I have a question for my readers, I've had the Christmas chapters of this story written since February and wanted to post them in time for Christmas, but I have several chapters between chapter 11 and the ones leading into the Christmas ones that I haven't written yet and I have a dozen or so other Christmas projects that I want to do. So if it get's to be Christmas would you prefer to be able to read the Christmas chapters for Christmas or wait until the other chapters are written?
The ones that still need to be written aren't too important, just sort of dates and more development of Kagerou and Kate's relationship, so I could just skip from the end of the next chapter to mid December and it wouldn't effect understanding what's going on in the story or anything, it may just seem a little rushed because I'll be skipping from mid summer to December. I could then finish and post the skipped chapters after Christmas if I don't have time to finish them before I post the Christmas chapters.
True to her word, Kate was packed and ready for the trip in thirty minutes. After surrendering Becky to a trusted neighbor and getting her sleeping and gym bags, camping equipment and bird mode Kagerou into her truck, she started on the long drive that took her and Kagerou deeper and deeper into the countryside.
"Alright—you can relax a bit now," Kate said after two hours of driving when she pulled into the driveway. A single log cabin stood amid trees as far as the horizon and farther. A mirror-like lake was within a short walk of the cabin itself.
"Good," Kagerou said from the passenger seat where he had been sitting, crouched down in bird mode to conceal himself.
"Let's stretch our legs for a few minutes and then we can unload the truck," Kate suggested as she killed the engine and climbed out of the truck.
"How far are we from any other houses or people?" Kagerou asked as Kate opened the door for him; he flew out and transformed to robot mode, surveying the area.
"There's several miles of forest, and then farm land beyond that," Kate replied, hardly faltering as Kagerou wrapped his arms around her from behind. "The closest other people might come are the cow pastures a couple of miles from here." She leaned back against his chestplating. "So is this going to become a habit?"
"What?" he asked, smiling against her hair.
"You randomly wrapping your arms around me," she replied easily. "'Cos I could definitely get use to it."
"I believe I could make it habit," Kagerou mused, brushing a light kiss against Kate's neck and sending a pleased chill down her spine, "although after being stuck in your house for two months, I need to stretch my wings." He quickly released her and shot straight up into the air, going higher and higher until Kate had to shield her eyes from the sun to see the little pinprick that was Kagerou.
When Kagerou seemed to be satisfied with his ascent, he swooped back down and took off over the trees, disappearing from sight for a few minutes. When Kate saw him again, he was executing flight maneuvers, transforming and flying in his humanoid and avian modes. He truly could put the Blue Angels to shame.
A short time later, he reassumed his robot mode and dove right towards Kate. Her eyes widening, she yelped and tried to duck, but he easily dipped low enough to scoop her off the ground and into his arms before soaring right back up again.
Kate yelped in surprise and panic, wrapping her arms tightly around Kagerou's neck. "What the heck are you doing?" she gasped. The wind whipped through her hair and around her and Kagerou's frames, the latter pressed together in a manner that, had they been on terra firma, might be misconstrued as indecent. Then again, Kate was more concerned about the fact that she was several stories above ground than she was about being wrapped around Kagerou like a vine on a garden lattice.
"Sharing the view," he replied smoothly, grinning at her.
Kate allowed herself a frightened glance around. Her grandparent's entire property, as well as much of the surrounding farm land, was laid out before them like a miniature scene in a hobby shop. "It's beautiful," she conceded, "but what if someone sees you?"
Kagerou tapped the side of his head, where his scanner was retracted into his helmet. "Heat sensors don't indicate any humans within visual range," he replied. "There's no one out here to see us. Now relax—I won't let you fall."
Kate took a deep breath, trying not to think about just how far off the ground they were, and slowly relaxed her grip on his neck a bit. It wasn't all that ba—As soon as her grip had loosened, he dropped her for a terrifying second, turning her one hundred eighty degrees and caught her again, holding her so that her back was pressed to his chest and her feet were on top of his.
"What do you think you're doing?!" Kate screeched, gripping his arms so tightly her fingers blanches. "You said you weren't going to drop me!"
"I never said I wouldn't 'drop you,'" he replied easily. "I said I wouldn't let you fall."
"What's the difference?!" Kate cried.
"I apologize for frightening you," Kagerou non-answered, "but that was the easiest way to adjust my grip on you."
"Why would you need to adjust your grip like this?!" Kate snapped. "I don't have anything to hold onto—I hate it!"
