Chapter Fourteen
A MONTHafter Alice Kane had visited them, the final version of the story appeared on the website she worked for. Makai had gone through two drafts and then made sure the final one was also good for Emil, before giving her the okay to publish it.
Alice’s story was a sympathetic piece about a guy who moved into a small town to start over and found things he hadn’t thought he might. For one, it wasn’t a hero story, really. Just like Makai had wanted it to, it told his story without sensationalizing anything, and Emil was happy with it.
Currently, Makai was in the shed finishing reassembling the last of the chairs he was fixing for Leah and Stuart. Emil sat on a bench on the dock, with a fishing rod in hand, while Mouse and her shadow, Spike, patiently waited nearby.
When the first kitten, Xander, had moved to Lotte and Joie’s, Mouse hadn’t been too upset. But then another family in town had wanted Buffy and Willow both, and after they were gone, Mouse got antsy. She looked for her babies for a day or so, and Spike started to cling to her more than before.
In the end, they’d decided that Spike would stay. The fluffy, light orange boy was the perfect addition to their household. Mouse seemed happy, and Spike kept her on her toes just the right amount without being a total pest.
The family that adopted the two girls had junior high–aged kids who were Buffy fans. The kittens already had an Instagram account, and the youngest son kept emailing Emil with every little update.
Mouse and Spike had collars with their information on them, but neither of them wandered far. It seemed like Mouse had made her home there, and besides, everyone in town knew their cats by now and would know to call them if they saw the cats in the wrong place.
It wasn’t completely safe, of course, letting them roam outside without supervision every day, but they always came when called, and they were never let out alone for more than an hour or two. Both Makai and Emil felt like the cats had to be inside if they even went to get groceries from town.
The bobber moved, and Mouse let out a plaintive little meow. Emil reacted more to her than the bobber and managed to pull it up just in time before the fish escaped. Spike meowed, too, and the sound was almost joyful. Something about it tickled Emil’s funny bone, and he held the line and cackled while the cats sneaked closer.
“What are you doing?” Makai asked from midway down the path. He looked amused, and Emil couldn’t blame him.
“Fishing,” Emil hiccupped out the word.
“And you two are helping Daddy, right?” Makai stepped onto the dock and went to pet the cats. Spike meowed at him, while Mouse was trying to telepathically make Emil give her the fish. “How many do you have?”
“This is the fifth. I was just going to take them all to the kitchen, boil them for the kids.”
“Sounds good, as long as you remember to open the window first this time,” Makai teased him.
“It was one time, Makai.” The smell of fish had lingered for days, though, so maybe Makai had a point.
Emil took the fish off the hook expertly, then used the small club he had next to the bucket to kill it. He secured the fishing line and bobber and handed the whole rod to Makai. “Can you take that?”
“Sure.”
They walked up, dodging the cats who were constantly reminding them to get a move on already. Makai stashed the rod in the shed and came inside after Emil and the cats.
Once the fish were in a pot on the stove and the window was open, Emil washed his hands and plopped on the couch. He opened his laptop and went through his email, which was mostly spam and news about Buffy and Willow.
Makai came to sit with him. “I need to check my email. I haven’t done that today.” He hadn’t put his email on his cell because he rarely got emails anyway, so he started up his own laptop, and they sat there side by side, just like the cats were doing on the kitchen floor as they waited for their food to be ready.
“Hey, I have something from Alice,” Makai said, and Emil turned to look at him.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, let’s see….” Emil looked back at his own screen, giving Makai privacy, but looked back when Makai gasped. “Kaos has contacted her.”
“What?”
“She has his contact information here. He just asked her to forward it to me, basically. Wow….” Makai sounded torn.
Emil leaned closer to him without looking at the email, just offering his silent support for now.
“I think I’m gonna call him,” Makai said finally, and the look he gave Emil was cautiously optimistic and even happy.
Emil caught on to how much Makai had missed his friend and nodded. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. Do you wanna do it now? Have me leave the room for privacy.”
“Yeah, before I lose my nerve. But can you stay?”
