The Kitty Thing

(now)

“You really worried about Sep.” Lily says, voice filled with amusement, as she munches on a small packet of assorted fruit-flavored candies. The ones Specter knows she wouldn’t live without. “Sep, of all people. Poster child of non-toxic casual relationships in all of planet Aster’s five moons.”

She passes the packet to him, and after a second of contemplation, he takes it. She also knows this is a snack he likes.

“You don’t get it.” is all he manages to say.

“No, I probably don’t get all of it, but… C’mon, this kid got you, then he also got Sep, actual saint Rina who feeds like half of the people in that diner for free, and those ladies at the orphanage who are all like, counselor war vets or something. Just keep him in good company like that, he should adjust well.”

“…I guess.”

They’re both quiet for a few moments in the dark, the hovercar parked on another lot, on hour one of another stakeout.

This time, at least, Specter knows that when their mark shows up, it’s go time. They have a good view of Malcolm Flint’s shoddy little place, and the man should be stumbling back after a night of gambling losses pretty soon – maybe in another hour or so, if Lily did her job right.

And Lily always does her job right.

Specter passes the candies back to his current companion. “What if it’s not always good company?”

“Oh?” Lily pops another candy in her mouth. “Who are we talking about?”

Specter lets another second pass for contemplation. Lily would love his answer for this one. But he doesn’t know if he can stand talking about it.

Giving up, he says, “The twins.”

“Fuck off.” is the instant answer, and Lily straightens up on her seat and looks at him with wide eyes and an almost manic grin. “The twins?”

If they were just hanging out, and Specter isn’t on a job and therefore obligated to keep close watch of the street and people across the road, he surely would have closed his eyes and buried his face miserably in his arms over the steering wheel.

“Spec! Both of the twins?”

“Uh. It was just one of them at the start. The younger one.”

“Okay, so both of them, then.”

“…Yeah.”

“Wow. Attaboy, Kitty-”

“No.”

---

.

(five months ago)

“I’ll get us ready to launch.” Specter tells his new passenger as they board his ship. Kitty is already there waiting, allowed to tag along for a fairly safe escort and bodyguard mission. He gets to his feet as soon as he sees them. Specter nods towards the younger man trailing him. “Kitty, take our client to his bunk to drop off his things.”

“Okay, boss!” Kitty says, always happy when he gets to go with Specter off-moon, somewhere new. Specter allows the ‘boss’ thing when they’re on the job – after all, he usually introduces Kitty as his assistant.

He walks ahead, but keeps an eye and an ear out as Kitty approaches their client.

“Hello, sir, do you need help with your bag?” Kitty greets charmingly. Specter doesn’t miss the curious look in his assistant’s wide eyes – after all, the younger Bryton twin didn’t look like the usual thug or some stuffy VIP passenger.

The young man looks like one of those friendly delinquents that hung out in Sep’s bar — the hackers, the ones who are either from money, or are in the hobby of actively stealing money. This one is dressed in easy casual clothes, sporting blue eyes that glow slightly in the dim light indicating aesthetic enhancements, and an intentionally messy mop of hair dyed a pastel icy blue.

He’s eyecatching – and so visibly unarmed and unprotected… so very easily kidnapped. It’s no wonder his family wanted a professional mercenary to be his bodyguard on what Specter would call a joyride.

As expected, he is charmed by Kitty as well, breaking into a pleasant smile upon sight of the gold eyes and cat ears. “Ah, how nice! But I can handle this one… Kitty, you said?”

“That’s me!”

“Sweet. Please call me Brix.”  he extends a hand, and Kitty goes to shake it, but he lifts it to press a kiss to Kitty’s knuckles instead. “I’m looking forward to getting to know you on this trip.”

Kitty blushes, a tiny breathless giggle escaping his lips.

“No funny business on my ship, Bryton.” Specter calls, making sure he glares at the kid.

Well. The Bryton boys are only a few years younger than him, but they are pampered rich boys so they’ll always be kids to Specter.

“Mr. Specter, please, that’s my father’s name. No need to be so formal!” Brix says with a laugh, before he offers his arm to Kitty like they’re in some fancy ball. “Shall we?”

“O-Oh. Okay. Yeah, this way!” Kitty says, gingerly taking the guy’s arm and leading him towards the bunk area of the ship.

