Warning: Severe angst this chap only

On Friday, several days after their tumultuous weekend, Kai did the unthinkable. He called Yixing privately and asked if he could visit the agency again and spend time with the kittens. Yixing delightedly agreed, a little too delighted if Kai had anything to say about it, which he didn't. He kept his mouth closed, almost too embarrassed to speak or to admit he was looking forward to it. It wasn't that he'd had a particular stellar time playing with the girl kittens on Sunday. He'd had his hair pulled, Choa had practically gnawed a bald spot on part of his tail, and there was even one accident when Way got too excited and threw up on his pant leg. It wasn't pretty, but it honestly didn't matter to Kai. He felt somehow like being there was a worthwhile thing, even more worthwhile than working part-time. At his workplace he only spent time answering phone calls and trying to look polite when strangers - and some co-workers - gave him a double-take for being a hybrid. At the agency, he was a role model, and Kai had never felt like a role model before. Sometimes, change is good.

“We can eat dinner with the kittens and staff, if you'd like,” said Yixing as he parked their car. “I called Chaelin earlier, and she said she'd be delighted to have us join.”

If everybody was going to be so delightful today, Kai wasn't sure he wanted to partake yet.

“Sure,” he agreed glumly.

“That'll be fun then. It'll let you see them in a different environment than before. Let them see how adults don't necessarily throw their food around. Unless of course you have awful table manners. And then I'd have to ask you to tone it down for today.” Yixing laughed at his joke. Kai smiled un-amused.

There was no one to meet them at the back door. Yixing rang the buzzer and they waited a few moments until Chaelin could open it. She looked slightly less haggard than she had on the weekend, not that Kai really cared about people who peddled kittens for a living. Yixing would probably snap at him though if he were to say it aloud. 

“Hello, hello,” Chaelin greeted them. “Glad you could come by. Kai, the twins have been asking about you ever since you left! 'When's he coming back?', 'Is he going to play with us tomorrow?', 'Will he visit us when we go to our new home?'“ 

Kai swallowed heavily, suddenly sad when he remembered the girls would be leaving within the week. Just a few more days, if he remembered correctly. He really should have come again before now.

Yixing and Chaelin exchanged a look. “Well, that's certainly something to think about,” Yixing told her, and then looked at Kai.

“What is?” he asked, trying his best to look unexcited.

Chaelin smiled smugly. “We were thinking about asking you to join the visitation team. Part of our adoption policy stipulates that families must open their homes to agency specialists, to make sure the kittens are adjusting well, or aren't being mistreated, either purposefully or unintentionally.”

“I...” Kai didn't know how to answer right away.

Yixing apparently understood. “Think on it, hm?”

They didn't require him to answer further. Instead, Kai made his way to the girls' wing expecting to find the twins. They weren't there, but an elderly volunteer mopping the floors soon directed him to the kittens' joint playroom. 

Boys and girls together were racing around, shrieking and laughing, with one even sleeping in the middle of all the chaos. For having six boys over two girls, the twins were certainly holding their own. Choa was dictating play instructions to several of the boys while her sister Way stood on, second-in-command. A few disobeyed them, one sat grumpily in the corner, but nobody really cared.

Bobby was here too. He sat in and observed everyone, keeping the play from getting too rough. He greeted Kai lazily when he entered and quickly introduced him to the boys Kai had only briefly seen before. “Niel, Chanhee, Chanjo, and Byungie there. Don't mind Minsoo. He's sulking. Oh, and watch out for Ricky. He was tearing around here not five minutes ago and now he's... dead asleep... in the middle of the floor... as usual.”

Kai had almost no time to even talk to the boys because the twin girls were on him in a heartbeat. After half of hour of this, he knew he wouldn't be able to let them go. He made up his mind that he'd talk to Yixing again, and definitely join the visitation team. There was almost no chance the kittens in this agency would end up like him, turned out at fifteen to unsavory human owners. But just in case, Kai wasn't going to accept even the slightest possibility that it might happen to them. 

He wasn't paying attention when another of the staff entered the room to relieve Bobby, nor did he bother to look up at the figure until it was time to lead the kittens to dinner. He didn't recognize him either until all the hybrids were halfway through their supper and Yixing came into the room, and Chaelin greeted the man by name. 

