Finally, after much hair pulling and hitting Baz on the back of the head, the day when he's getting the cast removed arrives.
He does not remember anything. Not the drive to the hospital, not getting out of the car, or anything that happens once inside the hospital. He must have blacked out or something (it used to happen a lot when he was a kid), his brain shutting off to avoid dealing with the stress.
Point is, he's finally been set free. More or less.
He still has to use crutches or a cane to move around, but at least he can go back to work now. He's still staying with Baz until his leg has fully healed and the doctor authorises him to walk normally again.
When he arrives at the office the next day (Baz, miraculously, had come with him), Mousie is waiting for him at the parking lot in front of the building.
"Master Kit!" Mousie rushes over to help him get out of the car, "You're alive!"
"Of course I'm alive! Why wouldn't I be?"
"Most of the time, if a horse breaks its leg it gets put down."
He splutters, "I'm not a horse, Mousie!"
"Sorry." She looks down at her shoes. "That's the only medical knowledge I have."
"Why do you know about horses?" He feels a little hurt that she compared him to a horse.
To her credit, she does look apologetic. "My aunt used to raise horses."
In the background, Baz has been cackling at their exchange. "How old are you again, Mousie?"
"Eighteen next week…" she mumbles, her cheeks turning pink.
"Really? I wouldn't be able to guess," he laughs.
Kit hits the back of Baz's leg with one of his crutches. "Shut up, you idiot. We're already late."
He makes his way to the door, Mousie walking ahead to open the door for him.
"Thank you, Mousie, but it's really not necessary."
"Nonsense. You almost got killed by a demon!" She covers her mouth as soon as the words are out.
He frowns at her. She shouldn't know it was a demon. That had become a classified mission; the details about it should not have been known to anyone other than the people who carried it out and the Director. The Director had definitely not told anyone, and neither had Aster. Baz would be the most likely suspect, but he had spent almost every waking moment with Kit, so no; not him. This time.
"Who told-" He catches Jessica's eye before she turns away. She pretends to be busy typing something.
Looks like someone had been busy gossiping in the time he was away.
While technically Jessica shouldn't have known either, the Director had the bad habit of just dumping all her paperwork on Jessica, treating her as her personal secretary even though she was just the receptionist. (Apparently laziness, though with different degrees of intensity, ran in the family.)
"Jessica?" he asks sweetly.
She pretends to ignore him, but the sound of the keyboard clicking grows faster.
"Would you care to explain why Mousie is talking about a demon?"
"Not really." Jessica stares intently at her computer screen. "Perhaps you might have more luck asking Mousie?" she suggests mildly.
He can feel Mousie tensing up next to him.
"Never mind," he sighs. It's no use. If the cat is out of the bag there's no use trying to stuff it back in. So long as they don't talk about it with people outside of the office.
He hobbles towards his cubicle, Mousie once again holding the glass door dividing the lobby and office area open for him.
There's only four cubicles, two on each side. His is the first one on the right, with Aster behind him and Baz directly across. The last one is technically a vacant one, but Mousie and Gnocchi have taken over it as their own, using it to store snacks (and other things Gnocchi had said his parents didn't allow him to take home) in the desk drawers.
"Master Kit!" Gnocchi, for the first time in weeks, doesn't come out from the backroom, instead springing up from behind the vacant cubicle's wall. "They're firing me!" he cries, unspilled tears shining in his eyes.
Kit stares at him, confused. "You don't even work here, though…"
"Gnocchi!" the Director comes out from her office.
'Save me' he mouths at Kit. Gnocchi puts on a weak smile, turning to face her. "Yes?"
"Clear out your cubicle. Right now!" (Ah… So that was why he said he was getting fired.) "Didn't I tell you to do it last week?"
"Well, yes-"
"Then why haven't you done so yet?!" she snaps, tapping her foot impatiently. "Oh Kit," she finally notices him, "you're back. How are you feeling?"
"Fine. I think." He feels like something is off. Maybe it's because he isn't used to the Director being nice to him…
"That's good to hear." She turns to leave back to her office.
"Director, if I may ask," he calls out to her, stopping her from leaving, "why are you making Gnocchi clear out the desk?"
She tilts her head slightly, "You haven't heard?"
"Heard about what?"
