Nepeta and Equius had been best friends since before they could remember; it seemed like they had been together forever. They got to see each other a lot since their single parents got along almost as much as they did. Nepeta's mother and Equius' father let them hang out whenever they wished; they trusted their children like they trusted each other and their children trusted each other.

Equius vowed on his life that he would always protect Nepeta no matter what. He was very strong for his age and intimidated everyone with his height and demeanour. He always wore shades so that people wouldn't see the dark circles he had under his eyes which were caused by his insomnia. Equius often worried about Nepeta and how she was doing, and this kept him up at night thinking about how he should protect her if certain situations occurred.

Nepeta, on the other hand, was a sweet carefree girl who was easily excitable and loved to move around a lot. She had a habit of acting like a cat, which made it hard for people not to think that she was just so adorable. She would meddle where she was not needed, often trying to start relationships between people, but they all knew she was just trying to make them happy so they didn't hold it against her. She loved it when other people were happy and in turn, that made her happy too.

She did, however, have a tendency to go a tad wild, and Equius kept her in check most of the time, calming her down and containing her. Without him she would be like a dangerous animal and if she were set loose on anyone, they wouldn't even get the chance to escape her.

Equius would be in a similar state without Nepeta; she stopped him from breaking things with his immense strength and they would talk out all of his problems before they overwhelmed him and drove him crazy. They counted on each other whenever they had a problem, though they never fought and everything always turned out for the best. That was the kind of duo they were, like brother and sister should be. They were practically family anyways, so what's the point of denying that they were siblings?

Soon Nepeta was going to be turning 16 and, like an amazing sibling would, Equius wanted to do something special for her. Both she and he were completely fascinated by animals, so Equius decided that they should go to the zoo and explore for a day. She had talked about wanting to go every now and then but she never got the chance to, so this would make her so happy, and he was happy when she was happy.

Nepeta was at Equius' house for the day a week before her birthday, so he told her that he has a surprise for her birthday. Of course, the curious cat girl wanted to find out and would stop at nothing to know. She tackle-pounced him, sending little robot parts flying everywhere, and looked him straight in the eye and asked what it was.

Equius, looking her back in the eye, stuttered "N-Nepeta, c-can you p-p-please get o-off me?" He gently pushed her off of him and stood up, grabbing a clean towel since he was sweating. Whenever he was at Nepeta's, she always made sure she had plenty of clean towels for when he needed them, she knew he had perspiration problems but it didn't bother her in the slightest.

She pounced again, clinging to his back and tugging at his ear "C'mon, tell me, SWEATquius". She giggled at her own pun and he just shrugged it off, claiming that he didn't know what she was talking about. With her still grabbing onto his back, he walked over to his workbench and tended to his robots while she tired herself out with asking questions. After a while Nepeta let go of Equius and started to jump around the room, eventually falling asleep at the foot of Equius' bed while he watched over her and smiled.

A week later, on Nepeta's Birthday, Equius convinced his best friend to go and take an early bus with him, and her eyes lit up with excitement as they got off in front of the zoo. Since it was her special day, Equius paid for admission for the both of them and, following behind him, Nepeta bounced in the opening gate since she could hardly contain herself.

Every time she saw a new animal, he dragged Equius over to it and every time single time, she giggled "Hey look at this one! Isn't it cool?" She didn't want to miss a single thing, so she looked absolutely everywhere there was, always laughing and pointing and having fun with her best friend.

Nepeta was especially fascinated by all of the feline animals since she absolutely adored cats, and seeing the lions and tigers and cheetahs made her heart-melting smile more captivating than it already was. Equius, however, was much more interested in the horses and horse-like animals like the giraffes and zebras. He had a secret admiration for horses that only Nepeta knew about, it was like their own little secret, and she kept it to herself that she saw him genuinely smile at the hoof beast creatures.

Together they walked and talked, or in Nepeta's case, skipped and squeaked, about how much fun everything was. Nepeta couldn't stop smiling and it warmed Equius' heart that he was able to do that for her. He needed her to be happy, for if she wasn't, his world would come crashing down. He wouldn't ever let his sister be sad if he could stop it, he'd protect her with even his own life if he needed to.

