Bare (Lani.)

[Odion Martins]

“We didn’t have to take them to begin with,” Odion recalled, reminding himself of a time that felt ages ago, when two young men were trying to prove to one another that nothing really mattered. It wasn’t until they were called to action, that their choices proved otherwise – they really did have hearts, now it was just a matter of mending them. Odion wondered if Lani was going to continue talking about the universe and clarifying his point, but that topic of conversation had dissipated. Odion had always thought it was endearing when Lani started humming as the wheels of his mind turned, like a water powered mill.

Odion smirked, “Well it probably doesn’t help that we’re sitting up here.” He cradled LJ and then plunked him down on the floor gently. Cats always landed on their feet, and as soon as LJ had hit the ground, he was looking up for a chance to get back up. “No, you stay down there,” Odion said, raising his finger at the cat and everything. LJ walked away after Odion blocked the cat’s attempt at coming back up onto the counter with his leg. Even some cats had to learn the hard way – just like their owners. Lani gave some bullshit excuse about what was easier and Odion made no further comment on the matter. He didn’t care if Lani never cooked a day in his life, Odi had only been teasing him.

Adam. It all stood out to Odion so obviously now. The familiar shirt in the living room, it belonged to him, and Adam... Oh God! Adam was Lani’s roommate. The redhead hoped his thoughts weren’t being shouted to the world – if Lani knew how Odion knew Adam, well, Lani would probably say what they were doing was not on the road to recovery. Odion just hoped Adam and Lani weren’t very close. Instead of actually saying anything about Lani’s roommate, Odion just snickered. Rodent dogs weren’t something he was fond of, deeming them not truly animals as nature intended. Odion watched Lani interact with Darshay. “They all make their own decisions,” he said.

The water seemed calm for now. Odion glanced around the room looking for a clock. When he couldn’t find one, he took out his phone. One unread text message. He could check that later, and tell Caroline how things were going from his end so far. “I think I’m going to head back to the university,” he said, slipping off the counter gracefully. He didn’t want to leave, it just felt... over. And he was okay with that. It would be one of the few times he left without feeling like he had screamed out a lung, or was set ablaze with passion. “We should continue soon,” Odion said. He stood awkwardly for a moment, tossing the thought away of giving Lani a hug or some other kind of affection. So instead he crouched down and scratch LJ behind the ears. “I’ll be back soon,” he said, standing again, looking back at Lani. This wasn’t over.

[Lani Hunter]

Lani shrugged and looked at Odion analyzing the statement perhaps more than he should have. “We couldn’t very well just leave them,” Lani said taking the opposite approach. They had both proven that day that they weren’t as heartless as they wanted each other to think, because they could say it was a choice but they wouldn’t have left the kittens there to perish. Odion had really been good to them, especially in the start of it all, Lani’d probably have blundered a lot more if they were under his care. Odion really had done all of the hard stuff. The care Lani gave them now was mostly maintaining the status quo. And he didn’t mind caring for them. He loved them. He’d always liked animals but he’d never had any pets as a kid, it was kind of nice to have companions.

LJ was so upset when he was dumped on the floor. He complained loudly before he started looking to get back up. “Probably not,” Lani replied and smiled at Odion’s attempt to keep LJ at bay. The little cat was resilient and swerved here and there before finally sitting at Odion’s feet and meowing loudly at him. LJ was the kind of cat who got personally insulted if he were punished for doing something wrong. Because he was never in the wrong. Of all of the cats, LJ was definitely the one that Lani had to keep an eye on the most. At least the cat had finally stopped picking at the carpet in favor of the scratching pad he’d gotten. Adam was a cool guy, Lani really hoped that Odion got to meet him someday, he was a little bit on the strange side, but he was lovable. “Adam’s cool,” Lani added as an afterthought, “A little…” he whistled and made a spinning motion with his finger by his head.

Well, Adam would probably say the same about Lani. The telekinetic had a very good idea of how he was telling everyone about how he had saved the day when Lani set the kitchen on fire. And truth be told, without Adam they probably would have had a very bad situation on their hands. A lot of their neighbors knew about it, after all they’d had the impossible to turn off fire alarm, that Adam had so brilliantly tossed out the window. There were a lot of people that knew about that. At least they hadn’t made everyone evacuate. “True,” Lani agree, but made no move to remove Darshay from his lap. Lani looked up when Odion said he was leaving. “Oh-okay.” He said and didn’t move at first. Finally he took Darshay up in his arms and slid off the counter before stooping a bit to drop her to the ground. He rubbed his legs then went over to Odion to demand attention.

“Yeah,” Lani managed to get out and he felt suddenly lost and sad. He didn’t want Odion to leave just yet, but, maybe it would be good for them both to get some space and some air. “I mean you have my number, just call me whenever.” He added with a tiny bit of annoyance in his voice to indicate he knew someone had given it to him, but he couldn’t decide if that made him unhappy or not. Lani opened his mouth to say something more but he couldn’t bring himself to say anything more. This wasn’t over in the least. “Uh,” he said eloquently and motioned randomly like he wanted to do something in farewell and thought better of it. It was so much harder being apart than it was being together. He coughed awkwardly, "I guess, I'll see you at school, then." He blundered terribly and gave Odion a smile. It was going to be a long road ahead of them, but there was something different. Now there was hope.