It's been a little while, but this story is still active! Another chapter will be coming soon, sometime around this weekend. I hope you enjoy!
When Luka came to for the second time that day, her first thought was that it was a miracle that she was even conscious. Her second was the terrifying realization that she wasn't alone.
She stayed totally still, painfully aware that a hand, a giant hand, was touching her. It was heavy, and as big as her body was wide.
She froze up with terror.
"There you are..."
Sitting up, flinching back, her exhaustion didn't waste a second to manifest, turning her motions sluggish and clumsy. She knocked against a wall, but it wasn't the walls of the alley. The whole space around her was small; none of it was within the range of her sharp vision. And there, with her, was a person.
Unknowing of why she knew how to, she hissed as hard as she physically could. To add insult to injury, it wasn't even a mighty hiss: she sounded weak and half-hearted.
"Oh no, baby..."
Luka backed into a corner, hissed again, but she quickly had to admit that she had run out of options. She was too tired to run, too hungry to run far. And this... This was a car. She saw the numerous tall shapes, saw the trench before her, the bright lights outside. Then the person sitting on the other seat put their hand on her head.
She froze up once again.
"You poor thing," the person whispered, withdrawing their hand. Luka couldn't tell if it was a woman or a man. "Here."
Something was held in her direction, and after a few blinks, she recognized it.
She almost lunged for the water. Except she had no idea how she was supposed to drink. Stuffing her whole face underwater and gulping it did nothing for her; she inhaled it through her nose as well, and less than a second later she was coughing her lungs out. The person was shushing her, the tone soothing, but Luka didn't know if she ought to feel terrified, embarrassed, or deeply scared that she would have to learn how to drink all over again.
Once she could breathe, the person gently pet her again, just a tap on the head, but Luka withdrew the moment she felt it.
"Here, try this," they whispered.
Luka glanced in their direction, unable to see what exactly was in front of her. It smelled... Strange. But there was the shine of water.
With more care, she approached, quickly realizing there was no bowl there, but an outstretched finger with a droplet on it. She bit down on the embarrassment of licking a finger, or perhaps despair bit down on it for her. Tentatively, she lapped at it, surprised at how well the drop stuck to her tongue. And how strange skin stuck to it as well, how it tasted... It was unlike what she was used to, but not entirely unpleasant.
"There you go. One more."
Luka waited, hankering for water now that she's had a literal drop. Another was offered in the same way, then another, and then she pushed past the hand to go for the bowl again.
"Careful now."
Luka wanted to growl: she knew that she'd been stupid, the wet fur on her face a humiliating reminder, and she knew that she was desperate, but she also knew she had to learn how to drink without anyone's help, and without the help of human cheeks and lips. When the person reached to pet her again, she hissed, staying perfectly still until they sat back in their own seat.
Once she was sure she would be left alone, Luka turned to her new study.
She was sure she'd seen cats drink before. Dip the tongue in, drink. But what kind of magic existed between these two steps? Cautious, and feeling quite dull, she let her tongue dart to the water's surface, then back. And again, wondering if she had to do it faster, then a third time, dipping a little beneath the surface. No results.
"I bet that's a relief," the person whispered, and Luka paid her no mind. She continued trying different things, thankful that her furry face didn't blush.
She felt like a child licking a wall and expecting fruit juice.
After what felt like an eternity, she found some magical configuration which sent a water column up after her tongue, which she could bite and capture. She relaxed when she could repeat it a few times, and then positively melted when she could reliably do it almost every time, sending a stream of fresh water down her throat.
She was still weak. Vaguely, she remembered that her last meal was lunch the previous day; over twenty-four hours prior. With her thirst sated, her hunger was almost painful.
"Here you go."
Another plate was pushed in her direction, a vague round shape dotted with specks she couldn't identify. She sniffed, unable to name the scent.
She was pretty sure her whole scent and flavor profile had been changed; nothing smelled like it did before. The city didn't smell like a city, pavement didn't smell like pavement, and whatever was before her didn't smell like anything she knew.
