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Somehow, that morning, Kiro had managed to sleep later than usual. This was mostly due to the fact Tsu was perfectly content to harrass Hope with his new form - having finally found a good use for being able to pass through things. Hope was completely disorientated everytime he did it, and Kiro wasn't quick enough to save her last time, when she'd managed to walk right into the leg of the desk in her confusion.

As such, Tsu had left the neko-jin alone for a few hours.

Perhaps it was time to save Hope.

With this in mind, Kiro got himself out of bed, dressed, and decided to pop out into the Centre, to see if anyone was about. Nobody was, but Kiro returned with two letters. One was thick and a little bulky, the other was thinner.

He sat on the bed, Tsu now spiralling around him curiously as he opened the first. He was pleasantly surprised to find it was a reply from Chao. They'd sent her a letter a while ago, thanking her for the bell.



Kiro then remembered in his own letter he'd mentioned meeting her briefly at the Summer Fesitval.



Discarding the thicker parcel for a moment, although curious, Kiro pulled out some paper to write his, somewhat prompt reply.



He paused, watching Tsu wizz around impatiently. He wanted to see what was in the big parcel!! Kiro rolled his eyes absently. "Tsu, be patient. We'll get to it, okay?"

'Hmph.' Seemed to be the general concensus to that.



Kiro smiled a little at Tsu, who was indeed murbling rather agreeably and floating around the letter happily. He didn't know why the gryphon stuck in his mind, but Tsu definately remembered her from the festival, when her jars broke. Kiro had said they shouldn't disturb them much. But he remembered her!

But then! As Kiro was putting the letter into an envelope and writing the address on it, Tsu decided to float insistantly around the thicker envelope. Kiro was doing this on purpose!! He MUST know Tsu wanted it open!! So open it, confuzzled kitty/human shaped Keeo!!

Eventually, Kiro took the hint. He put down Chao and Sanar's letter and picked up the second piece of mail. He tilted his head a little as he weighed it in his hand for a second before pulling it open. Inside seemed to be... a mass of orange cloth! Woven cloth...!!

Murbling excitedly, Tsu floated around Kiro as he neko-jin came across a note tucked into the cloth and read it aloud.



For a second Kiro was speechless. Here was another person he'd never met, sending he and Tsu something to help them along. He just stared at the cloth for several long seconds, hardly noticing as Tsu floated through it a few times, murbling happily as he did so. Phwar, this was perfect!! Someone sent them a THING that was going to help them do that THING that meant he could touch things again!! Although Tsu didn't really understand the mechanics behind this, he understood that this was a very good thing.

So, yaaaaaaaay!!! <3

Putting down the cloth, Kiro prised the letter to Chao out of its envelope and added to it.

Tsu was now tugging insistantly on his guardian's shirt, clearly wanting his attention. Grinning a little, Kiro leaned down to pick the small boy up and sat him on the edge of the desk. Tsu grinned at that - he liked being up high.

"What's up?"

"Keeo!" Tsu kicked his legs as he spoke, watching his guardian hopefully. "Keeo, whe's Ha'o'een...?!"

Kiro couldn't help but wonder if storytellers were supposed to be a little more... coherent? "Halloween? Well, it's at the end of October." At the little boy's clueless look, the neko-jin reached across the desk and unhooked the calendar from the wall to show him. "See, the year is split up into twelve months..." He flipped through the pages as though to prove his point. "We can tell whenabouts something is by whenabouts in the month it is. October is month number 10..." He flipped to the relevant page. "See? This square says 'Halloween'. The last day of October."

"Does Ha'o'een have sto'ees?"

Kiro nodded, seeing where this might be headed. "It sure does. Or you can make them up."

"Huh...?!" Tsu's face seemed to light up then.

"At Halloween, people tell each other ghost stories - they try to scare their friends by telling spooky scarey stories."

"Co' I tell some sto'ees? At Ha'o'een?"

Kiro grinned a little. "You can tell stories any time you like. But Halloween's for special stories. Just like Christmas is, too."

"Kiss'mas?!"

Oops... maybe one holiday celebration at a time, hey Kiro...?

"Yeah, but Christmas isn't for a long time yet... That's not until 'December' - almost three months away. You have a long time until Christmas."

After that, Tsu was quiet for a long time, obviously thinking hard about something. Then he tilted his head, the little bell in his hair jingling as he did so, and cast Kiro a sincere look. "Keeo... i' there a pat'ee for Ha'o'een?"

Now it was Kiro's turn to become a little thoughtful. No... not that he knew of at least... but...

"There could be one Tsu. You think everyone would like a Halloween party?"

"Uh-huh!"

Kiro had never organised anything important in his entire life. But the idea of a Halloween Party... it was something that sounded kinda fun. And he could get help from some of the other guardians and Aerandir children... most of them had jobs now didn't they? He was sure he could find tasks for them all if they wanted to help...

This was sounding more and more like a good idea...

