It was a cold night in Far Far Away.
The streets were dark, only faintly lit by a few lampposts in the public roads.
But at that moment, a shadow was slithering through the streets, covered by a black cloak, heading toward the more peripheral and less wealthy areas of the city.
The figure ran in a specific direction, as if it had a predetermined target from the very start… a tiny little house with a lawn, wedged between two large houses, the warm yellow light from its small windows giving the home a cozy look.
But under the lamplight, the shadow of the hooded being approaching it grew and stretched until it entirely covered the little house, making even the lights in its windows seem to dim under its presence.
The individual stopped in front of the little house's lawn, crouched down, and with a hoarse voice, whispered softly:
"Señora Vivianne."
His voice, with a strong accent, pretty much gave away who he was.
But the moment he spoke, the loud cry of a baby rang out from inside the house, and Puss's mouth twitched. He had whispered precisely because of the children, but apparently it hadn't helped much.
The door burst open, and Vivianne appeared, her golden hair a mess and her face looking irritated.
But this time, unlike before, she did not have a swollen belly — instead, her tummy was flat.
"Puss in Boots, you'd better have a good reason for waking up my entire house!"
She gritted her teeth, glaring at him with red, tired eyes and dark circles.
Just minutes earlier, she had finally managed to get all the children to sleep, but a single whisper had been enough to wake up newborn Harlequin, and with his crying, all the other children woke up as well — along with, obviously, herself, who had just closed her eyes for what little relaxation she ever got.
"Uhh… I didn't know a whisper could wake them. I'm sorry, I'll add gold, if possible, to pay for the psychological damage," Puss said awkwardly, removing the black hood from his head, revealing his feline face, and trying to think of a way to make it up to her — but the only thing he could think of was throwing gold at her.
Unfortunately, she didn't seem satisfied with that and rolled her eyes.
"As if gold could buy me a few minutes of my rare and sweet rest. Now, help me fix what you caused!"
She flew over and landed on the tip of his nose, hands on her waist, sticking her little butt out in a bossy yet cute way.
Puss went cross-eyed looking at her and spoke sheepishly.
"Err… sure, but how?" he asked with a confused look in his cross-eyed eyes as he looked at the little fairy that went up and down with the movement of his mouth as he spoke.
"Simple, help me put the children to bed." She smiled mischievously, and before he could respond, she threw a burst of powder at him. Puss didn't resist, trusting her and not sensing any real malice in her eyes.
As soon as the powder touched his body, he immediately began to shrink, and in just a few seconds, he was only a few centimeters tall — the same size as the little fairy Vivianne before him.
Puss looked at his arms and legs with interest.
But before he could examine them further, the face of a blonde fairy appeared right in front of him.
"Stop examining yourself, the children are still crying," she said, then flew inside.
Helpless at the sound of intense crying and the noises of children fighting inside the house, Puss stopped playing around with his tiny form and followed her in, where a complete mess awaited — children flying everywhere, sprinkling golden magic dust around, making things float along with them.
Some were pulling each other's hair, others were laughing and teasing, provoking one another, while others simply caused chaos in their own way.
Puss's mouth twitched. If eleven children were already difficult, imagine eleven flying children with superpowers.
As soon as Vivianne set foot in the living room, a few children noticed her and immediately went pale, descending to the floor and sitting obediently with innocent eyes, like good little kids.
Still, some hadn't noticed the intimidating presence and were still busy fighting or provoking each other.
But when an irritated voice rang out, they instantly froze.
"Puck, Flora, Oberon, Cosmo, Mab! You're still not going to stop?" Vivianne asked through clenched teeth, her jaw tight.
The children's eyes widened in panic, and they quickly dropped to the floor with obedient faces, just like their siblings.
Vivianne merely sighed, and with a wave of her hand, a small gust of magic dust spread through the room full of floating objects, which then slowly drifted back to their proper places.
Puss looked with a bit of envy at the magic dust, but finally sighed and let it go, helping to gather the children and put them in bed, telling them some stories that soon made them fall asleep.
