"Ahh, I really like when it smells of rain, don't you love it?" Ruffnut stretched out on the couch, enjoying the view and the refreshing scent that nature offered through the living room window. "What a nice weekend."
Astrid looked at the time on her laptop screen. She was still working on her project at the dining room table, but she didn't even realize when it started to rain.
It was almost ten o'clock and her mother had not yet arrived.
It was nothing new, but Astrid grabbed her cell phone anyway to send her another message.
Ruffnut didn't really mind not getting an answer from her cousin, after a month, she had already gotten used to being ignored. She just enjoyed the things that excited her by herself. Although she couldn't deny that she missed sharing everything like she used to with her brother. But anyway, Astrid wasn't Tuffnut, and that was the reality now, which made her feel a bit nostalgic every time she gave it too much thought. Could it be that Tuffnut missed her too?
She wouldn't admit it in front of him.
She was still a bit lost in thought when she suddenly noticed something moving outside the house. It was not a person, it was something smaller. She got up a little and craned forward like a buzzard to try to see what it was and, as soon as she recognized the silhouette, she jumped quickly from the couch and ran to the front door to open it and receive the little creature.
"Aww, Who is this adorable baby?" This time Ruffnut's voice and frenzied movements caught her cousin's attention. "Astrid, come look at this, it's so cute!"
She squatted in the doorway, making odd hand movements and sounds to attract the little animal wandering in their front yard.
Astrid stood up from her place, her brow furrowed slightly, this time she was really curious about what it might be, and as soon as she reached the door, she recognized it. Ruffnut was excited because there was a cat, that brown cat she had run into a while ago on her way back from the supermarket, to be specific.
Had it followed her?
She didn't really expect it.
"Hello, little one!" Ruffnut looked very excited to see it approach. "Oww, look at you, you're all wet. What are you doing outside in the rain?"
When the little cat cautiously reached the door, she leaned towards it in an attempt to pick it up, but Astrid stopped her immediately.
"Ruff, wait." She put a hand on her shoulder. "What? Are you gonna bring it into the house?"
She looked back at her, confused "Isn't obvious? He's all wet and must be cold, look at him! Don't you feel sorry for it?"
"What if it was in the trash, or if it has some kind of… bugs?" Astrid looked at the animal suspiciously, its brown fur didn't look dirty but it was indeed a bit wet. She didn't trust it, she remembered seeing him come out of the bushes. "I saw it on the street while I was out. As far as we know he could be a wild cat…"
Ruffnut snorted. "Please, does that face look wild to you?" They both watched the animal again, as the cat looked back at them with bright green eyes. It actually looked pretty cute.
Ruff finally reached down to take it in her arms and lift it up, something that made the animal a bit uneasy, but it soon started to relax at the contact "What if he's just lost, huh? Let's put him in just while the rain passes."
"How do you even know it's a male?" Astrid asked, she couldn't really come up with something that possibly stopped Ruffnut from taking the animal inside.
"You right, sorry to assume, little one".
When she took it and closed the door, Astrid exhaled in surrender, she didn't have the energy to argue again with her cousin, less about something like this "Okay, do whatever you want…"
"Wait, are you serious?" Ruff and the kitten looked at each other. "Did you also hear what she said?"
"Just make sure it doesn't break anything, Ruff. And do not let it enter our room."
"Sure thing, Grandma." The girl was too happy to care about rules. She held the cat up in front of her face and looked at him with a huge smile. "She's seventeen and she acts like a mom," She said, half laughing. "Well, how about we go shower you and dry you off first? Huh, precious? You would like that, yes, yes you would."
The little animal looked at her in terror, beginning to jerk free from the overly affectionate girl's grip, it wasn't really up for that really. It managed to get away and immediately ran straight onto Astrid's lap, who had just sat back down in the dining room.
Astrid jumped in surprise and stood up to shoo him off.
"Ruffnut!"
"What me?! It wanted to go with you"
"Just take it away, Ruff, will you?"
Obediently, Ruffnut took the cat back into her arms and proceeded to carry him to the bathroom, where the little nightmare was just about to begin.
And not even twenty minutes passed when Astrid realized that leaving Ruffnut alone with the cat had been a bad idea.
"ASTRID, HELP!"
She ran to the bathroom right away, just to find an entire crime scene, but rather than disappointing, it looked quite funny.