“Oh, have you met Kai, yet?”

“What is this for?” Tao asked. He was leaning against Sehun's desk, once again sequestered in Sehun's bedroom alone together, and he was definitely planning to sleep here again. Jongdae said it was alright when he asked in advance, even though he'd laughed his head off silly at the question. 'But only if Sehun's alright with it! You don't want to force him into anything!' Jongdae had concluded with another wrenching laugh. 

“It's for my class,” Sehun answered now.

“I thought you'd already turned in your paper.”

“I have multiple classes, and more than one essay per year, you know, Tao.”

The hybrid pouted. He loved hanging out with Sehun but every now and then the human would treat him like an idiot who didn't know anything about the world, and while that may partially be true, Tao didn't really appreciate it. Most of the time though it was unintentional, like now. Tao had been mostly entertaining himself while Sehun studied, or attempted to study. Tao knew that he was a minor distraction, and he used that to his best advantage. 

“Is it time to go? You said you'd feed me.” Tao padded across the room to stand behind Sehun's chair and when Sehun didn't answer right away, he covered his eyes with his hands. Sehun instantly flinched and tried to dodge it, so of course Tao did it again. As a rule, he didn't particularly like being ignored, unless he's in a mood to be ignored, but it should definitely come at his own insistence, and not on the part of the person he wants attention from.

As Minseok had predicted, Sehun wasn't always the easiest person to be around, but that didn't stop Tao from trying. Since the morning he woke up here, Tao had visited every day. The first times were on Sehun's invitation and after that he just assumed he was allowed over whenever he wanted. Sometimes they just talked about any old random thing, and other times Tao napped while Sehun studied. Occasionally Tao watched him when Sehun thought he was asleep, wondering what Sehun was thinking, what Sehun thought about him, about them. He only had his musings because Sehun never talked explicitly about anything if he didn't have to. He still hadn't brought up the reasons behind his outburst almost a week ago. He didn't talk about his dad or the work he did, and he never once mentioned another cat in Tao's presence and dodged every conversation if Tao brought someone up.

“Baekhyun did a stupid thing today, did I tell you?” Tao had mentioned, just yesterday.

Sehun had only grunted. 

“Or did I tell you? I can't remember now.”

“You probably did.”

And that was the end of it. Tao read mixed emotions on Sehun's face, and most of them were saying how Sehun wasn't interested in anything about shelter life. He listened when it had something to do with Tao, but not when it involved anyone else exclusively. After a while, he stopped trying that method altogether. As long as Tao had something to share about himself that Sehun reciprocated, it was good enough. Almost.

“We are going to eat, right?” Tao insisted now.

“Yes, yes, sorry. I just wanted to finish this paragraph....” Sehun replied finally. Tao gave him a moment, his hands clasped now around his neck instead of his eyes. Sehun used to be wary of Tao's nails, but every day now Tao remembered to clip them, so not to have another accident like the last time.

He pressed the round edges into Sehun's neck now, halfway between a scratch and a massage, and he rejoiced when Sehun didn't immediately throw them off. Humans, it seemed, liked being pet almost as much as hybrids did, especially around the neck and shoulders.

“Okay...” Tao said, but Sehun wasn't done yet.

Tao started to move away, bummed, but before he could remove his hands, one of Sehun's reached up to stop him. Tao froze in place - breath still too - at the sight of Sehun's hand resting gently on top of Tao's own. Sehun craned his neck around and smiled apologetically.

“I'm sorry,” he started to say. 

“I'm really hungry...” Tao cut him off.

“I know. I'll make it up to you?” Sehun volunteered. 

“You better.”

Tao had no idea if this was what people called dating, but he didn't mind it, whatever it was. Jongdae was an eager inquirer whenever Tao came home from Sehun's place, asking what they talked about or what they did, even though Tao didn't have much to tell him. ”We talk, we watch TV, listen to music, or we eat food. Sometimes we go driving and get food through a window and it smells amazing! Fries! Have you tried fries before? Oh, and every now and then he kisses me...”

