Oort thought about it sometimes, about the way that he was still a chibi - after all it was hard not to when he was one of only two chibis that hung around Oberon's group–

And whilst it wasn't as if he felt any less , and his friends certainly didn't treat him as less, it didn't stop Oort from thinking about it sometimes - especially in quiet times like this when there wasn't anything to distract him–

Like youma or Nega-Agents - because both were distracting and in the case of youma he had started to try to try and take notes on them rather than dusting them outright - because whilst Oort wasn't particularly caught up on researching them he knew that Oberon was trying to study them.

A frown flitted across his face as a flash of aura pinged on his consciousness, the warmth of it suggesting that it was perhaps a fellow Order senshi–

But it was gone before Oort could come to any decision about whether he wanted to try and track it down, leaving him alone once again with his thoughts and his continuing chibi status.

It was hard sometimes to believe that it had been 4 years give or take since the day that he'd first met Horatio - the day that she'd given him his henshin pen and that he'd realised that superheros really were real and not just stories and whilst he had never seen Horatio since that day he had found himself still going to the alleyway sometimes just on the off-chance that maybe one day she would come back - even though he honestly didn't have a clue what he'd say to her.

Perhaps the truth - no most definitely the truth - because he didn't believe in sugar coating things..

And even though he had never seen Horatio again, it hadn't stopped him from meeting other star cats - like Liryn who had helped Kirra to become Euporie when the mean Nega-Agent with the stupid chocolate box had tried to pick on her - and Liryn was okay–

And he'd met Tomlin too and Tomlin was the best cat - totally the super best.

It was something that Oort truly believed - because the ginger furred star cat was super brave and...

And unlike Horatio he'd actually stuck around.

Reddish eyes looked over the edge of the rooftop where he was sitting for a moment, his eyes taking in the quiet alleyway, because just as Tomlin had stuck around, somehow senshidom had become more than just him or even just him and Euporie - but as he had told Chara when their paths had first crossed again after the whole Negaspace thing he still had no idea of how one went about not being a chibi.

It was something that he could have asked about because Oberon for sure would have tried to help - just as his friend hadn't hesitated in offering to go visit his home world with him–

And a part of Oort knew that the others would try to help too if he asked, but–

But he couldn't help but think that it was something that perhaps he needed to figure out on his own and he already had Oberon's offer to come visit his home world with him even if Oort hadn't been since that first visit.

Maybe it was time to change that - after all things had been quiet since they had all ended up getting sucked into a mirror back in August - well at least it had been relatively quiet if you didn't count Halloween - and Oort wasn't planning to.

He gave the alleyway one last thoughtful look and then finally got to his feet and turned to make his way over the fire escape that had been his route upwards.

Yes maybe it was time to change things on the home world front and do a little more exploration of Oort - and there was nothing to say that he couldn't do a little private investigation into how one went about not being a chibi at the same time - or at the very least trying to.

-- 680 words --