"Just a little bit of hamburger, just for you," the person said.
If that was what it was, then Luka didn't have to ask twice. She bit down on one of the specks and sure enough, it was delicious. Well-done meat, she noticed, but either she was so hungry it just tasted better, or she had to blame her new obligate carnivore diet.
She wasn't sure how things translated. It was likely that she would have to relearn all the smells, all the flavors, from a new perspective; that of a small hunter. Would she recognize chocolate? Would she smell sweat easier? What about blood? She sniffed at the next piece a bit more carefully, committing the scent to memory so she wouldn't go hungry so easily ever again. It was important to be able to recognize what food, her new food, smelled like.
As she ate, her human companion shuffled and shifted, but Luka couldn't see what exactly she was doing. She felt her body tense, ready to dodge a grab, an ambush—
The distant sound of ringing reached her ears. She was making a call...?
"Hey, it's Lily! Yeah, I have a question, if you have the time to talk?"
Luka relaxed; she was busy with a call. She saw it now, the hand to her ear, the vague shape of a phone.
Of all things, getting used to a fuzzy world of gray and blue would be the hardest.
"I found a cat here. I don't think she's a pet? And even if she was, she just escaped a horrible situation. Hadn't had anything to eat or drink for days."
Luka continued to eat, trying not to let it show that she understood the woman.
"I have no idea if she's had her shots or anything, but I was wondering if you could take her in?"
At this, Luka paused, and disguised her alarm by moving back to the bowl of water.
"Don't worry, I'll find someone. Could you also ask around too, see if anybody could have the space and budget for a cat? She might need a trip to the vet. Alright, thanks."
Lily moved, dialing a new number, and was back on the phone. While she spoke, Luka watched her carefully, delighting in the meal of beef and fresh water. Once the plate was clean, she lapped at the smooth surface a bit, feeling her tongue literally scratch at it, before scooting back against the door.
"Alright, keep me posted ok? Yeah, she will potentially need to be seen for a microchip, shots, the whole deal."
Lily hung up again to dial once more, and Luka listened intently.
So the woman intended to find a home for her. Luka didn't want to consider what that would mean: getting adopted would mean being forced into a new home she likely wouldn't be able to escape. Worse yet, perhaps with other pets, or young children. And if she were to go to the vet, she'd be given those shots... She wasn't exactly sure what that would do to her. She'd had her human vaccines and she was fine as a feline. Maybe that wouldn't affect her once she would get back to normal. But a microchip? That was a physical object; would that stay in her even after turning back? There was an even scarier thought; what if they would bring her to the vet to get her fixed?
Luka refused to entertain any idea that even remotely approached that. Being adopted into a family was a worst-case scenario that she couldn't allow to happen.
"Sure, keep me posted! I'll do my best to keep her for a bit, but when my landlord figures it out I'm cooked, so any help is appreciated."
This time when Lily hung up, she sighed before turning to the cat. Luka hissed slightly when she saw her eyes on her. The more hostile and unfriendly she was, the less adoptable.
"If your last family left you to die like that, then I can't blame you for being a bit nasty. All in good time, sweetheart."
Luka hissed again, waiting for her to exit the car, so she could make her grand escape—
Instead, Lily reached over, looming over Luka, both hands stretched towards her. Luka hissed and swatted, unsure how far the hands actually where nor of how far her own arms reached; she refused to be touched again, crushed with those big hands—
Before she knew it, a towel had been wrapped up and around her neck. Luka blinked, standing, but Lily pushed down on her back, forcing her to lie down, to make sure the wrap was snug.
It hadn't been three seconds, and she had been wrapped in a little burrito. She had been standing on the towel the whole time.
"There you go, dearest," Lily whispered. She went to pet her head again, but Luka hissed with added rage.
Fooled! Duped by a towel of all things! How utterly embarrassing, that she couldn't even see it, or dodge it...
