anything more than that, little miscommunications.
"Maybe some other people would have problems with that but I still haven’t encountered any. Well… except for those times where I’m getting hurt in training. Lily has strong feelings about that I intentionally… I don’t want to say ’ignore’ but perhaps ’disregard’? My pain is a lot less important to me then making progress…
"While for Lily she would be much happier if I took things slower or just tried to find better ways of doing things that aren’t quite so painful. I can understand. I know if it was Lily in pain instead of myself I’d be the same if not worse… but the fact that I can regenerate and the training does seem to work means I haven’t really acquiesced to her wishes,"
Gramps nodded along before shutting the oven door closed and moving on the outside. "I can’t say if you’re doing the right thing or not. All I can tell you is that sometimes you need to do things regardless of what your partner desires. It’s not always the right choice in the moment, or the right choice at all… but there are other times where it must be done.
"At the very least you aren’t taking any foolish risks about it. Lily would likely disagree with that statement from what you’ve said… but training is a very reasonable reaction and I can say with certainty that I ignored a good deal of advice from my wife for much worse reasons. I imagine you’ve got your own issues with something Lily does?"
"Eh… I guess. I’m a lot less ’hands on’ about it? Or at least I think I am. Lily seems to think that she doesn’t… hmm… doesn’t contribute enough on missions? That might be the right way to phrase it," hummed Kat. "I am hoping that after this recent contract she’ll let up on that a bit…"But the main issue is that she sees me regularly jumping into danger and doesn’t like the fact that she is regularly told to stay back. Now, admittedly she does stay back a decent amount but I’m glad she’s willing to listen when things get particularly deadly… except they aren’t. Not for me.
"In my opinion, which I know is pretty skewed, I think Lily has taken far greater risks then I ever have… but the fact that I regularly get beat up, cut, injured, burned, whatever the specifics… it makes Lily feel like she just isn’t keeping up or shouldering the same level or risks.
"She says it’s a matter of contribution… but she was THE reason they bit an important enemy in our last contract. He was… hmm… Gramps do you know what a lich is?" asked Kat.
"They’re the… the dead guys that stick their soul into a gemstone right? Been a while since I’ve had time for enjoying that sort of thing…" answered Gramps.
"Close enough. It’s not quite right but it’s honestly closer to the issue we had anyway. Lily is the one that found the ’gem’ in question," Kat swiftly decided NOT to bring up any of the details. The clone, potentially not-clone nonsense was not something she wanted to get into at all. "It wasn’t Meg with her weird weakness detection, or Hunter the expert tracker… it was LILY who figured it out.
"And I am so happy that she managed that. She was very much the MVP in that fight… but I bet you that as soon something else comes up she’ll be back to the ’oh I’m such a burden sometimes’ train of thought. I really am trying to help her out of that rut but I think she’s just going to have to deal with it herself. I just hope that she’s doesn’t need to nearly die to finally realise that she’s plenty useful and I love her even if she wasn’t,"
Gramps let out a short laugh, "Ha! Yeah I’ve got no idea how to help you with that one Kat. Never had that sort of problem with my wife. I wouldn’t go so far as to call her arrogant… certainly not within hearing range of her or any of her friends… but she always had confidence. No mater the situation.
"She didn’t panic that time we nearly went bankrupt, she didn’t panic that time we got thrown off a waterfall or that time we had to escape from the mob. She didn’t panic when she found out we couldn’t have kids and she didn’t panic on the day she died…" Gramps shook his head. "I think the only time I saw her even a little uncertain was the day she found out about her parents passing away after a cyclone… but even then,"
"What’s with the spy thriller you just described?" questioned Kat. "Why were you on the run from the MOB?"
"Eh, it was a complete mix-up I assure you. Purely in the wrong place and the wrong time and they even apologised afterwards!" said Gramps. Kat felt her eye twitching as she glared back at Gramps but he just remained turned away, polishing the glass door on the oven.
"Right…" said Kat slowly. "So yeah if you have any idea on how to build up her confidence that would be great. My worry is that she’ll either need to be seriously injured to improve… or she’ll be seriously injured and that will crush what little confidence she DOES have. The fact I so regularly walk of injuries that would be fatal for a normal person definitely doesn’t help," Your next chapter awaits on NovelBin.Côm
"Hmmm, yeah I don’t have any advice for you, sorry," shrugged Gramps. "Perhaps public speaking?"
"I can’t see that working," grumbled Kat. "I can’t see Lily agreeing to that sort of thing. She’s never been good at public speaking and if I want her to feel more useful I can’t see forcing her to do something she’s bad at fixing anything. Sure it might build up her confidence in the long run but I don’t see her confidence being the core of the issue,"
Gramps shrugs, "Best I could think of. I’m a poor old man Kat, I can’t be expected to hold all the answers,"
"Right well… how have things about here then?" asked Kat.
"Well the three stooges that took your place ended up getting adopted out by a couple. Took all three of them off my hands. Which… well on the one hand I don’t have to deal with them anymore but on the other hand they had been getting better so…" Gramps finished with a shrug.
Kat leaned back in surprised as she checked the oven she’d been working on. The gunk did all seem to have been frozen off. It did probably need a coating over whatever gunk Gramps had added back to the inside though. "Wait they got adopted? That’s… pretty late isn’t it?"
Gramps nodded, "It IS pretty late. I was surprised but the couple was looking for someone on the older end of things. Originally they were just aiming for around ten but they stumbled over the three helping out and… well a few visits later they started to click. The father has a good sense of humour… and helped them plan a ’going away prank’ that was a bit of a pain.
"The mother on the other hand appreciates the fact that they’re somewhat good with kids now. They don’t have any children of their own but they do have a LOT of little nieces and nephews. One of the reasons they knew they didn’t want anyone too young but of course it meant they wanted someone good with kids. Originally they were just looking to adopt a pair but well…"
"Couldn’t have just two of them go could they?" offered Kat.
"Like you can talk about that considering how things shook out with Sylvie," retorted Gramps.
Kat sighed, "Ergh, I do not want to get into that. I already had a big heart to heart with Vivian about how my relationship with Sylvie has changed massively because of how often I’m away I do NOT want to get into it again,"
"Are you sure? It sounds like something that you really should talk about…" offered Gramps.
"I will throw an oven at you," retorted Kat.
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