Cousins in Arms

[Raven]

Hoping to get her into something familiar, figuring that days in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people hadn't helped her, Kailen asked, "Hey, Willow, do you wanna come play Zelda?"

[Gifted]

Willow looked uncertain, but eventually she replied "Yeah, sure. Zelda sounds like fun."

[Raven]

"Alright," Kailen said. "Let's go play upstairs." He headed up to his room.

[Gifted]

"Okay." She seemed to realize she was having more trouble than she usually did - she instinctively went and found her current planner so that she could carry it with her like she always used to to help her remember things. Then she followed Kailen to his room.

[Raven]

"Is it nice to be home?" Kailen asked. "Which Zelda do you want to play? Windwaker..?"

[Gifted]

"...yeah, yes I'm happy to be home." Willow answered. "Um, whichever one you're in the mood for is fine."

[Raven]

"Alright," Kailen agreed, popping Windwaker in. It was one of the first Zelda games he'd had Willow play.

[Gifted]

Willow smiled a bit at the familiar art style. It helped her settle into her home again to play something she'd played before, and she could almost forget about what had happened.

[Raven]

Kailen was relieved it seemed to be helping, and he didn't distract her, just giving tips when he felt she needed them like he used to do.

[Gifted]

Willow was willing enough to play games with Kailen, but she seemed quiet. Playing with him did seem to help... temporarily. But she was just as bad as the day she came home by the very next day. Her grades started to slip due to her suddenly having issues with memorizing the material again, but the time period was still short enough that a few poorly done pieces of homework hadn't affected her report card yet. It looked more painful than it had the first time - originally, she had come with no expectations of doing well in school and so had simply gone with the flow, accepting bad grades as a fact of life until her memory improved. Now that she'd had a taste of what it was like for regular people to sit down and study and retain some of the information, going back to struggling with remembering anything at all and trying to study for tests was an immensely frustrating experience.
She mentioned offhandedly to Adam that he shouldn't stop Liam from coming over if he wanted, and she tried to take her mind off things by playing familiar games with Kailen, but otherwise she spent most of her time (that they saw her) trying to force herself to study for a test she had coming up. It also gave her a convenient excuse to be in her room, as she still tended to freak out when she ran into Adam unexpectedly.

It was almost a week later, the morning before Liam was scheduled to make an appearance again. When Adam woke up, Willow was already downstairs. She was wearing her pjs still, and was holding a cup of hot chocolate as she sat on the couch watching TV with the volume extremely low. This in and of itself was a little weird as she generally wouldn't drink hot chocolate on her own because she said she felt guilty drinking it without Liam around.