And that was because after having fought a battle in the bathtub with the cat, Ruff had ended up on the floor, soaked up to the head and the cat was like that as well, but it was hiding under the sink, trembling and with eyes wide open. The shower curtain was ripped apart and as far as she could tell, a part of Ruffnut's arm was scratched as well.
"Warned you." She said, almost laughing.
"Stop joking and help me with it!" Ruffnut said, not having fun at all.
Astrid went back to look for the cat, whom with its eyes and a slight meowing begged to be saved from that girl, or maybe it was begging for a towel so it could get dry. Hard to tell.
"How could you think that bathing a stray cat was a good idea, Ruff?"
"He looked pretty calm! Now he doesn't even want me to touch him."
"You scared it" Astrid approached him, careful not to slip on the water on the floor. "I wouldn't let you come near me ever again either" she teased, receiving a bad look from her. She reached over and took a dry towel, then held it close to the animal and spoke calmly to it. "Come here, you don't need to get any more wet."
The cat hesitated. He watched her for a few seconds and then cautiously came out of his hiding place, allowing himself to be enveloped by the comforting and warm fabric and beginning to be gently rubbed with it by the younger blonde girl.
"Why does he like you so much?" Ruffnut said, trying to get up from the floor.
"I'm just drying it off," Astrid replied simply. "If it scratched you, you should clea…"
Before she could finish, Ruffnut slipped on the water that was all over the floor, and as she tried to grab on something, she brought Astrid to slip and fall on her back as well, getting her all wet too. There wasn't much space in the bathroom, and the incident made the cat freak out too, jumping to the sink and knocking everything on top of it over the girls.
"Agh! Ruff, be more careful!"
"I'm sorry! Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine" Astrid got up, done with the situation and ready to get out of the bathroom "I need to go change, clean this up, please. Mom will be here any minute."
Before she could go out, Ruff lunged at her from the ground and grabbed her leg, almost hugging it as if she was about to beg for something "Ah! w-you'll help me explain this, right?"
Astrid sighed, "Just tell her you put the cat in while it was raining, I know Mom, I don't think she'll bother."
And that being said, she shook her leg for Ruff to release her and finally left the bathroom, not bothering to close the door, and not realizing that a curious —and still startled— little animal ran out just behind her.
[...]
She still had more important things to do right now to worry about the mess Ruffnut caused, she was stressed enough with her homework after her teammates left her doing all the final work on her own, or rather, doing their part wrong. She had to fix all that too and it was frustrating.
Anyway, she was almost finished with it.
She took off her wet T-shirt as soon as she entered her room, leaving just her bra on and beginning to search for something clean and comfortable to wear in her closet.
"Haven't we done laundry yet?" She asked to herself, straightening up and putting both hands on her hips.
She looked around, searching for the laundry basket to see if Ruffnut had already carried it or not. She couldn't see it anywhere, but what she did find was a little intruder who was watching her, attentive from her bed.
She frowned at him.
The cat went from looking at her, to shaking one of his paws and starting to lick it, running it over his face and trying to finish his task of drying himself.
Astrid dropped her jaw at the sight of him being so comfortable up there, as if he lived there already. Who did he think he was?
"What are you doing? Get out of here" she scolded him, tossing him the shirt she had just taken off to scare him off the bed.
The animal got on his four legs, alert, and immediately jumped out of bed to avoid the wet shirt. Astrid looked at him annoyed as he sat near the door to watch her again, his eyes were green and bright, he watched each of the girl's movements with curiosity.
Astrid looked at him suspiciously for a second. Why was he staring at her so much? She was about to call for Ruffnut to come and take him away, but then the kitten shook his head innocently.
She had to admit that he was a bit adorable.
She shook her head, deciding to simply ignore it and pull it out herself when she finished changing.
It was just a cat, anyway.
Without much choice, she took one of the clean tops that Ruffnut wore as pajamas and put it on, anything was better than being just on her bra around the house.
Ruff sometimes did that, she said it was the best thing in the world, and that she would always go around shirtless if she could, and that she should try it, but it was not to Astrid's personal comfort right now.
She also changed her pants into her own clean pajamas she found and took the wet clothes to take them to the laundry. On her way, she gave the cat a little push with her foot to get him out of her room, and then she closed the door behind her to prevent him from getting inside again and getting on the bed, or, in the worst scenario, even poop somewhere there.
She had to make sure that wouldn't happen.
