That was… one of his most awkward conversations to date. He had tried to tell her how much he appreciated her hard work for him, but it had ended with neither saying much. In the end all he had been able to do was tell her about his situation and what he was doing. At least he could show her how much he cared through his actions.

Liam was walking back home, with a bag of little snacks and goods in hand.

He had said goodbye to Elliot at the store, needing to get home quickly under his mother’s orders. They were orders from the woman, so he’d had no choice but to go immediately. Elliot had been adamant about going with him, but Liam had been sure to put his foot down against that, much to the kid’s dismay. He had eventually bribed them with a candy bar and a drink, along with the promise that they’d hang out again… but they still seemed plenty frustrated when he had left.

But it was what had to be done. There had been a reason he had made sure the two of them had walked away from his house when he realized poor Elliot had been the cat. Utopia had a lot of rules, and even though he and his mom had made sure to follow most of them, there were still quite a few they broke.

Mainly, they still kept blades and blunt weapons in their house.

A lot of them.

That had been such a laugh when he heard those couldn’t be kept. His mother had made sure to find a way to keep at least a couple around for his and her sake, but it had been so easy to procure them that Liam had even talked about if she’d be able to get a gun with the right connections. She put a stop to that early. While the punishment for illegally owning blades was apparently minor, owning guns here could mean his death.

That had been enough to scare him straight.

Still not straight enough for his house to allow visitors, though.

Speaking of which, he hadn’t been able to ask how the little bug actually found his address in the first place. He was sure no one else knew it. Hell, Liam barely talked to anyone else at school in the first place. No way in hell was a secret like that spilling. It was a strange circumstance, and it bugged Liam the entire time he walked back home. But eventually, his thoughts had to come to an end as he made it to the house, only getting lost twice thanks to him remembering the pathing.

His mother had been waiting outside.

She was leaning on the car, arms crossed as she smoked. Her eyes seemed tired, and her hair was frizzled from a day of work. She hadn’t seen him yet, so her smoking was a sight to see. The moment she saw him she threw the cigarette to the ground and stepped on it, making sure the smoke didn’t catch the air. Liam chuckled, he’d never once smoked anything to get high, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been around people who did. She’d been a real worrywart about his vices that past couple months, and hadn’t even let him use legally buyable substitutes to replace his old ones.

He was thankful for it now, but in the beginning…

Well, he had made more than a couple of plans on how to kill her, what seemed a lifetime ago.

The lack of substance also gave him a… pessimistic look on life. It had been the reason why the school hadn’t been quite so receptive to him in the beginning. He had been on the edge when he hadn’t been around his mother, angry at those weaker than him and terrified of those above. His skin, although still an unhealthy pale white, had a much healthier glow now that it hadn’t been going through withdrawal. That, and his long hair had grown thick enough to look like a mane now, nothing like the dead hair he had grown used to in the badlands.

His entire look had changed for the better, less a starving dog and now more of a well-fed coyote… The fact that they still looked as mangy as each other was not lost on him. But at least now he wasn’t so terrifying, and he wasn’t so terrified. The skimmer addiction was just on the level of an itch he couldn’t scratch, and he was no longer feeling so pressured against the world to the same level as before…

Liam was so changed that he was sure if he dressed up in Jit-toy clothes like the rest of them, he might actually look somewhat like he belonged in this district…

Somewhat.

His mother held him in a quick hug before pulling back, causing him to flinch a bit. It was almost too fast to call a hug, but it still surprised him. Luckily, she hadn’t noticed his fear. “Liam, why didn’t you come home? You could have… ah, you don’t have a phone. I forgot.” He shrugged, unsure of how to answer. Eventually, he just decided to make it short. Pulling up the bag, he took out a couple of cups of chocolate pudding, something he knew was the woman’s guilty pleasure. “I was just buying some things for us to eat. Met a friend along the way and… well, you know the rest, wanna eat?”

He hid his nervousness as the woman narrowed her eyes, staring through him into his soul. It was always nerve-wracking being around her, especially when he wasn’t saying the entire truth. Luckily her eyes turned away before he shattered, and she sighed. “...Sorry, Liam. I was worried. You don’t usually leave the house, so I… It does not matter. Come.” He nodded, and placed the contents back into the small bag before making his way into the hou-

“Mreeeooow…”

A cute little meow resounded around the area, and he swore he saw his mother’s ears perk up like sattelites.

His heart did a somersault, the familiar noise sending a jolt of fear down his spine. Then… then he saw it.The dumb cat, the dumb kid, was back in front of the entrance, pawing miserably at his mom’s foot. At least they weren’t using their claws anymore, ‘else Liam would personally stomp on their tail for his mom.

