Kaitlyn smiled at the children as they crowded around Pit. All of Aubrey and Roger's siblings seemed to have taken to Pit quite quickly, and were soon crawling all over him. One had snagged the laurel wreath from his head, and was admiring it in the light. Another one had found his blades, but Kaitlyn wasn't sure if Nighthawk's charm worked on those as well, because the boy who had found it didn't seem very interested in them. But all of them spent the next half an hour playing with Pit's soft hair.
Pit didn't seem to mind at all. He gladly let the children run their hands through his hair with curious finger. The girls had started braiding parts, and the boys were asking him as many questions as they could. Kaitlyn didn't know why they were so hyper, when before when she had arrived, they hadn't really cared. Pit was just good with children.
"It's good to see he's safe," Kuro said quietly, smiling in Pit's direction though his words were obviously directed at Kaitlyn. "It would make the mission a lot harder if he wasn't healthy."
"He said his wing was sprained, though. That could delay us."
"That depends on if we do any flying," Kuro pointed out. "The way things are looking, we might not have to do much flying after this, at least not for a few days."
"How so?"
Kuro held up a finger. "Let's wait for Pit, and then we can discuss it all together." Kuro walked into the room, giving the children stern looks. "Malia, Adrienne, Jennifer, I think Pit's hair is braided enough. Abe, we're going to need Pit's headband back, okay? Fred, Max, let's let Pit eat the rest of his dinner, alright? I'm sure Pit would love to answer your questions before you go to bed."
With a combined whine of "Awwwwwwwww," the children left the room, but not without waving at Pit and telling him not to leave without talking to them first. The room was oddly silent when they left, leaving just Pit, Kuro, and Kaitlyn behind.
Kaitlyn and Kuro sat across from one another, leaving Pit at the head of the table. For a while, they just let Pit continue with his meal. When he had first arrived and seen the table full of food, he had been more than grateful to Mrs. McNichol, who had just set the children down to eat and offered Pit a place at the table. Pit had practically drooled in delight. But the children had gotten a little too curious, and he had to wait on his meal so he could answer their questions about where he had come from and why he was there.
Pit gave a big smile, his mouth full. "I like them! It's been a long time since I've gotten to play with children!"
"I'm honestly not surprised," Kuro said with an amused grin. He pulled out his phone and set it on the table. "You guys ready to start planning?"
"You're coming with us?" Pit asked, nearly dropping his fork.
Kuro shrugged, running a hand through his hair. His earlobes showed through, and a pair of small, diamond earrings glinted coldly in the bright light. "It's not like I have much more to do. I mean, I've got a job now, and a bunch of other stuff. But I'm an angel too, and my fealty lies with Lady Palutena."
"That's not what you said when you left," Kaitlyn pointed out.
"Hey, I grew up. I had time to think, and I decided I have a duty to the angels, I've just been staying out the mix for a while, waiting for Lady Palutena to call me up and send me on a mission somewhere. So I think I'll tag along. Last time I talked with Nighthawk, he said you guys were having trouble with sensing auras, something I have a talent for."
"Either way, you're a valuable asset to the team," Pit said, clapping Kuro on the back. "We're glad to have you, as always!" He reached into his shirt and pulled out his necklace, which still had the apple quarter charm on the end.
Kuro gave a smile, sticking a hand into his pocket and pulling out a pin shaped like an apple quarter. "Got this one from the librarian here. The next one feels pretty far away," he said, pausing slightly as though he were trying to hear. "Do we have any idea where it is?"
"Paris, France," Kaitlyn piped up immediately. "Which, if you two haven't already noticed, is across an ocean. We only have four days left in our mission. We need to get there tonight, and with Pit's wing out of commission and the speed of common airplanes, we have a problem."
"So what's the plan?"
"We call up our travel agent," Kaitlyn said, picking up the phone and dialing the first number on the last call list. She knew it was the right number.
Nighthawk picked up on the first ring. "Hello?"
