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Kit sat at her family’s dinner table, staring at the card before her. Valentine’s Day was nearing and this was it, she was finally going to tell Scratch how she felt about her. Or, she wanted to, but found she couldn’t.
It was a cheesy little thing, but she couldn’t help being so.
Scratch,
From the day we met, you’ve always been a great friend and ally in our battles against Malice and Mayhem. Whenever Kaboodle or one of my gadgets needed a fix-up, you’d be there, and eventually you'd be the first person I think of whenever something needs fixing. I found myself feeling more than just friendship for you, and, if you were to accept graciously, I would like something more.
“You’ve been staring at that thing for hours!”
Kit jumped at Kaboodle’s sudden, characteristically loud observation.
“Jeez Kab, you scared me,” Kit said, breathing a sigh.
“Yeah, and you’ve been scaring your parents and me!” Kaboodle exclaimed.
“Your parents and I,” Kit corrected.
“Don’t get snippy with me, K,” Kaboodle deadpanned. “Point is, you’ve been staring at that thing since breakfast, you know what time it is now?”
“I don’t know, like 10:30?”
“It’s 1:45, Kit!”
“Oh, for real?” Kit looked at the kitchen clock. “Huh…”
“Orph is making food at his joint, told me to come get you.”
“Is…Scratch gonna be there?”
“Of course.”
Kit smiled and picked up the card, but it quickly fell as she looked at it in her hands.
“You’re seriously not thinking Scratch will turn you down?” Kaboodle asked in disbelief.
“You know how I get,” Kit admitted.
“K, Scratch is one of the gentlest souls in a village full of softies,” Kaboodle reminded. “Plus, I can’t say for sure, but she’s been looking at you in a certain way sometimes.”
“A good kind of way?”
“A great kind of way,” Kaboodle smirked.
Kit smiled and was filled with hope. With renewed vigor, she clenched the note close and walked with Kaboodle out of their home.
They arrived at Orph’s Kitchen in no time.
“There she is!” Orph greeted with a jolly smile.
“We were worried about you, Kit,” Tina, warm and motherly as always, said in concern.
“Sorry, Mom. Sorry, Dad.” Kit scratched her chin, a bead of sweat running down her head as she chuckled.
Kaboodle just rolled his eye.
“Is…uh…Scratch here, yet?” Kit sat at the counter, placing the card in front of her.
“Finally gonna tell her?” Orph asked, excitedly.
“Yeah…I’m nervous…” Kit admitted.
“I was too, kiddo,” Orph assured. “But I knew I had to do it, and now look at me!”
Orph motioned to Kit and Tina.
“Luckiest Cat in the entire universe!”
Kit smiled at her parents. “I hope I can have what you’ve got.”
“You will,” Tina assured.
“Hopefully the kid part, as well!” Orph exclaimed.
“Orph.” Tina rolled her eyes.
“Hey, you’re the one who keeps talking my ear off about wanting grandkids!” Orph playfully poked Tina’s face with his spatula hand.
“You want Grandkids, Mom?” Kit smirked at Tina.
“I didn’t want to feel like I was pressuring you into starting a family.” Tine crossed her arms and pouted. “So I never brought it up with you.”
“Unfortunately, I was the closest victim,” Orph explained in mock horror. “Every time we’d see a little kitten run by she’d talk about how much she wanted to raise a kid again.”
“Ever consider just de-aging Kit?” Kaboodle joked.
“Kaboodle!” Kit scolded.
“I’ve recommended it,” Orph joked back.
“Orph!” Tina scolded in a similar vein.
“Alright, alright,” Orph laughed. “Jokes aside, this’ll be a good thing for you, Kit.”
“I just hope…if she turns me down, I didn’t…break anything…” Kit looked at the counter.
“Kit, you could never break a thing,” Tina assured, warmly.
“You’ve grown into a hero, kiddo!” Orph exclaimed. “You do the opposite of breaking!”
“Outside of the bad guys, of course!” Kaboodle raised his hand.
“Thanks, guys.” Kit smiled. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“We always got your back, kiddo,” Orph assured.
“For as long as we breathe, you’ll always have someone in your corner.” Tina placed a hand on Kit’s shoulder.
“Yeah, me too, I guess,” Kaboodle coughed, not wanting to inject himself into the family conversation.
“Oh, come here, you.” Kit hugged Kaboodle, who rolled his eye, but smiled.
