"HEY, THERE YOU ARE!" She braced herself for the scream and allowed the man-child to pull her up into his arms. "Lookit what we brought for you!" He placed the can of cat food in her face.
She turned her nose up at it and attempted to pull away until the look of dejection appeared on the redhead's face. She couldn't help herself. She looked towards the "food" and sighed. If she hadn't been a cat this wouldn't be a problem. She looked down disgustedly at the food and then twitched her tail, purring and flicking it at the redhead. Then she took a bite. As a human she would have cringed but as a cat she didn't feel it necessary to hurt his feelings anymore. She purred and snuggled up against him. The redhead burst into a cooing state of adoration for her and began petting her the wrong way. She looked to his tall silent companion for sympathy.
"Hanna? I think she wants down." Hanna Falk Cross looked up from the cat and right at his partner.
"Hmm? Oh you think so?" He set her down onto her feet and placed the food on the floor near her. He threw himself onto the mess of blankets and stared at her as she tiptoed on her kitty paws around the room. The apartment was small and contained very little in the way of furniture. She padded to the only other "comfortable" piece of furniture in the room, a couch that looked as if it had been made in the 60's and should have stayed there. It was Hanna's favorite piece of furniture and she made a habit to avoid it simply due to the fact that it smelled just as bad to her sensitive feline nose. However at the moment her throne of blankets was taken up by one very touchy-feely redhead and in order to not even give him a chance to grab her she made her way to the piece of furniture.
As soon as she stepped near to it she knew she had a problem. Because she didn't ever use this particular piece of furniture, she didn't know where it was safe to jump. Living in this particular household had taught her that such knowledge helped immensely in keeping one's legs, toes, teeth, and just about all of the rest of your body intact. She settled for jumping up onto the soft side of the couch, the side that looked the least dangerous to her. She leapt with feline grace, and managed to hit the "Magic Spot" on the Couch.
Kat sunk feet first into the monstrosity, squealing as she went. Her shrieks of rage were drowned out by Hanna's yells of "NARNIA! Oh Gosh, she found Narnia on the first try!" She assumed those words meant her plight fell on deaf ears when it came to Hanna. She, however, felt hands reaching down and pulling her out of the crevice of that monster that Hanna called a couch. She began to purr immediately when she saw that it was "Raphael", the name of the day for the Zombie that her savior called his partner. She felt the man pull her up close to him and sit himself onto the couch allowing her to stay contentedly in his lap. She closed her eyes and started to purr, completely blocking out the surrounding noise.
Kat woke up hours later, almost falling off of the couch. "Raphael" reached down to grab her, cupping his hand against her back. She purred and twisted so that she was standing, continuing to rub her soft fur against his fingers. She wasn't sure that he could feel it, being a zombie and all, but she liked that even if he couldn't he rubbed her back anyway. She looked up at the only window. It was dark outside so she must have continued sleeping for the last half of the day. She purred contentedly and then leapt off of the bed.
Kat stalked to the mattress, looking patiently. She assumed that Hanna was asleep simply because of the fact that he was so quiet, but as she got closer she noticed on his face the same look of sadness that she saw on occasion. She didn't like it. The way that his eyes teared up and his lips shuddered. He held onto himself in the darkness hugging his own body tight. Kat felt even worse for taking Raphael's attention from him. This only happened on nights where she fell asleep in the other man's lap and his attention strayed to his book. On those nights Hanna seemed to feel it was okay to lapse into this rare state of dejection. As though he saved it for moments when he knew the others couldn't see.
She padded quietly up to the bed. She had no reason to hide herself; she knew he wasn't really looking right now. She then tripped up onto the bed, getting herself entangled into the sheets. As soon as Hanna felt her warmth hit his arm she was smothered. He had his arms holding her so tight that she could barely breathe. She purred even with the lack of oxygen to let him know she was listening and started making cooing noises out of the back of her throat.
The tears stopped like she knew they would, and he began to whisper little things about his day that he liked. He never talked about the past to her. However she was certain that those things should stay locked up. She hated to see him cry, and as she licked the last of the salty tears from his cheek she smiled inside. If she was a girl this red-headed human would have meant nothing to her. But, as a cat he had saved her. Even if the only thing she could do for him was listen she knew that he would take it. He was that way, giving only the best of himself, and keeping the rest locked away. As he fell asleep, she could swear she heard him whisper something about, "I'll show you tomorrow, won't they be surprised" but she could barely make it out with the soft sounds of his breath inhaling and exhaling from sleep.
She cuddled further into his chest and let his arms push her until she was nestled under his chin. The warmth somehow drew her to sleep and the last thing her feline eyes saw was Raphael looking back over the couch at them, one of his rare smiles on his face.