"I understand. No touchies for now. Ok, come on..."
Lily picked her up like she was a big loaf of bread, and try as she might, Luka could not escape the towel that had been wrapped around her. With swift movements, Lily placed her in a cat carrier of all things, locked the door, and then after a brief visit outside, moved her to the passenger seat.
"Seat belts..." she whispered as she clicked the carrier into place.
Even without the arms around the towel, Luka couldn't free her limbs, left to stare, seething through the bars of the carrier. Lily disappeared, reappearing a few seconds later in the driver's seat.
A cat carrier was so small. Luka wriggled some more, and finally the part around her neck loosened. With that gone, the rest of the burrito fell apart, and she stood, her paws immediately going for the locking mechanism.
"Patience, dearest. We're not far from my place. You'll be free to hiss in the bathroom for however long you want."
Luka didn't listen, trying desperately to make out the mechanism. She'd never had a cat, nor a cat carrier. She'd never seen one up close. And these damned colorblind, unfocused eyes wouldn't let her study it! The paws on her feet weren't nearly sensitive enough to make out the lock. It was supposed to be simple, convenient! Or perhaps she simply wasn't strong enough...
It took less than a minute for Luka to feel completely discouraged, and pathetically weak. She had only one option left: mope in the carrier and hope that Lily's bathroom was as clean as the car was.
Lily had been right. Her place wasn't far, so Luka only had to deal with the humiliation of being locked in a cat carrier for a handful of minutes. There was the rough trip up the stairs to her flat, shaking her like a maraca, but that was the worst of it. Once in the flat, the woman placed a bunch of objects in the bathroom before releasing the cat. Luka tried to make a run for it before she could close the door, but the blonde was too clever, skillfully blocking her out and keeping her within the room.
So, Luka had been moved from a dirty alleyway, dying, to a clean bathroom with food, water, and a litterbox, within the span of a half an hour. But she couldn't find any joy in the thought: she moped in a corner for what felt like hours, glaring at the litterbox. Her only relief was that at least, this woman was a hygiene freak, for nothing smelled awful and there were no weird stains anywhere or excess dust.
But she was locked in a room with a literal litter box, a wide dish of fresh water, and another dish of cat food.
Because she was a cat.
Luka glowered, feeling how the fur on her face was slowly drying, and not doing anything to aid in it. Cats were supposed to groom themselves. They spent hours of their day licking and combing and preening...
She couldn't stomach the thought.
They drank water with their tongue and the magic of physics. They ate meat from a plate on the floor.
They pooped in a box.
Luka still hadn't looked down. What she would find would be blurry, she knew, but finding anything other than a hand would just make it all the more real. But how could it be more real when she was glaring at all her cat accessories, hiding under the ceramic bowl of a toilet, in a bathroom that was so, so tall and big? She had walked all night on four feet, her tail still hurting. She had roamed the city for hours, ducking under fences, cars, through gates.
She gulped; she couldn't remember much of that day. Either it was the fatigue, or all those little hints that reinforced that she was small, furry, squishy, four-footed. She suppressed them, denied them.
She felt so tiny. So fragile. So, so weak.
Slowly, she emerged from her little corner under the toilet to consider the cat food.
Whenever she had seen it, it had always looked gross. With her colorless vision, it looked even more disgusting. Slimy paste with chunks. It came from cans that stunk to high hell. But right then, as a little cat with her face barely a foot away from the pile of gunk, it smelled *good*, and she hated admitting that to herself.
She licked her lips, finding more water in her fur, startled at the new texture of her tongue, of her own face.
Nothing was right.
She finally looked down, and sure enough, she saw two little, blurry paws. Instead of her pale hands, with ten fingers, she had dark little booties. She lifted one, looked at the bottom, spying pale little paw pads.
Tentatively, she flexed her fingers as she had when she wanted to scratch Gakupo, and even with her blurry vision she saw the vague shape of sharp claws emerge from the soft paws.
