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Occurs on the 23rd after these events.

Tama had teleported. Yet he did not have control over it. Not yet. Especially not in the emotional state he was in…

Which was what, exactly?

Tama didn’t know. All he knew was that he had to get away from here. Get away from their failure. Get away from watching a man turn into a monster.

And, yet, here he was. In front of that man’s office. His magic had chosen the place, not the cat. First time use of such things tended to go that way. Not as you planned. Never how you expected.

Of all the places in hell…

This was the last place he wanted to be. But he walked in the door all the same. It was the third time he had come here uninvited. The first time, mere days after he had been corrupted, he had punched Faustite. The second time, after he regained memories from his life before the Negaverse, he had stabbed Faustite. This third time… there was no one there.

But Faustite was gone. He had vanished. If he would have returned anywhere, it would be here, right?

Faustite must really be gone.

But, if he were here, what would Tama have done? Hit him again.

Except… maybe that wasn’t would he would have done this time.

“You’re not even here, you b*****d!” Tama kicked the desk, but his bare feet was nothing to it; it was not at all like when Albite kicked it. “You left us!”

Tama yelled to the nothingness. An empty office for a general who didn’t exist. Was nothing now, but a stain on his memories.

“Maybe it’s for the best you’re not here.” His voice was low, the echo of his pounding the burnt wood of the desk a lingering sound. “For the best you can’t see me like this.”

There were tears falling down his face now. Uncontrolled, violent tears. As if every emotion he had been holding in since the day he told them his fate was now pouring out like a broken dam.

“Probably better you never saw me cry for you.”

He slipped down on the ground, leaning against the desk. He couldn’t even bring himself to lay on it. Almost as if he’d desecrate it if he did so now.

“Why’d you have to go like that? Right when I was starting to give a damn about you. You know, when I made this stupid collar…” He ripped it from his neck and threw it across the room as far as his meager strength could manage. “… all I could think after I created it was running in here and showing you. Like a ******** kid looking for praise from you for a job well-done. How messed up is that? I couldn’t even find a way to save you, but I was still proud of what I did make. What I had the power to do. What little I had the power to do.”

He started to sob.

“God. I wanted so bad to be ******** useful to you, I didn’t even stop to think why. Why the hell was I doing this for you? What did you even mean to me, anyway? I hated you.”

His nails dug into his palms.

“And I wanted anything to keep hating you. If I hated you, I’d never have to accept what you did to me. I would never have to belong in the Negaverse. I would never have to have a home and all the burdens that came with it. I could stay unfeeling. I didn’t have to care.”

He punched a hole in the wall.

“But I do care! I ******** care! I care about you! And now you’re gone…”

Tama felt a pain in his hand and only now looked down at it. He was bleeding. Was it his own claws or the number he had done on Faustite’s office.

He got up and headed to the infirmary. Hopefully, the lieutenant who threatened to muzzle him the next time he showed up for care wasn’t there…



The Mauvian’s hand was bandaged up, but he had indeed broken his knuckle. Why the bloody hell was he so fragile even in his humanoid form? Useless.

And that’s when he received the message.

Tama could not believe what he was reading. Faustite was alive!

He did not know how long he stayed with that thought. Minutes. Hours. Days. Perhaps it was whatever drugs they had given him for his self-inflicted injury, but he’d lost all sense of time.

Until he felt a powerful aura. It was very close. Could it be?

“Where is he?” Tama came, uninvited, into the room of the infirmary where he felt the signature most. “Where is Faustite?”


☆

When he wasn’t complaining about pain, he was demanding to know things from every nurse in sight. It was a wonder why anyone let Tama into the infirmary with the amount of noise he made when he was there. It would be honestly surprising if they just didn’t send him to the vet the next time.

Especially when he barged into Faustite’s room with even less grace than usual.

In fact, for being as cat-like as he was, he had nearly no composure at all.

Tama had practically bursted through the door. If he had any strength at all, he would have thrown it into the wall, but he didn’t even have that. And, yet, when he finally got into the room, he didn’t move. Didn’t even say anything. He just stared at Faustite in the bed.

He gripped his fist like he was going to punch something.

“Faustite.”


☆

Tama stared at Faustite for a while, as if analyzing him. He just stared, without a hint of emotion, like he was looking for something.

He was looking for Faustite, but not in body alone.

He’d started with a <******** off. That was promising. And he still had that cincher which meant the fire youma was probably still there and a part of him. But maybe he just liked wearing it? He did kind of look good in it. He’d recognized Tama. But, I mean, who wouldn’t? The Mauvian was not that hard to recognize. He looked exhausted. But then again, who in here didn’t? This was a goddamned hospital even if it was run by the Negaverse. He still noticed things that stood out, like his hand. So he knew that wasn’t there before, indicating more than a passing knowledge of the cat.

But the key was the last thing Faustite said. No one but Faustite, whole in body and mind, would say that. Only two people knew that Tama had once tried to stab the man (the other being Albite who probably didn’t have a very long memory). With the rather balmy heat of the room and the man’s assasination comment, he knew this was indeed Faustite and not just a part of him they’d managed to salvage.

All of him.

“You’re alive!”

If Faustite thought the Mauvian had no composure before, it seemed Tama was here to prove just how much lack there of he could have when he got emotional. He ran up to Faustite and hugged him. A full on tackle hug.

And then, approximately three seconds into one embarrassment, his lavender collar decided it was time to do its own thing.