…They meowed again, and worst-case scenario finally happened when his mother went to pick it up. Liam’s brain went haywire, thinking about how to save Elliot while not dying to his mom. Unfortunately, brains going haywire usually meant they’d gone completely dumb.

He watched stupidly as the woman held it in her arms, her dark, sharpened eyes softening just a small, minuscule amount as she held the animal. The cat merely purred in her arms, leaning into them as she ran her hands down its fur. It looked over at Liam with what he could only call a smug look, and meowed again. It was all too ridiculous.

“...You are a cute little critter, aren’t you?”

Just… completely ridiculous.

She turned to him, dumb, meowing cat by her shoulder. It seemed to want to avoid looking at Liam. “Liam, you didn’t bring any meat with you, right? We should feed it before we go inside.” Mika said. Ah, perhaps… Liam searched through his bag, hoping he’d bought anything meat related to stop all this. He silently cursed with everything he had when he realized he actually hadn’t. It would have been simple to just toss… gently set aside Elliot after feeding it some jerky, but all he had brought were two pudding cups, some bar snacks, and a couple of bags of chips.

She seemed to see that.

“Then… let’s bring him inside for a second. I’m sure the kitten won’t mind…”

The cat meowed once more as she opened the door, and he was quick to follow inside. If he was going to save this situation then he had to be at least proactive. He moved aside her with a speed and grace he had been unaware he had, and slipped past the entrance hall.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Quick. He needed to be quick.

The first thing he did was pull out the blade handle past the living room, tearing it out without too much structural damage. There was a bow staff on the floor as well but that had to be the last thing he went for. first, he had to take the knife, the machete under the couch, and-

“What are you doing in here, Liam?” His mom said, appearing behind him. He almost yelped, flipping the blade of the knife in his palm, hiding the blade against his dark skin. “Just… cleaning up?” He hesitantly glanced at Elliot’s cat form to garner a reaction. It wasn’t good. The cat had a look of shock on its face, at least, as much shock as a cat's face could ever have. It saw. He hadn’t even been able to think about what to do because his mom went straight past him to the kitchen, humming a little tune.

It was all over.

“Cats like fish, right? Do they eat it raw? Hm…” His mother asked from the room over, he wondered why the hell she was speaking to the animal, before remembering he had done the same…

Like mother, like son, he supposed.

“Mrreow!” He heard Elliot the cat exclaim angrily.

“...Not even sushi?” She questioned.

“Mreaow? Mreow!!” The cat responded, no longer quite as resigned.

Liam had been so caught off by the casualness of their cat/woman conversation that he almost thought Elliot didn’t see the knife, but it was better to be safe than sorry. A few minutes later and they were eating what Liam had bought on the couch, meanwhile Elliot was on the coffee table in front of them, gingerly taking bites out of a small bit of torn apart sushi.

The cat had spent the last half minute pawing it towards a haphazrdly torn soy sauce packet, and failed so miserable they were forced to eat it the mess they made as it was. At some point it had gained the genius idea of merely taking the time to walk to the soy sauce and take sparse licks out of the black liquid with food in their mouth, in order to flavor the food.

Liam and Mika were so enraptured by the scene while they ate that they barely spoke. Hell, Mika barely even ate. It was a comfortable moment in the household, and Liam almost felt happy that Elliot had barged in like a little gremlin.

But eventuall the meal passed and then so did the time the cat was allowed inside. His mom yawned, scratching at her head while stretching her legs on the couch. He watched her as her eyes shut, and gently helped her up before she actually fell asleep. The woman always became tired after eating, and this cozy situation just made it easier for his to doze off. “Liam… I need a nap. Please take the cat out while I go and clean myself up…” He nodded, and picked up the cat while the woman woozily made her way to her bedroom.

Then it was just him and the cat.

“Mreow…” It replied, pathetically as it slapped his nose with a soft paw.

Liam ran a hand through his hair, too stupefied to do anything actually bad. He didn’t want to hold the animal now that he knew it was his friend. “Follow me, and don’t get fur on anything. Damnit…” He stood and walked to his room, and the cat hastily trotted behind him, shifting its eyes all around the house as it did so. He couldn’t understand its curiousity, there was nothing on the walls of this house. He and Mika had never bothered to decorate the place at all, so half the house was empty of even furniture.

They finally made it to his room, and he was shocked at the appearance inside.