He sounded awake, which was a surprise in and of itself. Kaitlyn set the phone on the table, putting it on speaker. "Hey Nighthawk, it's Kaitlyn. You're on speaker with me, Kuro, and Pit."
"Oh great! Good to finally hear from you guys! Have you—yes, Cedar, it's them. Who else would be calling me?—Anyways, have you guys found the apple pieces?"
"Two of them," Pit said. "The other two are the one in Paris and the one in Russia."
"What we need to figure out is how to get there," Kaitlyn said. "Pit's got a sprained wing, and I'm assuming you don't have any plane tickets for us."
"I've been working on your alibis for both France and Russia. It's taken a serious amount of phone calls, but I've worked out a strategy for you guys once you get there."
"So, how do we actually get there in the first place?" Pit asked.
"Well, that depends on Kuro."
The dark angel raised an eyebrow. "How so?"
"You still have your shadow teleportation skills, right?"
"Yeah, though without Medusa's backup power, it makes me pretty tired." He shrugged. "I guess that was just about the only good thing Medusa ever did for me, give me more energy."
"I've got the same problem. When Medusa was around, she gave me shadow traveling power too. But since she left, it's a little weak. I can get you guys to France, but Kuro is going to have to get you to Russia. It takes me a really long time to refresh my power."
Kuro shrugged. "I can do Russia. I'm going to need a map or something, preferably some pictures from Google. I need a basic lay of the land, or shadow traveling is going to be even harder."
"Do whatever you need to," Nighthawk said. "I'll need some time to get, well, charged up. I need to focus really hard to move something through shadows that's not me, and I'll need to use a lot of magic. If you call any time while you're in France, Cedar will try and help you. I'll probably be sleeping."
"Good to know," Pit said. "How long do you need to get ready?"
"Give me about…half an hour? I just need you guys to be somewhere dark when I start. I'll have Cedar call you when I'm ready. According to Overworld maps, Paris is seven hours ahead of you. So you're going to get there in the middle of the night. I've already got a hotel for you and your alibis set up. Everything will be in your backpacks when you get there."
"I'm proud of you, Nighthawk!" Kuro said, sounding impressed. "You're a regular secret agent."
"Nothing a little magic and angelic persuasion can't do," Nighthawk said, his voice revealing his smile. "Don't worry. I've got everything explained for you when you get there. Viridi helped me figure out who this angel is. Apparently, he's fairly famous. This one had the strongest aura, so I did a little research about the area. I wrote all of that in the notes for your mission. As I said, it'll be in your backpacks when you get there. I have to go. Cedar will call when I'm ready. Good luck."
"You too," Pit said, and Nighthawk hung up with a quick "bye".
The three angels sat at the table in silence for a moment. Kaitlyn looked at Pit, who looked at Kuro, who looked at Kaitlyn, and after a while, they all began to smile. "Well," Kuro said with a cheerful edge, "this should be an adventure!"
"I wish Nighthawk had just told us who we're looking for," Kaitlyn said slowly. "He said the angel was pretty famous."
"Then we shouldn't have much trouble finding him tomorrow," Pit said.
Suddenly, Mrs. McNichol appeared at the doorway. "I'm sorry to interrupt, you guys." She gave Pit a sorry smile. "Pit, the kids want you to come and see them before you go, and Kuro, you might want to also, because it seems you all are going to be leaving tonight?"
"Yeah, we are." Kuro said, standing up and patting down his jacket. "Don't worry, we'll go say goodnight to the kids. Come on, Pit, I'll show you their rooms."
Pit nodded and the two left down the hallway and up the stairs, leaving Kaitlyn and Mrs. McNichol alone in the room. The woman motioned to Kaitlyn's outfit. "Is this working out for you? I tried to make it look like it was before, so I had to add some different fabric. In order to make it work, I had to add a few more pockets."
"Oh, it's great!" Kaitlyn said, and flexed her wings, even though she knew that Mrs. McNichol couldn't see them. The fabric moved nicely against her wings, giving her a lot of room for mobility. "Sorry for all the little modifications."
