OMG TWINSIES!

[lynx]

Lynx Katze sat within his office a board in and and icecream by his side. With stitches in his throat and of course he well, was recovering from the surgery! A happy guy of course and on painkillers because they fucked up a little and for the next few days he wasn't able to talk at all.

Now, he had had his tonsils taken out because his sickness caused tonsilitis, thankfully he was all better now.

He of course sat and waited for Xander, with this on the board:

Hi :3

[.xander;;]

life without katze was great. xander could stay in his room all day of his own free will with no one bothering him or interrupting his long reading and music-listening sessions. hell, he even got some writing done in the margins of a book or two. that was a habit he’d tried to break a couple of times but failed miserably. once he got a creative thought, he had to get it out right then or he’d explode, and lately he hadn’t been getting many at all, thanks to the constant yapping of other people.

well, life without the psychiatrist was good for two days. the fourth night after katze had prescribed him the sleeping pills, he had another of his gruesome nightmares. the next morning, he figured it was a fluke--just that one pill. he wasn’t very worried when he went to sleep the night before the doctor returned from sick leave.

last night, his parents had had an argument. it had been worse than their usual ones. caleb had been scared when they started yelling at each other, especially when they yelled about things like not having enough money to raise a family of three and never wanting to see one another again.

then peter had stuffed some of his clothes into a bag and left.

he has not returned today, and it’s late now. at almost ten o’clock, the eight-year-old caleb cannot even lie down to sleep. he sits wide awake on the side of his bed, clinging to a stuffed lion affectionately named “fuzzy.”

at ten-thirty, sheryl comes into caleb’s room to check on him and finds him lying on his back and staring at the ceiling. it’s obvious he has not slept at all, and it worries her. she comes in to solace him. xander is amazed when he remembers that time, and how much his mother really did love him then. he has not had the same love from her since then.

once caleb is tucked in and the lights are turned down, sheryl sits on the edge of his bed and forces herself to smile at him as he starts to cry.

“is dad going to come back?” the young boy whimpers. his mother’s hand reaches out to stroke his cheek gently.

“of course he is,” sheryl lies sweetly. she does it for caleb’s good. “he left the thing he loves the most here. his little boy.”

caleb sniffles and stops crying. a smile reaches his face and he starts to feel better. he has almost fallen asleep when his breath hitches in his chest. his eyes fly open to find that sheryl’s hand is constricting his small neck tightly. he tries to make her let go, but he is little and she is too strong for him.

the lack of air makes his vision start to go dark and his hearing to fade. the last thing he hears from his mother is, “but it’s your fault he left.”

xander had enjoyed three nights of peaceful sleep and was not sure he could go back to this stage of constant nightmares after experiencing peace. he would probably be able to live with them if they were only the dreams about being eaten alive. but the reliving of his past experiences with false, morbid endings was something he couldn’t take. it tore him apart inside, and that was worse than any physical wound could ever be.

his bad mood was only escalated when he reentered dr. katze’s office and found the therapist to be holding a board of his own with a severely corny interwebs smiley drawn onto it.

you’re kidding, right? he wrote with a patronizing look on his tired face.

[lynx]

I'm sorry that I have to communicate like this for the next three to four sessions. When my stitches come out, I'll be able to talk again!

He smiled sweetly at the other, and stayed in place, he just looked so weird with the huge bandage that was plastered to his throat. He had an infamous milkshake ready! Mwahaha!

[.xander;;]

xander couldn’t rightly decide if katze writing was as bad as katze talking. of course, he was going to be just as enthusiastic, but at least the only noise from him would be squeaky dry erase markers and probably some high-pitched giggles.

and maybe, if he was lucky, katze wouldn’t bother writing as much as he talked. since his wrist was probably still a bit fucked up, it might pain him to move it a lot, thus giving xander even more of a breather…and the chance to get away with more than usual.

those pills don’t work anymore, he informed his psychiatrist. he had debated with himself over whether to tell the doctor, but he couldn’t argue with nightmares. any chance you can find some with monkshood? unfortunately, it was impossible to tell whether the lycanthrope was being serious about that last part.

[lynx]

Hm... As to be expected. If you tell me the details of the new nightmare, or nightmares, I'll be able to look into it.

There was possibly a herbal remedy for sleeping with the ingrediant inside. There always seemed to be something like that out there that he could... Well, do things of the sort with.

Interesting, no? And well, Katze put a few smileys on the edges of his larger-than-Xander's board. He loved smiles.

Mink was once more locked in the bathroom.

[.xander;;]

ridiculous, it was, how persistent katze was in his “deep” examination of xander. he just couldn’t resist every single detail.

why are you so interested in what keeps me up at night? the brunet inquired as if expecting an answer. what’s your favorite horror movie? think about that one part that scares the hell out of you more than anything you’ve ever seen. now multiply that by ten. that’s my nightmare. he knew that wouldn’t be good enough for katze. nothing short of a two thousand word essay was good enough for him.

speaking of long publications. xander took out the book lynx had lent him and set it on the table beside him. there are some pen marks in it, he wrote. incidentally, some of his creative bursts had been during tales of me and he scratched out anything he had written to keep katze from prying. i’m sorry about that. for the book, not you, he added seriously.

[lynx]

...Would you stop reminding me of Lissa?

Katze's expression was very solemn, his gaze already towards the rocking chair in his room. He tucked his legs closer to himself and looked at it for a time... Just... ...So saddened, so depressed at remmebering her.

How her deal was: If she talked during the week, fridays they had to watch a film of her choice. It was always horror. He hated horror so dearly...

[.xander;;]

if he had wolf ears currently, they would have perked up visibly at katze’s dreary response. xander glanced at the chair that mink was usually sitting in--he had not noticed her around for quite some time, and frankly, it made him happy--which was clearly labeled with the name “lissa.”

what the fuck did i say?

he asked that, only without the vulgarity. xander was hurt enough to know how wrong it was to aggravate someone in pain.

just for lynx’s information, xanny wouldn’t mind that deal a whole lot.

[lynx]

Katze wiped his eyes dry, and then erased his board, the smiles were even gone! A shocker, by the way.

Lissa... we had a deal. If she talked during the week, then on Fridays she picked a movie of her choice, always horror, and we would watch it... Sometimes two if she was allowed to stay late.

Lynx's aura grew more depressed. He desperately missed his dear Lissa. She was like a daughter to him!

[.xander;;]

okay. so, from what he gathered, this “lissa” was a former patient of katze’s. and he grew strangely gloomy when he was talking about her. that meant they’d had a closer relationship than just doctor and patient. but the sadness meant loss. what exactly about her had he lost?

maybe it was to avoid his own abandonment issues, and maybe it was just because he didn’t want to turn into lynx katze, but xander tried to forget about the mentioning this strange girl.

stop that brooding shit, he insisted. it’s freaking me out.