#ouapevent

It was such a strange name but it fit for the foreign merchant. Part of his father’s circle, Lance came to the small but knowledgeable village of Arus to look up the different styles of art that were created here. He got separated from his group one day and somehow ended up in the forest near the edge of the village. Geyong’s domain. But not everyone was smart enough to stay away. Hunters had been trying their hardest to kill him, failing and usually becoming his dinner but they got smart and set out new contraptions he had never seen before. They were like teeth that clamped around his leg, keeping him still and unable to move even as he flitted between both human and fox form. That’s how Lance found him.

He growled at him, hoping to get him away but Lance just continued forward, speaking in such calm and low words. He didn’t recognise the language but it didn’t matter. He slowed his growling as Lance patted at his fur, calming him, before he went to where his leg was trapped in the trap. He let out a hiss but Lance shushed him, trying to calm him again. He let Lance open the trap until he could pull his leg out and then took off ignoring the rise of calls from the merchant.

Geyong’s ankle was swollen and no amount of dipping it in the river was helping.  He thought that being a gumiho would protect him from anything but seeing his ankle swell more and more, he was scared he might be wrong.

Then he came again, but with healing medicines. And when he spoke, it was in the tongue he understood, but it was choppy, like he didn’t fully understand how to speak it. But he tried. While in fox form, he let Lance – he introduced himself then, in a way to calm him down when the medicine stung – clean and bandage the wound, letting him relax before promising he’d find him again the next day. So it continued, Lance helping him heal, his ability to speak the tongue he understood slowly getting better. Geyong admitted the rubs behind his ear were becoming addicting.

Lance was interesting. He never met anyone with eyes as bright as his, blue as the river he lived near. His skin was so much darker than everyone in the village but it added to his beauty. He was different but Geyong liked him.

“Looks like your legs all better. Make sure to avoid those traps ok? I hope I don’t you see you strapped down at the village. That beautiful coat of yours shouldn’t be sold. Stay safe.”

He watched him walk away and in a split second, Geyong chased after him.

Lance reacted like anyone would when the same black fox he had been healing only moments ago turned into a human with 9 tails. He screamed loudly and cursed but in that tongue he didn’t understand.

“You’re not going to eat me are you?”

“Why would I eat the person who healed me?” he asked, tilting his head in confusion

“Aren’t you the monster the locals warned me about? The one that haunts the forest?”

“It’s my forest. They don’t get to complain about it when they try attacking me in my domain!”

Lance blinked at him. “Ok, calm down. Sorry. I thought you’d eat me or something.”

“You were…kind to me. You didn’t have to be. Like you said, my fur would make me valuable and everyone in the village wants me gone so…”

Lance looked upset. “You don’t deserve that. I mean spirits are a natural thing here and you only attack those who come into the forest right?”

“Mostly. I eat raw flesh.”

Lance blinked at him, looking slightly disgusted. “Ok…um. Anyway, you’re a regular spirit so they can’t be too annoyed. But I guess you can stay here to stay safe. Just don’t eat me.”

So that’s how it started, how he started visiting the human. It also how he gained a new name.

“Geyong is really hard to pronounce for me. Can I call you something else?”

“As long as it’s not stupid.”

“Well, in English I would say your name like Keith.”

“Keef?”

Lance laughed at Keith’s attempt, “We’ll work on it.”

It continued, Keith scaring Lance when he’d come back from eating another unfortunate villager, Lance introducing him to eating raw animal meat and Lance teaching him the different languages of English and Spanish, the language Lance would speak at random times. He became more loving on the head pats to the point that it didn’t matter what form he was in.

Keith never felt love. The spirits he interacted with he respected but never fell in love with. With Lance, it was different, like everything about their relationship. Lance had been reading him a story about an emperor and his lover when Keith asked what Lance thought love was.

“Love? It’s when you’re with a person and are perfectly content. That even in the worst things, you can trust that they’ll be by your side no matter what.”