"Oh no, I'm just glad I could help." She gave a smile and sat down next to Kaitlyn. "So, how do you know Kuro?"
"We're old friends," Kaitlyn immediately said. "He and Pit are cousins, and I'm in a relationship with Pit, so we're well connected."
"I'm glad you're friends," she said with a smile. "Kuro's been with us for a while now, so I could say I'm a little protective of him. It's good to know that he has good friends watching out for him."
Kaitlyn smiled at the sweetness in the woman's voice. "I'm just curious," she said slowly, "But you honestly took in a young man because he had no home? I mean, you have kids. Didn't that worry you a little bit?"
Mrs. McNichol's smile was gentle and warm. "It's hard to explain. My husband took a liking to him almost immediately, and so did my children. Kuro has always been very polite, and worked as hard as any of my children to do chores and take responsibility. It'll be sad to see him go. Do you think he'll be gone long?"
Kaitlyn bit the inside of her cheek before shaking her head. "I hate to tell you, but he might never come back. Pit might want him to come live with us. The soonest he'll be back is in less than a week. I don't know anything besides that."
The woman stirred her tea and sighed, taking a long drink. "He's been living with us for nearly a year, and my husband and I have talked about legally adopting him into our family. We were going to ask him about soon. Where are his parents? You said he and Pit were cousins?"
"Yeah, they're related, in a manner of speaking," Kaitlyn said, desperately trying to put together a feasible story, "They didn't even really know the other existed until they were around fourteen or so. They met one another while Pit was traveling around."
"He was traveling when he was fourteen?" Mrs. McNichol questioned with surprise.
"The first thing you have to know about Pit and Kuro is that they enjoy traveling, and they're good at adapting. But, inside, they really just want someplace to call home. Pit lives with his mother, who he works for, and Kuro…well, his situation is complicated. But, if you want to know, he has no legal guardians anymore."
"Well, that's good to hear for the adoption process. But it sounds like the two of them haven't had it easy."
"Kuro especially," Kaitlyn said.
Again, Mrs. McNichol took to stirring her tea, looking down into the steam. "If Kuro is as much of a wanderer as you say, I wonder if he'll ever come back. He's been doing so well, working at the library with Aubrey and driving the children places. My husband taught him how to drive, you know, so that he could help us out more. And he's been doing so well here. We've even talked about him taking classes at the college nearby next semester. I wonder if he'll want to do that after going off with you all."
Kaitlyn paused. "I can't say if he will. You'll have to talk to him. He'll have his phone; I'm sure you can call him."
"I don't want to be pushy at all," the woman said slowly. "I'll probably let him call me first. He needs to know that he has the freedom to come back if he wants, but also to stay back if that's what works for him." She sighed and gave a shrug. "I'm probably going to do the same thing when Roger leaves for college. Mother's struggle."
"It's good to know that Kuro's been well taken care of. He kind of dropped off our radar three years ago, and he wasn't really in the best place." She glanced down at her watch and frowned. "Those two sure are taking a while. We need to be outside in about ten minutes. Our ride is going to be here soon."
"I'll go up and check on them," Mrs. McNichol said, standing up. "Make yourself comfortable until they came down. It shouldn't be long."
Kaitlyn sighed and picked up her own cup of tea that had been provided for her. She could understand why Kuro would want to come here. The family seemed so nice. Why wouldn't someone want a family?
It's not like you're going to get one, she thought sharply, You live in a mythical land above the clouds. Why would anyone want to adopt you anyways? You have problems, lots of them. You're too stubborn, and really loud, and aggressive.
She shook her head, but continued to dwell in her depressing thoughts. Why was she spiraling down like this? She had had a great life since she moved to Angel Land. But something still ached inside of her chest, a deep longing for something secure, something warm and comforting.
A mother's hug, maybe? But she didn't have a mother. She had a father, but she had been trying to forget him for years. And that wasn't working out nearly as well as she had hoped.