"They're bigger than I thought they would be," Luka thought to herself, repeating the gesture a few times, trying to remember how it felt to have them out. She didn't really want to hurt anyone, but if it would make sure she'd get kicked out, back on the streets, potentially homeward, then this would be one of her biggest tools. It had proven effective against Gakupo, after all. She hoped she had scarred him, and not just because she wanted revenge; cat scratches were pretty distinct. Perhaps people would question cat scratches if he had no cats at home.
After considering her claws, she looked back at the rest of her. More cat. Cat legs, the cat tail. She had long fur, twisted into knots and full of dirt.
She hadn't thought that her trip through the city had been that rough. What's more, she hadn't thought that she would actually, for real, have her mind in the body of a cat.
The panic creeped in, so she forced herself to look away, staring at the bathroom tile.
It would be temporary. She'd get back to normal. She wouldn't have to deal with it for long.
First, she had to get home.
Filled with determination, she set her focus on the bathroom door. The handle looked like a normal handle, one that even she would be able to pull down on and open, even in her state.
She sat under the handle, standing as tall as she could, just barely coming short. She hopped once, twice, before settling back on her ankles. She would have to jump. But how to aim a jump? She could barely even see...
She tried anyway, landing on it successfully, a moment of victory, followed by bliss when she felt the handle turn... But the door didn't open. Through the door, she heard a sudden laugh, then a distant conversation.
So, the door was locked. Lily must have planned for that. Luka let herself fall, vexed. She would have to wait until the woman would need to use the bathroom herself, and make her grand escape then. Open the front door, down the stairs, hopefully the main door would be open...
Until then? Luka pouted and returned to the water dish, practicing the new drinking method she would have to deal with.
Cat food? She wouldn't stomach it just yet. Well-done burger meat was fine, but consuming paste? Insulting.
And using that litterbox was even worse to consider.
She waited in the bathroom for hours. Luka stayed in her nook under the toilet, mostly so she wouldn't have to look at herself. Sometimes she had a sip of water, only to return to hiding. When the lighting of the room started to change, the tiny window letting in a different hue of sunshine, Luka leapt up to the sink, to see if she could even do that. Then, she successfully jumped up the high little window sill.
Even if it wasn't the body she'd been born in, at least she was highly mobile. She would have to remember that when she would make her great escape.
She practiced her jumps for a little longer, until she had to admit that she was too hungry to turn her nose up to anything edible, even if it was canned cat food.
She hated that it was delicious. Worse yet, she hated eating for so long that she got to know how her teeth sat in her mouth, the long sharp canines. She felt them sink into the food, she felt them when her tongue darted past them.
It just wasn't hers. It wasn't her mouth, the one she grew up with, dealing with baby teeth and then the adult teeth, wrestling with braces for years during her teens. It wasn't this maw full of daggers, her tongue of sandpaper.
Using the litter box was even worse. But using the toilet meant risking slipping, which she couldn't dare. Even after all the jumping around, she still didn't quite know, or refused to know, the body she was using. It was all so strange, all too foreign.
When the sun set, Luka's patience had frayed away, and instead she waited with a terrible anxiety, an awful self-loathing, the skin-crawling discomfort of existing in a skin that simply wasn't hers. The fur wasn't her beautiful hair, the claws weren't her dexterous fingers, that tail was just too much. More than before, she felt so awfully naked despite the thick fur that coated her. It had nothing to do with any of her experiences of nudity before, from cool air on her skin, to languorous touches of a lover. This nakedness made her feel like a baby, vulnerable and small, weak and with nothing to shield her. She felt veritably stripped, but instead of stripping her clothes, it was her entire sense of identity, everything she was, every moment of her life spent building who she wanted to be. Hiding, trembling, under the toilet wasn't the 28-year-old researcher of international renown, but a tiny kitty cat who didn't know how to exist.