“Kit!”
Kit tensed when Scratch called out to her, her tail straightening out and grip tightening on Kaboodle.
“Kit! Killing me!” Kaboodle screamed. “Killing me!”
“Oh, sorry buddy.” Kit set Kaboodle down, then turned to face Scratch. “Scratch, hey, I-”
“No time, you gotta come with me!” Scratch took Kit’s hand, leading her away from Orph’s Kitchen.
“Uh…I guess we’ll be back in a bit!” Kit called Orph and Tina.
“Oh, for the love of…Scratch, we’re supposed to eat when we invite you out to lunch!” Kaboodle groaned as he jumped off his seat and followed after the pair.
“You’ll never believe this!” Scratch led Kit to her workshop and slammed her mechanical hand down on a piece of paper.
“Paper?” Kit joked.
“What’s on the paper, Kit!” Scratch pointed.
Kit picked up the paper and read it over, eyes widening.
“This…is this…?”
“How to finally beat Malice and Mayhem!” Scratch smiled widely.
“Scratch, how did you even find this?” Kit asked.
“I don’t know!” Scratch answered. “I was thinking I wrote it down deliriously one night and must’ve…forgotten!”
“We…we have to tell my parents!” Kit beamed. “We have to tell everyone!”
“Tell everyone what?” Kaboodle asked as he entered Scratch’s workshop, his tiny legs causing a delayed arrival.
“We know how to beat Malice and Mayhem!” Kit cheered.
“What?!” Kaboodle nearly jumped in shock. “H-How…?”
“We’ll explain back at my Dad’s, come on!” Kit was so excited that she ran past both Scratch and Kaboodle.
“Now I got a run again?!” Kaboodle huffed.
“Important news never waits!” Scratch followed Kit.
Kaboodle groaned and rolled his eye, as he did so, he saw it. Under Scratch’s workshop bench was a Valentine’s card. He smirked, he took it in his hands, and knew Kit’s name would be on it, sure enough, it was.
“Guess I can give her a little scare for the unwanted exercise!” Kaboodle kept the card on his person, excited to see the look on Scratch’s face.
The planet was destroyed that night.
Dusk was gracious enough to let Kit and Kaboodle pick through what remained in a desperate attempt to find something to keep. In a stroke of luck, Kit was able to find her father’s spatula hand and a piece of her mother’s robotic leg, but no matter how much she searched she couldn’t find a piece of Scratch anywhere.
“I can’t…Kaboodle…” Kit cried, inconsolable. “I can’t…I can’t just let her be just a memory. I need something, a physical something…”
Kaboodle looked down, then a memory finally flashed through his head. Sure enough, he reached behind his back and pulled the card from his face hatch. He cringed at the sight, knowing it would break her more, but she needed something to hold onto.
“Kit…I was…holding on to this…” Kaboodle spoke up, wishing she could just shut down after every word spoken.
Kit turned to him as he held out the letter.
“What is this, Kaboodle?” Kit took the card with shaky hands.
“I’m sorry, K.” Kaboodle turned his chair away from her to keep her from seeing how distressed he was. “I’m so fucking sorry.”
Kit looked at the card, her name written on it in Scratch’s handwriting. She hesitated, but opened it.
Kit,
I don’t know where to start…but when you picked my shop out of all the others it felt like a sign. A sign that I shouldn’t be some loner cooped up in her shop all day. I need to get out there and really do something with my life, and helping you protect this village by patching up Kaboodle or one of your gadgets, upgrading them, makes me feel something about this village I haven’t in a while, if ever. It made me feel like I belonged here. You and your parents have been so welcoming to me, I couldn’t imagine a better family to spend all of my days with.
Kit, will you be my valentine?
Tears splotched the paper as Kit looked at it, eyes wide and mouth agape. Her eyes darted to the remnants of her parents, and it all came crashing down. They were dead, her mom, her dad, and the friend she could’ve had something more with. They were dead and they were never coming back. In a horrid combination of horror, guilt, and anguish, Kit held the card to her chest and let out the most haunting scream. Kaboodle whirled around in his chair looking at Kit as she screamed, almost as if he was seeing her die, eye wide.
When it was over, Kit’s body briefly went limp. Kaboodle was about to jump out of his chair, scared he had actually just watched her die, but stopped himself when he saw Kit move.
“We can return to Dusk now…” Kit spoke, voice dead. “I got my momentos.”
