Kax held Kagakusha's arms down and held her still until she calmed. Kagakusha struggled to keep the fire that had flared within her under control. It took some effort, but finally she was under enough control again for Kax to speak.
"It's not as hard as you think, Kei. So things haven't exactly been perfect for me, either." She laughed slightly.
Kagakusha almost had a pout of some kind in her voice. "Well, it should be. You deserve it."
"Heh, we all deserve better then we get. Might as well just go with what we got. If that makes any sense whatsoever."
Kagakusha didn't move for several minutes. Then, she finally reached and took Kax's hand.
"Am I cold?"
Kax could feel no different in temperature, so decided to say so. "No, not that I can feel."
"You know why?"
Kax stayed silent for once.
"Because you make me warm."
Kax remained silent, unsure of how to respond. Finally, she decided on something. "You make me feel useful. So we're even."
"I don't think so..."
Rather abruptly, Kagakusha stopped speaking, closed her eyes, and seemed to fall asleep. Kei knew this kind of behavior well. Kagakusha hated to admit she was tired, therefore went to sleep as quickly and as late as possible.
Kax didn't put her down. Instead, she rested her head against the plaster of the walls, closed her eyes, and soon found herself in her own dreamland.
Kax woke up first as well. She stared down at Kagakusha, who had remained in the same position the entire time, and gently rolled her off onto the bed. She remained curled in a ball, sleeping peacefully. Taking the small copy of herself, Kax placed the doll in Kagakusha's arms, so that it could keep her warm.
Meanwhile, Kax was going to go get a drink. And go to the bathroom, if it were possible. And she needed to walk anyway, her legs had fallen asleep.
She hopped off the bunk and almost fell over at the reluctance at which her legs seemed to desire to sustain her. Steadying herself, she smiled as she usually did.
She then made a small comment to herself, another thing she habitually did. "Smooth, Kax ol' girl, real smooth."
She stumbled out into the hallway, scratching the back of her legs with her free foot. She still had her shoes on. She hadn't remember to take them off.
"Doesn't matter." She again commented to herself. She walked down the hallway, unsure of the time. It must have been somewhat early. The sun wasn't streaming with all it's usual intensity through the few windows she could see.
Taking a sip of water, she found that she was not really as thirsty as she had originally thought. Shrugging, she walked into the bathroom.
She found the place to be practically empty, a good thing. She never had really gotten used to the idea of going to the bathroom with other people around. She shrugged. She viewed it as more of a private thing.
Before she could move for the stall, however, the bathroom door behind her opened. Turning, she prepared to give the person a bright greeting when she saw who it was.
"Oh, it's you." Stacey spat with barely concealed hatred. "I had to sleep on the COUCH last night thanks to you."
Kax wasn't one to hold a grudge. Although the girl was severely bothering her now, she tried to keep her face calm. "Oh, I was wondering how you made out. How was the couch?"
Stacey seemed to boil underneath her eyes with fury. Kax couldn't really understand what the girl seemed to find so offensive in her.
"I hated it! Do you know what that kind of thing does to my hair? DO YOU?"
Kax took the bandanna off her head, looking at it's faded yellow color and decided to give it it's daily rinse. She wasn't about to go the bathroom with this girl in here with her, so she might as well do something constructive. If there was one thing that Kax couldn't stand, it was her scarves getting dirty, so cleaning the scarf was almost second nature. She walked to a sink and filled it with warm water, not really paying attention as Stacey seemed to ramble on and on about how bad this would be for her hair.
"With this kind of treatment, Todd will NEVER ask me out! I've been working so hard and he was about to give in but NOOO I had to sleep on a COUCH! This is going to take WEEKS to repair!"
"Mmhmm." Kax mumbled distractedly as she swished the scarf about in the water. Taking it out, she let it drip for a few moments.
"I KNOW Todd wants me, I KNOW he does, but because of that couch, I'll NEVER HAVE HIM!"
She turned towards Kax, hate burning in her eyes. "Because of YOU I'll never have him!"
This was an unwise point to do so, but it was a little late for Kax to stop herself. She was shaking the scarf dry and a large collection of drops spattered against Stacey, causing her to scream hysterically. Kax almost felt concern, but more felt almost annoyed at the girl's overreaction.
"Sorry about that."
Kax tied the still moist scarf back in her hair, knowing it would dry in due time. She watched Stacey fume.
"Accident."
"You...!" Stacey seemed to be thinking of a suitable retort. She fumbled for several moments. "You...!"
Kax waited, not aware of the condescending tone in her voice. "Thinking of a retort? That's rather silly, it was an acci-"
Stacey walked right up to her, her high-heels clicking on the bathroom tile. She raised her hand in a swift motion and struck Kax across the face.
Kax paused for one second. Enough for Stacey to begin a statement.
"Now-"
Kax reared back her fist and sent it crashing into Stacey's face.
The other girl fell back bodily, wailing loud enough to shatter glass and clutching her face. Kax lowered her fist and stared at the other girl in contempt.
"Lucky I didn't have any rings on."
She walked out of the bathroom without another word, leaving the wailing girl behind her.
She walked back to the room to find Kagakusha still soundly asleep. She was slightly surprised because she could still hear Stacey wailing, even from this distance through a closed door. She was surprised at the power of her vocal chords. Kagakusha slept peacefully, the Kax doll clutched in her arms. Kax stared at her for a while, then sighed to herself.
"Alright, maybe I shouldn't have punched her, but she slapped me." She talked softly to herself, shrugging as she left the room once again. "The least I can do is go check if she's okay."
Kax noted the many pairs of eyes staring at her from behind doors. Stacey's wailing was reaching a fever pitch. No doubt she was waking the others in the dorm. Kax rolled her eyes. She was over-reacting a bit. Then again, the girl tended to over-react to everything.
She walked into the bathroom to find another girl in there with Stacey, kneeling and looking at her face. From where Kax had struck here, there was a bright spot of blood. She must have broken her nose.
"C'mon Stacey, stay still, I need to clean this off..." The girl in the dress was trying feebly to get Stacey to keep her head still and stop screaming, but Stacey apparently didn't want to co-operate.
When Stacey saw Kax, she backed away and by some miracle managed to scream even louder then she already was.
"THAT'S HER!"
The girl in the dress turned towards Kax and stomped towards her, a hatred identical to Stacey's burning in her eyes.
Kax sighed inwardly. Fighting was really against her nature, she didn't want to cause any more problems. But everyone's patience has a limit...and Kax's was already wearing thin when she saw Kei in pain. It has snapped with Stacey. She wasn't sure whether she could handle dealing with someone else at the moment.
"Did YOU punch her?"
Kax shrugged. "Why?"
Again, she could see the same, sputtering, angry look in the girl's eyes as had been in Stacey's when she had been considering slapping her.
Kax tried to appear non-threatening, backing away from her imperceptibly.