Alright, well this is my first time actually publishing something of mine, because wow I suck? I apologize if this is cliche at first but I've got stuff planned so please keep reading when I put up later chapters! Thanks ahead of time to anyone who reads this, reviews are much appreciated and I hope you like this Kat!


"Oh, excuse me! Could you please not tap on the glass like that? Thank you sooo much." She smiled gently at the boy before her, patting his shoulder to go along with the thank you. It was such a busy day today, she hadn't even gotten the chance to eat breakfast! She guessed it was because the holidays were coming up, and what better time then to adopt a furry, or scaly, or slimy, or feathery friend into your family?

At the moment, trying to juggle giant bags of dog food, cans of cat food, fish feed, and toys all in the two arms she had, was kind of difficult. She constantly had to stop and make sure she wasn't running anyone over, or anything. By the time she had finished unloading all of it from her arms and into their correct spots, she had to quickly return to the growing line behind the one cash register in the store.

"Sorry about that, busy busy today!" She gave a big smile to the rather irritated looking man in front of her, who simply shrugged off her apology and slammed a bag of dog food on the counter. People sure were rude... She thought this silently while ringing up his items, waving him out of the store with a "Thank you for shopping here! The animals miss you already!" The girl gave a tiny sigh, tucking some of her short hair behind her ear before returning her focus to the line.

The rest of the evening consisted of, tired smiles, grumpy faces, thank yous and good byes, and finally something she did not expect. "Please, come again!.. or not.." She mumbled that final bit under her breath while watching the last customer leave the building. Goodness, she needed to hire more help. Today would have been easier if her stupid fishy-friend had actually showed up to work. Where was he anyway? Oh well, now she could get to enjoy her favorite part of the day.

She slipped out from behind the counter, weaving past the cleaned out shelves, until stopping in front of one certain enclosure. "Hey there cuties, today sure was busy huh? Hmm.. 1, 2, 3, 4.." She pointed at all of the little, stumbly fur balls while counting. Apparently she had forgotten that two of them had been adopted today with all of the chaos going on. "Looks like some of you went home today."

As she said this, she reached into the glass and lifted one of the kittens out, the consistent meowing almost instantly starting. The poor things always got so scared easily, especially when she picked them up, but eventually they would calm down and fall asleep in her lap. The girl cradled the tiny cat in her arms, making sure to keep it close to her so it had some sort of sense of closeness. She brushed her finger across the top of the kittens small head, rubbing lightly between his ears. "See? Not so scary.." She smiled gently, watching the animal struggle to keep its eyes open. The girl leaned down and pressed a kiss to its head before standing up, and as slowly as she could, setting him back down in the enclosure.

Just as she turned around, she almost jumped five feet high and out of her skin. The girl yelped loudly and stared wide eyed at the tall man before her, latching onto the glass of the kittens area. " Don't sneak up on me like that, you almost gave me a heart attack!" The rapid beating of her heart slowly returned to its normal pace. Why hadn't she heard the bell over the do- You had to be kidding. She spotted the bell resting on top of one of the shelves closer to the door, the string attached to it broken.

She reached up and slapped her forehead before turning her attention to him again, who was apologizing over and over for scaring her. There was something.. really different about him. He was a tall and brute of a man, but he kind of reminded her of a big soft teddy bear, the way his voice was low but gentle. She finally held her hands up to silence him, smiling weakly and shaking her head. "It's okie, you just surprised me is all. What can I do for you sir?"

"I come here to ask if your store happens to carry stallions or mares among the other types of pets."

She gave him the weirdest look ever. Was this guy fur real? Horses? In her small shop? In the city? She shook her head again and giggled lightly at him, pointing over in the direction of the food aisles. "Sorry sir, we don't have horses here. Buuuut, we do have horse care products if you are interested. Also, you realize we are in the city right? I doubt you'll find anyone who has horses." She couldn't help but laugh again as she finished her sentence.

He looked a little flustered, his face taking on a redder tint as he reached up and ran a hand through his rather long hair and smiled nervously. "I see. Please excuse me for bothering you miss.." She stared at him for a moment, watching his eyes trail around her apron in search of some name tag. "Oh! Sorry, you can call me Nepeta." She said this with another big smile "Would you like me to show you what we havvvvvvvvvveeeee..?"

