by J E Mueller
“Crying never solves anything, but it does help you feel better. All that science about releasing endorphins and whatnot?”
Cat smirked at me. “And whatnot? How science-y.”
“Haha. Funny. I’m a mage healer, not a medical one. I don’t know all of the terms. Just enough of the important stuff to stop someone from dying. Getting someone stabilized is tough work.”
“I believe it.” Cat looked back out the window for a moment before asking, “Why do you care about me?”
So that part was on her mind. “Why do we care about anyone? It’s hard to explain. You are an awesome person. You are fun to be around, both in person and online. We always have good conversations. They can be silly, or serious, and I like having both those things in my life. You’re very interesting, and genuine. You’ve never once made a big deal about my life or title. It’s nice that you treat all that mess as facts and don’t let it really get to you. Overall, you’re a really good person.” I paused for a moment. “There’s nothing I don’t like about you.”
“You’re ridiculous,” Cat stated, but I could tell she hardly meant it.
“Nah, not this time.” I smirked.
“Uh huh.”
“Well then, if I’m right, and I think I am, why do you care about me?” It wasn’t a huge long shot. I wasn’t completely sure about her feelings, but there were enough signs there.
She didn’t answer at first, but finally said, “I feel like I’d more or less just be repeating you. Except I’m not a royal pain.”
“I am not a royal pain.”
“Asking questions like that makes you one.” She chuckled.
“Okay, maybe, but you did start that one.” I wasn’t going down that easily.
“True, but I wasn’t the one making late-night confessions.” Nicely retorted.
“It was needed, though perhaps could have been better timed. Then again, reality hardly ever has a right time.” Hopefully that was a good enough save. I didn’t know what else to say.
“So, aside from being awkward, where does all this leave us?” Cat was still looking out the window.
“Awkward would be a great answer, but since you’re taking that escape plan away from me...” I thought for a second. “I don’t know. The words aren’t doing the thing.”
“The words are never doing the thing,” Cat agreed, glancing over at me.
“This is even worse for words,” I added, shaking my head.
“It is pretty bad, but I guess since there’s some general knowledge of feels and acceptance on some level of them... maybe there should be more words of a certain nature?” She turned back toward the window.
Well, at least I was right about the signs. Though her hitting me upside the head with them seemed to be more effective than my mental guessing. I couldn’t help but give a small laugh. “Yes, I think there are words for that.”
“And what would those words be?” I could hear her frustration.
“The wordy kind.” I chuckled.
“You’re terrible.” She was laughing as she said it.
“Thank you.” I was all smirk. “So, maybe after this mess, would you like to consider going on a date sometime?”
“Possibly.” She smirked. “There’s just so much mess though. Words can’t even.”
“They really can’t even,” I agreed. “So, a date, possibly in the future. If we can survive the mess.”
“Yes, that sounds like a great plan.” Cat nodded as we finally arrived at her place.
James was already unloading the things in his car, and I grabbed the things from mine. Cat set off inside ahead of us. Olmi followed behind Cat, excited to see the new place. She was a well enough trained dog that I didn’t expect her to wander far. Olmi was always great about staying near people she knew.
With a few bags in hand, James and I headed in.
I don’t know why I was surprised to see it a disaster, but I was. There were the normal signs you’d expect with a struggle – broken glass from decorations and picture frames and furniture shoved haphazardly away, but there were also a few things encased in ice, and scorch marks. I quickly realized I knew nothing about her family’s magic. Her step family would likely have a very different set than her own.
“You okay?” James nudged me.
I had hardly noticed I had stopped dead in my tracks to take in the sights.
“What exactly happened here?”
James shrugged. “I don’t know if we’ll ever have the full details.” He pushed past me to head down to Cat’s room.
With a final glance at the damage, I followed too.
I was again surprised by something I shouldn’t have been. Cat’s room was of course in the basement, but I had expected, probably due to my privilege, that it would be a nicely finished basement.
It wasn’t close.
The area around her bed was in the far corner and had a beat up rug and that was the only part of the cement floor that was covered. Her desk was in the corner opposite it and while her gaming things looked high end, her actual desk was two different tables somehow stuck together and her chair looked terribly uncomfortable.
Next to the franken desk was a bar that served as her closet. Clothes hung out in the open and I could easily see just how her step-sister knew she had plenty of cosplays. Under the hanging bar of clothes was a small, long dresser. Nothing was private down here. The middle of the room was clear of anything and on the far side of the room was a washer and dryer with a bathroom right next to it.
I finally snapped my attention back to the task at hand and noticed Cat was slowly dismantling her gaming setup.
“What do you want me to do?” James asked simply.
Cat shrugged. “I don’t know, pack up the bed I guess? Empty the dresser? Be careful with the bottom drawers though. There’s a lot of jars.”
James sighed. “Is it as bad as when you came home from college?”
“Oh no, it’s much worse.” Cat gave a tired smile.
