“I don’t want to shift back again until I’m 18,” I informed them. “I don’t want to risk getting sent back to her and I don’t want to get you two in trouble if anyone ever found out I was here. I really don’t want that. You’ve both been so nice to me and the last thing I want is to bring you problems. But if I stay a cat until I’m 18, then she can’t make me come back, right?” I turned my attention to Zahara. “Right?” I almost pleaded. I was pretty sure turning 18 would mean I could cut off all connections to my aunt no matter how much she tried otherwise – if she ever found out where I was – but I wanted to make sure.
“Right.” Zahara’s firm voice let the relief wash over me. “Once you turn 18, she has no legal claim on you, regardless of your supposed physical condition. Granted,” she admitted a little reluctantly, “she could try to argue that you’re mentally incompetent and get appointed as your legal guardian, which applies beyond age 18 – but no court is going to agree to that when you’re not present and there’s no way for them to have their doctors, or any doctors, examine you to confirm her claims, especially when all your alleged illnesses so far have been physical, not mental. So even if she tried to do that while you’ve disappeared, it won’t work.
"And once you turn 18, we can file a restraining order against her and make sure she can’t attempt anything further – trust me, I can keep her away from trying anything ever again.” But then she gave me a hesitant look. “We could challenge her now, if you want, Ari. We could get an independent, neutral doctor to look at you now and confirm there’s nothing wrong with you and maybe even get a supernatural judge so they’d know the part about you being a shifter and know what that means. Plus, bringing up Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy would start to explain what’s going on. I’m not saying it wouldn’t be a messy fight, but I’m fairly confident we’d win.”
I shook my head swiftly. I wasn’t confident at all, and since she couldn’t even give me a 100% success prediction, I definitely wasn’t taking that risk. “It’s hard to prove, you said that, right? And she’s a nurse. People just – I’ve seen so many people just believe her no matter what. I don’t want to take that risk,” I half admitted, half pleaded. “And I know she’d make sure it had media coverage and she’d look like the tearful aunt being kept away from her beloved nephew, even if that isn’t the real story at all, and I just – I don’t want to do that. I hated all the attention. Can we please just wait and let me turn 18? Then it won’t matter. Maybe by then the media interest would have died out, too, so even if she found out or someone saw me and said something, it wouldn’t turn into as big of a deal.” I hoped. I really hated that my fake illnesses had become this news story that perfect strangers were invested in – especially when my illnesses were actually the product of my mentally sick aunt and were a torment to me in different ways. “I’d like to make sure she could never get me again and let you adopt me sooner, but I just don’t want to risk it if it doesn’t go well. She’s really good at tricking people. I don’t – I can’t take that risk.”
I knew my voice was trembling a bit and I could feel the tears in my eyes, but before I had a chance to wipe at them, Zahara took my face between her hands and gently wiped away my tears with her thumbs.
“We will not let her get you again, Ari, I promise. And if you’d rather wait until you’re 18, that’s perfectly fine. I understand the fear and you’re right – as much as I’d like to say we could guarantee the outcome of challenging her now, we can’t, so it may be simplest to just wait until you’re 18.”
Amelia grabbed me into a tight hug, pressing her face into my hair. I could feel her tears falling but didn’t really mind, although I kind of felt bad about making her cry. “It is 1000% okay for you to wait, Ari! You can be a cat as much as you want. When we get our own place, Zahara will add hearth magic so you can maybe shift back inside sometimes if you want, but if you don’t want to shift again until you’re 18, we don’t care. We love you anyway and we’re your new family now. The official adoption is just a piece of paper – we’re adopting you now regardless.”
I closed my eyes and leaned into her, letting her love seep through me while Zahara’s strength comforted me at the same time. “Really? Is it okay if I think of you as my new moms then?”
They looked at each other, then looked back at me.
“Yes,” they both said at the same time. Then they both leaned in to kiss either cheek.
I’d been scared for so long, but I was glad I’d taken the risk to shift and talk to them. I was finally able to tell them my story and introduce them to my parents. In a way, I thought I got to introduce my parents to my new moms, too, and let them know that I was safe now. I might still have to be a cat – most of the time, at least – for four more years until I could guarantee my aunt could never get to me again, but it didn’t matter. With Zahara and Amelia, I was safe now, and loved.
I’d managed to escape to best place, after all.
~~~~~
I opened my eyes and stretched, a smile almost immediately coming to my face as my eyes fell on the frame in my trunk room. After the other day, Amelia had gone out and found a picture frame for my precious photo of me and my parents. She’d actually found one that was fire resistant and shock absorbent “just in case,” she informed me, “to make sure nothing ever happens to it.” I’d so appreciated the attempts to help protect my photo and now I was finally able to get to look at it again each day.
Amelia had also taken it upon herself to determine what I should call her and Zahara, and she took this job very seriously, much to my – and Zahara’s – amusement.
