Starts off fluffy, ends kind of sadly. Be warned that this is in canon with my college AU "Coming to Terms" (just set twelve years before and featuring only the meowrails) so all spoilers for that apply here.
Nepeta woke up to her kitten, Miss Pounce de Leon, licking her face, and she giggled and batted her away. "Shoosh!"
She threw off her covers and dashed to her closet, picking out a lime-green T-shirt and a pair of jeans and wriggling into them on the floor as fast as she could while Miss Pounce de Leon played with her long white-blond hair and meowed petulantly. "Aw, did no one feed you, Miss?" she asked, rolling over from her back to her stomach. "Come on, I'll feed you!"
Miss Pounce de Leon meowed happily and darted out of the room, and as soon as Nepeta stuffed her feet into her beloved blue sneakers, she chased Miss Pounce de Leon down the hall to the kitchen and practically threw herself into her chair.
"You don't need to run everywhere," her mother chastised her gently.
"Shoosh!" She made a face at her little sister, five-year-old Meulin, who flung a piece of cereal at her with her spoon.
"Hey! Eat your food, don't play with it. And Nepeta, stop teasing your sister."
Nepeta bowed her head, looking suitably penitent until her mother set a bowl of cereal in front of her. Then she ate as fast as she could, slopping milk onto the table.
Meulin ate more genteelly, but not much. She was five, after all. There wasn't much a five-year-old could do politely. Their mother tutted at the mess but didn't actually say anything until Nepeta looked up from her bowl, belched loudly, and announced, "All done!"
Her mother smiled. "Really? Are you in a hurry to be somewhere!"
"Mom!" she whined. "You know what day it is!"
"Do I?" she asked innocently. "What day is it?"
"It's Legoland Day!" she said excitedly. "Legoland! Legoland!"
"Is it? I hadn't noticed. Isn't there something else you meant to do?"
"Um..." She thought hard and then her gaze landed on Miss Pounce de Leon. "Oh! Where's Miss Pounce de Leon's food?"
"Where it always is." Mrs. Leijon tapped the counter underneath the sink with her foot, and Nepeta scrambled out of her seat to hunt for the bag of cat food. She found it and poured a bit too much into Miss Pounce de Leon's food bowl, but the cat wasn't about to complain. She meowed in gratitude and Nepeta put away the cat food.
"Meulin, hurry up and finish your breakfast. We need to take Nepeta to school early," their mother said. "Nepeta, do you have your jacket?"
"It's in my room!" she said, dashing back the way she came.
"Don't run in the house!" her mother called after her, but Nepeta ignored her. When she returned, she had her blue zip-up hoodie on over her shirt and she bounced excitedly.
"Can we go meow? Can we go meow?"
Mrs. Leijon had just finished washing out both of her daughters' bowls and was in the middle of helping Meulin into her jacket. "Just a minute, honey." She zipped up the coat and got to her feet. "Okay, let's go to the car. Nepeta, don't forget your lunch."
Nepeta grabbed her lunch bag out of the fridge and ran out the front door as her mom unlocked the car. Nepeta climbed in and waited impatiently until Meulin and Mrs. Leijon were buckled in. "Let's go!"
"Calm down, honey, we'll get there."
It wasn't soon enough for Nepeta's liking.
When they arrived at the school two hours before classes started, there was already a small cluster of third-graders, both from her class and the other class at the school, and their parents hanging around the bright yellow school bus that would take them to Legoland. Nepeta went to say hello to her best friend Vriska and the two of them immediately started gushing with excitement about the field trip. They hoped they'd be able to sit together.
Vriska's mother and older sister left shortly after the Leijons arrived, but Nepeta's mother and sister lingered until their teachers started calling out seating assignments. They'd decided that the children would sit boy-girl and actually mix up the classes, so while Vriska ended up sitting next to a boy named Erik Foster from their own class, Nepeta was told to sit with a boy from the other class named Equius Zahhak. She had no idea what he looked like until the tallest third-grader she'd ever seen in her life emerged from behind his father. He slouched, although, as he was a head taller than anyone else at just about five feet tall, it didn't do anything to make himself blend in. He had incredibly dark skin but impossibly blue eyes, and judging by the way his eyes darted here and there and he didn't quite meet her eyes, he was extremely shy. She immediately liked him.
"Hi, Equius!" she said brightly. "I'm Nepeta!"
The boy looked anxiously up at his father. "Go on, say hi to her," he said.
"H-hello, Nepeta," he said nervously. He tried to shrink into his olive-green jacket that seemed a little long in the sleeves but fit properly everywhere else.
"Come on," she said, snatching his sleeve, "let's go find a seat!"
He followed obediently and they waved at their parents as they climbed onto the bus. She went toward the back, where the bumps were the best, tugging Equius along. "You can sit by the window if you want."
"Thank you," Equius said quietly. He slid into the seat and she plopped down next to him.
"So you're in the other class, huh?"
He shook his head. "No. I believe it is you who is in the other class."
She furrowed her brows and then laughed. He was trying to be funny. "Maybe I am! So why are you so tall?"
He shrugged. "My mother says it's because I drink a lot of milk. It makes me strong."
Nepeta stuck out her tongue. "That's stupid! I drink milk all the time and I'm the shortest girl in my class!"
"Maybe you should drink more," he suggested innocently.
"Hmm. Purrhaps I should." She grinned. "Do you have any pets?"
Equius nodded solemnly, fidgeting with his sleeves. "My family owns several horses," he admitted.
Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. "Horses?" she said incredulously. "Wow-wee, you must be rich! I heard horses are real expensive!"
He nodded again. "They are. But they're very nice to me. My father says I have a way with them. I'm not sure what means, though."
"I think it means like when you talk, they seem to listen. My mom says the same thing about me and cats."
