"Blaze-"
"Si vas a tomar malas decisiones, yo también." Kiania cut him off, shaking her head despite the fact that he couldn't see her. She was prone to bad decisions herself, but now her friend's life was at stake. "Just-text me, a'ight? So I know you're fine and not, y'know, dead on some ditch. I'll see you tonight."
Keeenza tilts her head, looking over at Nat
Nat was translating the Spanish words in her head as quick as she could.
Kiania waited for the reluctant 'fine' before hanging up, tucking her phone away and subsequently knocking her own head into the wall with a slightly concerning 'thunk'. "Idiot."
Nat slipped her phone away again. "Interesting."
"Huh?" Kiania muttered questioningly, thunking her head against the wall once more.
“Listening in on other’s telephone calls, Nat? Scandalous!” Artemis announced with a giggle. “Is everything okay?” she asked Kiania, suddenly serious. “If you need to get somewhere, you are welcome to go.”
Nat was shocked. Why would she clearly say that aloud? She glared at the ground.
"I don't know. That's the problem." Kiania said, pushing off of the wall and shaking her head as the knife danced between her fingertips. Finally, she pointed it at Nat. "I'd appreciate if you wouldn't listen in on my calls. You've got your 'top secret' shit, and I've got mine." The knife was gone with a flick of her wrist, somewhere in her jacket once more.
Nat didn't flinch, didn't look up, hardly moved.
"For the love of Iron Man." Kiania muttered to herself, returning to dragging a hand through her hair, further messing it up. "Okay, look. I won't spill all of the details, because Gage is right, this isn't my mess. But he needs help. My best friend, the aforementioned Gage, got into some…trouble, when he took out a loan from some guy he knew. He still hasn't paid it off, and they've taken to…not-so-friendly ways of trying to scare him."
"Your hair looks nice that way," Nat murmured before simply exiting the room. She walked outside and sat down on the stairs.
Kiania blinked, momentarily absolutely unsure how to react to that, something that wasn't easy to do to her. Your hair looks nice that way. What did that mean? What way?
She closed her eyes. "Dammit, Nat," she muttered aloud.
Kiania cast a slightly bewildered look at Artemis, before looking to the door. Blinking a few more times, she tucked her hands into the pocket of her jacket, slipping out the door. Silently, she plopped down on the stoop next to Nat, still looking confused as she pulled a small compact mirror from her pocket, one leg drawn towards her chest, the other sprawled out over at least three steps.
Nat opened her eyes and looked over. "Oh, hey…"
"Heyo." Kiania said with a nod, studying her hair in her reflection for a moment before snapping the compact shut, resisting the urge to fix her hair. "Are you…alright?"
"Yeah…" she replied, not caring to elaborate. She remembered Natasha's words to her one day, when Nat had been struggling with her middle school boyfriend.
"No one can tell you who to love. That's wrong. Let your own heart decide what to do. It's how I got Maria." Then she winked and Nat laughed.
She felt the pang in her chest yet again from the missing part of her.
Kiania tilted her head, reaching up to brush away the hair that fell into her face with the movement. "No, you aren't. I know that look." Her golden eyes studied Nat with a knowing, if slightly…somber, look.
Nat let her shoulders drop. "I miss my mom…" she whispered. "Both of them. Ever since Natasha died, Maria has been either super protective and engaging or a ghost. Recently… It's been more off the latter."
Artemis was extremely confused, to say the least. She decided to follow her stepdad’s age old advice: take it one step at a time. Cautiously, she sat down next to Kiania and Nat, her hands fiddling nervously in her lap. “I’m very sorry if I come off as… meddling. I don’t get to meet people often, and I’d like to make the most of the experience,” she said softly.
Nat touched Artemis's shoulder gently. "Hey it's alright." She ignored the fact that the girl had interrupted a very personal, very private conversation. "I understand."
"Talk to her." Kiania said, in response to Nat's admission, shooting the girl a small smile, before looking at Artemis. "Y'know, I already knew she was listening. I know when my phone's being tapped."
Nat looked at Kiania in shock. "Really? How?"
"There's a small sort of…shift, in sound. If you know to look for it, it's easy to find." Kiania said with a grin, raising an eyebrow. "And I was trained to spot things like that, you know."