“What if you fell in love with someone you weren’t supposed to?”

“Well, half the reason I came here is because my father found me with a man. It wasn’t serious but my father didn’t want me to ruin myself. But if I meet a man I fall in love with, I won’t stop myself. And I think there might be someone.” Lance said, scratching at Keith’s head near his ears.

“Really?” Keith asked, trying to focus on what Lance was saying but was melting at the attention he was getting.

“Yeah, he’s a really foxy guy.”

Keith almost missed what Lance was saying because he was so deep in bliss but he opened his eyes and looked up at Lance, who brushed Keith’s bangs from his eyes and gave him that same smile that always brought Keith under his spell. That’s when it became clear. He wanted to grow old with Lance.

“There is a way.” Ulaz said, the imugi floating around Keith in the realm of spirits. The serpent like dragon was surprised Keith was even asking this. As far as he knew, Keith didn’t want anything to do with humans. “But do you truly want it?”

“I’ve never cared about humans, let alone love but being with Lance changes everything. When hr told me he was in love with me, I didn’t pity him. I wanted to grow old with him and be with him forever. Since he can’t become a gumiho, I’ll become human for him.”

“And if it doesn’t last long? If he decides you becoming human after the deed is done is something he doesn’t want?”

That was something he had to think about. It would hurt like hell if Lance rejected him but Keith never felt anything like the way he felt for Lance.

“It’ll be worth it.”

“If a gumiho does not eat human flesh for thousand days, they turn into human. Every 111 days, you’ll lose a tail and your powers will start to diminish. Your strength, your ability to change your appearance, your magic, your ability to transfer and take energy. You’ll lose it all. I hope you’re ready for this.”

When he told Lance, he was asked if it was something Keith really wanted.

“Love is something I’ve never experienced or wanted but when it comes to you, it’s completely different. I want this. I know it’ll be hard but I will be able to do it.”

It was hard, so very hard. Not eating human flesh meant he ate more of the meat Lance would give him. He already heard the butcher in the village gossiping about how Lance seemed to have parties with the amount meat Lance had ordered.

Lance got sick when it was 50 days in. it wasn’t bad, Lance just laid on his futon listening to Keith complain about how he was starting to get sick of all the extra meat he had to eat.

“Eat vegetables.” Lance said, only for Keith to gag.

200 days in, Lance got sick again but it was worse. He was coughing and burning with a fever. Keith didn’t think twice about kissing him to give him some of his energy. It hurt after he did it but he’d rather be weak and in need of help than Lance sick.

As he lost his tails, he would fall sick and Lance would always take care of him, even as he seemed to get sick more often.

“Why are you getting sick so often?” Keith asked on one of his better days

“It’s probably all the changes going in and out of the forges. I’m fine.”

As he got closer and closer to becoming human, Lance kept getting sicker and sicker. Keith was getting worried. Lance was having fevered dreams and sure he was close to death but Keith wasn’t going to let him. But eventually his kisses only gave comfort, not energy.

The day he lost him, he was laying on him trying not to think about how weak the grip of Lance’s hand was going through his hair.

“Don’t leave please.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” Lance said, but Keith could tell he was losing him. He didn’t understand how. Lance had been fine and then he would get sick for no reason. “Hey do you believe in the idea of reincarnation?”

“Huh?” what was Lance trying to say?

“When you come back to life in another form. I fell in love with a gumiho. That has to count for something. Maybe I’ll come back at some point in another form. Maybe you can still love me then.”

He hadn’t told Lance, but they were up to 998 days. He was sure he only had once chance and he didn’t want to take the chance if Lance was ok.

“I’ll always love you, no matter what.”

Lance hummed and that’s when Keith knew. He could hear Lance’s heartbeat slow and feel his hand trying to grip his hair one last time.

His scream of anguish was heard all throughout the village.

He almost stayed human, until he heard whispers of a plot.

