Droopiness salvaged the cat

[This is an extra snippet of my first original fan fiction story "Curiosity killed the cat". The name of my OC is Lydia Romanoff and is made up by me.]

HEART REGIONS

"Who reveres the earthworm,

the grower deep under the grass in the earth's soil

He keeps the earth in transformation.

He works filled with soil,

mute of soil and blind."

- Harry Martinson

He looked different. The difference itself could not be spotted in his gaze or in his facial features that would normally change from childish to mature, - or the other way around - depending on the situation in question. This difference was full-length complete; I was referring to his whole person.

Warrant Officer Schrödinger's entire body.

That was soaked in water.

The sight of it was actually more concerning than comical. (Although some people think that it can be slightly amusing to watch a cat after a bath).

Schrödinger's entire Youth uniform was soaking wet and the heavy fabrics were clinging onto his moist limbs. The blond hair was darker and seemed longer as drops of water weighted it down. A meek, fever-like blush was spread across his cheekbones.

"Right on time, aren't I?" he asked, nearly out of breath as he shot a glance over my shoulder and peeked into my cell room. Yet, he sounded just like himself; like nothing was bothering him.

I watched him in awe. Out of all the things that could happen onboard the Millennium aircraft from the perspective of an inmate, being picked up and escorted out from my cell by a wet monster-like messenger boy could be classified as almost bizarre.

"I don't know. I don't have a clock." I answered dumbly, not being modest as I stared at his drenched person.

"What happened to you? Where have you been?" I asked Schrödinger, who grinned at me as he unbuckled the handcuffs from his belt.

"I've been on patrol." he answered after I had moved my hands in front of me.

Even his gloves were drenched as he held my wrists still and put the cold steel around them. Yet, the handcuffs felt a lot more colder than his touch.

"It's a rainstorm outside." he added along with the sound of cuffs being tightened.

I had always liked that sound; not necessary the action behind the sound, but the wave of clicks could be oddly satisfying to ones ears. Almost like an old heavy train struggling over timeless, rusty railing. But of course, a very tiny train.

I liked the sound of handcuffs. As long as the they weren't put on too tight, I liked the sound of them.

"Shouldn't you dry yourself off?" I asked him as we stepped out into the corridor.

"I'll manage." Schrödinger said and smiled at me, making a few drops of water leave his nose.

The furry bits on top of his head were tussled up; cat ears lying down on the sides of his head.

He clearly didn't like it…

"So The Major let's you patrol even during these weather conditions?" I asked him curiously, stopping myself from sounding too teasing.

But I knew a little water never killed anyone, especially someone with supernatural abilities.

Schrödinger suddenly went silent for a short period of time. Then he answered: "I get most of my orders from The Doctor actually."

After that information being put out, we didn't say another word to each other until we reached the destination we were heading.

But my mind couldn't help but to find the entire situation odd.

I mean… more odd than usual.

"There, I must drop you off now. Doc has another meeting planned." Schrödinger said as we reached the door to Evening Class where Zorin would be responsible.

Ironically, the Evening Classes were completely voluntary from the perspective of the inmates, but nearly all of us preferred not to be isolated in our cells.

And they could be rather interesting actually.

"I don't want you to go." I said to Schrödinger.

My young escort laughed.

"I'm not really going anywhere am I?" he asked and I had to laugh myself.

"Sometimes I forget that we're on an airship." I confessed, feeling a bit silly. "But you did go on patrol out in the rain…" I thought out loud.

"Only out of obligation..." Schrödinger replied almost arrogantly, like a spoiled teenager from a wealthy family, taking a step closer to me. "But it's nice to be inside with you again." he said, voice exiting his lungs in a whisper.

We held our eye contact for a moment. I was certain we were thinking about the exact same thing as we both slowly leaned in towards each other. But then the door burst open and Schrödinger and I jumped back into our places.

"Well at least one showed up. I'm afraid it will be just you and me girly, since I seemed to have frightened the other inmates away… Let's make it quick. Pull off the plaster roughly, shall we?"

