Who: Katou and Kanan What: The prodigal son returns. When: The day Katou gets back, August 27th Where: Chateau Katou Warnings/Ratings: Low/none Status: Complete
Katou had never said when he would come back from his trip to London. Truth be told, he hadn't really expected to come back. He would have been perfectly content just moving there for good, and leaving every shitty memory he had of the OC behind. He'd managed to find a job at a great punk CD store, and had even joined a band in the four months he had been gone.
But the nagging feeling that he had left a part of him behind in the OC wouldn't leave him. Other than Jack, Wendy, and their partners, no one here really understood how harrowing the dreams had been. What remembering it was like to die was like. And none of them understood what it was like having powers that no one else did.
And besides, as much as he had missed Jack and Wendy, he found he missed Kanan too. He had tried to ignore all of that - why would he ever want to go back to the places where he remembered passing out from all the drugs, or where there was a chance he might run into his biological father again? And yet, the feeling wouldn't leave him.
And so he was back, sooner than he ever expected to be. He wore a pair of plaid bondage pants, and a muscle shirt that seemed more held together with safety pins than thread, the name of a band called The Filaments printed across his chest. His sword, which was never too far from him, was strapped to his back. From the corner of his shiteating grin dangled a lit cigarette. He pounded on the door loudly, using his metal fist.
Over the past several months, Carolina and York both had done a good job of pushing (and in Carolina’s case shoving) Kanan out of his comfort zone. He’d needed it, at first not having the confidence to leave his own house, and the rare times that he had had been overwhelming and honestly terrifying. He had met Nora Valkyrie on one of those excursions, though, and that had proven to be extremely fortunate. As Kanan slowly became more comfortable with and accepting of his blindness, Nora had been an incredible help. She was able to do a lot (or, really, all) of the necessary errands Kanan himself thought he could no longer do. And he was able to help her out too. Her Youtube career didn’t pay all her bills, so doing errands for Kanan gave her extra cash in her pocket. It was a win-win.
The Dreams had started again as well. They too were instrumental in teaching Kanan that just because he was blind didn’t mean he still couldn’t do the things he wanted to. He wasn’t afraid to leave the house on his own anymore, even if it was just for a short walk down to the corner store and back for a pack of cigarettes. He was on his way back from such a walk, his first one with the “white cane” after returning from the class that had taught him out to use it. He didn’t necessarily need it now that he had a deeper understanding of how the Force was filling in for his lost sense, but it did do a better job of identifying him as blind than his aviators did. And there were certain things the cane did that the Force did not. Cracks in his path or uneven pavement were not things he could necessarily feel or “see” with the Force, but the cane filled that gap nicely.
It was the Force, actually, that alerted Kanan to the presence at his front door as he started up the walk to the house. Kanan recognized the feel of this presence instantly. It was as though he could almost see the kid banging on the front door. His face broke into a happy grin as he approached. “Heya, Yue,” he called out. “Don’t tell me you forgot your key.”
Katou turned toward the noise behind him, and his smile faltered a little when he looked at Kanan. He looked kind of fragile, with his shades and walking stick. Blind. Katou’d known about Kanan’s dream blindness, of course, but he’d left before he really had to deal with anything involving it. Now… well, he’d missed a lot.
Still, he was glad that Kanan couldn’t actually see how his smile wavered, and he was able to stick it back in place once the shock of everything wore off. He ran down the front porch, and then flung himself at his former boss, wrapping his arms around the older man’s neck in a rough hug. “Hey old man, you look older,” he said cheerily, “Didn’t wanna barge in if yous was getting lucky or nothing.”
Kanan heard the sound of feet on the ground and just barely had a moment to brace himself before finding Katou’s arms around him. He still almost dropped the white cane and his sunglasses jostled on his face, revealing for a moment the angry red scars over and around his eyes. He laughed, though, doing his best to catch the younger man and give him a couple of rough, but affectionate, pats on the back. Fatherly. He’d missed the kid. Home hadn’t been the same without him.
“Older and wiser,” Kanan laughed. He let go of Katou so he could fix the sunglasses on his face again before they fell off all together. “England must have agreed with you, coming back here and showing manners and everything. Are you back for good?” His voice took on a teasing quality. “Damien missed you.”
