Since his father's death, Guntz had been using his bedroom to sleep in. It would have been a waste of space to just leave it to gather dust, but nonetheless it didn't quite feel right to use it. Even now, the fact that Batz was dead barely felt real, and sometimes he felt sure that his dad would come back through the front door from another job, just like he had all those years ago.

Nowadays, many years after he had died, Guntz's memories of his father had grown fuzzy. He remembered a few snatches, but nothing felt concrete anymore, and that terrified him, that he might be forgetting one of the most important people he had ever known. Thus, he always kept an eye out for old photos from his childhood, so he could try to rekindle those memories the best he could.

One day, he thought he had hit the motherlode. He had been busy cleaning under the bed, when he thought to look inside an old cardboard box that had been falling apart from age. Inside, he found a musty but still intact photo album, with his father's name written on the front. Immediately, he stopped what he was doing and sat down to flip through it.

The first few pages were photos of Batz and his wife (Guntz's mother) out doing the bounty hunter circuit, along with a couple of them in their downtime, talking and laughing. Guntz didn't remember his mother, she had died shortly after his birth, but she seemed the perfect match for his father, not least because she rivalled him in physical strength.

Guntz's brow furrowed, however, when he spotted a familiar face in some of the photos. A grey cat in a purple overcoat whose name he had come to despise for a long time.

Of course, he should have expected to see Janga here. He and his pops had been partners in crime for goodness knows how long, working together as bounty hunters until that fateful day when the feline had betrayed him and struck him down, so he could follow Garlen's lead and plunge the land in darkness. Seeing his smiling face in these photos made Guntz sick, how he could seem so at home standing alongside the happy couple despite what he would go on to do. He tried to put it out of his mind, though. That wasn't what he was here for.

After a short time, he saw the first photographs of his new-born self start to appear, being held by his parents. It made him a little teary eyed, seeing himself so pure and untainted by the hardship that life would deal him. If only things had been different…

His mood worsened when he noticed his mother disappear from the photos, the only indication as to what happened being a single shaky photo of a gravestone. Guntz assumed it belonged to her, though hadn't known it existed. He would have to go out looking for it the next chance he got.

The photos continued, Batz putting on a brave face as he took care of his son on his own. Gritting his teeth, Guntz saw Janga remain present in many of them, posing with his father. No doubt trying to get closer to him and take advantage of his grief to get what he wanted. God, the man made him want to throw up.

It was a seemingly innocuous photo about midway through the album which made Guntz stop in his tracks, and a sick feeling began to form in his stomach.

It was of his father and Janga, the feline resting on Batz's shoulder and seeming to be asleep, or at least resting. It shouldn't have been such a worrying sight, but it seemed almost too intimate to be normal for a professional partnership.

He tried to block it from his mind and kept flipping through, seeing his child self grow into a toddler, taking his first steps, playing with his dad, that sort of thing. All the while, Janga's presence became increasingly prevalent, often being seen sitting with the two or reluctantly playing with the infant Guntz. God, with how much he was showing up, it was starting to seem like the two were living together. But no, that couldn't be so, his father would never-

There it was, another photo that set off the butterflies in Guntz's stomach. Janga coming from behind Batz and giving him an affectionate embrace, a genuinely contented expression on both their faces.

Guntz flipped faster through the album, not believing what he was seeing. The rest of the photos, when they weren't of Guntz himself, were almost exclusively of the pair doing things together. Talking platonically, out on jobs, in casual wear and seemingly on a night on the town. One photo was of Janga curled up like a cat asleep on the very bed that Guntz was sitting on at that moment, and it would have been amusing if not for the fact he had been sleeping there at all just made the terror mount further.

No, no… this wasn't right… he couldn't accept this… there had to be some explanation for what he was seeing…

The last photo he saw, towards the back of the album, is what finally broke him.

It was Janga planting a kiss on Batz's cheek, who had an amused smirk at his face that made clear that he was very much appreciative of it.

Guntz could take it no more, and he threw the photo album across the room, burying his face in his hands as he tried to comprehend what he had seen.

The truth, it seemed, was that Janga and his father were closer than he had ever known…