"Just trust me," he soothed. "I promise I won't do it again. Just relax a bit—"
"Sure, I'm just going to relax after what you did last time you told me to," Kate replied sarcastically.
"I'm not going to drop you again," he swore, "and I think you'll enjoy what I have planned once you relax." Kate slowly, if microscopically, relaxed. "Very good. Now brace your feet against mine."
She reluctantly complied, and Kagerou slowly tilted his body so he was parallel to the ground with Kate hanging under him, one arm across her shoulders and the other around her stomach to support her, her feet braced against his as they flew. "Relax more…spread your arms, feel the wind..."
Given enough time and gentle reassurance, Kate managed to relax enough to enjoy the experience of flight without a Boeing aircraft. "This is amazing," she admitted, "but next time warn me before you drop me."
"Very well," Kagerou conceded. "I suppose if you insist I can warn you."
The pair flew over the property and farm lands for another half hour before they finally landed and unloaded the car. "I take it you're the only one who comes here?" Kagerou asked as they stepped into the cabin, a duffel slung over his shoulder.
"Why, whatever makes you think that?" Kate replied, carefully pulling a dust covered sheet off of the couch it had been protecting.
"Nothing really…" Kagerou deadpanned, running his finger over the surface of an end table. "Probably just the two millimeter layer of dust—more than I've ever seen in my entire existence." Kagerou stepped aside so Kate could shake the dust out of the sheet on the porch.
"It actually isn't that bad," she replied between dust clouds. "Man, you should've seen it when I first inherited it, it had been about ten years since anyone had set foot inside. Cobwebs floor to ceiling and wall to wall, an inch of dust on everything and of course none of the furniture had been covered." She stepped back in and started pulling dusty sheets from chairs and the dining room table. "Looked like a haunted house."
"How do we know this house isn't haunted?" Kagerou teased, taking a sheet of his own and stepping out to join Kate in her eradication of the dust bunnies.
"We don't!" she laughed. "There could be monsters in the loft for all I know— the door has been jammed since before my grandparents died ."
"Aww, will I have to chase away the monsters?" he said with mock seriousness.
"Don't think so," she replied. "It's the zombies I'm worried about."
Kagerou glanced over at her, quirking an eye ridge. Kate held a serious facial expression for a few moments before the two of them started to laugh.
They took their good humor indoors as they worked at the woodstove, sink and counters, finally calling it quits after a few hours and spending the rest of the evening playing card games.
"And where am I supposed to sleep?" Kagerou asked, watching Kate set up shop.
"On the floor, or you could go to bird mode and sleep in a tree outside," Kate suggested, unrolling her sleeping bag. She looked over with an almost devious grin. "Or, since you always seem to end up in bed with me, I suppose we could just share the bed."
"I'll go for Door Number Three," he replied easily. "Just keep the zipper away from me."
"Why?" Kate questioned, arching an eyebrow.
"It's metal, and I don't want to wake up with a sleeping bag stuck to me," Kagerou answered.
"You're still absorbing metal?"
"Yes," he confirmed. "I don't know how big I was before, but I still start to absorb metal when it touches me. As long as I'm awake I can feel it starting to happen and can move before anything ends up too attached to me."
"What about when you're asleep—can you feel it then?" Kate pressed.
"Ahh… I can't," he answered slowly.
"And how did we make this discovery?" Kate asked, almost dreading the answer.
"You, ahh… You know those spare car keys you thought you'd lost at the hospital when you went to visit Rachel? Apparently, you dropped them on the couch—they fell between the cushions and were up far enough that I woke up with them… stuck to my leg. They were fully absorbed before you missed them." Kagerou told her.
"Why am I just now learning about this? Did you think I'd be mad about it?"
"Of course not!" he answered. "I was just pretty sure you'd find some way of making fun of me for walking around with them stuck to my leg, though." He made a face reminiscent of wrinkling one's nose. "I jingled like Santa Claus when I walked."
"I can't imagine why you would have thought that," Kate teased. "You know, we still need to make you your crown."
"Good luck getting me to hold still long enough," Kagerou dismissed.
"You wouldn't just hold still if I asked you to?" Kate asked sweetly.
"Not if you were trying to hold cans on my head," he replied. "Now why don't we get some sleep? I haven't really flown like the way I did this afternoon in… in forever, and I'm worn out."
"Alright," Kate agreed, kissing him on the cheek before sliding into her sleeping bag.