The Kitty Thing

Specter had left the engine on to wait for Lily outside the busy travel station.

It’s several minutes in when he realizes she had left wearing his jacket, and his comms unit is in one of the pockets.

Thankfully, Lily doesn’t take too long. Before he could worry or get bored, she’s sliding back in the passnger seat, wearing her own jacket over more practical clothes. The skirt is still a bit too short, Specter thinks, but he knows it’s part of her territory. At least she’s wearing boots one can actually run in.

She dumps her getaway bag by her feet and hands him his jacket back.

“You got a message from your friend.” she says.

Ah. Specter tries not to get too defensive about it. It was because of his carelessness that he lost track of such a personal item in the first place.

He checks the message as Lily settles in.

Specter takes a few seconds to send a quick reply.

“He sounds very sweet. Too sweet for you, even.” Lily says absently, taking control of the GPS again, inputting their next coordinates. “So basically you now have a roommate?”

Specter considers that. So far for the past year since Kitty came into his life, Kitty had spent nights scared on the floor by his original case, then Specter was slowly able to convince him to take the couch, then he moved for a bit to a room at the orphanage, then back to Specter’s couch and finally to the spare room in Specter’s little apartment.

Nowadays, Kitty likes to tag along on jobs with Specter as much as Specter would allow him to. Kitty would often go with him on errands. Besides Specter, he has part-time jobs, his own money, his own schedule. Specter doesn’t ask him to pay the rent, but he doesn’t stop him from buying groceries and paying for parts and maintenance with his own money.

Specter looks absently at the new coordinates on the map in front of him.

“I guess. He is that.” he says in reply to his companion. “After I finally got him to stop calling me ‘master’ – convince him I’m not ‘master’. It took like half a year.”

“Well. Sounds like he’s doing much better now. And you said he has a job?”

“Sep gives him work at the bar. Rina gets him to take a shift at the diner sometimes. He’s good with people so he takes messages and greets customers, stuff like that.”

Lily hums, nodding. “That’s great. Rina’s solid. Sep’s a good one to have looking out for you.”

“Yeah…” Specter says. “He’s… good.”

He doesn’t know if he’s simply too focused on starting to drive, or if he had just let his guard down around Lily, but it’s too late when he realizes that he failed to sound sure and detached for a second.

And Lily wouldn’t be Lily if she didn’t zero in on that slight twinge of hesitation like a predator on a hunt.

“Okay. What is it?” she asks.

Specter frowns. “What is what?”

“You were weird.”

“I… was not.”

“Babe, you can’t fool me. I heard it. There’s a thing.”

Specter almost contemplates if he should call her ‘baby’ back, just to distract her. He’s never been a pet name person so it always softened her up when he did it…

He decides that that’s too early a card to play – it’s only been an hour. He’ll be stuck with her for at least another day.

Specter sighs. “Lil, I need you to be less nosy.”

“But it’s so interesting!” she insists, a pair of big green eyes and an adorable pout in his peripheral vision. “And being nosy is literally what I do for a living… There’s a thing, I know it.”

“What thing?”

“Not sure, but it’s a Kitty thing. You’ve got a Kitty thing.”

Specter narrows his eyes at her – thankfully the hovercar is mostly on auto mode. “This is very unprofessional.”

“Can you blame me? You gave off such a weird vibe-”

“What weird vibe-”

“You were like, worried and annoyed.”

Damn, she is too precise with that.

Specter was worried. Specter was slightly annoyed.

Not at Lily. No-

“Who were you thinking of? Kitty? Oh- Sep?”

Specter fights a frown. It is a battle he loses very quickly-

Lily gasps. “Ah! Your eye twitched! Okay, what’s the deal with Sep? I haven’t seen the guy in ages, tell me something new.”

“It’s just…” he shakes his heads. “He’s fine. I don’t know what you want me to say. He’s… Sep.”

“Yeah, okay. So what made it weird, then?”

“Well. He’s got… friends.”

“Uh-huh.” Lily nods slowly. “Really, too many friends, in my opinion-”

“The other kind of friends-”

“Oh.” she blinks – “Eh, I stand by it, too many friends-” and she blinks again. “Wait- him and Kitty?”

Specter blurts out an answer before he could think. “No.”

“Oh, babe.” Lily sounds delighted. “You answered so fast…”

Fuck, Specter thinks.

It’s been an hour, and she’s already got him.