"...I thought Baz would have told you." She looks genuinely confused.
At that moment, Baz is entering the office. The Director immediately fixes her glare on him. "You didn't tell him?"
Baz looks just as lost as him. Even though Baz hadn't been seriously injured during the demon job, he had basically taken the full recuperating month with Kit, so this was also his first time returning to the office. Apparently the Director was unaware of this, judging from her assumption he knows about whatever she's talking about.
"Tell him about what?" Baz asks.
"About the person they're sending from headquarters?" the Director looks like she's about to slap him.
"They are?!" Baz and Kit exclaim at the same time.
The Director's eye twitches. Slapping him? Scratch that. She's definitely thinking about straight up drowning her brother. "What do you mean you didn't know?!"
"Uh…" Baz seems to realise his slip up. "I-" He stops, biting his finger worriedly.
"Have you not been coming in to work? What have you been doing this whole month, then?"
Baz stutters over his words. "Well you see I-" He doesn't get too far before he's standing, dripping wet, in the middle of the office. He's coughing and gasping for air.
The Director had hit him right when his mouth had been open, and some of the water must have gone down the wrong way.
"Are you trying to kill me?!" he cries when he's finally able to talk again. "Fine! I admit I was in the wrong, but you didn't have to go so far! I could have died!"
He would definitely not have died.
"Serves you right if you did!" the Director has started shouting too. "That way I wouldn't have to deal with you anymore!"
Baz shouts something back, but at this point Kit has already tuned them out. When the siblings start arguing it's better to ignore them. An argument over where to have lunch could go on for hours.
Aster waves him over to xeir desk. "Hey," xe gives him a small smile, "it's really good to see you're back."
"Was it that bad?" For Aster to be showing genuine emotion, it must have been.
"It was horrible. Jessica was the only halfway sane person in this place. They've been working my ass off," xe complains, "I barely have time to even take a shit."
"Ha! Now you know what it feels like!" He feels a sense of morbid satisfaction.
"Yeah, yeah. Sorry for not taking your suffering seriously before."
"Do you know what this sending someone from headquarters deal is about?"
"Oh, that…" Aster scrunches up xeir nose. "Yeah, you know the Director submitted a report to headquarters, but because this is the Bureau we're talking about, they only read it like a week ago. Point is, when they did, they said they were sending someone over to monitor the situation."
"Do you have any idea who it is?"
"Erm. I think the Director mentioned their name but I forgot."
There's a thud from underneath Aster's desk.
"Ow," the voice sounds muffled.
"Dee?!" Kit tries to crouch to look, but his leg groans in protest, making him reconsider. It's been too long since he last saw them; she only came to visit him once at the hospital, and the whole month he spent at Baz's house there was no contact at all. "Is that you?"
There's a few seconds of silence. "No. It's not me."
"Dee, if you didn't want anyone to find you, you should have stayed quiet. Or hidden in the storage room."
"...Okay." She still doesn't come out.
"Why are they hiding under there?" he asks Aster instead.
Aster just shrugs. "I don't know. They just hid as soon as they heard the Director coming out of her office."
"Oh, by the way," Kit realises something, "when did you two meet?"
"About two weeks ago. Jessica brought them in, so at first I thought they were some niece of hers. She was quick to correct me, though," the corners of xeir mouth curve up in a mocking smile, "I didn't know you had been assigned a new student. And a shapeshifter on top of that."
"Yeah, believe me, it also came as a surprise to me." He was still not completely used to the idea. Their time together had been rather short, only like three days, before the whole thing with the demon had happened. He knows he shouldn't, but now he's feeling guilty about neglecting his duty as a teacher. Even Baz was pretty much always there for Valentine.
"They're a total sweetheart," Aster informs him sarcastically. "Just yesterday they tried to bite Gnocchi for not sharing his chips."
"Hey, Kit," Dee crawls out from under the desk (probably trying to draw his attention away from Aster's comment), "guess what?" She pulls out a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket, unfolding it and showing it to him proudly.
He takes it, his eyes quickly taking in what is written on it. "You wrote this?"
She beams. "Yep."
He almost cries tears of joy. Gone are the scribbles and the chicken scratch handwriting. The kid has finally learned how to properly write, the letters actually traced properly. Those calligraphy exercises had done their job. Now I can finally accept them as my apprentice, he thinks.
