Kleo sat on a barstool with an empty juice bottle before him. He moved the framed picture of him and his mom and any other particularly fragile items to the other end of the bar to avoid any accidental mishaps as he tried to focus his magic. Nox perched near him with a watchful eye as he coached him. They had been going on like this for nearly an hour now and Kleo was nowhere near close to any progress, whatsoever.

‘A clear, focused mind is what you need, especially since you’re just starting out. Focus on your intent and what you want the bottle to do.’

Kleo stared at the bottle, willing himself to focus on it just moving a few inches. Nox said he needed to practice his abilities to learn how to control it, but Kleo was still a bit lost on just how exactly it worked. Yeah, he’s pretty sure he’s got the whole ‘intent’ part, but was he just supposed to think ‘oh, I want this thing to do whatever,’ and it just does? Even with the whole tuna can thing, his brain was on various things for sure and he was definitely far from focused. He was exhausted, anxious, and just really wanting to feed Nox something that wouldn’t give him stomach issues. This whole process was way harder than he thought, which made sense, but it didn’t help that he felt like an absolute idiot as he just sat there, staring at the juice bottle.

Kleo groaned slightly as he felt the dryness in his eyes. He rubbed them before sitting up, “Yeah, I don’t think this is going to work.”

‘You’re not focusing.’

“Says you? All I’ve been doing is focusing!”

‘No, you’re getting frustrated and that’s what you’re focusing on, not your intent.’

“Well, what do you expect!” His voice raised with his irritation. “I’ve been staring at this thing for almost an hour now, and nothing has happened. How do you expect me to not get frustrated!” This was crazy, for him to think that he could just ‘will’ and object to move and it would just happen.

‘Kleo—‘

“This is literally insane!” He nearly chucked in his own frustration as he stood from the seat, throwing his hands up. I fire had formed within his chest and he could not ignore it. “I can’t do this, ok! I don’t know what it is, but you made some mistakes. Hell, this is probably the reason my mom hid this from me! She must have known that I’d be shi—“

‘Kleo!’

“What!?” Kleo turned back towards the cat only to have the empty bottle knock against his face. His eyes widened as he watched it gently float away from him. That’s when he noticed that various objects were now suddenly floating across the room. Bar stools left the ground while loose mugs and kitchen utensils gently drifted around the room. Nox himself was desperately trying to grasp hold of anything to get grounded but nothing was in reach. Kleo took a step towards him but his foot hit nothing as he tumbled forward into nothing. He gripped onto the bar in front of him to try and steady himself. He was stunned, to say the least. “I did this?”

‘Yes, and now you need to undo this!’ Nox said, visibly on edge.

“But, how! I don’t even know how I did this!”

‘Kleo, I swear in Merlin’s name if you do not get me down!’

“Ok! Ok just, let me think,” Kleo said and closed his eyes. He tried to focus on his intent, to will that they are returned to the security of the ground but they only floated higher up. Kleo lost his grip on the bar as he moved closer towards the ceiling. Kleo never really had a fear of heights until now, as he opened his eyes and stared down at the floor. This wouldn’t be a fun drop.

‘Kleo, you must think, what did you do differently before? What did you feel?’ Nox asked unwillingly spinning in a slow circle as he tried to traverse the air with no such luck. Kleo placed his hand to his chest. There was a warmth there before, that he hadn’t realized. He closed his eyes tight as he focused on what he wanted. Slowly, gently, things started to return to their previous places and Kleo felt himself begin to descend. Relief flooded his mind as they came even closer to the ground, but the sound of the door unlocking shocked him. His eyes widened and suddenly, everything that was still in the air fell to the ground, himself included.

Kleo groaned from the pain of the impact and didn’t bother looking up as Alexei entered the room.

“What the hell happened here?”

Kleo looked up at him as he stood there with a look of both shock and mild concern. The place did look a mess, with random things now strewn across the floor. Kleo quickly tried to come up with a believable excuse which resulted in him pointing towards Nox, “It was the cat.”

Nox looked beyond offended, to say the least.

Kleo picked himself up and Alexei lent him a hand in getting things back in order. Fortunately, it seemed that most everything was unharmed. Unfortunately, the one thing that didn’t quite stick the landing was the picture frame Sean had gifted him. Kleo sighed to himself as he carefully picked up the broken shards of glass to put into a plastic bag. As he cleaned up the remnants of the frame, he noticed a slip of paper behind the photo. Confused, he removed the photo to find a folded not stuck to the inside of the frame.

“Oh no,” he heard Alexei say and slipped the note inside his pocket. He didn’t like the idea of hiding it from Alexei, but he didn’t know how to open the magical can of worms just yet and on the off chance the note said something about it, he didn’t want to have to figure out a lie about it. He stood, taking the photo and trashing the rest of the broken frame.

“What’s up?” He asked and turned to see Alexei hold up a broken mug.

“It didn’t make it,” he said, tossing the pieces.

“It’s alright,” Kleo said and showed him the photo. “It wasn’t the only casualty, but luckily photos don’t break.”

“Awe, is this you?” Alexei asked, giving it a look. He smiled, leaning against the counter as he looked at it. “Man, what happened? You used to be adorable” He chuckled and received a well deserve shove, causing him to laugh more. Kleo sucked his teeth, taking the photo back.

“I’ve seen your baby photos, what’s your excuse?”

“I only better with age,” Alexei said with a grin. “Well, now that all that’s cleaned up, we should go get some stuff for the cat. We can pick up a new frame as well.” Kleo gave him a nod.

“I’m sure Nox would appreciate some actual food,” Kleo agreed.

“You named him Nox?”

“Yeah,” Kleo shrugged. He couldn’t exactly say that Nox actually told him his name. “It just… felt right.”

“Alright,” Alexei tested the name on his tongue. “I like it.” He smiles and went to pet Nox who was sitting on the bar. “We should probably take him to a vet to see if he’s chipped as well.”

Kleo opened his mouth to say something but Nox’s voice intruded his mind before he could respond.

‘Bringing me to a vet would be unnecessary and problematic for various reasons, I assure you.’

Kleo nodded his head softly as he stepped away from the counter.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of that tomorrow,” he assured Alexei. “Let’s go grab that stuff, and you,” he pointed to Nox, “no trouble while we’re out.”

Nox stared at him, unamused. Alexei gave his head another gentle pat as he walked past him.

“Give him a break,” he said to Kleo. “He’s in a new space and will probably take time to adjust.” He sympathized with the cat, to which Nox seemed to appreciate.

‘I like this human.’