“I heard that foreign merchant was housing that damned fox.”

“All the meat he ordered made the butcher suspicious. He snuck on the property and saw that tails of the fox.”

“I heard that the merchant had tamed the fox.”

“Apparently the butcher’s son put poison in the meat deliveries. That fox killed his wife so he took revenge.”

Lance woke up with a jolt, the familiar yet not familiar words slipping from his mind. He let out a breath, wiping away the sweat that built up on his forehead, before dropping his head onto his knees. What was happening? Right when he got offered the job of his dreams and got to move to Korea, these dreams started. He felt like he was reliving something, but that didn’t make any sense. Lance never lived in Korea. He only took an interest in the history and mythology of it when their history teacher in high school assigned it to him. Now he could only dream of black fur, a bloody face and tails. Gumiho was a word that always stuck around. But why would he be concerned about a mischievous female fox?

Lance sighed, flopping back onto his bed. He needed to sleep. He had errands to still do and get done before he started work next week. These dreams weren’t helping but Lance hoped that once he was more settled that the dreams would stop. He could only hope.

Lance was trying to figure out where his bus stop was when he crashed into him. Korean and English slipped through his lips as he steadied himself before a string of apologies in Korean came out.

“I’m so sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going.” When Lance got a better look at the guy he bumped into, he stopped. He looked familiar. His black hair framing his face, his greyish purple eyes, his soft looking lips and…he looked like someone lance felt he should know. But he never met this man before. Though for some reason, Lance felt like the other guy recognised him. “Have we met?” he asked, without even thinking.

That prompted the other guy to move. “No, sorry. Excuse me.” he said stiffly, bowing his head slightly as he walked past Lance, leaving the foreign blue eyed man staring after him. Who was he, and why was his heart clenching at the sight of him?

“You’re not going to eat me are you?”

“Why would I eat the person who healed me? You were…kind to me. You didn’t have to be.”

“I guess you can stay here to stay safe. Just don’t eat me.”

Lance felt like those sentences that still buzzed around in his head from last night’s dream were part of a conversation that was important, like a first meeting. He wasn’t sure how much more he could take of this. In his dream he remembered feeling weak but trying to be strong for someone else but the reason why made no sense. Or at least, he couldn’t remember why.

He pushed it to the back of his mind as he reached the small kiosk he had been looking for in Insadong. He needed a stamp for official documents and heard the kiosk he stood in front of had different ones with designs to choose from and they’d hand carve your name into it. He greeted the worker sitting inside and looked at all the different options. There were a lot of different designs, most matching ones. Lance knew that Korea took the idea of couples pretty seriously but he’d seen at least 4 couples wearing matching clothes and with the amount of matching designs he almost felt left out.

His relationship status was never fixed. Nyma was a disaster, Plaxum was sweet but it didn’t work out, Matt was amazing but they fell out of love and Swanky, well it could have worked if Swanky didn’t feel like hiding him all the time. He hadn’t been in a long stable relationship, like ever. He wanted to though; it was just none of his relationships worked out. Lance partially blamed himself for feeling like they were all missing something that they couldn’t give him. What the thing was, he didn’t know. All he knew was that it seemed life wanted him alone forever.

“Come on Lance, stop thinking about that and pick a design already.” He muttered to himself.

He looked around even more when his eyes stopped on a pair of stamps that shared a design. One half had a fox and the other had nine detailed tails. A gumiho. Lance almost didn’t pick it up, but the face of the gumiho looked sad to Lance for some reason. He picked it up and looked closer at it, feeling his heart clench again. He should put it down, he knew he should but he felt like if he didn’t get it, he’d regret it.

“Excuse me, I’d like to get this one.” He asked the man, trying not to think about the feeling behind his purchase.

