Kennedy Young

Between Alex and Charlie, Kennedy was beginning to think the two of them must have the most thrilling conversations ever. Prying anything personal out of them was like chipping away at ice and Kennedy was always a giver-upper so she never tried too hard. She didn’t want to get frostbite from standing in their cold for too long.

“I was fine. I left the carnival before the deadly fireworks,” she explained. “Then I stayed inside taking care of…” she stopped herself, “…someone.” While Kennedy was an open book, she was beginning to learn that many people weren’t so she wasn’t going to violate Fey’s privacy by mentioning what could be her trauma. “Anyway, not a single scratch. And thank goodness for that too because I’m still very much human.” Definitely no update on that internal debate. 

-

Alex was thankful Kennedy never tried to push him to talk about anything because he wasn’t ready to talk about what happened and he wasn’t sure he’d ever be. He was curious of who she was talking about though, but he wasn’t about to pry when she had mercifully let their conversation continue without questioning him further. “Good.” He nodded as she said she was okay. Alex never really had much to say to anyone if they weren’t Charlie or his sisters, but it was Kennedy’s last comment that he decided to focus on, feeling like it wouldn’t be too private of a matter to discuss considering she’d mentioned it to him before. “Have you… thought any more about shifting?” 

When Charlie repeated her word, Kennedy blushed, suddenly nervous. “Uh, yeah, we met a few months back and have been hanging out…” She didn’t really know what they were but they kissed and went on a somewhat date. Nothing was confirmed though—only that they were good friends that liked to hold hands a lot. “I heard you and Alex have become a thing though,” she redirected, pretty sure that topic was more substantial. Charlie said that her and Alex were out together when she got hurt, right? “How has that been? You know, aside from that,” she gestured at the arm, letting Charlie avoid the traumatic conversation.

“Wait, you didn’t know?” Kennedy suddenly covered her mouth, realizing she shouldn’t have said anything. Weren’t they coworkers? Wouldn’t they have noticed each other being hurt or sporting a new scar? Wouldn’t the two have talked about it at all? Wow, her friends really were shut books and Kennedy kind of wondered why that was the kind of people she attracted. Was it because she talked so much that they felt comfortable not talking about her? Kennedy didn’t know but it was too late to take it back now.a

“Yeah, she came to check up on me since we were there together-ish but when she arrived, she was hurt.” Kennedy frowned, reminded of the anger she felt knowing her friend had been hurt by hate. “She’s fine now though,” she added, wanting to reassure Charlie that she didn’t need to worry.

Charlie used her good hand to wave her off, shaking her head when Kennedy covered her mouth, “No, it’s fine. I uh…I just..haven’t gone back to work yet, so I haven’t seen her. And we..don’t exactly talk outside of there, so..” she trailed off, realizing how much of a bitch it made her sound like. Outside of the bakery she was completely oblivious to the life of someone she spent almost every day with. ..Maybe she should start putting in a bit more effort with others..

hailee steinfeld, july 2022

At Fey’s joke, she chuckled, “Probably but that’s not an endorsement for you to go and get hurt again.” What could she say? Scars could be hot. She continued to dry off the wound before moving on to bandaging it up. She went as gently as she could to avoid hurting Fey too much but there was only so much she could do. She had no special powers and felt rather inadequate to her friend who could actually heal people.

She listened as Fey described what happened and her body suddenly tensed knowing that her friend had actually been personally attacked. She figured the terrorist attack was in protest of supernaturals but to know that individuals were intentionally targeted brought a chill to her spine. Luckily, she was done with Fey’s arm and hoped her gut fear reaction wasn’t too noticeable. “That’s horrible…” She immediately reached up and cupped the girl’s cheek, her eyes flooded with sympathy and maybe just the tiniest hint of anger at the person who did this to her. “Are you okay? Is there anything I can do?”