Specter braces himself for the trip ahead. Kitty has found a shiny new interesting friend. Said friend is flirty and attractive. He’s in for a ride.

.

For the first few hours after launch, Specter is able to distract himself with being the designated pilot.

After the initial launch, he’d sent his two companions away to stay in the ship’s lounge. He wonders what they’ve been up to, but he had other things to worry about.

Leaving the Aster sector presented one obstacle after another – tricky routes (expected with five moons), old space gates with possible stragglers (thankfully there were none this time) and new space gates with their complicated clearance and inspections (pays to be funded by a rich kid’s family).

It took him quite a while to finally find a good spot to take a break.

As soon as the ship is set to autopilot on a safe route, Specter unbuckles himself from the pilot’s seat and leaves the cockpit.

He hears the two before he sees them, Kitty’s voice first – “Ah! I’m really not good at this… How do you even get past that huge rock thing?”

He hears Brix’s light laughter next.“It just takes some getting used to, to get the timing right. Here, want me to get you past that part so you can go on?”

“Yes, please!”

As Specter expected, the two are very much occupied by some game on the sleek-looking definitely customized handheld console that Brix had brought with him.

What Specter did not expect, but really should have, is how cozy they’ve gotten. They’ve fully committed to treating the lounge as it is – a lounge. Brix is fully leaned back on the couch and Kitty is pressed right up to his side, head on his companion’s shoulder and he watches the other take over playing the game.

“Boss!” Kitty turns to him, sitting up straight but still much too close to their client. “Brix is showing me his game thing! He’s got so much in here… Do you know he’s coming all the way to another system for one of these?”

Specter starts making himself a drink. He has a feeling he needs it right now. “Yeah, it’s why his brother wanted him to have a bodyguard.”

Sometimes, Specter thinks, the job is to covertly guard and escort an important political figure whose survival will bring real positive change to entire sectors.

On other times, like now, the job is to make sure the spoiled prince of a capitalist mini-empire doesn’t die or get kidnapped for ransom while on some dumbass shopping spree for vintage and thrifted gaming technology a whole star system away from his dad’s kingdom.

“Yeah, Aeric’s pretty paranoid about me going anywhere besides Aster’s moons.” Brix chuckles, before setting his handheld down for a moment so he can throw one free arm around Kitty’s shoulders. “But this time I think I’m glad he got me a bodyguard. I got to meet our sweet kitten here.”

Kitty giggles, and his cheeks turn pink again. “I-… I’m happy I got to come along… Does your brother collect things too like you?”

“Nah, he’s more interested in our dad’s stuff. Boring business things. He’s great, though. Plus he knows a lot of really cool people. Like your boss man over there.”

“Oh…”

“Wait, you work at Sep’s bar, right? Great guy, that Sep, we go way back.”

“Really? He’s super nice.”

“I’m sure he is. He treats you all special?”

“Oh, we’re not like that. He says I’m his favorite employee though!”

It is not the first time that someone has flirted with Kitty, Spec knows. On his first months, he had been scared and uncomfortable everytime, but working at the bar and picking up some shifts at the diner had done wonders on getting him acclimated to other people, including the ones who approach him with this kind of intent. And it isn’t surface-level — it’s not like he only learned how to brush them off. It is actually that he now knows how to discern which advances were malicious, and which were simply playful or even sincere.

It’s not fool-proof, of course, but these days Specter has an easier time stepping back and letting Kitty handle other people by himself.

It doesn’t stop him from getting annoyed, though. The flirting may be playful, and Kitty may be enjoying the attention, but whether Specter likes the latest hopeful or not is another matter.

He gives a furtive glance towards the two. Brix’s hand is settled on the small of Kitty’s back, but Kitty looks like he doesn’t mind, and even looks comfortable with how close they are. It’s no different from how he leans into Sep’s personal space sometimes, happy to be cuddled.

Specter decides he can let this pass, for now, as long as Kitty is okay with it.

“We’re still a ways off from the next space gate, might be in for a debris field or two on the way.” he tells his companions. “You two should be prepared to buckle up when I give a signal.”

“Okay!” Kitty nods happily.

“Got it, boss.” Brix nods. To his credit, besides the flirting with Kitty, he’s been a pretty chill passenger.

Specter picks up his drink, grabs one of his old worn out books from the nearby shelf, and goes back to the cockpit.

.