This was one of those times. With his eyes closed and Sehun's lips on his - apologies and food both forgotten the moment Sehun had stood up and Tao jumped at him - Tao could almost forget he was a half-species removed. Man and cat had no distinction, not even when his tail stood on edge from emotions or when Sehun's hands brushed alongside his pointed, furry ears and then scattered to pull at the rest of his hair and draw Tao closer to him.

These moments were defining for Tao, proving that Sehun liked him more than just as a friend.  They talked about so many things that weren't really important in the grand scheme of life, but this, this hinted at something more, Tao was sure of it.

They only parted when Tao's stomach gave one particularly horrid rumble. Sehun pulled away with a smirk and a laugh, and Tao frowned in embarrassment. 

“Should we take care of this then?” Sehun said, patting his stomach slightly through Tao's t-shirt. 

“Mmm. That would be nice.” Tao gave a nonchalant, almost haughty shake of his head, which Sehun saw through. He smiled brighter, and minutes later he had his car keys, wallet and shoes and they were out the door. 

“I never knew fast food even existed. How come we don't get fast food at home? I can't figure it out.”

“Probably because it requires going out to get it?” Sehun answered.

Tao inclined his head and shifted in the passenger seat. “Ahh. Makes sense. Hey, do you have to have a car to get it though?”

Sehun shook his head. “No. You can go inside, but it still requires a vehicle to get you places first.” He raised his eyebrows playfully.

And here was another hurdle in a hybrid's life. According to Yixing, only a few cats were actually approved to take drivers' licenses. He'd seemed hopeful that this was about to change, but so far most of the hybrids who got it were pets whose owners had become too sick, ill, or old to drive themselves. 

Sehun was far from ill, old or disabled, so Tao didn't have high hopes for acquiring a license. While Sehun drove the familiar route to their local fast food chain, he pondered silently why he'd even gone there with his thoughts - driving for Sehun, like pets drive for their owners. Because Tao was surely no pet, even though he liked Sehun a lot... 

The first whiff of fries quickly turned his head. 

They didn’t get the opportunity to enjoy their meal for very long, however. At first Tao didn’t notice anything, thinking the ringing sounds were coming from the radio which Sehun had turned down low. But Sehun immediately started feeling around his pockets until he could produce his phone and he pulled it out finally to stare intrigued at the caller.

“Isn’t this your house number?” he asked Tao. “Why are they… Hello?”

All thoughts about his food died the instant Tao picked up on Jongdae’s frantic voice over the line. Even Sehun seemed confused. “Yes, he’s here… Take it,” he said, handing it to Tao.

“Jongdae?”

“Tao! Hey, uhm… look I hope I’m not interrupting anything terribly important but… would you mind coming home? We have a bit of an emergency here…”

Without answering Tao looked to Sehun who had heard most of it already. He nodded and changed courses immediately to go back home.

“It’s no problem,” Tao answered. “We’re on our way back. What… is going on?” He had fears he hadn’t ever really mentioned to anyone before. For example, what if Minseok got sick? What if Luhan got sick? What if Baekhyun accidentally buried himself under ten pounds of dirt or Kyungsoo rolled his eyes too far and got his eyeballs stuck in the back of his head?

“It’s Kai… He uhm, just got back from the agency we visited and… something happened while he was there and… I can’t really explain it but he’s currently rampaging and none of us knows what to do about it. So just, hurry home, okay?” Jongdae’s controlled words belied his distress. Jongdae never got upset, but this was something different. 

Tao didn’t try to repeat Jongdae’s full message. He didn’t understand it anyways, and Sehun didn’t ask. Without speaking they drove the rest of the way home until Sehun was pulling up in front of the house and Tao jumped out before the engine was even turned off. He raced to the front door, unaware that Sehun was following curiously, silently.

The house was indeed chaos. Rarely ever were the hybrids all gathered in one spot in one room, but Baekhyun and Kyungsoo had Kai pinned down in a seated position between them on the couch while Minseok was trying to talk to him. Luhan stood behind them wringing his hands in anxiety, and Jongdae paced speechless until he saw Tao enter.

Kai didn’t even notice he’d come in. He sat with his elbows on his thighs and his head in between his hands and Minseok crouched in front of him with his hands helping to cradle Kai’s head. Kai gave one big sniff and Tao realized he was crying, and not just crying but nearly hyperventilating.

