storypaint (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
storypaint) wrote2008-06-13 09:43 am
storypaint) wrote2008-06-13 09:43 am
Mid-Life (Kit gen)
Comm: ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
myriadwords ficathon
Words: 1593
Title: Mid-Life
Fandom: Young Wizards
Pairing: Kit/Nita married
Rating: G, mentions of character death
Disclaimer: The Young Wizards series and the Feline Wizards series belongs to Diane Duane. This fanfic is a derivative of canon material that is not my property. I do not profit from these writings. The opinions and actions expressed in these stories are not necessarily the views and beliefs of the original author or me.
Note: Assumes passing familiarity with the Feline Wizards 'verse. I figured since my recipient requested them, she'd probably read the books, but it's nothing really plotty.
Written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
deifire for the myriadwords ficathon; prompt: "The cats are in trouble again." AND "Nita and Kit as no-longer-young wizards."
Excerpt: "There's a million things out there alive! The stars are singing to the dawn and the grass is waking and the trees are planning their day. How long has it been, Nita, since we've done something to help them?"
Kit wasn't sure when he realized that he just wasn't young anymore. His specialty has shifted as he aged to worldgating, and in high school sometimes he spent more time talking to cats than he did to human beings.
It wasn't necessarily a bad thing-- more of a sad thing, as he saw Nita less and less, her premonitions leading her into deeper parts of the universe, more sideways places like he and Ponch had explored, the domains of the Transcendent Pig and others. He took up engineering in college and found he was quite good at it, setting down into a nine-to-five job with plenty of vacation days to use as necessary.
He wasn't using them very much. He saved them for vacations and Monday mornings after long weekends with Nita, and though engineering was almost wizardry, it wasn't the same as talking to the rocks and the gates. Rhiow ran a tight ship at Grand Central, and her successor did as well, despite the tales he'd been told about Arhu's kittenhood. Between the cats and the Wise Ones, the great lizards who helped to guard the gates, Kit didn't have a lot to do in the wizarding world.
It worried him. He remembered losing Carl and Tom, even for that short while, and the thought of falling out of the Art scared him to death. He didn't want that small ache in the bottom of his soul. He wanted to be a wizard.
One morning he woke at four a.m. and sat bolt upright, testing himself in the Speech. What was the word for a couch, a window, a chair, the way the light curved in the pre-dawn? He found himself breathing as though he were running a race, even though he remembered them all. He thought. What if he was wrong?
"Kit?" Nita said blearily, shifting in the bed beside him. She leaned up on her elbow, pulling the sheet with her. "Is everything okay?"
"I don't know," he said softly.
His tone was steely and serious and brought Nita back to consciousness more swiftly than even coffee would have. She sat up in the bed and stared curiously out the window, following his gaze.
"There's nothing there," she said. "I don't feel anything."
"That's just it!" he said, turning to her with fear in his eyes. "There's a million things out there alive! The stars are singing to the dawn and the grass is waking and the trees are planning their day. How long has it been, Nita, since we've done something to help them?"
Nita blinked. "We're wizards," she said. "For Life's sake, and in Life's name..."
"What if we're forgetting?" he said so quietly than she almost didn't hear it. "What if we're losing our wizardry?"
"Just because we're not doing a lot of interventions, it doesn't mean we're not wizards," she replied, yawning despite the seriousness of the conversation. "I mean, all last month, you had that thing with Arhu and the Wise Ones, that deep research..."
"When was the last time you and I have done an intervention? Or better yet, done one together? Are we even still partners?" he asked, undeterred.
"Of course we are!" she said, now very roused to the situation. "I can't work with anyone else, Kit--"
"You and Dairine--"
"Well, she's my sister, there's the blood thing... You aren't jealous or anything, are you?"
"No, of course not." Kit sighed. "We used to clamber through universes all night and show up for school in the morning."
"They have younger ones to do that now," Nita said, smiling a little. "Even Dairine doesn't do that stuff much anymore. Being old doesn't mean we stop being wizards. It just means we have less power. You know that, Kit. What about Tom and Carl?"
"When did we get old?" he asked her. "When a car trip became preferable to our beam-me-up-Scotty spell? When we started consulting? When we got married?"