The actual shopping trip goes smoothly. It’s a crowded marketplace on some underdeveloped planet, filled with all sorts of vintage, even ancient tech junk and oddities. Thankfully the people are just as colorfully-dressed, so none of their party of three stood out too much.

Brix goes on a shopping spree, Kitty glued to his side, just as amazed and curious at all the various junk and trinkets. Specter trails a few steps behind them.

Brix never haggles, which is troublesome to Specter because that attracts attention. But at least he had the sense to bring money chips for payment instead of flashing around a digital transfer of his family’s credits at every shop.

In one of their last stops, Brix picks up that one vintage copy of the game he’s been hunting – collecting – and tips the shady “curator” generously. The guy responsible splutters and says it’s too much, even for a rare item. Brix just shrugs, before zeroing in on another item on the stall.

“Can you throw that one in then, friend?”

“Oh- Yes, of course, sir! Hardly costs anything these days… This one’s a very old one, but it still works really well…”

Despite himself, Specter looks over in curiosity. It’s another vintage handheld gadget, probably close to a century old – but he knows from Sep and others that those things are built to last and for ones with the time and proclivity, quite fun to tinker with.

Collectors, Specter thinks again. At least the kid is into pretty harmless stuff. Specter’s seen people with the same amount of wealth and with much much worse “collections”.

“Awesome! Ah, and that one, on the wall? A freebie?”

“Uh… sure?”

The other item is a fluffy plush toy of some blob-looking creature thing.

“Great, that’s for my new friend here.”

Kitty blinks as he accepts the plush that the merchant hands over. “R-Really?” He looks flustered, and is obviously trying to temper his excitement. “I-… You don’t have to-”

“Please! A token, for being excellent company.” Brix grins, then he nods and thanks the merchant, and they go on their way.

“T-Thank you…” Kitty says, hugging the plush, hiding pink cheeks into the fluff. He turns to look towards Specter, as if to ask if it’s okay, and Specter just shrugs.

It’s a plush. Kitty obviously appreciates the gesture. He can’t be mad at it.

For all Specter could find annoying with their rich kid client, he has to give him some credit for being a gentleman. He didn’t let Kitty get crowded by the other people, always made sure they were still stuck safe together, and didn’t make Kitty feel abandoned whenever he had to talk to the merchants. And now he’s giving Kitty a gift. Even Specter has to approve.

In the end, Specter has only had to stop an attempt on his client’s life three times – two of those times before the brat can even notice that something was happening. Specter lost one of his good knives in one of the altercations. He brushes it off. The pay for this job will more than make up for that expense.

.

On the way back, Kitty finds Specter on the cockpit, alone, staring off into the vastness of space. They’re on a relatively safe spot of the galaxy, approaching a space gate that they can warp to close to home.

For once, Specter speaks up first, as soon as Kitty settles on the co-pilot’s chair beside his. “Hey. Got tired of all the nerd gamer talk?”

Kitty chuckles sheepishly, shaking his head. “No, I think it’s really interesting…”

He watches Kitty not bother to buckle in. Instead he sits with his side to the backrest and his knees pulled to his chest, so he can look straight towards Specter on the other chair.

“What is it? It’s boring in here right now, y’know.”

“Well. Um.” Kitty starts, and he looks away for a second, hesitating, before he says, “Brix kissed me…?”

“What?” Specter is out of his chair in an instant. “That little- I knew he was all nice and shit ’cause he wanted something-”

Kitty is quick to reach out, almost toppling over as he grabs on to Specter’s jacket. “No, wait, it’s not like that! I kissed him back!”

That stops Specter in his tracks. He looks back at Kitty, who doesn’t let go of him just yet. “You-… What?”

“It wasn’t-… He didn’t do anything I didn’t want him to…?”

Brows furrow, but Specter keeps his voice even. “Are you sure?”

Kitty nods. Slowly, he lets go of his hold on Specter’s jacket, and settles back on his chair. “Please… calm down?”

“Fine.” Specter says, slowly sitting back down, but keeping his eyes on Kitty, looking for… signs. Of anything rough, anything amiss… “Are you okay? What else did he do? You sure you’re good-”

“I’m okay. I asked to stop and he stopped.” Kitty says. His cat ears flick a bit, a nervous tic, as he looks down at where he’s fiddling with his hands.

“You asked to stop.” Specter repeats, still concerned, trying to understand.

