Cat of a Different Color
Part 1: Roar
High above the skies of earth, far into the stars that surrounded it, an empire celebrated as they conquered yet another planet. Meanwhile, deep in a cave on earth, hidden away in one of the planet's deserts, four pairs of eyes opened. The yellow orbs met one another, then their owners darted off in different directions.
A short ways off the coast of Cuba, an eight-year-old boy laughed as he watched his cousin fall off her surfboard. He teased the girl before turning to catch his own wave.
He promptly jumped and toppled off his board.
"What the-" he sputtered as he breached the surface. The threw his arms over the board to help him stay up and stared at the cat perched on the nose. He looked around. "How… Where did you come from?"
As if to answer his question, the cat lifted its paw and licked a bit of water off its fur.
"¿Estás bien, primo?" the boy's cousin asked as she paddled up to him. Her eyes widened when she saw the cat. "¡Es un gatito! Where from?"
"No lo sé. It just showed up." He pulled himself back up and onto his board.
The cat's tail twitched, but otherwise it didn't react as its perch rocked and dipped. With his new position, the boy could see that the animal was almost pure white except for the blue-black patches on the top of its head and tail.
It's golden eyes met his own and he found himself reaching towards it.
"¡Podría ser peligroso! ¡Ten cuidado, Lance!" his cousin warned, grabbing his arm.
Lance frowned, but when he looked back at the cat, he felt a warmth blossom through him. "No, it's fine." He reached out his other hand and cupped the cat's face. It immediately purred and nuzzled the hand. "See."
His cousin was still frowning, but she let him go and pulled away.
Lance's eyes darted up as he saw a wave coming towards them. "Well, I hope you can surf, Blue," he chuckled as he began paddling.
When the two returned to Lance's aunt's house after surfing, he was carrying a sleeping Blue in his arms as his cousin carried the boards. She had done pretty well, though there might have been a few extra scratches on the nose.
"Mama, look!" Lance shouted, catching the attention of both the two women on the porch and the small herd of children in the yard.
Shouts of "Gatito" and "Kitty" sounded out as Lance's younger siblings and cousins raced over. Blue was awake instantly, hopping down to bask in the children's attention. As Lance made sure the younger kids didn't pull on her fur, his older cousin went over to explain to the women.
"Can we keep her, Mama?" Lance asked and his mother and her cousin soon found themselves surrounded by puppy dog eyes.
The end of summer found Lance sitting on the porch, watching as his father packed their luggage into the car. He stroked Blue's ears and sniffled. "Sorry you can't come with us, Blue. Mama said it'd be too difficult getting you into the States."
"Mew."
Lance pulled a blue scarf out of his pocket and tied it around her neck. "Sonia will take good care of you though, and I'll see you next summer, okay!"
"Mew."
"Lance, time to go!"
Lance pressed a kiss to the top of the cat's head. "Bye Blue."
He ran off quickly, scrubbing at the tears on his cheeks.
A week later, the nine-year-old froze only a step into his backyard as he caught sight of a white and blue-black cat wearing a blue scarf sitting next to their pond, swatting casually at the fish inside.
"Blue?"
The cat's ear twitched and she looked up at him.
Lance squealed and ran over to flop down next to her.
"Lance, what's wrong?" his mother asked, peeking out of the house. Her eyes widened when Lance held up Blue.
"Mama, look who showed up!"
Honestly, considering his past, Lance wasn't as surprised as most would have been to open up his suitcase to find his cat napping amongst his clothes when she should have been thousands of miles away at home.
"Blue!" the fourteen-year-old groaned.
His eyes widened as he heard the door to his Garrison barrack opening and quickly dropped the lid to his suitcase and spun around.
"Hissss!"
At the sound of distress, the nine-year-old boy who had been carrying out the trash paused and looked around. He walked around the corner to see a pair of dogs growling at a crate. The boy could just see a pair of golden eyes peeking through the slats.
"Mewl."