"Hoooooope...?"

Curiously, Tsu peered around the room looking for the feather-tailed cat. When she didn't want to be disturbed, Hope was surprisingly good at making herself scarce - even from someone as nosey as Tsukai.

Tsu was convinced he'd looked everywhere. He'd looked under the beds, the desks, and... well, anywhere that a kitty could hide. This was getting frustrating - he was supposed to be the one who hid from everyone else! Not the other way around!

"H'pe...?"

Experimentally, Tsu tried underneath the bed again, before finally giving up. She was hiding from him, and she was winning! That wasn't fair! In a quasi-huff, Tsu hoisted himself up onto the bed and plopped his weight onto it. And just as quickly hopped off again with a surprised squeal.

Hope was seen to shoot out of the foot of the bed, from under the bedcovers, a yowl following her as she abruptly stopped to turn and glare at the Aerandir child. Tsu just stared at her, wide eyed and too surprised to really do anything about it. But then, he slowly started to put two and two together and figure out that he'd actually managed to sit on the sleeping kitten. And she wasn't happy about it.

"What are you guys doing...?"

Tsu turned, grateful at Kiro's voice. The neko-jin had been deep in a book, only looking up at the sound of the squeal. "Keeo! I sa' on H'pe! I di'n't mean to!"

Kiro blinked, looking between the two of them in confusion. You put your attention elsewhere for two seconds, and look at what happens. They get into a fight.

"Tsu, you need to go apologise to her."

"I do...?"

"Yeah. She's upset, look."

Tsu did look, one of his hands hanging on his plait and stifling the light sound of the bell. Cautiously, he stepped forward, hesitating as Hope started to growl at him.

"Just tell her you're sorry Tsu."

Tsu gulped. "I' so'y H'pe..." He stepped forward again, reaching out towards her with a hand. It was trembling a little - Hope really looked hostile, and Kiro was torn between whether to intervene or not. He let out a private sigh of relief as Tsu's cautious hand touched Hope between the ears. Tsu remained still for a second before then sitting down next to her and proceeding to pet the small, white kitten.

"So'y H'pe..."

Kiro smiled as he twitched an ear towards the sound of Hope's growling decrease. She stayed silent for a few long seconds, before beginning to purr and rubbing her head against Tsu's palm in a forgiving gesture.

"To err is human, to forgive feline..." Kiro murmured to himself with a quiet smile.

"So, that's done." Kiro briefly held the door open for Tsukai before following the short boy into the room and pushing the door closed behind him. "Now we've just gotta finish that costume of yours, and we're all set - okay?"

As Tsu bounced on the balls of his feet eagerly, Kiro retrieved the small box that they had packed their 'materials' into. They hadn't done much to it yet, but Kiro guessed they wouldn't need to do too much anyway. Tsu had his heart set on a ghost costume - perhaps not realising how quick and simple it would be to make.

Over the next hour or so, the two of them - with the occasional paw of aid from Hope - set about cutting out a ghost costume from the old bedsheet they had 'recovered'. Kiro reflected that it might be best to make up a bear-faced lie if anyone asked about its origin. Eventually, however, the two boys had created a passable ghost costume. Holes had been cut out for Tsu's eyes - and after much deliberation they had also cut slits for the child's arms to fit through as well.

Once they were done, Tsu decided to road-test his new costume by running around the room flailing his arms and making 'ghostily' noises. Kiro simply sat back, resting his weight on his palms behind him and watched the boy running around. Then, Kiro had an idea. Quickly, he grabbed one of the spare pieces of bedsheet and busily started cutting a circle out of it. Then he beckoned Tsu over. "Tsu, come here for a second, please?"

Nodding, Tsu hopped off Kiro's bed and ambled over. "Wat'cha do'in'?"

"Just finishing up... Give me your tail?"

Taking the offered tail, Kiro pushed the circular piece over it. Then, reaching across the floor, he grabbed a ball of string and, taking a short piece of it, wound it around the cloth. A miniture ghost was staring (rather eyelessly) back at him.

"There you go. You've got your own little ghost." And amused pause. "Watcha gong to name it?"

"Bob!"

Kiro blinked. "Why Bob?"

Tsu shrugged, grinning widely underneath the sheet.

Shaking his head, the neko-jin reached forward to lift the sheet up and over Tsu's head. "Okay, this is for tomorrow though - all right? You can't wear it while you're cutting a pumpkin - you'll get juice all over it."

"C'n I keep Bob?"

Kiro sighed a little, before shrugging as he folded the larger sheet into a rough square. "Sure, as long as you keep him away from the pumpkin." Bob quickly disappeared behind Tsu's back. Kiro then reached for the one pumpkin they'd saved from the pile and stood up. "We'd probably be better off doing this in the kitchen, you think? It could get kinda messy."

Giggling, Tsu followed the neko-jin out of the room. "Pu'pki's!"

