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Kabinga’s idea of a lazy Sunday hadn’t exactly panned out as desired when a knock came to her apartment door at 10 AM sharp. She dragged herself out of her messy bed and swung the door wide open, dressed in none but her silky black nightgown, monogrammed with her nickname, “Kitten”, in cursive across the left breast.
He stepped into her apartment without invitation, but at that point in their relationship, none was needed. She clung to his arm like a lame, needy pup, sighing against him as he sank into the sofa and flicked on the television.
That was hours ago, when the sun hung high in the sky, casting golden rays across all the land. Now it lay half-sunken in the distant sea, staining the sky above a beautiful shade of crimson, dashed with orange and the faintest blue hue. That day, Kabi got everything she could ever wish for. A new purse, those booty shorts she’d been eyeing up but never gathered the courage to purchase, even a new ring that fit just right on her right middle finger. He’d bought it all without a second thought, pressing the gift bags into her arms and guiding her with an arm around her shoulders. He made her feel like a queen. The clock had long ago struck 8 PM, yet despite the growing darkness, the city slowed down for no one. Sitting on a high balcony, Kabinga and Wyatt took in all there was to see, to hear, to smell, even to taste the sea salt wafting through the air from the harbour nearby. Globules of golden sunlight disappeared one by one as the sun sank until it left nothing but the residue of its light illuminating the heavens.
Everything settled in for Kabi much too late. The way he looked at her every chance he got, the way he accepted, no, asked for pictures with her to commemorate the moment, as if he were trying to cement the image of her face into his mind. As if it were all coming to an end. She tilted her head to look him over, that tall, broad coyote of hers, clad in a trench coat that stretched at the seams, taxed to the limit by his burly frame.
“Hey, Wyatt? Is something wrong? You’ve been acting kind of weird all day long,” she asked, reaching out to lay her fingers on his sleeve. He flinched with the sudden contact but didn’t shy away.
“I’ll… I’ll tell you in just a moment, Kabinga. Just… let us have this for a little longer, please.”Wyatt lowered his head, diverting his gaze from the sea and sky before them to the stony gray balcony beneath them. His nostrils twitched every so often as he sat there, breathing slowly, steadily, in and out. In and out.
“You’re scaring me, Wyatt. What’s wrong? You gotta tell me!”
Kabinga took his chin with one hand, pressing the other up against his shoulder, gripping it for dear life. As she tilted his head over, his expression of defeat became plain to see. The lack of light in his eyes, the deepening of the wrinkles on his forehead and surrounding his mouth, and even the distinct thin line into which he’d pressed his black lips.
Wyatt sighed, allowing himself to at last release a bit of tension. He clasped his hands in his lap, moving his head from the girl’s grasp to again stare out across the open sea.
“I have to leave again, Kabinga. You can’t come with me this time.”
At this, Kabinga tilted her head quizzically, allowing her messy mohawk to flop unceremoniously into her eyes, which she brushed away with a flick of her wrist.
“So? You’ll be back tomorrow morning, maybe tomorrow night at the latest. It’s another one of those “personal visits” you’re always talking about, right? No big deal. I’m a big girl, remember? I can take care of myself!”
She punched his shoulder playfully, sliding her hand right down his arm and setting her thin fingers right atop his much thicker ones. The size difference between them astounded her even then, more than half a year after they’d met. Her five feet and nine inches against his easy six and a half. He could break her in two without breaking a sweat, yet he treats her like a princess every single time. As she did this, Wyatt’s lip trembled, something Kabinga had only ever seen once before, and something she knew carried only the worst of bad news along with it. A jolt of cortisol shot through her system as she awaited what he’d say next.
“I know you can handle yourself, Kabi. I made sure of that, didn’t I? You’ve gotta keep on top of your training, even after I’m gone.”
Ah. There it was. The small sentence that at first seemed like very little, but indeed held the power to topple mountains, to shatter planets, and to break one very fragile, very lonely heart.
“W-Wyatt… you can’t… you…”
Kabi’s eyes glistened and shimmered in an instant as her very worst fear came true one word at a time. Her body shuddered with every laboured breath.
“You can’t go! Y-you’re my… you… You belong here, with me! You’re my dad…”
She threw her arms around his neck, digging her claws ever so gently into the soft and warm flesh to be found there. With her face buried into the wrinkled material of his overcoat, Kabi let herself ugly cry, smearing the sleeve of the coat with her mucus and tears.
That initial lip quiver had spelt disaster, and Kabi could do nothing to avert it.“I have to go, Kabi. You know as well as I do that I couldn’t stay.”