Kit awoke in darkness.
“H-Hello?” Kit called out, voice echoing in the void.
“Kiiiiiiiiiiiiit…” voices droned from the darkness.
Kit’s eyes widened as her head snapped around in every direction, desperately looking for the source of the voices. She recognized them immediately.
Soon, her parents, Scratch, and all of the people of her village emerged. Rising from the abyss as if it were simply water.
“Why did you kill us?!” They spoke in monotone unison. “Why did you do it, Kit?!”
“No, I didn’t mean to…I didn’t know!” Kit stepped back in horror, eyes wide and tears streaming down her face. “How could I have known?!”
“It’s all your fault, Kit!” Her people lunged at her, grabbing her. “It’s all your fault!”
“No, please, God, I didn’t know!” Kit screamed. “I would never hurt any of you! I loved you all!”
“After all we did to raise you!” Orph and Tina screamed.
“Mom…Dad… please, I-” Kit begged.
“After I loved you!” Scratch shouted.
“Scratch…I loved you, too…” Kit cried. “I felt the same! I was going to tell you!”
“You can’t tell any of us anything, anymore,” Scratch noted, bitterly.
Then they began to sink into the abyss, dragging Kit with them.
“Join us, Kit,” Kit’s people ordered.
“No, I-I want to live!” Kit protested.
“No,” Scratch said, bluntly. “No, you don’t.”
Kit wanted to say she did, but her lack of resistance as she was pulled into the depths proved otherwise. She coughed and sputtered as the inky blackness entered her lungs and suffocated her, but made no effort to break the surface for air.
Then Kit woke up.
Kit shot out of bed, inhaling deeply. She really had been holding her breath. Kit coughed and wheezed, holding her throat as air entered her lungs. As she inhaled and exhaled, she felt the covers shift. Of course, she had woken up Lulu.
“Kit, are you okay, kitten?” Lulu sat up, rubbing her eyes.
Kit opened her mouth to answer, but only a sob came out.
“Kit?” Lulu was fully awake now. “Are you okay?”
“I killed them, Lu.” Kit covered her face with her hands. “I killed them all!”
“Kit, no please, stop that!” Lulu took Kit’s face in her hands.
“How could you love me after what I did?!” Kit asked. “How could anyone love a monster who kills her own people?!”
“Kit, you couldn’t have known!” Lulu cried, tears already at the corner of her eyes. “None of us did.”
“My people…my responsibility…my fault…” Kit whimpered.
“Do you think I don’t blame myself, too?” Lulu wiped the tears from Kit’s cheeks. “My hero, my knight Caliban, defeated the dragon and saved me. With that, my planet and people were destroyed. He died getting me to your ship.”
“I remember…”
“Every day I ask myself, ‘What if I wasn’t such a damsel?’,” Lulu explained. “What if I could take care of myself and he didn’t need to save me?”
“That’s just how your game worked.”
“As was it yours,” Lulu reminded.
Kit looked away from Lulu, but she stopped sniffling, at least. Kit placed her hands over Lulu’s, nuzzling them and purring.
“Do you think I blame Caliban?” Lulu suddenly asked.
“No…”
“Why?”
“Because…because he couldn’t have known.”
“Because he couldn’t have known,” Lulu repeated, placing her forehead on Kit’s.
Kit and Lulu stayed like that for a while, embracing each other and the silence. That’s when Kit’s Holographic communicator started blinking. She broke the embrace to reach for it and saw the message from Dusk.
Breaks over. Recon mission as punishment. Bring the worthless dinosaur. Don’t screw everything up this time.
Just like that, it all came crashing back down on Kit.
“Dusk…” Lulu growled.
Lulu had been grateful Dusk’s organization saved her, which is why she agreed to join up with Farcade, but it’s clear Dusk’s past as a former villain hasn’t washed him of his cruel, unfeeling personality.
“I…I gotta go, Lu.” Kit broke from Lulu’s embrace entirely to get out of bed and get dressed, Lulu left desperately holding out her hands as she did so.
“Kit…”
“It’s okay, Lu,” Kit assured, halfheartedly. “It’s recon. Should be easy. Even I couldn’t screw that up.”
“Kit please…” Lulu begged.
“I’ll be back before you know it.” Kit smiled and winked, but it was hollow. Empty.
Kit got dressed and left their room to get Kaboodle and Gobbles.