Two of the clones had been in there, one reading a book while the other was absentmindedly searching the web. The clone on the bed, the one with the bad leg, still seemed to be wearing its clothes from yesterday. Meanwhile, the other one with the broken hands was on the computer and had switched to a loose muscle shirt and orange shorts.

The two seemed to still have their injuries, though neither seemed too put off by them. That seemed normal at first, and at first glance what seemed to be the weirdest part of all this was the cat behind him turning back into a human. Liam knew better, though… This was really off. The fact that they were reading, and studying, things he hadn’t expected from the braindead creatures…

Why were his clones… acting human?

He made a memory to find his other clone, and went to- “Wow! This was your power!? Why didn’t you tell me!?” Elliot scurried past him while he was contemplating, rushing towards Liam’s bed like they weren’t feeling guilty about the situation at all. They ran towards the clone sitting at the computer, going to grab it until the clone moved the chair back, letting the kid miss before grabbing them from behind and locking their arms in a hug.

“Wah!? Liam!!” The boy cried, completely captured by the Liam clone. The clone was stoic as they held the kid, and Liam stilfed a laugh as they tried to get away, to no effect. Their face was red as they finally fell limp, unsure of what to do. “Liam…. Help me….” They again cried out, somehow as pathetically as when they meowed in their cat form. He sighed, knowing that he had to fix this before Elliot actually got hurt. “He’s a friend, both of you! Don’t play rough.” At his words, the clone helped Elliot back up, smoothing out the kid’s clothes that got rumpled in the grab.

Elliot took a deep breath after they were finally released.

“That… wasn’t fun.” Elliot muttered, taking a few more tentative steps away from the clone and closer to Liam. “Do they hurt people? Are they allowed to do that?”

Liam just scoffed. “They’re just human, not like me. You can try it out if you want. Where‘d all that goat strength go? Not gonna punch it in the face?” He saw their eyes widen, and Elliot’s demeanor immediately became more reserved. Liam might have messed up… wait, that wasn’t what he was here for! He moved towards the bed, sitting on the side as Elliot meekly waited to be spoken to. Liam sighed, hating having to do this. If this was how the two would treat each other, then it wouldn’t work.

He palmed a fist, sinking his shoulders as he finally began the talk.

“...Elliot. You broke my trust.”

The kid flinched, their eyes immediately taking on a defensive tone. “Y-your mom let me in! She carried me into you house! It wasn’t my fault that… that… Um…” They stopped speaking as Liam stared them down with eyes that held little acceptance to the kid’s actions. He was no longer quite as reserved as before about scaring the kid, and he made sure to show it. His eyes took on a sharper glow, and his black irises became small as pinholes, as he focused only on Elliot. Like a tiger staring down its prey.

“Don’t give me that shit.”

His voice came out venomous, even though he’d tried his best to hold it. This was his room, a place that demanded privacy and respect. He expected the kid to be honest, at least in here. They finally seemed to get that when they saw the furious look on his face.

“Remember, Elliot. I’ll give you another chance. Try again.”

They were already small before, so seeing them try to make themselves smaller was quite a sight. “I’m sorry…. I just wanted to hang out with you… I wanted to speak about school more. You… you went, right? I just… Just wanted to hang out, is all.” The words came out as soft as a whisper, and Liam couldn’t help but remember when Wyland had pressed him so angrily outside the hall at school. He had felt as if he’d met death, or something far worse. It was a moment of fear that made him almost unable to speak, just like Elliot now.

Was that how Elliot felt, as well?

…damn it.

He waved his hand in the air, as if it would blow away the tension he had made. “Don’t act like that… I was just a bit pissed was all. Come here, Elliot.” The kid’s head perked up, but they kept that same look of sadness on their face as they sat down next to him. He placed a hand on their head and rubbed it, unsure of what else to say until the kid spoke. “I’m sorry… I saw why you didn’t want me in here, and I know I messed up. If you want I’ll just… not talk to you any… any… eh…” Tears started pouring down their face, and Liam was momentarily taken aback.

Were all people just crybabies the moment they came into his house or something?

“I-I saw the knife… and the sword… I won’t tell anyo-one even if you d-don’t speak to me anymore… But I don’t wan’ you to do that…” They said between gasps. Liam scooted forward a bit and just… held on, unsure how to take the whole scene. When he’d been hit on the head by their fist it had been a natural reaction, but to cry just because Liam had pressed them a little?

That was a whole different story.

“I’m so-orry… Really…”

He just held on, staring at the wall in front of him while the kid played out his feelings. Better that than to see the poor kid look so distraught.

“...I’m sorry too, buddy.”