wow! Grazie to you all for alerting and commenting and what not! that really made my day!
Well, here's a cute little update ^_^ still kind of slow, but important ^_^
NekoRoma
Chapter Two: Purring is Embarrassing!
A year and a half passed and Lovino remained cold and distant to his human. Though … he couldn't help but notice something off about the usually happy human.
Antonio was curled up on the couch, leaking from the eyes, sniffling. Instead of 'hey, Lovi~!' or anything equally annoying, Lovino was ignored. The cat sat on the floor and stared as Antonio began sobbing harder, mumbling about Roderich.
Lovino had the displeasure of meeting the man and had no idea how the two even got along. He knew his human was always smiling and happy and free, but the man he met, Roderich, was stuffy and mean and Lovino just didn't like him.
"God, I'm so stupid, Lovi!" Lovino couldn't argue, "He dumped me again!"
Lovino wasn't sure what the word dumped meant, but if Roderich had done it and it made Antonio cry like this, it couldn't be good. Lovino growled lightly. This crying thing was really annoying. He had to make the man stop.
He looked around and spotted the toy mouse that Antonio liked to throw across the room for Lovino to chase and pounce. He grabbed it with his teeth and felt a jolt of strange happiness fill him. He stupid thing had what Antonio called, catnip, in it. It was just one of the toys that did. Lovino often found himself rolling on his scratching board that was apparently laced with the stuff. He was always embarrassed that Antonio had the nerve to buy him things with the addictive catnip in it!
But he shook his little head and jumped onto the couch and dropped the mouse toy by Antonio's hand. The human looked at his cat oddly, but a small smile crossed his lips, "Not today, Lovi …"
Lovino wanted to hiss and growl because his kindness, which he must note was very, very rare, went ignored. Stupid human. He thought again. What could he do to make the man stop making that god awful noise?
His skin crawled at the mere thought, but Antonio had often tried to pet him, of scratch his ears. The cat closed his eyes and felt his dignity sink away. Lovino slowly moved forward and rubbed his side against Antonio's arm. He even went a step further a forced a low rumbling deep within him to come out. He'd only purred once before in his life, when he received a bath from his mother, but after she left him, he never felt the need.
Antonio looked down at him, shocked. A warm smile replaced the sad frown and Antonio ran his fingers gently down Lovino's back. The cat's body instantly reacted and arched to meet the touches and Lovino felt an actual purr escape him.
If he had been human, his cheeks would have been aflame with embarrassment, but his human was done being loud and annoying, so maybe this had helped.
"Such a good kitty …" Antonio muttered softly, letting his hand slide down Lovino's back again. Lovino curled up on the couch, beside Antonio's leg and continued his embarrassing purring noise.
He fell into a light sleep, being awoken sometime later to Antonio getting up to go to bed. Lovino glared, and walked to his own little bed, complete with a new blanket for him to curl up on or under.
The cat curled up under the blanket and went to sleep.
Awoken early the next morning by Antonio happily making himself breakfast, Lovino angrily sat up on his bed and looked up, "Morning, Lovi~!"
He seemed cheerful. Lovino stretched his paws out and dug them into the pillow and yawned. He walked over to his dish and tilted his head. Instead of water, Antonio had given him warm milk. Something was definitely off about the man. He lapped up the milk happily and ate a few kibbles of his food, before leaping up to the counter and watched as Antonio ate the omlette with tomato.
One of the small red bits fell off the human's fork and Lovino sniffed it and let his tongue out to taste it. It was different … he took it into his mouth and was aware of Antonio watching him chew the little bite of tomato. It was really good and the cat licked his lips, hoping another piece would fall.
Antonio laughed lightly, "I think you're the only cat I know that likes tomatoes~!" he pulled a few more pieces of the red fruit and set them on the counter. Lovino sniffed them and ate them up quickly.
When the breakfast was finished, Antonio slipped on his shoes and grabbed his keys, "Alright Lovi, I'm off to work."
Lovino just watched him leave. What had the man in such a good mood? It was actually nice to see him smiling again, but did his rubbing on his arm mean that much to the man? Lovino shook his head and hopped off the counter to the floor.
The cat made his way towards the bathroom for his litter box, but was shocked to see the door was closed. He sniffed at it and looked up. Lovino placed a paw against the door, yet it still refused to open for him. He growled lightly and stood up on his hind legs and began pawing and scratching, hoping it would just open.
Unfortunately, the door remained shut. That bastard never closed this door, not even to clean himself in the hell hole thing he called a sink. While Lovino found it comfortable to sleep in on occasion, Antonio's friend Gilbert loved to turn the knob when Lovino did sleep there. Lovino began to panic and his bladder began to scream. He had to get in there. His eyes darted around the wooden door. The handle was sticking out, like it always did, however, this one was different from the only one he'd ever paid attention to: the front door.
That one was circular and he could never wrap his paws around it. This one … oh this one looked perfect for grabbing. He jumped up and latched onto the handle with his paws and hissed in pain when he fell and the handle whacked him in the jaw. However, the door gently glided open and he was able to walk right in.
