Sachi and I made our way through the side door of Cafe Pride and into the LGBTQ+ center, also known as Haven. The interior was spacious, yet just small enough to feel like home. It could get a little confusing trying to get around the building, with all the large meeting halls, cozy study nooks, and various hangout spots dotted around, but that was part of its charm for me. 

And all that’s not even mentioning the second floor, filled with offices for various professionals dedicated to supporting the queer community. From lawyers to endocrinologists to just about any and every kind of therapy, the Haven had it all. Whoever managed the logistics of this place must be some kind of god. Which, knowing Sachi’s family, was probably not that far off.

“Are you gonna stare off into space every time we come in here, Miyu?” Sachi teased.

Busted. I let out a small laugh and idly twirled my hair. “I can’t help it! I just feel so…grateful for this place. Mom and I used to come here for services all the time, and now I’m working here and giving back!”

Being a small part of the staff at the heart of New Haven’s queer community and interacting with everyone there was one of my favorite parts of this job. Plus, the profits from the cafe went directly back into supporting Haven and their charity work. It made me feel like I was making a difference in my city, even if it was just serving boba with the occasional dose of magic.

“Sap,” Sachi smiled, ruffling my hair and reaching behind my ears for a scratch. Wait shit nyo I’m still weak to asbwoeigfhw-

It took every last amount of willpower I had, but I managed to jerk my head away from my friend. “Sachi!” I complained. 

The catgirl just giggled. “Sorry, you’re just so cute when you get flustered!”

Dammit, I’m so gay.

I pouted, which probably didn’t help the cute allegations being raised against me. “Can we just go and get the tablet thing from your mom’s office already? I don’t know how long Ada and Yuki can keep Kannya from getting into trouble.”

“Sure, sure, overprotective big sister.”

I groaned, following Sachi as she brought me up the stairs and into her mom’s office. Considering that Sachi’s mom was one of the co-founders of Haven, her office was remarkably plain. It looked like any other therapy office; just a desk, a table, and a few chairs for the clients. A couple of filing cabinets and bookshelves filled with voice training studies, bookkeeping records, and the like lined the far wall. 

“What does your mom do for a living, again?” I asked, idly looking around.

“Mama Nee’s a speech therapist,” my friend said, opening and closing various drawers as she searched. “She mostly does voice training with trans men, women, and enbies, but she has a couple of clients who need help learning to speak. Mostly familiar rescues from irresponsible witches who abandoned them because they didn't want to take care of them after they turned human.”

“Huh… sounds like a very specific niche.”

“Sure is. Only in New Haven, right?”

I made a vague sound of agreement as I continued to look around the room, my gaze landing on a photo of Sachi’s family on the desk. Seeing as my friend was preoccupied digging through her mom’s desk drawers, I leaned in closer to get a better look.

The picture must’ve been a few years old, since Sachi and her sister Pheena looked around ten in the photo. Sachi had told me she had three moms before, but it was strange seeing all three of them together. Sachi’s moms were sitting in three chairs, the two catgirls on the side holding Sachi and her sister in their laps, and the third foxgirl woman pulling her wives in closely. The two catgirls looked like identical twins; one had black hair and was the one whose office we were in right now, while the other had dark pink hair, whom I recognized as Ms. Celeste, the owner of the Cafe and my boss. The third woman was a blonde foxgirl who looked a lot like Pheena. There was one time where I tried to ask Sachi about how her parents met, but then she went into this long story about her mom being possessed by a demon and then becoming plural and her pluralities being split apart at some point, and something about literally jumping into hell and adopting Pheena, all of which to say it boiled down to a whole lot of-

“Magic,” Sachi whispered into my ear, scaring the daylights out of me. How was she so good at this!?

“I- Uh- well-” I stammered, trying to regain my composure.

Sachi giggled. “Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. I see you still haven’t learned your lesson about trying to comprehend my family history.”

“It’s a healthy curiosity,” I argued.

“Curiosity killed the catgirl, Miyu,” Sachi said matter-of-factly. “Anyways, I found what I was looking for.”

Sachi handed me a tablet running an app I’d never seen before. The screen was divided into several white squares, each one with a picture and the word it represented underneath. 

