Chapter 1: Admirer

A content little kitten was walking home from the store. Her bag full of Faygo, milk and some catnip for herself (it was on sale), she went about her business pleasantly. Lunch would be soon, so she had to hurry back to the house as quickly as she could, so that milk could be had by all. It was her responsibility, no, her duty to bring fresh milk to her friends, and she simply could not let them down! She would deliver her companions their calcium-rich beverage at any cost!

When Nepeta got back to the house, everything seemed as it normally would be; Equius was working on some new robots to smash; Karkat was arguing with Sollux; Gamzee was taking a nap on the horn pile, rather contently (although nobody could get how he could nap on a fucking pile of horns, seeing as every time he moved, the horns honked loudly, making obnoxious noise that had sometimes woken him up in the past); Eridan was creeping, especially on Feferi, as per usual; Vriska and Aradia were probably in their rooms, not unusually; and Kanaya and Tavros were in the kitchen, making quite sure to keep Terezi out, for far too many meals had been defaced by her tongue.

Everything seemingly normal and fine, nepeta dropped off the milk at the kitchen, settled the bottle of Faygo in Gamzee's arms, who took to cuddling the fizzy red heart-attack-in-a-bottle imediately, and went to her room to look at fanart and modify the shipping wall. Things had been a bit busy lately, after the accident that was had in the kitchen. Now that they had gotten the oven replaced, and made sure that Vriska and Terezi would never be cooking any meals together again, things were pretty much normal. That is, things were normal until Nepeta got into her room.

As soon as she unlocked the door (she prefurred to keep it locked while she was out) and stepped in, she felt as though something were different. She looked all around, counting out her posters and plushies and checking under the bed and on her bedside table and desk. That's when she saw it. On Nepeta's computer desk, sticking out from under her keyboard, was a slip of white paper, neatly placed, hidden, but sticking out just enough for her to see.

Intrigued, and equal parts nervous and excited, she pulled the paper out from underneath the keyboard. It was folded in half, so perfectly that she couldn't at first tell that it had, in fact, been folded. She carefully opened it, as if worried it would be ruined if she wasn't careful. Inside, a message was written, using normal grammar and punctuation, and apparently written with a black pen. She read it out, quietly, under her breath.

My dearest love,

You don't know for how long I've been meaning to talk to you about this. I find it too hard, even now, to directly approach you about it. But I had to write to you. My feeling for you have been… red, for quite some time. You're kind, funny, loving, and the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. But as I write this, I'm worried that my feelings for you will be unrequited. Still, I couldn't go on not telling you how I really feel… I think I'm in love.

-Your Admirer

She pawsed. Her heart almost stopped beating, and everything seemed to hold perfectly still, questions tearing through her mind like claws through tender flesh. Who was this anonymous admirer? How long had they been wanting to confess their feeling towards her? How long had they felt this way? How did they get into her room?!

Just then, Nepeta heard Aradia calling her down for lunch. How long had she been standing there, note clasped between her quivering fingers? She quickly hid the note in a shoe box she kept inside one of her stuffed cats that held her more purrsonal possessions, turned the lights out, and left for lunch.

As she closed the door on her room, the last light from the hallway fell onto the corner of Nepeta's shipping wall. It would take quite a while for her to notice that a new addition had been drawn, without her even knowing it.