It was hard trying to get the worker to understand fully, Lance’s Korean still needed work, but he got the point across. He was handed a stick pad and pen and was asked to write his name. Lance also heard Hangeul as well, so he was the man also asked for his name in Hangeul. Speaking, a working progress, writing, that was a bit harder. And of course more people came over. Lance went to go digging for his phone to use one of his learning apps when he heard a familiar voice.

“Need some help?” he looked up and saw the same guy he bumped into the day before, the one that look familiar.

“You’re the guy from yesterday.” Lance said to himself, though he was sure that the guy heard him

“Do you need help writing your name?” Lance realised the guy was talking to him in English

“Oh, yes. Yeah, he asked I also write my name down in Hangeul but my writing leaves a lot to be desired.”

The guy held his hand out and Lance handed him and pad and pen moving closer to see him writing out Lance’s name in familiar letters.

“So your name’s Lance?”

“Yeah, Lance McClain and you are?”

“Sung Geyong.” Lance tried to repeat the name but it sounded odd on his tongue, like that wasn’t the right name. Which made no sense, because it had to be. “You can call me Keith.”

Keith. That sounded familiar and fit him. But Lance knew he never met the guy. He was sure he’d remember him.

Lance handed the pad back to the man, who told lance his stamp would be ready in 30 minutes.

“Thanks again and sorry for crashing into you yesterday.”

“It’s fine. It wasn’t your fault. Have a nice day and study Korean more.”

“I will thanks.”

As Lance walked away, he started to feel sad, like he was leaving something behind. His mind had obviously wondered during that time because before he knew it he realised he was late for picking up his stamp and he had to be home soon to accept a business call. He rushed back to the kiosk and greeted the woman their giving his name and somehow conveying he was in a rush. He was glad she didn’t see him as rude as she gave him his total and started putting his stuff in a bag. She waved a bookmark that had his stamp stamped on it but Lance didn’t pay much attention as he handed over his money. As soon as he had both the bag and change in hand he stuffed them in his bag, rushing to catch a taxi to the train station.

After he got home and his call was finally over, Lance felt like he could breathe finally. He started emptying his bag and pulled out the bag that held his stamp. He dumped the stuff on the table in front of him and pulled the small blue pouch near him, popping the button open and sliding the stamp out. He furrowed his brow in confusion when he saw that the stamp had 9 tails. He was sure he chose the side with the fox. He picked up the bookmark and saw the stamp didn’t even have his name on it. It took him a while to read it out but eventually and with the help of his phone, he realised what it said.

“Sung Geyong.” As in Keith. Did that mean, Keith had his stamp?

“Geyong is really hard to pronounce for me. Can I call you something else?”

“As long as it’s not stupid.”

“Well, in English I would say your name like Keith.”

“Keef?”

Lance laughed at Keith’s attempt, “We’ll work on it.”

“Love? It’s when you’re with a person and are perfectly content. That even in the worst things, you can trust that they’ll be by your side no matter what.”

“What if you fell in love with someone you weren’t supposed to?”

“Well, half the reason I came here is because my father found me with a man. It wasn’t serious but my father didn’t want me to ruin myself. But if I meet a man I fall in love with, I won’t stop myself. And I think there might be someone.” Lance said, scratching at Keith’s head near his ears.

“Really?” Keith asked, trying to focus on what Lance was saying but was melting at the attention he was getting.

“Yeah, he’s a really foxy guy.”

“Don’t leave please.”

“I’m not going anywhere. Hey do you believe in the idea of reincarnation?”

“Huh?”

“When you come back to life in another form. I fell in love with a gumiho. That has to count for something. Maybe I’ll come back at some point in another form. Maybe you can still love me then.”

“I’ll always love you, no matter what.”

Lance hadn’t been able to sleep. These dreams were worse because he saw Keith there but he had a pair of ears on his head and behind him would wave 9 tails. He would look at Lance with such love filled looks, but that couldn’t be right.

Right?

Lance was emailing his boss back and forth to complete things before he started and he asked if he knew of any legends of gumihoes falling in love. He said he had fallen into the hole of K-dramas and wondered if there could be any truth in them.