My eyes instinctively searched after Schrödinger, like I was about to ask him for permission.

But I didn't have to.

Because he had vanished.

And now it was just me and Zorin.

And a metaphorical plaster.

Being alone with Zorin in a locked up classroom was just as terrifying as it sounds.

It didn't help much that she started to pepper me with embarrassing statements either as soon as we had entered.

"I see you've made a conquest…" she purred, grabbing the top of my head with her entire hand as she walked past me and slummed down at the master's desk at the front.

"I don't know what you mean." I adjusted my hair, getting drawn to the very back of the room but ended up sitting in the middle row instead.

"Schrödinger. He's got a great deal of Icarus nerves. Be careful. I'm sure you know how men are." she said, sounding awfully bitter.

The idea of Zorin having a husband or a boyfriend was a thought I didn't want to go further with in my head.

"Schrödinger is only a little boy." I told her, sounding confident in that. Despite feeling like I was lying to her.

However it was, Zorin didn't seem to mind my untruth. A wide smirk could be seen on her face.

Perhaps Millennium wanted the world to believe in that untruth.

Warrant Officer Schrödinger was only a child. That was what they wanted him to appear like.

"All worms wriggles." Zorin replied, and my gaze darted down to the surface of my desk.

All worms wriggles. How could a silly statement like that hit one so unpleasantly? All worms wriggles… Try to say that as fast as you can seven times without sounding entertaining.

I've seen Schrödinger in a grown-up manner many times. He had the capacity to appear more masculine and adult-like, but I don't think he would be that kind of man Zorin predicted he could.

"I still don't know what you mean." I said shyly and stubbornly, only earning a guffaw as a response.

"You obviously know nothing of life then." she said. "And for the record, Schrödinger is not the kind of… person, to be reckoned with."

I dared to face her then.

"Is any of you from Millennium really to be reckoned with?" I asked her.

To which she only released another loud and terrifying guffaw.

"He keep making me say things." he told me in what perhaps could've been a complaint. But he rarely did complain, Schrödinger. Which made this a rather curious thing to listen to.

"Verses. Metaphors. Poems. Quotes. Haiku's… Sometimes even manifestos. I don't hate reading out loud, but sometimes… I think he just want me to read for him so he can reject more important matters of his. During our meetings, he uses the term 'inherent opportunities' a lot which is quite an odd combination of two words when you really think about it." Schrödinger ranted, but at that very moment, my attention span wasn't the greatest.

My gaze kept returning to my feet or the handcuffs keeping my wrists together in front of me.

"Lydia, are you well?"

I felt his hand stop me as we, once again, had been walking through the corridors of the airship, and I felt a sudden dizziness in my head. I supposed that was a common thing, when being thousands of meters up in the sky.

As I gazed into his red orbs, I came to the realization that he had been speaking this entire time and perhaps expected some kind of reply from me.

"I'm sorry, I-"

"Did Zorin try something with you?" Schrödinger asked with his head tipped to the side.

His question was slow and almost teasing as one could see traces of mischievousness in his eyes. But he didn't smile as much as he normally did. This smile was small, almost as small as the smile of pity.

"Because you see… She has this awful ability to literally peak inside the depths of your darkest places and-"

"No. Schrödinger. She didn't try anything." I interrupted him, not knowing if I wanted to know every detail of what Zorin was capable of. Her mere presence was terrifying enough for me.

"What is it then?" Schrödinger asked, the ears on top of his head pointing backwards in concern as he stepped forward and cupped my face in his gloved hands. They smelled like brand new leather and were silky soft. And they were completely dry, as well as the rest of him.

His blonde hair looked more tussled than usual, his locks almost curling at the ends.

I wanted to get used to the sight of that. Blow-dried Schrödinger.

"You can tell me anything. The information will stay with me." he assured me with a smile and moved his hands away quickly in the process.

He cast a look behind him and peeked over my shoulder before pulling out a small key from inside the glove of his left palm and effortlessly liberated me with it. The action reminded me of a careful dog owner, making sure there weren't any other people or dogs around before taking the leash off their dog so that it could roam around in the park freely.

