April 27, 33 AE

When Elsie awoke the next morning, Camilla's bed was empty and neatly made, as if she had never been there at all. It was what Elsie expected, but she couldn't help but audibly groan in frustration as she pulled herself out of bed.

She supposed she couldn't be too mad though—hadn't she also refused to talk with her family about her own issues just the other day? It's understandable if Camilla didn't want to discuss a nightmare with Elsie when they weren't even close. They were nothing more than professional acquaintances.

By the time Elsie stumbled into the kitchen through the backdoor, still half-asleep, it was about eleven o'clock, which was just in time for breakfast. Just as she was about to forage through the fridge for some leftover lasagna, she spotted a plate on the table with her name on it.

Literally, her name was written on a sticky note stuck on an upside-down plastic container that covered a plate to keep the bugs out. On the plate was a stack of large chocolate chip pancakes, and Elsie immediately grabbed one with her hand and took a bite, blatantly ignoring her mom's note to reheat them.

Humming with pleasure, Elsie turned towards the coffee maker and was surprised to see someone had already made coffee. It was also still warm which was an added bonus, even though Elsie would've drank it cold anyway.

As she poured herself a cup, she could already smell that someone had a heavy hand with the coffee grounds, and she would've jumped for joy if she was a little more awake. The sweet pancakes paired well with the strong black coffee, and Elsie couldn't help voicing her satisfaction.

"Oh, my god," she said approvingly, ignoring the fact that the sounds she was making were probably wildly inappropriate out of context. "That is good."

"Sorry, am I interrupting something?" Camilla said from behind her.

Elsie spun around, almost dropping her coffee and definitely dropping some of her pancake in the process.

Camilla was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, holding a mug in her hand and a judgmental look on her face.

"No," Elsie quickly replied with her mouth full.

Camilla raised an eyebrow before walking towards Elsie and reaching for the coffee pot to refill her own mug, then adding in a little sugar. At a brief glance, she looked how she did yesterday in her casual short-sleeved blouse and fitted jeans. But Elsie could tell something was off from her bloodshot eyes rimmed with heavy eyelids and the way she dragged her feet ever so slightly across the kitchen floor.

"You didn't go back to sleep, did you?" Elsie asked.

Camilla shot her a look that was nearly a glare. Elsie expected Camilla to flat-out lie and say that she did go to sleep, but instead, Camilla's glare drifted down to the pancake in Elsie's hand.

"You have something against using tableware?" she asked, not bothering to hide the judgemental tone in her voice.

Elsie shrugged. Camilla's redirect wasn't exactly subtle, but Elsie didn't think she should pry any more than she already had.

"Not really. I have something against washing dishes though." She gestured to the plate on the table with her own pancake. "Did you want any?"

"I had some earlier," Camilla said. She took a sip of her coffee as her eyes passed over to the remaining pancakes. "Your parents said that you love chocolate chip pancakes."

Elsie nodded. "And coffee," she said, raising her mug. "By the way, did you make this? It's perfect."

"It's not too strong?"

"Not for me, but it probably would be for the rest of my family." Elsie shuddered dramatically. "They treat coffee like it's a light tea or something."

"Maybe they're the normal ones in comparison," Camilla said, eyeing the pieces of pancake Elsie had dropped earlier.

Elsie followed Camilla's gaze, sighed irately, then picked up the biggest crumb and threw it in the trash, ignoring the smaller ones that could hopefully only be seen from up close.

"No wonder your condo smells like it does," Camilla muttered as she waved a few fingers of the hand that was holding her mug. Immediately, the remaining smaller crumbs lifted up from the ground and dove into the trash as well.

"My condo does not smell," Elsie said defensively.

Camilla gave her a pointed look. "Maybe not to you."

Before Elsie could argue further, Kat came in with a cheery good morning, and Elsie had to quickly stuff the remainder of her pancake in her mouth to hide the evidence. Camilla rolled her eyes, and didn't look at all sympathetic when Kat scolded Elsie shortly after.

"If you're done eating like an animal," Kat said bitterly. "I need you two to run errands with me."

Nate had driven their dad to pick up more supplies for their newly redecorated art studio, and Bev was holed up in her room studying, leaving Elsie and Camilla as the lucky winners. At least Kat was aware that her grocery trips implied more socializing with everyone else she knew at the store rather than actual shopping, and each trip could last hours. She offered Camilla the option to stay back though, since she only wanted to subject her daughter to such torture.

"You know she's here to protect me, right?" Elsie reminded Kat.

Judging by Kat's face it seemed like she was trying to forget. She looked worried for a moment before she looked at them defiantly.

"Let them try and hurt my baby girl," Kat protested. "I don't care who they are, I'll rip them apart with my bare hands before they'll even know what hit 'em."

Elsie knew that if it came down to it, no one in her family could stand a chance against any one of those crazy meta assassins. But she also knew her mom was just trying to put on a brave front, and that it would do more harm than good by trying to tear that down.

"I'd be interested in going with you anyways," Camilla assured Kat at the perfect time. "Whenever I travel for work, we never get a chance to look around except to get food. Turns out, you can tell a lot about a place by their grocery stores."

To Elsie, her answer sounded ridiculous, but it was enough to appease Kat, and the three of them piled into the family's truck shortly after.

Kat's go-to grocery store was a relatively small, locally-owned shop, and its long history within the town made it popular amongst the older generations. So it was no surprise that, on a late Sunday morning, Kat stopped to chat with other customers on two separate occasions and greeted four others in passing before they even entered the store. Even Elsie, as talkative as she was, found this level of conversation to be excessive.