Nepeta made circular motions with her hand, prompting him to tell her his name.

"Equius. Equius Zahhak."

She smiled again and nodded, spinning around on the heels of her shoes and leading him over to the section where the little amount of horse products they carried, sat. "As you can see, we don't have very much to offer.. since, heh, were in the city like I said before silly head."

Nepeta squated down and pushed through some of the items, continuing to speak even though he wasn't really listening and was just watching her. Once she stood back up and finished her sentence, which was clearly a question by the way she was looking at him now, he came back from his thoughts. "Uh, excuse me but could your repeat that last part?"

Nepeta's thin eyebrow's furrowed for a minute before she opened her mouth to speak. "I asked if you already had a horse." He had totally not been listening to what she said. She couldn't really blame him though, it was really late and she barely even knew what she was saying.

The one named Equius nodded, again keeping his speaking to a minimum. "Alrighty, we actually have a sale on some of the feed, if you wanted to look."

She crouched back down again, giving the hint to him that he should as well. Which he did, but kind of awkwardly about it. He had to find his balance after squatting down, almost losing it from doing such a simple task. Nepeta slipped herself a small smile. He really was like some big teddy bear.

As he sat down though, his elbow bumped one of those cardboard stands that was holding a bunch of stuffed toys on display. Of course, he knocked it over. His eyes widened and he stood up quickly, again starting with the apologizing as he attemped to set it back up, toys now spilled across the floor.

Nepeta simply watched with amusement, stiffling giggles before finally deciding to help the poor baby. She shook her head and helped him put the stand back where it was before starting to place the animals back in their places. "Again, it's really ok! You can't exactly help it I'm gues- OWWWWW." Nepeta yanked her head back in a matter of seconds.

She reached up and put both of her hands on her forehead, an immense stinging pain shooting through her head that struck some nerves apparently and made her eyes water. Which only made the situation worse.

Equius was now extremely wide eyed, seeing the tears in her eyes he ceased rubbing his own forehead, and instead reached over and took her hands away from her head as gently as he could.

"Nepeta I am so sorry, please please forgive me even though I don't deserve it." Right now, she was too distracted by something to answer. He was holding her hands, and she was letting him. She slowly moved a thumb over the top of his hand. It was kind of rough, probably from working, and it dwarfed her tiny ones

Nepeta, kind of liked it though.

This brought Equius's attention to their hands as well. His face turned red and he dropped hers, forcing Nepeta to snap out of the little day dream she was in. Oh god. She could feel her own ears and cheeks burning now. Equius cleared his throat and stood up. "Right. Uh, I'll take two bags." It took her a moment to pick herself back up and nod quickly, avoiding eye contact now as she grabbed two of the said bags and brought them over to register.

What was that all about? She had never blushed like that in her entire life! Especially with a stranger. The rest of their time spent together, was in silence, the only sound coming from sleepy animals and cars outside. Once she was finished she pulled out a brown paper bag and placed the food into it.

The bag mentioned before had olive-colored bubble letters printed on it, spelling out the word "Leijon's Pet Emporium." The o in what he guessed was her last name, was replaced with a paw print and the j extended out into a cats tail.

Nepeta waited for his reciept to print out before sticking it into the bag and handing it to him. "Thank's for picking Leijon's Pet Emporium." With that and a goodbye from him he headed in the direction of the door, leaving Nepeta there to mentally fight herself and tap her foot on the ground.

Oh come on Nepeta, that whole thing that just happened HAD to have meant something, right? You should do it! But what if he was actually some weirdo that was gonna turn her into a skin suit? Oh what the heck.

"Wait! Equius! I furgot to give you something!" She decided not to let this chance get away. Nepeta spun out from behind the register and bounced over to him, reaching inside his bag and taking the reciept back out. She set it down on top of one of the shelves and had to stand on her toes to see what she was writing.

Once finished, she crammed it back into the bag, smiled at him, and without another word, returned to the back of the store.

Equius was slightly confused at what she could have possibly written down, searching around for the peice of paper once he was out in his car and settled. There it was. The ten digit number. Of course she made sure to scribble a heart next to it and a smiley face.

Equius smiled.