Not sure what else to do, I went for the bottom drawers she just mentioned and opened them. There were jars of all sorts of sizes with labels in a rainbow of colors.
“Do you have anything to wrap these things in so they don’t break?” I asked. Olmi shuffled over to me and I wondered where she was while I was looking around.
“Not really. You can use whatever shirts are hanging up and we’ll just have to carry that bag flat so nothing jolts too bad.” Cat didn’t even look up from her project.
Hesitantly, I stood and glanced over the collection of shirts. I quickly decided to start with the work shirts and go from there. Taking the small handful of those I started to line one of the smaller suitcases with jars and work the shirts in between them so they wouldn’t bump into one another.
As I finished, I felt a weird prickle of magic in the air. Glancing up, I saw James had everything from the bed already folded and packed. He was trying to help untangle wires on one end of the desk while Cat was doing the same at the other.
Carefully I stood up and slowly turned in a small circle as I tried to determine the source. It was close, but I wasn’t able to figure out where exactly, just that it was from someone I didn’t know.
I cleared my throat a bit louder than normal and Cat and James both looked over. I didn’t really want to say what I felt so instead just pushed a finger to my lips to tell them to keep quiet. James shrugged but Cat froze. She knew exactly what was up and before the words could get out of her mouth I had my magic up.
12
An icy blast struck hard and I was thankful my ward was up to the task of absorbing the blow. The blast of magic was intense, and I couldn’t see anything past the jagged blue energy being pumped my way.
“Stop hiding her!” The voice behind the magic screamed.
I didn’t bother responding to the nameless entity. Eventually, one of us would run out of magical energy, and from their force, it was likely to be them.
In a moment, James was at my side and
I heard him whisper, “Cover me.” He crouched down, ready to jump around the field of magic and make his attack.
I watched him leap to the side and shoot out a wave of magic that I knew would tear a small portal under the person’s feet and launch them wherever he set the second portal. As soon as I saw him move to shoot the second wave I prepared myself. A second later the magic blast stopped pushing against me and I almost fell forward from the lack of pressure. A second later the person fell from the portal on the ceiling and hit the floor hard. James was not playing around.
“Geeze, fucking seriously, Melanie?” James yelled at the person on the floor who was now crying in pain. The concrete floor had to have hurt a lot.
I vaguely registered that name as the step-sister’s and looked back at Cat. While she looked upset, I couldn’t say she looked surprised.
“You’ve really fucked this one up.” James wasn’t done with his scolding. “Couldn’t just let her be. Family or not, now you’ve gone and done yourself in.”
The girl a few years younger than us looked up to say something but James didn’t give her room. “No. I don’t care what beef you’ve got. Family is still freaking family and not only did you tear that away as well as freaking Aunt Sasha did, but you’ve attacked the Prince and I hope the jail time is worth it.” James didn’t give her room to speak still, the fury in him too great as he launched another portal under her and the counter warp somewhere at the top of the stairs, effortlessly escorting her out of the room.
“Just... Why? I don’t... I can’t understand it,” I stated lamely as James continued his way up the stairs. He probably needed to be calmed down but first I turned towards Cat. “You doing okay?”
She sighed before giving a firm nod. “Yeah. I’m fine. I guess it was only a matter of time before she showed up, but I wasn’t expecting it to be now.”
I gave a nod and started heading up the stairs. “Better make sure James doesn’t severely break her or something.”
When I reached the top of the stairs, James had her on the sofa. She was looking down into her hands sobbing as he continued to yell at her.
“Hey!” I shouted over to him, trying to grab his attention.
James paused for a moment, nodded at me, then looked back at his cousin. “Just stay here or heavens help you.”
“Call your Mom to deal with it.” I stated evenly.
“But she struck you.”
“True, there should be consequences. Call your mom to deal with it.” I replied once more and crossed my arms.
“She scares me more than the cops sometimes,” James muttered as he pulled out his phone and dialed.
Satisfied that there was going to be no more major injuries, I headed back downstairs.
Cat had pulled the other drawer of jars out and was shoving things around the jars to keep them from clanking together. “Might just be easier to move this way.” She muttered tiredly. Something in her voice caught my attention.
“What’s wrong?” I asked softly, guessing it had to do with the latest family fiasco.
“Let’s just get these things in the car.” She said instead.
With a nod, we started to get things loaded up. Olmi was now staring intently at Melanie. Normally, I would say that she was a very harmless creature. For the first time, I wasn’t sure.
James helped us finish moving things to the cars as soon as his mom arrived. With her there to deal with the cousin – and she was just as scary in this moment as James had said she’d be – we loaded her SUV as well.
“Olmi, come.” I called as we headed out with the final things we could pack, leaving just enough room for Olmi to have a seat as well.
Everything was ready to go, only the mattress being left behind.
“Let’s take a detour,” I said as we got into the car.
Cat raised an eyebrow at me. “Where?”
“I don’t know about you, but I need some strong coffee,” I replied simply.
She nodded as I started the car and headed out.
