LOST HEARTS RETURN HOME

Written by Tucker Cloudkicker

Edited by Tom Cloudkicker

Disclaimer:

Kit Cloudkicker and names of other characters from TaleSpin are copyrighted by the Walt Disney Company.

No commercial exploitation is intended, nor should it be inferred.

Chapter Two

Kit Cloudkicker, navigator and friend of Baloo, groaned as he rolled over onto his back, squinting at the rays of light that entered the window of their bedroom. It had been another long, sleepless night for the bear cub. That same dream that had haunted him for over a week had invaded his mind again and it was getting worse. Looking over at the clock, Kit sighed. Just a little past dawn and he was already awake.

"Gee whiz", Kit muttered to himself, "It's Saturday, we've got no jobs and no school, but I'm up earlier than I'd need to be when we don't have things to do." Silently scolding himself, he rolled back over onto his stomach and pulled the covers over his head.

Trying to understand why the memories were returning, Kit concentrated on remembering how the dream had gone, almost immediately regretting it as the now-waking thoughts rushed in.

The orphanage, Winger City Orphanage. Remembering how cold the place was, both literally and metaphorically. With the economy being in sad shape, the orphanage had a problem affording heating the place.

But warmth was the least of worries these days. Wandering about the halls of the orphanage, Kit often felt like a ghost, and that nobody seemed to notice the boy even existed. It was a sad but true fact that even in a place like this, cliques and groups would form and children would be excluded. Kit had found himself more and more excluded from these groups; finding him losing confidence in himself.

Like a sore thumb, it showed and Kit found himself being pushed away by even the kindest of kids.

Unfortunately this situation did not only affect his relationship with those of his age but those whose responsibilities were to take care of him as well. Though with the adults it was also due to the fact that they had much to worry about. Not only did the orphanage have to worry about paying the heating bill, they had begun to discuss laying people off.

With the economy being like it was, nobody could afford to make a living on their own, let alone

adopt a child. The director of the orphanage had tried to explain this to her supervisors, but like many cases, they were unwilling to hear any of it. This caused a lot of tension among the staff which usually ended up being vented on the children. Kit usually ended up being the target of this venting or the target of the children's hostility because of it.

So he had began to avoid pretty much everyone after a while and had ended up with many nicknames because of it. The ones he was mostly known by were usually "Ghost", or"Mouse" (of course his size had been a big part of this mostly popular name).

From there, the dream had turned to after he had escaped the orphanage. He had taken special care to make sure no one had noticed that he left until it was too late, although he was sure that nobody noticed that he was there to begin with.

Finding himself back on the streets, Kit had remembered the struggle he had put on himself when

he had chosen the life of the streets. Two years of begging, stealing, and conning his way to survive. It had been the hardest thing he had ever done.

Thousands of people had surrounded him everyday but he still felt that he was alone. He was still that same little mouse, but he had learned what it had taken to survive. He had also learned that false sense of confidence, even if it did seem a little over the top at times. He had also learned that false bravado or hope would keep him alive. He had come close to death more times than he

was able to deal with.

In the time he had lived on the streets, Kit had often hung out in the local libraries of the cities he

had occupied, keeping warm as best as he could. Finding himself in a good opportunity the boy had decided that he would take time in studying the thing he loved the most in this sad cold world…flying.

He didn't remember why, but the cub knew that he had flying in his veins and that one day he would fly. Studying every thing he could get his paws on, Kit studied from planes to navigation in hopes to one day become a pilot.

After a few months, the boy had begun to hitch rides on planes, though most of the time against the wishes of the pilots...

This was the case the fateful day that Kit had met the leader of the nefarious air pirates.

Kit remembered how Don Karnage had taken down the plane he had been hiding in. If any pilot

could have been more peeved, Kit wouldn't have known. Having been taken for anything and everything he had been carrying, finding a stowaway in his plane was something the pilot was not willing to handle at that moment.

Having lost what was left of his composure, the large pilot took out his frustrations on Kit.

Kit could not remember why, but the pirate captain had decided to stick around when the pilot had found his new punching back. It was odd and slightly frightening how wrathful the pirate had become when he had nearly taken him apart for harming Kit.

For a long time after that, Kit had made it his decision to become a pirate and protégé of Don Karnage. He had believed the lies that he was now a part of the "family" of pirates and that he'd have a purpose. Unknown to Kit, he'd be spending his time with this family as that same little mouse that he had become in the orphanage, though with the partial confidence he had learned on the street; though only enough to keep him alive and fed.

Sadly…that was where the end of the dream had come. There were no memories of how he had

met Baloo or the others; just the emptiness and pain of the past.