“Shhh shhh shhh, calm down,” Minsesok was saying.

Tao looked to Jongdae to explain, and in hushed whispers Jongdae told him what little he knew. “He came home about twenty minutes ago. Dropped off, and he was looked upset and furious and hurt and I don’t even know what, but after a minute he started yelling and he nearly took off Baekhyun’s head when he asked him what was wrong.”

“I can hear you talking about me, you know,” Kai gasped from halfway across the room.

Jongdae winced and stopped speaking, but Tao didn’t. “I don’t get it. What happened?” he whispered as quietly as he could. It wasn’t quiet enough.

“I said, I can hear you!” Kai roared again, tear-stained face looking outraged and he pulled hastily away from Minseok and even tried to elbow the others off him. “You’re just all sitting here, and I don’t know why you bother! I already said I’m fine and I just want to go to my room!” He tried to stand up, but the others stopped him.

“You’re not fine,” Baekhyun insisted.

“I said I’m fine. It’s up to you guys if you don’t believe me. So don’t try to say anything. You say you’re fine? Oh, yeah? And how would you know the definition of fine, ‘Mr. I pretend life is always fine and always has been!’ Huh?”

Baekhyun didn’t even look offended, he was so worried. Kyungsoo, however, had had enough. “Okay. Maybe we should put him in his room.”

“Oh that’s just great. Put me in my room now that I’m misbehaving. Isn’t that how it always is with cats? You think you can just lock us away when we upset people, and take us out again when you want to play!” He sniffed in between phrases, and despite his distress, his ears were downturned almost in defeat.

Tao didn’t know who or what he was even talking to exactly.

“Do you even know what happened today!? What I saw today!?” Kai suddenly railed.

“No, because you won’t say,” said Kyungsoo lamely.

“I saw—“ He choked before he could finish, and then he started crying again, his yelling match over for now. “I saw… him. It was him. From when I was there… in there. In a place like that…”

Minseok eyed him suspiciously. “You mean someone you knew before?”

“Y-yes.” Kai’s voice had sunk deeper, softer, and he covered his face once again with his hands. “He worked at the place I came from. He used to be nice. He pretended like he was raising us, but he didn’t lift a finger when we were sent away. I used to think he didn’t know. Didn’t know what kind of people they sold us too, otherwise he’d have never let them take us anywhere. I used to think, if only I could go home, back to the agency, and tell him, that he’d do something to save us. To save me.”

Behind his head Luhan looked on intently, and Tao watched as Minseok looked up and their eyes met briefly. An unspoken question went between them, and Minseok nodded almost bitterly.

Baekhyun as well looked more compassionate. “He was there today? He works at Chaelin’s agency?”

Kai mumbled. “Yes. I didn’t notice him at first. H-he… he works there now.”

“Had you seen him before? Since the first time you left?” Baekhyun asked. Minseok looked like he already knew the answer.

“Yes,” Kai said solemnly. “My…. My owners. They said I was broken, so they sent me back. He was still there. And I told him. Everything. Everything they did. He said he’d take care of it. Talk to someone and make sure they wouldn’t do it again. But he didn’t. They got another cat even younger than me even though he promised me, and then a few months later I was sold again and these people were even worse…”

He didn’t want to talk anymore. Tears clouded his eyes, even though most had already dried on his face. In a rare moment Kyungsoo leaned in to hug him, and Baekhyun held his hand. Minseok had a faraway look but he still tried to focus on Kai.

Jongdae stood on helpless, but he couldn’t have been nearly as helpless as Tao felt. It was like watching a train wreck all over again, except this time it wasn’t a drunk Kyungsoo, it was an entirely sober but broken Kai, and now Tao had an idea why he always kept to himself. Why he didn’t really crave interaction and why he yearned to be as independent as possible. Twice owned and twice returned. That’s what somebody had told Tao once. One of Yixing’s rescue cats but he hadn’t just been saved from a life of unknown. Kai had known exactly what was out there and what he was escaping from.

Tao would have thought him brave, if only Kai would agree with him. 

