Oops, missed the first Sunday of regular updates. This might happen again, but I'll do my best. Better late than never!

Luka's curiosity about this supposed crush wasn't immediately satisfied: Miku preferred to speak about the events in chronological order, soon going into a full-blown rant about her boss, but then also his own boss in turn: none other than Mr. Shion, the Principal of Panthera Technologies.

"I just don't know what the guy expects me to do!" Miku hissed. "I get that I'm the most qualified on the team, I get that none of the others understand how it all works as well as I do! I get that I'm the most experienced, but man, at one point you have to call in a real electrician!"

"Right," Rin said, and Luka could almost hear her nodding sagely.

"Power goes out once? Fine, maybe something broke. Twice? Ok, maybe I missed something the first time around. But the third time in a week? I mean, hello, these are labs! Something is up!"

"How many times did it go out?"

"Between this week and last week?" Miku sniffled. "Sheesh, six, seven times. Odd hours of the day. I tried finding correlations to events, machines, individual building use, but there's no point. And at some point I just can't be held responsible for that whole thing! That electrical grid is sophisticated and something got messed up! And I just don't know what it is! And it's not my only job, either!"

"Did you tell him all of these things?"

"I mean, more politely, yeah..."

Luka patiently waited, her head sticking out of her hiding spot. She had never seen this part of the Principal; he had always been patient and understanding with her, if somewhat demanding. Then again, she had never seen him speak to the janitors, either.

"He just doesn't want to call in the big guys. That means letting people in and so on and so forth," Miku went on. "Finding answers to questions I already know the answers to, pulling up the maps I already memorized..."

"But you can't figure it out."

"No," Miku lamented. "I can't. And I don't even feel like it's my problem anymore. Someone plugged in an x-ray machine in a kitchen somewhere or something. Or someone has a multiplug with fifteen other multiplugs plugged into the first one. I just don't know."

"Maybe he feels like calling in the big guys would just be a waste of time and money."

"That's exactly what he feels. But the more this happens, the more he threatens to fire me."

"But who would fix it then?"

There was a stretch of silence. "I'm pretty sure that is the only reason I still have my job."

Rin sighed. "Jeez."

After a pause in the conversation, interspersed with some loud nose-blowing and sniffling, the friend spoke again.

"You know, whatever happens, we'll all have your back, right?"

"Right..."

"And if you need help with anything, we're all here. Rent, groceries."

"I'm fine," the technician sighed. "I just... I thought I had finally made it. The dream job. I can fix things all day long and I don't even have to drive to people's houses. The pay is amazing. The benefits, even more so. And for crying out loud, it's a medical lab! How cool is that?! If I get fired..."

"Right. It would suck."

"It really would... Man, I would've had to work there for fifteen more years and I would've been able to retire, you know?"

"Dang." After another moment, Rin said, "But you're not fired yet. And early retirement or not, you're never alone. You have all of us. I'll be there, too. We'll figure it out."

Luka's ear twitched at the tender tone Rin used. She'd thought that the newcomer was a friend, but the sweetness and warmth in her voice...? Luka had heard it her fair share of times.

She adjusted her position, felt her ear twitch as it got close to the entrance of the hiding spot. The more intently she listened, the less she could focus on the fact that she was a cat.

She hated how getting out of her skull was becoming her main motivator to do anything.

"Thanks..."

"And after that, there was the other thing."

"Don't get me started," Miku almost bawled. "I hadn't left the Principal's office for an hour before I got accosted by a cop. Said they looked at the times everyone had left the offices at, and I was one of the last to leave a couple nights ago. Asked if I'd seen Dr. Megurine."

Rin waited for a moment. "Had you?"

"I had, yeah. I..." Miku sighed. "When I admitted that, they told me that I was likely the second to last person to see her before she went missing. Right... Right before she went to the garage."

"Gosh, Miku..."

"It didn't strike me as odd that I hadn't seen her yesterday, you know? I'm not always in her building. So when they said that she was missing, and had already been, by then, for a full day..."

"Do you know who noticed?"

There was a short pause. "Apparently the higher-ups called her home when she didn't show up this morning. No answer. Emergency contact was her parents, they hadn't heard a thing either. One welfare check later, the cops were on the premises. It hadn't been an hour before they had all the information and all the witnesses were lined up."

"Well, at least they're taking it seriously."

"But they're also a day late..."

"Miku..."

"What?"

"Please don't tell me you're blaming yourself." After another break, the friend insisted, "There's nothing you could have done."

"I don't know..." the technician mumbled. "I guess there was a split second where I'd wanted to walk her to her car. But I couldn't, you know. The power..."