"You have cats?"
"Well... just one right now. Her name is Miss Pounce de Leon. My mom says she might get my little sister one for her birthday in a few years, but she says we can't afford another right now. But every cat I ever met seems to like me."
"Really? That's—"
"Shoosh!" She put her hand over Equius's mouth as a few of the parents, including Equius's dad, went all the way to the back of the bus and their teachers stood at the front of the bus to tell them what the Very Important Rules were.
"Alright, children, I know we're all very excited for the field trip to Legoland—" The kids cheered, and Nepeta's teacher waited until the noise died down. "But we have some rules for field trip etiquette."
Nepeta didn't know what etiquette was, but it sounded boring.
"First, keep your hands, feet, and other body parts in the bus at all times. Second, the student you're sitting next to is your field trip partner. Stay with your partner. Don't let them get lost—keep an eye on them."
"You're lucky to have me," Nepeta said quietly. "I'm a great partner!"
"Third, we will be leaving the park at exactly four o'clock this afternoon so we can get back by six this evening. Fourth, stay with your chaperone! There's ten of them and sixty of you, so don't wander off! Now, is everyone ready?"
The students cheered again, and a few minutes later, they were off to Legoland.
The bus roared off and Nepeta kept up a steady stream of chatter, growing emboldened as Equius seemed to relax the more she talked. He definitely looked less shy and anxious, and he responded to her questions with subtly deadpan comments that, if she were to take them seriously, might make him seem like an idiot. But she realized that he had a very understated sense of humor and when she laughed at what were almost certainly jokes delivered unsmilingly, the corners of his mouth twitched in a small grin. She became determined to see a real, full smile on his face before the end of the day.
Soon enough, though, she drifted off to a light catnap and rested her head on his shoulder (which she could barely reach, but he'd slouched in his seat to make it easier for her). She put her feet up on the seat and curled up her body to nuzzle into his shoulder, and he put his arm around her.
He remained awake, though. He felt it to be in poor form for both partners to fall asleep at the same time, so he took the first watch, so to speak, even though he really didn't know what someone on watch did.
She awoke from her nap to the sound of Equius's horrified gasp. It felt like it happened all at once—suddenly, Equius was moving over her, out of the seat, and something slammed into the side of the bus, sending them along with their classmates flying into the other side. Screaming filled the air from children and adults alike, and Nepeta hit the far wall, Equius still curled around her. She whimpered even as she and the bus stopped moving for a moment, and then with the great creaking of buckling metal, the bus lifted off its right-side tires and slowly, slowly, and then more quickly, tipped over.
Somehow, Equius managed to twist them both so he landed against the wall as the side of the bus finally connected with the concrete and, for good this time, stopped. Glass broke as the bus touched down, and the screaming and crying of children persisted in Nepeta's ears until she wriggled her arms out of Equius's grip and covered her ears. She wanted to cry, too—she had no idea what had happened, she was terrified, was it really over?-but she burrowed into Equius's chest and whimpered until she heard a voice floating over the chaotic din.
"Equius? Equius?!" It was his father, and Nepeta pulled her hands away from her ears to shout, "He's over here!" She twisted around to look at Equius—but his eyes were closed. "Equius?" she whispered, shaking him slightly. "Equius? Please wake up. Please wake up," she pleaded.
She knew about Death. She knew that sometimes people went to sleep and never woke up. That's what had happened to Daddy, and now Equius might be...
She wouldn't allow herself to think it. She heard sirens off in the distance and she became slowly aware of a dull ache throughout her body, but Equius hadn't opened her eyes and she shakily extracted herself from his grip and stood up carefully.
Then, after a terse second, Equius's chest moved and she heard, faintly, the sound of his breathing. Someone was approaching, slowly, picking their way carefully between children, seats, murmuring comforting words as they passed, but still pressing on, and then Mr. Zahhak was at her side, dropping to his knees to look over his son.
After a few moments, after gingerly checking for any injuries and seemingly satisfied, he turned to Nepeta. "Are you okay? Hurt anywhere?"
"My back," she said. "And... kind of everywhere."
"A little or a lot? Scale of one to ten?"
"About a two? My neck is a four."
"Alright. You're probably fine, but when the paramedics get here, they'll check you and everyone else out." He cupped her cheek, patted her head. "You're Equius's partner, right?"
Nepeta nodded, biting on her lip. Now that the shock was wearing off, she felt like crying again.
"It's okay. It's okay. Just sit down. I'm going to look around, get the adults together, check for hurt students. I'll be back. Everything will be okay. Stay with him. Make sure he keeps breathing, okay?"
She nodded again, sinking to sit cross-legged beside Equius.
"Good. I'll be back, I promise." He patted her shoulder. "He's lucky to have you."
Nepeta wasn't so sure, but she sat quietly as Mr. Zahhak moved on. She wasn't sure why, but he had somehow decided to try to protect her when whatever had hit the bus impacted. If it hadn't been for her, he wouldn't be lying here unconscious right now.
She drew her knees up to her chest and watched him breathe, taking his hand and squeezing, until emergency responders arrived to take control of the situation.
Mercifully, there were no fatalities from the bus or from the truck that had struck them. No one was seriously injured, either—Equius woke up shortly before the paramedics arrived—but a piece of broken glass had lodged in Vriska's eye causing her to lose it at the hospital, and a boy from Equius's class named Tavros was confined to a wheelchair for a few months until both of his broken legs healed.
But both Nepeta and Equius's lives changed that day, because after Vriska spurned every single one of her former friends after the accident, all of them a bitter reminder of what she'd lost, Nepeta had found a new best friend in Equius Zahhak, and Equius for the first time had a real friend, and they were both grateful to have each other.
This fic will probably be updated more slowly than the others-just as inspiration strikes.