"Wizards never get old," Nita said, old pain in her eyes. Kit knew where that pain came from-- he remembered Fred, he remembered all of the other ones they'd lost. Tom-- or was it Carl? he couldn't remember-- had once said that they would be Seniors until they died, and they would die for the Art. It seemed to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Tom's legs would never work properly again, even with a healing wizard's help. Neither he nor his partner were dead, but they were still working.
And Kit was too. But he still felt... lost.
"You're pretty young to be having a mid-life crisis," Nita said, wrinkling her nose and then reaching for the bedstand to get her glasses. "And you're younger than me. Am I late with mine?"
"I'm serious, Nita," he said. After a moment's hesitation, he said it again in the Speech.
"Those sorts of worries aren't the kind we want to vocalize to the Lone One," she said gently. "It hears them all too easily."
"I am serious," he said in English. "I don't want to lose the Art, Nita. You saw it happen. You saw how unhappy they were."
She needed no clarification on "they." It was something she thought about too often, as well. She nodded and yawned again. A good part of her wanted to go back to sleep, to address his worries in the calming light of day, but she couldn't let it go. This was Kit, after all.
The problem was, she didn't know what to say. Kit was a planner, but he liked to do things as well. She knew exactly how badly it felt to feel powerless. She'd never forget that feeling.
"Kit, I--" she began, hesitantly. Then she leaned over and rested her head on his chest, offering the comfort of a warm body.
"You wouldn't be Kit without wizardry," she said softly. He stiffened a little. Clearly the thought was more of a bother than a comfort.
The phone rang suddenly, twice, and the two of them jumped with surprise, their eyes fastening on it as though it were going to bite them. Nita picked it up and listened for a moment. Eyes widening, she handed it to Kit and turned away as the tears began to spill down her face.
Kit grasped the phone like a personal lifeline. "Hello?" he said.
"We've got a problem," a familiar feline voice returned.
"Arhu?"
"I got Carl to dial for me. No sense wasting magic when we might need it later."
Kit thought for a second, imagining the black-furred tom leaning down with his face next to a phone receiver, speaking loudly just in case phones didn't work as well as human ears. It was a ludicrous image and he wanted to laugh for a moment, but he suspected this wasn't a time for laughter.
"What's going on?" he said, glancing over at his wife as her shoulders shook. She cried in utter silence.
"Tom is dead. We think. We don't know. There's been a major malfunction over here, we need you immediately, and probably the youngest wizards you can find. This one is going to take some power," he said grimly.
"Me?" he said stupidly.
"You've been promoted, buckaroo, and so have I. We'll learn how to be Seniors together or die trying. But if you don't get over here fast, it will be the second one."
There was a soft sound like the brush of fur on the mouthpiece and the dial tone cut in. Kit lowered the phone just an inch, in shock, before he replaced it on the receiver and climbed out of bed.
Nita turned to look at him, watching him as he jumped into his clothes and left a brief message for his employer.
There were so many things he could have said, she could have said, but none of them would solve the problem they had right now, and they both knew it. So instead he said, "What was the name of that girl who helped you with that tree problem a couple of months ago?"
"Katie," Nita said, her voice steady, but the tears still flowing down her face. She wiped them away and rose, grapping her manual and rifling through it. "Katie Petersen. Looks like she's assigned to this. Along with... Tyler Sharpe and Rouff. He's a dog wizard, lives with Tyler."
Kit reached into his otherspace pocket and the weight of his manual nearly bowled him over. "I'm going to get ahold of them. You--"
He paused for a long second. Arhu hadn't asked for Nita. Was this another intervention he had to do without her?
"I was scared too," she said, the tears renewing their trek down her face. "That we were losing it."
She came around the bed and hugged him tight. "Go get 'em, Tiger. I want to be in on the next one. Make sure you tell the Powers."
"It's top on my list," he said, feeling tension dissolve. "I think I might be able to manage it, since I rank over you now." He lifted an eyebrow, enjoying the humor. She had ended up taller than him and never let him forget it, growing up.
"Don't let it get to your head," she said, grinning and letting him go. It was a somewhat sad grin, but they would mourn Tom later. Now they had a job to do.
Kit turned to the door. "Kit--" his wife said, and he paused.
"You know, it's a Chinese curse."
"What?"
