Chapter Text
In a small apartment in Seattle, a Korat was typing away at his computer, located in his bedroom. Beside the desk was a bookshelf which included some of the books he had written such as Coast to Coast: A Motorcycle Ride Across America and The Eternal Bitterness: An Analysis of the Korat-Khao Manee Wars . The first one had a cover of the Korat standing by his motorcycle with sunglasses and a leather jacket on while the other cover was a black and white photograph of a Korat soldier fighting in the jungle during the Third Korat-Khao Manee war.
The Korat was named Michael Scott, or Mike for short. He had green eyes and glasses due to working at the screen constantly. In addition to this, he had a bandage on the top of his head. This bandage was received after a bullet grazed the top of his head while covering the ongoing Sixth Korat-Khao Manee War. Said war was the subject of the article he was currently writing for the magazine he worked for, The Pacifica Journal .
Mike finished the rough draft of the article and E-mailed it to his editor.
Now done with that, Mike got out of his chair and went to the kitchen, to get a snack. When he got there and opened the fridge, he found it was devoid of his favorite snack, Salmon bites.
Mike sighed and decided to go to the grocery store and get some. Besides, he should get some fresh air anyway.
The Korat went back into his room and opened the closet. He put on a black T-shirt and khaki pants before pulling out a dark teal jacket. Finally, he wrapped a green scarf around his neck.
Just as he finished getting ready, Mike heard a loud knock on his front door.
"Who could it be?" Mike wondered. The only people he considered to be friends were his photographer and editor. His editor was at the office, and his photographer was in Hawaii taking photos for National Geographic, so it couldn't be them.
Regardless, Mike grabbed his wallet and made his way to the door. Once there, he opened it and saw who was on the other side.
The person on the other side was a young adult, female, cream-colored cat with black ears. She was incredibly fluffy and had black eyes. She also was wearing a black hoodie and gray sweatpants. She looked calm, though Mike could sense an undercurrent of nervousness in her. The cat looked Mike directly in his eyes and said, "Michael Scott I presume?"
Mike cocked an eyebrow and replied, "You would be correct though I must ask who you are and what do you want?"
"I am Aster Whitecat-Sarsheer and I want to interview you," she replied coolly.
Michael raised both his eyebrows in surprise upon hearing that. "Whitecat? Sarsheer?" He thought those were Daisy and Lucy's last names, could she?
He dismissed those thoughts. They were pretty common last names, and Lucy was straight, anyway. Though she did look suspiciously similar to Daisy...
Mike turned his attention to the second part of her statement. He had not been interviewed since the Eternal Bitterness came out a few years back and was wondering why she wanted to interview him. Regardless, Mike wanted to get this over with, so he said, "Fine, I got to the grocery store, you can interview me on the way there," gesturing for her to walk with him.
"Okay," was what Aster said in response and the two began walking down the hallway together.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Five minutes later, the two cats were walking down the sloped street.
They were being blasted by the chilly Pacific Northwestern wind, though Mike's scarf and Aster's hoodie provided some protection. Above them, the sky was a gray overcast, not unusual for Seattle, and delivery drones zoomed overhead. The streets were not that busy as it was a residential area and it was midday.
"The Emerald City," as it was called, had changed a lot since Mike moved here eighteen years ago. He was here through its decline and resurrection and most likely would stay here till he died.
Now out of the apartment, Mike turned to the cream-colored cat and asked, "Okay, before we begin this interview, how did you find me? I specifically told the journal to give no one my location."
"My dad works for the FBI so I had him track you down," Aster replied, sounding somewhat embarrassed.
"Ah," Mike replied in a dully surprised tone.
With that matter out of the way, Mike said, "So Aster, what do you want to interview me about?"
Aster shifted uncomfortably before saying, "I want to interview you about your high school experience."
Mike flipped around and in a tone of total shock, said, "What?"
Aster looked down and said in an embarrassed tone, "My mom and dad were one of your classmates, and they told me about the... drama you guys had, and I want to write a story about it, but I wanted to get everyone's perspective..."
Aster then looked back up at Mike, "But I understand if you don't want to tell me."
Mike sighed. He already agreed to the interview, and it would be rude if he went back on doing it, so he said, "It's fine, though I must ask, who are your parents?" Though Mike had a suspicion who it was.
"Augustus and Daisy," Aster replied.
Mike nodded and said in a dull tone, "Interesting they got together. Alright fire away."