“There’s a legend I’ve heard of. It’s not widely known but there’s a story about how a human met a gumiho in their fox form and helped them heal when they were hurt. The gumiho took a chance and revealed themselves to the human and was rewarded with kind words and a home and soon after, love as well. However when members of the village found out, they started poisoning the food that was sent the human’s home, slowly killing him. At that time the gumiho was trying to become a human by not eating human flesh for 1000 days. They were close to turning before they lost their lover. They reclaimed their lost powers by killing the whole village that had killed the one thing that the gumiho had been willing to risk everything for.”

The story felt way too familiar as he read it. He didn’t know why he could fit himself in the human’s place and Keith in the gumiho’s. It made no sense but it felt so familiar.

Hey do you believe in the idea of reincarnation?

Reincarnation wasn’t real. Some cultures believed in it, but the idea of coming back as the same person but just a bit different enough? That couldn’t happen could it? But the dreams, the familiarity of Keith, the sadness he felt when he looked at the gumiho pair stamps. If it was actually true and he was reincarnated, that would mean Keith was a gumiho.

He needed to find him.

It was not as easy as it sounded. He had the name but if it was real was the question. Being alive for as long as he had been, he no doubt knew how to hide himself. He wondered if Keith knew who he was based on the reaction he had when they first met. It was weird how he was hoping that Keith would. He searched on every way he could try and find him and wasn’t succeeding. Lance was going insane in attempts to try and find him.

Lance walked down to the street trying to take a break from staring down the computer screen. He was not close at all to finding Keith and he was starting to feel like he never would. Korea was big, Seoul as well. Now that he knew, it was like everything was against him to try and find him again. Keith lost him ages ago and now they weren’t going to get the chance to meet again.

“Maybe this is what I get for taking so long to find him.”

Suddenly Lance heard barking and yelling. He looked up to see a poodle running towards him and jumped up when it saw Lance, knocking him over.

“Ahh! No, no, stop.” he begged as the dog stated licking him. “Hey, knock it off.” He was able to push the dog off when he realised that someone was running towards him

“Get over here you mangy mutt.”

Lance couldn’t believe his luck. It was Keith.

“Can’t believe Ulaz is making me do this, babysit a dog. I can’t stand dogs.” He heard Keith mutter

“Keith.”

“Lance.”

“I’ve been looking for you. We mixed up stamps and then all the dreams started making sense and I think I’m the person that you fell in love with and I want to be near you and, and…”

“Lance, calm down, calm down. It’s ok.” Keith said, taking Lance’s face in his hands, calming him down

“Am I, I was with you wasn’t I but I was killed.”

“I was 2 days away from becoming human when I lost you.”

“You’ve been alive all this time, alone?”

“Not alone, just waiting for you like you said. When I saw you first, I thought I didn’t deserve the chance to win you again.”

Lance grasped Keith’s hands. “I told you to wait and I want to try to know you again, differently this time.”

“I wanted to know you all those years ago, that hasn’t changed. I’ll get to know you again.”

Lance closed his eyes as tears started falling from his eyes.

“What’s wrong, why are you crying?”

His brother worked at a pet store that worked with the local shelter and Keith would hide there when he needed affection because what was better than animal affection, especially when you were trying to avoid his brother bothering him.

“I just finished my shift, so no.”

“Fine, let me change my tactic. I found a cat and he needs a home. Are you free?”

Damn he knew how to play him.

“I’ll be there in 5 minutes.”

“Where did you find him?” Keith asked as he crawled under the desk where the brown cat with bright blue eyes had been hiding under since he was brought it.

