THE CLEANUP AND THE CURE
Despite Maria's frantic protests that a convalescing patient should not be handling a scrub brush, kei refused to sit idly by while the kitchen looked like a crime scene.
"Miss Sofia," kei said, picking up a rogue orange from the floor with a wince, "if we leave this 'porridge' to dry, it will become structural. We'll have to renovate the entire wing by noon."
"Fine! But you sit on this stool and give orders," Sofia commanded, pointing to a high-backed velvet chair. "I'll be the muscle. I've watched you do this a thousand times. Scrubbing is just… aggressive petting for floors, right?"
THE CHAOS OF COOPERATION
The "cleanup" was arguably more disastrous than the cooking. Sofia approached a puddle of syrup with a mop as if she were engaging in a bayonet charge.
"Lower your center of gravity, Miss Sofia," kei advised from her perch, her voice still a bit thin but filled with suppressed amusement. "You're mopping the floor, not fighting a dragon."
"I am multitasking! I'm cleaning and getting a cardio workout!" Sofia huffed, pushing the mop so hard it snapped back and splattered her silk slippers. "Ugh! This floor is so clingy!"
kei eventually couldn't stand it anymore. She slid off the stool and took the mop from Sofia's hands. For a few minutes, they worked together kei guiding the mop with her usual fluid (if slightly slower) grace, while Sofia followed behind with a roll of paper towels, drying the floor with the intensity of someone trying to buff a diamond.
At one point, Sofia tried to spray the counters with a lemon-scented cleaner, but she held the nozzle the wrong way. A cloud of citrus mist hit her square in the face.
"My eyes! I've been blinded by Vitamin C!" Sofia shrieked, stumbling back.
kei caught her by the elbows, laughing softly as she used a clean corner of her own apron to wipe Sofia's eyes. "For someone so rich, you are remarkably dangerous to yourself, Sofia."
Sofia blinked up at her, her vision clearing. The "Miss" was gone from kei's sentence, and for once, Sofia didn't care. "Well, I have you to keep me from walking into walls, don't I?"
THE RECOVERY GAMES
Once the kitchen was restored to its former glory and Maria had been bribed with a weekend off to forget the whole incident, Sofia moved the operation back to the master suite. She declared it "National kei Recovery Day."
"We are watching movies," Sofia announced, dumping a mountain of snacks onto the bed real snacks this time, prepared by the actual chef. "And no, we are not watching a documentary about hedge-trimming or whatever you like. We're watching The Royal Heart."
"A three-hour romance about a princess who falls for her stable boy?" kei asked, raising an eyebrow as she propped herself up on the pillows. "How original."
"It's a classic!" Sofia argued, diving into the bed next to her.
Throughout the afternoon, the dynamic shifted. Sofia, the girl who had never even fetched her own glass of water, became a whirlwind of uncoordinated care. She kept trying to fluff kei's pillows, but usually ended up accidentally hitting her in the face with them.
"Is that… comfortable?" Sofia asked for the twentieth time, after shoving a fifth pillow behind kei's head.
"I feel like I'm being swallowed by a cloud, Sofia. I can barely see the TV," kei muffled from the depths of the feathers.
They spent the day laughing in a way Sofia hadn't laughed in years. They made fun of the actors' dramatic expressions, and Sofia even tried to paint kei's nails while the other girl napped a project that resulted in kei waking up with neon pink cuticles and Sofia accidentally painting a small heart on the bedsheets.
THE TRUCE
As evening fell, the laughter quieted down into a comfortable, warm silence. The movie credits rolled in the background, casting blue light over the room.
"You're actually not a nightmare today," kei murmured, her head resting back against the headboard. "Though your nail-painting skills are a biohazard on par with your porridge."
Sofia sat cross-legged, looking at her neon-pink-stained fingers. "I realized something today. While I was cleaning that floor and failing to cook… I didn't think about Chloe once or the money." She looked over at kei, her expression vulnerable. "I think I like the 'nightmare' version of me better when it's just us."
kei reached over, her hand finding Sofia's in the space between them. "The nightmare version is just a girl who didn't know who her real friends were. I think she's learning."
Sofia leaned her head on kei's shoulder, a long, tired sigh escaping her. "Don't get used to this. Tomorrow, I might go back to being a brat."
"I look forward to it," kei whispered, her thumb tracing circles on Sofia's hand. "It gives me an excuse to put too much salt in your rice again."
Sofia giggled, closing her eyes. "You do that and I'm definitely locking you in the cellar."
"Promises, promises," kei replied, and for the first time in a long time, both of them fell asleep with a genuine smile, safe in the knowledge that while one friendship had ended in a slap, a much deeper one was just beginning.