Aster pulled a notebook, presumably full of questions, out of her jacket and read out her first one, "What are your overall thoughts on what happened in High school?"
Mike sighed as long-buried memories from that time resurfaced, "To be quite frank, it was a disaster, I screwed up a lot, and to be honest I am the villain in your story."
"That's not what my mom said," Mike looked at Aster as she continued, "She said you were the nicest, softest, courteous, smartest, and best-looking cat around."
As she said that, Aster thought, "though it appears only the smart, and good looking parts remain."
The black-eyed cat kept speaking, "though my father would agree with your statement."
Mike suppressed a chuckle before saying, "Your mother always had a... hyper-idealized image of me, one I didn't deserve, and Augustus was never a fan of me."
"Yeah, Dad always looked jealous when mom mentioned you," Aster said.
Aster then pointed to the bandage on the Korat's head and asked, "Quick question how did you get that?"
"This? When I was out covering the Korat-Khao Manee a few weeks ago, a bunch of Khao Manee soldiers mistook me for a Korat soldier and shot me and a bullet grazed my head," Mike replied in a surprisingly dry tone.
"Wow," was all Aster said in response as she scribbled notes down in notebook.
She then flipped to the next page of her notebook, with some struggle due to the wind, before asking, "So... Why did you just leave and cut all contact with them?"
"Well, actually, it wasn't my idea originally, I had a bad breakup with a girl on valentines day during junior year-"
"Sandy," Aster interrupted.
"Yeah," Mike said, somewhat surprised she knew about her, "Your parents told you about her?"
"Yep," Aster replied.
"Ah," Mike said before continuing, "Anway, I was in a very bad spot mentally afterward, and my parents were afraid I was going too..." Mike trailed off, thinking about Lucy's suicide attempt.
"Do what Aunt Lucy did," Aster finished, looking up from her notebook.
Mike went quiet, flashbacks to what he did to Lucy all those years ago playing in his mind.
"Mike, are you okay?" Aster asked, sounding concerned.
This caused Mike to snap back to reality, and he quickly replied, "Yeah, I'm fine."
Before Aster could say anything else, Mike resumed, "So where was I? Right so my parents sent me to a boarding school in Maine and while there I decided it would be best for both me and them if we never spoke to each other again."
Aster finished scribbling down notes and then asked, "Why did you think that?"
By this point, the two cats arrived at a busy intersection. The sign was telling them not to cross, and cars were flying down the street, so they stopped.
Mike turned to her and replied, "We hurt each other a lot, I hurt them a lot. Take the Sandy debacle, for instance, I shouldn't have put her on a pedestal, but they were inconsiderate of my feelings, and in response, I lashed out, and we were all hurt.
Mike turned away and said, "You know your father had me make a promise not to talk to your aunt again, and I guess I just expanded it to include all my old friends."
The sign switched to saying pedestrians could cross, and the two crossed the street.
Once across the street, Aster said, "My dad wanted me to inform you that you don't need to keep it anymore."
"Really?" Mike asked, slightly raising his eyebrow, "Well, I suppose it doesn't matter at this point."
Aster and Mike arrived at a set of stairs leading down to a walkway right beside the Pacific Ocean. The two walked down and got on the concrete walkway. The walkway was built on top of the sea wall that was built to protect Seattle from flooding.
Deciding to move on, Aster turned another page in her notebook and asked, "Is high school the reason you are the way you are now?"
"It certainly played a major role though being a journalist hasn't helped matters," Mike replied dully.
The pair were now walking beside the ocean on the walkway, the Seattle Space Needle in the background.
Seeing that approach failed to get any information she wanted out of him, Aster flipped her notebook to the next three questions. The questions were the remaining "hard" questions, and she hoped she would be able to get the info she wanted with these. There are also a few "soft" questions and questions about journalism because Aster wanted to become a journalist herself.
She started with the first one, "Do you miss anyone from Roseville?"
Mike pondered briefly before replying, "I used to miss everyone dearly but as the years go by the feeling fades more and more."
"Do you miss anyone in particular?" Aster asked, pressing for more info.
"Shit, she's a smart one," Mike noted to himself.
"Well, I suppose I miss my old friend group the most, your mom, Lucy, Paulo..." Mike let out a sigh as he said that.
"Well, my mom would be happy to hear that," Aster said, letting out a small chuckle, though she was rather disappointed with his continued dry responses. Shen then asked the next question, "Are you aware that the others, including my mom, would like to see you again?"
