I closed my eyes and stretched out on my back, spotted belly up, enjoying the sunlight streaking in through the window.  Our new house was awesome – so much sun to relax in.  Zahara liked it, too, she said fairies photosynthesized – which I had to secretly go and look up what that meant because I wasn’t really up on biology terms, but basically I decided that both she and I enjoyed the sunlight.  Amelia, too, who was also excited to grow all sorts of plants – mostly herbs and vegetables and some fruits and some things that just smelled nice but weren’t edible – now that she had plenty of space and had her very own fairy to help make sure everything grew properly.

I had my own room now, a proper one, not just the trunk.  My moms had bought me a real bed in case I ever wanted to shift into human form to sleep, as well as a desk with a computer that I could use to type out emails a little easier than the tablet.  Amelia also found me a set of sphinx-shaped bookends for the books I didn’t have but she promised I would someday, and she seemed very invested in getting me sphinx stuff now that she knew about that side of me.  I thought it was awfully sweet of her and loved that about her.  I also loved that Zahara had managed to track down some of the people from my old town and had managed – without explaining the real reason – to get a couple more pictures of my parents for me.  One from when they were younger and I was just a baby and one of just the two of them together, right after they’d bought their house, which was in the background.  She’d tried to see if any of their stuff remained, but apparently my aunt had sold anything that was left intact, and unfortunately Zahara wasn’t able to track any of it down, but I didn’t really care.  She had more than doubled my precious pictures of my parents and I was thrilled to now have three pictures to look at.  She also gave me a plant that she said would help my nightmares be less vivid, so hopefully even when they did show up, they wouldn’t be as bad.

Based on Zahara’s suggestion, I also started sending them emails about my parents, about the happy stuff.  Little things, silly things, happy things.  When I mentioned a particular peanut butter cookie recipe, Amelia tried to recreate it and had me taste test about 20 batches of cookies until she was satisfied that she had figured it out, and I was touched that she’d spent that much work and also so happy that I had a taste of memories from my mom again.  It was wonderful, really, how both of them were trying hard to help me remember my parents and didn’t begrudge me at all still being attached to them, even though they were my new parents.  Even though they said they weren’t trying to replace my parents, a part of me probably thought they didn’t really want to hear about them all the time until it was clear that they actually did.  They wanted to know about my parents and wanted me to keep talking about them and remembering them.  And somehow that made it easier.  I wasn’t sure if it was their interest or just that I was talking about them more in general, but slowly, it became less painful to remember them and instead, looking at my pictures was usually a happy thing, smiling to myself over some memory, without being regularly haunted by the memories of that last day.

And when I did get those nightmares?  I knew I could always go to my moms and they would help.  Amelia would pet me and read me stories and Zahara would distract me with silly things or bits of magic that she always seemed to surprise me with in new ways.

All in all, I couldn’t ask for better parents.  My birth ones and my new ones.  They were amazing moms and I loved them and was so happy to be here with them.

Amelia came over, noticed me lying in the sun, and sat down on the floor next to me.  “They’re rebuilding the theater,” she announced.  “But the city is trying to set up better earthquake protections, too, because no one was prepared for one and it’s caused such a mess.  I suppose that means no work for me for the time being, but on the upside,” she grinned broadly, “more time for wedding planning!  So, here’s the seating arrangement.”  She spread a piece of paper on the floor and I looked at it curiously.

“Zahara’s parents are with us, and my parents, too.  We decided to put my siblings over here, with some of my extended family, and then put Zahara’s extended family over here.”  She pointed out the circles on the sheet of paper as she did.  “So, basically, all these tables,” she motioned towards about half of the circles, “should have supernaturals you’ll be safe with.  We want you at our table, but we’re not sure if that’s going to raise more questions with the human side of the room or not.  I mean, people bring pets to their weddings, right?  We can just be eccentric.”  She pondered over that for a bit.  “Anyway, Zahara’s mom’s cousin is coming, the one who married the fairy king?  And he’s coming, too.  I’m not sure if I’m supposed to call them your majesty or anything, but I’m guessing not in front of the humans, at least.  Fairies are apparently pretty close-knit, so all of Zahara’s extended family would show up if she invited them, but she’s trying to limit it so we don’t have a full-on-fairy-fest, as she put it.  I don’t know if that would be a bad thing or not.”  She looked thoughtful again.  “I’ve thought about just having a human wedding with my family and then a fairy reception with Zahara’s,” she admitted abruptly.  “It might be simpler in some ways, you know?  Or two ceremonies/receptions entirely.  I’m kind of curious about what the fairies would do if they weren’t restricted because humans were present.  But more ceremonies means more money, so there’s that.”

“We could do it, though.”  Zahara dropped down next to her, gave her a quick peck, and then leaned over the sheet of paper.  “We could always just throw a fairy party in a garden, they wouldn’t mind.  Fairies are pretty happy outdoors.”

I rolled over on top of the piece of paper and stretched out some.

“Ari!”  Amelia exclaimed, exasperated.  “We were using that!”

I looked at her and flicked my tail, then put my head down and closed my eyes again, appreciating the sunlight.

“Rebellious teenagers,” Amelia grumbled, trying to gently tug the piece of paper out from under me.

“Actually, he’s got a point,” Zahara settled down, leaning against the door and stretching her legs out as she looked at Amelia.

“What, that you both like the sunlight?  I know that!”  Amelia tried tugging some more.

“No, that we should just skip all of that.”

Amelia paused and looked up at Zahara.  “What do you mean?”

“Let’s just go get married.  Now,” Zahara suggested.  “Go to City Hall and get married.  Then we can go back to your family, hang out with them and get to know them without spending all the money on a reception and ceremony, plus it’s not a formal thing so we’re more likely to not be as stressed out and all have a good time.  And then we do the same with my family.  We can go and visit our families on our own time, whenever we want, and it doesn’t have to be a big expensive deal that we got married or raise questions with the human side about why we are bringing our cat with us.”

Amelia bit her lip, but her eyes were starting to sparkle.  “Really?  You want to get married now?”

I sat up and chirped at her.

Amelia laughed and then nodded.  “Okay!  Let’s do this!  I’m going to go get something pretty to wear, and Ari, you get your bow tie, and come on, Zahara, let’s go get married!”

It might have been a mad dash around the house, but somehow, it felt right for us.

A little bit of chaos, a little bit of impulsivity – and a lot of love.

I was so glad this was my home now.  I was never going to have to run away again.