Up until a week ago he had stopped having these dreams when he came to Higher for Hire. So, why was he having them now? Waking up in a cold sweat and in tears every day was starting to wear him out.

Realizing he was pretty much awake for the rest of the day, Kit growled weakly, pushed the

covers off, and sat up on his bed. Looking over at his friend and Papa Bear, Baloo, Kit sighed. It seemed to him that even through the worst of situations Baloo never seemed to have problems sleeping. Shaking his head, Kit got up and quietly walked into the bathroom for a shower.

Rolling over to face Kit's bed, Baloo frowned. "Another sleepless night…that makes a week he's

been like that. What's up with that kid these days?" Sighing himself, Baloo propped himself up on the bed and stared over at the bathroom door.

This was not the first time this had happened. He had remembered how the cub had been when he first met him. How he had been when Kit moved to Higher for Hire. He had been kind of jumpy and not very trusting of him or Rebecca.

Since than he had opened up a little, but Kit still seemed to be hesitant about talking about his past. In perspective, Kit had changed so much and had kind of taken on traits of Baloo. Some of them were good some were bad. All in all Kit had seemed to become more whole of a person than he had been when he had first met him.

Rebecca and Molly had played a part in his growing.

Rebecca, being able to teach Kit to be responsible and mature (although Kit didn't seem to really need much help on that. Molly had been able to teach Kit that he was still a kid and that he had plenty of time to be an adult later (Pigtails was pretty smart for her age; maybe a little too smart for her own good.)

Even Wildcat in his own way had taught Kit, although he still wasn't sure what. Most of the time he could never understand the mechanic's way of thinking, but every now and than he'd come up with some mind-blowing perspectives.

Looking back at the bathroom door his thoughts went back to Kit. He knew in his heart that Kit had a lot of issues, but he had believed those to be over with by now.

Apparently that was not the case. Shrugging a bit, Baloo rolled onto his back. Maybe it would just pass in a few days or so; like a stomach virus. "Maybe a visit to Louie's would raise the kid's mood."

With that, Baloo grinned proudly at himself and figured he'd get a few more winks before he started the day.

Moments after Baloo had nodded off to sleep again Kit stepped out of the bathroom and looked over at the grey bear, a warm smile on his face. Good ole' Papa bear…one of the only dependable things in his life.

Shaking his head, a stray thought came to his mind. How dependable was he really? After all that had happened, how could he put faith that this would last? Remembering that saying "nothing good lasts forever", he remembered how the last situation ended. He knew he couldn't put to much hope into this one either.

Still, that was a thought he couldn't afford to let run through his mind now. Besides he could be extremely wrong. He had been in the past many times. Pushing it back into the closet for the time being,Kit returned his gaze back to the sleeping bear. "Why would he would he want me around? I've run away enough times to make him get tired of me…" With a sigh, Kit went downstairs to get some breakfast, even hough he had lost his appetite from his train of thought.

It hadn't been much longer that Kit had looked up from his breakfast when he saw Baloo enter the kitchen. Smiling tiredly, Kit waved a hello, "Morning, Papa Bear". Wincing mentally, Kit realized how terrible he sounded having said that.Geez, I sound…

"Bad, Kiddo…You okay? Kiddo?" Baloo waved a hand in front of the boy's face and frowned.

Seeing a hand in front of his face, Kit jumped slightly and gave the big bear a sheepish grin when he noticed the look on Baloo's face.

"Hey, Little Britches, you okay? You look like something the cat dragged in."

Kit scowled at him, sighed, and looked down. "I…just haven't gotten much sleep lately"

No kidding, Baloo thought to himself as he took a seat across from Kit. "So…do ya…wanna talk about it? It might make you feel better."

Kit simply shook his head as he spun the cereal around in his bowl. "I…I'm just…there's just a lot of stuff going on right now; just a lot of things to think about right now."

Sitting back in his chair Baloo knew that Kit was being dishonest with him again, but he knew that if he pushed to hard, the kid could walk away like he had in the past. "Alright, kiddo, if you do wanna talk, I'll be here to listen okay?"

Kit didn't look up, but he did nod his head.

Watching him for a few more minutes, Baloo had remembered his idea from earlier, before nodding back off that he had planned the weekend at Louie's. Sitting straight up, Baloo grinned and patted Kit on the shoulder. "You know we haven't been to Louie's in a while and I was thinking we've got the whole weekend off. We could do some fishing and swimming and maybe we could get…"

"Louie's double-decker ice cream sundaes?" Kit finished for him as he looked up at Baloo; a hopeful look in his eyes as he showed a sincere grin.

Rubbing the boy's head, Baloo smiled. "Little Britches, you're starting to think like me!"