Luka wanted to hum to herself; if Miku had, then odds were that her evening would have gone very differently. Gakupo likely wouldn't have had the chance to approach her. And, if Miku had been so forward...

Luka mulled the thought over. Until just moments earlier, she had no idea Miku was interested in women, much less interested in her. Would she have figured it out then? Would her evening plans have been a blinding force, or would she have seen through her intentions? Miku wasn't an unattractive woman by any means.

Ah, but messing around with coworkers, that was dangerous.

"You aren't responsible for her."

"I know, I know," the technician went on. "But still. She's missing, and I hate to think that something... Something awful must have happened to her moments after I turned my back. That I was so close..."

"It's reassuring, though, that everybody is taking it so seriously. The police are on the scene, the interviews are being held, your boss even handed over all the information they needed to know who was where and when. It'll be a matter of time."

"Maybe. I hope so."

"You know if they're doing any big searches? You could volunteer if they're doing that."

"Oh. How would I figure that out?"

"They usually have that kind of information somewhere. Come on, let's look."

Luka tuned out when the duo pulled out a laptop, returning to the safety and darkness of her hide. There was a lot to think about.

First, Rin's presence meant that her potential brushing session would be postponed. Luka hoped that she had taken care of her fur enough to bar that completely, but until the sun would set, that worry would remain constant. Scratch that; for as long as she would have fur, Luka would always have to be aware that Miku could decide to brush her at any moment. She would have to keep on top of her appearance like never before.

Second, people knew she was missing. That was excellent. What was awful was that she was right there and could not, for the life of her, think of a way that would communicate to the women right there with her that she was, in fact, the missing researcher. Speaking was the most effective and rapid way of communicating, so until she'd have that skill mastered, she would have to stay patient. Still, the urge to head out there, to wave her arms around, to point and gesticulate with her awful limbs and terrible eyesight, it was difficult to suppress. The idea of running away and going home was also very much at the front of her mind; if she were to call her parents from home now, everybody would know something was up. But Luka didn't dare head outside once again. Not again. She'd die.

Because third, she was safe. Sure, Miku doted on her as a human, but she didn't know her cat was that same human. The more important fact was that she did seem to at least care about her well-being, and that was more than what Luka would ask for from a random family. At least she didn't have any kids. Or an annoying girlfriend.

But Rin, she clearly liked Miku. She could hear it in the way she comforted her; that was a crush if Luka had ever seen one. Well, perhaps there were worse potential suitors out there. She seemed aware of what it meant to have a cat in the house, and she hadn't gone out of her way to bother her yet. If the two were to become a thing while Luka was trapped in the household, then there could be worse outcomes.

As for what would happen when Luka became human again? Well, she would make sure that Miku gets her job back if she were to lose it: she was legitimately distraught. The crush, however, was another question.

Maybe Miku would be open to a brief fling. Luka certainly wasn't opposed to the idea, as long as things wouldn't get too complicated. The feline hated the possibility of things going sour: calling to get her lab equipment fixed would be beyond awkward.

"So, where is the new roommate?"

The question startled Luka out of her thoughts.

"She's hiding."

"Still getting used to the new place?"

"I guess. She walked around while I was gone, so she's not petrified for hours, but Lily said she was really, really skittish."

Luka didn't dare approach the opening of the hiding spot, lest Rin decide to disprove all of her assumptions and try to grab her out of the blue.

"She's eating at least?"

"Yeah. Drinking too, I think."

"That's good. Has she used the litter box?"

Luka wanted to growl. How humiliating.

"I don't know. I haven't checked."

"It's good to keep an eye on that stuff. Her habits and all. And since she was picked up from the street, who knows what she's carrying."

"Yeah. I have a vet appointment for this week-end, so I hope that they'll be able to do a blood draw and all that. See if she's microchipped."

The friend gasped. "You didn't even check for a chip yet?"

"I wasn't able to. If she has an owner I'll give her back, don't worry."

Luka heard her tutting under her breath. "Might as well do that quickly. So you can say goodbye before you get too attached to each other."

Miku laughed. "That might take a while. I must have seen her for all of a few seconds at most."

"She's quick, huh?"

"Not even; I've seen old cats move faster, but she's really shy. Once she knows I'm around, she hides right away. Which isn't super fast, but she's motivated."

Luka silently grumbled. So her ineptitude at being a cat was obvious.

"And do you have a name for her?"

"I don't."

"What kind of cat is she?"

"I don't know. No special breed I think, with long hair. She's got a really pretty reddish brown color though, with darker patches."