The conversations only increased in frequency and length when they went inside, and Elsie and Camilla no longer had reasons to wear their sunglasses disguises. At the sight of them, more of Kat's acquaintances made a point to stop and talk, and Kat was more than happy to oblige. They usually wanted the gossip on what Elsie was up to, and Kat loved bragging about any and all of her children, even if no one asked. It was mildly entertaining to listen to someone try and find out if Elsie was dating anyone, only to have Kat steer them into a conversation about Nate's firm's latest big-name client.

After growing up in the entertainment spotlight, Elsie was used to it. There were some differences this time, mainly because she was just the target of a terrorist attack and Camilla's presence became another topic of conversation, but that didn't change the routine too much. Even Camilla didn't seem shocked by the prying questions from the strangers, but Elsie supposed she was also accustomed to it as a byproduct of her occupation. Thankfully, Camilla didn't use her typical public personality and instead maintained the professionalism that Elsie had previously requested.

What threw Elsie off was when she recognized shoppers her age, usually from high school. And it wasn't as if they too were being dragged along with their parents like Elsie was. On the contrary, it was because they were parents themselves, or they were at least starting their own families.

At first, Elsie didn't think it was a big deal. Some people wanted to start families early, some preferred later, and some didn't want any at all. But after seeing five of her classmates with their partners or children in the span of half an hour, Elsie began to realize that maybe she was the outlier, not them.

"Can you believe that?" her mom asked after chatting with one of Elsie's seniors from high school. "He was, what, two years ahead of you? And now he has two kids? Time really does fly when you get old."

"He has twins, there's a difference," Elsie pointed out.

But there wasn't really, and Elsie knew that. She just wanted to convince herself that while she was almost thirty, she still wasn't that old yet. She still had more than enough time to do all those adult things in the future.

"You wouldn't say that if you ever had to change a diaper," Kat said as she steered her near-empty shopping cart down another aisle. Thankfully, this one was empty, and Kat could actually focus on the things that were written on her list. "Camilla, dear, you don't know what I'm talking about either, do you?"

"No," Camilla answered plainly, not indicating whether that was a good or bad thing.

Kat nodded. "That's fine, you're still young." She mulled over the frozen pizza options for a moment before continuing. "You got anyone special though? You seem like a talented young woman, and real pretty on top of that. I'm sure you get all kinds of suitors left and right, no?"

At that moment, Elsie would've preferred complete silence if that meant she didn't have to experience such an awkward situation. Camilla hadn't told the public what happened between them, but that didn't mean she wouldn't tell her family, and Elsie didn't want to be around if her mom found out.

Even if Camilla didn't try to intentionally reveal anything, Kat was both nosy and observant, and there was rarely a lie that slipped past her. But all Elsie could do just then was school her expression to be as neutral as she could manage and wait nervously for Camilla's response.

"No, not really," she replied after only a slight pause, and she was so convincing that even Elsie believed her.

Thankfully, so did Kat, and she hummed thoughtfully before returning to her browsing.

Another half hour passed with Kat seeing several more acquaintances over the next few aisles. It felt like they had been there forever, and Elsie was just about to recommend cutting their trip short when the sound of a light thud and the crinkling of plastic interrupted her plans. Besides her, Camilla had suddenly bumped into a display of chips and was staring at the bags in confusion.

"Are you okay?" Elsie asked, suddenly concerned.

It was out of character for Camilla to be clumsy enough to walk into stationary objects, so it was possible that something was wrong with her. Elsie hoped that Camilla was just secretly clumsy because she was not at all prepared to deal with meta-related issues.

Camilla nodded, but her expression was slightly pinched as she straightened her posture. "I'm fine," she assured. "I just tripped."

But Kat, of course, saw right through that lie, even if she hadn't noticed Camilla's earlier one.

"Now, don't think you can lie to me, young lady," she scolded, wagging a finger at one of the strongest people in the world. "I raised three kids. I know when someone's trying to hide something from me, and you're no exception."

Camilla stared at her in wide-eyed shock for a few seconds before sheepishly averting her eyes to the ground.

"It... it's a small headache," she admitted, unusually quiet. "I'll be fine."

Kat nodded, satisfied. "That's much better." She continued to push her cart down the aisle, but turned towards the checkout instead of continuing her shopping. "Now, let's get you home so you can rest."

Camilla was obviously shocked as she trailed along after Kat. She looked to Elsie for an explanation, but Elsie merely shrugged. There was nothing Elsie could do once her mom set her mind on something.

"I'm really fine," Camilla insisted, but Kat had already pulled into a checkout line and was loading her purchases onto the conveyor belt. "Please, don't stop just for me. You can keep shopping."

Kat stopped to turn to Camilla with her hands on her hips. "You think I need your permission to keep shopping, dear?"

Her sudden shift in tone stopped Camilla short. "N—no, ma'am," Camilla quickly answered, her voice quiet again and her gaze lowered.

Kat nodded again, then placed her hands on Camilla's shoulders. At the touch, Camilla leaned back slightly, but Elsie wasn't going to mention it, and neither did her mom.

"You may be a very powerful guardian who's working right now," Kat said. "But you are also our guest. So let us care for you like one, okay?"

Camilla raised her gaze to stare at Kat for a few seconds before she stiffly nodded.

"Good," Kat smiled, and continued checking out.

---

NOTES

Elsie: I need to have a conversation with a human once every hour or I will DIE from social starvation.

Elsie at the grocery store with Kat: asdfhjkaisdjnfiunf NOPE ABORT ABORTAABORT!!!!

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