"May your life be interesting."
Kit laughed. "I don't mind," he said, and really he didn't.
myriadwords ficathonWords: 1593
Title: Mid-Life
Fandom: Young Wizards
Pairing: Kit/Nita married
Rating: G, mentions of character death
Disclaimer: The Young Wizards series and the Feline Wizards series belongs to Diane Duane. This fanfic is a derivative of canon material that is not my property. I do not profit from these writings. The opinions and actions expressed in these stories are not necessarily the views and beliefs of the original author or me.
Note: Assumes passing familiarity with the Feline Wizards 'verse. I figured since my recipient requested them, she'd probably read the books, but it's nothing really plotty.
Written for
deifire for the myriadwords ficathon; prompt: "The cats are in trouble again." AND "Nita and Kit as no-longer-young wizards."Excerpt: "There's a million things out there alive! The stars are singing to the dawn and the grass is waking and the trees are planning their day. How long has it been, Nita, since we've done something to help them?"
Kit wasn't sure when he realized that he just wasn't young anymore. His specialty has shifted as he aged to worldgating, and in high school sometimes he spent more time talking to cats than he did to human beings.
It wasn't necessarily a bad thing-- more of a sad thing, as he saw Nita less and less, her premonitions leading her into deeper parts of the universe, more sideways places like he and Ponch had explored, the domains of the Transcendent Pig and others. He took up engineering in college and found he was quite good at it, setting down into a nine-to-five job with plenty of vacation days to use as necessary.
He wasn't using them very much. He saved them for vacations and Monday mornings after long weekends with Nita, and though engineering was almost wizardry, it wasn't the same as talking to the rocks and the gates. Rhiow ran a tight ship at Grand Central, and her successor did as well, despite the tales he'd been told about Arhu's kittenhood. Between the cats and the Wise Ones, the great lizards who helped to guard the gates, Kit didn't have a lot to do in the wizarding world.
It worried him. He remembered losing Carl and Tom, even for that short while, and the thought of falling out of the Art scared him to death. He didn't want that small ache in the bottom of his soul. He wanted to be a wizard.
One morning he woke at four a.m. and sat bolt upright, testing himself in the Speech. What was the word for a couch, a window, a chair, the way the light curved in the pre-dawn? He found himself breathing as though he were running a race, even though he remembered them all. He thought. What if he was wrong?
"Kit?" Nita said blearily, shifting in the bed beside him. She leaned up on her elbow, pulling the sheet with her. "Is everything okay?"
"I don't know," he said softly.
His tone was steely and serious and brought Nita back to consciousness more swiftly than even coffee would have. She sat up in the bed and stared curiously out the window, following his gaze.
"There's nothing there," she said. "I don't feel anything."
"That's just it!" he said, turning to her with fear in his eyes. "There's a million things out there alive! The stars are singing to the dawn and the grass is waking and the trees are planning their day. How long has it been, Nita, since we've done something to help them?"
Nita blinked. "We're wizards," she said. "For Life's sake, and in Life's name..."
"What if we're forgetting?" he said so quietly than she almost didn't hear it. "What if we're losing our wizardry?"
"Just because we're not doing a lot of interventions, it doesn't mean we're not wizards," she replied, yawning despite the seriousness of the conversation. "I mean, all last month, you had that thing with Arhu and the Wise Ones, that deep research..."
"When was the last time you and I have done an intervention? Or better yet, done one together? Are we even still partners?" he asked, undeterred.
"Of course we are!" she said, now very roused to the situation. "I can't work with anyone else, Kit--"
"You and Dairine--"
"Well, she's my sister, there's the blood thing... You aren't jealous or anything, are you?"
"No, of course not." Kit sighed. "We used to clamber through universes all night and show up for school in the morning."
"They have younger ones to do that now," Nita said, smiling a little. "Even Dairine doesn't do that stuff much anymore. Being old doesn't mean we stop being wizards. It just means we have less power. You know that, Kit. What about Tom and Carl?"
"When did we get old?" he asked her. "When a car trip became preferable to our beam-me-up-Scotty spell? When we started consulting? When we got married?"
