For Kitten

[loveawkward]

It had been at least five years since Josef had experienced a slip in time, as he referred to it. In the few moments when he did. A time when he'd been in a world outside of his own, with mutants and beautiful perfect boys and werewolves, and dragons. After he'd found himself back in Los Angeles, and he'd gone back to the life he had.

One dismantled by an enemy and revealed to the world.

Five years later he'd made a new life for himself in Chicago. Going by the name James Klondike - so he didn't have to change the monograms. Mick was settled in, they were protected for the time being. Until others found them again. Until then, he was working on finding happiness and forgetting those missing years that no one but himself had missed.

So that evening when he woke, pushing back the lid of his freezer, Josef wasn't prepared. Not for the way the light was different in this room than the one set by timers in his mansion. Condos had been nice, but now he needed a fortress, and he had found one on"Orchard Street". It was massive and well guarded, and this was not that room.

Slowly he sat up, much like a movie vampire. His suit was already on, the room was as he remembered it, but it was not his home in Chicago, but the loft in Taxon.

On his feet in on instant, storming through the house.

"Mick!?"

Except last he recalled, Mick hadn't been in this city. It was then memories flooded back. Remus and Bagoas and Maddie and Smecker and Kitten. Friends and lovers he'd known in this city. If he was truly back in that same place.

He was out in the street before he could blink, bypassing hiding his speed as he so often did. Living as human meant it wasn't common for him, but he hadn't been human here. He had been known for everything he was.

Maybe none of them were there. Maybe he wasn't either. He wasn't even sure it was the same place, but he had to find out. Life had changed again, slid sideways or portals open or wormholes or something, and he had to find out what was going on.

Comments

[skysung]

Not nearly as much time has passed for Kitten. Her visit home was brief, but eventful. So much so that accompanying the familiar delighted whistle is an unfamiliar voice in his mind, calling out gleefully, "Josef!"

She met an unusual dragon who could offer mindspeech as a gift, no need to wait decades or more to grow into it and learn the trick on her own. Kawit Pearlscale gave Kitten what she's always wanted most. A way to communicate with everyone around her.

Rather than waiting patiently for her to painstakingly type words out, Josef is now more likely to struggle to get any in edgewise.

[loveawkward]

Those whistles were instantly familiar. His roommate, that had left Mick utterly confused, and hadn't been anything Josef had encountered before. Spinning about, staring at her, stunned.

Not from how she looks, but the sound of her voice, well a voice but it had to be hers, in his head.

"Okay, that's new," he said, shifting as he slid his hands into the pockets of his trousers. head canting as he stared at Kitten. "How?" He couldn't help but to wonder, though it didn't help to make him feel secure that this was reality and not him dreaming of a place he hadn't found a way to reach again.

[skysung]

She ran up to him and came to an abrupt halt, claws digging into the ground at Josef's feet. Then she chirped another pleased greeting.

"I was home for a little while. I met an unusual dragon who gave me one of her scales to eat, and it gave me mindspeech. Usually it takes a couple of centuries before we grow into it. Certainly Grandfather never offered me one of his scales! I think he would have, given how frustrated he knew I was. Other dragons can understand dragon kits' verbal language, but I chose to stay with my adoptive family in spite of our communication barrier."

Kitten was still new to being able to talk. Words tended to overflow.

[loveawkward]

Another time and place and a dragon came running up to him, no matter the size, and Josef might well have let it startle him and send him scurrying backwards. This wasn't any other place though, and this wasn't just a dragon. Though in fairness, he hadn't known any other dragons, but still. This was Kitten, and this was a town he knew as well as any he had lived in. He had loved here, and changed, and he liked to believe some of it reflected on the life he led once he left this place. Maybe he was wrong, but he liked to believe it nonetheless.

His mouth opened and then closed, head canting slightly as he looked down at her. "So, you ate a magic scale and not you have telepathy?" He sounded certainly stunned by this though he snorted and shrugged. "Naw, sure, that sounds about right."

And it did in some ways.

"So, how long has it been for you?" He remembered that before, how time changed for many and he knew it had been a drop in her lifetime, but he couldn't help but to be curious.

[skysung]

"Only a month. I am still the same age as before, but now you can understand me better." Kitten leaned against Josef's leg with a quiet whistle of affection.

"And for you? Have you been here, or at home? How long has it been?"

[loveawkward]

"What a difference a month makes," he said, smiling though as he reached down, not even thinking twice about affectionately patting her. The man he's been, it's not the same as the one others knew in this place but he's lived with dichotomy before, and he's willing to again.

"It's been years. Life... went to hell and I just finished putting it back together," he admitted with a sigh. "So of course I'm back here. At least I'm not alone in it."