We Built This City
Every so often I'm going to be doing little prompt challenges that are set inside a group I'm a part of with FF users technoskittles and OtakuLeader. We take a common prompt from a big document we have and set each other a pairing to write about as the challenge.
This time I was given the prompt "We're neighbours who don't really talk but your cat might have gotten my cat pregnant? We must raise this little kitty family together" AU and my pairing for this challenge is Chariots of Fire!
Hope you enjoy.
Yang came back to her little apartment late one Tuesday evening. She flipped the lights on and took her shoes off, settling them inside a shoe rack pressed in the hallway. Her handbag also returned to the hook on the side of it. Looking around herself like something was missing, Yang tried to remember what it was.
Her two year old ginger Tabby was nowhere to be seen, usually within moments of her walking in through the front door the cat had wrapped itself around her ankles knowing that food was imminent. Considering that she was late getting in today, she had assumed that the hungry cat would be waiting for her.
Yang whistled a bit in the way that she knew would get her cat's gears moving but still there was no movement from within the house. Jones must have been asleep, so Yang moved in to her bedroom instead and changed out her smart, receptionist uniform with much more casual black, skinny jeans and her usual, yellow, throw-around, Hawaiian shirt.
Her sister had visited last week and it had been an absolute blast spending her downtime with someone so close to her, she hadn't realised how much she had missed everything about her. Her smile, her pint-sized physique and the smell of her hair were all on Yang's mind as she gripped the front of her shirt though she couldn't dwell on it for too long as she was brought back to reality with a very strange sound.
It was like a kind of... growling? Was it her cat? Was she hurt? Yang tossed her dirty laundry in to the hamper by her bed before dashing out, tracking the sound. It seemed to be coming from her kitchen but the almost pained sounds of her cat died out before she reached the door and burst through.
Sure enough, there was Jones, her slightly fat cat, crouched near the cupboards under the sink but what Yang hadn't expected for the life of her was for there to be a second cat. The slimmer black and white cat stared at her, but it too was crouched low to the floor, it knew it was trespassing. Yang didn't know what had been going on but if this cat had hurt hers, she would throw this newcomer from her balcony and watch with glee as it dropped ten stories on to the pavement below.
Yang shouted at it as she moved forwards and the cat knew to back off, she was far too big for it. The kitchen door had stayed open when she came in, so as she circled the dining table, the intruder only had one way out and bolted straight for it. Yang quickly followed it and managed to see the enemy cat leap through the cat flap in the front door and escape out in to the world.
Yang heard her own cat mewl weakly and she was instantly by its side. She tenderly reached out to touch her head and she was surprised that Jones didn't push back in to her palm. She allowed Yang to touch her but she didn't seem that comfortable at all. Yang picked her up and cradled her in her arms but the cat was having none of it. She jumped away and awkwardly showed her back to Yang and made her way in to the bedroom. The blonde looked back down at her hands and she noticed that there was actually a bit of blood on her forearm, where Jones' bum had sat.
Had the other cat been a male looking to breed? Yang had no idea if Jones was capable of bearing a litter, the cat had come to her as a stray and she had adopted her almost straight away. She had presumed that someone else must have had her at some point in order for her to grow up so healthily and she figured that Jones had already been spayed but now the danger was a lot more real to her.
That night Yang went to bed with a heavy heart and a heavy cat by her side. She had locked the cat flap to prevent the tomcat getting back in but she knew that method wouldn't last, she allowed her cat to come and go as it felt fit and it would put unnecessary stress on her possibly pregnant cat to lock the cat flap forever. Yang also didn't know how early she had interrupted the two cats, whether they were just getting in to it or if the intruding cat was just finishing up. It put knots in her stomach to think of her cat being violated like that but honestly, that was probably how cats bred normally. Yang doubted that Jones would have let him near if she hadn't liked him. The fat cat could get quite porky at times.
The next morning Yang called the vets and described the situation. They couldn't make any assumptions about Jones until they had seen her and when she took her cat down to them, they had confirmed what she had feared. Jones was going to be a mum. They had filled her in on the things she should be expecting and to keep an eye on her in the first few weeks as the cat's body adjusts to the pregnancy.