It was hard to not get dragged in to the memories of what happened earlier that night. She tried to forget that man’s low laugh, how his breath breezed by her ear as she dragged her towards the flames. Her breath had begun to hitch in her lungs, like she couldn’t take a full breath, her stomach tied in knots, until she felt something touch her face, bringing her back to the present. She didn’t mean to flinch slightly at the initial touch, but as soon as she looked up and remembered it was Kennedy in front of her, the sweet, adorably awkward girl she’d grown so close to over the last few months, she relaxed against the touch, leaning her face into the girl’s hand. 

“I-” A lost and helpless look flashed across her face. ‘I don’t know,’ was her initial reaction, but she couldn’t make the words come out. After a moment, she tried again, “I… I think I’m okay. Or, I will be- to be honest I don’t really know how I’m doing,” She shrugged, and huffed a little laugh, though tears pricked the corners of her eyes. “I’m alive, so I know it’ll get better. It has to.” She didn’t know if she was actually answering the question, trying to reassure her friend, or trying to reassure herself. Her hand left her chest, resting instead on the hand that held her face. “You’ve done so much already. Patching me up, and all. This helps too,” She sniffled a little, and brought a small smile to her face. Her thumb ran across the back of Kennedy’s hand, making sure she knew what she was referring to. 

Kennedy ignored Fey’s pinkie. “Why do you sound like you’re leaving?” Kennedy questioned, her brows narrowing in disapproval. “There’s no way I’m letting you out that door until we know for sure whether you can heal yourself or not. I’m not going to let you recharge just to use it on someone else.” Maybe it was selfish to demand that Fey use her magic to help herself first, but Kennedy didn’t feel like it was wrong. “There’s a reason why airlines tell you to put on your air mask first before helping anyone else. You’re no use to anyone if you are dead.”

Kennedy just grinned at Charlie’s ever so endearing attitude. Since her friend deflected from the healing stuff, Kennedy figured there was a reason and didn’t push further. There were many things about Charlie that didn’t make sense, like how she was able to contain so much anger in such a tiny body, and Kennedy knew it was safer just to let it slide. “You know me, I was home before the real party got started,” she joked, making light of what was actually a really stressful situation. Kennedy didn’t deal with stress very well so jokes were a good way to process what should be life-long trauma for those of them who were normal enough not to have supernatural trauma.

She directed them towards the table and took a seat, not helping Charlie’s with hers because chivalry was dead with her witch friend apparently. “I went to the carnival but I was on such a weed and sugar high that I crashed super early.” There was also the matter of her in-hindsight date ending rather perfectly early on before it devolved into less cute things and Kennedy wanted to keep the magic alive for just a bit longer. She was a hopeless romantic in that way.

Despite her surliness, Charlie did genuinely like Kennedy. She’d been the first real friend Charlie made on the island, the first one she actually let her guard down around (once she had enough weed and booze in her system). So she really was okay to be out here and see her–even if she couldn’t stop the scoff that came out of her at Kennedy’s comment. “Party. Sure.” she grumbled, “It was a blast.” Her lips pursed before she just shook her head a bit, trying to shrug off the comment since she knew Kennedy didn’t mean anything by it.

If the situation weren’t so serious, Kennedy might have taken a moment to admire the cute little profane mutters coming from Fey’s mouth. Fortunately, she was too busy hunting for the first aid kit to reveal her kinks just yet so she escaped that embarrassment. After a few more seconds of hunting, she finally found what she was looking for and placed the kit beside the sink as she waited for Fey to finish rinsing it all off.

She grabbed a few clean towels and gestured for Fey to give her arm over so she could properly dry it. “I hope it doesn’t feel as bad as it looks…” Now that there was nothing in the way, it was clear how nasty the injury was. “What happened?” she asked, tearing her eyes away from the dabbing so she could seek out the truth. It was really hard to lie to her puppy dog eyes (at least that’s what she hoped).

She shook the droplets off of her fingertips into the sink before she gave her arm to Kennedy. Feyre eyed the cloth warily, knowing she needed to be dried off for the bandaging to do it’s job, but also knowing damn well it would hurt like hell. As if on cue, as the cloth was dabbed closer to her wound, she had to bite the back of her hand to keep from crying out. 