(eight months ago)

“Master-… Um. Spec?”

Specter is busy reading the job description that one of his usual clients sent him. It takes him a second to look up and turn towards Kitty across the bar top.

“Hm?”

“I have a question…” Kitty says, leaning forward a little, sounding shy and tentative.

Kitty looks out of place in Sep’s bar. He is simply too wide-eyed, too soft a presence among the Flux’s usual crowd of hunters, hackers and sex workers. The only thing that gives him a semblance of cohesion to the place is the uniform apron he wears while he wipes down plates and glasses.

Specter makes sure to put his comms unit down to let Kitty know he has his full attention. It’s a tip from one of the ladies from the orphanage, from when he asked for advice on how to get Kitty used to calling him by his name instead of “master” and “sir”. He knows it’s usually an approach for restless children, but in this case it works to let Kitty know that he and Specter are in equal ground, and it’s okay to ask for Specter’s time.

“What is it?” he asks, keeping his voice even.

“About Mister Sep…”

Nobody really calls Sep ‘Mister’, Specter thinks – at least not since the man left his crazy rich family, denounced his crazy long name and rejected his crazy large inheritance. Specter doesn’t mention this to Kitty, not yet.

‘Baby steps.’ he hears in his head the voices of both the orphanage ladies and Sep himself.

Kitty purses his lips first before he speaks. “Those people who come to visit here sometimes and stay over… Mister Sep told me they’re his friends…”

Specter nods. Sep has many friends. Really, he just calls everyone who comes to the Flux his friend. Specter knows Sep calls him a friend too, though he wagers Kitty’s question is about a different kind of friend-

“They’re having sex, right?”

Specter considers himself lucky that he isn’t drinking or eating, because he is sure he would have choked.

Kitty looks like he has thought long and hard about this. “I think they are. They kiss Mister Sep before they leave…”

Specter thinks of how to… phrase an answer. This is a new thing too. Since Kitty started hanging around him, he’d had to think twice about how he said certain things.

And it’s not because he thinks Kitty is a child. It’s simply that, from the little he had gathered about Kitty’s life before, with his original owner, it sounds like he was kept as a very “confined” existence, so his experiences are very limited.

“It’s just- There’s a lot of them who come and go, and I’ve never seen that before, unless it’s a paid service…” Kitty pouts slightly, fighting through obvious confusion. “But I don’t think it is, because they’re friends, right? And… it always seems like they had a nice time…”

“I suppose Sep is close to his friends.” Specter starts with that. He’s not in the business of talking about other people’s business – but Sep is quite public about his activities and the company he keeps. It’s part of why his place is one of the few known safe spaces in the lower districts of Aster-1A.

“I think you should ask Sep yourself.” he continues. “He’s pretty open about his whole thing of… sleeping with his friends.”

Kitty blinks at him. “He is?”

“Yeah. I bet you he won’t think it’s a big deal and tell you what you wanna know.” Specter watches Kitty’s lips perk up into a smile at the idea. “You’re… interested in that kind of thing?”

And though he knows that Kitty can be shy or naive, Specter always has to remind himself that Kitty has experience.

Specter learned this – not in a fun way – during their early days, when Kitty’s first instinct was always to offer himself, his “services”, whenever he was afraid of even slightly inconveniencing or upsetting Specter. Even in times that Specter had been perfectly calm or neutral, Kitty tended to volunteer, desperate to “please” him, to keep him “happy”. Apparently this was Kitty’s primary “purpose” to his master, before.

And if Specter learned anything about those experiences from months of telling Kitty that he really doesn’t expect those things from him at all… it’s that all those prior experiences had never been pleasant ones for Kitty.

“It’s just… different.” Kitty tells him now, as he looks down at the wine glass he’s been drying. “I know sex is supposed to be enjoyable for people. So it makes sense Mister Sep and his friends like it. I think I just haven’t felt that way about it before.”

Specter nods, understanding. It’s easy to see where Kitty is coming from, here.

But then he gets a call from his client, and he has to go. Kitty isn’t really ready to go with him on jobs yet, so he has to leave him in Sep’s care.

He reaches over with his mech arm to pat Kitty’s head. This is a boundary they’d recently established. His mech arm is the only part of him that isn’t inflicted with the chronic pain, and it’s also the only part of him that Kitty can freely touch and hold on to. Spec had made it clear in the early days that he wasn’t kidding about the pain, so Kitty knows to be careful.