It was already almost eleven o'clock, so when she was done with what she was doing she decided to go to her laptop to make sure nothing was missing from the project she was working on and finally send it in before it was too late.
"Ruff, do you need something?" She asked when she went through the bathroom again minutes later, just to check in. "Everything okay in there?"
Ruff gave her a thumbs-up, maneuvering across the toilet to remove the torn curtain. "I'll patch it up with duct tape and put it back on. Don't worry, it will look like nothing happened."
Astrid opened her mouth for a second, almost to question her, but she then closed it again. "Good luck with that," she just said. "Don't fall again."
She went back to the dining room and, unexpectedly, upon reaching the table, she found a little friend who was already there waiting for her, lying in her chair.
"Are you comfy, sir?" she asked, getting a sympathetic meow in response. She breathed out, with a bit of humor, then walked up to him. "Move, I was there first."
And just by moving the chair a little, she made the animal jump down and run into the living room.
[...]
Outside, the rain stopped after a while.
Astrid had finally been able to relax after submitting her homework and shutting down the computer, which had been consuming her eyes for several days now. She massaged her neck.
"Aha! that thing looks like new, I'm a genius." she heard suddenly, as Ruffnut came out of the hall and praised herself after fixing the curtain. The girl had finally finished taking care of that and mopping up the mess she had caused in the bathroom. She also changed her clothes, which made her notice something the moment she saw Astrid "I knew you had grabbed my shirt!"
Astrid looked down at herself, remembering it was true. "Uh, I didn't have a clean pajama, sorry."
"No biggie," Ruffnut said with a shrug "Just don't be mad when I borrow something from you" she added maliciously.
The other girl sighed, again, too mentally exhausted to argue.
"Uhm, where's the kitten?" Ruff spoke again. "Should we give him something to eat?"
"I suppose."
"Have you seen him?"
"Did you close the door to our bedroom? He went there a while ago."
"Huh… yeah, maybe he was there." She said, starting to walk to the bedroom, but then stopped, "Where is aunt Lillian, by the way? It's almost midnight already." she asked, referring to Astrid's mother.
Astrid checked the time on her cell phone, and the repeated messages with her mother about her supposedly arriving soon.
"She must be on her way," she answered simply. "I'll go to bed now, I'm seriously dead."
"Alright..." Ruff was already in the kitchen, poking around in the fridge and cupboards. "I'll see what to feed the little one".
░ ? ░
Astrid had never been to a vet's office before and she wasn't even sure how was she dragged into this in the first place.
It was the next day. She believed that they would only help the cat for the day before while it was raining, but now they were here, bringing him to the doctor to try to find out something about him.
Ruffnut looked ridiculously excited. Obviously, she was the one who convinced Astrid to go to a vet after remembering that, at Berk, and pretty much in a lot of places in the world, it was common to microchip pets to identify them, in case they got lost and lost their collar or tag. Astrid ended up accepting, just so the cat would go back to wherever he belonged and Ruff could stop bothering her about this situation.
She heard her all the way to the vet talking about the chills that it gave her the thought of the government maybe developing some kind of technology —as what they used on animals— to keep a rigorous record of or identify humans and their locations.
"Or even worse!" Ruffnut was having an existential crisis over it "What if they use it to somehow control us, what we do, what we see… like in Black Mirror".
"Ruffnut, if we don't have an identification chip, it's because we can tell who we are by talking," Astrid told her, a little concerned by her cousin's distracted mind. " Plus, the government does have a way to register us, it is called an identification card, or birth certificate. But what you are thinking might be possible, they might do that in the future" she added, just wanting to look what her reaction would be.
And it paid off, because Ruffnut, after a shocked gasp, got very quiet until they reached the vet's office. But now she was as happy as a puppy again.
The one who wasn't as happy was someone else...
The cat had been curled in a ball, for several minutes now, on Astrid's lap, after a dog that was a patient there too went crazy just at the sight of him and started barking, startling not just the cat but everyone else in the reception.
Ruffnut was jealous again that the kitten felt safer in Astrid's arms and not so much in hers considering that the Hofferson hardly liked touching the animal, but as long as it was calm and not embarrassing them in the waiting room, she agreed to let him hang on to her.
"You are so ungrateful," the older girl accused him. "I was the one who took you into the house and gave you a bath, if it were up to Astrid you'd still be out on the streets."
"I don't think he understands you, Ruffnut. Or he might be ignoring you, he must still be mad at you for trying to bathe him," Astrid scoffed.
