hidden_sith | (no subject)

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It took Kale, Trever and Tobias a good hour and a half to capture the kittens. The kittens thought it was the greatest game ever and teleported around the house as the three of them scrambled after them. It didn't help that they were able to teleport out of a Force grab. Eventually Tobias managed to convince the kittens that taking a nice long calm nap would be a good thing to do. Trever plopped the kittens in a box and went off to the coffee shop where he promised to meet Charlotte.

Not being able to take the kittens into the shop, he picked a seat away from the hustle and bustle to make sure the kittens would stay asleep. He didn't think that the customers would appreciate a kitten in their coffee.

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"Cooking pots. With food in them." The little paw tried to bat at the invisible nose rubbing.

"Four. It's a one story house, thankfully. But she just has that knack, you know?"

"What about you?"

She groaned. "Oh, wonderful. Time to up the amount of take out, then." She tickled behind the kitten's ear to see how she'd react. "Which isn't a problem at all."

"I have nothing as exciting as a fall from a roof. I spent some time by the pool watching a friend work, I'm looking for an apartment... Nothing thrilling."

"Sure, if you don't mind kitten in your take-out."

The kitten is now trying to attack the ~~darkness~~ invisible hand and has tumbled onto its back. Obviously, this attracts her brother who tackles her.

"I'd call apartment hunting thrilling. You never know what the apartment is going to be like."

"Better than in the cooking pot." She felt around inside the box for a moment until she found the outlines of the other kitten, then she tugged very lightly on his tail. "Don't be mean, you little monster."

"And I'm looking for loft space, too, which means it could be anything from a finished space with the latest appliances to a gutted hole." She groaned softly. "I haven't done this in a long time."

"Ruined food is ruined food." The kitten squawks and turns around trying to find the mysterious tail tugger.

Trever looks sympathetic. "When we were looking for a place to live we had to find a house with very little mental imprints. Kale was psychometric and picked up stuff really easily."

"Yes, but it doesn't include cooked cat." She left the kittens to abuse each other, her work done.

She closed her eyes and whimpered. "I have to deal with that, too, to a degree." She sighed. "I do have the midnight visitors under control, so I don't have to worry about that.

Watching the kittens wrestle, Trever said, "Kale wanted to keep her in the pot and heat it up a little to teach her a lesson. He was cranky about them ruining one of his projects."

"How do you deal with it? We weren't able to do that for Kale."

She wrinkled her nose. "Cooking kitten can't smell good."

She thought for a long moment. "Partly by not taking a place that was furnished and replacing the utilities. Then I cleansed the place. There are smells and sounds that discourage or erase those remnants." She shrugged. "And I'm either not that sensitive to place or I imprint on a place myself fairly quickly."

"Surprised and squawking kitten covered in spinach also doesn't smell good." He flashes her a grin.

Trever looks thoughtful for a moment and then shrugs. The point is moot now anyway. "Why a loft in particular?"

She stretched her legs and reached up to the sky, unconsciously showing off how long she was. "I prefer the modern aesthetic for my personal space. Clean, open, uncomplicated. A loft makes that so much simpler."

She shrugged. "And I grew up in a house like a baroque museum. I never want to live like that again."

"I grew up on a farm on the most boring planet ever." He quietly notices and appreciates. "It was known for, get this, farming!"

He makes a gasping noise as he says this.

She shuddered in sympathy. From a house with servants and ever mod con, she'd gone to a series of large cities. Although she knew how to ride and had a decent concept of where food came from, she did not like the country much. "I'm so sorry. Good for you for getting away."

Trever thinks about this for a moment. He ran away, fell in with a dark Jedi, is on a precarious balance between the Light and Dark side and nearly got Kale and his boyfriend killed several times.

"It's been... well, it has it's good and bad points," he says finally.

She could see and feel his conflict about it. It was a more than familiar conflict for her. She glanced at him and smiled. "I always wondered at the phrase 'out of the frying pan and into the fire.' The fire always seemed preferable to me because you can put those out. You aren't in control of that frying pan."

He gives her a quirk of a smile. "I don't know. Kale got hurt really badly because of it. It's something I won't ever be able to forgive myself for."

Taking a sip of coffee, he surreptitiously uses the Force to pluck one of the kittens off the edge of the box and put it back inside. "I really never felt in control of my life."

"I realize it isn't an option you have, with a twin, but that's one reason I waited so very long to have anyone in my life outside work. Two many variables."

She turned to look at him more carefully. "What keeps you from being in control?"

"Kale." He pinches the bridge of his nose. "It's hard to explain."

The girl kitten was halfway out of the box and had to encouraged to go back in before Charlotte could ask softly, "Want to give it a try? I do understand the pull of family."