It was a particular kind of misery. She wanted to crawl out of herself, out of the life that had been forced upon her. She wanted to go back home, back to her own body, her own spine that knew where to end, her heels she placed on the floor first whenever she walked, her opposable thumbs, her vision of color.
None of this.
When she heard the click of the lock, Luka was so deeply entrenched in her misery that she almost forgot her whole plan. By the time she came to, it was too late; the door was closed again, and Lily was in the room with her. The light was turned on, blinding.
"Where are you, dearest?"
Luka could only crawl back until her butt was against the wall, and pray that Lily thought she was already gone, would leave the door open behind her when she'd go to search. She waited, her eyes fixed on nothing, watching blurry shadows move, wondering if she could see her. She waited with bated breath, listened to her take a step, then another...
"Ah, there you are!"
When a hand reached through the gap between the toilet and the wall, pushing her forward, Luka hissed, hating that this was the kind of sound she made.
"I know, I know. It's not fun," Lily whispered, gently coaxing her out of hiding. The woman was once again equipped with a towel, and Luka was determined to not get wrapped in a burrito again, but the hand on her shoulders was tremendously discouraging.
She was so small.
"There we go," she said, gently pulling Luka out into the open. "I see you had your water and some food. You're feeling better?"
Luka could only think of hissing again.
"Not too fond of the questions, huh," she said. "Let me take a look at you."
Lily had wrapped her in the towel once again, and Luka stayed perfectly frozen, petrified, as the woman picked her up, hand under the towel, feeling her all over. The huge hand felt at her face, her belly, her back, even wrapping around each of her limbs.
What an awful, invasive touch. She was so big. So strong. If she wanted to, she could snap her into a billion little pieces.
When the hand ran down the length of her tail, Luka couldn't help but yelp, paws straining against the towel.
"Oh dear," Lily whispered, feeling with more care, but Luka hissed when she landed on the injury. "Ok, that looks like it's just a light bruise. Nothing broken there, dearest."
It was a relief, but Luka wanted nothing more than to be placed back on the ground and to be left alone.
"Alright dearest, back into the carrier."
Luka panicked. Did that mean she'd found her a home already? Was she leaving so soon?
She would have no other chance.
She flailed, pushing against the towel around her, claws out, ready to rip if she had to, but the woman quickly used the towel to push her limbs against the body, restricting her.
"I know. Be patient with me, please."
Even through the blur, she could see the opening of the carrier approaching. Luka struggled and strained, but try as she might, she could not escape. She wondered if she ought to try and bite, claw at the woman, but before she could even threaten to do any of that, the door clicked behind her.
Once again, once the woman had let go of the towel its grip went slack, and Luka escaped, a tiny ball of anger and rage. She scratched at the openings, at the locking mechanism, but Lily only tutted and lifted the carrier up, leaving the apartment behind.
"You're all bark and no bite, huh?" Lily said to her. "I know you're scared, but you're a sweetheart."
Luka seethed. She'd been too cautious. Cats were capable of so much more than what she did. She could have leaped, bitten, scratched—
But she wasn't a cat. She struggled like a human, she realized. Because she was one. She was supposed to be one.
"I bet you'll warm right up to your new family," Lily went on. "But don't worry, I'll talk with them first, to see if they have a decent head on their shoulders. I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you."
"Bringing me to the vet is the worst thing you could do to me!" Luka wanted to scream, but it only came out as a sharp yowl.
Lily placed her in the car, buckled her in. "Oh man, guess I'm going to have to tell them that you can sing. I'd gone and promised that you tended to be quiet."
Luka hissed again, resigned to sitting at the back of the carrier once again, fuming.
She'd been lazy, stupid. She'd escaped the lab. How did the power of a towel trump her so well?
Lily started the car once again, and Luka tried her luck with the mechanism for a second time. Perhaps she had more time now, and if she could just relax, think for a little bit...
Having a cat brain hadn't crippled her intelligence, had it?
