For the first time in days, someone answered the door. Kohra almost jumped as it creaked open, revealing a tired, grumpy Thantophor.
“Oh. Hello.”
“Hi, Arkadin, you alright?” Kohra smiled. He held up a bag of various things, which clanged against each other as he shook it. “I brought food and drinks.”
“Why are you here?” Arkadin asked as he moved to one side, letting Kohra in. Aside from the kitchen, the rest of the house was a bit of a mess, with cushions and blankets all over the place.
Kohra made his way to the sofa, nudging several stuffed animals over and sitting himself down. The presence of a heavy duvet and pillows suggested that Arkadin had been sleeping in here rather than in his bedroom. “I haven’t been upholding my end of the contract. I was supposed to visit you once a week. I haven’t done that in ages, but…”
Arkadin shrugged. “I thought we ended that deal.”
“We did?” Kohra blinked in confusion, then started pulling things out of the bag and placing them on the table. He had bought four cans of fizzy energy drinks and two large cookies, both filled with chocolate and sealed in little foil bags.
“Yeah. When Kairos realised you were still alive. The deal was that you visit me and I protect you from Kairos’s wrath, but it turned out he didn’t care much anyway.” Arkadin eyed the food and sat down on the sofa next to Kohra. Kohra noticed that the Death God had taken a somewhat newer form, that of a Rethavok. The same race Kohra disguised himself as whenever he needed to not be a Kronospast.
“Does that mean I can’t visit? Because I stopped by over the last few days and you either weren’t here or weren’t willing to let me in.”
Arkadin sighed. “I decided to have a sleepover with someone else.”
“Oooh!” Kohra perked up. “Who?”
“None of your business…”
“You can’t tell me?”
Arkadin sighed again as he sneakily took one of the cookies. “No. I can’t. I promised them I would keep my mouth shut. I like to at least try and keep my promises.”
“Is it a Rethavok?” Kohra pushed on. “You have made yourself look like a Rethavok.”
“Me being a Rethavok has nothing to do with what happened. I decided on a change of look long before this.”
“So it IS a Rethavok?”
The Thantophor eyed Kohra angrily. Kohra wasn’t that stupid, he knew it was time to move on.
“Did you have fun at least?” Kohra smiled.
“I did, actually.”
Kohra smiled some more, then suddenly thought of a new, related question. “Do you have the same issues pretending to be a Rethavok that me and Tenuk have?”
Arkadin looked up, a mouthful of cookie stuck in his jaws. “Pardon?”
“Whenever I meet a Rethavok, they instantly know I’m not a Rethavok. Even before I ended up being semi-famous.”
The Thantophor finished the rest of his cookie, then shrugged. “I think I know why, but I can’t tell you.”
“What?”
“For reasons of national security.”
“Does every Rethavok have like a special identifier or something like that?”
“Something like that…” Arkadin trailed off. “Which one of those is for me?”
“Whatever one you want.”
The Thantophor smiled, relaxing a little. “Cool. You’re right, we should do this more often…”