Through bleary eyes, Mistoffelees could see a mass of brown fur and two worried, coffee-colored eyes looking down at him. It wasn't much of a glance, but he knew exactly who it was that found him. Mistoffelees felt safe phasing out of reality again, knowing that at least Tugger had shown up at just the right time.

Mistoffelees found himself sitting upright in a warm den, against old blankets and pillows that had a familiar smell. He looked down at himself. His fur was normally patterned. No singes. No glimmers.

He saw Rum Tum Tugger rummaging for something in the corner.

"H-hey." Mistoffelees choked out weakly.

"Oh, thank Everlasting you're awake!" Tugger rushed over to him with some food scraps. "You must be starving."

"How did you…" Mistoffelees was trying to find the right words in his muddled brain.

"You screamed."

Mistoffelees was silent.

"You better eat something" Tugger said, handing Mistoffelees some shreds of tuna.

For the first time in the seventy-two hours of utter turmoil, the food went down normally. Mistoffelees didn't even think to savor the flavor, he just needed something in his empty stomach.

He sighed with relief, giving himself the satisfaction of breathing deeply for once.

"Thank you."

They both sat in silence as Mistoffelees finished off the tuna.

Tugger looked concerned, an emotion Mistoffelees hadn't known he was sincerely capable of.

He must have seen Mistoffelees looking at him queerly, because he promptly said, "Are you okay, Misto? You looked like hell when I found you."

Mistoffelees' eyes widened. Was it worth explaining?

"Oh, yeah, I just…"

"Don't lie to me" Tugger warned, almost scornfully.

Mistoffelees went silent once more. Tugger could always tell when he was trying to hide something.

"What happened?"

"I don't know."

"When I found you, it looked like the life had been drained out of you."

"Yeah, it was a wild three days…" Mistoffelees joked, trying to break the tension.

It didn't work.

"Three…days?" Tugger looked almost angry, even raising his voice. "Why didn't you try to find someone?!"

"I don't know." Mistoffelees said quietly. "Why didn't you try to find me?" he continued, thinking back on his paranoid thoughts from the night before.

Tugger looked shocked. "I just figured you liked to be alone. You always were a bit of a recluse. Besides, we had just spent a while together practicing and all that…"

Mistoffelees cut him off. "You think I'm a recluse?"

"I didn't mean it in a bad way."

"Well then how did you mean it?"

Silence.

Tugger fetched Mistoffelees an old mug filled with water.

He attempted to backtrack. "So, you don't know what happened to you?" Tugger inquired, gentler this time.

"It's…. complicated." Mistoffelees said, clutching the mug close to his chest, trying to not look the other tom in the eyes.

"I have time."

Mistoffelees recalled the erratic feeling that had taken hold of him after he had found that old book. There was a bizarre symbol amongst pages of foreign script, something he had never seen before. The symbol seemed to stand out amongst the dull colors of the rest of the volume, it's gold sheen seemed embellished compared to the rest of the book.

Something about it was unusual, curious even, but off putting. It emitted a power that was tempting, but malevolent.

Mistoffelees hadn't felt the same way since.

"It's as if I have absolutely no control over my powers anymore…" he continued, sipping at the water every now and then.

He didn't want to go into detail about what really terrified him about this whole endeavor. The presence inside of him. The one that attempted to escape.

Had it always been there?

By the look on Mistoffelees' face, Tugger could tell something was bothering him but didn't push any further.

"You never really answered my question, Tug." Mistoffelees added, trying to shake away the thoughts that racked his mind. "Why didn't you try to find me? We'd been hanging out almost every night…"

"I guess I just felt weird after…you know." Tugger wouldn't dare admit to himself that he enjoyed the kiss that they shared.

"Oh." Mistoffelees' mind went insane with thoughts he couldn't actually express. You felt weird? You initiated it! What do you mean you felt weird?

His appearance changed again, but only for a split second. Shimmering light burst through his fur and disappeared as quickly as it presented itself.

"Woah." Tugger hadn't seen that happen to Mistoffelees before. "We gotta figure out what's going on."