"Hm. Her eyes?"

"Lily said they're blue, but I didn't get much of a chance to see for myself."

"Think we can take a look at her?"

"I think I'd rather not harass her: that's her safe space, up there. While she's there I decided I won't touch her. She'll come out when she wants."

Luka heard the other woman tut again. "You're too sweet. It is your pet, you know?"

"Yeah, but she still has her own brain and can make her own decisions. I won't let her jump out the window but I won't, you know, force her to spend time with me."

"Fine. Ok, name ideas?"

"Not sure. After this morning, I honestly kind of forgot to think about that."

"You must have had some ideas while you were planning to get a cat."

"Not really. Each one is different, so you can't just give any random cat any name."

"Man, Miku. You're the weirdest pet owner I've ever heard of."

The technician didn't reply to that right away, and the sound of their voices had changed slightly. Luka inched towards the opening, finding both women hanging out in the kitchen area, immediately outside of her cat tree, below her. Some parts of them were in the sweet spot of her sharp vision, too.

From what she could see, Rin was just a little shorter than Miku, with short, pale hair. Nothing blue, like Miku's hair, which was the brightest thing in the whole room right then. Perhaps she was blonde, or some other warm, bright tone.

"There she is," Miku said.

Unlike the technician, who hadn't moved, Rin practically jumped and spun around to look at the cat; Luka almost retreated, but let the woman look at her.

That movement looked weird, too.

"Oh, she is pretty," the assumed blonde said.

"Do you have any ideas?"

Luka watched them talk, squinting. When they moved...

"Nothing really," Rin said. "You can name a cat anything, and it would work. She could just as well be The Queen of Southernshire, Pansy, or Flip Flop."

"You're not calling me Flip Flop," Luka wanted to hiss.

"I'm not calling her Flip Flop."

Rin nodded, and although her head wasn't sharp, the movement looked crystal clear to Luka's eyes. "Thank goodness."

"Just a normal name. Something short that she could recognize."

"Do cats recognize their names?"

Luka perceived a shrug more clearly than she saw Miku's face. "Apparently they do, they just don't care as much."

"I'd doubt it."

"Still. Nothing confusing either, so no names we know otherwise."

Rin slowly turned back towards the technician. As she did so, Luka could see she was wearing a small coat, and a bow in her hair. What was going on?

"Were you going to call her Luka?"

"I wasn't!"

"You totally were."

"I... Maybe the thought crossed my mind. But now she's missing and it feels really weird to call her that. Replace a missing woman with...a cat."

"As if naming your cat after your crush isn't weird enough. What if she'd ever come over?"

Miku scoffed. "Like she ever would. Especially now that she's missing!"

"Fine, fine, fair. Something short and simple. Doll."

"Hm. Marcy."

"What is she, a 50 year old woman?"

"Marcy is lovely."

"How about Lucy!"

Miku sighed, turning towards the kitchen. She moved about, and Luka could see her move her arms, placing things on the countertop. There was a clink of glassware. "I'm not going anywhere near 'Luka'."

"Fine, fine. Zelda. Peach. You're a nerd. Oh! Name her after your DnD character!"

"I'm not calling her Fitzgeraldine!" Miku groaned. "That'll be so confusing. And that's hardly short at all."

"Ok, fine!"

"What about Evie?"

"Evie?"

"Yeah."

Luka let her head rest on the edge of the platform. Evie wasn't the worst name out there. She stared on, wondering what was happening to her eyes. Was her vision improving? Or...

"I guess that's a cute name. Kind of random, but it's cute."

"I think it's cute. And she looks cute."

Rin turned to face her again, and Luka saw pale blue eyes, a flicker of a smile. "She's really pretty, yeah."

Luka wanted to hiss at the flattery. A pretty cat was still a cat, and she didn't want to be either.

"Evie is nice," Miku finally decided. "I think I'll go for that."

"Sure. You have any treats?"

"For you? Or the cat?"

"For Evie. Best to reward her for sticking around."

Miku paused, before kneeling by a cupboard and retrieving a bag.

"Shake it, so she knows what it sounds like."

She did, and Luka wanted to ignore the sound out of pure spite, but if treats were even tastier, then she supposed that it just might be a highlight of her existence as a cat.

Miku opened the bag, and Luka watched. The technician had to retrieve scissors, but the more she moved, Luka realized, the sharper the image got.

It dawned on her: cats were predators that used movement to find their prey.

She wondered why it had taken so long for her to find out this feature. There were the first few days, right after her transformation, where she was in the dark and simply walking, and then she was exhausted. And as she walked, the whole world moved around her, almost in a uniform fashion. Now rested, and almost used to her monochromatic vision, this was the first time things were moving in front of her.