The sound of pounding steps down the stairs broke her from her dark musings and she stood, drinking her last bit of tea. She was ready to leave and continue on the adventure. At least on the road, she had little time to think and even less time to brood.
"And that's how I single-handedly defeated Twinbellows the Ferocious!"
The children clapped excitedly, shouting out their oohs and ahhs. The youngest of the children seemed to be about three years old, and the oldest was around thirteen, but all seemed to enjoy the story to a certain extent. The littlest ones clapped the hardest, staring in awe at Pit. He found this amusing, mostly because none of them actually knew he was an angel. They just assumed it was true because it was a story. They were too young to know the difference.
"How did you get out of the Underworld?" One of the little boys asked, his bright eyes looking up at Pit excitedly.
Pit puffed up his chest with pride. "I had to fight off hundreds of Underworld monsters, and I only had my bow. There were so many that it was hard to see. I had to trust my inner feelings and my head to keep me on course."
"So you rescued the Goddess Pa…pala…"
"Palutena," Pit corrected her gently. The girl gave a big toothy smile and nodded.
Pit grinned. "Yep, I did. And we all lived happily ever after!"
"Tell another one, tell another one!" The littlest boy yelled, clapping his hands together.
Kuro stood, cracking his back with a soft moan. "We'd love to, Abe, but you all have to go to bed!" The little boy lifted his hands and began making grabby motions, so Kuro picked him up and held the little boy on his waist. "Come on, everyone, it's time to go to bed. Tomorrow's Saturday, which means soccer games and tae kwon do and playdates."
The children all gave collective "aww" s, but they all stood and headed into their own rooms. The one they sat in was for the three girls, so Pit helped put the two youngest ones in their beds while the eldest one, who Pit was pretty sure was named Malia, turned out the lights and turned on the little fairy nightlight.
Malia stood by Pit for a moment and looked at him. "Will you take good care of Kuro? We're going to miss him."
Pit gave her a soft smile. "I'll take the best care of him. He'll be back before you know it."
Malia smiled a little. "Thank you. Goodnight!"
Pit nodded and left the room, closing the door behind him. Kuro was just closing the door that connected the boys' two rooms, and nodded to Pit as he went into the girls' one to say goodnight to them. Pit nodded back and went down the stairs, passing Mrs. McNichol on the way, to find Kaitlyn in the living room, an empty cup of tea in hand and gently running her hands along the television set. She turned to him and smiled. "I haven't seen one of these in years. We don't exactly have TVs in Angel Land."
Pit shrugged. "We'd get weird reception and even weirder channels up there."
"Yeah, like a crazy news channel. Or weather from the Underworld."
The two began to chuckle. "Can you imagine Hades doing the weather?" Pit snickered, putting on his best Hades voice. "'Today's weather, flames with a chance of damnation to hell! And if you're feeling a little warm, you can go and spend some time in the deep caverns, where you can freeze instead!"
Kaitlyn giggled. "Oh, lord, or maybe Palutena doing a daily news show. Can't you just see her, reading off those cue cards?" She made her voice much higher. "It looks like we have an Underworld monster on the loose! Everyone keep indoors and…and…Pit, turn the card!"
The two had to keep their voices down, seeing as the children had just gone to bed, but it was hard to keep their laughter quiet. After a few moments, their laughter died, and they both practically fell onto the couch, suddenly exhausted.
Kaitlyn's body was warm against Pit's, and she sighed a little as she snuggled up close to him. He gently wrapped an arm around her shoulder, rubbing her arm. "You know, I was really worried when I couldn't find you," Pit said.
"What made you sure that I was alright?" Kaitlyn asked, raising an eyebrow. "For all you know, I could've gotten eaten by wolves or something."
Pit smiled a little. "I told myself that you would be fine. You would have shot the wolves before they even got close to you, and then you would have stood on their bodies and pounded your chest and yelled out your dominance!"
Kaitlyn gave a snort. "Wow, you make me sound like a gorilla!"