The fear petrified her for a second, but she quickly reminded herself that she understood speech, and the occasional time she could make out text, she could always read it. She was still smart, but she was a smart human. Working with paw pads was something she had no practice with. None at all. But she could practice. Eventually, she would find her way home. No matter what. And she'd make Gakupo pay for whatever happened to her in the meantime.
She wondered what else she could practice. Handling small objects with pads and claws would be a high priority; how else would she call a phone number or write an email? If she ever had to. But perhaps she could relearn speech? She'd seen those clips of cats doing poor imitations of speech. They lacked cheeks, of course. Enunciation would be a nightmare, but perhaps she could give it a try?
Not right away; she didn't want to consider what would happen if she accidentally made a small celebrity out of herself as a cat caught studying speechcraft. No, less was more. Get out, get home, call her parents, turn back human, and get revenge on Gakupo.
The car parked right then. Instead of getting out right away, Lily messed with her phone briefly. Luka stared at her vague form, still trying to dig her claws into the mechanism, for naught. Eventually, the woman left the car.
She didn't immediately retrieve her. Luka thought she heard a vague conversation outside the car, but it sounded so far away. She tried at the lock again, tugging and pulling and pushing every which way, but part of her knew that as long as she hadn't seen it in action, in clear, sharp detail, she would never learn how to use it with no opposable thumbs and sharp claws.
Suddenly, the door opened, and the carrier was unbuckled, then turned so the opening faced the outside. Luka retreated to the back of the carrier, almost tripping over the towel.
"Here she is. As I said, she's pretty skittish," Lily said, her hand on the carrier. Luka recognized her voice, her form, her long pale hair. But there, standing a few paces away, right in the sweet spot of her sharp vision, stood another woman. In the dark, colorless light, away from the blinding lights of Panthera Tech., Luka almost didn't recognize her, but the smile was unmistakable.
"Miku?" she asked, but of course it only came out as a small meow.
"She also needs a bath," Lily added. "I'm not sure she even knows how to groom herself."
"Poor thing. Does she have a name?"
Luka paused; the voice was slightly different than she remembered. Her new ears to blame? Perhaps Gakupo's voice had been different as well, but she hadn't paid attention.
But if this was Miku...
"Not that I know of. If she has a microchip, that'll tell us more, but honestly, if she doesn't know how to groom herself and was allowed to get to the state I found her in, I don't think she'd like to go home."
"Maybe she was lost?"
"Maybe, maybe. But not knowing how to be a cat is a bad sign."
"Right. I'll take her to the vet ASAP. See what the situation is."
"Thanks. You need anything else, by the way? Litter box..."
"Oh, I have everything set up back home. My landlord finally came through, and I've been looking for a cat to adopt for ages."
Lily chuckled. "Awesome, glad to hear you're prepared."
"You save cats often?"
"Eh, I used to. I've got to stop at some point, though; I'm running out of friends who can make space for another cat. I couldn't exactly ignore her though; I thought she was dead when I found her."
"She looks lovely," Miku said with a smile. She approached, exiting the sharp field of Luka's vision and dissolving into a mass of shapes, and a moment later, Luka realized she was holding her fingers to the bars of the door.
Right, cats sniff things. She refused to, sitting squarely at the back of the carrier.
"She's skittish as high hell, though," Lily said with a sad sigh, and Miku withdrew her hand. "I hope she'll warm up to you, but I have no idea how old she is, what exactly she's been through. It might take some time to earn her trust."
"That's fine."
"You've had cats before?"
"My dad is allergic, so we couldn't. But I did do research for years, ever since I got my own place. Always wanted a cat."
Lily nodded. "Right, Rin told me. Well, let me know; if she takes too long warming up to you or if she starts getting mean, I won't mind taking her back and seeing who else can house her."
"Alright, good to know. I'll give it my best, but her well-being goes first."
"That's the right answer. Here you go."
With that, Lily pulled the carrier out of the car, handing it over to the technician. Luka stayed at the back of the carrier, unsure how to feel about the whole situation.
