mates ∞ l.s

.01

the summertime air was thin and hot. it was unusually dry this evening and kitty was laying next to the sunlight, a light brush of sweat lining the hairs on his hairline. the air conditioning was blowing its hardest, yet kitty was still baking. harry smiled.

kitty's eyes lazily scanned the room until it landed on something he thought was interesting. he stalked towards it, tail stiff as a board behind him. harry followed his line of sight until he found out what kitty was looking for.

hybrids and humans; the path to understanding

harry grimaced. it was his old textbook while he was studying to be a doctor, and it was from one of his earliest classes. it was filled with sterotypes and cliches; humans and hybrids are alike yet different but should respect each other and harry hated that book. it didn't explore anything other than surface level ideas, but it had a picture of a human and a hybrid holding hands and kitty seemed to like that.

kitty softly caressed the photo as if it were made of glass, "us."

harry chuckled and grabbed his hand, "that's us."

kitty opened the book and scanned the pages, not quite ready to understand what was written, but he was fully aware of how to read the images. he skimmed past bundles of photos that were dedicated to showing how similar the two are, but slowed down when he stumbled past one specific photo.

it was of another hybrid, one with a long bushy tail and pointed, auburn ears. a fox hybrid. harry read over the info. fox hybrids were known to be more independent and didn't like large groups of people. they have excellent eyesight, way more precise than a human, and they demand a lot of trust. harry once had a patient who was a fox hybrid. she was very quiet, was only there to have her wound tended to and left without a sound. 

kitty's golden smile sunk, he rubbed the photo, "'s my friend."

his whole demeanor changed, harry suspected the friend was one from when kitty was kidnapped. they didn't talk about it much, kitty still barely speaks. he's learned all of the sentences, the ins and outs, how to say certain words and what they meant but--he doesn't speak. 

sometimes it does hurt harry to know that his little one has been through such things and doesn't say anything about it, but the winter had been a long one and it's finally summertime and everything's warm and his work isn't as busy as it is during the cold and all harry wants to do is relax. he wants to learn kitty, he wants to take his time, he wants things to be normal because they weren't for a while. 

harry stills knows nothing about kitty and he wants kitty to tell him on his own time.

but now kitty has closed the book, a gentle plop and a soft rush of air follows the movement and he looks so sad. he holds the book to his chest and goes back into his corner, the sun still warming up the spot he left and he lays a lot less comfortably than he did before.

and that's when harry knew that this wasn't going to be easy anymore. 

completed / unedited

[a/n: i've finally started part two, it's gonna be a bit different than the first one, i haven't written a story in years, so please feel free to comment and let me know how things are going and if this book is too different than the first. i'm trying to add a solid plot so it's not a whole heap of fillers like the last one, so if you have any ideas or things you want to see, comment below and i'll try to implement them!]