“I just realized you’re not disguised though,” She sighed.
“Honestly, most drive through coffee shops don’t give a single care,” I replied with a yawn. “They just want you out of their lines as fast as possible and I equally want my coffee as fast as possible so it’s a win-win.”
Cat gave a small laugh. “I suppose that’s true.” She looked fairly skeptical still.
We quickly reached the nearest chain coffee shop and I ordered our drinks. As predicted no one gave two cents about me but the girl at the window recognized Cat.
“Cat?” She asked cheerfully.
Cat took a second to remember who it was. “Oh hey, Glacia right? Did you hear anything more about the apprenticeship?”
“Yeah! I got in. What about you?” She asked eagerly as she handed out the first drink.
Cat gave a genuine smile. “Same. Guess I’ll be seeing more of you soon?”
“Monday, Monday!” She sang, handed out the last coffee and waved. “Until then.”
“Laters!” Cat smiled back as we headed off.
“You start so soon?” I asked surprised.
“Yeah, kind of sucks after all this home chaos, but it’ll be a good start.” She looked down at her coffee. “It could be a great start.”
“I think it will be great.” I agreed.
She shook her head and smiled at me before turning to look out the window. “Nah, not just yet. It could be though.”
I had no clue what she meant by that. “Well, what could make it better?”
“Maybe we should finally go on that date. I mean, if you still want to.” She didn’t look away from the window.
I couldn’t help but smirk. “I think you’re right. That would make things great.”
“Cool…” She nodded.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Maybe we should start off easy, like a nice dinner and then a dungeon crawl?”
“I think I can handle that.” Cat laughed.
It didn’t take long to get things moved over to James’s house. After everything was moved in, Cat requested time alone to set things up and to nap. For a while, I hung back with James, but ended up heading home after a couple of hours.
I wasn’t sure I wanted my parents to know about Cat’s sister going completely off her rocker, but decided it would be worse for them to hear about it later. Not that telling them was any easier with that knowledge.
“She attacked you with magic?” Mother confirmed, moments away from going into protective mother mode.
Father thankfully spoke up as we all sat in the study. “Good thing you know how to use those wards well. Might do well to get more practice in. This time to time use of it will catch up to you.”
I nodded, knowing full well he practiced regularly with his own magic. “I’m seeing that. It’ll be worth working into my schedule.”
Mother wasn’t ready to back down just yet though. “And what became of her?”
I sighed. “James’s mom is handling her. I don’t know the exact details, but I did overhear her saying that she would be putting Melanie through Cat’s feelings.”
Mother’s face lost its sternness. “Empathy magic can be very hard hitting.”
I nodded. “It kind of scares me.”
Father changed the subject without further comment. “How did the move go?”
“Well. Cat wanted time alone and James finally had to get ready for work, so I came back here.”
I excluded that Cat and I were basically a thing. I wanted to wait until everything had actually settled first.
Father nodded and interrupted before Mother could speak. “Well, keep us updated. I’m sure a lot happened that needs time to process. Moving is a big ordeal.”
Nodding, I got up. “Yeah, too true. I think I might even nap myself. Magical drain and then moving someone is exhausting.”
Mother tried to pry some more but Father waved me off.
I was excited to hear about Cat’s internship, but
I was disappointed she was too tired after working to do anything. Still, it was great to hear her actually sound happy. Her excitement was contagious, and while I didn’t understand a lot of different aspects of enchanting, it sounded like she was going to really explore some bigger projects.
It was finally the weekend of the LAN party. I had managed to get plenty of tables and snacks set up for the guild. The puppies would be, for the most part, upstairs. It had been a while since I had done one, and I could only hope the extension cables still worked for everyone’s computers. At least getting everyone’s stuff down here would be a worthwhile hurdle. I was hyped for this.
As I finished testing the last cable, I heard a call from upstairs.
“Cat’s here early!” Lilly called down.
Surprised that it was just Cat, I hurried upstairs. I had expected her to come with James since she didn’t exactly have her own car at the moment. Still, I was excited to see her.
Once upstairs I saw her being swarmed by the puppies as she tried to keep her duffle bag away from them. I could see her monitor sticking out of her backpack as she tried not to topple over.
Still, she was laughing.
I whistled at the puppies and commanded them to sit before making my way over to help by at least taking one bag. “It seems you were missed.”
Cat smiled down at the puppies as she happily handed over the duffle bag. “They’re bigger. When will they stop?”
I laughed. “Come on. I’ve got things set up downstairs.”
“And you left the door open,” Lilly called. “You’re lucky I managed to catch Aggo before he got to your food.”
“Ooops.” I could only laugh at the opportunist of a dog.
Cat and I headed down and started to set up her computer next to mine.
“How’s the new gig?” I asked; despite talking every night, I hadn’t seen her since the move.
“Great. I’m really liking it. Most of the new interns seem to be as well. Though I think a few might be dropping out soon.” She replied as she hooked things up.
