HAT: Next chapter! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! Let's go, let's go, let's go!
Disclaimer: I don't own CATS T-T... But I do own the Ocs and plot (=^-^=) *content*
Blue-gray eyes snap open and a black and gray body shoots up with sweat soaking the fur and chest rising and falling in a pant. Lyon falls back and covers his eyes only to see his nightmare. He opens his eyes and every time be blinks he sees what's been haunting him the past few days. He tries to keep his eyes open so he won't see it, but his mind automatically goes to the horrible image of Tyger getting beaten and lying on the ground so still. Tears blur his vision and spills over to the corner of his eyes, their slow journey to his head fur what he tries to focus on instead of the pain.
Tyger... I miss you... are you in the Heaviside looking down at me? Lyon wonders, a small sob breaking through him despite his trying to hold him back. His right paw lifts and presses against his chest in attempt to ease the pain, but the pain of the heart can't be treated physically. Why?! Why my brother?!
The tears and sobs don't cease and he rolls over to his side and it eases the physical pain of crying while lying on his back slightly, and continues quietly. He doesn't want to disturb the queen that saved him so he tries to keep quiet and when he feels a loud sob wanting to come out he buries his face in the pillow. This continues until he falls asleep, a long, painful process...
"Are you hungry?" Sashimi asks the kit quietly, pushing a mouse closer to him. He simply shakes his head and pushes the mouse away from himself to emphasize this point. "Come on, kit, you gotta eat."
Grief is all that he's been eating for the past few days. He had to be force fed the day before, but he threw it back up later so he doesn't count it as eating. He's wasting away slowly, but surely. This queen doesn't understand. Tyger was everything to him. He was his mom, his dad, and his brother all in one, he was the only one that Tyger ever knew. He doesn't know what he did or what is brother may have done, but he knows that Tyger did everything he could to protect his little brother.
"He wouldn't want you to starve," she whispers gently, taking his small paw in hers and squeezing lightly. "Come on, eat something for him."
Lyon's lifeless blue-gray eyes lift to the food and he realizes that this queen has a point. With his mind in a haze it's difficult to get his arm to listen. After about a minute of thinking directly to his arm it lifts and slowly stretches out. His arm feels heavy and he doesn't know if he could have strength to lift the food to his mouth and work his jaws to even eat, but he has to try. His paw rests on the food while his forearm rests on the table. He knows that the queen watching him is worried, but knows that this is something he has to do on his own. This simple act is a battle between him and grief, something difficult to comprehend. It could be mistaken for laziness, but he's too deep in grief for it to possibly be that. He barely had the energy to get out of bed this morning.
Tyger, he thinks. Usually this ends up making him crippled with grief, thinking of the name of his brother, but this time it gives him strength and he brings the dead mouse to his lips and sinks his teeth into it. After slowly working his jaws he swallows and when it settles into his stomach his stomach demands more while the grief fills most of it. Despite how tired his jaw muscles are he takes another bite and another until there's nothing left of the mouse besides the fur, bones, and innards.
His stomach is full in no time.
Lyon barely registers anything, but is startled when Sashimi's face is close to his and he blushes. "W-what're you doing?" he asks nervously with a husky voice from lack of use.
"Washing your face," she answers. "You have blood all over your muzzle."
He allows her to lick his face clean and he leans against her, exhausted. As he drifts off he hears her humming a tune that soothes him. He can only hope that it keeps the nightmares away.
HAT: THere's that chapter. Short, yes, but it was jam-packed full of emotions!
Sashimi: I'll say. Poor kitten... Are you going to still gonna make Lyon (SPOILER, SPOILER, SPOILER)?
HAT: Well, not now!
Sashimi: Well, I'm sorry.
HAT: Now I have to rewrite the whole story! *storms out*
Sashimi: Review. *follows HAT out*