As he spoke, Kabinga’s weak cries intensified into a full-on bawl, attracting the attention of passersby, but she didn’t care about appearances this time. Not now. Even through her mental anguish, Kabi hadn’t relinquished that fight in her, lightly punching Wyatt in the arm and in the chest. Through it all, and truly, through everything else in his life, Wyatt did not move an inch. Not for her, not for anyone. Not even to lift a hand to her face in consolation as her life came crashing down around her like the flaming ruins of a tower.
Ever stalwart, the elder coyote took a deep breath and stood, leaving Kabinga there hanging onto his coat for dear life, only to be pried off like an unruly child and made to stand before him. He lowered himself slightly to match her height, brushing the tears from her eyes with his cybernetic right hand. Even as she gnashed at his finger, emulating the many hours they spent playfighting, he let her bite at him, finally losing the fight against his own tears, which rolled down his angular face.
Wyatt held her firmly by the shoulders, making eye contact with as serious a facial expression as he could conjure.
“Listen to me carefully. I have to leave you, I really don’t want to, but I need to. People are coming for me, Kabi. I won’t let them hurt you just to get at me. Do you understand?”
The gravel in his voice, despite how much Kabi loved hearing it, struck a sort of primal fear in her heart, as if the very sound forcefully snapped her back into reality.
Like a toddler standing before their parent after a firm talking-to, Kabinga’s arms slumped, knowing full well it was useless to fight against the will of the man she’d come to call “dad". After all, that was part of what drew her to him in the first place. His tenacity. Even in a situation of life or death, Wyatt possessed an indomitable spirit.
“Y-yeah, okay… Okay, dad…”
Wyatt sighed, his message having been delivered, and the effects of the news on full display. His daughter looked defeated, sapped of energy, devoid of light. And he himself felt just as crushed as a discarded paper cup, thrown into the wind. At last, answering Kabi’s silent plea, Wyatt brought his strong arms round her waist, pressing her spotted snout right up against the soft turtleneck he wore that she insisted made him look more intelligent. Her knees buckled, sending her to the ground, but Wyatt sank down with her, pressing his face into her fiery mane. He knew as well as she that it would be impossible to turn back now. A pain that burnt deep within them like a raging pyre.
“I’m sorry.”
The minutes ticked past with nary a word to be said between the two. Only the sounds of the city around them and the lapping ocean waves below soothed their wound-up nerves. Kabi took his hand into hers, lacing their fingers together as they always did during times when neither person had anything to say. Hardly did they notice the sound of heeled boots coming up behind them, nor did they take note of the woman standing over them with a shit-eating grin plastered across her felid face.
“You two look like a couple in an old movie. Tears and all.” With a swift motion, Wyatt removed his overcoat and draped it over Kabi’s shoulders, leaving her one last gift. She grabbed onto the sleeves of the coat, curling her body into it, where she tried and failed to fight off one last bout of tears. Turning his attention to their newest companion, the elder coyote nodded his greeting and sighed.
“Thanks for answering my call. It’s short notice, and it’s not on a good note, but I figure you’d be able to relate to her better than I ever could." He cracked a halfhearted smile, winking at the woman.
"You're looking better than ever."
“Sorry for your loss, kid,” the woman muttered, gently nudging Wyatt with her boot. Her Eastern European accent came thick enough to nearly slur the words she spoke. “Your uncle Wyatt is a good man. Such a good man. But, he’s on the run, and if he’s caught with you, you both will end up dead.”
She knelt beside Kabi, setting a hand on the girl’s back while nodding up at Wyatt, who gave a gentle nod of approval.
“I’ll take good care of her while you’re gone, boss.”
“Thanks, Katze. You should be able to live comfortably off the money I left you both in the account Kabi knows about. She’s got the information saved securely,” Wyatt said, clearing his throat as he ruffled her hair.
Off into the sunset did he stare, taking in the deep purple, blue, and black for perhaps the very last time, at least on this planet.
“Forgive me for having to do all this to you. I’ll always love you, kid. Stay strong for me.”
She looked up at him from beneath the coat, clutching onto it like a child would its favourite blanket. Her eyeliner had long since run down her face, leaving black markings reminiscent of claw slashes. Wyatt smiled back down at her, forcing the lump in his throat back down. He turned his back to leave, concluding yet another heartbreaking goodbye.
“Why can’t I ever have love? Why won’t it ever stick?”
As Wyatt later sat in the seat of a small four-man shuttle, the beautiful blue marble of a planet quickly retreated from view. He deftly thumbed the friendship bracelet wrapped around his wrist, tracing his finger across the etched initials “K + W”. This, too, would earn its place close to his heart, right beside the dogtags of his younger brother Dean, and the marred eyepatch of the other brother, Caboose, who always managed to find his way out of the troubles life threw his way.