"Hey, leave them alone!" the boy shouted, waving the trash bag at the dogs. The bag clipped one of them on the snout when they turned to him and they took off.
He set down the bag and knelt down next to the crate. "Hey there, it's okay. You're safe now." He lifted up the crate a little and peeked underneath. It was silent for a moment then a nose poked out.
The boy pulled back as the crate tipped over and a large cat shuffled forward. It shook the dust off its cream and gold fur and met his eyes.
"Hunk? Where are you?"
"Over here, mom," Hunk called out, scratching the cat under its chin. He stood up and grabbed the bag. "You wanna come with me?"
The cat stepped forward and nuzzled his leg.
"Alright. Mom's been wanting a cat. I bet she'll love you."
"Sh, Pua, hold still," Hunk whispered. The fourteen-year-old sighed in relief when he finally reached his barrack. He pulled open the door, then froze when he spotted a Latino boy standing next to one of the two beds in the room.
"H-hey, roommate!" the Latino stuttered.
"Roommate? I thought we got separate rooms," Hunk whimpered.
"No, you needed to put in a request for those rooms."
Oh man, I messed up! I'm going to get kicked out before classes even start! Hunk thought. He scrambled for something to say, some way to get out of the situation.
"Um, are you okay, dude?" the other boy asked and Hunk realized Pua had begun squirming again. He could only imagine how weird that would look for the other boy.
"Purr."
Hunk blushed as he felt something fluffy pop up through his collar and nuzzle his chin.
The Latino's eyes widened, but before he could say anything a shuffling noise sounded behind him and a face poked around his hip.
"Mur."
Hunk's grip loosened in his surprise and Pua squirmed free enough to drop out the front of his shirt. He quickly slammed the door shut as his cat jumped up onto the other boy's bed.
The boys watched in stunned silence as the cats greeted each other.
"So… you snuck your cat in too?"
"More like he snuck himself in. He somehow got into my luggage."
"Oh… Name's Hunk."
"Lance."
A moment passed.
"I won't tell if you don't."
"Deal."
A seven-year-old girl giggled as she played with one of her brother's puzzle games.
"How are you doing that, Katie?" her brother chuckled, the fifteen-year-old no longer stunned by his sister's genius.
The girl just continued to laugh as she handed over the completed puzzle. "Again!"
"Okay, but don't think I'll go easy on you!" he said, rearranging it and being sure to make it harder this time around.
Katie laughed at her brother, but paused when she felt something staring at her. She turned and spotted golden eyes hiding amongst the leaves of their tree. She peeked over at her brother, who was focused on the puzzle, then stood up and ran over to the tree. Slowly, she started climbing up.
"Katie? Oh my gosh! Katie, get down from there!"
The girl pushed past a group of branches and gasped when she caught sight of the eyes' owner. She moved to get closer, but a hand wrapped around her ankle.
"Maaaatt! Let me gooooo!"
"Katie, stop. You could get hurt. Come down."
"But there's a cat up here!"
"If there's a strange animal up there then that just means you need to get away even more."
"It's not a strange animal. It's a cat!"
"If you don't know the cat, then that makes it a strange animal. And you don't know any cats!"
"But…" Katie looked up at the cat.
It stared down at her for a moment before standing. Gracefully, it bounded from branch to branch until it collided with the girl's chest.
"Woah," she huffed at she lost her balance and fell into her brother's waiting arms.
"Katie, are you okay?" Matt asked, but the girl just laughed and pet the cat in her arms. It was a shiny silver color with just the faintest tinge of green mixed into the darker coloration on its back.
"I'm naming you… Chip."
"Ka-Katie! Don't name it!"
"We're keeping her!" Katie hissed, glaring at her brother. "And her name is Chip."
"I…" Matt sighed. "Whatever. Mom and dad can deal with you."
"Dad. Matt."
Chip purred, nuzzling her fourteen-year-old friend.
Katie - no, not Katie, Pidge - smiled down at the cat and scratched behind her ears. "Don't worry, we'll find them."
"Mrow."
