A/N So so sorry for the late post. You know how school is. Hope you are enjoying this story. Thank you TrinityCrystalPrincess89, SJTiger, StoryMaker7, and SkittyBug for taking the time to write a review. Like I said before they mean more to me than you know. Have a lovely day everyone!
When the kitten woke up again he was in a very different place. A hallway with a series of doors on either side. Where was he? The change in scenery sent a jolt of panic through his frame and he tightened his claws around the white hoodie-
Wait, hoodie? Oh, that's right. The alley. That boy.
"Ouch! Careful, little one. I believe you are stranger than you realize."
Then kitten looked up at the boy and loosened his grip slightly, but scanned the hallway and sniffed the air warily.
Something was not quite right. The boy seemed to be creeping along the shadows on the walls, almost as if he wanted to slip by without anyone-
"Zane? What are you doing?"
Before the poor cat had a chance to protest, the boy-Zane-stuffed him under his hoodie and turned to the new voice.
"Oh! Hello, Lloyd. I thought you'd be training on deck with the others."
The other person-Lloyd apparently-snorted. "Cole said I could have a half hour break for lunch. I'm capitalizing on it and beating Jay's high score while I can." A pause. "You won't tell him, right?"
The kitten felt Zane relax a little. "I suppose just this once, as long as you actually eat something. Now if you'll excuse me I need to-."
It was really getting quite stuffy being buried in that sweatshirt. And restricting. The kitten began to bat at the soft white walls of his prison.
"Um, Zane? Watcha got there?"
The ball of fluff batted harder, growing slightly frustrated in his confinement. He wanted to see what was going on out there.
"Nothing! Wh-why do you ask?" Zane asked as casually as he knew how (which apparently wasn't very casual) and hugged his torso, trying to still the fidgeting feline.
However, said cat chose that exact moment to poke his face up out of the neck of Zane's hoodie, head bumping Zane's chin.
Ah, at last he could see. He wasn't quite sure why everyone had grown so quiet.
In a minute he knew why.
Lloyd gave out a shrill squeak of pure joy and zipped up to Zane. He sported a head of fluffy blonde hair and wore a ridiculously large green gi. He kind of looked like a dandelion, actually.
Oh. Oh no. the kitten tensed. Lloyd was a little boy. Little boys were dangerous. Little boys hurt things littler than themselves. Little boys-
He began to wriggle back into the safety of Zane's sweatshirt. But Zane just sighed in resignation and-oh no!-bought him out for Lloyd to see.
Lloyd gasped, "Zane! You found a kitten! Oh he's so cute what're you gonna call him can I hold him pleasepleaseplease-?"
Zane slapped a hand over the boy's mouth. "Lloyd, inhale some air before you pass out." After a minute Lloyd seemed to calm down and he lifted his hand from his face. "You don't understand," Zane said in a lower voice, "I can't keep him. You know what sensei would say. I just…couldn't leave him there to die."
Lloyd's eyes widened even more, "You mean we're not going to tell uncle Wu?" He whispered.
Zane shook his head and put a figure to his lips. A glint neither Zane nor the cat quite liked twinkled in Lloyd's eyes as he nodded solemnly. The three slipped into the boys' shared bedroom and slid the door closed.
Once inside Zane handed the kitten to Lloyd, much to the child's delight, and reached under one of the beds, pulling out a first-aid kit. He disappeared into the bathroom.
At first thoughts from back on the streets flooded the kitten's head, where people were cruel, and hurt him, and liked it, because he couldn't def-
He just froze, too scared to do anything else. But then Lloyd wrapped his arms protectively around the animal's tiny frame and settled on the bed, stroking the cat's forehead. He hadn't expected that. Who were these people? Why were they so different from everybody else?
The kitten kept on wondering while slowly beginning to melt sleepily into the warm rhythm of the child's heartbeat. He wasn't sure when exactly he started purring. His eyes began to droop shut.
All too soon Zane returned with some medical supplies. Reluctantly Lloyd loosened his grip on the ball of fluff enough for the other boy to wrap a strip of gauze around his midsection.
"What do you think happened to him?" Lloyd asked in a small voice.
Zane sighed as he kept wrapping. "The world can be a horrible place sometimes."
The boy in green nuzzled his cheek into the kitten's fur and sniffed, "How could anyone hurt something so innocent?"
A jiggling of the door handle made all three of them start. They watched with wide eyes as the door swung open, revealing a very sweaty looking Kai. When he glanced up from wiping his face on a towel, his eyes fell on the three figures sitting on his bed.
"What." Kai said. "Is that."