But this wasn't a park, and I wasn't free.

This was a prison in the sky and I was an inmate.

"That's what Doc usually tells me, but I'm sure that the information will somehow leek to The Major anyway." he added with another playful chime and attached the handcuffs to his belt.

"But with me, it's completely safe. I promise."

His small lips barely moved as he spoke, yet they twisted into a petite little smirk, exposing his set of pearly teeth and a shallow dimple on the left side of his face.

"Does that feel better? I've read that restrictive tools such as handcuffs and shackles can make people feel claustrophobic. If you don't feel good at the moment, then why add damage to your current state?" Schrödinger was literally spitting out words this evening; he must've been reading a lot, just like he mentioned.

He looked at me in such an enthralling way then, that I almost couldn't put up with it. His light crimson eyes had almost gotten humane and looked hazel; eyelashes blinking sporadically as they gazed at me in nothing but pure curiosity. I saw the innocence of a child or even an animal there before me, trapped inside this creature called something as trivial as Schrödinger.

My question was an idiot thing to ask.

"You're not a worm, are you Schrödinger?"

"A worm?" he asked and nothing stopped him from giving a small affected, almost worried giggle as his eyebrows rose on his forehead.

Right then, two Millennium soldiers could be heard approaching us as they were talking behind me. Just when I was about to turn around and hide my hands behind my back, one of them shoved me forward, right into Schrödinger who caught me clumsily.

"Vorsicht! Weiblich." the stranger shouted as they continued their walk.

I heard Schrödinger mutter something under his breath in German as well, as his arms settled around me gently. His mere presence made it possible for me to not bother the little act of evil that just had occurred. But the most important thing there and then was Schrödinger. Blood could be raining down upon us and I still wouldn't neglect him with my mind elsewhere.

Without thinking, I just hugged him back, pressing my face into the nook of his neck. He didn't smell bad at all and the skin on his neck was soft and clean, only the collar of his Hitler Youth uniform could be felt brushing against my face.

It made me think. Perhaps Schrödinger's cat didn't have a smell at all?

"A worm?" Schrödinger asked again, more softly this time, and almost seriously, like he was giving me his full attention.

He jumped straight back into the insignificant conversation we had, and I didn't mind it one bit.

I sniffed one time before spilling out the latest gossip from the evening class.

"Zorin said that pretty much all men, whether they are boys or adults, are worms who will always wriggle. All worms wriggle." I explained, stroking his back with my hands.

All worms wriggle.

Yes. I actually said it out loud.

I felt Schrödinger dump his head on top of mine, and I felt his jaw move slightly as he spoke.

"But I'm a cat." he said.

It might've been the very first time I've heard him mention anything about his own species. "And for more than a billion years, I've evolved, adapted and survived; roamed the earth." he added, sounding just like a child just having learned about something.

"And Zorin doesn't seem as the best-known textbook example when it comes to dictionaries." he said with an encouraging voice that resulted in me grinning like a fool and holding him even closer to me.

"To be honest… I feel a little like a worm myself." I told him.

"Why is that, Lydia?" he asked.

"I haven't seen sunlight for what feels like a lifetime." I said and pulled away carefully to look at him. "Well not real sunlight anyway." I added in a small mumble that I perhaps didn't want him to hear.

But Schrödinger stared at me without any kind of judgment in his features.

"I don't know…" he said. "I think the weather is wonderful up here. In what distant heart regions do you belong? Perhaps in a kingdom of the bewildered?" he asked and removed a set of hairs from my awestruck gaze and living being that was seduced by the youthful glow around him.

"And even if you are a worm… You must not only be that. A human is not just one thing!"

What does one reply to such a thing? I guess you'd rather become speechless than collapsing from feeling too much. Who cares about conversation really? It can be so obsolete…

And with such an intense incident all around me, the entire time, I could feel a bit as if I was floating in a bubble of strange emotions that protected me from harsh, cold truths.

I loved him, the Schrödinger creature.

And I wasn't to blame.

Neither was he. He never asked to exist to begin with, just like the rest of the world.