The Conversation #127

Sensing Gray awkwardness, Cassandra quickly smiled, trying to convey the same goodwill she felt radiating out of his body, despite his surprise at the unexpected encounter.

Gray noticed Cassandra's genuine smile and snapped out of it, returning the friendly gesture, albeit awkwardly, which the latter took as her cue and began approaching him.

Cassandra stopped in front of Gray and pointed towards the abandoned warehouse, a curious expression on her as she quizzically grunted as if asking a question.

"Yeah, I'm here to see Patrick and the others," Gray said, nodding, having understood her meaning. "Are you here to see them too—" he asked, stopping halfway as the little kitten in his jacket began slapping him more rapidly.

"What crawled up your ass?" Gray said, looking down at the small feline that stopped slapping him and started wiggling its tiny body, trying to free itself from the jacket.

Gray rolled his eyes as he loosened the jacket's zipper and the little kitten climbed into his shoulder. It meowed as it turned to Cassandra, giving the young girl an appraising look.

The kitten meowed again before jumping off Gray's shoulder and climbing into Cassandra's. It purred as it rubbed against her cheek, much to her confusion and Gray's surprise.

"Looks like the little guy like you... he isn't usually this friendly towards anyone, not even me," he added with a chuckle, shaking his head at Little Soot's behavior.

Cassandra quickly got over her confusion and beamingly smiled as she patted Little Soot's head for an entire minute, much to her and the kitten's satisfaction, while Gray watched from the side with amusement.

"Don't be fooled by his cute appearance. He can turn into a demon any time," Gray jokingly said, getting an exasperated look as Cassandra picked up Little Soot and held him close to her chest like she was defending him against the former's slander.

Now over his initial surprise and awkwardness, Gray was ready to keep quipping with the young girl and little feline, but Patrick, who'd noticed their presence and came out to meet them, interrupted the steadily warming atmosphere.

"Oh! It's the first time you two are here at the same time," Patrick said, broadly smiling as he alternated his gaze between Gray, Cassandra, and Little Soot.

"But I am happy that you two are getting along so well even though it's your first time meeting," he added, casual as ever with seemingly no intention to broach the subject of Gray's secret identity.

"It's not really our first meeting," Gray said with a sigh, scratching his head as he turned to the homeless man. "I owe you some explanations, and you too," he added, turning to Cassandra, much to her confusion.

"It's kind of a long story, so I think we should head inside first," he concluded as he gestured towards the warehouse and gave Patrick a hard-to-read expression. The latter solemnly nodded his, sensing the severity in Gray's tone.

"Follow me," Patrick said, nodding as he turned to walk towards the warehouse's entrance. Gray and Cassandra quickly followed suit behind him.

...

Inside the warehouse

Gray sighed as he plopped onto a tattered couch after greeting several homeless people he knew, watching Cassandra deliver the food she brought to everyone by hand with Little Soot still tagging along with her.

He and Patrick waited for Cassandra to finish before calling her to come closer, and she obliged. She stopped before them and took out the last two burgers, offering them to the duo.

Though stunned and a little reluctant, Gray gave in as he noticed the girl's urging expression, only to freeze before touching the burger when he heard a loud rumble of protest from Cassandra's stomach.

Gray smiled but held back the laugh threatening to spill at any second. He still took the burger from Cassandra's hand as he was unwilling to turn down the young girl's goodwill and embarrass her.

"Have you ever seen a magic trick before?" Gray asked, smiling subconsciously at Cassandra's confused expression as she tilted her head.

"Well, just watch," Gray added, smirking as he hid the burger with both hands. "Tada!" he intoned as he moved one hand, revealing a stake sandwich that replaced the burger which was was nowhere in sight now.

Cassandra had stars in her eyes as she watched the magic trick, and she excitedly clapped, causing everyone there to smile and join her, infected by her enthusiasm.

"But don't blink just yet! It's not over," Gray went as he covered the sandwich again. "Behold!" he said, separating his hands and revealing two identical sandwiches in each of them.

"And the best part is that they're edible..." Gray said as he pushed his left hand forward, offering a sandwich to Cassandra. "Try it," he urgingly added, and Cassandra obliged without hesitation.

She took a small bite out of it first but quickly gave in to her hunger and devoured it in a matter of seconds, only for Gray to repeat his magic trick and give her a second one that suffered the same fate.

Cassandra only realized how fast she was eating when she was full, but everyone quietly turned away, pretending they saw nothing, and she knew what they were doing. However, that didn't stop her from feeling grateful as she let out a bashful, beaming smile.

"Now that everyone's full, it's about time we have that conversation," Gray said with an urgent look, prompting Cassandra and Patrick to give him their attention as everyone else resumed what they were doing.

"You might have guessed, but Cassandra here isn't your average next-door girl," Gray said as he looked at the young girl. "And you should have seen the news, so you know who I am as well," he added with a sigh.

"This wasn't our first meeting, and we aren't exactly strangers, even if this is the first time we spoke... well, you know what I mean..." he went, awkwardly clearing his throat as he realized his choice of words.

"The point is, my teacher is kind of friends with her mother, but not really," Gray explained, trying to convey Richard and Lady Shiva's relationship without getting into the details.

"Her mother isn't exactly what you'd call a nice person, and her relationship with my teacher is complicated," he went on, pausing to choose his words.

"It's basically an 'I like you, but you better not let me catch you lacking.' That kind of thing," Gray added, making quotes with his fingers, and Patrick seemed to understand it surprisingly enough.

"Long story short, she wanted my teacher to train Cassandra. He refused because she's a part of a bad organization and thought she wanted to use her daughter to do some shady shit," he went on, briefly glancing at Patrick to see if he was following, and the latter nodded.

"Cassandra's mother got pissed and pulled a couple of strings to make my teacher take a wager where he'd train her daughter if she won..." Gray continued, pausing to take a breath.

"The wager was that I'd fight Cassandra here, and this is where your part in it comes," Gray said, pausing again, seemingly hesitant to continue. "I don't know if Cassandra stumbling on this place was arranged by her mother, but..." he added, turning to the young girl.

"But Her mother bought this warehouse at ten times its value and offered it on the market to force Cassandra into an underground fighting ring where she would fight me..." Gray remarked and began explaining the situation and the many turns it took to reach this point.

...

"In other words... it's partially my fault that you might have to move away from your homes. I'm sorry," Gray said, concluding his explanation with an apology while giving Cassandra a brief, concerned glance from the corner of his eye as he noticed her blank expression.

Though Cassandra couldn't process the entire conversation, the young girl's ability to read body language and understand people still allowed her to comprehend most of it.

She understood that the warehouse getting sold wasn't a coincidence, that someone from her former home was responsible, and that they did it because of her to get her to fight Gray.

Cassandra didn't know why they would do such a thing or what they could possibly gain from it, but her first instinct was to blame herself for this turn of events.

She was devastated. Patrick and the others were the first people to show her kindness, and now they might be forced to leave their homes because of her simply being there.

She loudly grunted as she looked at Patrick and rapidly bowed her head. The corners of her eyes were already wet with tears as she got up and tried to leave.

"It's not your fault, kid," Patrick said, hurriedly standing up and gripping Cassandra's wrist before she left. "Look, this place is falling apart, and we were already thinking about leaving before you showed up," he added, and Gray sighed as he heard those words, knowing that Cassandra could see through the man's well-meaning lies.

Gray Quickly interjected before things got out of control.

"It's okay. I have somewhere you and the others can stay until we find a proper shelter..."

...

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