He stares up at the sky, fingers tapping on the table. "I don't know if you'd... feel comfortable with it."

She picked up her coffee and sipped idly at it for a moment as she randomly abused the kittens to keep them entertained. The box shook a little. "Very little in this world or the next shocks me anymore. If it ever did. My last lover is a shapeshifter and one of my dearest friends reads minds. We are none of us what could be expected." She shrugged. "Only worry about your own comfort in the telling."

"Kale and I are -were - are very close." He looks frustrated as he tries to figure out how to say it. "We had a very strong Force bond so at times it was like we were the same person. Especially when we were together.

"Sure, we had our different interests, but we were rarely apart. We even slept in the same bed." He paused, trying to form the words.

Charlotte exhaled slowly, carefully considering his words and how to respond. The least generally accepted possibility didn't bother her over much, so she finally just nodded. "Siblings often turn to each other, there's no shame in it so long as they are both comfortable with it." She met his eyes. "Not in my mind anyway."

"We were isolated." He shrugged. "Really isolated."

He fiddled with a piece of the cookie, worrying it into crumbs. "And then I ran away. It was the single most hardest thing I've ever done. Shit happened. And Kale and I found each other again. Kale had met Tobias by then."

Trever took a breath. "Tobias is... special. He's not connected to the life force of the Universe. Being near him is like... have your life drained from you. This is important."

Charlotte had not trouble at all with the idea of running away. "Making the choice to leave is nearly impossible when all you've ever known can be reached in a day. Going when you're alone is even harder."

She looked at him, her eyes narrowing. "You'll have to explain that to me a little better, about being drained."

He thinks about it for a moment, "It's like being near a black hole. But a black hole that instead of sucking light and matter, sucks at your life-force. People who aren't sensitive to those sort of things feel like something walked on their grave." He licks his lips. "For those that are capable... it's a lot worse than that."

Her eyes narrowed to slits. "Have I missed something? This is your brother's life partner, his boyfriend? How can having someone like that close to you be a good thing?"

Trever doesn't look too happy about it either. "It's not. It aches. And it gets worse."

"Doesn't it affect your brother?" She shook her head, confused. "Or is there some way to block it?"

"You can't block it, but you can get used to it." He made a helpless gesture. "And it's not so bad with Tobias. He can control it somewhat. The thing is this, Kale was psychometric. He started picking people's personality traits rapidly and... got over loaded."

Charlotte sat back, sipping her coffee and randomly distracting the kittens. "My gift for that is so small that I have no idea how to even block it, besides avoidance. I can't imagine living with that bombardment." She glanced at him. "It's a testament to your relationship that you've stayed close."

"Our father managed to block it off for sometime, and then it just sort of... broke through." He frowned after taking a sip of coffee. The cup was empty.

"Still, Tobias, Tobias' old commander, Revan, and I went after him. He didn't recognize any of us and he had Revan and Tobias' skills. So... Revan ordered Tobias to," Trever's voice breaks here in the memory.

Not wanting to make a public fuss, Charlotte lightly laid an invisible hand on Trevor's back. She rubbed very gently. "It's in the past. That's not what is now."

She had no idea if that was a comforting thought or not, but it was all she had.

He does seem a bit comforted, or at least he visibly relaxes some. "No, it's worse. Tobias cut Kale off from the Force. Made Kale like him. We were split asunder."

He gave a small, unhappy smile. "For the first time in my life I was alone."

She closed her eyes and lowered her head. For her being alone had been a victory, a release, and even with that, she had never had the kind of bond he described. She would never understand that loss.

"And are you still? Have you recovered any of it?"

"Yes, I'm still alone, but it's not... to bad, I'm still connect to the Force. Kale," he shook his head. "He pretends like he's all right, but you can see it in his eyes, sort of empty. And sometimes he just gets this lost look like he doesn't know where he is."

He ducks his own head, taking a deep breath. "See, I have to take care of him. Try to help him at least... live a little."

Her expression soured. There was no way to hide the anger or frustration she felt. She was tired of the pain of lives half lived, or lived in fear, among the people she knew. It was a waste of the worst kind.

"I'm sorry. No one should be so separate from what is meant to be a part of them."

Leaning over some, Trever put his hand over hers, giving it a slight squeeze. He could sense her frustration.

"It's okay, we're holding together. He's not dead, and he'll get better. Tobias did. It'll just take time."

She squeezed his hand back, then sighed. "I'm having to relearn things I was taught as a child. The magical equivalent of tying my shoes. It comes back, or maybe I'm learning new ways, but sometimes I feel so stupid." She shrugged. "I understand that sense of not knowing where you are."

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