Kitty nods. “Yeah. Because… you said no funny business on the ship.”

Ah. Specter did say that. He didn’t actually think it would apply. In hindsight, with all the flirting, he should have expected something like this after all.

Kitty continues, sounding very matter-of-fact. “And we’re still on a job, right? And we’re professionals. So… no kissing. He’s the client.”

Okay, that makes him kinda proud.

Specter blinks, then raises an eyebrow. “And he was fine with that?”

“Yeah, he said it’s cool. But he asked if… when we get back. Another day. If we can hang out.”

“And you’d like that?”

“Mm-hm.” Kitty’s ears flick again as he nods. “I like him.”

Specter considers his next words, and makes sure to sound calm and neutral when he next speaks. “Okay. I can’t tell you what to feel. I know he’s fun and all. But Kit, it’s been like, a day. I just want you to be sure.”

Kitty nods again, this time sounding more firm, but still a bit sheepish. “I am. It was a fun day. So I want to hang out more. M-Maybe kiss more…? Maybe.”

He looks and sounds certain, despite the awkwardness. Specter has no choice but to accept this new development. For now, all he can do is look out and be ready if things go wrong… or right.

He can still be annoyed, though. Just a bit. “So where’s that little shit now? Don’t tell me he’s sulking in his bunk-”

Kitty looks relieved as he laughs, a bit breathless. “No, no, he said he’s gonna go through his haul! Also he thinks you’ll kill him?”

Specter scoffs. “Why does everyone think that-”

“You scare people!” Kitty says, sounding amused. “Like a lot. Of people. I think most people…?”

“I don’t-…” He stops there. He is a mercenary-for-hire. He’s been an assassin – he is still sometimes an assassin. He’s been worse. Sure, he does mostly “light” jobs these days, but there’s a reason he’s known as ‘Specter’, with very few people who know to call him by any other name.

He simply rolls his eyes. “Yeah, maybe.”

Kitty laughs.

Specter watches him, and waits until his laughter has subsided a bit before asking, “Do I scare you too?”

“No.” Kitty blinks, and the little grin pulling at his lips tell Specter that he found the question funny. “Of course I’m not scared of you. I love you.”

Specter takes a breath.

Yeah. That’s… That’s something.

He leans back on the pilot’s chair, scoots over to one side to make a bit of space, and then extends his arm – his flesh one – out.

“C’mere.”

Kitty stops, this time the one to furrow his brows slightly. “But- I don’t wanna-… You’ll hurt-”

Specter shakes his head, shrugging a bit. “It’s an okay day.”

It’s the truth. The chronic pain that he’d learned to live with does come and go. It is there most days, but some are better than others, and he doesn’t take better days for granted.

Kitty leaves the co-pilot’s chair and climbs on Specter’s, letting the man pull him flush to his side.

Specter inhales as the pain flares up – but it really might be a good day today, as it goes just as quickly, and whatever feeling remains is dulled significantly.

“I can get off…” Kitty says mournfully. Of course he felt Specter stiffen for a moment, before settling back again, getting used to the sting.

“It’s fine.” Specter assures him. “We can stay like this for a bit.”

“Okay.” Kitty sighs and rests his head on Specter’s shoulder. “Kick me out when you start hurting.”

Specter just closes his eyes and ignores the dull pain in favor of taking in the rare feeling of a body against his.

“Never.”

.

A few days after the job, Kitty goes home and shows off what Specter recognizes must be the old device that Brix got for free from the shopping spree – only this one is now shiny and yellow, the same yellow of the ribbon that Kitty has tied to his hair and his tail.

“He said he fixed it up and re-painted it special just for me!” Kitty says, pointing at the hand-drawn graffiti on one side of the device. “And it’s old so the games aren’t super complicated ’cause I’m not very good at any of them.”

“That’s… nice of him.” Specter nods. It is a nice gesture, and the toy looks cool.

Kitty is practically bouncing as he continues – “We kissed a lot. On his car. But only for a bit ’cause he just snuck away from his guards. But it was good, he was really good.”

“Hm.” Specter nods again. Specter doesn’t need to know this. What he wants to hear next is that Brix just drove Kitty home and fucked off back to whatever mansion he came from-

“He said he wants to take me to his place next time and we can play there!”

Specter takes a second to reply. “Like. Play games, right?”

“Yeah. But also maybe have sex.”

