Urban theory; chapter 16Resident Cat
The cat woke up in a dark flat. It was still early to be awake.
Her tail moved lazily across the mat while she searched for a companion in the room. Nothing moved in the living room but somewhere game light. Was it from outside, she thought and came out under the table where she had been sleeping. She yawned and stretched, curling her tail and wiping her whiskers clean. It sat there for a while and listened.
There was noise outside. At least somewhere there was life. She headed to the window of the living room and hoped on to a chair and from there to a windowsill. It was too cramped she noticed but the lights of the street caught her interest. Taxi drove across the corner and disappeared. In another building across the street were still some lights on. Someone was looking TV and other ones were talking to each other.
The cat paced onwards the sill holding her tail high up. She hardly even noticed until it was too late that she had pushed a cactus down from the sill. It barely made a sound as the pot met the floor. Oh well it was too late to be sorry as the damage was all ready done, she thought as she looked the damage of her doing. The cat guessed she was going to hear from that later. She twirled for a while on the sill's edge before it gracefully jumped down to the floor not making a tiniest sound. Maybe she should make a change for the better from making a mess.
With a little effort the cat opened one of the doors that led to Ayame's room. At least she thought that the human was mainly called that. She had also heard Ayame to been called at officer and shit head, but the human seemed to respond les angrily to the name Ayame. The cat sniffled a hand that hang down from the bed. Some sixth sense told the little creature not to try and wake up the officer who was all most never home and for that matter the most interesting one of all.
It was all most insulting that they hadn't yet figured up a name for her, the cat thought. She was all ways revered as The Cat or The Fluffy little thing or then with a strange tones of voice as a Demonic Bastard. There had been some talk about Blood-thirsty-beast and Devil it self, but those didn't sound so nice, what ever did they meant. She noticed a movement on the hallway and froze, but it was only the other burgher in her apartment. Cheese-cakes hadn't noticed her, she thought. He was also sometimes called shit head. Maybe it was some general greeting, like good morning or come to mama.
The cat waited for Cheese-cakes to come out from a small closet and as he did the cat jumped quickly away from the door for it not to hit her.
"Watch it little fellow…"
The cat was pleased she was referred to something new instead of a Thing that could have meant a broken tea cup, garbage's or underwear. Besides he hardly ever said to her anything else than a greeting like shit head.
"Stop that… Get the fuck away from me…"
She thought he seemed a bit needy for attention and as he was being so nice she might just let him pet her for the rest of the night or as long as she got bored to it.
"Stupid… cat…"
He was probably wounded in someway, when he was born, the cat thought pushing her self against his legs and circling him around again and again. He was a strange human, needed to be taken noticed and loved unconditionally, but certainly didn't make it easy for others. Like for example now, he was just standing there and looking at her. Didn't he realize that she was offering a mighty good change to pet her silky black fur?
"Are you finished already…?"
The cat looked up at him sitting still for a change. She gave out a very bleeding and open look moving the tip of it's tale from side to side. Pet me, you stupid retarded human!
She heard a weird kind of breath from him as he walked back to his room. Cheese-cakes wasn't the happiest people she had seen. The lights went out and the cat followed him in the room, first not noticing him on the bed. He opened his eyes and the cat climbed next to him. Cheese-cakes looked warm under all that mass of fuzzes. The human seemed wary. She sat still but wanted to play.
"Why can't you crawl between a wall like a normal fur ball…? Go to sleep…"
The human turned his back to her and all most pushed her off the bed. Sometimes this made the cat think if Cheese-cakes liked her at all. But that couldn't be true, could it? Loud noise broke the night's silence. She felt him turning back and thought hopefully that maybe he had come to second thoughts about entertaining her, but then the human grabbed the loud piece of plastic over the table.
"You gotta be kidding me…"
He put the funny looking thing that gloomed light, over his ear. "Halloo…?"
Unfamiliar voice came from somewhere but no-one could be seen in the room. The cat pricked up her ears. "Hi, Rikimaru. Listen…eh…? Did I call in a bad time?"
"…The clock is… three a.m., Oni…? What do you think…?"
The cat was staggered about the voice that came out of nowhere and started looking if there was another person in the bed.