When the zoo closed, which was around time for dinner, Equius lead Nepeta down the street, which confused her as to where they were going. He only shoved his hands in his pockets and smirked in knowing, but she was just happy to be there with him so she wrapped her arm around his, bouncing next to him as he walked along. Equius matched her pace since she was jumping, wary to catch her if she tripped and fell in the way of something.

Unknown to Nepeta, Equius had booked a dinner at a new animal themed restaurant down a few blocks from the zoo and he was sure that she would absolutely love it. When he made the booking, he made sure to get one of the feline themed booths so that she would be even happier, since he loved to see her happy.

As he had predicted, the look on her face as he stopped in front of the restaurant was so adorably cute that he couldn't help but smile. The joy she expressed made Equius think that she was going to make some man very happy one day, as long as they were worthy of her, but he'd make sure of that.

As they walked in, Nepeta hid behind Equius while she curiously glanced around the restaurant, taking in all of the cute stuffed animals and the patterned wallpaper, it was all so amazing that she didn't even know a place like this existed. When they reached the feline booth, they saw that their area had separate wallpaper to the other booths that showed lions and tigers and pumas and many other wild cats all together in a collage. Nepeta wrapped her arms around her best friend hugging him tight saying "thank mew" over and over until he gently pried her off of him so that they could sit down.

They each chose their meals, and since it was Equius' treat he said that Nepeta could pick anything she wanted, though she still picked something relatively cheap so that she wouldn't inconvenience him. When the food came, still steaming hot, they split up the plates so that they both got half of the other's food, since sharing was indeed caring.

After the very pleasant meal, Equius paid and they left very happy, especially Nepeta. About 2 blocks from the restaurant Nepeta paused and turned to her bestest friend in the world, the broad smile that graced her face still present.

"Hey Equius," she called as he spun to face her, but before he could object she had tackled him into a tight hug and mumbled into his shirt, "Thank mew so much fur efurrything, I've had so much fun today and I'm so glad that you're my best furriend. My birthday wish is fur you to be my big brother furever, would that be okay? "

In response, he hugged her back briefly and then took her by the shoulders holding her away from him and lowered himself to her height. "I wouldn't have it any other way Nepeta, you'll be my little sister furever" he smiled as he took her in for another hug, though he was careful not to crush her which he could easily do.

When they had finished their little moment, they continued to walk down the street towards the bus station. Equius pulled the bus schedule from his pocket and looked at it, frowned slightly. "Fiddle sti%" he muttered under his breath, but Nepeta could heard him clearly enough to know something was up.

"What is it?" Nepeta asked. She didn't want anything to ruin her perfect day, especially if it made her best friend upset in anyway. "We'll miss the bus home if we don't pick up the pace" was what Equius said, though he got rid of his frown for her sake; he really didn't want to bring her down.

Nepeta pointed to the general direction of the bus stop and saw a back alley that would cut minutes of travel time if they went through it. She knew it could be dangerous, but with her big strong brother with her, they should have no problems.

"Don't be so down Equius, let's just take a short cut so that we can go home, okay?" The smile on her face was just so convincing that Equius didn't dare try to argue with her, instead following her lead around the corner and into the back alley.

They passed quite a few buildings that were tall and hid the alleyway from the street, and around half way through, they turned another corner to see a group of people all huddled together. They peered briefly at the group then kept moving, eager to get home.

A young man, looking about the same age as the pair walking though, shakily strode towards Equius, putting a hand on his shoulder to steady himself. "Hey there buddy, you got any cash on you?" the young man's voice sounded as if he had been gurgling gravel, it was so low and husky for someone his age that it was almost painful to listen to.

Equius politely said that he didn't and tried to keep walking, but the young man was stronger than he seemed and wouldn't let him pass. He sidestepped Equius, blocking his way and cutting him off from Nepeta, but with a slight motion of his head, Equius signalled Nepeta to silently scamper to safety on top of one of the tall dumpsters in the alley so that she could make a hasty retreat if needed.

"Brother," the husky voiced man said, "I know you got some motherfuckin cash on you to spend on your lady friend over there, so just hand some over and I won't hurt you." The fact of the matter was, Equius only have just enough money to get Nepeta and himself home, so if he gave any money to the man, they would be stranded. When Equius told him as much, the man just muttered, "You know, I hate motherfuckin liars."

