InsaneJournal

Katou’d never been an especially attentive student. He could have barely been considered a student at all back when he was at home; in fact, most people had referred to him as a drop out, despite the fact that he’d still been enrolled in school and had shown up… once in a while. Not to actually do school work or pay attention in class or anything like that, but more because it was a good way to kill time without having adults hassling him about ditching.

He was trying now, though it might not always seem like it. He showed up for classes most days, though he generally didn’t bother with it if he slept in. He did the work, even if he didn’t always do it well. And even if he missed his morning classes, he almost always showed up to his art and music classes.

And even he wouldn’t admit it, he was looking forward to checking out some street art with Henry and taking some photos. Katou’d spent more than one evening since arriving at Vallo putting up up his own graffiti. Nothing particularly impressive, just some silly cartoons, but it was a way to pass the time when he couldn’t sleep and he, at least, thought some of them were funny. And starting the day off with cronuts probably wasn’t a bad choice. Katou didn’t necessarily have to eat, but it helped him feel more human, and his sweet tooth was always something he was happy to indulge. He had his shoulder-length hair tied back today, and was wearing jeans and a warm leather jacket.

“So, where’s this art you said you seen?” Katou asked Henry around a mouthful of cronut.

Henry had always been pretty studious, but more so with English because reading and writing had always been a passion of his. It probably had something to do with being the son of what most people in his world considered storybook characters. Or well, the children of storybook characters, and all of the magic that went tenfold with that. Not that he had any magic of his own anymore. Or at least he wasn’t supposed to, but the damn quill kept following him from world to world, wanting to be used. Even if he hadn’t actually used it yet.

Art was fun though. He liked the different ways one could express themselves with it and how it could add to the stories he liked to write too. Plus the city was full of various takes on art, a stark contrast to what he’d grown up with in his small town or even during those few years in Texas. His hair was a usual moppy mess but he’d at least thrown on one of his jackets to wear over his jeans and sweater.

“Over in little China town,” Henry replied after finishing off his cronut. “There’s lots of stuff all throughout there but there’s some pretty epic ones over around the back.”

Katou shoved the rest of the cronut in his mouth and licked his fingers clean. “You know, I ain’t really had much of a chance to check out Chinatown yet,” Katou admitted. He’d only been here a couple of months, and he’d spent most of his time exploring the bars, sneaking into movie theatres, or catching up on two decades worth of movies. He probably should have made more of an effort to explore, now that he thought about it. “I guess you’ve probably been here long enough to see most of the city?”

“Over a year, yeah.” Most of Henry’s exploring had been done while playing Pokemon Go with Molly when she’d been around. It wasn’t as fun defending the different gyms without her around though. “This place has pretty much everything. Unlike Texas.” There was definitely never a dull moment unless he wanted there to be.

“You lived in Texas before you came here?” Katou asked, raising an eyebrow. He wouldn’t have guessed that. Of course, most of what he knew about Texas and people from Texas came from old movies: namely, old Westerns. He guessed in these modern times, the whole state probably wasn’t filled with cowboys and outlaws.

“It sucked.” Well. Parts of it were good. But that was mostly the people and they had all left anyway. “Its hot. There’s nothing to do really. And there were a lot of government people trying to be in charge of everything.” Plus too many damn cruises that ended in death. “I like this place a lot more. The beach isn’t far here at least.”

Katou snorted. “‘Hot’ and ‘doing nothing’ are practically my favourite things,” he said, grinning, only half in jest. Government bureaucracy was a whole different story. “You a beach guy, huh?”

They rounded the corner, and Katou let out a low whistle at the large mural that appeared before them: a brightly coloured mosaic that only took a moment before his brain made sense of it as the mural of a roaring tiger. “You weren’t kidding when you said you knew someplace with decent art,” he said, grinning.

“I just like the option of being able to not be surrounded by desert.” And having access to good food. Tumbleweed hadn’t been as great in that department either. “This place is more open about everything. No one has to hide who they are.”

But yeah, Henry knew he’d done good with picking this place for the project. The roaring tiger might have been the most prominent one but there were tons of different ones along the alleyways and on the backs of larger buildings. He fished his camera out of his bag so he could start taking some photos of it from different angles.

Katou frowned at that. The whole idea of hiding who they are struck a chord with him, but he brushed it up and instead lifted the camera that he had slung around his neck and turned it on. “Yeah, a bunch of dessert just sounds like an eyesore,” he said, glancing up at the building through the viewfinder.

He snapped a couple of photos, and, not especially happy with any of them, unfurled his wings. Three of them erupted from his back, covered in white fluffy feathers, and he leapt into the air for some better angles.

Henry was used to people having unique things about them. His friend Dash could run super fast, or Pixie with her butterfly wings, or even Peter with his webbing and stuff. But it was still cool to watch what others could do and wings were definitely on the top of the list of ‘things he found incredible’. Especially because he was pretty sure that no two were ever exactly identical. He’d thought about writing himself some before, but had never quite managed to do it. Even if his hands always itched to use that particular brand of magic.

He refocused on the artwork around them, finding a small one along the bottom of a wall of some cats slinking along after a mouse and took some photos of that as well.

Katou took a couple more photos of the mural, and then zoomed in on Henry to take a couple of aerial photos of him taking photos. He descended, and once he was about five feet from the ground he folded his wings in again and dropped the rest of the way, glancing through the display.