He opened his mouth to say something – what, not even Tao knew. There wasn’t anything he could say to Kai except that it pained him to watch this, but probably that notion wouldn’t go appreciated by the currently distraught hybrid on the couch.

Tao’s voice squeaked enough though to draw Kai’s attention. For one moment Kai looked mortified and embarrassed, but the next moment his eyes skipped past Tao’s and landed on a person behind him. Tao had already forgotten that Sehun followed him in.

“You brought that thing in?” Kai growled deeply. He made to stand up but Baekhyun held him down.

Sehun gulped. “I’m sorry… I’ll go. I’m going.”

“Oh, now you’re going? Just like that?” Kai’s tone started to grow in volume again. He changed targets. “Is this who you’ve been spending all week with?” he asked Tao.

Tao barely nodded. He still remembered the last time Kai had gotten upset, but he hadn’t stopped then to really consider why. All week the other cats had been shielding him, enough that Kai didn’t know, but he didn’t think it was really a big deal.

“Hey, I wasn’t done talking to you,” Kai said now to Sehun. The human stopped in his tracks and reluctantly turned around, cowardly avoiding every face that was now focused on his.

“I… was just dropping Tao off.”

Kai smirked and succeeded in shrugging Baekhyun off his arm, although he didn’t stand up. “What. You think just because you’re Yixing’s kid you can waltz in here whenever you like? Or you think you can just have our kitten whenever you want? Why, Sehun? You don’t give the rest of us even one fraction of your concern so why him, huh? Is it because he’s young and untainted, is that it?”

Minseok fretted. “Kai, stop it. You’re mixing up two very different situations right now and—“

Kai didn’t even seem to hear him. “So now you’re not even going to answer that?” he continued his interrogation.

Sehun’s jaw seemed to rise a couple inches in defiance, and Kai finally stood up to the challenge. Ten feet stood between them, but all the hairs on Tao’s back, head and tail suddenly stood on end.

“It—it’s not like,” Sehun said, finally meeting Kai’s gaze.

“Oh, it’s not huh? So tell us why now, when you haven’t given a about hybrids your entire life?”

“Kai…” Minseok warned again.

Kai snapped at him. “What do you care? You know how he treats us.”

“He doesn’t treat us like anything at all, and you need to stop,” Minseok declared.

“Exactly, though!” Kai wasn’t backing off anytime soon though. “He pretends we’re not even here half the time but now he’s dragging Tao all over the place and having him sleep over, and you’re just fine with that?”

Minseok was now standing level with him, although regretfully shorter. Even still, he didn’t bristle under fire. “It’s none of your business, and it’s none of ours to dictate how Tao lives his life, and I said, you need to back down.”

“So you’re just going to let him waltz away and steal whoever he wants—“

“I’m not stealing or waltzing away with anybody, I’m just—“ Sehun tried to insert.

Minseok held up a hand to him. “Quiet for a minute!”

But to Tao’s horror, Sehun’s face seemed to be alighting in fury more and more with every passing second. “Oh, so now you two are just going to talk about me like I’m not even here!” he yelled. Tao tried to make him look at him, but Sehun either refused or he just couldn't see him for all that his anger was starting to consume him. He glowered between Kai and Minseok, and mostly at Kai, but at his outburst, even Luhan snapped.

“Don’t you dare yell at us in our own home! This may be just a safe house to your family, but this is our home and our domain! You’d better leave if you’re going to—“

“Oh, don’t stop him now, Luhan,” Kai interjected. “Not when he’s finally acknowledging that we even exist!”

“Can’t everyone please stop fighting?” Baekhyun cried in a small voice.

“No, not until we solve this,” said Kai resolutely.

“What’s there to even solve?” Kyungsoo asked, more to himself than to the room at large.

“Can’t I say something?” Tao and Jongdae had stood to the side mostly forgotten throughout this whole thing. Jongdae reached for his hand reassuringly, eyes wide and eager to help but he just didn’t know how.

“What’s the point?” Kai asked. “It’s not like you even know anything about humans. You lived with an old man most of your grown life. Lucky you! And you,” he snapped once more at Sehun, “you know, I actually prefer it when you’re not hanging about here.”