“Unfortunately, it’s right on the money.” She removed the hand from her face as she became somewhat accustomed to the discomfort, running her hand through her hair to get it out of her face. “Think I’ll at least get a cool scar out of this?” She asked jokingly, using humor as yet another coping mechanism. 

At her question, Feyre’s eyes left the gruesome scene on her arm to look up at the girl in front of her. Those dang eyes that had been making her melt internally for months did it yet again, and she knew she couldn’t hold back the truth from her. She wouldn’t anyway, she remembered how displeased Kennedy was when she sugar coated her traumatic history. 

Since the night of the attack, Alex had done what he could to distract himself from thinking about it. That was the goal; not thinking about it. He hadn’t even let himself fully process what happened to him and how close he’d come to losing everything. The goal was to put it out of mind and hope one day it would stop creeping up on him even though, rationally, he knew that’s not how things worked. But, hoping to run away from it all as long as possible, he agreed to go back to work early on. As a shifter, by now he was completely (physically) healed anyway.

Alex found himself working late again, and as he was closing, he was making his last rounds when he caught scent of a human. Since he was a child, he’d been wary of humans, and as he got older, he only became more and more cautious around them. It was the very reason he trained himself to tell the difference in species’ scents. The attack had left him feeling paranoid, and although he understood he didn’t have to worry about every human on the island, he couldn’t help it. 

The only thing that shook her was the point of the attack. It was against supernaturals. Had Kennedy decided to shift, it would have been an attack against what she was. Just when she was getting comfortable with the idea of changing her life, something huge just had to happen to make her question her decision. She had gone from confident to questioning once again. Did she really want to invite all that chaos into her life?

Kennedy was far too shocked to even process any of Fey’s words. She was worried about her? About other people? While looking like that? “You’re injured! How do we get your magic back faster?” Kennedy asked. “I really hope it’s not an animal sacrifice or something.” How it didn’t occur to Fey to heal herself first was a mystery to Kennedy but she was definitely going to make the girl focus on that. She herself was fine so she had all the strength in the world to annoy Fey into caring about herself.

Kennedy quickly ushered the girl into her apartment and towards her kitchen. “Clean your arm,” she demanded, leaving no room for argument. She rushed away so she could start looking for the first aid kit. It wasn’t going to be as effective as magic but they needed to at least clean the wound and seal it off from any other germs getting in. She didn’t know how magical healing worked but if it was just superficial, there were so many things that could go wrong. She knew the girl was selfless and caring, that was one of the things Kennedy really admired about her, but there had to be a limit, right?

Feyre made her way towards the kitchen without any fight, occasionally opening her mouth to try to get a word in that she’d be fine, she was tougher than she looked, etc. Maybe it’s for the best, however, because she didn’t seem very tough as she winced and groaned when the cool water hit her wound. A soft, quiet string of swears slipped from her lips as she cleaned herself up. 

She knew she should have healed it up when she was injured. It would have been the smart thing to do. She could have died when that hunter dragged her towards the flames. If her father didn’t stop him from throwing her in, she wouldn’t be here. Perhaps it was a coping mechanism, forgetting about herself entirely like that, left over from the days before she knew she had magic. When her pain, emotional or physical, was too much, sometimes it was just easier to ignore it completely.  

There weren’t many advantages to being a homebody and having no desire to be outside ever and avoiding terrorist attacks at city-wide events was apparently one of them. The moment the night ended, Kennedy scurried her way home, needing the silence to process what had just happened (not the attacks, just the date she shared with Fey). She had gotten home just in time to avoid any of the trouble but the moment she figured out what was going on, she got herself ready to leave again, eager to help in her uselessly human way. At first, she thought it was just some crazy supernatural way of celebrating but then the screams started flooding into the streets below her and she realized it was not normal.

She was just about to turn the doorknob when she heard a banging on the door, causing her to jump. No sooner had she backed away did she realize it was Fey on the other end. She hurriedly unlocked her door and opened up to see a bloodied Fey at her door. “Oh my god, are you okay?” she immediately pulled Fey into her apartment, taking a few moments to inspect the girl. “We need to get you to a hospital!” What was the girl doing here if she was injured?