"Oh! And another thing!" She reaches into her other pocket, this time pulling a small paper bag, tied at the top with red string. She holds it out to him, "Jessica's mom gave some candies to me the other day, but I saved some for you."
Now he's really making an effort to hold the tears back. "For me?" his voice cracks a little. Dee nods, and he gingerly takes the bag from their hand. "Thank you." He feels genuinely touched.
Aster is giving him a funny look. (Xe's just jealous, he sniffs inwardly.)
"So?" Dee is bouncing on the soles of her feet. "Can I finally learn some real seals now? No one's wanted to teach me anything…" she whines. "Jessica just said I had to finish the exercises you left for me. But I finished those days ago. So then when I told Jessica that, she said I had to wait for you to come back because you were supposedly my master, and you were in charge of my education and someone else shouldn't interfere. So I've been stuck doing nothing all these days. I've been bored out of my mind," they finish their rant.
"That would make two of us," he sighs. "Come on, I'll start teaching you the basics."
Dee cheers.
~~~
"I don't get it," Dee has her face scrunched up in confusion.
He pinches the bridge of his nose. "I'll explain it one last time, okay?" They've been stuck on the same part for the last half hour. "A seal keeps the magic in once place," he makes an encompassing motion with his hands, "meanwhile an array spreads out the magic," he makes a spreading motion this time. "You got that?"
Dee nods earnestly, imitating his hand gestures.
"When drawing a seal, you have to infuse it with magical energy as you are drawing it and afterwards when you want to activate it. Clear?" Dee nods again. "An array only needs to be infused with magical energy after it has been completed, but it requires a larger amount of energy to activate. What about this is so hard to understand?"
"Yeah… You see, that's the thing…" Dee looks a little sheepish, "I don't get the whole infusing thing."
He smacks his forehead. One of these days he was seriously going to travel all the way to the capital just to murder whoever had been in charge of Dee's education. He's more able to forgive the fact that they didn't teach them how to draw the seals themselves, but basic magical energy control? Not even in theory? That was just another level.
"You don't know? You're not joking? No, of course you're not. Why would you be?" He massages his temples. "Ughhh, god… What am I going to do?"
"Are… are you okay?" Dee seems concerned.
"Yeah. It's fine," he lies, "I just need a minute." He shuts his eyes, exhaling loudly. He stays in that position for a few seconds, before suddenly clapping his hands once, startling Dee. "Alright! We'll just have to start from the beginning then!" Again, he thinks bitterly. "Um… Just how much do you know?"
"Eh…" Dee scratches the back of her neck, "To be safe let's assume I don't know anything."
"There are three types of energy in the world: natural energy, magical energy and evil energy. You knew this, right?"
"Um."
"Never mind. Anyways. Evil energy is pretty self explanatory, besides, you don't need to know that now. All you need to know about natural energy is that all living beings possess it. We'll just focus on magical energy, okay?"
"Okay. So, what is it?"
"Let me finish before making questions. Magical energy is what allows you to, well, do magic." It feels stupid saying it like that. The textbook explanation is a lot more complex and technical, but he has to try to simplify it as much as he can for Dee to understand.
He's never had to teach this before; both Mousie and Gnocchi had already had a base, if a little shaky, but at least they had known about the different types of energies and basic control of magical energy.
A human child would show signs of possessing magical energy from ages seven to eight, with five being the earliest and ten being the latest. The signs would normally be making objects float or vanishing them, a few would even be able to see ghosts. This was usually not the case with children from one of the four magician clans, instead manifesting their family's inherited technique. From then, they would be taught how to control the energy and how to channel it. Most children, even if they didn't choose to pursue any magical related fields, and there were very few that didn't, would be able to do at least a few basic spells and seals.
Kit remembers when his parents had found out he had magical energy. He had been a bit of an "early bloomer", something his mother had liked to brag about to the neighbours. A few months after he'd turned six, his family had gone to visit one of his father's relatives in another city around the coastal area. It had been a long trip, and he was feeling irritable from both hunger and tiredness.
His aunt had been waiting for them at the train station to take them over to her home, but Kit had refused to leave with her, crying and hiding behind his mother. He'd never met any of his extended family except for his maternal grandmother, and his already withdrawn nature added to his irritable state had made him even less willing to interact with anyone new.