“Kitty. Are you sure-”

Kitty sighs, and starts reciting, “I know, I knoooow, if I don’t like something and he doesn’t stop when I ask, I should kill him. But I can’t do that, so I’ll just knock him out, and I’ll call you, and you’ll kill him.”

Specter stares.

Well.

That all sounds reasonable, at least. “Alright.”

.

“You’ve got something on your neck.” Specter says, squinting. He has a good view of Kitty’s neck at the moment, as they sat close together, with Specter’s mech arm resting on the table between them as Kitty does routine maintenance on it. He’s gotten good at it, after Sep taught him to do some simple tune ups and repairs.

“Oh.” Kitty blinks, pausing shortly before he continues his tinkering. “That’s Brix.”

Specter frowns. “You can bruise?”

“It’s a feature.” Kitty shrugs, but then he gets a faraway look in his eyes, and his voice is hesitant when he continues, “My… My old master… used it a lot.”

Specter doesn’t miss the implications of that. But for the moment, he shifts his focus from who did this, to how Kitty feels about it. “And this one?”

Kitty lets out a soft, shy smile. “This one is okay. I like this one.”

Specter chooses to respect that. He knows what it’s like to reclaim things – experiences, feelings, even pain – after a long time of feeling like nothing is in your control.

“Alright.” he says. “As long as you’re being safe.”

“We’re being safe!” Kitty perks up, then pouts, thoughtful. “Actually super safe? Brix goes through a lot of trouble. He might be overdoing it. I can self-clean. It’s a feature!”

Specter nods. “Of course it is.”

.

A few weeks later, Specter arrives at the bar just as Kitty was leaving after his shift.

“I’m hanging out with Brix. He said his brother’s coming over, ’cause it’s their birthday!”

Specter grabs onto his coat before he could skip away. “No, you don’t, not yet.”

Kitty stops obediently, looking up at him, eyes wide in curiousity. “What is it? Do we have a job?”

“We don’t.” Specter squints. “Your friend’s place. You know your way around that area well?”

“Yeah, but Brix always drives me home, remember?”

“Right.” Specter takes a breath, noticing that Kitty’s put some sort of pink gloss on his lips, and that he has his usual ponytail in one long braid. He looks very cute. Specter kind of wants to punch a wall. “You know what to do if you feel unsafe or uncomfortable.”

“Mm-hm.” Kitty nods. “I’ll be fine. Brix is really nice, and I’d really like to meet his brother!”

Specter has met the older Bryton twin a couple of times. Aeric wore his blond hair natural, neatly slicked back, and he often came in a formal or expensively understated ensemble. Unlike his free-spirited brother, Aeric famously is always seen accompanying their father on their various ventures. The man is in many ways the opposite of his boyish, playful brother. The twins are so different that one would need to do a double take to even notice that their faces look exactly alike.

Yet somehow the two still had the same amount of charisma. Aeric had flirted with Specter off the bat, the first time they met – or at least he attempted to. Specter mostly just glowered at the advances, not that it actually intimidated the entitled asshole. Whenever Spec comes across him, he still says that Specter has a free invite to his “chambers”.

Who the hell even says “chambers”? What a fancy weirdo.

Despite that, Specter thinks that Kitty would want to meet Aeric Bryton. Specter hates this fact. But he has to get over it, mostly for his own sanity.

“Alright.” He finally lets go of Kitty’s jacket. “Have fun.”

“I will!” Kitty beams, begins to head off, pauses mid-step, and then looks at Specter again. “Is today an okay day?”

Specter shrugs. It’s not a very okay day, but he’s had worse days.

Kitty must take this as a yes, as he goes back towards him, tugs him down by his mechanical arm, and then kisses his cheek. “Thank you for worrying about me.”

Then he’s off.

Today is slightly more okay, Specter decides.

To his surprise, when he sits down on the bar to order a drink, he is instantly pulled aside by a fuming Sep.

“Okay. Okay, so.” Sep lets out a puff of breath, then paces back and forth for close to a minute before he says, “Don’t you worry about our little Kitty, bud. I called Aeric. Yeah. I did.”

Specter raises an eyebrow. “You called him why, exactly?”

“I told him that Kitty is my precious employee and if he and his loser nerd brother do anything creepy, anything that will hurt or make my sweet baby uncomfortable or upset, I will fuck their dad’s entire company up.”