"They do?" Mike asked, his dry tone concealing his shock.
"Yeah, very much, actually."
"Huh, well, I was not aware," Mike replied quickly.
"Thoughts on it?" Aster asked, a little bit of frustration slipping into her tone.
"Honestly, I am surprised, I thought they would never want to see me again, especially Lucy," Mike replied dryly.
Aster was getting quite frustrated by Mike's dry answers and vagueness and was now on her last hard question. She was determined to get a straight answer and full story out of him for this one.
Aster then asked the question, "What is your perspective on the relationship you had with Lucy?"
Mike's eyebrows raised a little in surprise, but he quickly composed himself and responded, "My relationship with Lucy was a microcosm of Korat-Khao Manee relationships over the last century and a half just something that started off good and then devolved into a cycle of bitterness and resentment-"
Having enough of this vagueness, Aster cut him off and said, "Stop being vague."
"What?" Mike said in mild shock.
"I said stop being vague, Aunt Lucy already told me everything, I just want your perspective, so tell me the whole story," Aster said in a determined tone.
Seeing she would not be deterred, Mike sighed and said in a resigned tone, "Alright come sit with me, I'll tell you all about it," pointing to a nearby bench as he did so.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mike and Aster were now sitting down on the wooden bench. It was by the walkway guardrails, and they could hear the sound of the waves crashing against the seawall. The two were facing the ocean, and in the distance, they could see one of the islands that were in Puget Sound, though it was obscured by the fog.
"So start from the beginning," Aster said, signaling for the Korat to begin.
Mike sighed, adjusted his glasses, and began, "Well, where to start..."
"Well, if I am, to be honest, Lucy kind of forced us to be friends and was abusive verbally and, to a lesser extent physically, but in spite of that I still developed a crush on her."
Aster nodded her head for Mike to continue.
"I confessed to her in seventh grade, and she rejected me, actually kicked me out of her house for that one."
"Yeah, Aunt Lucy told me she regretted doing that," Aster said, turning to Mike.
"She shouldn't, we were too young for that kind of stuff," Mike replied.
Aster wrote something down before saying, "So continue."
"So skipping to eighth grade, We got into a fight with this thug... Alejandro, I think, was his name. I don't remember much because I was pretty drunk-"
"Wait, you did underage drinking?!" Aster exclaimed, stunned.
"No, well not at that time anyway," Mike replied quickly, thinking about drinking at Rachel's party and getting wasted by himself after graduating from the boarding school. "Alejandro gave me alcoholic candies as part of a bet, and I am very intolerant toward alcohol, which is also why I prefer cigarettes and marijuana as stress relievers when I am in the field."
"Ah okay," Aster said, writing it down.
Once he saw Aster was done, Mike resumed, "But what matters is what happened afterward. Lucy kissed me the day after as a "thank you," for saving her, though really she saved me," Mike pointed to himself as he said the last part. "And then she said to tell no one," Mike said, finishing up.
"Hm," Aster said, indicating for Mike to continue as she wrote.
"By this point, I was tired of the mixed signals, and then Sandy came along," Mike began.
"Now Sandy-"
The Korat was cut off by Aster saying, "No need to go into it, I intend to interview her later."
"Oh, okay," Mike replied, sounding mildly surprised. Realizing he could now continue, Mike resumed, "Well, me and Sandy got into a long-distance relationship, and Lucy was understandably jealous, all my other friends gave me shit for it as well. Despite that, we remained friends, however, she continued the abuse. As a result the resentment continued to build, not helped by Sandy being horrified by how I was treated."
Mike paused as memories came flushing back from the Silvershore Islands trip. "Then the Silvershore Islands Trip came along, and during the trip, I almost died sacrificing myself for Lucy-"
"Wait, were you traumatized by the fall?" Aster asked.
The Korat's head swayed side to side as he thought, "No, not really, it wasn't even the only time I almost died in those islands."
"Really?" Aster asked.
"Yeah, a grenade landed near me when I was covering the insurgency there a few years back, and I got a lot of shrapnel sent into my side. Thank god there was an Army medic nearby," Mike said nonchalantly.
"Wow," Aster said, voice full of awe. “Can I see?”
“Yeah sure,” Mike said, lifting up his shirt and jacket.
Aster was amazed and horrified by what she saw. The scars were numerous and varied wildly from small patches, to large dents of shortened hair, and long streaks.
“Holy shit…” Aster said in a stunned tone.
