True to her word, filming finished almost two hours earlier than scheduled, and the set and equipment were packed up and on the way to the airport shortly after, under the protection of the local guardians. With the unexpected hours of downtime, the cast and crew were all in high spirits and itching to explore the area before they had to leave the next day.

After overhearing several groups secretly plotting how they could sneak out of the hotel past their guardian protection, Lee allowed everyone to leave the hotel under the condition that they traveled in groups of three or more and that they stayed within a half mile radius of the hotel. And since the local guardians only had orders to protect the hotel, she allowed her squad to join the groups that left, with strict orders for Camilla and Pala to continuously monitor the atmosphere around them for any indication of an attack.

"I don't know if my abilities are good enough for that," Pala worried once Lee and Perez were out of earshot. Even as a trainee, at least Pala had enough sense to know that Lee would never take weakness as an acceptable excuse, and Perez would just be a jerk about it.

"You can stick with us if you like," Mack said, gesturing to himself, Camilla, and Elsie. "Camilla was going to show us this pizza place she likes."

Pala hesitated at the offer, just as a large group arrived in the lobby and called them over.

"Is that the sound crew?" Elsie asked.

Pala nodded meekly. "Thanks for the offer, Olomana, but..."

"Don't sweat it," Mack said with a grin. "Just have fun, and don't get too crazy."

"Especially with the sound crew," Elsie warned. "Those kids are wild."

"Y-yes, ma'am," Pala said, then turned to leave.

"Wait, Pala," Camilla suddenly said, surprising even herself.

For a moment, Camilla was tempted to simply brush off what she was about to say as inconsequential. But something about Pala's curious and hopeful expression convinced her otherwise, and Camilla continued.

"Wherever you end up going, try to find places with open air, or at least by windows," Camilla advised. "And when you're trying to look for threats, don't try to monitor everything at once—that takes too much energy. Think less like a bubble around you and more of a spotlight that keeps moving around. It has a greater range and is more efficient, especially if these people stick with fire-based attacks since those disturb a large volume of air around them. Use your abilities to watch for long-range attacks; use your eyes for short and mid-range."

After a beat, Camilla added, "And trust your instincts. They're good, so put them to work."

Pala's eyes were wide at Camilla's words; they probably hadn't heard Camilla say so much so seriously at one time. Belatedly, Pala nodded in acknowledgement and thanked Camilla before rushing off to join the others.

Mack whistled in approval. "Wow, Wyatt, that's captain material right there."

Camilla glared at him. "It's a lot better than your advice. 'Don't get too crazy'? Seriously?"

"And I stand by my words," Mack said proudly, and the three of them made their way out of the lobby.

Their dinner ended up being exactly what Camilla needed after a rough few weeks and an even worse day. With good food and better company, Camilla almost forgot about her worries and frustrations in favor of listening to Elsie and Mack ramble about everything that they could think of.

When they stopped at a neighboring cafe for dessert, they were joined by Pala and the boisterous sound crew, and the expanded group spent the rest of the night playing a variety of board games from the cafe's vast collection. At first, Camilla was worried they were going to be kicked out for causing such a ruckus, but the cafe didn't seem to mind once their presence began drawing in even more customers. It was just after midnight by the time they all headed back to the hotel and parted ways as they went to their individual rooms.

The following day would be another long day of transit, so of course Camilla would have trouble sleeping again. Whenever she tried to close her eyes and quiet her thoughts, her mind would wander to earlier in the day and how she wished her run-in with Blaire could've gone.

There were a lot of emotions Camilla wanted to convey to the woman, but she didn't have the words for them, and it's not like she could make Blaire experience the same self-directed frustration and anger that Camilla had always known. And even if Camilla could do that, it wouldn't make a difference since Blaire would just end up putting the blame on something or someone else. Nothing was ever her fault, and Blaire could never do anything wrong. It was how she's always been, and Camilla had learned long ago that the woman was never going to change.

With no indication that she was going to fall asleep soon, Camilla picked up her phone from the nightstand to search for a distraction. Unfortunately, this ended up backfiring when the first notifications she saw were several texts from Blaire followed by a few missed calls. She cleared them immediately, having no intention of responding to them. Just as she did, she received another text, but this time it was from Elsie.

You sleeping? she asked, knowing Camilla too well.

Not even close, Camilla replied.

Me neither. Too much sugar. Can I stop by?

Sure.