"Can I come there for the night?"
"…What…?"
"Is just that… I have no where else to go right now, my other friends are out of town, I got no money with me…?"
"…Don't you have a home to go to?"
"I wouldn't be asking if I'd have a place to go… Unless, you don't want a third wheel in there, I can freeze my arse off, sleeping in some sewer…? Oh, why did I bother…"
"Wait now…! Of course you can come here… Oni… I'm not in my brightest right now, sorry, where are you?"
"…Down in the gutter… No, well just about under your window... Wanna come n' let me in?"
"No, but hold on a sec… I put something on and look for my keys…"
"Well hurry up already, I'm freezing down here…!"
Slight peep-sound and he rose from the bed, all voices gone. The cat looked up from the bed sheets and as it noticed that he was gone it jumped after him. As she reached to the hallway that leads to the stairway, the front door slammed shut. What was that on about the cat wondered and stepped over the rummage in the hall? It jumped against the door and smelled the air trough a letterbox. Different sort of loud voices echoed in there. Cheese-cakes was talking.
"My gods here's cold…"
"No really? You wanna go outside and see if there's cold too, eh?" Was that the voice she never wound from the bed, the cat thought.
"So what happened? Did Rin kick you out…?"
"How did you guess?"
"Really?"
"…Yeah, really. Sad, isn't it? Teenage girl kicked me out of my own house…"
The cat went away from the door as the voices came nearer.
"Well actually she wasn't alone… Old colleagues can be difficult to handle…"
She went hiding as the door opened. It was Cheese-cakes and some other human.
"Sorry about I wake you up…"
"No need, no need… I was actually already awake, she has been begging for me to play with her the whole day… Don't know where she got the idea that would be some frigging play mate, it's driving me insane…"
"Uh-huh… I didn't mean to interrupt…"
"What? No, no, I meant the Thing… the little devilish creature that is in here somewhere… God, how that must have sounded…"
"Can I assume now that by devilish creature you didn't mean 'her'?"
"Ayame gave me a cat… You want tea, coffee, food in general? Maybe you should take a warm shower…?"
Were they talking about her, she wondered under her hide out?
"I don't want to keep you up, just show me a place to lay my head…"
"It's okay, I don't have work tomorrow and despite of it, I doubt I would get a wink of sleep anymore… with the cat and all… How's tea?"
The cat came under the shoe rack when the two men changed the hallway to a kitchen babbling of something. She was curious about this new voice, but kept her distance still. Evidently they were talking about her so she just as well might listen.
"Do you call it other than devilish creature or is it just its name?"
"Haven't decided yet… It's only been here since Monday… I don't even like cat's… or maybe I do, we just aren't good together… How's some bread?"
Did Cheese-cakes seem a little weird tonight?
"Three days? Don't let it die with out a name…"
"Hmm maybe I'll name it and then bury it… oh there it is…"
She looked the two sitting next to a table drinking something, while she was peaking from the hallway, her eyes glowing in the semi-dark flat. Suddenly they had noticed her. Maybe she should be a brave kitten and go get petted by this new comer, who was talking to her.
"Well aren't you gorgeous little black thing, wanna come here…?"
Something in him told the cat that she was going to like this new person and she slowly stepped into the kitchen. How lovely it was when someone really knew how to scratch behind your ear, just the spot you never really got to yourself. Could it get anymore perfect, the cat thought as he picked her from the floor and held her over his chest? She purred and pushed her head against him while he petted her.
"Someone sure likes you…"
"…Where did she get it?"
"Lost and found from the police station… Told me I needed to learn to take care of… something… if I ever become a dad…"
This man wasn't paying as much attention to her as he pretended to be, she thought and hopped down from his lap.
"…Dad? You're seeing someone…?"
"No… Just a little misunderstanding… I'm not seeing anyone who I could knock up. So how's your life, mine's empty and boring… How's Rin?"
"Little better, she talks more… But that's about it. …There's days that, I don't know can I leave her home alone… She doesn't sleep much in the night, just walks around the apartment… Every morning I'm afraid she's disappeared and gone… I actually thought I could help her after what happened to her family, but I dunno anymore, maybe she'd be better off with someone else…?"
