The Words That Hurt Me

Fifty-One: Family Reunion

Mike was thrilled! Both of their universes have hidden places filled with Yokai? Incredible!

The courtyard really reminded him of the giant biospheres he saw down in the Hidden City, although, this was on a much smaller scale than back at home. He was lucky enough to wake up just in time to watch the sprinkler system go off, simulating a warm rain inside the building. While he initially tried to avoid the wet courtyard, children's laughter drew him back.

His feet squished in the grass as he made his way through, finding a group of kids splashing in the puddles. There were a couple of human kids, but the majority were Yokai, a couple were reptiles, mostly geckos; a few were common mammals, cats, dogs, and was that a guinea pig? Finally, there was a singular bird Yokai, a little half-human half-bird kid. What was that called again? A harpy?

Curiosity satisfied, he turned to go back to the room, or find the kitchen, only to run into a human girl being led by a weasel.

"Oh-mi-gosh!" Mike nearly jumped, "I couldn't hear you over the sprinklers!"

"That's the other Mikey," The weasel said, pointing at Mike, "His brothers are still in their room,"

"That's why you dragged me under the sprinkler," The girl mumbled, pushing her wet hair out of her face, "Why don't you go play, Charlie? I want to have a chat with this Mikey,"

The weasel, Charlie, went to join the rest of the kids, leaving Mike with the girl. She gestured for him to follow her, leading him to what appeared to be a laundry room. She grabbed a towel from one of the baskets and tossed it at him, grabbing one for herself.

"Say, how did that kid know who I was?" Mike asked, drying himself off. The girl wrapped her long hair in the towel, setting it atop her head.

"I don't know...Charlie's kinda weird like that," She mumbled, "Anyway, from my understanding, you're an alternate version of Mikey?"

"Uh, yeah?" 

The girl stewed on that for a moment, her face slowly morphing into that of awe.

"Like, an entirely different universe? A whole ass 'nother reality?" She asked, "And there are alternate versions of people there?"

"Yeah, I guess," Mike answered, "There might even be another you where I'm from,"

"Really?" She stepped behind a curtain with some dry clothes, "Would that mean there's a Yuichi over there too?"

"Yuichi?"

"Yeah-er, if you met him, he prolly introduced himself as Usagi," The girl said, "He's my brother,"

"Oh! Are you Kit?" Mike asked, "Man! I wouldn't have known if you hadn't said anything!"

"There's a Kit over there?" Kit asked, peeking at him from behind the curtain.

"Yup!" Mike said, "Though, Kit in my world is a fox Yokai,"

"Oh, cool!" 

Kit stepped out from behind the curtain, wet clothes in hand.

"Have you had breakfast yet?"

.

Leon was getting really tripped up with this alternate version of his boyfriend.

Even though it was accidental, seeing someone who looked exactly like his partner flirt with someone else, really made his blood boil. He was fine at first, but the memory just stuck in his mind and bothered him more and more. The phone call with his actual boyfriend eased his mind a little, but he still couldn't get it out of his mind.

Especially as he watched Leo and Usagi interact even more.

He felt silly, seething in the corner of the training room. It wasn't him, he knew that. This rabbit was wearing a different style of clothing, and had scars his Ichi didn't, hell, he even sounded different! But his tiny turtle brain couldn't help but get jealous watching someone who wasn't his boyfriend form a relationship with someone who was technically him.