“Oh that isn't the side the shrapnel came on,” Mike said, turning around.
“Oh wow, uh… can we get back to the interview?” Aster asked quickly.
“No problem,” Mike said, lowering his shirt and jacket.
Aster quickly switched back to interview mode and said, "Alright resume."
"After that, my anger toward Lucy had reached a boiling point. I distinctly remember this guy who was us, Zachey was his name, talking about how grateful I should be for Lucy and in response, I said I hated Lucy."
"Did you actually hate her?" Aster asked once she finished jotting down notes.
Mike put his hands on his knees and replied, "I don't think I ever actually did, resent her certainly, but I do think deep down I was aware she genuinely cared. I just forced myself to hate Lucy because I was in a relationship with Sandy but still had feelings for Lucy, and that just felt wrong. You know what I mean?"
"Yeah," Aster said, "So resume your story."
"After we got back, Lucy and I were still officially friends until she confessed."
"Now," Mike began as he adjusted his glasses again, "I was initially somewhat sympathetic to her until all my friends sided with her. After that, I essentially ghosted Lucy."
"Until you got assigned that essay," Aster finished as she put down her pencil.
"Yeah," Mike said quietly, as memories from that December night came rushing back in.
"I hate you!"
"You're a parasite!"
He felt tears form in his eyes as long-buried guilt and regret came back to the forefront of his mind. Just why did his idiotic ass have to do what he did!
"You okay?" Aster asked, concerned, as she put her hand on the Korat's shoulder.
This brought Mike back to reality. He took off his glasses and then wiped the tears that had formed in his eyes away with his scarf. Then he said, "Yeah, I'm fine."
Before Aster could say any more, Mike resumed, "I am not going to go into details as I am sure your aunt has already told you about what I did. Has she?"
The mostly cream-colored cat nodded in response.
Seeing he had a green light to continue, Mike said in a voice laced with regret, "I tore into Lucy, went way too far, to use a military analogy, artillery strike was required, and I detonated a nuke."
"Safe to say we did not talk afterward, at least until Sues play. After the play-"
Aster debated whether or not to ask Mike if he knew what Lucy and Paulo did in the changing room, but decided against it.
"I tried to apologize but it was too late."
"Shortly thereafter Lucy attempted suicide," Mike finished, his voice full of guilt.
The Korat went quiet once he finished, appearing to be deep in thought. Once Aster finished writing what Mike had said, she said, "I know this is not where this ends but take a moment to compose yourself."
Mike stayed silent for another minute before asking, "Can we just cut this off here? Sorry."
"Fine, but, not until you give your thoughts on what happened underneath that Bonsai tree and I ask you two more minor questions," Aster replied.
"Fine," Mike said in reply. Then he sighed before beginning, "Now, what happened under that godforsaken tree wasn't necessarily bad in of itself, though I could have handled it better, it is what I did after that was horrible."
"Me getting back with Sandy was the most braindead and no-spine move in the history of my existence. I made everything worse and blew my last shot at reconciling with Lucy."
"You know Lucy did say to me-" Aster began, but she was cut off by Mike saying, "Can we just move on?"
Aster nodded in response and turned the page in her notebook. Finally, she asked, "You wore three scarves over the course of your time in high school, which one was your favorite?"
Mike looked at her and said, "Honestly I don't know, the orange and yellow was definitely my least favorite though."
The young woman wrote that down before asking, "This final one is a personal question. I want to become a journalist like you, do you have any advice?"
"Yeah," Mike said as he shifted his gaze back out to the sea, "First, I must say try to keep your faith in both dogs and cats, to be quite honest, I say around ninety percent of politicians in this country and others as well are unqualified, and sometimes it could feel like your having no impact, but don't give up, know that some people do care."
"The second piece of advice is to stay strong and not back down, there will be a lot of people, not just authoritarian governments, but you should continue to spread the truth no matter what."
Aster finished writing stuff down in her notebook before turning to the Korat, extending her hand and saying, "Well, thanks for the interview."
Mike shook her hand and said, "No problem."
The pair got up from the bench, but before they walked away, Aster took out a stack of letters from her pocket, then reached out to Mike saying, "These are some letters your old friends wanted me to give you."
Mike, after some hesitation, took the letters and said, "Um... Thank you."
There was a brief moment of awkward silence afterward before Aster said, "Bye, I guess."
"Bye," Mike replied.
Then, the two began walking in opposite directions, Aster towards her hotel and Mike towards the fish shop.