"What...?! Really?!" Kitty jumped and fell back because of the safety belt. She bumped into the seat but it didn't affect her excitement.
"This might just be the first time I ever witnessed a safety belt taking effect." Erebus mocked her, laughing.
"I... I mean, you don't have to do that. Not turning me in to the orphanage is good enough! I can work!" Kitty was too happy for her just "regained" freedom to notice his mocking.
"How old are you?" Erebus rose a brow as he giving her a "checking you out suspiciously" way.
"17!" Kitty pouted for his doubting tone on her ability to work.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I do trust that you CAN take care of yourself." Erebus laughed and held up his hand in a surrendering way, "Would you like to work at my bar? I could use a bartender."
"Really? That would be great!" Kitty exclaimed, happy that at least this way, she gets to see him often, until her crush on him was over, if ever.
"But I don't know how to make those fancy drinks though..." She hesitated, thinking it's best to admit that now than later.
"I'll teach you." Erebus assured her with a rob on her head. He was still immersed in the happy fact that he didn't have to wait too long before he can make a move on her.
"Hmm?" Erebus turned to look at her because of her sudden silence, and caught her staring at him with a flush on her face, enchanted.
Kitty shrank back to her seat when she realized him noticing her being distracted: "Nothing! Just happy that I got a job! What about your Patronus? Do they work there too?"
"Hephaistos, Metis and Menoetius do. Others have their own thing. We cannot be together all the time, it attracts attention." Erebus explained with patience.
"So what do you really do?" Kitty thought for a second and asked.
The scene outside was no longer interesting to her, even though she hadn't been spending too much time travelling before.
"Well, we have assignments from the King himself, AND we sometimes take commissions from outside people. We appear to them as an organization for some hard jobs that takes specific skill-sets."
"Like a bounty hunter?" Kitty tilted her head and asked after she thought for a while, trying to digest what Erebus just described.
"Exactly like that." Erebus nodded, laughing.
"Hmmm... is every one of your organization a werewolf?" Kitty hesitated for a while before she finally asked this question.
Erebus didn't reply right away.
He looked at her for a while as if in deep thoughts, and then held his arm out flat in front of her, hinting her to grab his arm.
Kitty held onto his arm and got pulled up when he suddenly rose his arm a bit, and then she heard him saying: "You will need to pick up some pounds if that's where you want to be."
She burst into laughter and fell back to her seat, staring out of the window with a relaxed smile.
Seeing her much happier than before, Erebus smiled and thought to himself:
"As if I would let you go even if you didn't want to be a part of my life, my little kitten."
They arrived in the city after a few hours.
Erebus timed their arrival around 4 in the afternoon because it was the coziest and prettiest hour of the autumn here in the city, hoping it might help calming Kitty against the impact of moving into a new place.
Kitty fell asleep already, and was rubbing her eyes when she felt a gentle stopping of the car. Though comfortable in there with him, the strange scene around her still woke her up pretty fast.
"It's okay." Erebus opened her side of the car from outside and held out his hand to her, "It can be a bit noisy around the rush hour, but right now it should be fine. I thought you might want to check out your room first."
"I get a room?!" Kitty jumped out of her seat at these words, and Erebus quickly put his hand between her head and the roof of the car to avoid the bump.
"Ouch!" Of course she bumped her head, but it wasn't too bad with his hand as a buffer. After realizing why the bump wasn’t too bad Kitty yelled: "I'm sorry!"
Kitty frowned at herself thinking it must have hurt for him. She took Erebus's hand in hers without thinking and robbed it as how her mom did when she got hurt somewhere.
Never had before was Erebus taken care of so gently. It took him quite some effort to not take her right into his arms and take a sweet kiss from her at that moment. But he resisted the urge, only because he didn't want to scare her. After all, they had only met for one day, and she had no idea of his feelings towards her, yet.
They say love can be a poison, and how right they are.
Erebus was so drunk with the joy from his new found kitten that he didn't even notice his crew walking up to them from behind, and were now froze in amazement seeing Kitty taking his hand in hers, rubbing against her soft face.
"Hmmm... We'll just-- Ouch!" Menoetius opened his mouth, holding back a laugh with all his power, and Metis hit on his head hard, preventing him from making Kitty aware of her action being too intimate.
"I'll go pick up some groceries for dinner with Menoetius. Hephaistos is taking the night shift so he went home for a nap." Metis told Erebus before she dragged Menoetius towards the car they just got out of.
"But I-- " Metis covered Menoetius's mouth and made him swallowed his complaint that he also wanted a nap.
