Hearts of the Multiverse

Chapter Four: The Ghost of You

"But Amity would love one!"

Luz held up an orange kitten to Rei's face. Rei, unimpressed, shook her head. "I'm not risking Phobos and Deimos' safety to adopt a cat."

"But what if we got two cats?" Luz suggested. "They'd be so busy hanging out with each other, they wouldn't even bother your birds!"

"Cats are a lot of work, and you've already got Stringbean," Rei said pointedly.

The girl, Miharu, who had been taking care of a bunch of stray cats giggled at their interaction. Miles wasn't overly fond of cats, especially since that one furball spit web in his face. But it's not like he actively hated them, either.

Today, he, Giorno, Luz, Hunter, Arven, Zuko, Sokka, and Katara had decided to come check out this place Usagi had hyped up. They had originally thought she'd found some way to fix her brooch, but no. It was cats, because of course it was cats.

"They are pretty cute," Hunter said, gently scratching one of the cat's chins.

"I doubt Mabostiff would get along with them, either," Arven spoke up.

"Oddly enough, they're making me thinking about Appa and Momo," Sokka added in.

"Oh? Who are they?" Giorno asked.

Before Zuko could cut him off, Sokka said, "Our—well—our friend's flying air bison and flying lemur-bat."

"Every animal in your world is a combination of two things here," Giorno noted. He gave them, what Miles thought might be an attempt at a friendly smile. "Neat."

Sokka looked creeped out, Zuko still looked very guarded, and Katara smiled back politely, but was probably in the same boat as her brother. Miles leaned over to Giorno, "Dude, you're really bad at socializing."

"I have people for that," Giorno whispered back. "I've never been very good with small talk."

"Just...chill. Look at me. Do you see me sweating? Nah. You just gotta loosen up. Don't take casual convos so seriously."

Giorno nodded. "Sure."

"Ami," Katara said, out of earshot of Miharu. "I've heard you're also a water-bender. It's always nice to meet another water-bender, especially another girl!"

Ami smiled shyly. "I was surprised there was someone else like me out there, too. But I'm glad we've had this opportunity to meet. Zuko said you're extremely powerful and smart."

"Aw! Isn't that sweet, didn't know Zuko could be the gushy type."

"I was stating a fact," Zuko said sternly.

"Well, whatever the case may be," Ami said. "I hope we can be good friends and perhaps learn from each other."

"Definitely!" Katara agreed.

"I can't believe the people who can control lightning in your world do such terrible things with it," Makoto said, sidling beside Ami.

"Luckily there are ways of combating it," Zuko said. "My uncle taught me how to redirect lightning; he learned it by watching waterbenders."

"A way to repel lightning via water techniques," Ami smiled. "That's ingenious. Could you teach us this method?"

"Maybe, if we have time," Zuko said. "But we need to focus on getting rid of those monsters and getting home."