Huh. That is not what Specter expected to hear today. “You can do that?”

“I can try. Will try.”

“Sure. And what did he say?”

Sep doesn’t look pleased. “Well, he laughed at me a bit. Then asked if I wanna come over. Y’know, join in-”

Specter narrows his eyes at his friend.

“-but I won’t! Because they’re scum.” Sep says, nodding to himself, as if approving of his own assessment. “Well, their father is. That company’s dirty money. Still, they’re nepo babies! Well, Aeric is, I guess. He’s the only one actually getting involved, Brix is pretty much just doing his own thing with his allowance-”

“You… hate them?” Specter asks, because it really isn’t that often that Sep dislikes people this much.

“No, I-… I guess I know them? We were in school together. Y’know, before I unsubscribed to my family.” Sep crosses his arms across his chest. “And sure, they’re great in bed-… Don’t give me that face. You’ve seen them, and I’m me, and it was college-”

Specter wants to scrub that entire concept from his brain.

“But, just-… They’re cool and charming but they’re still trust fund babies with no real principles ’cause they have a portion of dad’s money and will one day inherit all of it-”

Specter nods. Fucking rich people. But also, he works with those fucking rich people a lot, just by the nature of his job. In his experience, rich people in the Aster sector are mostly out of touch capitalists, which is not good but they’re on the tamer side compared to ones in the actual warzones he’s been in, years ago, in what now feels like another life.

“Right. Do you think Kitty is in danger?”

“Well.” Sep thinks about it. “They’re kinda kinky? When it’s both of them-”

Specter wants to leave. He can’t. So he just cuts the other man off as quick as he can. “Kitty knows how to set his boundaries. What about actual danger?”

“Uh. Well. I guess, no… They’re really chill with their… guests. They’ll probably drive him home with like a gift basket or some fancy ridiculous shit even.”

Specter thinks of Kitty’s growing collection of toys and trinkets in his room at home. He always kept random stuff that catch his eyes during jobs or when junk collecting, but nowadays he has gifts, things that are new, and some even expensive. Nothing too extravagant, though.

Specter nods. “So why are you freaking out?”

“I don’t know, I just… C’mon, it’s Kitty! And those freaky twins just… whisked away my little baby to do things to him…” Sep says, looking miserable. He looks like how Specter feels. Specter can’t ever let him know that.

“He is not yours, and he is not a little baby.” Specter says, definitively. “He can handle himself.” he adds, and before the man can argue, Specter continues. “And he usually calls when he’s in real danger.”

Like when he got kidnapped for real last week, Specter thinks. He remembers the call he got after some thug who was upset with him about some job grabbed Kitty on his way home-

(“Boss~ This one is not nice or hot. I don’t like it here. Please pick me up, thank you~”)

Sep looks at him, eyes narrowed, looking very confused. “You’re really not worried?”

“No.” Specter lies. Because he can’t say ‘The only reason I am not freaking out like you is because I am doing the most compartmentalization I have done in years.’

No, he will not say that out loud.

.

Kitty comes home the next day dragging a new plush toy that is literally bigger than him. Specter had to help him push it through the front door, and then through Kitty’s bedroom door.

It is too big, ridiculously soft and fluffy, and weird-looking. It immediately occupied a whole corner of Kitty’s room, but Kitty looks delighted and is already snuggling it so Specter really can’t say shit about the thing.

“Y’know, it was this or a puppy.” Kitty says, arms around the creature’s neck. “Aeric has a dog and he asked if I also wanted a pet. I said I don’t know if I want the responsibility. So he just gave me this!”

Specter could not imagine Aeric Bryton harmlessly offering any person a puppy dog. Maybe to bribe some official, or as some kind of passive-aggressive threat. Maybe there’s a bomb on the dog.

But what does he know? He wasn’t the one invited to the man’s birthday. And rich people are weird anyway. Giving out giant plushies and shit.

“He sounds nice.” Specter lies again.

“Mm-hm, but he’s also a little mean. He made me cry, I think.”

Specter knows Kitty can cry. It’s a feature. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t worry about it.

“He made you cry?” he asks, voice careful, ready to murder a man.

Kitty sighs against the giant plush, cheeks pink. “Yeah. It was great…”

Oh. That kind of cry.

“Well. Glad you had fun.” he says, watching Kitty cuddle the toy. He looks like he’s going to be dozing off any minute.