"Yeah, together. Since you somehow managed to sneak into my barrack," she chuckled, turning back to her gear. "You're lucky I don't have a roommate." When she didn't get a response, Pidge turned to see Chip's tail disappearing into her pack.
Shrugging, the girl pulled her headphones back on and closed her eyes. She let herself get so focused on the sounds of alien chatter, she almost didn't notice when someone pulled one of the ear pads away from her ear.
"You come up here to rock out?"
"Bye, Shiro!"
"See you next weekend!"
"Yeah, see you, space man! We're gonna kick those spoiled Jays butts!"
Shiro laughed and waved as his friends and teammates drove off.
I'm going to miss this, the seventeen-year-old thought as he adjusted the strap of his soccer bag on his shoulder and turned to head up the path to his house. Next year I'll be an official cadet. Won't have any time for summer soccer tournaments then. And then there's Angel…
"Meow."
Shiro turned at the sound to see a large cat perched on the short wall bordering the yard, it's silver fur and golden eyes seeming to glow in the moonlight as a sharp contrast to the pitch black stripes swirling across its body.
"Hey, you're the cat from the soccer field, aren't you?" the boy asked. Tonight had been the first time since the start of summer that Shiro hadn't spotted the cat lounging around near the field, watching the players. "What are you doing here?"
The cat didn't so much as twitch.
"Okay." He turned back to his house again, but paused at a chirp.
He looked over to see the cat hopping down from the wall. It pranced over and wound itself around his legs.
"Well, hello to you too," Shiro chuckled. He reached down to pet the cat.
It purred and nuzzled him for a moment before darting off into the bushes.
"Um… Bye?"
Shiro stretched as he stepped off the Garrison shuttle. He quickly got out of the way of the others exiting and headed over to grab his luggage.
"Mo-ow."
Shiro chuckled and looked up to see Ryou lying atop the Garrison's outer wall. "Hey, I see you made it here alright."
The cat met his eyes for a second then turned and disappeared over the other side of the wall.
Shaking his head, he grabbed his bags. He wasn't at all surprised by Ryou's behavior. Although he usually saw the cat at least once every other day, more often than not he only appeared long enough to check up on him or mess with Merla. His friends liked to tease that Ryou was "a mother cat checking up on her kitten."
The twenty-three-year-old shouldered his bags and headed inside. After dropping off his luggage, he left towards the academy barracks.
Time to see how Keith's settling in.
Shiro tracked down the boy's room - a private barrack, he noted with a sigh - and knocked on the partially open door.
"Am I interrupting something?"
"Mew."
Shiro looked up at the noise and chuckled. "You know Ryou, one of these days I'm going to figure out how you sneak in here.
Giving a soft sad noise, the cat hopped up into his lap and slumped down.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
He repeated the noise and nuzzled his leg.
"Aw, did you hear about the trip? Don't worry, I won't be gone long."
The cat looked up at him with sad yellow eyes.
"You'll see, I'll be back from Kerberos before you know it."
Slumping down again, Ryou dug his claws lightly into Shiro's pants.
Keith sighed as he rested on the top of the shack. "Do you think Shiro'd be disappointed in me? I mean, he wasted all that time on me, and then I went and tossed everything away the moment he died. And now I'm running around the desert like a nutjob with a pair of cats as my only means of socialization."
Ryou purred and nuzzled the fifteen-year-old's hand.
"Thanks, though considering you're part of the problem that really isn't helpful."
Crazy.
Merla gave a yawn and turned over in her sleep. Ryou hissed at her.
Suddenly, both cats jerked up into sitting positions, ears twitching and alert.
"What's wrong?" Keith asked, sitting up.
The two turned, looking up in the sky and Keith followed their gaze. Something was heading towards the ground, too high to be a plane, too large to be an ordinary meteor.
"Showtime," Keith said and the three got off the roof. "Stay here."
What?
Merla gave a yowl, but Ryou shoved her until she followed him into the shack. Keith jumped onto his bike and took off in the direction the object was falling.