Trust

The soft, plush blankets didn’t do much to comfort the little Kalon that was wrapped securely inside of them. Keone had messed up big time, and now he was sure that he was going to pay the price for it.

Keone hadn’t meant to cause trouble. He was just trying to impress Ness, hoping maybe she’d like him enough that they could actually be friends. So he’d climbed up on the back of the couch and stood up like that. He’d called out to Ness, showing her just how close he was to touching the ceiling.

And then Keone had fallen.

Desperate hands had reached out and found the only thing they could hold onto, which happened to be a shelf. The shelf, of course, was no match for the force of a falling Kalon, so both it and Keone crashed down onto the wooden floor. Keone was up immediately and fled into his room, wrapping the blanket from his bed around him and hiding in between the bed and the wall.

The door to the bedroom slid open, making a familiar noise on the carpet. Keone tensed.

"Keone."

That was Noor's voice. Noor was Keone's new parent? Guardian? Keeper? Keone wasn't sure how to phrase it.

Noor's voice was flat, and tears started forming at the edges of Keone's eyes.

"Keone. Come out, please."

"N-no!" Keone protested, voice muffled by the blanket.

Footsteps on the carpet let Keone know that Noor was moving towards him, and they stopped right in front of where Keone was hiding.

"Keone, please come out."

"No! You'll send me back!"

"Send you- Keone, I just want to make sure you didn't hurt yourself."

Keone started to sniffle, but finally poked his head out of the large blanket. When he met eyes with Noor, all he saw on the older Kalon's face was concern.

"How do I know you won't send me back?" Keone mumbled, wiping his eyes with the blanket. "That's what the others did."

"I have no reason to send you back, do I?" Noor responded, fishing Keone's hands out from the blanket and holding them in their own.

"I don't know that," Keone responded, still sniffling.

"Guess you'll just have to trust me then," Noor hummed, gently leading Keone out of his hiding spot. "Now; did you hurt yourself?"

"But I broke a bunch of things," Keone reminded them.

"Things can be replaced," Noor replied with a shrug, rolling up Keone's sleeves to check his arms. "You, on the other hand, cannot."

Noor's finger brushed against Keone's elbow and Keone flinched away.

"You're bleeding."

"I'm fi-"

"I'll get a bandaid. Come on."

Keone trailed behind Noor, eyes slowly drying. He kept waiting for some kind of anger, maybe angry words under Noor's breath about the damage he had caused.

But there was nothing.