Aiden did not move.
The ice cream shop was small, bright, and wrong in at least twelve different ways. Cold air hummed unnaturally. The glass cases glowed like alchemy chambers. And inside them sat rows of frozen substances in colors that did not occur naturally without consequences.
Children were eating them.
Smiling.
Aiden stood very still, eyes locked on the display.
"Kail," he said carefully.
She was already leaning on the counter, elbows planted, grinning at the flavors like this was a holy ritual. "What?"
"Why," he asked, voice low and serious, "are the frozen substances not contained?"
She blinked. "Contained?"
"They are exposed," he continued. "Accessible. Melting. And yet no one is evacuating."
She turned to look at him properly.
He was tense. Not combat-tense. Not battlefield-alert. This was different. This was… cautious confusion mixed with genuine concern.
"Oh," she said slowly. Then she laughed. Not loud. Not mocking. Just warm. "Ohhh. You think it's dangerous."
"I think," he replied evenly, "that brightly colored frozen matter being consumed by children should raise questions."
The kid next to them licked a neon blue scoop and giggled.
Aiden's jaw tightened.
Kail leaned closer to him. "Okay. Breathe. It's just ice cream."
"Just," he repeated.
"Milk," she said, counting on her fingers. "Sugar. Flavor. Cold."
He looked at the display again. "It glows."
"It does not."
"It absolutely does."
She squinted. "…Okay fine, that one does a little. But that's just coloring."
"Coloring," he repeated again, clearly filing it under suspicious concepts.
The shop owner cleared his throat, watching them like he was trying to decide if this was a prank or a mental health situation.
"So," Kail said brightly, "two cones. One vanilla, one chocolate."
Aiden's head snapped toward her. "You are purchasing it."
"Obviously."
"For me."
"Yes."
He hesitated. "Kail."
She smiled up at him, easy and unbothered. "Trust me."
That did it.
Trust was harder for him than fear.
He nodded once.
She paid, took the cones, and handed him the vanilla like it was a sacred offering.
"Here," she said. "Just… eat it."
He stared at it.
It was cold enough to sting his fingers. The surface was smooth, innocent-looking. Too innocent.
He brought it closer to his face, inhaled cautiously.
Sweet. No blood. No iron. No warmth.
Kail watched him with open curiosity, not pressure. Just waiting.
Aiden lifted it and took the smallest bite possible.
Cold exploded across his tongue.
His first thought was: this is useless.
Too sweet. Too empty. No sustenance. No grounding. It vanished instead of feeding him, leaving only cold behind.
His instincts rejected it instantly.
But then—
He glanced at Kail.
She was smiling. Really smiling. Like this mattered to her. Like sharing this ridiculous frozen thing was important.
He swallowed.
"It is," he said carefully, "…good."
Her face lit up. "See? Told you."
She took a bite of her chocolate and hummed happily. "Nothing dangerous. Just messy."
Ice cream began to melt immediately, dripping down his fingers.
Aiden stared at it like betrayal.
"It is escaping," he muttered.
She laughed. "You have to eat it faster."
He took another bite. And another.
Still didn't like it.
Still too sweet.
Still wrong.
But he kept eating.
Because she was happy.
Because she kept talking about flavors and summers and how she used to come here as a kid.
Because for once, no one needed him sharp.
He didn't need to enjoy it.
He just needed to be here.
And for reasons he didn't yet understand, that felt enough.
The ice cream kept melting.
Aiden watched it drip down the cone with growing distrust, white lines trailing over his fingers like it was trying to escape him on purpose.
"Kail," he said, holding the cone out slightly. "It is dissolving."
She licked chocolate from her thumb. "Yeah. That's what it does."
"That seems inefficient."
"Welcome to joy," she replied easily.
He frowned at the mess, then took another bite, faster this time, like he was racing the ice cream before it betrayed him completely. Cold bit into his teeth. He stiffened, then forced himself to keep chewing.
Inside, he felt nothing close to satisfaction.
No warmth. No strength. No grounding weight like blood or meat. Just sweetness and cold and air.
He swallowed anyway.
"You're eating it wrong," Kail said suddenly.
He froze. "There is a wrong way?"
She laughed and stepped closer, reaching for his hand without thinking. "You gotta tilt it. Like this."
She adjusted the cone in his fingers, her hand warm against his skin, casual, unafraid. The contact was brief. Normal.
Aiden's breath stalled for half a second.
"There," she said, stepping back. "Less drip."
He nodded. "Understood."
She kept talking as they walked out of the shop, bell chiming behind them, ice cream in hand like this was a perfectly normal thing to do after surviving near-death portals.
Aiden listened more than he spoke.
She talked about school she barely attended, summers that felt too short, how this street used to look smaller when she was younger. He watched her instead of the road now. The way she gestured. The way her voice lifted when she laughed.
The ice cream melted faster.
He ate it even when he didn't want to.
Not because he liked it.
Because she did.
They walked in silence for a bit after, the comfortable kind. Kail finished hers and tossed the stick into a bin.
"You survived," she teased. "No poisoning. No curses."
"I will recover," he said solemnly.
She bumped his shoulder lightly. "Dramatic."
He did not correct her....
Across the street, inside a sunglasses shop, chaos unfolded.
"No," Lizz said firmly, pointing at the price tag. "That is robbery."
The shop owner crossed his arms. "That's the price."
Vordi leaned closer, inspecting the sunglasses with deep suspicion. "These are false shadows," he said. "Why do they cost so much?"
"They're designer," the shop owner snapped.
"Designers of what?" Vordi asked calmly. "Darkness?"
Lizz slapped a hand on the counter. "I can get the same thing for half that price online."
"Online is fake," the shop owner shot back.
Vordi picked up a pair, slipped them on, and stared at his reflection. "I see less sun. This displeases me."
"That's the point!" Lizz groaned. "They're supposed to block light."
"Why would I block light voluntarily?" he asked, deeply offended.
"Because humans are weak," she said.
The shop owner stared at them. "Are you two… together?"
Lizz and Vordi answered at the same time.
"No."
"Yes."
They stared at each other.
"WHY did you say yes?" Lizz demanded.
Vordi frowned. "We are together. We are standing in the same shop."
The shop owner sighed. "Please leave."
Back outside, Aiden stopped walking.
Kail turned. "What's wrong?"
He looked down at the empty cone in his hand. Melted remnants clung to it uselessly.
"I believe," he said carefully, "that I have consumed it."
She grinned. "Congrats."
He hesitated, then added, "I do not understand why humans enjoy it."
She shrugged. "You don't have to understand everything."
He nodded slowly.
That felt… true.
They resumed walking, side by side, no rush, no destination that mattered.
Aiden glanced at her once more, thinking quietly:
I do not like ice cream.
But I would eat it again.
And he did not know yet that this thought mattered more than most battles he had survived.