Camilla got to her feet and tidied up a bit. Though her room was nowhere near as messy as Elsie's, nor did she have as many things as her, Camilla still liked to have her spaces exceptionally tidy, especially when other people were around. Just as she organized the last of her things, there was a peppy knock on her door.

'Too much sugar' was definitely an understatement, and Elsie looked like she could stay awake for another twenty-four hours. She practically skipped past Camilla as soon as she was invited in and immediately sprawled on the bed, waving her arms and legs in the blankets as if she was making a snow angel.

"I am so alive right now!" Elsie exclaimed enthusiastically, extending her hands towards the ceiling, then letting them fall back down to the bed. "And thirsty. Very thirsty."

"Uh..." Camilla glanced around the room. "I have a complimentary bottle of water?"

Elsie sat up eagerly. "Can I have it?"

Camilla got the water from the mini fridge and tossed it to Elsie, who didn't really catch it so much as she blocked it with her face.

"Good catch," Camilla said.

Elsie grunted bitterly in reply before chugging a third of the water in one go.

"Never let me have that many sweets in one sitting again," she sighed as she stared at the blank TV screen, entranced.

"Like I can stop you from making bad decisions," Camilla said. "Besides, I'd rather watch you learn the hard way."

Elsie scoffed. "You know that would never happen. Me, learning from my mistakes? It'd be a miracle."

She flopped forward on her stomach and grinned up at Camilla. "So my idea is we make the room really cold, wrap ourselves up in blankets, and watch a movie or whatever is playing right now. You in?"

It's not like Camilla had anything else to do, so she let Elsie cycle through TV channels while she fiddled with the thermostat. When it seemed like the air conditioner would take too long, Camilla simply absorbed the heat out of the air in the room and transferred it through the window outside. Once it was sufficiently cold enough she curled up in her bed and pulled the blankets to her chin. Shortly after, Elsie found something decent to watch and jumped back onto the left side of the bed, then buried herself under the covers just as Camilla had done.

The movie was a cheesy and outlandish superhero flick from long before metas and guardians existed. The genre was a predecessor of the current guardian films and definitely wasn't as popular nowadays, but Camilla remembered her dad had always been a big fan of them. He would show her the old comic books he used to collect, both from Japan and the US, and tell her how they eventually inspired him to become a scientist.

Camilla wished he could've been around to see her become a guardian, and even though she's hit some rough patches, she hoped he would still be proud of her.

"Did you want to ask me anything?" Camilla asked when a commercial break came on.

She glanced at Elsie, who seemed to be deep in thought as she contemplated her answer.

"One thing, if that's okay," Elsie eventually answered.

Camilla hoped it wasn't anything too personal, but she nodded anyway, trusting Elsie's judgement.

"How are you?" Elsie simply asked, her expression serious, and her gaze seemed to look right into Camilla's mind.

"I wasn't great," Camilla admitted. "But... I'm fine now. Or, better, at least." Camilla sighed. "Sorry, I'm not used to talking about... things."

Elsie chuckled a little. "It's fine, I can be the same way."

Camilla remembered Elsie's visit to her family and how she tried to avoid their questions about the attack at the Games. She supposed that they were more similar than she thought.

She sighed again. "I just wish I could sleep."

Elsie hummed in acknowledgement, then shifted around a bit. She pulled out her right arm from beneath the covers and held it out, allowing Camilla to move closer if she wanted.

But the thought of being that physically close to someone instantly made Camilla squeamish, and every one of her instincts began to go off in her head in warning. She didn't need the close proximity to survive, and it would only make her feel vulnerable, physically and mentally. She didn't have to accept, and nothing would change.

But a small part of her yearned for the closeness of another person. Not only that, but it wanted her to be fine with it. And if Camilla was going to take a risk, she trusted that at least Elsie wasn't one to take advantage of her.

Sure, maybe one day, Elsie may hurt Camilla in a way she would never expect. But at that moment, Camilla found herself surprisingly willing to take that chance.

So after a short internal debate, Camilla silently accepted and scooted across the bed to Elsie's side. The sensation of Elsie's arm wrapped around her shoulders felt more comforting than Camilla wanted to admit, and she leaned her head against Elsie before she could convince herself not to.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. But as the movie continued after the commercials, Camilla felt her mind drifting enough so that she couldn't follow what was happening on the TV, but not enough that she could actually fall asleep. It wasn't until she felt Elsie's hand running through her hair and her fingers began to gently brush over her head that Camilla felt her eyes drift close and her mind shut off completely, and she was quickly lulled into a deep sleep.

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