Yang was still concerned about the male cat coming back and after a month in to Jones' pregnancy, it was brought crashing back in to her mind as yet again on a Tuesday evening, she came back to an apartment with two cats. The black and white tomcat was back but this time it didn't look to be harming Jones in any way, in fact they were both in Jones' cat basket sound asleep. Yang found the behaviour strange but it made some kind of twisted sense for the male cat to come and check on the mother of his children. The cat had a better sense of duty than half the humans in her town.
But this was a prime opportunity. Yang had spied the green collar around its neck the first time it had been in the house but the chance she had been given today was too good to pass up. Luckily she was in her socks and creeping up on the two dozing cats hadn't been a problem. The tricky part came with flipping the tab on the front of the collar over to see if there was an address. Yang crouched down next to the basket and she honestly panicked when her knees clicked on the way down, thinking that it would be loud enough to wake them. God only knew that the male cat would bolt again if he was caught.
She brought her face closer to the cats to see if she could spy anything on the collar from the way it was facing and luckily, right there in capitals was the cat's name.
"Marconi." Yang whispered and the male cat's ears twitched.
That was information she needed to know when she confronted the owner. She wouldn't have them claiming that the cat wasn't theirs when the bloody thing was sleeping in her house with its name and address hanging round its neck.
Carefully, Yang fingered the metal token and knocked it over on to its reverse side and she let out a breath of relief as she saw the address to return the cat to if it was ever lost. Fortunately for the owner, this cat knew exactly where it was going and as Yang memorised the address, she too knew exactly where she was going.
Yang had expected the address to be miles away, she had seen documentaries where they put cameras on cats' backs and watch where they go and they pretty much roam around entire towns, so it was surprising that Marconi hadn't only come from close by, he had actually come from within her own apartment block. The apartment described was actually directly below hers.
Yang figured that her cat would be fine by herself and she doubted that Marconi would let any other cat come in and have its way with her. She left them curled up together as she put some slippers on and headed out in to the cool night. She didn't mind wandering around her complex in her lazy shirt and she didn't think that she would be too long talking to Marconi's owner.
Yang rang the bell on the mystery door and turned away to rub at her tired eyes. Who even named their cat, Marconi? She had never heard the name before but for some reason it felt oddly familiar, she was remembering a piece of music to go along with it but was struggling to remember the lyrics, yet as the door behind her clicked open so did her brain.
"Marconi plays the mamba!"
"Listen to the radio?"
The new voice made Yang jump and as her face flushed red she whirled back to the door and was in no way prepared for the sight that greeted her.
Leant against the door frame was quite possibly the most beautiful woman Yang had ever seen. Yang had decided from then on that dressing in a low cut tank top and tight, cotton short shorts to show off your tall, lean body was the ultimate way to keep her attention and if you had long, flowing, scarlet hair rolling over one shoulder and half lidded, sultry, green eyes you weren't far from being a deity in Yang's mind.
"Hey there." She purred. "Something you need?"
"I'm pregnant!" Yang almost shouted and she was instantly sure that was the fastest she had ever wanted to kill herself.
"Pardon?" The woman in the door said.
"N-no no, wait, I'm sorry, I ju- I mean..." Yang was spluttering all over the place and she was painfully aware of how she was holding her hands. Were they too high? Too low? Too far apart? But everything came right back to a halt as another hand clasped around her own.
"Take it easy, darling." She cooed. "Try again."
Yang took a deep breath but it didn't really help that since the lady was leant forwards holding her hand, Yang could see the complete lack of any kind of bra inside that loose, tank top.
"Hi." Yang started.
"Hello again." Marconi's owner said with the prettiest smile.
"Hi." Yang said again and couldn't help but smile back idiotically for a few seconds until she remembered what she came for. "Are you the owner of a cat called Marconi?"
"I am." She said as she brought her hand out and Yang shook it weakly. "I'm Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos."
"It's good to meet you, I'm Yang from the flat right above yours and honestly..." Yang stopped to ponder how she might explain this.
"It might be quicker if you saw this yourself."