"Is that why you colleague came to visit?"
"Guess so… Kagura can be as heartless at times but usually she gets results what ever she's doing…"
She looked up at the kitchen table where a couple of boxes were left partly open. Something was warm up there and the two were so busy talking that they wouldn't probably notice her getting on the table. She started cautious and rose up against the shelves. One hop, two hops and on the table, uh, what was so nicely warm and all in the same time so disgustingly moist?
"Hey…!"
Cheese-cakes was coming to rescue, but then just stood there and told her to get off the table. Being on the table was overrated and she did as she was told. He calmed down and went back to his seat.
"What day is it…? Friday?"
Human was talking again and ignored her in his feet.
"Yeah, you got anything planned?"
"Not that I would remember… She's got work right? Which time she leaves?"
"About half seven or eight, it depends if she remembered to but her alarm on… You can stay as long as you like, I doubt I'll be up before the noon, so, no hurry, if you wanna make my breakfast?"
"I guess I'll have to, if I'm planning to eat anything myself… that doesn't kill me…"
"Good…"
What the hell was that, the cat thought. First she was the centre of attention and then completely forgotten. There was something strange going on between those two. Both seemed to be crippled in some way that didn't show from outside. The cat hopped on armchair and laid there in one round ball. She closed her eyes but time to time open the other one to see if the chatting continued in the usual place. Little nap would be nice before the sun would start to rise up.
Where had she gotten her self into, she thought, dreaming off.
After a while the cat shook her self awake. She still had a lot to learn about sleeping like a cat, all ways ready to be ready. The flat had gone all quiet again and she recognised a little lump on the sofa. In cat's eyes he looked just like an electrically heated mattress.
She made her way across the floor and climbed over him, who was sleeping on his back. Was there anything better than a warm skin coming up and down slowly to lull her into sleep? Not likely to be anything quite like that. Hope he sleeps long or is he here to stay, could I sleep every night like this, she thought happily. Maybe he's the new pet after me. Well, he's not getting my place in the newly washed clothes basket.
Someone made a noise somewhere; she only stirred her ear a bit until a hand petted her back. She woke up flinching. Cheese-cakes had come to pet her finally, maybe he was jealous for the attention she was giving to others. The cat looked away still having the creeps for the fact that she hadn't noticed him there.
"Oni… are you awake…?"
The cat wasn't sure about his motives anymore. Was he trying to be nice to her or was he just after her new bed? If the all lazy Cheese-cakes would find out how nice he really was, he would take him all to himself and that wasn't an option she was willing to consider. The cat made sharp and unfriendly voice showing her teeth. Stop harassing me, I'm busy and I don't need you anyway!
Quickly he took his arm away from the angry cat that then settled back to sleep. She opened her other eye and thought that someone should know when he had lost the battle and not just stand there waiting. You had your change. Cheese-cakes was doing something with a blanket. She rose her head up from Oni's chest cagey to protect her rights.
He put the blanked over him and the cat so that the line of it was over the cat's neck. The devilish creature felt herself guilty for sighing at him and saw him walk to his room. The lights in there went out once again. The sudden burst of angry nails and teeth had wakened up her nervous system completely. She found the steady rhythm of breath dull and as nice as there were between two warm things, she crawled away from under the blanket and went after Cheese-cakes. Before that she noticed how her mattress turned to his side and gave a look to her. She waved her tail to say good night.
There were new dents in the carpet, but none of them smelled new so she continued to his room. The door was open but too narrow to pass if you didn't push your paws first, then the nose and head and finally got to the room. Doors were still too heavy for her size.
"Oni…? Oh, it's you…"
She jumped straight to the bed and smelled his face, didn't lick because she knew he tasted of his aftershave. Surprisingly Cheese-cakes made her a room over the bed looking at her like either of them weren't really there. He still had a lot to learn about living with a cat, she thought, but settled to stretch and roll up into a ball over the edge.
Before she drifted into her sleep she could hear him relax and start to breath normally behind her back. Maybe he would be okay with it if she'd be too and she didn't show any sign of discomfort.