The pirate hideaway felt too loud, too busy. Laughter rang through the air, mixing with the salty breeze and the ever-present scent of damp wood and old metal. Orioncharm had never liked places like this--crowded, unpredictable, crawling with unfamiliar faces. But the thing that made his fur itch, the thing that kept his ears flicking back even when he wasn’t being spoken to, wasn’t the noise. It was absence. Two islands. He had seen so many faces, spoken to so many cats in short, wary tones. But never Balladblithe. He hadn’t realized how much he had been looking, how every shadow had made his ears twitch, how every vaguely familiar pelt shade had his gaze flicking toward it before he could stop himself. He hadn’t even admitted to himself what he was hoping for. Not until now. Because now, he saw them. Just ahead, half-turned away, light fur catching in the shifting glow of a lantern. The same relaxed posture. The same sharp angles and subtle, easy grace. His heart lurched up into his throat, and for a moment, the world pulled tight around that one figure. Balladblithe. He surged forward a step before his brain caught up with his body. The cat turned. The light hit their face. Not them. His breath hitched, and he felt something inside him twist--like his chest had been hollowed out and left raw. His paws felt heavier, like he had been running for something that was never there to begin with. Not them. Of course not them. Something ugly and exhausted curled in his gut, and he forced himself to look away, to keep walking. He wasn’t looking for them. He shouldn’t be looking for them. It wasn’t like they had been anything important, anything special. They had just been... Just been what, exactly? A friend? A passing connection? Someone he only ever saw at borders and gatherings and definitely shouldn’t be feeling like this over? But the way his paws still felt unsteady, the way his mind was still scrambling to rewire itself after that split-second of certainty--Balladblithe is here--said otherwise. And suddenly, he couldn’t lie to himself anymore. This wasn’t just worry. This wasn’t just missing a familiar presence. This was something deeper, something undeniable, something that left him raw and restless and aching in a way he hadn’t known he was capable of. And for the first time, Orioncharm understood.
BALLAD AND ORION REAL??