~~2005/11/13~~

It had been a while since Kiro had actually sat down and had a chance to work on anything of his own. It had also been a while since he'd even thought to do so, which was perhaps more to the point. The mathemathics textbook that lay open on the desk beside him was an indication of what he was studying. The logic in mathematics appealed quite a lot to the neko-jin. It was a simple 'yes' or 'no'. Maybe, possibly, on very rare occasions it would be 'perhaps', but never often enough to be a problem. There was always strict rules to follow, and a bear minimum of guesswork.

The other two in the room were also occupied in their own way. Tsu was continuing to practise his writing - being very eager to continue this after his success at the Halloween party. It seemed to have lit a spark in him, like he was pursuing this for a reason. The small boy even had a few sheets of paper tucked away that held something not attributed to practise, something of his own. He wasn't letting Kiro see, but Kiro was fine with it - personal space and all that.

Hope, on the other hand, was feigning sleep again. Her feathered tail twitched at her nose as she watched Tsu's progress with slitted eyes. It was strange, Kiro reflected as he glanced towards the pair, they had a love-hate relationship. But when they thought nobody was looking they were quite content in each other's presence. Indeed, noticing Kiro glance across, Hope picked herself up and hopped onto the bed with a disgruntled mew.

With a slight smile, Kiro stood from his chair and reached across to pet Hope between the ears. "It's okay you know. I don't mind if you guys get along..."

"I's 'cos I poked her a lo' when I was li'tle..."

Kiro glanced to Tsu, deciding not to point out the boy was still little. "It's because she's a cat Tsu. Most kittens are either pouty and lazy, or hyperactive. I think Hope's just the pouty type."

She seemed to pout at that, turning her head away huffily.

"Give her a few weeks, she'll grow out of it I bet."

"'Kay... Hey, whe're you goin'?"

"To see if there's any post. Be back in a second, kay?"

"'Kay!" Tsu chirped, watching as Kiro left the room and left the door slightly ajar. It was always fun when Kiro got letters from people. Usually he let Tsu try and help him read them. With limited success, but the young Aerandir was getting better!

The mood when Kiro returned, however, was not one of the reading variety. Absently Kiro was staring at the front of the letter with apprehension. He thought he recognised that handwriting - but he wasn't certain. He'd never seen it write in a Roman alphabet before...

"Who's't from?"

"I'm not sure..." Kiro murmured idly, sitting and opening the letter.



As he read down the letter, Kiro could feel himself frown quietly. Tsu, also, seemed to be able to tell something was amiss. He tugged at Kiro's shirt, his voice worried. "Wa's'it?"

Kiro hesitated for a second before shoving the letter back into the envelope, opening a drawer in the desk, and pushing the letter to the back of it. Hopefully he'd lose it in there. "Nothing Tsu, just a letter I wasn't expecting..." He turned to the Aerandir, leaning forward a little to scoop the child up and hug him a little. "How's your practise going?"

Yes... a little topic change was required round about now...

~~2005/11/20~~

A few hours later, 'sploring was starting to get a little boring. Hope by this point, was amusing herself by draping herself around the small Aerandir's shoulders. Tsu had to hold her up by the rump and shoulders to ensure she didn't manage to fall off, and she really wasn't helping him in his endevours. But that didn't really matter. She had come 'sploring with him, and that was what was important!

In actuality the two of them hadn't gone much further than around the Centre. But it was definately further than Tsu had been on his own ever! It was okay though, because Hope was with him. Finally, the boy stopped and sat down outside the Centre, making Hope mew and jump from his shoulders in surprise. She sat in front of him and regarded him with a guaging expression. What was the boy going to do next?

It was, however, just then that Kiro emerged, his face a picture of relief as he looked don to find both Hope and Tsu sitting quite happily outside. "Don't do that," he scolded them, crouching down to be more on level with them. "You gave me a heart attack! How long have you two been out here?"

"Uhh... a long time 'a fink..."

"You shouldn't be going out by yourselves! What if something had happened to you? How would I know?"

Tsu watched Kiro as the youth made his reprimand. It wasn't so much the neko-jin's tone of voice that let Tsu know he was upset, but more the swishing of his feline tail and the seemingly uncontrolled twitching of his right ear. The Aerandir had come to recognise that as a sign that Kiro was upset or nervous. He could guess which assessment applied in this case.

Hope of course was quite the thing, pretending obstinately that she had no part in this and the reprimand didn't affect her. She ran her tongue through her fur, her face seeming to wear a haughty expression.

"That goes for you too Hope..."

Bah. Fine. She turned to look at Kiro, letting her tail swish from side to side a little more lethargically than Kiro's own. She didn't like being told what to do... Hmm...

Sighing, Kiro stood, reaching for Tsu's hand. "Come on kiddo. If you want to go exploring, you can take me with you, okay?"

Grinning suddenly, Tsu grabbed at Kiro's hand with a bounce and an accompanying jingle from his hair. "Yeah!"