A sigh of relief escaped her lips when the door opened and she saw Kennedy’s face. She was home, and she was okay- or at least she appeared to be okay at first glance. Feyre didn’t really hear Kennedy’s question at first, nor her following statement, she was too shell shocked from her time at the carnival, it was hard to think of multiple things at once. 

“What?” Feyre asked when she realized Kennedy had spoke, the words quickly caught up with her. “Oh, no, I’m okay. I mean I’m-” She glanced down at her arm, knowing how much her words sounded like complete bs. “I’ll be okay. Once I get some of my magic back I’ll be able to heal it. There are people down there who need the medical attention much more than I do.” She shut her eyes, shaking the image of the injured civilians from her mind. 

The moment Kennedy received permission, she didn’t hesitate. She pressed their lips together in a gentle and innocent kiss. It was somewhat of a first date after all and they were in public (even if they were many, many feet off the ground) so she wasn’t going to push it. All she wanted was to show Fey that she really liked her and found her impossible to resist. If given the chance, this could actually be a thing.

After a brief second or two, she pulled away, her face beat red and breathless. The kiss wasn’t even that long, it was just Kennedy’s nerves making it hard to function. She couldn’t even remember the last time she had kissed anyone, let alone someone as pretty as Fey. Nevertheless, all good moments had to come to and end and now Kennedy was left speechless and awkward. “I, uh…” She bashfully looked away, not sure what to say and hoping Fey would save the day.

It felt like the world around them had stopped for those few seconds, and Feyre felt like she was floating on cloud nine. She smiled into the kiss, and she couldn’t tell if it was the fireworks she felt reverberate through her body or if it was the beat of her own heart. 

For a few seconds after the kiss, all she could do was sit there and smile with a silly wide grin that almost split her face in half. She kept Kennedy’s hand in her own, squeezing her hand gently when she noticed the girl getting in her head with nerves. She shifted towards the girl on the little metal bench of the Ferris wheel seat, leaning up and pressing a sweet kiss to Kennedy’s cheek. Her way of reassuring her when she was a bit tongue tied as well. 

After the craziness of what happened, Kennedy wanted something normal and nothing screamed normal quite like grabbing a coffee with a friend. As usual, Kennedy arrived early and grabbed a table for the both of them, happy to read her book as she waited for Charlie to arrive. They hadn’t talked in a bit but considering what had happened, it wasn’t strange that they hadn’t stopped to catch up. The world around them was still metaphorically smoking from the fire that had been lit and it was only now that they seemed to have a chance to breathe in actual air.

Charlie hadn’t really left her apartment since the attack–not alone anyways. But Alex was going back to work and she was trying to get back to normal, so when Kennedy texted her asking to meet up, she was surprised both by the offer and the fact that she’d said yes. At least the cafe wasn’t too far from the library, so she figured afterwards she’d check up on Alex, maybe stick around so they could head home together safely.

Spotting Kennedy through the window, she reined in her scowl as the girl immediately ran to the door to open it for her–but that didn’t stop her from rolling her eyes just the same, her lips pursed in annoyance at being treated like an invalid. The comment got another eyeroll from her. “And aren’t there handles for me to be able to open the door by myself?” she shot back as she followed the other girl back to her table and moved to sit down. Yes there were healing spells and white magic to heal, but she didn’t want it, so instead she’d rather just deflect and change the subject off herself. “I see you survived. Was it as unscathed as you look?”

The sound of her heart pounded in her ears as she sprinted down the street. She dodged others clumsily, her energy lower than ever before, only being propelled by adrenaline and anxiety. She’d used up so much of her energy helping others at the carnival, healing those that she knew how to and moving them away from the danger. She had seen the charred remains of a unicorn stuffed animal and felt her heart drop to her stomach. 

When she reached Kennedy’s apartment, she pounded on the door. The burn on her arm throbbed and a jolt of pain went through her with every strike, but she didn’t stop. She had to make sure she was okay. 

“Kennedy! Please open the door.”