Page 23 of Found in Obscurity

He didn’t like the attempts to be renamed, but he’d take any idiotic name now if it meant having Lorin happy again. Or…not really happy, but not this broken, crying shell of a human Kit was trying to calm down.

He ached seeing him like that. It hurt more than Kit’s own pain.

He tried pushing himself closer to Lorin, hiding his nose against his neck and letting all the tears Lorin had rush down into his fur. He’d soak them up. Hide them until they didn’texist anymore. He’d be the scaffolding for Lorin to build himself around again.

He’d be the family Lorin clearly didn’t have anymore.

He dug his way farther into Lorin’s arms and licked softly at the skin of his wrist as he vowed that he’d be everything Lorin needed him to be.

Chapter six

Lorin

Lorin was exhausted bythe time his tears had dried up. Like a dishrag that had been wrung out. The fox was a steady presence against his chest, and he lifted his tear-stained face from its fur, feeling a little bad about how much he was leaning on it.

He was a mess.

Witches were supposed to look after their familiars, not the other way around. So far Lorin had done nothing but ignore or use the fox. It made him dry swallow past the lump in his throat.

He glanced around the shell of his old room. There was too much here to deal with at once. Too much that had been locked away between its walls. He gripped the fur under his fingers tighter and breathed out, trying to decide where to even start. Every door inside this place was a gateway into a past that was painful and raw. He didn’t know if he was ready to open them all yet.

Maybe tomorrow.

Right now, he needed to get out. To lock it back up.

He adjusted his hold around the fox, which perked its head up in interest. Amber eyes locked on his face as Lorin lifted it up, getting back to his feet.

The fox seemed excited by this change in position, snuggling underneath Lorin’s chin and licking at his neck and chin, its fluffy tail curling over Lorin’s forearm. Lorin allowed himself a small smile, even as he tried to avoid the tongue. He still couldn’t find it in him to resent the fox, not when it was so generous and kind and unassuming. Not when the glow in his chest begging him to embrace it and protect it was growing ever stronger.

All the fox seemed to want to do was help him, so maybe he needed to start repaying that. At least a little.

He walked them to the kitchen and set the fox at his feet. It was reluctant to leave, trying to scramble back into his arms to be cradled, claws catching his shirt.

“What? You want me to walk you around like a baby?” Lorin asked, stuck in a half crouch. “Aren’t you a grown fox?”

Lorin paused here.

Wasthe fox fully grown? Observing it now with a tilted head, it wasn’t exactly large, but he didn’t know the measurements for foxes in general. Humming, he sat back on his heels and took out his phone with his free hand.

The fox fussed around his arm, still trying to be cuddled and held. He typed in arctic foxes and scrolled through the information while he petted it absently.

“Aha!” he exclaimed once he reached a diagram with the different life stages of an arctic fox. “You are a grown fox, not a little kit!”

At the end of his sentence the fox went crazy, dancing around him, hopping up, and licking at his face so much that Lorin fell onto his ass, his phone clattering off.

“Hey! Calm down!” Lorin said, trying to contain the energy fluffball suddenly climbing all over him and licking his face. “You’re certainly not acting your age. Maybe you are a kit.”

The fox screeched in agreement, so loud Lorin had to cover his ears. “Okay, okay. You’re a kit. A lovely little kit. Please stop whatever it is you’re doing.”

The fox settled back down onto its ass obediently, looking up at him like butter wouldn’t melt.

Lorin shook his head, slowly pulling his hands away from his ears once it appeared to be safe. “You’re not as cute as you think you are.”

The fox tilted its head, as if challenging that assumption.

Lorin rolled his eyes. “Okay, Kit. You wanna be Kit?”

The fox jumped up and did a circle. It was as good a defined yes as anything the fox had done so far.