Chapter 59: Her Giant Cat Needed a Drink

Dove followed the carer into the side passage, with Thorne close beside her. The diner stayed behind them, warm and noisy. Ahead, the younger cubs’ sleeping room had one door stuck halfway open, with a narrow gap showing blankets, frightened faces, and another carer trying to keep everyone back.

The keeper pointed through the passage window. The outside awning had collapsed beneath the snow, bending the metal brace fixed beside the door. That had pulled the frame crooked. The room’s ceiling was still standing, but the door would not swing far enough for the children to leave safely.

"Get them back from the frame," Thorne called. "We need room to lift this."

Dove crouched where the cubs could see her through the gap. She asked them to move with their carer toward the far wall. One boy clutched his blanket and asked whether he had to leave it behind.

"Bring it," she said. "I’ve met the weather. I’m not taking its side in an argument about blankets."

He backed away, pulling the blanket with him. Edrik arrived with two workers and a timber prop. They wedged it beneath the brace. When its metal collar began to buckle, Edrik pressed his palm against it; the soft edge stopped bending beneath the weight.

"It holds harder when I touch it," he told the keeper. "New trick. Put a second prop under it before I let go."

A worker fetched one while Edrik stayed in place, his arm shaking. Thorne could change a metal object’s shape, but this looked like something else. Dove kept the distinction in mind and her questions out of the repair crew’s way.

Thorne showed Dove the twisted hinge pin. "If I straighten that, they can lift the door off. Stay on this side of me."

She moved beside the sound wall, close enough to hear his breathing change as he gripped the metal. His power had handled a small buckle at the mall. This pin was thicker, bent hard against its bracket, and his fingers shook before it began to move.

"That’s enough," the keeper said when a gap opened. He and a worker lifted together, carrying the loose door into the passage. Thorne let go and sat against the wall before his legs could make the decision for him.

The older cubs came out holding blankets and each other. Their carer carried two small beasts against his chest, while a third trotted at his heels. Dove counted with him until the last child crossed the frame. Nobody had been left behind, and Edrik stayed with the brace while the workers closed the damaged room.

Thorne said he was fine, although he hadn’t tried to stand. Dove gave him a sweet smile. "Excellent, then you can be fine sitting down while somebody brings lunch."

Before he answered, a brown-eared boy, old enough to have his human shape, stepped away from his carer and vanished past Dove in a blur. His blanket snapped behind him. A bowl clattered at the diner entrance, and the boy appeared beneath a table at the other end, looking as shocked as everyone watching.

His carer hurried after Pip, calling for him to stay under the table. The boy burst into tears. Dove went with Thorne as far as the diner bench, where he sat while she crouched beside the nearby table. The boy had not hit anything. He kept saying he had only wanted to get his cup.

"I believe you," she told him. "Let’s leave the cup where it is while your feet work out what happened. They’ve got a terrible training program."

His carer picked him up, and Pip hid his face against the man’s shoulder. Sprout announced Super Speed inside Dove’s head with far too much excitement for an ability that had just frightened a child. She muttered that it could save the celebration until he stopped crying.

Thorne heard and asked what Sprout had said. She repeated it quietly. The keeper cleared the aisle and told the carers to keep Pip with them until they understood his speed. Nobody sent him running again for entertainment, though several older cubs looked deeply offended by that decision.

A bowl of stew and bread arrived for Thorne. Dove sat beside him, holding the bowl while he managed the spoon. He complained once that she did not need to feed him.

"You carried me for miles," she said. "I can hold your lunch. Open your mouth before I start making airplane noises."

He ate. The shaking eased after food and a little rest, and she took him back to their room once the keeper confirmed the cubs had beds in the undamaged side room. Thorne stayed beside her throughout, slower than usual but no longer pretending that was a personal insult.

She latched the door and fetched a small cup of pool water while he sat on the sleeping pad. He waited through the short silence, just as he had at the mall, then took the cup when she returned.

"The water from Sprout’s space?" he asked. "The same one you’ve been washing with?"

She nodded. "It helped with your old cut. It might help now, but start small. I’d rather not discover you’ve grown another arm before dinner."

He drank a little and handed it back. Gradually, the tightness left his face. He flexed his hand, then rubbed an old scar near his wrist. Dove brought the little mirror when she noticed a thin mark beside his jaw looked flatter too.

The deeper scars remained, but the raised edges had softened. He said he felt stronger, then curved a loose metal washer with less effort than before. He put it down after that, watching her expression with a small smile.

He pointed out that he had stopped without being asked. Dove glanced at his waist. "Good, because I was about to hide every piece of metal in this room, including your pants buckle. Don’t tempt me."

She set the water aside and touched the scar beside his mouth. "I liked your face before, by the way. So if you’re waiting for me to suddenly find you handsome, you’re a little late."

He caught her hand gently. For a moment he only looked at her, and she felt foolishly nervous despite having already chosen him. Then he drew her onto his lap, settling her against his chest as though he had been waiting all afternoon to have her there.

She kissed his cheek. His arm tightened around her, and he glanced at his hand again. "That helped too. The tiredness eased when you did that."

"Careful," she said. "That sounds suspiciously like a treatment plan written by you."

He laughed, and she kissed him again because she wanted to, keeping her hand against his warm neck. He said it helped a little more. Food, water, rest, and now kisses gave them plenty to work out, but she could investigate the pleasant part without holding a notebook between them.

Then a crash came from the yard. Thorne stopped beneath her hands as the keeper shouted for workers to get away from the bedding trailer.