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Whawazsat?! Albite had not, he swore, fallen asleep on the floor of his own office. The earthiness of the single rug, covered only in some fur tufts and a smattering of old feathers from cat toys (and maybe Cerbs) was absolutely not so comfortable that he'd started to clean it, laid down, and not gotten back up. There was certainly no real reason for him to be tired after everything; there was room for downtime in the weeks following the mission. Everyone was busy -- but not drowning in it -- it was the normal hum, drum, vibration of daily life. Helped that he'd solved a lot of his own concerns by ensuring Fulgurite was long past Eternal. That the team was thriving.

That his Husband....

No, no, Faustite was doing fine.

What he needed to do was get a hold of Hina n push her towards that Eternal end of the spectrum too, and to check on Cela, maybe? Who could've been holed up anywhere between the Rift and Faustites thighs. Nless he was in a designing fit? When he got into those, there was no seeing him. Creative muses n such. Jackets for bunnies or whatever...

Before any of that happened? He had to get up off his floor, go to his door, check for the source of that soft - soft - soft little sound. Couldn't be Hayby, he was loud in the ways Cerbs was eerily silent.

"H'lo?" sleepily before his eyes widened to the sight of an empty hall. Ohshit, it was ghosts again! As he stared out into the hall and saw not a single soul, nobody standing there, or to the left, or the right! At least not until he looked down to see, "Hoo-boy, thank goodness there's someone actually here! How's kicks Tamagatcha! What's up? Did you -- wait -- it is just you out here right?" he had to double check, just one last time. Nope, nobody else, certainly no ghosts.

Which made it double, triple, extra odd that Tama hadn't just come on in as he might've wanted too. Maybe he needed a welcome sign? A mat? A hanger with attachable thumbs? His office was still being worked on in a sense. He had the black halfmoon of a desk, all stone, the chair, stone with pillows tucked under the desk for his own comfort; just the one lesser perch perch and a cat tree that needed some serious reworking to be acceptable to MailCerbs and Haykit alike: who was soon to be expert rider of said mount! He'd even get them a little carrier pouch -- or a lance -- something badass probably.

"Is -- is everything okay? You're usually floofier, n people shaped. N'less this is just a Cat-Day kinda day?" asked with brisk ease even as he shoved his door wider and made a grand sweeping gesture of letting Tama come inside. Albite could've totally gotten behind a cat day, sometimes he wanted those too.

Just with extra naps.

“Oh, sorry!!” Whispered, barely less loudly, on the end of a hiss as he angled his voice lower and quickly closed his own door behind the pointy-toed puff, lookit that catty strut, all bossness - no games - and albite couldn’t help but wonder why he should be there? Unless!?

“Is Faustite— what? Where! Oooh, oh, is this a surprise! Like, a surprise for him to me from you? Or just a surprise from you — is he — is he gonna pop outta your forehead?” Because that was where all the kitty things did go, yes? He’d always been sure of that, the little black cat stars held secrets, moonbeams, transformation proclamations, and maybe were inter-dimensional holding pockets —

They were also very soft and boopable, those stars, but that was neither here nor there.

“Cause tama, he ain’t currently here…” and his eyes roamed the swathe of room, the juts of green crystals in the ceiling, the edges of the carpet — as if maybe his husband would light up beneath in some crazy firestorm n crawl outta the remaining ashes.

“….I was just — checking for ghosts.”

Like any sane and rational person!!

“Cause I heard a noise….n you can never be too careful with hauntings. Hauntings happen.” Ominous that, his severe mood and stern gaze for the idea of facing down the unknown beyond of ghosts. Then his mood changed easy as a cloud passing over the sun, and Waru was just as quickly back to admiring the cat tree in a way that was expectant — gaze darting from tama to the top of a carpeted birch platform — as if daring tama to go for it so he’d finally be at a pettable height.

Albite loved surprises! Loved even more being able to reach for Tama's tuff, fluff, of a self and just--- He hovered, big available hands itching to pet, but of course he'd wait for Tama's permission.

Hold his position right there, fingertips at the ready, glamored ring catching dully in the light for all that it was carved bone beneath the guises shine.

It was so strange now to imagine he'd ever not liked cats before. Maybe it was just some of them out there were star-butted assholes, but his team cats? Perfect. The best. They could do no wrong! All the responsibilities he knew they now held, carrying for their senshi -- the whole damn writhing, thriving, lot of them. It must've been a god-damned task, he didn't envy either of them the responsibility of it.

So Tama saying he was apologizing? Headtiltingly strange thing of the smartest kippn he'd ever met to ask; cause Faustite wasn't in his office. Which meant he'd probably gone looking for him and maybe needed an assist with the finding! He knew his Husband could be elusive as all hell sometimes -- what with the rift, n the bevy of lovers beds, n the multitude of houses to stay in while peopleing and not.