“I gotta go. You ask Sep your questions and if he’s weird about it, you tell me.” 

He’s pretty sure Sep will be a good sport about it. Sep is very good at explaining things. Much better than Specter is. 

Kitty laughs, awkward but earnest. “Okay. Take care, m- Spec.”

.

Specter comes home and finds Kitty pouring over what looked like a vintage fashion magazine. Paper goods and literature are a rarity in this era, so books and magazines are things that one could only find in old lower district junk shops. Spec has a meager collection he’d kept from back in his childhood home. Kitty probably got this one from the orphanage’s humble thrift pile.

He is interrupted from his musings on where Kitty found the magazine when Kitty looks up at him and begins rambling –

“I asked Mister Sep about the sex thing and he said he goes to bed with his friends because if it’s consensual and it’s with people you trust and care about, it’s just another way of bonding and having fun.”

That… is actually a good explanation, as Specter expected. Of course Sep can answer questions about his lifestyle himself-

“I also asked why he doesn’t have just one partner, and he says he’s just not interested in anyone like that and he’s content with temporary engagements.”

Specter nods, watching Kitty go back to trying to braid his own hair, following instructions from the old and faded magazine.

“Then I asked if he would have sex with me-“

Wait. Hold up.

“-and he said he does think I am very attractive and he’s sure we would have a good time, but he has to draw a line for right now because he’s the person doing my maintenance and also he is technically my employer.”

Oh.

“And he also said he doesn’t want you to kill him. Will you kill him? Why?”

Kitty looks curiously up at him, half of his long green hair tied up in a messy bun, the other half in a… quite impressively elaborate braid.

Specter looks back. “I… won’t kill him.”

Well, he thinks, he won’t kill Sep now, because the guy did do the right thing and turned Kitty down properly. Not that he wanted Kitty to be rejected… He just doesn’t think that Kitty-… No. No, Specter can’t think like that. Kitty isn’t his. He doesn’t own Kitty, and he can’t tell Kitty what to do, who to like- And Specter sure as hell don’t want people thinking he owns Kitty, that they owe it to him to get permission to do anything with Kitty-

“He’s kidding, Kit. I’m sure he was just kidding.” he says, sitting down, taking a deep breath. Kitty must think he’s simply tired from the job. But no, Specter really just feels like he has to sit down for this. “But… you asked, to… have sex?”

“I was curious.” Kitty shrugs, now focused on doing the other half of his hair. “I’ve just never seen so many people enjoy it, so easy, like that. And Mister Sep is very kind to me, so I thought he might show me what that’s like. I understand why he said no, though.”

.

A few days later, Specter brings a clunky broken cleaning bot to the Flux’s basement, that Sep all too happily offers to fix up.

“Hey, so. I think Kitty might have mentioned it…” Sep says as he takes out his tools. He sounds casual, but Specter has known him long enough that he can tell it is taking him some effort to bring this up. “He had some… questions for me, the other day.”

“Yeah.” Specter says, taking up his usual post leaning against a nearby wall, out of the working mechanic’s way. “Why did you think I would kill you?”

Sep looks at him in disbelief, flailing his hands helplessly. “I don’t know, man! That was the first thing I thought! Well, Kitty just sounded curious about my… lifestyle… at first, so I answered, like it’s not something I hide, y’know, and then he asked if we could- If I wanted to- and I just thought, nah, Spec’s gonna end my life.”

“You’re not making sense.”

“Dude.” Sep chuckles, this time shaking his head like he doesn’t believe Spec’s bullshit.

Maybe he’s right not to, because Spec narrows his eyes at him.

“Look, I dunno what you two got going on – at least, on your side of things… I’m not sure if this is a sorta father-child thing, or a sibling thing, or some platonic roommates thing…” Sep rambles on as he starts plugging several cables into the bot. “And it’s not my business, really, I just know you’re really protective and I was there at the bar when you almost killed that dude who hit on Kitty that one time, so. Can you blame me?”

“Whatever.” Specter looks away, feeling like he’d been caught at something, somehow. “Is that all it is? Then all those other stuff you said to turn him down… You were just saying that?”

“Hm? Oh-… Hey, now, I meant all those too.” Sep says, honest, as he flips levers and presses buttons on his usual station.

The bot hums to life, or tries to, and Sep reaches over to pat it forcefully a couple of times, before sighing and picking up some tools to take the thing apart instead.

