044 His Scar

"Hmm?" Erebus took the plate and returned to her side, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Where do you want to eat?" Kitty quickly wiped the confusion on her face and asked.

"Somewhere near the sea, hopefully. How about the rock over there?" Erebus looked around and hinted Kitty with his head.

"Cool." Kitty skipped a few steps to catch up with him.

"Hey..." Kitty called but soon changed her mind.

"You can tell me." Erebus turned at her call and saw the hesitation on her face, "Or I guess, you can ask away. It's okay."

"Sometimes I really feel like you can read minds." Kitty frowned at him.

"Haha," Erebus laughed, "What rose your curiosity, my little kitten?"

"Hmm, I was just curious, where's your parents?" Kitty forwarded her question with caution. The questions sounded really weird even in her head. Being someone who lost her parents, any question concerning this topic makes Kitty nervous.

"Ohh, haha. It's okay to ask." Erebus answered as he put the plate down on the rock, "I severed my relationship with them when I decided to investigate the treason of our old queen publicly, so they won't be involved if I stepped on the wrong cat's tail."

"I see." Kitty exclaimed, "That must be hard..."

"Well, they are safe and sound. That's enough for me." Erebus shrugged.

"And you are telling me this..." Kitty murmured.

"Well, so that you can protect yourself against the bigger bad wolf, now that you have something on me." Erebus grinned and held out a hand to her.

The warmth flowing over Kitty shock her speechless. She was never cared for with such delicate attention, no one other than her parents. And it was totally different to be trusted and held close to by another soul as she gets to know it.

He cared for her while giving her enough freedom to be herself, but what was the best, was that he respected her.

Kitty took his hand and Erebus led her to sit on his legs after he sat on the rock.

"It's wet." He simply explained.

"I'm not a doll." Kitty mumbled, looking away from him with flushed face.

"No, you are a cute kitten. According to my understandings, kittens take people's worship for granted, no?" Erebus laughed and teased her.

"Hmph! Why not?!" Kitty put her arm around his neck to sit more comfortably.

She handed a fries to Erebus's mouth along with her declaration of independence: "You should also be aware that we don't get to be owned, not by anyone."

"Of course not." Erebus opened his mouth and ate the fries as he laughed.

They spend hours sitting there by the sea, talking and laughing. Kitty felt much comfortable asking about Erebus after the awkward question about his parents.

She found that he had a unique way of not making other's awkward or feeling guilty when he was hurt or offended. Everything, painful or not, seemed as if just other's story except he was the one living through.

"What?" Erebus stopped in the middle of a story about how he took a fall for Perses when they were still kids because Kitty suddenly hugged him tight.

"Why would you do that for him?" Kitty looked up into his eyes with a wronged face.

"Well, he was my friend. Besides, I went along with his stupid plan, it was not like I was all that innocent." Erebus was a bit surprised realizing Kitty was feeling wronged for him.

"But he just left you to take the fall..." Kitty pouted.

"His parents were much stricter on him, more than mine, so." Erebus patted her on the head, comforting her.

"I'm not the one who needs comforting!" Kitty protested, "What did your parents do?"

"Ohh, my father was MADDDD. He gave me this." Erebus laughed and rolled up his sleeve to show her his right wrist. There was a burnt scar in the shape of a crescent.

"Oh my God! He did this to his own son?!" Kitty gasped, "I, I thought werewolves can heal themselves when they are hurt."

"Yes we do, but there's a limit to that too. When injured too deep, or too long, it won't heal. Like this one, he put the iron on me ten times." Erebus gently took his arm out of Kitty's hand. He could see it was bothering her.

"And you were only seven back then! I'm so sorry..." Kitty said with tears filling up her eyes.

"It's okay, it's not like it hurts anymore." Erebus shook his head and patted Kitty again: "Silly."

Kitty held his hand in hers and hugged him tight before she sat up and patted him on the head instead: "You poor thing. I don't want anyone to hurt you anymore."

"Haha, and you are taking on the whole world now? You really are a brave one, aren't you?" Erebus was amused by Kitty's "wish".

Is it the bud of love that she was feeling? Both of them wondered in their minds.

"Yes. I'm taking on the world if it wrongs you." Kitty said with a firm tone. There was fire in her eyes. But before Erebus could confirm it, her ears suddenly turned red as if she just realized what she said.

Kitty jumped off Erebus to hide the fact that her face was now all red, and he just let out a slight laugh as he followed her to the shore.

"It calms me, to hear the sea roaring." Erebus said.

"Me, too. We used to live near the sea, too. Me and my parents." Kitty nodded and smiled at him, "And I'd run to the sea whenever I wanted to be alone, whether it was for happiness or sadness."

"It IS amazing." Praising the sea, but somehow Kitty felt as if Erebus was not talking about the sea when she noticed his gazing upon her."

"Sometimes I feel energy in me when I'm near it." Kitty avoided his gazing, "I feel like I belong to it, and like it's calling to me."

"Maybe you do." Erebus suddenly said.

"Haha, I'm just saying. It's not like I'm supernatural or--" Kitty laughed, and that was when Erebus's phone rang.

"Speak." He picked it up, and Kitty just stood there, looking at him.

"I'll be back." Erebus hung up the phone and turned to Kitty:

"They found the trace of Perses's men."