"Ooohkay...but why? I -- are you sure about the no's? No--wait-- I'mma ask about the head stars later. S'just, you're apologizing for what now? Cause..cause he's still not here, I promise. If you're not hiding him, then I'm not hiding him either. Heh, he's still mostly, massively, on fire, Mr. Hot-Tamale. You'd notice him in the room." easy to tease gently, with love, and take Tama's sigh as exasperation for all of his lacking knowledge and endless asks.

He still really wanted to pet him...

"Oh, so -- you tried to stab him and you're sorry that you missed? Or you tried to stab him and you're just plain sorry, or...." and Albite could only blink owlishly, surprised that Tama stood -- sat -- perched all alive, unsinged, unburned to a whole turkey sized crisp of a being. If even half of what he was saying was true, then he was extremely proud of Faustite having come so far along as to let something like this slide without committing to a murder.

Though he knew deep down his boy had a secret soft spot for most: boys, cats, people, youma. He figured his beloved could deny it all he wanted, but the evidence was clear in the amount of people who had ******** *harmed him* and lived to escape the blaze n tell the tale....

Not that his boy didn't usually give good as he got, but? He was still talking to the cat who'd stabbed in question, and not mourning a small cardboard box in his back yard. That meant something real important in his mind.

"M'sorry Tamagato, but m'gonna need some context to go along with this -- cause it doesn't sound like an actual assassination attempt. I mean, you've got cat beams? Uhmn, starbeams? Iunno..." a shrug, while he divested himself of impatient energy and dug his fingers gently into the soft coat, over that curved kitty spine, rubbed gentle circles behind Tama's ears with his thumbs. "Point is you're here, alive, and last I checked he was still living. Though I do feel ********' remissed to have not noticed you two falling out." Everything had seemed fine before the mission at the forge, Faustite was going to Tama with plans for spaceships n trains, right? They were treading into the wilds to look at deep space Senshi towers n their high, bright, star maps.

"M'sorry for that," because he should've been paying better attention. Especially to the cats! Tama might not have been *his*, but he was *theirs* an important, integral part of the team. Beloved as Faustite, so if anyone wasn't getting along? If all that hissy, crackly, sass he'd always sensed between the pair wasn't just them playing...

"Doesn't excuse the 'may have stabbed' part of this, but, yanno, I'm gonna get context for that afore I jump several guns and a football field's worth of assumptions," poignant and soft all at once as he looked Tama over, maybe searched for a missed hurt. A burnt hair. Extra regretful even, because holy ********, Faustite had been -- nearly stabbed? -- and hadn't told him about it!!

"Awhp...mmnnhh..." and he held his tongue, bit it, pulled in a breath and huffed that into the sky like a ten-tonned brick of a sigh, because really? He wasn't mad! He wasn't. But there was something like disappointment etched in the lines on Albites face; the way it reflected in the stuttered pause of his petting.

"Tama---" and Waru knew the intent didn't really matter at this point. Tama had gone after his boy with something sharp, whether it ended in Tama opening his letters politely or Faustite bleeding out on the floor, it wouldn'tve made a difference. "One of these days kippn? I'mma figure out why people try n start conversations with me on a lie, or like, thinking that if they hedge the truth I won't eventually pick it out n be even more sad that they didn't start with that to begin with. <******** he come off as intimidating or something? Was this how Faustite felt sometimes? Like all his fire made him into this big, ugly, spooky demon-type thing. Except Albite'd never been on fire before, so it had to be different!

"Are you okay though? M'gonna check on him -- later -- for damn sure, after we work a proper apology out! But Tama? You're supposed to be the smart one, with the knowledge, n the talking. The ******** with a ring n a knife n the mission messed with that..." and now he was petting him again, tempted even to pull the cat from his perch and squeeze him till he felt better, cause he knew memories could be ******** things. That corruption was a whole unpleasent mess of a process at the best of times -- that he was the one odd duck outt of water who maybe enjoyed it.

Albite was blinking because this had happened a ******** month ago and he'd -- the ******** was he at? How had he missed so much of this?!

"I'm not -- Tama! Tama honey, no," and now he was bereft of anything to pet, but that was fine! He could tuck his hands in his sashes and lean back a bit, biting his lip all the while he was trying to find better words to use, because nothing really made sense with this. Or maybe it all made too much sense? Tama had gotten something back. Knifed the one that took it. Suffered a consequence. Was he even ready to apologize now though, hell, was Faustite open to accepting it even if Tama came up with an offer?

