Valentine's Day at the Jowd household was a family affair. "Family affairs" often included not only Detective Jowd and his family, but Lynne, Inspector Cabenala (who always came late), Amelie and her parents, a few of Jowd's good friends from down at the station, and of course the household pets.
The day went like this: the guests all came over and brought presents of vegetable trays and chocolate boxes— whatever they could afford— and set them on the table as an offering for the party. Then "little angel Amelie" would run off with Kamila to play, Jowd and his friends would strike up a conversation about politics with the Justice Minister (Amelie's father), and the mothers of the two little girls would get into a heated debate about literature before it was time for dinner. Normally in this routine, Lynne played the part of watching over the girls while they played: Amelie would bring her porcelain dolls and Kamila would get out her handmade ones, and both of them would happily play together and pretend that Missile was a giant monster who the dolls had to defeat by tying up with rope (bits of string from Kamila's craft box).
However, this year things were a little different. Lynne was requested to come talk with Detective Jowd, leaving Missile to fend for himself against the onslaught of the tiny fake humans. At first this made her feel very grown-up, but as she approached the table and remembered the ages of Jowd and his friends, it actually made her feel quite young and foolish.
"Detective Jowd? You wanted to see me?"
Jowd turned around from the hearty pile of appetizers on his plate. "Ah, Lynne! Sit down, sit down. How's the report coming?"
Lynne sat down and bit her lip. "Um… well… I still kind of have a lot to finish. The experiment replications are going fine, though! ExceptforavialIbrokeonaccident."
Jowd cocked his head. "What was that?"
"I broke a vial on accident," Lynne muttered, glancing away. "I mean. It wasn't really me, but—"
"Did she let the cat into the experiment room again?!" one of Jowd's coworkers exclaimed. All the men turned to look at the black cat who was perched atop the climbing case, grooming himself without a care in the world. He didn't even seem to notice the five pairs of eyes glaring in his direction.
"You oughta put that thing on a leash," one of the men said.
"Hah! Have you ever even tried putting a cat on a leash, Bailey?" another retorted. "Especially a kitten! I've got three kittens at home and just trying to heard them into the same room is near impossible."
"Seems like that little fella's been a kitten for years now. I figure he ain't a kitten at all, just a teacup cat. Like one of them little doggies my wife keeps asking me for."
"A-HEM!" Jowd coughed, bringing the attention back to the table. "Lynne, the broken vial was not your fault. I know Sissel is… very good at sneaking into places." The underlying statement was that he was fully aware Sissel could slip through walls at a moment's notice, unlocking doors for his body to trot right through. "But I gathered us here to talk about the progress of neutralizing the radiation from you-know-what, so let's hear how the rest of your reports have been coming…"
Lynne tried to stay awake during the next part of the meeting, she really did. But the other officers didn't even know what Temsik WAS, beyond a "highly dangerous radioactive substance," and the way they droned on and on was practically killing her. Then she felt something nudge her, and she looked down to see a furry little ball of black rubbing its head against her leg.
"Uhh… Detective Jowd, I think Sissel wants to be let out."
Jowd noticed the look in her eyes and waved her off with a look of understanding. "Sure, you do that. And while you're at it, see if there are enough steaks out back for everyone. Can't have this lot getting hungry, now can we?"
A few of the policemen laughed and raised their glasses with "here here!"s and "if you're going to the store, grab some potatoes, too!"s. Lynne leaped up from the table and grabbed her car keys, fully intending to go shopping whether the men needed it or not. The kitten leapt gracefully onto the empty chair, then the table, then her shoulder, sticking a paw against her face as if it would help him balance or something.
Once out of the house and safely inside the car, the kitten was engulfed in blue flames before re-appearing as the spitting image of someone who was currently sitting in a prison cell.
"Sissel?"
"Yes?"
"That form is fine for the house, but you can't walk around as Yomiel. If anyone recognized you, they'd think he broke out or something. And you can't keep the tail, either."
Sissel pouted and broke out into another burst of blue flames. He emerged in a new form; spiked black hair that ended in a tail-shaped ponytail and a red bandana atop all-black clothing made him easily recognizable, even as a human. Lynne raised an eyebrow.
"That was fast. When did you come up with that?"
Sissel ignored her question and instead pointed forward to the dashboard. "Drive, human."