With a tinge of magic, there was no longer a cat-boy hugging Faustite, but a rather large cat. A cat so big that it# back paws still reached the floor and its very large and fluffy body was a sudden weight on Faustite’s chest.

“…”




☆

“Damn it! I thought I finally fixed that.”

Tama tried to maneuver his newfound bulk off of Faustite as best he could, but he was clearly not very good at moving when his front paws were on one side of Faustite and his back paws were on the other. With a bit of ungraceful flailing, he managed to turn over and flop off the bed with a thump. There was a smell of burnt fur in the air in addition to the infirmary’s antiseptic scent.

“I wasn’t trying to murder you. I wouldn’t smother you. I’d definitely try and stab you again, but with a better blade this time.”

He immediately started to brush the cinders off his stomach with his paws.

“Meanwhile, you’re always trying to singe my fur. You’d think they’d have fixed that by now with you being a general-king and all. Well, at least that confirms you’re still part youma. Seems they didn’t have to remove that part, after all.”

After looking depressingly over his ruined tummy fluff, he sighed.

“Well, I suppose if I’m going to share that story, you’ll need to share the story of how you became a general-king in exchange.”


☆

“Oh, I quite remember how that operation failed! I’ve never seen a bigger ******** in all nine of my lives. You really need to learn to disciple your subordinates, you know.”

He sat on the ground and sighed, but his head was still in line with the bed as he looked Faustite over properly.

“By the looks of it, you burned to death at least once and you don’t have quite as many lives.” He wasn’t sure he’d seen Faustite his way before. He’d seen him at his worst — physically, anyway. Before he’d teleported away, Tama was certain he was looking death in the eyes. “Well, of course you’d go to the Rift, of all the damned places and I’m sure all of your husbands with a death wish were happy to follow you there.”

Tama had been quite foolish to think Faustite would be in his office. It made no logical sense to go there. Not if you thought you’d be very shortly turning into a youma.

“Crystallized? And you ‘guess’ it took more energy than usual to ‘fix’ you? Why did I think I was going to get any explanation about your promotion but the bear minimum?”

Tama rolled his eyes.

“Well, I suppose that counts as an explanation, albeit a piss-poor one. As for me, I maybe, sort-of, kinda… went to the Transverse Workshop to run some experiments to find a way to save your sorry a**.”


☆

“Do not put it past me to just go ask Albite.” The large cat looked at the man sheepishly, his expression extra pronounced due to his size. “I am not above summoning one or your husbands to get my tea.”

Well, he’s both making quips and noticing what I’m trying to not say. For looking half-dead, the boy king is quite astute.

Tama gave a rather large sigh between elongated fangs.

“Well, since you are going to be here for awhile…” And you’ve noticed the elephant-size cat in the room. “I suppose I do have to tell you. Wouldn’t be worth lying to a general-king anyway. Just remember that you’re injured and attempting to fry me at this stage probably isn’t good for your health.”

Tama had a bad habit of asking for forgiveness later than ever asking permission.

“As previously stated, I was trying to find a way to help you. Or, at the very least, the youma part of you.” He began. “Hence the unfortunate location. I won’t let someone else take the blame for going into the Rift when it was my idea. Although you happen to know an inordinate amount of boys willing to do so.”

It was surprising how easy it was for a cat to get into the Rift and out alive when there were so many willing to take him.

“The plan was to purify you and, as you well know, that meant purging the youma part of you. I entered the Transverse Workshop with the intention of finding a way to preserve that which would be purged. So I went there and commanded a youma to participate in my experiments. If I dusted a youma in that crucible I thought I might be able to find a way to capture its essence before it dissolved and returned to the Rift. And, if I could do that, then maybe there would be a part of the youma you would leave behind when you purified that I could capture and return to you.”

He looked away. What was that expression?

“A knight once told me that starseeds always hold part of what they used to be within them, even if they cannot access that part of themselves. I thought that, even if purified and recorrupted, I could use the essence of the youma that was once part of you to make you whole again. But when I dusted that youma, there was nothing left in the crucible’s cauldron. There was no way I could capture any of that fire and return it to you. It would either return to the Rift and be unfindable or it would perish altogether.”


☆

“I didn’t want you to forget!”

Tama said in a sudden outburst that seemed to surprise even himself. He bit his cheek and looked away. Why did he even care, anyway? Faustite was right. It would be better if he hadn’t remembered. Better for the Mauvian.

When had he started caring about what was better for Faustite and not just himself?

“Maybe I didn’t want that part of you to go away.”

Tama fiddled with his collar.

“Well, it’s not like I didn’t get anything out of that misadventure.” He said selfishly. Or was he just trying to hide his former concern? “I’d been trying to work with form changes for quite a while. Mauvians are shapechangers at heart, after all. Thought if youma could change their shape with that device, surely a Mauvian could learn something from it. Yes. I’m admitting to learning from youma. You can ridicule me later.”


☆

“I was giving you an out since you are clearly bedridden. But if you insist...” He rolled his eyes as if seeing how far back into his enlarged skull they could go before clearing his throat.

“The ‘condescending, furry little goblin’ hereby recognizes the usefulness of youma, even if most of them still want to eat said furry goblin. The aforementioned has thus acquired an ounce of humility, though he assures that he does not know of it. I can get that on letterhead, if you prefer.”

Tama grinned, but it looked all too strange as his canines were much larger than they should be.

“And I appreciate your appreciation. I’ll take that as a ‘thank you’.”


☆