Pit gave a small laugh, nuzzling his face into her hair. "You're stronger than any girl I know. That's why I love you."
Kaitlyn turned her head and her lips met his in a short but sweet kiss. "That's always good to hear."
He smiled and they kissed again, longer and deeper than before. Her arms wrapped around his neck and shoulders, and his found her back. After being in a relationship for the amount of time that they had, the butterflies and fireworks were less prevalent in their kisses. But they were comforting and an easy way for them to show their affection for one another. Kaitlyn's kisses were soft but had force behind them. She seemed to control the connection more than he did, and he had no trouble with that.
They pulled away, and Kaitlyn went back to snuggling against Pit's side. He rested his head on hers, and her hands rested on his arm and chest.
Kuro entered the room, with Roger and Aubrey close behind him. He raised an eyebrow, smiling widely. "Well, you two are getting cozy."
Kaitlyn smiled back, blinking lazily. "You're just jealous."
"You wish," Kuro said, rolling his eyes. "Do we know how much time we have left?"
Kaitlyn checked her watch again, shifting away from Pit a little to do so. "We've got approximately five minutes. We should head outside."
They all grabbed their jackets and headed outdoors. Night had fallen, making finding a place for shadow travel easy; everywhere was covered in shadow. The five of them sat on the grass quietly. Kaitlyn pulled out her pistols and a cloth and began polishing them down. Kuro pulled up some grass and twisted it in his thin fingers. Aubrey lay on her back and stared up and the sky, while Roger simply stared straight on, obviously deep in thought.
"Hey," Aubrey said suddenly. "Where are the stars?"
All the angels stared up at the sky, and realized that Aubrey was rightly distressed: the moon shone brightly, but despite the lack of clouds, there were no stars. The sky was an empty blue, and Pit shivered slightly. The whole thing was unnatural and unnerving. "Andromeda must have just lost her memories. She controls the stars."
They all went silent. Kuro shook out his head. "We're running out of time."
They lapsed back into silence. Pit gave a sigh and stretched out his wings a few times. His sprained wing seemed to be better at this point, which was good for him. He'd still need to wait for a while to use it, like Jenny had advised.
"We're going to miss you," Aubrey said slowly, her dark eyes looking at Kuro.
Kuro nodded, giving a small sigh. "I'm going to miss you too, Aubrey."
"Will you come back?"
The dark angel let out a long breath, running a hand through his hair. "I want to, Aubrey. I really do. But if something bad happens during our journey, I might have to go back to Angel Land."
Aubrey grabbed Kuro around the middle in a tight, slightly awkward hug. "No, you should stay with us," she said stubbornly.
Roger shook his head. "We're going to miss you if you don't come back, especially Jen and Max. They see you more than the rest of us, seeing as you drive them to all their sports meets."
"We'll even get you a motorcycle!" Aubrey whined a little. "We'll convince Dad to help pay for it, and you can ride it around like a total boss! Please just stay with us. You're like our big brother!"
"You really are," Roger said a little stiffly. But it was obvious he was trying to find out how to say what he was feeling. "We're going to miss you."
Kuro's smile was small but gentle and warm. "I'll miss you guys, too. I'll try as hard as I can to come back. But you guys have to promise me that you'll be okay, even if I can't come back. You can always call me on my phone, remember."
"It's not the same," Aubrey huffed, but she nodded anyways.
At that moment, Kuro's phone rang. He raised an eyebrow, and stared at the phone face. "Text from Cedar. She says to get ready. Nighthawk's just about ready to teleport us."
"Tell her we're ready," Pit said as he stood. The others followed his lead and Kuro gave one last goodbye hug to Roger and Aubrey.
Then, without any notice, the scenery changed, and they were no longer in Macomb.
Two chapters in one week? You can thank my sister. She's working very hard to keep up with me :)
Happy Thanksgiving, all you Americans :) If you're reading this from any other country and you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you have a fabulous day in whatever you do!
~Pixie