His parents had grown exasperated at his tantrum, his mother tugging him out from behind her and his father pretending to ignore what was going on. But unlike them, his aunt had just smiled at him, crouching down to be at his eye level.
"Hello Kit," she gave him a little wave, the skin around her eyes crinkling with amusement. "It's very nice to meet you. I'm your Aunt Anja. Would you like to have lunch at my house?"
Kit gulped down his tears. The promise of food was stronger than whatever initial distrust he had towards this new woman. He nodded hesitantly, and his Aunt's smile had only grown brighter.
"Alright then," she said, standing up and extending her hand out to him.
From the train station to his aunt's house was only a ten minute ride. But when she brought out the food, he had started crying again.
The food in the coastal region was very different from that in the capital, mostly consisting of seafood, in its majority fish, and a few crops that were grown around the area, such as rice, coconut and beets. And even if they weren't exactly foreign foods to him, he had tried them before, but he'd never seen a whole fish, with head and all, before. It had shocked him, and he had simply burst out crying before he had realised it.
A few seconds after his outburst, the fish disappeared. It simply vanished into thin air.
"What-" his father muttered.
"Was that the kid who did it?" his aunt asked.
"I think so?" his mother said.
Just then, the clock right across from the dining room also vanished.
"That was definitely Kit!" his mother cried.
"Ah! It looks like your kid is magical then!" his aunt clapped her hands.
After that, his parents had made sure to invest in his education, enrolling him in all sorts of courses designed to teach him about magical energy control and preparing him to be able to enrol at the Academy when the time came. His future in magic had been basically determined from the start.
"So does that mean I have magical energy?" Dee asks.
"I would assume you do." He doesn't know how magical energy works with magical beings though. He guessed it was similar to humans, since not all magical creatures had it. But maybe it was different? Would the difference in their natural energy affect how their magical energy manifested? Creatures with magical energy weren't taught alongside humans, instead being instructed in how to channel their magic by their own kind. But because there are no fox-shifters left to teach Dee, the task has fallen to him, and he is woefully unprepared for it. Especially because their handler at the Bureau had neglected to teach her even the most basic principles.
"How do I infuse seals with magical energy then?" Dee is growing impatient.
"You first have to learn how to channel it, though. And I suspect you don't know how to do that…"
"Well then, how do I do that?"
"Uh…" Kit tries racking his brains to remember what he had been taught back when he was six. "Have you ever felt like um, a ball of energy? Was that the word? Yes, we'll use that for now. Um, anyways… Have you ever felt a… A knot! That was the word!" The lessons are finally coming back to him. "Like a knot of energy around your navel?"
"Um. Not really? I mean, that doesn't really make sense?"
"Just play along, will you?"
Dee shrugs, "Okay…"
"Ok, so that knot of energy, or fine. Let's call it a reserve of energy, if you close your eyes and focus really hard, you should be able to visualise it."
Dee just blinks at him.
"Hey. You're supposed to follow along with what I say. Close your eyes and try to visualise it."
"Ugh. Whatever." She closes her eyes reluctantly.
"Okay, so once you have visualised it, you have to imagine it spreading across your body. Just keep thinking of that energy spreading and it will."
"That literally sounds so stupid," Dee mumbles.
"Do you want to learn how to make seals or not?!"
"Okay, okay! Don't shout at me! I might be a little slow, not deaf!"
"Once that energy has spread and circled around your body a couple of times, imagine it exiting your body. Like, um… Like tendrils of electricity! Yes, yes, that was what they said!"
"And after that what?"
"Well, for the most part they just had us levitate some small objects or change their colours… But first you have to make that energy flow through your body!"
"I already got that part down."
"Liar!"
"Fine," they huff. Their eyes squint together in concentration. Kit just watches her for a few minutes, until they suddenly cry out, "Hey! I think I got it! I get the whole energy thing now!" She opens her eyes, pleased with her discovery.
Kit places an eraser in front of them. "Okay, now try to direct that energy towards this eraser to make it float."
"Huh??? Just an eraser? Can't I at least try something cooler? Like, I don't know… Maybe some knives?"
