Page 77 of The Pushy Pixies Are Going Down
I squatted beside his seat, trying to meet his eye. I lifted my hand to move the hair out of his other eye but paused halfway there. I didn’t want to crowd him, and I wasn’t sure he’d appreciate me touching his hair like that.
“Chaos, you have a horribly black eye.”
“What the hell?” Aeson said, staring at his brother with wide eyes. Chaos had even hidden it from him, huh?
“What happened?” Miles asked, coming over as well. He started to squat down beside me, but he must’ve had the same thought about not crowding the kid because he took a seat beside Aeson instead. “What happened? Are you okay? Do you want an ice pack?”
Aeson said, “I can just—”
Chaos cut him off, saying, “An ice pack would be great, actually. I haven’t had a chance to ice it since it happened last night.”
“Sure.” Miles jumped up and rushed into the kitchen. “One ice pack, coming up.”
“What happened?” I asked again.
“Yeah, Morty, all of us would love to know.” I had never heard Aeson sound so pissed before, and Chaos winced.
“It was no big deal.”
“If it wasn’t a big deal, you wouldn’t have tried to hide it from us, and even from your brother, in the first place. I’m sorry, kiddo, but your eye looks like shit.”
Chaos sighed, picking at his food with his fork, still staring at his plate. “Some guy jumped me when…” He trailed off with a sigh. “When I went out for a job, Aeson was at work, and Clucky had flown into the yard already. But as soon as it happened, Clucky knew something was wrong, so she came flying out. The guy freaked out and punched me in the face. I, uh, kinda went down—”
“You were knocked out?”
“No. I just fell back on my ass from the force, I guess. But the guy grabbed my bag and ran, but Clucky wasn’t having it. She went after him. She’s fast in the sky when she wants to be, so she got in front of him, flapped in the air, and blew fire at his feet. They weren’t far from me, so I told him to drop the bag or she’d set him on fire, and luckily, he listened. Once he dropped the bag, Clucky squawked at him and chased him down the alley. Itwas pretty funny.” He ended with a smile and reached up to pet his familiar, then passed her a piece of fruit.
I gave her some pets too. “You’re a good girl, Clucky. Such a good girl.”
Miles came back in with an ice pack and knelt on the other side of the teenager. He handed it to the kid, asking, “Did you have it looked at?”
He shook his head. “Nah. It’s fine.”
Miles nodded. “You’re probably right, but do you mind if I grab my first aid kit and take a look? I’m not a doctor or anything, but I have some basic medical training, so I should be able to tell if anything’s broken.”
Too bad Maggie’s not here yet… shewasa doctor.
“For real?” The kid actually pouted. It was adorable.
Aeson said, “Morty, you know I can—”
“No.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Chaos sighed. “I didn’t want you to worry. You’re always… always trying to get me to stop with the necromancer jobs. I didn’t want to make you worry more.”
“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. You should’ve told me.”
Miles and I exchanged a look before he interrupted their argument, saying, “I want to take a look, Chaos.”
“Do you have to?”
Miles nodded at Chaos and patted his knee. “Yeah, kiddo, I think I do. It’s better to be safe than sorry, right?”
Chaos sighed. “Fine.”
Miles shot him a smile and stood. “Hold that ice pack on your eye while I grab my kit.”
