Fire in Her Eyes - Charlie Weasley

Chapter 9 - Gus

** Trigger Warning for language **

Kai woke up the next morning grumpy. She never slept well when she slept alone. She had nightmares all night and woke up feeling exhausted. She did not feel prepared travel, even if it wasn't technically very far. It wasn't even international. She threw on a pair of tight, black jeans, boots, and a close-fitting maroon sweater. She poured a cup of coffee and took a sip as she stuffed a backpack full of the essentials for an overnight trip.

Taking another sip of her coffee, she felt something in the back of her mind and sighed. There was an injured animal outside of her door. If she hadn't been so exhausted she would have felt it as soon as she woke up. Placing her coffee cup on the counter, she opened the door and saw Gus sitting patiently outside.

"Oh you poor boy," she could feel the pain radiating from his paw in her left hand. She took a moment and put up a thin barrier to block it from her mind so that she could focus. "What happened?" She asked him as she gently picked him up.

I didn't move quickly enough and caught it in a door, he grumbled. Can you help?

"Let's see what we can do," her voice was quiet as she carried him inside. She gently settled him on her lap. She used some of her magic to calm him and send him into a quiet state so she could work.

Kai took a deep breath. She looked into herself and grabbed a thin strand of her gold magic and pulled it up. She gently sent it down her arm and into the cat, so that she could look into the cat's paw. She saw multiple broken bones from the crush injury. She sighed internally and pulled up her magic to get to work. Kai closed her eyes and looked inside herself, grabbing some more of her magic and began to knit each bone together. She was practiced at healing bones, but there were multiple small fractures and it still took time. She patiently went through each fracture, ensuring that any infection was burned away and that the bones were set properly.

Once the bones were done, she got to work on the blood vessels surrounding the injury. She patiently reattached each one that had been crushed, and healed the bruising in the surrounding muscle. She took one last look and ensured that everything was fine, before letting severing the bridge of magic between them.

Kai exhaled and stretched, as Gus got up, testing his freshly healed paw by jumping on the table, purring. He bumped his head against hers, Thank you.

"You're very welcome. Please be cautious of doors in the future, mister. You're not a kitten anymore," she chastised him gently. He flicked his tail at her as he went to her bed to go take a nap. She couldn't help but giggle. She loved how sassy cats could be.

"Did you just heal him?" A voice behind her made her jump.

"Jesus fuck!" She whirled around to see Charlie standing in her doorway, backpack slung over his shoulder, watching her intently. "How long have you been standing there?"

"A little while. Did you just heal him? Without your wand?" Kai followed his eyes to the kitchen counter where it sat next to her coffee cup. Damn. She scrambled to think of a lie to explain, but came up short.

"Yes," she stated simply. "Why are you here? How did you get in?" She turned the focus onto him, hoping to distract him from the current conversation. She needed to remember to lock her door.

"You didn't show up at 9:00, so I came to make sure you were ok. The door was open," Charlie explained. "I didn't know you could do wandless magic," his voice trailed off.

"I can't really," that was the truth at least. "Only with healing magic. I'm not very good at anything else to be honest. I just have a knack for healing." She got up from the bench she was sitting on and stretched. She looked at her watch and realized it was almost 10:00. "Shit. I'm so sorry I'm late. Let me just grab a jacket and we can go."

"Kai, that's really powerful magic," Charlie's voice was quiet, and if she didn't know better, had a twinge of awe in it. She got the feeling she had just passed some test she didn't realize he had for her. 

"I can only do it with healing, Charlie," she retorted, uncomfortable with what dangerously close to praise. "The monks taught me how to focus my magic to help with specific types of work. I'm not powerful, just practiced." She didn't want to talk about this anymore. She didn't enjoy lying to people, but she wasn't ready to explain everything yet. It wasn't a total lie, but he didn't need to know everything that she could do.

"Still," he exhaled.

"It's really not a big deal," Kai kept her voice carefully composed, but with enough bite to ensure the end of the conversation. She put on her leather jacket and slung her backpack over her shoulder, well practiced in hiding any nerves that she might be fighting. She gave off an air of unruffled confidence. She chugged her coffee, wrinkling her nose at the fact that it had gone cold, and shoved her wand into her boot. "Ready?" She looked up at him.

Charlie nodded mutely, and headed out the door. She locked it and followed him.

"We can't apparate on sanctuary grounds," he reminded her as they headed toward the gate that she had come through on her first day. She nodded, remembering their conversation from the first night, and followed him through the town. The pair walked in silence down the road toward the gate, both lost in their own thoughts. She had no idea what he was thinking about, but her head was swirling with whether or not he was stuck on what had just happened. She could only hope that he would drop it.

They walked through the gate and Charlie closed it behind them. He held out his arm and she took a deep breath to brace herself. God, she hated magical travel. She grabbed his arm and immediately felt the pulling sensation.

The minute Kai landed on the ground, she fell to her knees. She had become lax living at the sanctuary, and the thousands of animals living in and around Bucharest immediately clamored for her attention when she landed. She was hit with thousands of voices at once.

"Oh fuck!" She swore in pain, momentarily forgetting about Charlie. She took quick breaths, bracing her hands on the ground, and threw up a mental wall against the creatures in the area. She was worn out from healing the cat, the long week of potion making, and the lack of sleep. All made her barrier weaker than it should be. She could still feel all the creatures clamoring to speak to her. Was there a fucking zoo nearby? Good lord.

Kai breathed heavily, trying to get her bearings, feeling disoriented and nauseous from the immense pain in her head. She focused on feeling the ground under hands and smells in the air, attempting to center herself back in her body. She felt she was being pulled a thousand different directions at once, mentally shredding her mind apart.

"Kai? Can you hear me?" Charlie's worried voice finally registered in her brain.

She blinked, trying to clear her vision and nodded her head. "Yeah," she gasped, trying to breathe through the pain. "I'm ok." She stood up and almost fell over again. Strong hands gripped her shoulders holding her steady.

"Hey, take a minute. Sit down," Charlie tried to lead her somewhere, but her vision was still blurry and she stumbled. She heard him sigh, and suddenly she was in his arms and they were apparating again. From his arms, she could smell the faint scent of men's deodorant and clean linen from his detergent.

The second apparation combined with the force of the animals prior, took Kai out. She slipped into darkness. The last thing she remembered was being laid down on something soft and a shimmer of red before she passed out. 

This chapter was really short, but the next one will be much longer! Also, I probably won't have trigger warnings on the rest of the chapters. There will be fowl language, drinking, and smoking consistent throughout the story. I will, however, put a warning at any sexual content in case you aren't comfortable reading it.

Please comment and vote <3 It means the world to me to know what you think, good or bad.

~M

Image from: https://www.tcpalm.com/story/specialty-publications/your-news/indian-river-county/reader-submitted/2017/11/30/dogs-cats-forever-gracie-grumpy-cat/912280001/