“So obviously there’s Mom, but you probably called your mom that, so maybe we should be something else. There’s Mama, Ma, Mother, uh, Madre?” She started searching online on her phone, muttering to herself. “Mum? How are we supposed to pick a name?” She wailed. “This is hard enough! If I can’t even pick a name for Ari to call me, if we ever have more kids, I’m never going to be able to settle on a name for them!”
I felt my heart warm a bit by the fact that she said “more” kids. I kind of liked that. But I also thought, at least when it came to me, that I wanted to help pick the names. I might not really get to call them that much yet, but I thought it would be nice to start thinking of them by their mom-titles.
So I padded across the top of the sofa to rest partially on Amelia’s shoulder, then tapped my paw on her screen on one of the names.
“Mama?” She asked. “You like that one?”
I looked over at Zahara. She blinked a bit, then nodded. “Sure, that works.” Then she got thoughtful. “My biological mom used to call her mother Mama, which was apparently what her mother also called her grandmother, so maybe it was a common title in my family? But my bio mom thought that sounded too rustic, so she didn’t want me calling her that. I wouldn’t mind getting to sort of acknowledge my roots a bit, as it were.”
Amelia beamed at her, then looked at me as best she could where I was perched on her shoulder. “And for me? What name do you like?”
I had to think about that one a bit more, because Amelia to me was warmth and excitement, so what mom-title translated into that?
After a pause, I tapped my paw on another name.
“Mum? That’s pretty close to Mom, isn’t it?” Amelia looked almost nervous. “I don’t want you to think that we’re trying to replace your parents, because we’re not, we’re just…adding to them, as it were? You’re sure you’ll be okay with that?”
In answer, I rubbed my face against her cheek. I appreciated that she and Zahara were trying to respect my parents and my names for them, but I didn’t think my mom would have minded even if I called them Mom, too. She’d have understood. Still, I felt like Mum worked for Amelia, because it sounded like her. I didn’t know how else to explain it.
Happy with my answer, Amelia popped a kiss on top of my furry head. “Well then, now that’s settled.” She looked up at Zahara, all smiles again. “Now all we have to do is figure out this wedding stuff, right? We’re going to have to have a big wedding for all your family, aren’t we? That sounds like a lot of work.”
“Nah.” Zahara sat on the arm of the couch, leaning over to kiss Amelia while also reaching her hand out to pet me. “We can have whatever wedding size we want,” she explained. “We can always do a reception afterwards for my extended fairy family if we’d rather have a small wedding. Up to you, hun. I’m pretty flexible.”
Amelia bit her lower lip. “I’d kind of like to invite them, but if we did, we’d probably have to invite a bunch of my extended family, too, wouldn’t we? And I don’t want Ari to get mobbed by curious kids or anything. We’re already going to have people on my side thinking we’re weird for bringing a cat.” She paused. “People on your side will know he’s a shifter and won’t be surprised, right?”
Zahara shrugged. “They might wonder why he’s in shifted form, but yeah, they’ll know he’s a shifter and treat him accordingly, within the boundaries of not revealing anything to humans present. But you’re right, a large wedding could be more awkward for Ari.”
I didn’t want them to have to not have their dream wedding for me, though. I appreciated their thoughtfulness, but I could put up with some hours of people poking at me if my new moms were happy.
I decided I’d have to tell them that if it looked like they were limiting themselves too much on my account. Zahara had set up my tablet with a way to send them messages, so I could basically email them whenever I wanted now, if I had something I wanted to say. If it looked like I needed to say something about the wedding, I would just have to send them an email.
I hadn’t realized it until I watched them over the next few weeks, but apparently wedding plans took a lot of work and planning, particularly when the wedding would involve both supernaturals and humans and the humans didn’t know about the supernaturals. There was also stuff about bridesmaids and cakes and color choices and music and a lot of stuff that sounded really complicated. I was kind of thankful it wasn’t me planning this, because it sounded time-consuming and frustrating. Thankfully, Amelia seemed to be having fun, though I got the impression Zahara was kind of humoring her about most of the stuff and didn’t really care much one way or the other. She did, however, buy me a sage green bow that looked a little like a bow tie, so I could dress up fancy for the wedding. Sort of.
They were also looking into buying a house, but hadn’t found one they liked within their budget yet. Zahara wanted some space outside, like a backyard and stuff or easy access to a park, and Amelia kind of had her heart set on a house with some history to it. I liked the idea of a house a little further away from people just to make it easier for me to blend into the scenery, as it were, so I was kind of curious about their house hunting. They even took me along to one of the tours, only to be told by the realtor that they couldn’t bring pets on the tour. We got back after that failed attempt with Amelia in a huff, grumbling the rest of the evening about stupid rules and how clearly they wouldn’t want that house anyway.
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