“More like he found us. I was closing up and brining in the outside sign and he came running in and ran right under there. He hasn’t moved since. He’s even too scared to hiss at people.” Shiro explained as he watched Keith give the cat his hand to sniff. The cat tried back away but he was already at the wall of the desk

“Hey, it’s ok.” Keith said the cat, not approaching, trying to make himself seem unthreatening. “You’re ok.” The cat still didn’t approach him and Keith didn’t want to push it. He crawled out of desk and left the cat, making sure to push Shiro away so the cat wouldn’t feel crowded. “Why call me?”

“With the holidays coming up, I’m happy to say a lot of the cats have been adopted out. I tried looking for fosters but everyone is really crowded plus they’re a bit more focused on the kittens getting homes. He’s a fully grown cat. I thought you might be able to help.”

“I mean, thankfully I’ve got the next two days off and after that my shift doesn’t start until late so I’ll be with him. It’ll take a while to gain his trust though.” Keith said looking back to where the cat was hiding.

“Part of me hopes that once he’s gotten over his fear, he’ll be more sociable. Maybe you might be able to adopt him.”

Keith did want a cat. He had been looking at one earlier but she was adopted by someone else plus he was swamped with extra shifts when he got on Sendak’s bad side.

“I’ll try my best. I’m gonna sit near him until I can gain his trust.”

Shiro put his hand on Keith’s shoulder, “alright. I’ll continue closing up. I’ll stay with you but I’ll be in the back working on paperwork.”

Keith nodded and went back over to the desk, sitting next to it. He pulled his sketch book from bag and continued working on the drawing he started on his break. He was adding more details onto the space castle that sat in the landscape he was drawing when he looked over to check and saw a pair of blue eyes looking at him. When they made contact though, the cat backed up into his hiding spot again. Good, he was getting interested. He worked more until he felt like his sketch was finished. He flipped pages until he reach an unfinished portrait. It was supposed to be a character sketch but it looked like a certain someone so he never finished. Keith couldn’t think of any other ideas to draw so he let out a sigh and flipped back to older pictures of the mystery musician to remind himself. Soon his pencil was forming the familiar shape of the eyes and sharpness of the chin. He pointed the ears and added triangles under the eyes to add the sci-fi affect he was going for. He started the sketch out the accessories his character would wear when he noticed the cat poking his head out again.

“Hey. Wanna see what I’m doing?” The cat didn’t dart back under the desk so he took that as a yes and turned the sketch book to face the cat. Strangely when he did, the cat seemed to perk up and leave his hiding spot to get closer. “Like it? There was a guy who plays music on my corner so he looks like him.” after he said that, it almost seemed to trigger him to start meowing. A lot and really, really loudly. “Wow, ok, hi. You meow really loud.”

“What’s that noise?” Shiro called from his office

“The cat. He started meowing after I showed him a picture in my sketch book. Ok, I heard you, you can stop.” he said to the cat who was meowing and hitting him with his paws. He put his book down and picked up the cat looking right at him as he started making mournful meows. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Merow.” The cat meowed looking completely dejected suddenly.

“Hey, what wrong? What am I not getting?” Keith looked down at his sketch book where the familiar face looked back at him. “Is that? Could that be your owner?” he was answered with a small chirp. “Hey it’s ok. We’ll put up fliers. I haven’t seen him on my corner recently but maybe he’ll turn up soon. Why don’t you stay with me until I can find him?”

The cat’s tail twitched as he watched Keith paint away. It was his mystery musician but with a little brown cat sitting on the musician shoulder, like the same cat was doing to him currently. Once the cat started climbing up, whenever Keith was sitting or still he’d find the cat meowing at him at least once before he started up until he was sitting on his shoulder.

“Is it weird of me to be drawing your owner so much?” Blue, named after his eyes, meowed. “I mean, I never talked to him but I wanted to. I don’t do so good with people, I’m better with animals so I never said anything. First time I saw him I had a really bad day at work and glared at him when he tried to smile at me. I kinda felt guilty so I smiled at him the next time I saw him. That seemed to fix things though I still never talked to him. I did leave a cup of coffee for him when he wasn’t looking over at me. I took off before I could see if he took it. I guess I just really wish that I talked to him, even if it was just to tell him his music was really good. I guess you’d be a good reason talk to him.” Keith said, using the end of his brush to scratch the middle of Blue’s forehead. “It is weird though. How come your owner hasn’t come to find you yet? It’s almost been a month?”

