Kits and Space Stations: Chiya and Ketvia's Story

"Chiya, I'm home!"

Ketvia was amazingly good at making herself heard, no matter where in the house one was.

The fact that for the past two years she'd been yelling over the voices of three enthusiastic youngsters might have helped.

But then, she'd always been loud when she wanted to be.

No matter. Chiya still didn't answer, trying to concentrate on her spell. She was having a hard time focusing and keeping control of all threads of the magic. This was a complicated spell, one to restructure and restore the monitoring charm that connected her magic to the spells protecting the house, and this was the third day she'd tried to get it right.

"Chiya?"

And, it seemed, the third day she would fail. Chiya grasped desperately at the spell, but felt it slipping, and when it finally escaped her mental claws she just dropped her head into her hands and growled at herself. There was a time when she could have done something like this in her sleep, or in the middle of a battle-- or with three bickering kits just across the room.

Was it really that she still missed them? Because she did, of course she did; the house felt empty and echoing and unhappy, even when Ketvia wasn't at work. But she didn't think she missed them so much that she couldn't work her magic, something that was like breathing to her. She loved magic, maybe not quite as much as she loved her children or Ketvia, but enough that she didn't think losing one love would hurt another.

"Chiya, are you even-- oh, there you are."

Ketvia's head poked into the mage workroom. Chiya didn't look up, though she did wave a wing in despondent greeting.

"You all right?" Ketvia asked, coming fully inside.

"Just frustrated," Chiya answered, voice muted by her hands.

"Still having magic-troubles?"

At least Ketvia was sympathetic rather than derisive. The fact that she missed their children, too, more than she'd expected to, helped. The night after Vir and Regius had left, after Chiya had gotten most of her tears out during the day, she had found herself somewhat surprised to find Ketvia the one shaking and hiding in her wings and arms. The Fire refused to admit to it, later, of course, but Chiya knew it was still there, beneath the surface.

"Still," she sighed. "I just can't concentrate! It doesn't make any sense."

"Ya know, I was thinking," Ketvia mused, seating herself down next to her housemate, "you haven't actually done magic solo in a while, have you?"

"What?" Chiya looked up, at that, blinking.

"You. Doing magic all on your lonesome. You haven't been doing much of that lately, right?" Ketvia elbowed her lightly. "When it wasn't Vir, it was Trip, and when it wasn't Trip, it was Reggie. You're out of practice."

Honestly, she hadn't thought of that, but it was true. But-- still! "Then why isn't practice helping?"

"It's only been, what, a week?" Ketvia brushed a hand over her forehead, then grabbed her horn and gave it a little shake. "You're still not used to an empty house, and you already want to be used to working magic solo again? Give yourself a break, Chiya."

Sighing, she arched her neck over her friend's shoulder and rested it on her folded wing. "I wish it wasn't so empty... I feel like-- like I'm off-balance, expecting something to be there when it's not."

"We should have had more time with them, I know," Ketvia huffed, not unkindly. "There isn't much to be done about it now, though, and it's not as if we'll never see them again, or anything. Leave the spell, Chi'. Come down and help me with dinner. I'm out of practice cooking in an empty kitchen. I at least need you in there to distract me."

Laughing a little, Chiya laid the ragged remains of her spell to rest, unraveling it rather than just setting it aside to work on again later. Perhaps if she started over, from the bottom up, she would have better success. For now, she followed the Fire downstairs to help out with dinner.

Ketvia, unsurprisingly, got there first, and when Chiya made it down, she found her frowning at a piece of folded paper, which had presumably come from the envelope on the counter. "Ketvia?" she asked curiously.

"Letter," Ketvia grunted. She finished scanning it, then handed it to her while she started getting things out of cupboards. Chiya couldn't help but smile as she noted Vir's careful handwriting. Their first letter from their wayward kits-- and it was only a week after they'd left!

"They're on Star City," she commented. "Got their cyborware-- apparently Regius teased him mercilessly because he got mostly jewelry."

"Not surprising," Ketvia snorted, sounding amused, as she lit a fire under a large frying pan. "The teasing or the jewelry."

"Hush, they're for focusing magic with," Chiya said, swatting at her with her tail. Ketvia wasn't much better than Regius, with some things, and Vir's attempts at making himself fancier was one of them. "Oh, look, they ran into Denique-- he's graduated from apprenticeship!"

"Good for him." Ketvia had never fully trusted the Ampilae-- apparently she had heard a wide variety of unflattering rumors-- especially after it so blatantly converted their son, but Chiya saw no harm in them. After all, they did help train him in his magic. He was enthusiastic about it, and he was happy, and that's what mattered. Chiya largely ignored her friend's disdain of the group, unless it came out when Denique himself was around. This time was no exception. At least she didn't actually look down on Denique for having let the group take him in.

She read on.

"Callidei's doing well; they spoke with her, as well. Keeping busy. Apparently she's got a new job on the Destiny. And-- oh, Ketvia...."

"Found the part about the new clutch, did you?" Ketvia grumbled, looking at her out of the corner of her eye. Chiya couldn't help her guilty blush.

"Yes...."

"And you're tempted, aren't you."

She squirmed under the sidelong glare. "Yes...."

Ketvia sighed. "I figured you would be. We've got this big apartment, after all, and more time than we'd expected on our hands."

"Then are you--"

Ketvia turned away from the sizzling vegetables in the frying pan. "I'm not sick of living with you you, or playing parents, yet, no. But!" she added fiercely, before Chiya could do more than open her mouth. "I'm not running out and signing us up. Do you want to know why?"

Flinching a little, but hopeful, Chiya nodded.

"Because I want to make sure it's what you want. More kits. That aren't even yours. That might not have Light blood, Fire blood, or even enough magic that's worth your training."

"Ketvia--"

"You wanted kits before because you wanted your kits," Ketvia continued. "Now you don't have your kits anymore, because they grew up faster than you anticipated. If you run off to adopt some more, now, I want you to be sure you're not just trying to replace ours. That you actually want new ones, and will love them just like the old."

Chiya stared up at Ketvia, perplexed and a little annoyed at the speech-making. "You seem to have given this a lot of thought," she accused. "Did you know about this already?"

Shaggy shoulders rolled, wings shrugging over them, and Ketvia went back to sauteing vegetables. "I thought you might think about adopting again, I didn't really think a whole lot about where. But this place is as good as any. At least they're the right species, and we know what to expect of the place."

For a long moment, Chiya stared at the frying pan as well. Then, she finally asked, "What do you want?"

"I want...." Ketvia glanced at her, then back at their dinner. "I want you to be happy. I don't want to raise kits forever, but I could do another pair now if that would make you happy, whether they take two years to grow up or fifty."

"Would raising another pair make you happy?" Chiya pressed.

"I don't know!" Ketvia growled, and flipped the contents of the pan so viciously that a few pieces flew out. Without thinking, Chiya caught them in a quick spell and dropped them back where they belonged.

"You don't know?" she asked quietly.

"I don't know," Ketvia repeated, a little less vehemently. "I'm not sick of Sanctuary yet, so I won't mind staying put for a while. I enjoyed training Reggie and Trip, and even having Vir stumbling into everything. But I don't want to be replacing anyone, either, and I'm afraid that's what I'll be trying to do."

Somehow, Chiya didn't think she meant she'd be trying to replace Trip and the boys. She settled down next to her and leaned under one wing. Ketvia didn't lean back, or look away from the pan, but she did curl her tail up to rest against Chiya's back. "I'm sorry about Calli," she murmured.

Ketvia didn't answer, she just shifted her wings to fold them back against Chiya's sides and sighed softly.

But then, she didn't need to.