"Wizards never get old," Nita said, old pain in her eyes. Kit knew where that pain came from-- he remembered Fred, he remembered all of the other ones they'd lost. Tom-- or was it Carl? he couldn't remember-- had once said that they would be Seniors until they died, and they would die for the Art. It seemed to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Tom's legs would never work properly again, even with a healing wizard's help. Neither he nor his partner were dead, but they were still working.
And Kit was too. But he still felt... lost.
"You're pretty young to be having a mid-life crisis," Nita said, wrinkling her nose and then reaching for the bedstand to get her glasses. "And you're younger than me. Am I late with mine?"
"I'm serious, Nita," he said. After a moment's hesitation, he said it again in the Speech.
"Those sorts of worries aren't the kind we want to vocalize to the Lone One," she said gently. "It hears them all too easily."
"I am serious," he said in English. "I don't want to lose the Art, Nita. You saw it happen. You saw how unhappy they were."
She needed no clarification on "they." It was something she thought about too often, as well. She nodded and yawned again. A good part of her wanted to go back to sleep, to address his worries in the calming light of day, but she couldn't let it go. This was Kit, after all.
The problem was, she didn't know what to say. Kit was a planner, but he liked to do things as well. She knew exactly how badly it felt to feel powerless. She'd never forget that feeling.
"Kit, I--" she began, hesitantly. Then she leaned over and rested her head on his chest, offering the comfort of a warm body.
"You wouldn't be Kit without wizardry," she said softly. He stiffened a little. Clearly the thought was more of a bother than a comfort.
The phone rang suddenly, twice, and the two of them jumped with surprise, their eyes fastening on it as though it were going to bite them. Nita picked it up and listened for a moment. Eyes widening, she handed it to Kit and turned away as the tears began to spill down her face.
Kit grasped the phone like a personal lifeline. "Hello?" he said.
"We've got a problem," a familiar feline voice returned.
"Arhu?"
"I got Carl to dial for me. No sense wasting magic when we might need it later."
Kit thought for a second, imagining the black-furred tom leaning down with his face next to a phone receiver, speaking loudly just in case phones didn't work as well as human ears. It was a ludicrous image and he wanted to laugh for a moment, but he suspected this wasn't a time for laughter.
"What's going on?" he said, glancing over at his wife as her shoulders shook. She cried in utter silence.
"Tom is dead. We think. We don't know. There's been a major malfunction over here, we need you immediately, and probably the youngest wizards you can find. This one is going to take some power," he said grimly.
"Me?" he said stupidly.
"You've been promoted, buckaroo, and so have I. We'll learn how to be Seniors together or die trying. But if you don't get over here fast, it will be the second one."
There was a soft sound like the brush of fur on the mouthpiece and the dial tone cut in. Kit lowered the phone just an inch, in shock, before he replaced it on the receiver and climbed out of bed.
Nita turned to look at him, watching him as he jumped into his clothes and left a brief message for his employer.
There were so many things he could have said, she could have said, but none of them would solve the problem they had right now, and they both knew it. So instead he said, "What was the name of that girl who helped you with that tree problem a couple of months ago?"
"Katie," Nita said, her voice steady, but the tears still flowing down her face. She wiped them away and rose, grapping her manual and rifling through it. "Katie Petersen. Looks like she's assigned to this. Along with... Tyler Sharpe and Rouff. He's a dog wizard, lives with Tyler."
Kit reached into his otherspace pocket and the weight of his manual nearly bowled him over. "I'm going to get ahold of them. You--"
He paused for a long second. Arhu hadn't asked for Nita. Was this another intervention he had to do without her?
"I was scared too," she said, the tears renewing their trek down her face. "That we were losing it."
She came around the bed and hugged him tight. "Go get 'em, Tiger. I want to be in on the next one. Make sure you tell the Powers."
"It's top on my list," he said, feeling tension dissolve. "I think I might be able to manage it, since I rank over you now." He lifted an eyebrow, enjoying the humor. She had ended up taller than him and never let him forget it, growing up.
"Don't let it get to your head," she said, grinning and letting him go. It was a somewhat sad grin, but they would mourn Tom later. Now they had a job to do.
Kit turned to the door. "Kit--" his wife said, and he paused.
"You know, it's a Chinese curse."
"What?"
"May your life be interesting."
Kit laughed. "I don't mind," he said, and really he didn't.
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