It was startling how she could zero in on the slightest twitch: the scissors rattling on the countertop, the shake of Rin's shoulders as she laughed.

This would help her avoid many unpleasant things. Even if she had no color and no sharpness, at least she could detect movement.

She was forced out of her thoughts when Miku slowly approached, holding out a tiny little piece of kibble. The treat.

At first, Luka wanted to hide, but she knew that there was no intention of otherwise bothering her. And Miku had had a pretty bad day so far, so perhaps she could do with some kindness.

Plus, it actually smelled kind of good.

So close, and with the tealette holding so still, she couldn't see her well at all, so Luka trusted her whiskers to tell her where the hand was, and she slowly, carefully closed her mouth around the treat, wedged between two fingertips.

"She's so ginger," Rin whispered. "Wow. How old is she?"

"I'm not sure," Miku whispered in return, backing away. "But it's reassuring that she's nice."

Luka grumbled to herself, retreating back into the hide as she munched on the dry treat.

It was so tasty it was crazy, and she hated every second of it.

The brushing had indeed been postponed. Rin stayed for a bit, cooking for her friend, before leaving Miku for the rest of the evening. Miku didn't otherwise bother Luka, only placing a treat at the door of the hide once Rin had left.

A reward for being patient, Luka supposed.

Then, as the sunlight in the room gradually disappeared, Miku did her own thing. Luka heard her mess with a few things: there was the litter box that she changed, despite the cat not getting close to it all day, but Luka couldn't identify the other sounds she made. There was the clatter of tools, some low humming. At one point, the technician scoffed, before getting up and briefly leaving the room. Shortly after, a high-pitched tone emerged from the bedroom, but Miku didn't seem to care, returning to her task, whatever it was, without the humming.

Within seconds, the high note drove Luka borderline insane. After what felt like hours of it persistently screaming from the bedroom, she hissed in her hide, pawing at her oversized ears.

"What's up, Evie?"

Luka didn't reply, burrowing her head in the plush material.

When Miku later made more noise, putting things away, then left the room, Luka almost fell out of her cat tree to get to the litter box. She hadn't used it all day and boy was she feeling it. More importantly, though, she desperately hoped that the whine from the bedroom wouldn't follow her all the way to the other end of the room.

It did. More quietly, but it did.

"When she goes to work tomorrow, I'm breaking whatever that is," Luka hissed to herself when she emerged from the litterbox. It was bad enough being a cat, it was worse that she had to relieve herself in a bunch of sand, but if she would have to be subjected to a noise that Miku didn't appear to hear at all, then she would have to make her displeasure heard, consequences be damned. She couldn't even eat or drink with that thing screaming just on the other side of the door, much less return to her hiding spot at the top of the cat tree. So she hid under the couch, knowing her ears were folded flat on the top of her skull, her claws at the ready.

She hated every second of her existence. Her only solace was that she was literally not in danger of dying due to neglect.

Miku wished her a good night, making sure to use her new name, and for several hours, that whine continued to leak into the room. Luka did her best to keep busy at the far end of the living area: continuing to groom her long fur, pacing by the door, wondering if near-suicide was a better idea if it meant not having to listen to that screeching for ages. At some point, it did stop, so Luka rushed towards the water and food, eating her fill until her whiskers complained.

She was getting hungry, even though she'd eat all she could bear to, until her whiskers forced her to quit. A nightmare. A total nightmare. All she could do was fall asleep and hope that being unconscious would help with the overwhelming awfulness.

The next morning, Luka was once again awoken by the rushing of the shower, except this time, the sun had already risen.

"Right, it's the weekend," Luka remembered.

Saturday. Missing for three days so far. She did a once-over on her fur, making sure it was as splendid as possible. Maybe the tealette had no plans, and would finally execute plan Brush and Crush. Or perhaps she'll step out, allowing the feline to eat her fill in peace. Or maybe people would come over, giving her something to listen to so she wouldn't have nothing to do other than think about how she was a cat. Or maybe that would be a nightmare: most people wanted to touch the local cat.

As promised, Miku knocked on the door before stepping in, waking her out of her spiraling thoughts.

"Good morning Evie," she said to the room. "Ah, you're still up there?"

"You bet I am," the cat thought.

"You never finish your food, do you," the technician went on. "That's ok, I'll make sure you have something fresh to eat."

She was starving. Luka was sure that Miku was serving her the proper portions, but with her whiskers being assaulted, she couldn't finish it.