Katou was used to seeing gnarly scars on his friends - hell, he's even had one that ran across his whole chest from the first time he'd been sliced open until he'd ended up in his plant-based body. He still frowned at Kanan’s though. He stopped expecting fairness a long time ago, but it still wasn't right that the dreams took such things from people here. He released Kanan and opened his bag so he could fish for his keys which were hidden away somewhere.
“Oh yeah, they're real proper over there,” he laughed, which wasn't entirely a lie even if most of the friends he'd made cared very little for things like manners. Though, Wendy always was a good influence on him.
“Yeah, I bet he's missed his favourite scratching post,” Katou grumbled. “Was hoping the little rat-chaser would've got hit by a car or something. You can tell ‘im I'm back for good though. England was nice at all, but it was really missing something. Maybe it was the lack of alien cats trying to eat my toes when I sleep.” He found his keys and extracted them from his bag with a jingle. He wasn't going to ask if Kanan had missed him too; he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to hear the answer. “Speaking of, I see home hasn't blown up yet. Get much excitement while I was gone?”
“No one’s come crashing through the front window,” Kanan quipped with a grin. He walked with Katou up to the house. The cane swished in an arc just in front of him. By now he was fairly intimate with the front walk, where the path was uneven and where the cracks were, both of which liked to trip up his feet. What he was looking for were other little surprises. Like the heaping steaming “presents” the dog belonging to the people down the street occasionally left. Or, more commonly, Damien’s leftovers whenever he was out hunting.
The lothcat may or may not have cared if Katou was back to stay, but Kanan was thrilled. His eyes weren’t able to convey that emotion anymore, but he was grinning widely and his voice portrayed just how happy the news made him. “Damien’s calmed down a little bit. He only gnaws on my knees when I’m trying to meditate. And even if he’s not thrilled you’re back, I am. I missed ya, Yue. It was weird not having you around.”
“Knew that it’d be boring as hell without me around,” he said over his shoulder as he put the key in the door. He had just opened the door when Kanan continued talking, and he turned back to Kanan suddenly, shock etched across his face. He bit his lip, then turned back toward the door. “Yeah?” he asked, trying to keep his tone light and airy. “It was kinda weird not having you around either, I guess. I mean, I wouldn’t say I missed you or nothing, but… I mean, it’s good to be home. I’m uh… I shouldn’ta left when I did.”
Katou sounded nonchalant, but there was a catch in his voice that Kanan knew well. Even blind he could see through the front. He didn’t want Katou to feel bad about leaving when he did. What happened to him wasn’t the kid’s fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. That had been difficult for Kanan to accept at first. A lot of things had been difficult for Kanan to accept. However, he’d never once felt as though Katou had abandoned him. It was important that Katou didn’t feel as though he had either.
“You had already planned on leaving for England,” he shrugged. “It was a great chance for you to go see Jack and Wendy, not to mention see the world, or at least where Punk got it’s start. You know how many people go through their whole lives and never get to do that?”
He followed Katou into the house. And speak of the devil, there was Damien sitting on the back of the couch watching the front door. He spotted Katou, gave a noise that was a cross between a growl and a hiss and took off like a shot to one of his many hiding places.
“Not polite, Damien,” Kanan called after the cat. But at least he hadn’t attempted to gnaw on Katou’s feet.
“Well, I see he hasn’t changed at all,” Katou said flatly as Damien ran off. He’d be more upset by the feline’s welcome if he hadn’t already grown used to Damien acting just like that. Besides, it would be nice to be home for more than five minutes before he got mauled by the furry creature. He dropped his bag just inside the front door, and began to make his way toward the fridge in the hopes that there was some booze in there. “Oh man, England was pretty fucking cool. Tons of punk shows everywhere, and lots of little festivals that I’d never even heard of. I even put my hair up in a mohawk sometimes,” which was incredibly easy when all he had to do was think about it, “and tourists would hand me money to take my photo.”