“What is this?” I asked. Clearly not one to be dissuaded by what Sachi had just said, I tapped the button labeled ‘I want…’

“I want,” said the tablet in my voice. Oh! Cool. The buttons on the tablet changed, now displaying several different actions. I tapped the one labeled ‘to play.’

“To play,” the tablet said, now switching to a bunch of different games and toys to play with. I finished my sentence, tapping one more button.

“Video games,” the tablet finished. Leaning over my shoulder, Sachi tapped on the sentence strip at the top of the screen, and the tablet repeated the whole sentence. “I want to play video games.”

“Whoa,” I said, staring at the device. “This is super cool.”

Sachi beamed. “Right? My mom said she was working on a magic version that can automatically create new buttons based on your thoughts, so that it’d be just like talking the way everyone else does. All she’s gotten so far is just making the device speak in the user’s voice.”

“I bet Kannya could figure this out pretty quickly,” I continued, marveling at the piece of tech I was holding.

“I bet she already has experience with something similar to this if her parents were taking her to speech therapy,” Sachi agreed. “Only one way to find out.”

We made our way back the way we came and to the cafe, where we found Ada and Yuki teaming up to try and best Kannya in a game of Connect 4.

“Myah,” the little catgirl mewed, dropping a final piece to complete her diagonal line.

Ada pinched the bridge of her nose. “Are you kidding me?”

Yuki used her hind legs to scratch her head. “Nyeh!? We suck at this!”

I’ve never been more relieved to see someone else lose a game of Connect 4. I should’ve made Evan play her. Ah, well, I’ll just have to save my revenge for another day. As long as the vampires don’t get him first. Hm.

 Okay, Miyu, time to stop going down that spiral. Where were we?

Kannya turned at the sound of our footsteps, her face lighting up as she snatched the tablet from my hands before I even had a chance to explain. Her bright voice came through the tablet moments within seconds as she navigated the buttons with ease. “I need help. I am lost. I want to go home. My home address is. My home address is. My home address is.”

“Myah!” The catgirl verbalized, pressing another set of buttons. “Broken. Fix.”

Kannya handed the device back to me, waiting expectantly. I stared at it in confusion for a few seconds before she snatched it again and handed it off to Sachi.

“I can edit the button for you, but I don’t know where you live, Kannya,” Sachi explained, handing the device back. “But I’m glad we can understand each other better now!”

Kannya, understandably, looked upset. “How go home?” the device asked. Augh, my heart!

“We’ll figure it out, Kannya,” I reassured her. 

“Issue skill?”

“Wha-” I stammered. “I- yes, it is a skill issue, Kannya. Why is that on there?” I glanced at the most likely culprit, who was mysteriously looking the other direction at the moment.

“Sachi…”

The pink-haired catgirl raised her arms in surrender. “In my defense, it was funny. And Kannya has a right to call it like she sees it.”

I rolled my eyes. “Well, do you know how to get her home with your super-powerful magic?”

“Well, no, but-”

“Issue skill,” Kannya interrupted. I let out a snort of laughter.

“Actually, you’re right. It is funny. Good thinking, Sachi.”

There was a sudden rush of wind behind us, which was weird since we were indoors. Mark could do that since he was like, the messenger god Mercury or whatever, but he usually doesn’t unless he’s mad. 

Oh. Shit.

“You know what’s not funny?” Mark said, leaning over me and Sachi. “Leaving me to run the whole cafe by myself while you two are running around flirting! Think you could find it in the goodness of your job contract to help a guy out?”

Right… I was on the clock. Oops. “Uh- Sorry, Mark! But on the bright side, we can talk to Kannya now…?”

“Mrrow,” Kannya growled. “I want. To play. With. Cat. Girls. More. Issue skill.”

Mark stared at Kannya, the two sizing each other up in a deadlock, before Mark sighed. “Fine,” He said. “I get one of them every hour for work, though. Take it or leave it.”

“Nyokay,” She replied. I guess I didn’t get any say in this.

“Great. Sachi, you’re up first. You can flirt with Miyu later.”

“Oh, come on, Mark! It wasn’t even that bad!” Sachi cried as she headed towards the back of the shop.

Wait. She was flirting with me?

“Was she…” I asked myself, mostly.

“Issue skill,” Kannya confirmed.

Dammit.