~Chapter Five~
Fireplace
"Asparagus?" she breathed, the sight of the distraught tom almost too much to bear. His makeshift bandages were loose and frayed, exposing his wounds to the bitter cold. His fur was tangled and his eyes were desperate.
He nodded his shivering head, and coughed a hollow cough. Jellylorum gracefully slipped herself all the way through the cat door, and wrapped her paws gently around him.
"Oh, goodness. Just look at you! Here, get inside!" she cooed sympathetically, and shifted some of his weight for her to carry.
"W-w-w-won't your human g-g-get upset-t-t?" he asked in a weak tone, slightly wincing from the pain.
"Not if she doesn't see you, and she just went to bed. Come on, now, we need to get you warm." She gingerly pulled him through the cat door, and then over to her blanket by the fireplace. Asparagus' eyes fluttered in elation as he felt the heat fall onto his fur and melt the imaginary ice.
"What were you doing out there? I thought you had a place to stay," she asked as she wrapped a corner on the blanket over him.
"I-I was lying," he whispered, pointing his misty eyes intently at the fire. "I really don't have anywhere to stay. And...and I felt really stupid about it, and I thought if I could stay with you, it wouldn't be so bad. But once you reminded me that you're a house cat, I didn't want to impose on you any more than I already was, and I just felt awkward about the whole thing. I was only lying out of pride." He ended with a flat sniff.
"Well...why didn't you just try and stay with someone else?"
"I didn't want to stay with anybody else," he answered simply, in a small voice. Jellylorum could feel her ceeks flare, and she knew it wasn't from the fire.
"Not even your father?"
"You don't know what Pop's like around the holidays. He spends all his time gorging himself on gin-spiked eggnog with his theater friends. He's happy, but he's just...not himself."
"Don't tell me he's hanging around that old pub again," Jellylorum whined slightly.
"I'm afraid so." Asparagus sighed, and then stared into the fire again.
"Are you feeling any better?"
"A lot, actually."