There wasn’t much in the fridge. Kanan had only recently started cooking again, and only when Carolina was there to make sure he didn’t either cut off his own fingers or set the house on fire. She usually got whatever they needed to make whatever dish she decided she wanted to shove in Dan Smith’s face. So this afternoon all that was in the fridge was a gallon of milk, a block of cheese and a half eaten cheese pizza. There was a six pack of some high quality craft beer on the door next to a bottle of soda, which was probably flat by now.
Out in the living room, Kanan folded up his cane and set it on the table by the door. He had discovered quickly that he needed to make sure he put things in designated places if he ever expected to find them again. His cane, his shoes, his house keys, his phone. Everything had one single designated spot. Except for his sunglasses. In the house was the only place he took them off, and only if he was alone (Carolina was the only exception). Even then he made sure he knew exactly where they were. Now that Katou was home, though, the aviators would stay on his face, even in the house.
Kanan made his way through the living room expertly, but carefully. He had the layout of the living room memorized and knew exactly how many steps it took to get from any point to any other point. He still kept a hand tentatively out in front of him, just in case.
“That sounds amazing,” he called through to the kitchen, where he could hear Katou’s voice echoing off the tile and the counter. He smirked a little, “I bet you made bank off those photos. Tell me more about what you did over there. I haven’t been to England since I went with Dutch to see her mother last year.”
“Yeah, that must’ve been a great trip,” Katou said, only rolling his eyes a little bit. He’d never had to meet the parents of anyone he dated - the girls he’d dated before he realized he was gay had never meant anything to him, and Jin had never thought it necessary - but going to another country to do it sounded like it was more trouble than it was worth. “You want a beer?”
He wasn’t going to ask if he could have one. In fact, he was already using the metal thumb nail on his left hand to pop open one of them fancy craft beers.
Kanan didn’t have to see Katou’s eye roll. He heard it in his voice and it made him laugh. “It wasn’t so bad,” he said. He came to a stop at the kitchen door, his hand on the door frame. He still wasn’t completely comfortable going in there. He’d avoided the kitchen like the plague, terrified of setting something on fire, or cutting himself. Carolina had done a lot to get him more comfortable with the idea that he could actually cook, but he wasn’t as familiar with the kitchen’s layout as he was with the rest of the house. So he lingered by the door and listened to Katou rummage in the fridge.
“It wasn’t as if I was Dutch’s boyfriend,” he said, even though the two of them had slept together fairly regularly, they were friends and he’d gone with her in that capacity to support her with her mother’s cancer scare. “Yeah, I’ll take a beer. Just make sure you leave something for Carolina. It’s technically her’s.”
“It’s in my fridge so it’s technically mine,” Katou muttered under his breath. Of course, Carolina wasn’t exactly the kind of woman Katou wanted to piss off, so maybe he’d not drink more than one. He walked over to Kanan and touched the beer bottle to his arm. “So like, how’s them Jedi powers of yours work? Can you Force See things or whatever?”
Kanan released his grip on the door frame to take the bottle Katou touched to his arm. His other hand felt for the bottlecap, which was thankfully a twist off. “It’s kind of hard to explain,” he started in response to Katou’s question. “It’s not like I can see see with the Force, but it’s kind of like having another sense. Every living creature is related to the Force, and I can use that to kind of feel around. Like, for example, I could tell it was you at the door when I came up the walk because of how you feel on the Force, your connection to it.” Kanan wasn’t sure if that made any sense, but that was really the only way he knew how to explain it “It was kinda hard at first and I was too overwhelmed to really pay attention to what the Force was trying to tell me. But after a while and after I started Dreaming again, it kind of got a little easier. It’s not perfect, but,” Kanan shrugged.
“Kinda makes sense,” Katou said, nodding. “I can sense auras sometimes. I mean, it ain’t precise or nothing and I don’t really recognize ‘em unless I know the person real well. But I think I get it.” It might not have been the exact same thing, but it was probably close enough. “Think you can find yourself to the couch? You gotta tell me all the OC gossip.”
Kanan chuckled. “Yeah, I can find my way to the couch.” He had memorized just how many steps it took to get from any point in the house to just about any other point, except for the kitchen. He was still working on that. “I’ll tell you the gossip I know,” which admittedly wasn’t much. “And all the shit that’s gone down since you left.”