Theus' hand jutted out to grab Caylie's wrist in order to prevent her from cutting herself, he snapped at her.
"The hell is the matter with you?! Why cut yourself, and why in front of me?! That's fucked."
Caylie looked away solemnly, turning her head down to face the ground. Despite how agitated Theus was at her action, he couldn't stay mad. She was just too damn attractive!
"I'm sorry, Theus. It's a… personal issue of mine I've been trying to figure out."
She remained rather secretive regarding her issue, and Theus, being as respectful as can be, didn't ask further questions. Instead, he was distracted by something on Caylie's chest…
'Focus, Theus! You don't even know her age!'
Clearing his throat and attempting to change the conversation, he focused his curiosity on who she was.
"Doesn't matter. Uh, how come you have that veil over your face? I'm sure you look, well, good without it!"
Caylie brought her arms to her stomach, looking sick from his words, and continued to stay silent.
Theus, feeling bad for continuing to ask, reached out and rested a hand on her shoulder awkwardly in the best attempt to comfort her.
"Shit, sorry. I'm not too good at this… Sorry."
She took his hand into hers, and rubbed it gently, bringing him at ease. Her hands felt perfectly smooth to the touch, with barely any dirt or scars on them.
"It's alright, don't worry so much. You're a sweet boy, Theus."
Hearing the word, "boy" he got somewhat freaked out, he removed his hand from hers and sat back down in his corner once again.
'Boy?? Don't tell me…'
Theus looked up at Caylie again, who was still resting on her knees, waiting for his response.
"Ma'am, how old are you exactly?"
She brought her hand up to where her mouth would be behind the veil, gasping slightly.
"I never told you? Ah, I'm eighteen, and you?"
Leaning forward slightly, Caylie waited expectantly for Theus' response. The latter formed a look of dread on his face as he said slowly.
"Sixteen, ma'am."
Caylie giggled, then got back up from kneeling on the ground, looking down at Theus.
"Aw, I think you're the youngest on board!"
Theus frowned immensely while Caylie glanced back towards the crowd of people around the two leaders, then looked at the worried faces of the people swarming the tree of a man from before, she then turned back to face Theus.
"Do you want to check on that guy from before? I hadn't gone since there's too many people over there for my liking."
Theus shot up from his corner, and stepped to the side of Caylie -- the two were about the same height -- getting ready to satiate his wonder.
'That guy whose arm got cut off… What if I make him a new one?'
Focusing his mind to its greatest extent, he only thought about the structure of the man's arm, and the creation of a new one.
Then, he fell back on the floor after creating a lump of human flesh, which was composed of muscle tissue, tendons, and broken bones. All that fell straight to the ground alongside him. A pulsing pain rushed through his head, nowhere near enough to make one go insane, but enough to hurt a person's psyche. Caylie caught him before he hit his head on the lusterless metal flooring of the ship.
"Theus! What is that… Uhm, are you alright?"
Dodging the first implied question regarding the ball of flesh on the ground, Theus decided to only answer the second, staying in her arms a little longer than necessary due to her warm embrace.
"I… I'll be alright, just a little headache is all."
He got back up slowly along with the lump, then hurled the flesh like a ball, as far as he could towards the lasers, burning away any trace of its existence. Theus clenched his teeth in frustration, angry at his failed creation, then solemnly muttered his next words.
"Let's get going, yeah?"
Caylie stared at the rising smoke from the flesh for a while, then faced Theus once more, with worry in her tone.
"Yeah, sure."
******
There were a handful of people surrounding the burly man, blocking Theus and Caylie's view from him. Theus was holding a small antiseptic wipe he was told in great detail about by Caylie. Due to her explanation, he was able to create a replica of a wipe in order to help out Ronan.
At this point, Theus had found out one feature of his Desire, he can only create things he has a general basis of knowledge around, or generally knows. Thankfully, Caylie was still buying his lie about his Desire, with her thinking that this was just a regular capability of the Desire for Construction. He didn't enjoy lying about his real ability, but he didn't have much of a choice.
'Damn this! I hate holding secrets!'
Brushing past the crowd, Theus and Caylie stepped up to the front… only for Theus to pocket the wipe in great disappointment.
'The guy is already healed?! How's that even possible?!'
The titan of a man was performing arm exercises while laying on the ground, stretching his old and brand-new arm as if nothing had happened. The man glanced up just in time to see Theus pocketing the wipe. Giving the boy a hearty smile, he sat up from where he was laying down originally.
"Came here to help, huh? No worries kid, part of my Desire. No holding secrets anyways now that this happened, right?"
Where the arm was severed, a deep scar ran across the entire length of it while the rest of it had regrown. It appeared as if no tissue was harmed, no muscle fiber was lost, nothing had ever even happened. The arm regenerated on its own without any differences to its overall structure.
Astonished at the sight, Theus ran over to feel the man's arm, who's expression flashed with a pained grimace as he swatted Theus away.
"Ugh, watch it, kid! Still stings y'know?"
Theus backed away before the man slapped at him, causing Theus to look down apologetically at the man.
"Oh, sorry, sir! I'm Theus, and I just wanted to check if your arm is real."
The man raised his eyebrow with his mouth open in confusion, staring at Theus. Trying to break the tension, Caylie stepped up shortly after, bowing her head towards the man as well.
"I am Caylie, pleasure to meet you, and my apologies on behalf of him."
Theus flashed a quick look at Caylie, giving her another evident frown, then turned back to face the man.
'Why does this girl- no, woman- Whatever, why's she so damn condescending!'
The man now fully got up from where he was sitting, standing far above both Theus and Caylie, about 190 cm. He rested his hand on Theus' scruffy hair, ruffling it back and forth with his calloused hand while he laughed.
"Eh, no worries you two. Name's Ronan, thanks for your questionable concern…"
Ronan lifted his hand off Theus' head, flashing him a look of suspicion again before looking back to the small number of people who surrounded him before, offering him help.
"Oh yeah, and thank you all for tryin' to help, means a lot, especially since that damned pilot didn't give a shit."
Theus looked up to see Ronan's masculine face, which was now grinning despite the previous pain he endured, causing Theus to form a longing smile.
'Really wish I had parents like that. Least I've still got my mom.'
The only thing Theus knew about his biological parents were their last names, with Soteira being the one to tell him.
Based on Soteira's words, Theus was found left in a ditch, wrapped in a blanket. A note was attached with only his last name, Tomo. When he was told the truth of his origin, he scoured everywhere back on Deceased Earth to try and search for them, to ask them the reason behind why they had abandoned him, but to no avail.
There were two probabilities he narrowed his parent's fate down to. They either moved away to Europa or Mars, or fell victim to the inhabitable wasteland of Deceased Earth, not even being able to care for themselves.
He couldn't tell whether he hoped for the former or the latter.
Ronan caught Theus staring at him while smiling, making Ronan shine a toothy grin in return… which was interrupted by the loud clamor coming from behind the burly man.
Theus shot his eyes behind Ronan. Leaning to the side, he saw the two massive groups from before arguing with one another.
The alluring boy and the sweet girl from before were now yelling at each other, with their followers preparing to lunge at one another.
Tension thickened like smoke. The once simple dispute was now on the verge of exploding into a bloodbath.