Sitting on the floor with his eyes completely red Kosi wiped the tears from his eyes and let out a tired sigh. Standing up he looked down and noticed the box wasn't there. Looking to his side he noticed Brodie had it.
"Thanks" he said in a tired tone looking at Dell and Jay. "Come on man" he mumbled to Brodie holding his hands out. "No I got it" Brodie replied in an assuring tone. "No just...just give it to me" Kosi said with his eyes dropping.
Not wanting to argue Brodie handed the box over. Standing by awkwardly Jay and Dell watched the pair leave the dusty gymnasium. "You think I did the right thing?" Dell asked shakily. "You did the best thing you could think of doing, that's all anyone can ever do" Jay replied resting his head on Dell's shoulders.
Outside the school Kosi and Brodie walked in what was for Brodie eerie silence. "So we gonna talk about this or what" he asked letting the question hang in the air. "Nope, I'm tired" was the response he got from Kosi.
"What do you mean tired?" Brodie pried tentatively. "I just want to be normal for once, I'm not doing this right now" Kosi responded with a slight voice crack. The pair walked in silence until they parted ways.
The following day the Exploration Team was effortlessly scaling the city walls with sensors attached to their jackets. As people from the city watched in awe they attached the sensors to sections of the walls. Most of them simply scaled the walls to attach them in a row then descended to repeat the process in a different section of the wall.
Kosi however was cockily scaling his section then running and swinging himself from one side to the other attaching the sensors. To the shock and amazement of civilians and lab technicians and the shock and anger of Captain Williams. "What the fuck is he doing?!" the captain yelled when he saw the bouncing and swinging Kosi. "Uh..sir he's half an hour ahead of schedule doing it this way" a spindly bald technician replied tentatively.
"I don't care if he was done an hour ago who let him do this?!" he shouted amidst the tantalized audience. "Ooh" the onlookers said ignoring his question. "Um sir we've also had a bunch of people in this crowd come up saying they want to volunteer to help" the technician said as he held out a clipboard with a makeshift sign up sheet.
"He's got people wanting to join in someway...I couldn't tell them no I hope that's okay" he said avoiding eye contact with Captain Williams. Taking the sheet of paper Captain Williams looked at it and then looked at the technician. "What's your name..sir?" the captain asked flashing a warm smile. "Oh me? yeah um Paul" he replied surprised.
"Alright Paul, sorry for yelling you're not responsible for him flying around like this. You've done a good job here do me a favor and collect as many signatures as you can" Captain Williams replied handing over the sign up sheet. "A..Alright captain" Paul replied. "Hey, call me Thomas" he replied.
Waiting back watching Kosi showboat for his new fans Thomas waited for him to descend having finished setting up the sensors on his assigned section of the wall. With speed, efficiency and more than just a little flair Kosi bounded down effortlessly to cheers and a surprisingly smiling captain.
To his surprise Thomas was not scowling or even rushing to yell at him but rather waiting in the background with an uncharacteristic smile. A bit thrown by this Kosi approached him tentatively. "So who are you and where's Captain Williams?" he asked almost trying to get a rise out of him.
"I have nothing to yell at you for the sensors are up and in record time. Well done Kosi" he said cheerfully. Removing his helmet Kosi was stunned. "Thank..you so I'll be heading out then?" he asked eyeing up Thomas. "Yeah feel free Oh and by the way call me Thomas" he replied smiling.
"Thomas? Okay thanks Thomas see you tomorrow I guess" Kosi said. "Alright Kosi good job today" Thomas replied ruffling Kosis hair.
Done with work Kosi changed out of his uniform and headed out. For the first time doing so alone he hadn't even said goodbye to Jude, Willow or Brodie. Passing by Rue in an office he quickly ducked out before she could see him. Immediately going into his room once he was home he cried himself to sleep.
Waking up in the middle of the night he was startled to hear murmuring and footsteps outside his bedroom. His fear was immediately quelled when his door was swung open and he saw Rue. "Alright you're not a loner I don't really get why you just think you can be one all of a sudden. We got dinner I know you're hungry" she said walking away to the living room.
Getting up still in the clothes he had on when he got home he saw his friends sat around a table with a small buffet laid out in front of them. Sitting down Kosi mumbled under his breath "sorry". "Yeah you should be sorry showing us up like that" Brodie said chuckling.
"..Huh?" Kosi asked. "Today up the walls, bouncing back and forth like that surprised Thomas didn't chew you out for it" Jude said gleefully. "Oh my days he told you guys to call him that too?" Willow asked surprised.
"Yeah it's so weird I think he hit his head or something" Brodie added digging into his dinner. Kosi looked back and forth between them all confused. Looking back at him Brodie shrugged smiling "see normal" was all he said. Kosi smiled back and settled in with the conversations.