It was a six-floor building, and the first and second floors were separated from the rest as the bar.
"This one is right above the kitchen, on the corner of the second floor. It would be less noisy in the middle of the night. Well, comparing." Erebus took Kitty to a room on the left end of the second floor.
It was a small bedroom with its own bathroom, which was something Kitty had not been having for the past 3 years in her life.
Being on the corner of the floor, it had one extra window than the rooms in the middle of the hall. Its North and West sides both had windows, with the one on the North being larger.
"I'll help arranging your room if you want, and later we can go get you everything you need. As for now, I'll give you some time to settle down." Erebus stood by the door. He didn't go in there, afraid that that might make her feel intruded. Kitty stood in the middle of the room, still trying to take in the fact that this would be where she will be living for the next some period of time.
"I'm really grateful." Kitty turned to look at him, appreciating his respecting her by not stepping inside.
"It's no big deal. I hope you can enjoy your staying here." Erebus had a really sunny smile that Kitty just couldn't help but to get lost in.
"Okay!" She replied, looking away quickly before she stares at him again, feeling awkward because she knew she must have looked stupid, "So when do I start working?"
"You can start tonight if you want, but I would recommend a good night rest first." Erebus chuckled at her eagerness, but Kitty had been wanting to make a living long enough that she couldn't wait anymore.
This would be her first "job" job. She had been trying to make ends meet with anyway she could, but being a minor, searching garbage for food and stuff that could exchange for food had been her major income for a long time if she didn't want to be taken advantage of.
"It's okay! I'm not that tired after the nap in the car." Kitty quickly rejected his offer.
"Okay, okay." Erebus surrendered, laughing. He didn't insist because he didn't want to be separated from her even a little bit.
The first few days right after marking is the hardest because the urge for to be together and intimate and to hug and to kiss and to touch each other would be so strong that every SECOND separated feels like torture, especially when the other is not aware of the marking.
"I'll come back in an hour and we can go get some stuff you might need. And THEN, you can go work." Erebus throw her a key and shut the door for her.
Kitty nodded hard because she wanted to say thank you, but any words she could think of felt so light comparing to what Erebus just gave her.
A home!
A place that belongs only to her! A roof over her head and a life where she no longer needs to worry about food and money and her place to sleep being taken away!
A life that she had lost for so long that she couldn't ever remember its taste. If only they could be here too...
The three names slid through her heart: Sarah, Tony, Emma.
Living on the street for three whole years made her grew up fast. She turned into an adult over night before she could have said goodbye to the 13-year-old kid that was still in her sorrow-free childhood when she lost her parents.
She knew from Erebus's silence when she told him her siblings went missing that the chance of her getting them back was very close to zero. She couldn't bear to ask further, afraid the too heavy stillness that might come with the answer would crash her again.
She sit down on the floor by the bed and hugged her knees, suddenly felt guilty that she was enjoying all these nice things while they might have lost their lives.
But life has to go on. Life WILL go on, no matter you are ready or not.
Kitty knew that lesson too well. She had to learn how to stand up after being knocked into the ground when she lost her parents, and she WILL stand up again this time.
There was fire rising in her eyes, except this time it was not just the will to live, it was also, revenge.