It had been a month. Blue made himself at home and it gave Keith something to look forward too. Blue was not a fan of the kibble, a complete pro at sneaking any cooked meat from Keith’s plate. He acted pretty human like as well. Last time Keith came back home, his white board had been pulled down and Blue was chewing on the top of his markers, almost like he had been trying to pull it off. Strange as it was, Keith enjoyed him there and Blue seemed to like just as much as he would meow up at Keith with this cat like smile. He knew he had grown to love Blue and would definitely miss him when his owner finally came back to get him.

Which was another thing. The musician had never reappeared. Keith knew that musicians would change locations after a while but Keith had been through on getting fliers out, but still no response. Not even a hint of where his owner could even be.

“Maybe I should adopt you after all. Would you like that?” Blue let out a meow. “Alright then. I guess I’ll slowly start taking the fliers down.”

That night, Blue climbed up on his chest as he climbed into bed, curling himself up on Keith.

“And now I can never move again, thanks Blue.” he received an almost smug meow in return. Keith scratched him behind both ears, listening to him purr. “Thanks for being a mood booster Blue.” he said before pressing a kiss onto Blue’s head. He had never done it before so he was surprised when he heard a loud popping sound and a blast of smoke blinded him. Then the weight on his chest felt longer and heavier. Keith coughed and waved away the smoke to see a pair of blue eyes looking back at him. But it wasn’t belonging to a cat, it belonged to a human. The mystery musician.

“Uh, hi?” he said, giving Keith a sheepish smile.

Keith punched him.

“Here.” Keith handed the musician a package of frozen fruit as he watched the other pull away a bloody wad of tissue from his face.

“Thanks. Oh, ouch.” He muttered as the cold feeling was placed on his nose.

Keith felt kinda guilty. After he punched the guy he almost threw him out but he noticed that Blue was gone. He thought back to when he was trying to get Blue to trust him, the minute he showed him the picture of the musician he reacted greatly. His human qualities and the white board made Keith think. Hence why the musician was on the couch and not thrown out.

“So, who are you?”

“Oh, uh. Well you’ve known me as Blue for the past month, but I’m Lance.”

“Lance. Right, so how did you become Blue?”

“That’s a bit fuzzy, so bear with me. So you usually see me on your corner but I came a bit earlier than usual and there was a girl there. I talked to her for a bit before she said she had to go so she could finish an assignment. I asked her what it was and she gave me this look and said, ‘here, I’ll show you.’ Next thing I know I’m shrinking and feeling really weird and really confused and getting away as she tried to grab me. I starched her and took off till I ran into the first open door I found, which turned out to be your brother?”

“Wait, you were changed by what, a witch?”

Lance shrugged. “She said only love could break your spell when she tried picking me up.”

“Love?”

“Well I mean, you loved Blue a lot didn’t you? That had to break the spell.”

“Right.” Keith said. Lance obviously remembered things from being a cat, which meant a lot of pictures and the painting he’d been working on. Keith could feel his face growing red. This isn’t how he expected to first talk to Lance.

“You ok? You’re really red.”

“I’m fine.” He coughed, “I guess I’m a bit surprised no one put a missing person out for you.”

“Oh well I live here by myself. Haven’t been able to make any friends since I start school in the spring semester. My mom’s probably worried sick but no one’s in any rush to find me. Thanks for taking care of me. I should have recognised you when I first saw you after I turned a cat but things were a bit hazy and I was really scared. Then you showed me your picture and it hit me why I knew you. You’re a really good artist.”

“Thanks.”

“Think I can stay here tonight?”