That sounds like a terrible idea. "No!" it comes out a lot louder than he intended. "I mean, let's just start with small objects. Then we can pass on to larger things." He's definitely not going to let her experiment with knives. He can only imagine the level of disaster that would bring. "And you have to learn to fine control it too. Don't just make the eraser float around. Give it a sense of direction."
That should keep them occupied for a good time.
Sure enough, after a whole hour, Dee still hasn't managed to make the eraser even lift a centimetre off the table.
"Why can't I make it float?" she groans. "I've been here all morning, and it hasn't even moved an inch. Say, Kit, how long did it take for you to master this shit?"
"Uh, about a week?" he lies. It had actually taken him around twenty minutes to make an eraser float, and only two hours more to be able to fully control it.
"Ugh! I'm going to be here for a month!" Dee lets herself slide down from the chair to the floor. "Why can't you just teach me the useful stuff already?"
"Because you can't even channel your magical energy. If you can't manage that, you'll never be able to even cast the most basic spell."
"...Oh. Right." They pick themselves up, sitting back properly on the chair across from Kit, the desk in between them. She goes back to staring at the eraser, this time with a newfound intensity, but still, the eraser doesn't budge.
Kit lets her be. She'll have to figure this out on her own. For his part, he's behind on paperwork, a full six weeks' worth, that he desperately needs to catch up on.
The rest of the morning is spent this way, the only sounds breaking the silence being the occasional drawer opening or Dee huffing in annoyance. So focused he is on his work, he doesn't notice when lunchtime rolls around.
Baz taps on the cubicle's wall facing outwards. "Hey, why don't you take a break to eat?"
Kit looks at the time on the computer screen. "Is it lunch already?"
"Yep. Do you want to order something?" Baz makes his way into the small space, sitting on the desk's surface, since Dee is using the spare chair.
"What, not going out today?"
"Nah, it's too hot outside and I don't feel like walking. So? What do you say? It's on me."
Dee looks up, a hopeful shine in their eyes. "Does that include me?"
"Sure," Baz agrees easily. "I was thinking Chinese? You know that restaurant near the bookstore?"
"I thought they didn't do delivery?" Kit asks. He'd gone several times with Baz, and he was pretty sure they didn't offer the service.
"They don't. But I'm a regular, so they always make an exception for me." Baz is already pulling out his phone to place the order. "You're getting your regular, right?" he asks Kit, "And you're fine with the kids' menu."
Dee shakes her head no.
"I said you were fine. I wasn't asking."
Dee wants to argue, but they've already picked up on the other end, and Baz is already placing the order.
~~~
The food doesn't take long to arrive, five minutes at most.
Baz hasn't even finished paying when Dee has already started digging in. Apparently, the kids' menu came with a colouring page, but Dee just throws it aside.
This time, Baz takes over the spare chair, forcing Dee to eat on the floor.
"You know you can go eat in the common room," Kit tells her.
"I don't mind," Dee answers with her mouth full.
"Suit yourself."
As he's reaching over for a napkin, he hears Jessica's heels making their way over, and she comes into view a few seconds later. She's holding a salad wrap in one hand and a file in the other.
"You have a job," she announces to the room.
Kit frantically prays it's for Baz. His hopes are quickly shattered when she places the manila folder right in front of him.
"I just came back. Besides, I'm currently not that mobile right now…" he tries to put up excuses. "Can't they send someone else?"
"Aster is currently on an exorcism job. Also, they specifically requested for you."
His jaw drops to the floor. "M-me?" he points at himself.
"They did?" Baz asks, a strained smile stretching his lips.
"Yeah, the client placed a request. A few days ago, actually. But since you just got back," Jessica says, bored, taking a bite from her wrap. "It's not urgent, so you can finish your lunch first."
He opens the folder, doing a quick scan as he continues to shovel fried rice into his mouth. The name of the client seems vaguely familiar, but he can't place a face to it.
He sees it's a request for setting up a protection barrier. This is why they must have specifically asked after him then.
Hm… This looks like a perfect opportunity to teach Dee some things, he thinks. His eyes keep travelling down the page.
There, very clearly written, is the word 'chickens'. Looks like he has to take care of some chickens?
It gets him thinking: chickens and foxes. Chickens and foxes…
…Perhaps he would take Dee along some other time.