Kyungsoo sighed loudly. “Kai, quit. Would you stop pretending that you’ve never been around a single human in the past few years? They’re not all about to jump and torture you, so shut up! You don’t have a single problem with Yixing, Joonmyun, Chanyeol or any of your co-workers so—“

“Suddenly you know everything?” Kai retaliated in a heartbeat.

“No, I don’t know everything. But I’m saying that you don’t know everything either, so quit being so dramatic.”

“Because you’re one for dramatics. ‘Oh Joonmyun, please, please just take me, why don’t you just take me?’”

Kyungsoo paled and stood up, and no one had anything to say. For a moment, Tao thought Kyungsoo might try to punch him, and the silence in the room felt like the slow-beating of a heart about to die. But then he his heels with a steely expression and marched away. They heard the door slam to the computer room, and that was the cue to resume.

“Are you done now?” said Minseok severely.

Kai looked vaguely remorseful, and he looked at Baekhyun who was frowning at him, Minseok who was pissed, Jongdae who was shell-shocked, and Tao with tears starting to trickle down his cheeks. And then he landed on Sehun.

“I’m sorry,” he said without one ounce of sincere apology. “Just trying to protect my own.” He shrugged like verbally attacking people was something he does every day.

“You act like I’m some sort of monster,” said Sehun bitterly with just enough bite to continue fueling Kai’s defiance.

“No. What I’m saying is that you don’t make any sense, and therefore I don’t trust you.”

“I don’t even know what you’re saying!” Sehun cried.

“You don’t? Well that’s too bad. Maybe if you’d bothered to inquire about us before now, you’d actually have a clue what I’m talking about. You know what I think?” Minseok tried once again to get him to stop, but Kai wouldn’t do it. “I think you’re just another dumb human who doesn’t know a single thing about cats, or how our pathetic, short lives are spent at the mercy of people like you.”

Minseok’s ears flared at the same time that Sehun’s cheeks flushed, and Tao bit down on his lip in a panic for where this was going.

“You don’t know what it’s like, Sehun, to live basically like a slave to people who feed you catnip around the clock so that you don’t even know where you are, or what you’re doing, or what’s being done to you.”

“He’s nothing to do with you, Kai,” Minseok warned in a low voice.

“No? But he’s something to do with Tao, and I think Tao needs to know. What people are allowed to do to their pets. Don’t you think he needs to know? Or maybe it’s Sehun that needs to know, since he’s so clueless and all. Have you ever had a pet? Other than your stupid poodles, have you ever had a cat? A hybrid? Sehun?”

Sehun seemed to draw himself up taller than Tao had ever seen him before, and Tao barely registered Minseok cursing under his breath.

“I have,” said Sehun.

Everybody but Minseok looked surprised, especially Kai although he recovered soon enough and drew breath. “Well then I guess you know how weak and fragile they can be and—“

“Shut up.”

Tao thought for a moment it was Minseok who had spoken, but he was wrong. It was Sehun, and he looked livid.

“Does this mean you do know then? Wow, I wonder about Yixing, actually allowing a hybrid pet,” said Kai cruelly.

“I said, shut up!”

“What was that? I’m sorry, all I heard is that you’ve apparently owned a hybrid before, so that certainly changes the standards a bit, don’t you think Tao?”

Tao didn’t have any time to react. Not when he was watching Sehun as he exploded.

“She was my mother! My mother! You son of a ! And she died years and years ago because stupid hybrids do that! They die young and then they’re gone. So now you know, and I hope that makes you feel better, but don’t pretend that you know anything about my life, ever again!”

4,904 words

Remember when I said that Sehun was adopted? Yeah... So now you understand and all the pieces finally come into play. If you go back and read anything, you'll see how well it fits that Sehun's adopted mother was a cat. That Yixing's deceased Jaekyung was a hybrid. Her spirit is everywhere in the story. 

Anyways. Reactions, answers, reconciliations, non-reconciliations(?) all coming next chapter. I've got a completely shell-shocked household of kitties right now. Even my cat is glaring at me like she can read or something and knows what I've done to my poor baby characters.  Basically nobody made it out of this chapter unscathed. I kind of want to cry myself.  Why do I write this way... *sniffs*

<3 Rosie