"You know that we love you, right? N'yeah, I know, Firebrand is all spit n grittle n charbroiled edges, but ---" and suddenly he was backtracking his own thoughts, his words, taking a deep breath and sighing it out around a vice of hurt. "You can't apologize to him like this..." A month had gone by, something should've been done, but here Tama was looking small in the ways he shouldn't n sounding sad in ways he never had. The two had wounded each other gravely -- even if it'd only been a papercut instead of a whole a** stabbing? Albite knew, in the same way he couldn't see the marks on Tama, that there was still enough hurt under the surface -- for the kippn -- ********, maybe for Faustite too?

"You wanna apologize, yeah? I hear you, but you're not ready, he's probably not ready, clearly nobody is ready. Not that I'd even ******** know cause I'll need to ask......." and he was asking Tama if giving an apology was something he actually wanted to do, the same way he was vowing to ask Faustite the second he got the chance, regretting all the ways he'd never asked after Tama before, because he thought they were all getting along. Tama was so useful, so in need, the other Senshi loved the cat! Faustite clearly used him to problem solve n troubleshoot important matters.

"I'm so sorry."

"It doesn't matter if it's been a year, you're not expected to just -- to magically be able to handle things like that without feeling some type of way. More importantly, Tama? The s**t that's too heavy to handle, you don't gotta do it on your own. I wanna beg you to try the talking bit before the stabbing bit, but ******** be on fire as the lyingist of liars if I ever said Me n Faustite didn't get the ******** into it over, even little things," and he searched the cat, looked into those too big eyes and the pupils that used to freak him the ******** out because cat eyes were always so ethereal in the strangest of ways. He liked those same eyes now though, tried to will the knowledge that he cared into Tama through them.

Specially since he knew that despite their fighting he n faustite always came back from it, found ways to say sorry once they were ready. Only when they meant it though, an apology without meaning was too hollow to offer...

Faustite would read it for the pacifying lie it was....n his boy didn't deserve to just be placated after being stabbed...n Tama didn't deserve to be forced after being *forced*. There had to be a way though, to make it things somewhat right. He'd find one.

It was ******** heartbreaking — but he got it — held his breath and listened raptly while Tama slotted all the missing pieces in place, nice n careful n explanatory, cause Waru needed to hear them that way in order to best understand. To grasp the context firmly with his entire mind. It was such a sharp needle of a thing. A terrible thing. Waru knew clear as crustal the ways grief could drive even the best people to do the worst things.

“Grief is a right, mean b***h, innit? Worse when you cap it with unrequited— unreturned — everything. Oh! There’s—do you like poetry? You like poems right? Or maybe you like Alkmene, n he likes poems so—-” and he had to hug Tama then, or he was going to be the one crying and I’m need of comfort. Equally ******** fair to the cat, to put his own enormous feelings back onto Tama when Tama was clearly in need!!

But the Mau was very scoopable, and Albites hands were large as his chest was warm. He couldn’t quite resist the need to bundle Tama up as he rambled on at speed. “Poetry, right, but first I’m gonna apologize again— for the fact that I’m gonna be saying how sorry I am a damn lot. With frequency. Cause how could your knight not love you!? Wait - no - nope - that’s past s**t and we’re moving on! Though you’ve every right to spit, hiss, n hurt long as you damn well please.”

Tama was baby. Tama wasn’t his the way Haymitch was, or maybe this all could’ve been avoided with a feeling. Not that it mattered since Tama wasn’t the knights either, but ******** all that! He was theirs. Their teams Mau. Something Albite took seriously as he bundled Tama close n made his way to the nearest flat surface — the dark stone wrought desk in the room — willing to set Tama atop it as he found his knees on the other side, rummaging around while he continued to speak.

“I don’t know what Faustite likes wordwise? But I’ve been reading this— Jada’s on me about chapters, but books are hard. This Robert Frost chick though? She’s got some stuff— feels uplifting, or maybe it’s insightful? Idunno, but I think it’d make anyone happy….” He’d found he liked the poem books, there were even pictures sometimes! It didn’t even matter whether he understood the context or not. He could ask for clarification from anyone and they’d get it. All he knew was that he’d been obsessed recently with the road poem!! He couldn’t pin down why. It was short and easy and he liked it. Maybe that was all a poem needed to be.

“Best way to apologize to Faustite! Is with honesty — and maybe with a book? Kinda hard for someone on fire to read like he wants to. He gets pages framed…” and the ones he’d glimpsed were notes, not the letter kind, so music maybe? But he knew the ******** that’d become of Faustites office. How it needed to be rebuilt from the ground up — populated by new books — by gifts from his team. Fresh China cups, funny shaped inkwells, unbent metal tipped pens. New books that weren’t just negaverse s**t only. Like Faustites art journals, “….he needs more of everything, though. Pen nibs. Tea cups. Ink. If it’s not this? Well, I do have a secret I can share with you? You’ve gotta promise to keep it tho.”

As he spoke he eventually popped his head back over the desk, scooted the red-leather-bound hardback book with gold lettering across the table with a mischievous look of hope in his eyes.