Specter probably should leave him to rest, but instead he finds himself offering, “I’m dropping off a ton of adopted animals to a shelter in 1B. Wanna tag along? Look over them while I pilot?”

Kitty shoots up, all energy back, toy instantly forgotten. He beams. “Yes! I’ll do it!”

.

---

(now)

“So what I’m getting here is that your roommate’s boyfriend is Brix Freakin’ Bryton, and his twin comes in the same package.”

Specter frowns at his companion – his current job partner – Lily. She’s now swiping at the console screen. Anyone else would think she’s just idly going through news and articles out of boredom. Specter knows she is actually reading those headlines and absorbing information. All while listening to him and absorbing that information too.

“Not his boyfriend. His words.” he answers, as he looks forward again. Someone has to keep lookout. “And that was months ago, anyway.”

Lily blinks at him. “Aw, what, they broke up?”

“You’d have to be together to break up.” he points out. “The twins travelled to another sector for a while, some family thing, I didn’t want to know details. Kitty wasn’t upset. I don’t think there was anything… serious.”

“Ah. Makes sense, I guess.” Lily nods, going back to her swiping. “So they were just playmates.”

That’s a… choice, Specter thinks, using the word. But maybe she’s right, in a way. Whenever Kitty mentioned going with Brix, it was always to “hang out” or “play”. And he did always say they do play games at Brix’s place, or the guy took him to old gaming centers and clubs.

He also can recall Kitty just recently mentioning Brix giving him a call just so the guy can help him get through a game level that Kitty got stuck in.

That’s a way to be friends, he supposes.

“Anyway, those twins…” Lily starts, thoughtful. “I haven’t really worked with them much, I only met the older a few times on some gigs, and the younger, I think, one time? But from what I know, well… they’re not totally good eggs, no one that rich is, but they’re not the worst of their lot.”

That’s what Specter knows too.

“Aeric is hot, though, not gonna lie. Probably evil, still hot.”

“Lily.”

“I have eyes!” she laughs, then reaches over to nudge him absently. “So do you. One of ’em ought to have a heat sensor.”

Specter doesn’t dignify that with a response.

“And. Look – can I say something? I promise I mean well.”

Specter glances at her. She has stopped swiping. She is now sitting with one leg propped up, arms folded over her knees, gaze forward.

“You’re gonna say it anyway.” Specter says, resigned.

Lily chuckles, then continues talking. “This kid. Kitty. You live with him. You look after him. You’re sweet with him. But you don’t touch him, you don’t kiss or-” She pauses for a breath, as if thinking if she should go on. Then she does. “Actually, no, it’s not even that, isn’t it? That can work. We made that work. But I know you, and you’ve probably not even told him how you feel, have you? No wonder he’s off having other boyfriends if he thinks you’re not interested in him that way.”

“What are you talking-”

“Ash…” she says, the name light and easy, unexpected, catching him off guard. “Please, the act won’t work on me-”

“That-… Don’t.” he warns.

“Don’t what? I’m only supposed to use your cool codename?” she laughs teasingly. “No can do, tough guy. You need someone to call you by your baby name every once in a while. Keep you human.”

He remembers how he was the one who first told her that. And of course Lily remembers.

“Lil.” he turns to her this time. “I don’t know where you’re getting-… It’s not like that.”

“I think you believe that.” she says, reaching out. Specter stays still as her fingers brush hair away from his eyes, her touch gentle and fleeting. Familiar.

He keeps quiet as his eyes lock on to hers and she smiles.

“Fine, what do I know? I haven’t seen you for a year.” she shrugs. “It’s just that, y’know, we were together so long. You loved me for so long. So I know what you look like when you’re down bad.”

He is quick to turn away again, pretending to go back to work. “I don’t look like anything.”

“See, that look.” she points out, going back to watching across the street as well. “And you know I care about you, so please take my advise. Clear things up with your friend Kitty instead of plotting the murders of every guy who catches his big pretty eyes.”

Specter couldn’t stop from twitching just slightly. How does she know he’s been plotting murders?

“Hah! So I’m right!”

“Shut up.”

“Which part, though? The murders or the big pretty eyes?”

Both, he doesn’t say.

That’s when he spots a figure, trudging on the sidewalk, and he recognizes the man from the intel that Lily had handed over earlier.

He unbuckles his seatbelt.

Finally.