“I think the kid’s really cute, but he comes to me once a month for maintenance and tune-ups so I have like, his charts and diagnostics – if I was a doctor, he’s the closest thing I have to a regular patient. And, he works at my bar! I was being so proper, man. The most proper.”

Specter accepts that answer, and says nothing to it. He just picks up his pack and starts heading to the door. “Just keep me posted on that thing.”

Sep is already too busy with his work to look back at him. “Sure, sure. I can get this old junk to Kitty if I finish up before closing. You’re using it for your place?”

“Yeah, Kitty’s started to take cleaning the apartment pretty seriously. Says he doesn’t pay rent so he can do that, at least.” Spec shakes his head in resignation.

“Awww, and you want to give him an assistant…” Sep coos.

“Quit it.” Specter snaps. Dammit, he shouldn’t have said anything. “And-… About-… Kitty’s not mine. If he wants to… try things. You don’t need my permission. Neither of you do.”

Sep hums in answer, and simply asks, “You sure?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

A chuckle. Specter refuses to look back as he hears a very patronizing “Okay, man.”

.

Specter comes home on another day to the new (old) cleaning bot, noisy as hell but doing its job sweeping across the floor. Kitty is sorting laundry.

“Master!”

“Not master.” Spec replies instinctively, louder than his usual because as he’s learned over the past few days, he has to raise his voice if he wants to be heard over the deafening sounds of the bot Kitty now calls “Rusty”.

“Spec!” Kitty says, abandoning his chore and bounding towards Specter.

Even after all this time, he almost forgets, and barely stops from launching himself at Specter at the last second.

Kitty has been very physically affectionate with Sep, with his friend Rina from their go-to diner, and with the caretakers and kids at the orphanage. He’s had to consciously remember it can’t be the same with Specter.

“What’s up?” Specter asks as he puts his pack aside and starts taking his jacket off.

“Today I had my first good kiss!”

Specter starts to plan a murder- No. No, wait. He said it’s not like that. He had decided he won’t be that guy. Kitty is his own person and Kitty is free to-

“You did?” Specter asks, trying to sound as neutral as possible.

Kitty smiled sheepishly. “Um, it’s Mister Sep…”

Specter inhales. Sep. Really? After all that shit he said- The bastard, Specter will kill him-

“I wasn’t feeling so nice after a customer was like, being creepy… Mister Sep had them kicked him out- And ’cause I was kinda out of it, he said we should go out and he took me to eat dinner. Well, I don’t eat, but we did go out. To take a break.”

So he bought Kitty dinner first, that’s nice – Specter will still bomb his fucking bar, as a warning-

“He was really nice, he asked over and over how I’m feeling. So I told him, I just didn’t like that the customer got so close, I thought he was gonna kiss me, and like, I don’t want to be kissed by someone I’m scared of anymore, y’know? You said I don’t have to put up with people like that…”

“No.” Specter says, calming down now that he’s seeing that Kitty isn’t all his happy, innocent, excited self, recalling those specific events. “You don’t.”

“I said I want to be kissed in like, a nice way. ‘Cause I’ve never experienced that before.”

Ah.

Before he could think about it, Specter reaches out with his mech arm, and draws stray strands of his roommate’s hair away from his face and over his shoulders.

“And then…?” he prompts, gentle as he can.

“Mister Sep said if I want to, he’ll kiss me – but just the one time! Just so I know how it feels when it’s with someone who cares about me.”

“Okay.” Specter nods. “So… how did it go?”

“It was really nice…” Kitty says, biting his lip, looking away as a blush colors his cheeks. He can blush, he’d told Specter before – it’s a feature. “Mister Sep was very gentle.”

“Then… that’s good.” Specters says, running his metal fingers through the other’s hair before withdrawing. He tilts his head slightly as he asks, “You gonna be one of his friends that he kisses now?”

Kitty gasps and his cheeks color brighter as he pouts. “Master!”

Specter raises an eyebrow. “Not master.”

“Spec!” Kitty corrects, then whirls around and walks briskly back towards his bundle of laundry. “It was one time! We agreed!”

“You did, huh.” he holds back a grin.

“Yeah!” Kitty lets out a haughty huff. “Anyways, I-… Um. I don’t think I actually like him that way… I guess I know now. And I told him and he said that makes sense too… and he said we can do cheek kisses instead. As friends.”

Huh. Specter thinks. That’s… fair. He can live with that.