Cat got Your Tongue
Sunlight in streamed in from the large windows hitting a comfortable chair and an antique desk with warm light but left the rest of the study in pale greyish shadows.
Damon glanced up at the clock above the mantelpiece from that chair, then out the window and back down to his typewriter.
"Stefan should be getting back from school any minute." He said muttering to himself
"How long have you been staring at that blank page?"
Damon jumped and then swiveled around to face his brother.
"When did you get in?" Damon asked, as he glared at his brother
"About thirty minutes ago, didn't you hear me come in?" Stefan said, "You usually have hearing like a hawk. It's scary how you know exactly where I am in the house sometimes."
"No, I did not hear you come in." Damon said glancing back at the page in typewriter, "I was busy."
Stefan snorted, "I have to go to the pet store to buy food for the cats that keep coming to the back porch."
"Okay." Damon said swiveling back toward the blank page
Silence filled the space.
"Come with me." Stefan said
Stabbing a key on the typewriter Damon asked, "Why?"
"It's not like you're doing anything." Stefan said
"For your information I'm writing a story." Damon said shooting his brother a look
"Well, come with me anyway."
"Fine." Damon growls out
With one more stab at the keys Damon pushes back from the desk, grabs his jacket, steals the car keys from Stefan and walks out the room.
"I'm driving." Stefan says
"Nope." Damon says
Stefan sighs but follows his brother out the house.
"Why are we here?" Damon asks getting out of the car and looking at the brownstone building in front of them, "This is a specialty store."
"Nothing is to expensive for all my little kitties." Stefan said
"Whatever you say." Damon said, holding the door open
The first thing Damon noticed about the pet store were not the cages filled with various animals or the miscellaneous pet related things lined up on the white shelves but how the shop girl at the counter seemed nervous.
"Hey darling, what's your name?" He asked sliding up to the counter
"Katherine Pierce." She said
"Is it your first day?" Stefan asked
"No." Katherine said nervously and looked at the door behind her
"Good, then you can tell us where the cat food is." Damon said
"Sure." She said excitedly just loud noises and yelling came from the door behind the door "Isle 5, … Row 2."
As the noises continue to happen Katherine glances between them then at the door.
"Can you show us please?" Stefan says, "I have never been here."
"I don't think that would be a good idea, my boss says I'm not supposed to leave my post."
As their conversation as gone on Damon has noticed that Katherine has become more nervous and her eyes every few seconds has slid to the door behind her.
"Please." Stefan pleads and then Damon doesn't even have to look at Stefan to he's using those eyes of his; Damon can see it just by looking at Katherine's face.
"Okay, fine but we have to be quick, I'm leaving soon." She says finally giving in and coming out behind the counter after giving the door one more pained look.
Damon waves Katherine forward and he begins to follow through the maze of shelves but as his brother and Katherine began to talk adamantly about cats Damon realizes he wants to know what's behind that door so he sneaks away.
He walks through the flapping door that blocks the area behind the counter from the rest of the store, looks around and walks to through the door that Katherine kept looking at.
What he sees makes him freeze.
A nearly naked teenage boy gripped in the hands of man screaming and shaking him but that's not what's shocking it's that the boy has a cat's tail and ears.
"You little brat what do have to say for yourself." The man yelled
The boy remained quiet and then after a few beats opened his mouth.
"I'm sorry - the man slapped the boy cutting off the rest of the sentence.
"Hey!" Damon yelled, both the boy and man looked "You can't go around hitting people!"
"You can't be back here." The man said, as Damon walked up to him "Put him in one of the cages, I'll deal with him later."
"Another thing you can't do is put people in cages!" Damon snarled and grabbed the young man from the man tasked with putting the boy in a cage.
"For your information, he's not even human." The man said, "He's a hybrid cat and my propriety."
The boy began shiver against him when the man spoke and Damon doubted it was because the room they stood in was chilly, anger flared in within him.
"Well you're a business man how much to take him off your hands?" Damon asked as he felt the boy's head snap up to stare at him.
Damon didn't dare look at the boy because he knew the man across from him would know his intentions.
"Why?" The man asked curiously, staring at him
"He's obviously giving you trouble." Damon said
"Of course he does but I've found a way to deal with him." The man sneered
Right then and thee Damon wanted to lay out the man in front of him as his mind filled with horrible things the man found to control the boy.
Carefully keeping his face and voice neutral Damon asked again,
"How much?"
"One thousand." The man said,
"Done." Damon said quickly
"Go pay Katherine." The man said
Damon turned and walked away from the man, gently pulling the boy along with him.
Katherine was back behind the counter talking to Damon's brother as he bought cat food.
"Hey you're not- Jeremy you're going to be in trouble if Klaus finds you out of your cage."
"Don't worry, chatty Kathy he's with me."
"Really?" Katherine asked
Jeremy nodded then said, "He paid."
"How much?" Katherine and Stefan asked
"One thousand." Damon said, easily
They both stared at him.
"That despicable man!" Katherine snarled
Damon stepped in front of Jeremy.
"Hey look can I just pay and get out of here?" He asked
"Oh you don't have to pay after what Klaus has done to Jeremy he doesn't deserve a single cent." Katherine said
"That's not right considering you've been the cashier of the year for the past four years." Stefan said motioning to pictures of Katherine's smiling face on the wall.
"Oh I've only been here as long as that to take care of Jeremy." Katherine says, "Now go."
As Damon, Stefan and Jeremy climb into the convertible they hear a loud, "I quit!" from Katherine.
The car is quiet as they drive away
The rest of the afternoon passes quickly with a bunch of other errands around Mystic falls and they are pretty much tuckered out when they make it back home.
"Here's the living room," Damon says to Jeremy as Stefan shuts the front door "Make yourself comfortable I am going to make dinner, I'll come and get you when it's ready.
Once again Jeremy just nods like he's done all afternoon when Damon has addressed him as he sits on the rug by the fire.
"You know you can sit on the couch or something, right?" Damon asks with a smile
Jeremy's dark green eyes fill with surprise but he slowly climbs up on the sofa. He perches on the edge, tense and far away from Damon, as the couch will allow; ready to escape back to the floor if need be.
Damon smile falters a little, "I will be right back."
Jeremy says nothing.
Damon turns away and makes his way to the kitchen with a small frown on his face.
Stefan finds him in the kitchen slapping together a sandwich a little while later.
"Damon." Stefan said sitting down on stool and leaning on the countertop. "We need to talk."
"Stefan can it wait, I have Jeremy in the living room waiting for food." He said slapping a piece bread on top of the meat and cheese
"Sure." Stefan says pushing a glass of milk toward Damon
Damon picks the glass and the delicate china saucer and exits the kitchen.
"Hey Jeremy I brought you a sandwich for dinner. Damon says, setting the food down on a table, "Which I hope you can eat because I don't know what hybrids eat. You'll have to teach me all about hybrids. Okay?"
Silence, absolute quiet.
"Jeremy?" Damon asks turning and facing the room
A room, that is absolutely empty.
"Stefan." He yells frantically glancing around
"What!" yells Stefan racing into the room with what looks like lettuce halfway out his mouth.
"Jeremy-
"Jeremy what?" Stefan asks
Damon just hushes his brother and turns him around because lying there on floor curled up in front of the dead fireplace asleep is Jeremy.
After a few moments of silence Stefan says, "Okay I'm going to go finish eating dinner, don't call me unless there is a real emergency. "
He exits the living room but not before snagging the sandwich off the plate and taking a bite.
Damon watches the hybrid sleep. Damon doesn't realize it but the person in front of him has stolen his heart already. Much later on the cat will also steal the words off his tongue.