Erebus stood in front of Kitty's room and listened for a few seconds before he knocked on the door lightly, worried that he might scare her. The door flung open the next second, which took Erebus by surprise instead."Hi!" Kitty gave him a big smile, putting the key in her Jeans' pocket, "I'm ready!""Ohh!" Erebus blinked a few times to wake up from being stunned by her bright smile. He was a second away from grabbing her and biting on those delicious lips when--"We are back! Steaks night!" Menoetius's shouts suddenly rose from behind him, which scared both of the people staring at each other by Kitty's door."What's...going...on...?" Menoetius's question broke up as hesitation took over his tongue when he realized something was wrong with Kitty and Erebus.Metis rubbed her forehead with two fingers, feeling defeated by the stupidity Menoetius was so happily showing."..." Erebus turned to look at Menoetius with a resigned look on his face. He should be grateful that Menoetius saved h
"What? Was that a secret?!" Kitty asked nervously, thinking Metis looked mad because Erebus told her something she should not know."Kind of. Actually, our very existence needs to remain a secret to human." Erebus continued smoothly with her misunderstanding."I'm sorry... I won't tell anyone!" Kitty stood her hand up as if taking an oath."Haha, I told you BECAUSE I trust you. Don't worry about it." Erebus chuckled at her "oath" and pulled the chair out for her, "Yo
"Morning, sunshine!" Erebus put the cup in his hand down on the table and stood up to greet Kitty when she appeared at the staircase, "How did you sleep?""It was great! I don't remember when was the last time I ever slept so well actually!" Kitty finished the last pair of stairs in a jump."I don't suppose you remember much about last night either?" Erebus laughed."Well, yeahhh..." Kitty made a face, "What happened to the last shot?" She assumed Erebus drank it, but she couldn't remember much after she finished the fourth one."Well, you scared him away, the way you finished his friend." Erebus teased her, smiling."You said it would still be here today!" Kitty protested, feeling as if something was unfinished."We will, we will. You will have your second lesson soon enough. As for now, what do you want to have as breakfast? I'll get you a coffee first." Erebus walked towards the kitchen with Kitty before he made a sudden stop: "Oops...""What?" Kitty looked up at his hesitation."We
"Get some rest, bookworm?" The pure silent world rose a deep voice, a little bit rough.Kitty was so into the book that it took a second to realize she was not on the run with Jean Valjean. She would have remembered she was trying to distance herself from Erebus, the too attractive man that was her poison if it wasn't the tray in front her--"Wow! It smells greattt!" Kitty threw herself to the table, leaving the cozy corner she was curling in.In front of her was a plate of grilled shrimp on fired rice, with several small plates on the side filled with smashed potato, smoked salmon, nuggets, salad, sausage, a poached egg, and a HUGE plate of fruit cuts, AND of course, Erebus's face with a expectant smile on his face, like a dog play up to the new pet kitten in house."Hmmm... I don't think I can finish... ANY of them..." Being a stray cat, Kitty usually doesn't really say no to free food, but even to her this was too much."It's for both of us, you can pick what you like and I'll have
They stayed at the meadow around nine until when Erebus Absolutely had to go to catch his flight.What Erebus didn't see coming, was that after a day spent with Kitty, it was even harder for him to leave her for his mission, instead of the other way around."I'll be back before you know," Erebus said to her when he brought her back to the bar, but he knew he was the one who need these words more than her, "Take a couple days off before I come back. We will finish your lesson when I come home."Kitty flinched a little when she heard the word home. It was a great place that gave her the feeling of safety, a thing that few places had been able to offer her in a long time. But she dared not think she should be so lucky, to share with him his "home". She would rather think herself as a tenant here who owns him big, than the kid she could not afford to be and risk losing another home, again."I will." She just simply answered that request, "Let me know how it goes okay? I want to know."She
Only for one day and she was already used to his accompany!Waking up in her new bed, Kitty realized she had no plan for her day. What did she do yesterday? Well, in short, Erebus.With her first thought after she woke up in her new bed being about Erebus, Kitty got agitated at herself and jumped out of bed.She had to get her life back! Erebus was too far away a dream for her and she cannot risk losing herself in this doomed crush.
Kitty never thought her life would take such a huge turn and crashed into the magical world just like this...She was an orphan wondering on the street not long ago, and now she was here, inside the grotesque store, and being told that she had a witch mom. How could she never know this before?! Could she really be a secret witch that she didn’t even know? But there was never any sign or unexplainable things happened to her before."..." After trying all Kitty could imagine as "summon" but to sing some ancient spells that she had no idea how to say, Kitty gave up summoning her "stone", or well, what the old lady called it, "Phosis"."Maybe it escaped instead..." Kitty looked up at her with a defeated face."Hahaha..." The old lady laughed, "No wonder, no wonder... Of course you cannot summon it. You have never used magic before, right?""No... I didn't even know my mom could, before today." Kitty sit on the chair opposed to the old lady, with tea in a kinda dirty cup held in her hands.
"What... what do you mean?" Kitty backed a step at Themis's sudden accusation."You said you are an orphan, right? What happened to your parents?!" Themis ignored the others' accusation and kept on going."They died in a car accident, not that I own you any explanation." Kitty found her cool that she collects from living on the street. Actually, she was more used to attitude like this from other people than that of Erebus to be honest."You are lying! I have looked into you, and your parents JUST died last month! Of course, not by car accident either!" Themis held up a paper of some sort of records."So you mean I have lived on the street for fun for the last three years?" Kitty asked, feeling her blood getting cold. Not only was she accusing her of being a lair, but of her lying about her parents' death? How dare she?!The shred of warm and home-like of this place evaporated into the air."They are killed, IN their home. The police think it might be a robbery went wrong, but..." Themi