Anxiously, Luka listened to her opening the can.

"We have big plans for today. First vet trip for you. I hope it won't be too scary."

Luka felt her ears flatten, the hair on her back stand on end. She swallowed a hiss.

"I'd like to take a look at you first, to see if you need a brushing. But you're not going to come out of there, are you? Not while I'm here."

"Not for the rest of the day if I can help it."

Miku didn't mind the ongoing silence, switching out the bowls with a little hum.

"Breakfast first."

Luka didn't dare approach the opening of the hide, listening as Miku went about her morning routine.

She didn't want to go out. No exposure, no carrier, no trip to the vet where goodness-knew-what would happen to her.

Then again...

She inched towards the opening, seeing Miku sitting at her table, a phone in one hand and something, either a bowl or a plate, resting in front of her. Luka could see the swiping of her thumb, the little movements of her head as she bobbed it to an unheard tune.

If there was any time to eat, it would be right then. Miku was busy. While Luka could see her, she wasn't setting up any ambushes, nothing. Plus, if the technician could get a look at her, then she could decide to abandon plan Brush and Crush.

Going out was the right idea. Unless Miku would try to pet her.

It was worth the risk.

Luka did a quick once-over, first going over her fur with her paws before remembering that sadly, she used her tongue now. After cleaning out a knot and quickly brushing her face and the awful whiskers, she stuck her head out of the hide, eyes on the woman.

She hadn't been noticed yet.

Delicately, still clumsy with her strange arms and strange legs, she descended the tree. It didn't take long for Miku to notice the movement.

"Oh, there you are..."

Luka froze, but the technician didn't move either. She swallowed the urge to scream and run, then forged on, dropping to the ground.

"You don't look half bad, actually," Miku softly whispered. "Guess you were in a rough state when Lily found you, huh."

The cat relaxed, approaching her food, keeping the technician in the corner of her eye.

"I'm glad you found peace and time to clean up. That's one less thing to bother you with. If the vet says you might see a groomer, though, I'll have to follow up on that."

A groomer wouldn't do anything awful, except manhandle her. Another nightmare. She'd sooner claw out a vet's eyes than let one say that she needed another appointment being carried, manipulated, shaved.

All terrible.

Miku kept eating, though, letting Luka relax a little more. At least until her whiskers complained, and this time she had to hiss: she had barely had her fill!

"What's the matter, Evie?"

Luka flinched, then swatted at the bowl, hissing again.

Maybe she could communicate something? Or maybe...

She did her best to scoop at the cat food that was trapped against the edge, hoping to say that she wanted to eat, but couldn't. She met some success, immediately gobbling up the scraps she could get on the floor, but the consistency was gross on her furry paws.

"Huh..."

Luka hissed, this time at her.

"Don't you see that this thing isn't letting me finish!" she wanted to scream. "I'm starving and you think I'm being picky!"

Miku only returned to her phone.

"Bitch!" Luka spat, swatting at the bowl. She couldn't take this, not eating because of the bowl, because of her whiskers, because she ate out of a bowl on the floor, she had whiskers, she was a cat, a stupid little cat, a starving stupid cat—

"Whisker fatigue?"

Luka froze momentarily, running under the couch when Miku suddenly stood up. From under the couch, she saw her pick up the food bowl and return to the kitchen. Less than a minute later, Miku placed something on the floor again.

"See if that's better?"

She sat back down, and Luka wanted to believe that she'd stay there. She emerged from her hiding spot, seeing that the blue eyes were on her, but the technician didn't move otherwise.

Timid, Luka trotted back to her food bowl.

Her slimy food had been piled into a tidy heap once again, but this time on a flat plate.

She dug in hungrily. Her whiskers stayed silent and Luka ate without the mental assault. What a relief.

Miku could only chuckle apologetically. "Dang, sorry. All this research and I guess I still had to miss something. I'll get you a new water fountain, too."

Luka didn't lift her head to reply.

Her life was awful. Her situation was awful. But Miku? At least she was doing her best. It felt good knowing she cared. Just a little safer.

"Alright Evie. Vet is in two hours, so I'm just going to get up, get dressed... I don't want to spook you though."

Nevermind. She cared too much. The vet was too much.

The moment Miku stood from her chair, Luka clawed her way up the cat tree once again.

"Dang. Ah well. You were brave."

A moment later, another little treat was deposited by the door of her hiding spot.

"Good girl, Evie."

Despite how angry she was, Luka ate it. Yes, she was angry. Angry at going to the vet, at being a cat, at eating from the floor, at her whiskers and her hair.

But she couldn't be angry at Miku.