He growled and pulled a piece of wire from his pocket, gripping it tight with two hands and grinning. Equius looked somewhat scared, but he wouldn't hurt the man since the other people in the group that they saw earlier would just go after him and Nepeta. He couldn't win against all of them. He wouldn't be able to protect her.

He lowered his glasses and looked at Nepeta in a way that said "Run, you need to run" but she just crouched there quietly on the dumpster, waiting if he needed her. It shouldn't be like that; he was the one supposed to be protecting her, not the other way around he cursed to himself.

While Equius was signalling Nepeta, the man swiftly wrapped the wire around his neck and kicked Equius' left shin in a way that it bent completely backwards like it should never do. Equius fell neck first into the wire and he panicked as it started to choke him. Nepeta screamed, and was about to leap to his aid, so to make sure she thought he had everything under control, he smiled.

He kept on smiling to keep her calm, but it did not work at all. Instead, it had the opposite effect since she just screamed harder and jumped over to his rescue. The man expertly shifted the wires so that he could choke Equius his just one hand while he shielded himself with a clown club-wait where the fuck did that come from?

He batted Nepeta away easily and kept her away until Equius stopped breathing, letting go of the wires so that his limp body fell with a heavy THUD to the ground. With his newly freed hand, he reached into his pocket and-how the bloody fuck could he have another clown club hidden in there?

He smiled at Nepeta and joked "You don't happen to have any money, do you sis?" She hissed, this time bringing flick knives from her pockets and positioning them so that she had one in between each of her fingers like claws, but he just said one thing.

"HONK"

He lunged, swinging a club towards her and she jumped, only to land on his other club which he then pulled away so that she fell on her back. He stepped on her wrists and swatted the knives away with one of the clubs while he hit her in the stomach with the other club.

He started to beat her, creating bruise upon bruise with his clubs as she whimpered for her best friend. He stopped after the point where her legs were broken and squatted down beside her.

"Any last words, little lady?"

She spat blood at his face as a reply, rolled over and used her arms to painfully drag herself over to where Equius was motionlessly lying on his face. It took a little while for her to get to him, but she managed since her arms weren't yet broken like her legs were, the creepy young man watching her all the while.

She softly shook Equius, telling him in her loudest voice, which was more like a whisper, to get up. "Get up, get up, get up" she repeated over and over, tears and blood streaming from her eyes, "Get up Equius, we have to go home." She rested her head on his chest, which was taking tiny, almost unnoticeable breaths.

Equius, who had been thought to be dead since he stopped moving, flickered his eyelids to show he was listening, but he could not open his eyes no matter how hard he tried. Even if he could, he did not want to see the desperation he sensed that was on Nepeta's face; it would crush him completely.

This was supposed to be her perfect day, how could he be so broken in front of her? At least she knew he was still alive, for now at least, but the creepy young man had seen about enough and still seemed to be angry. He raised the club above his head and brought it down as hard as he could on the back of Nepeta's skull, creating a grotesque cracking sound. Equius felt the force of the impact though is entire frame and prayed for his sister to be okay but he knew that would be impossible.

She was gone.

One lonely tear streamed down Equius' cheek. He couldn't move, he couldn't protect her, he could hardly even breathe to keep himself alive. The girl who was his salvation just died; she who he had vowed to protect, but there she lay, dead on his chest. With some newfound tiny reserve of strength, he reached across and grasped Nepeta's cold and bleeding hand.

I'm so sorry

He couldn't even manage to say the words since he was so weak. Instead, he thought it to himself as the creepy man brought his club down upon Equius, relinquishing him of his life. The man then checked Equius' pockets for the bus money he said he had mentioned, but first he encountered a small card. He read it since he was bored anyways, and it said:

Happy Birthday Nepeta,

Thank you for everything. I hope I made today the best birthday ever. You are the best little sister anyone could ask for and I will be here for you always.

Yours, Equius

The man looked at the card and shrugged, "This would make an alright motherfuckin rolling paper I guess." He then emptied Equius' pockets of his money and walked off, leaving the dead bodies in the alleyway, lying together and still holding hands as if it would keep them connected even through death.

They were together, like they had always been, but neither of them had thought they would be together like this.