When Begug rematerialized on Avengaea, shifting into his usual public form-- himself, only with more muted colors-- even as he reappeared from his teleport, it was with a sigh of relief. It had been a stressful few weeks on the job, a situation exacerbated by knowledge he had but could not act upon in the current case. Today had been no exception. On the whole, it was very good to be home.

As he headed into the Nidus proper-- he always reappeared at the entrance rather than inside; it was more polite that way-- Begug started consciously relaxing muscles. Even though he'd spent the day in a human form, most of the muscles still correlated, and the tense atmosphere at the station made sure every single one of them was taut. A glance at the mail slot as he padded inside told him either there wasn't any today, or Yadtime had already come by to pick it up. He gave the current Custos on duty at the front desk a friendly nod, then started making his way inside.

Normally, he would take the time to stop by his father's apartment, taking a circuitous route around the outer ring on his way in, but with how he'd been feeling lately, the idea of being growled at through a closed door-- if October was even in-- hadn't been appealing. Instead, the past few days, he'd been heading straight through the ring to the central one, which housed the apartment he and Yadtime shared. Though his nephew was only half-grown, a year and a half old, he'd already mastered teleportation well enough that he didn't need to be picked up from school anymore: he made his way home, on his own, and usually made it back before Begug did.

Today, however, Begug spotted a familiar and very unwanted furry form loitering around the most direct passageway through the rings, and he promptly altered his course. If he wasn't in a mood to deal with October, he certainly didn't want to deal with Oren. The little rabbit-dragon refused to take no for an answer, and trying to shake him off sounded like too much effort.

The route he took instead brought him around a slightly different path than usual, and past the rooms of one Jethro Kingsley, a human from a place called Earth. The dark young man was seated on the bench outside his apartment, one of his little equine pets-- samanayr, they were called, he believed-- resting across one knee while he read. Begug nodded amiably as he passed, and to his great surprise, Jethro scooped up his pet and stood up. "Begug, hold on a minute," he said, and, startled by being addressed by someone with whom he'd shared no more than "good morning" and "good evening" with for the past years they'd shared the Nidus, Begug stopped. Actually, he almost tripped over his own paws. 

"Yes?" he asked politely, puzzled, once he'd recovered. "Can I help you?"

"Oh, I just have a message to pass on," Jethro said, his deep voice sounding a little shy.

Begug nodded for him to speak, not sure just who would have left a message with Jethro for him.

"It's for Yadtime. He's going to be receiving some news, and he should pay attention to it, because it's important." At Begug's blank stare, Jethro shrugged awkwardly. "My friend who said to pass it on is something like a seer. You know, gets visions and things."

Begug's confusion cleared quickly, and he nodded. "I'll let him know. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Jethro said with a relieved sigh, and went back to his book, the curly-haired samanayr settling back across his knee.

A bit bemused-- what could be so important about Yadtime that had a fortune-teller seeing visions about him, after all?-- Begug continued on his way, to the next connecting hallway between the Nidus's rings. By the time he finally made it to the apartment, his mind had gone back to the case, on the planet where he was posing as a policeman for experience. He knew exactly who the perpetrator was, but he couldn't exactly tell anyone. Who would believe him, anyway, if he tried to say the one who held the pistol was a ghost, much less the ghost of the victim's dead brother?

Then he opened the door to home sweet home and his muzzle was accosted with the enticing smell of what was probably dinner, and he resolved to stop thinking about work and get back to relaxing. "Yadtime?"

"Hello, Uncle!" Yadtime called from the little kitchenette portion of the apartment, leaning over the bar and waving. He was in a human form today, a gawky adolescent with a very short fuzz of gray and red hair, icey blue eyes, and black skin. The face was one Begug recognized as a friend of Yadtime's from school, a human with radically different coloring who had given Yadtime permission to use his form, since it always wound up looking distinguishable anyway. Yadtime was not the accomplished shape-shifter his uncle was, to both of their disappointments.

At any rate, in order to use the kitchenette, one of them had to be humanoid in size and shape, since it was on the "rider's side" of the rooms. "I assume that's you cooking in there?" Begug asked, dipping his head under one of the free-hanging counters to sniff appreciatively.

"Well, it's not one of the Nidus flitters," Yadtime countered serenely, stirring the contents of a pot. "I got some of that alfredo mix today and thought I'd try it."

"Smells wonderful," Begug approved, and dropped onto the couch with a groan. "It's good to be home. Was there any mail when you got in?"

"A few pieces of junk mail," Yadtime answered. "Including another love-letter from--"

"I don't even want to hear about it."

"I shredded it," Yadtime chuckled.

"After reading it, of course."

"Well, I had to make sure there wasn't anything actually important in it, you know."

"Uh huh."

"There's a letter from Dad, too. It's sitting on the table, whenever you want to get up and go read it."

Begug, eyes now shut, just said, "Anything of note in it?"

"You're going to be a brother again. Sort of."

That made him open his eyes, blinking over at the wall-- he didn't actually want to move; the couch was comfortable. "What do you mean, sort of?"

"You know how they do biosynthing where he works. Well, apparently Grandfather put a sample into the biopool, and the doctor is making some eggs using it. They're going to be, like, one-third October Bonder." From the tone of Yadtime's voice, he started smiling as he added, "Dad was going on and on about how weird it was to have third-siblings rather than the usual horde of half-siblings."

Begug had to sit and think on that a minute. "Third-siblings. That... is a little strange."

"Are you going to go meet them?" Yadtime asked.

"I usually go to meet any new siblings, you know that...." Begug's voice trailed off as he remembered the message he was supposed to pass on: important news to pay attention to. Unless that news hadn't come yet, this was probably it. And even if it wasn't, well, there was no harm in it. "Do you want to come with me, this time?"

"Can I?" Yadtime responded eagerly. "I'd really like to, if that's okay."

"Of course it's okay. Did Lir' say when the eggs were supposed to hatch?"

"Not for a while yet, but the test-subject hatched. We can go meet him, and maybe say hi to Dad, while we're there."

Well, it certainly sounded better than dealing with missing perps, irritable fathers, and lovesick bunnies. Begug thought it would be a nice little vacation, indeed.

Chapter Five

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