He took another photo of Henry taking photos now that they were on the same level, and then dropped the camera, letting it hang against his chest while he reached for his cigarettes. “So, you do much of the art thing when you were back home?” he asked. “Or is it a ‘new life, new hobbies’ sorta thing?”

“The last time I was back in my homeworld I was about twelve years old.” It had been nearly six years since that point which was odd to think about. He’d gone to different worlds since then, for varying lengths of time but that wasn’t too different from what he knew of his own world with all of its realms. “I write more than doing anything with painting or photography. But I started doing both in the last world I was in.”

He missed the combat classes that had been offered in Tumbleweed. Aside from the people there it was about the only thing that he missed. “What about you?”

Katou stared at Henry in surprise at that, and then frowned at the question. “Me, I do more music than anything, if you don’t count fighting. Usedta be in a band back when I was alive. We weren’t no good, really, but we had some fans. I liked to doodle though. Nothing serious or nothing. Sketches in notebooks and some dumb graffiti and shit, but I liked it then so I figure I may as well see if I can… I don’t know. Make something worthwhile maybe,” he said, feeling weirdly self-conscious and embarrassed by the whole thing.

“You miss it at all? Home, I mean? Six years is a helluva long time to take off.”

“I miss the people but not the place as much anymore.” Henry missed a lot of people though. He missed who he’d known and the relationships he’d had with them that didn’t quite pan out the second, third or even fourth time around. There was no telling when anyone would come or go though. He’d learned to roll with the punches as best he could.

“Have you played any music here?” He was pretty sure Tina had been looking for bands at some point.

“Yeah, I get that,” Katou said. Katou could’ve done without any part of his world, or 99% of the people in it, but that final 1%?

Well, he wasn’t likely to see them again, so there was no point in dwelling on it.

“Not too much, outsidea class,” he said, glancing down at his left hand. It was equal parts weird and kind of nice to see the pale flesh there instead of the steel and leather that had been there before. “I had some issues with my arm when I arrived, but it’s pretty much taken care of now. I’ll probably go pick up a guitar once I’ve got the cash for it though. It’s been a bit since I last had the chance to play. What kinda shit did you write?”

Henry knew that a lot of people had some help with various injuries and stuff when they arrived, and sometimes people even would come from a time when they had died or were about to die. He’d stopped trying to think too hard about how that exactly worked a long time ago. Admittedly he had no clue how much a guitar would cost, but a good one probably wasn’t cheap.

“A lot of fantasy stuff. A lot of Outlanders that are from versions of Earth know some sort of story about different people in my family. They’re considered fairytale characters to them.” They had been to Henry for a long time as well. “Turns out their adventures weren’t just made up stories, but real, and usually a lot darker and more twisted. So a lot of my stuff has a fantasy spin to it. What kind of music do you play? Just guitar?”

“Fantasy? You mean like, elves and dwarves and all that nerd stuff?” Katou asked, raising an eyebrow. He was teasing, a little, but there wasn’t much malice behind his words. “Who’s your family members?”

Katou wasn’t that into fantasy stuff, though there were some truly terrible fantasy movies that he loved, but there was still some possibility he might know who Henry was talking about.

“Mostly guitar. I can play bass and drums too. Helps when I’m writing songs and shit. But I’m better with guitar.”

“Only my mom is here right now--she’s Regina. Works as a lawyer here but was a mayor back home and the ‘Evil Queen’. My other mom is basically the chosen one. My dad was the son of Rumplestiltskin.” And like fifty other things considering all his grandfather had gone by. “ My grandma on my mom’s side is Snow White and my grandpa is Prince Charming. Also my great grandfather is Peter Pan. My stepdad is Captain Hook...who also dated my great grandma?”

All of the relationships were a lot.

He didn’t know if Katou knew any of those stories but they were all very easy to find on google. “Have you written anything here?”

Katou did in fact, know most of the stories, but he was pretty sure that only made things more confusing, not less. Was the Evil Queen the child of Prince Charming and Snow White? Peter Pan the father of Snow White or Rumplestiltskin? And how was Peter Pan his great-grandfather but Captain Hook his GILF loving step-father?

For several seconds, Katou’s brain tried to make sense of the apparent connections, the confusion evident on his face, and then, abruptly, his face cleared.

He was never going to figure it out, not unless he cared enough to ask for Henry to draw him up a family tree and he did not care that much, and so there was no point in even trying.

“Sounds like you’d have some pretty awkward family reunions if you was back home,” he said, grinning in his carefree manner. “But nah, I haven’t really written much here. Nothin’ worth mentioning, at least.”

Katou didn’t know the half of it. Family reunions never seemed to go that well and he hadn’t even listed everyone in his family or all of the other connections to the fairytale world and other realms. It was mostly just a lot of trouble.

He nodded at the rest though. Sometimes the creative juices just weren’t flowing. Henry motioned around to the area. “Have you gotten everything you wanted?”

Katou nodded. “Yeah, I think so,” he said, and then, just to be sure, checked the display and flipped through his photos. “Good enough, anyway,” he added.

Perfect. Henry carefully put his camera back in his bag. “Cool. Thanks for coming with me. I think we got some good shots for this.”

“Yeah,” Katou said, hand on the back of his head, glancing away. “This wasn’t awful,” he admitted. “I’m gonna get myself another one of them cronuts if you wanted to come with.”