Ruffnut pouted, putting her hands to her cheeks and leaning her elbows on her legs. She was getting bored at this point and wanted it to be their turn to consult already, and luckily it wasn't long after when they were called out.
Astrid carried the cat along, following the vet.
"You come to check the microchip, right?" The woman asked with a big smile, gesturing for the girl to put the cat down on the counter to start with the process.
"Come here, pretty" Astrid said in a neutral voice, trying to convince the cat to stop clinging to her, his claws were digging into her clothes. "Come on, so that we can return you to your owners…"
At last, she managed to put the cat on the platform. It did not take long for him to finally calm down when he noticed there were no more animals around, and the vet proceeded to check him.
"He looks very healthy actually," the vet admired, also pleased by the cat's sudden good behavior. "He's not too small, but he still looks like a pup to me. It must be a year old, a little older, maybe."
Soon she began searching for the microchip on the back of his neck with a manual device, but there was nothing.
"Well, I'm afraid your new little friend doesn't have an identification chip, ladies," the doctor informed them, putting away her tools.
"Are you sure?" Ruff asked sadly.
"Very sure," the woman assured. "But as I told you, he looks very healthy. It is likely that he has run away from his home, but you must have in mind that some cats know how to take care of themselves very well even if they live on their own in the streets, so I couldn't be sure."
The kitten meowed, approaching the edge of the counter, where Astrid was standing.
"He looked very comfortable at home," she said. "I don't think he stray at all."
"He also likes Astrid very much, she even woke up with him purring in her tummy today," Ruff told her, giggling "That means he doesn't mind contact with people, right? It must mean something."
"Yes." The doctor smiled again. In fact, you are right, the fact that he trusts people means that he is used to them and that he most likely did have a home." She looked at the kitten for a second, caressing its head, then looked at the youngest of the girls. "Astrid, right? Would you help me put him on the scale to weigh him? I'm going to do a couple of general checkups that I do on the patients so that they can leave with full information."
The blonde nodded and carried the cat again to do what the doc asked her to do. They checked his weight and even checked his ears and teeth, finding everything in perfect order."
When the vet finished with the checkup, she took her clipboard to pass the patient data as usual.
"Well, even if we don't know his information, could you give him a name to put him on the patient list?" She asked, "Maybe you can even contemplate adopting if you can't find his owners."
Ruffnut seemed excited to hear that. "Ooh! What about, furball! Or… how about Teddy? Because he's brown… or Brownie!" She stopped, thinking of something else that was also brown "Uh, Coffee?... Does it fit him? Like, a Capushino?"
"Uh, Ruff let's just call him…" Astrid looked at the cat, who was watching her back, those bright green eyes again, focused on her. Ruffnut wouldn't stop talking about how pretty he was since yesterday. "Pretty?"
The cat tilted his head, and Astrid could swear he smiled at her.
"Uh, yeah! Pretty sounds good" The other girl nodded. "It fits him perfectly because he is really cute."
"Very well then, Pretty it is"
[...]
The rest of the day Astrid busied herself with what Ruffnut had promised to do and forgot about (or probably, what she decided not to do at all). And that was posting photos of the cat to social media, on animal rescue groups and adoption groups for cats on acebook. But apart from the likes and the " he's so cute!" comments that the photos received, everyone seemed to ignore the true intention of Astrid's post.
Maybe she should just wait a few more days, or try again later.
She closed her laptop and went to the kitchen to get something to eat, finding Ruff, who was lying on the couch on a video call on the phone with one of her friends from college, and the cat was lying on her stomach. She looked with all intention of keeping him. Astrid was sure, her cousin looked already so fond of him...
But there was just a minor issue that drove Ruffnut mad immediately, and that was: the cat did the exact same thing every time he saw Astrid.
He would get up immediately and go with her.
Since the day before, it had been like this.
"He hasn't even eaten the tuna I gave him yesterday! And he doesn't like Whiskas either." just then Ruffnut felt the cat rise and just watched him getting off her stomach, as she continued talking to her friend over the phone "He is that cat out of ten who says I don't like this crap when he sees the little purple packet. He must be picky as hell."
She frowned when she noticed why Pretty ran off when she saw Astrid in the kitchen.
"What happened?" Her friend asked on the other end of the call.
"He went after her again," Ruffnut said, suddenly grumpy. "Thanks, Astrid! I had just convinced him to stay calm here with me, now he is not going to listen to me".