When he finished, Lovino wondered what else he could open with his new found ability. He walked to the coat closet and opened it up, happy about not hitting his face this time. He then walked to the one part of the house he'd never been: Antonio's bedroom. Not that he had ever been truly curious, but he never followed Antonio in there, nor did Antonio ever leave the door open for longer than a few seconds.
The door opened with ease and Lovino held his head up triumphantly as he entered Antonio's room. It smelled just like the human did and seemed brightly decorated. A huge odd curtain hung across the ceiling above the bed. It was red and yellow with a weird symbol on one end. The cat ignored it since he couldn't reach it and hopped onto the bed. It was a little messy, but forgivable.
Pictures lined the nightstand. Some were of people Lovino had never seen before, like the girl who looked like Antonio but with long hair and brown eyes. Others were of those two guys that Antonio occasionally brought over or went out with, Gilbert and Francis. Lovino hid under the couch when they came over. Another picture caught his attention and he glared at it. Antonio and that priss were holding each other smiling at the camera.
The cat growled, wondering why the human still kept this around and he 'accidentally' knocked it off the nightstand, sending it to the floor. He hated that there was carpet on the floor, because the soft fluffy plush caught the picture without it breaking.
Lovino finished exploring and found a black rectangle that controlled the TV. He pressed his paw into the largest circle, like Antonio did and the TV on the wall turned on. Some woman appeared and began talking about incoming rain storms from further up north and how winter was possibly going to be a wet one.
He ignored her words and curled up on Antonio's pillow to fall asleep.
When he awoke, it was to Antonio walking in the room, "Lovi? How did you …?" he looked around the room and found everything was still in one piece … minus the photo lying on the floor. The TV was on some talk show and Lovino lazily looked up at it. He hit the channel button and flipped it to animal planet just in time for a commercial on feline benefits.
Antonio just stared, "Wow … my cat is smart, huh?" he plopped onto the bed, kicking off his shoes, "Since when could you open doors and watch TV?" he reached out and scratched Lovino's ears, which the cat allowed since it wasn't an awful feeling … though … the purring was a bit embarrassing.
Lovino meowed in response, knowing the human couldn't understand him. Antonio just laughed and sat up against his head board to watch TV. Despite his tries to stay happy and optimistic through another breakup, he couldn't help the tears that fell.
The cat watched the TV for a few and gingerly turned his head to see Antonio staring down at the once fallen picture, tears streaming his face. Lovino growled lightly and crawled onto Antonio's chest, glaring at the man. He cut his vision off from the picture and nudged his hand.
His human smiled softly and rubbed the cat's side. Lovino started purring and kneading his paws into Antonio's shirt. Antonio cringed at the claws, but it was worth it when the cat curled up on his chest and began to doze off. The man set the picture aside and scratched his kitty's back, causing Lovino to purr like crazy.
"I knew all you needed was attention, Lovi~! So cute~!" he whispered.
Antonio left for work again the next morning and Lovino was once again left to run around on his own. After a mid morning nap, a light bit of scratching on the post and some TV with Lovino's new found ability to turn on the TV and change the channels, the cat took another nap.
His human finally came home, but with a surprise. In his hands, he held a cat carrier. Lovino's hackles raised and he began growling. How dare he bring home another cat!
"Lovi~! I have a surprise for you!" he set the carrier down, "Ludwig has to go out of town and needed someone to watch his cat~"
Ludwig? Lovino had heard that name somewhere before. If it was temporary, it had to be okay, right? The scent coming from the carrier was familiar. Really familiar! It smelled like that potato loving jerk! That Ludwig?
He growled again, but stopped, knowing only one cat that the man owned. His eyes widened gently from his spot on the counter as he looked down to the now open cage and Feliciano stumbled out.
"It's your brother~!"
'Feliciano!' Lovino meowed, dropping to the floor to rub against his brother.
'Ve-meow~! Lovino!' the other cat nuzzled back and began purring loudly, 'Is this your home?'
Lovino licked Feliciano's ears, cleaning them of that horrid scent that was driving him mad, 'Yeah, the tomato bastard took me in.'
'Ve-meow~' Feli-cat laid down. Lovino plopped next to him and continued his assault on trying to clean his brother.
Antonio set down and small bag and pulled out Feliciano's food and water bowls and filled them and even tossed around a few toys. Feliciano spotted his favorite stuffed toy, oddly shaped like a pizza and attacked it, purring happily.
"Such a cute kitty~!" Antonio reached over and petted Feliciano, whom stopped playing to purr and rub all over Antonio's knee and leg.
Lovino felt his blood boiling. The cat stuck his head in the air and turned to go to his little bed. If Antonio wanted Feliciano instead, so be it!
A week with his little brother, Feliciano ... how is this going to turn out~?
I hope you enjoyed the chapter ... sorry it's so short o.o I usually write twice as much in a lot of my stories, but I think this is better as a short fluffy piece~ oh well, 'til next time mes amis~!
~Lady Pyrien