They had already been exhausted, but like all children, they still gave Vivianne quite a bit of trouble when she put them to bed. Unfortunately, Puss showed up shortly after and accidentally woke her newborn baby, who in turn woke the entire house.
But because of that, the children fell back asleep rather quickly, since their earlier exhaustion hadn't vanished after just a few minutes of rest.
Once the house had returned to calm, Vivianne looked softly, with a small smile, at Puss, who was gently rocking the baby's cradle, and her earlier anger had long since vanished.
She walked up to him, lightly tapped his shoulder to get his attention, received the focus of his green eyes, and called him to step outside.
Once outside the house, Vivianne carefully closed the door, pulled a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from her cleavage, and offered one to Puss.
"Want one?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No, gracias," he raised his hand and refused, though he felt slightly tempted… not by the cigarette, but by where it had been kept.
Shrugging, she placed the cigarette in her mouth, cupped it with one hand, struck the lighter with the other, and lit it.
Putting the lighter back into her cleavage without caring that it was still a bit warm, she took a drag from the cigarette and blew the smoke upward.
"I didn't know you were good with kids. I'm impressed," she said, looking slightly impressed at him from the corner of her eye.
Puss stretched a little, yawning, with a small smile.
"Well… I used to live in an orphanage, and although I liked to keep my distance from everyone… sometimes I saw a child crying, and I couldn't just stand by, so I ended up taking care of kids every now and then and got the hang of it," Puss explained lightly, as his memories of San Ricardo returned.
He unconsciously removed his hat and looked at it with complex eyes.
It had been more than four months since he left the city he had once called home.
He didn't hate San Ricardo for not protecting him — after all, the decision to expel him had been made solely by one person. He had faith that if he had stayed in the city, especially after receiving the letter from the Comandante's Cousin, even those who might have preferred he didn't remain would still have stood up and fought for him, not abandoning him.
But it would be a lie to say he didn't harbor some resentment toward the one person who truly abandoned him.
He understood why the Comandante did what he did to protect everyone, and Puss knew that man would also give his own life for him without hesitation. But what truly saddened him was the fact that he simply hadn't been given a choice.
If he had been told the circumstances back then, he would have chosen to leave on his own. But the moment the Comandante ordered a guard to block his entrance into the city… something broke in Puss's chest.
San Ricardo no longer felt like the synonym of home at that moment.
But there were two people in that city… two people he knew, no matter what the world threw at him, would never give up on him.
'Mama Imelda, Humpty…' Puss thought of those two, who were kept in such a special place in his heart.
A mother and a brother in everything but blood.
After losing the memory of his family's faces from his past life, those two were all he thought of when the word "family" was spoken.
As he sank into his memories, a soft voice at his side suddenly brought him back.
"Why did you come looking for me so late?" Vivianne asked, drawing his attention.
Puss lowered his head and placed his hat back on, his feline green eyes standing out under it in the dark night.
"I need your help. Two friends of mine have somewhat special circumstances, and I'd like you to check on them… but… well, in my rush to find you, I ignored the fact that it's night and you're a mother, and I ended up troubling you with your children. I apologize for that, señora," he admitted in a low voice, taking the opportunity to apologize again.
Vivianne waved her hand dismissively at his apology, saying no harm was done and she had already forgiven him. But then she frowned slightly at his request and looked toward her house with a complicated expression.
"Is it that urgent? It's night, so it will be hard to speak to the rat nanny, and I can't leave the children alone. I'm sorry," she said with difficulty, but in the end, firmly refused his request.
She would not abandon her children, even for a friend's request.
Puss felt a little helpless at her words, but understood.
"Well, I understand. If it's not a problem for you, tomorrow morning we can find the rat nanny and ask her to watch the children, so you can go see my friends. But the sooner the better — after all, it could be a bit problematic if the guards found one of them," he said, a little helplessly, offering the second-best option he could think of.
"The guards? Your friend is a criminal?"
Vivianne asked, raising an eyebrow, curious, as she brought the cigarette in her fingers toward her mouth.
But just as she was about to do so, Puss's answer startled her, and she shoved the cigarette straight up her nose.
"She's a dragon."