Astrid didn't feel the slightest guilt about that. She did absolutely nothing to win the affection of the cat, who was now pacing on her feet and meowing for her attention. And she just ignored him, and did the same with Ruffnut.
"Does he follow her a lot?"
"Ugh, yeah!" Ruff flopped back onto the couch again, frustrated. "She keeps shooing him away and making faces at him. I don't know why he loves her so much if she doesn't love him back as I do"
"Just go with her so she stops bothering me, I beg you," Astrid whispered to the cat, who only meowed again, staring at her as she continued to prepare a bowl of cereal.
"Hey! And what if it's because of something mystical?" Said the girl on the call. "You know… like, if the cat is an entity who's meant to chase her around."
"Chase her? what do you mean?" Ruff asked, intrigued "Something about spirit guardians, like in the movies?"
" Something like that, " her friend replied. " I'm just saying because my grandmother grew up in China and has many stories about it. She once told me that there were people who used to believe that cats were the spirits of loved ones who return to earth to give love, or some of them try to make amends for things they left behind before dying. She even told us about a lady who was sure that her cat was the reincarnation of her son who died when he was a baby" She laughed innocently, remembering her grandmother's fantastical stories. "I don't know, but what if it's true? Could it be someone from Astrid's family, or a friend maybe?"
Ruffnut went silent for a second after her friend's explanation, suddenly getting uncomfortable. She knew Astrid was overhearing the conversation, and that couldn't be good at all.
She didn't know what to say. She swallowed hard.
"U-uh, w-well my grandmother says that cats are beasts that would not hesitate to eat you while you sleep if you leave them without food, hehe" she said quickly, then glanced at Astrid to make sure everything was in order.
Luckily, she seemed to have also ignored what she had just heard.
"But this cat doesn't even want to eat," Ruffnut added, a lot calmer. "Ooh, maybe he wants to eat her," she said with a giggle, "That's why he keeps her close, you know, like snakes do."
She saw how Astrid was unamused by the little joke and she grimaced. Then she saw how she just took her bowl of cereal and a small bowl of fruit she had just chopped and went back to her room.
And Pretty ran after her.
[...]
She put both plates on the nightstand at the side of her bed and turned back to close the door, finding that someone (or rather something) had already broken into the room just behind her.
Astrid exhaled at the sight of the cat, who was sitting comfortably on Ruffnut's bed, watching her closely.
"Don't even think you're going to stay here again," she said, approaching him ready to take him out. The night before she woke up feeling a powerful radiator in her stomach, she did not believe that cats could purr so loudly while they slept.
She wasn't willing to go through that again.
Being inches away from taking it, the cat meowed.
A delicate, friendly sound that made her froze.
She looked at the animal for a few seconds, suddenly, and unintentionally, remembering what she had just —and what she would have preferred not to hear— from Ruffnut's friend in the living room.
The spirit of a loved one.
He stared at him. It was such a strange thing. That without her wanting him to be near, the animal still insisted to be close to her. That he came out of nowhere and without explanation follewed her home... that he was so comfortable just with her.
The cat's eyes… they were so bright when he looked at her.
No.
She shook her head, immediately wanting to get rid of those stupid thoughts.
Spirits? nonsense , it was just a friendly cat that had been found in the street. He only liked her because she saved him from Ruffnut's rough handling, which was why he felt more comfortable with her rather than with her cousin. He must have followed her when he saw that she was carrying food or simply because she had spoken to him when she found it on the street.
He might even be a spoiled cat, used to being given affection and whose family might be looking for it right now.
"Listen, I don't like cats, so don't think you're going to get me to like you," She said confidently. He shook one of his ears and tilted his head. "You are not staying here. We are not adopting you. So don't make yourself comfortable, is that clear?"
Without taking any longer, she lifted him with both hands to carry him into the hall and set him on the floor. "And you can't sleep here either," she said, closing the door and leaving him out of the room.
It was just an animal, one that she didn't want in her house.
Cats were not her favorite thing.
And those stories about them, those fairytales people made... they were all crazy, they were ideas that she did not want and that she was not going to allow herself to think about.
People who leave... never come back.
Much less inside a cat.
Find illustrations of this chapter on Instagram!
Azula lover: Thank you so much for your comments! I'm so happy you like the story so far! I'll keep doing my best with the translation ^^