"Oh, there's a towel in there too."
"Yeah, when you need her to listen to you, burrito her gently. Keep it, it works well."
"What do I owe you?"
"Nothing at all; I'm just glad I found a home for her. Take good care of her, ok?"
"I'll do my best! Thanks again."
"No problem! Good luck!"
Luka watched as Lily's shape briefly sharpened, then faded once again into the distance. Her car disappeared as well, while Miku walked behind another vehicle, and soon after, placed the carrier in her own car, the door of the carrier facing the outside. Luka could see Miku fasten the seatbelt, then the outside world for all of a second, and then the door slammed shut.
Luka backed towards the front of the carrier, knowing that Miku would be at the opposite end of it within moments. Sure enough, she heard the car door open, then close, then the sound of a seatbelt.
Part of her expected Miku to start talking to her with baby-talk, like Lily had, but the technician remained mute as she started the car.
Luka waited anxiously as they started driving. Getting adopted, her worst fear, had officially happened. If she had any luck, Miku would let her out of the carrier before getting to the vet, and Luka would do her very best to not let that visit happen. Lily was apparently very skilled at handling cats, so maybe the technician wouldn't be so quick with wrapping her in a towel burrito.
Even if she avoided the vet trip, then what? Was she to stay at Miku's house for the rest of her life as a pet?
Aside from being a competent worker, she had no idea what kind of person Miku was. Undervalued, reliable, sure, but how was she with animals? While Luka hated the idea of being kept as a pet, she hated the idea of being held hostage even more, forced to stay in a small space with no fresh water, no feed, no clean floors... Then again, if she was extraordinarily clumsy as a pet owner, she would be able to escape, and that would only end to her advantage. Depending on how far from her home she lived, of course.
They drove for a long while, or at least it felt like an eternity. Luka couldn't relax, half of her panicking at what she might find, what her next few days would look like, the other half still hating that thinking if all this meant accepting that she was a cat. A pet cat.
None of these traits belonged to her, and these worries didn't belong to her either. As a person, she never had to worry about how someone would keep her.
She gulped; did she prefer to consider herself as a pet, or as a slave?
Eventually, the drive did come to a stop. The acoustics of the whole car changed briefly before they parked, and when Miku pulled the carrier from the car, Luka saw why: it was underground parking.
"You're ok?" Miku asked her, peering into the carrier.
Luka didn't move, refusing to give even a blink as a response.
The technician seemed happy enough with that, continuing her walk. The walk led to an elevator, all shiny and chrome, and then to a hall, and then to the apartment proper.
Luka couldn't see much of it, keeping her attention on the narrow strip of sharp things she saw. She vaguely saw a couch, carpets, a kitchen against the far wall, maybe a table.
Before she could further survey the area, the carrier was placed on the ground. Luka recognized the sound of a door being shut, immediately snuffing out the hope for extreme clumsiness. But perhaps there would be an open window, an opportunity later... Of course! Miku went to work almost every day! She will have to mess up once!
The door being opened startled her out of her thoughts.
"Come on out when you're ready."
To her surprise, the technician didn't stick around, walking away to the kitchen she saw earlier. Luka peeked out of the carrier, found the woman more than a few paces away, and then immediately darted under the couch.
Anywhere where nobody could touch her.
She listened to Miku for a while, hearing a can being opened; more food. And then there was the pouring of water. Then, after a little more shuffling, Miku opened a door, but it was the door to the bedroom.
"Alright. It's late, I'll let you get settled in peace. I'll see you tomorrow morning, I hope. Good night."
Luka didn't reply, and Miku didn't wait for her to, closing the door immediately. The cat waited for a minute, then another, before she believed that she had truly left the room.
She emerged from under the couch warily, her eyes darting everywhere in case the tealette had been more patient than her, and was hiding somewhere, on a chair, a countertop...
But no. The space was relatively dark, so the lights were probably off. And she was alone.
She had all night.
Part of her relaxed knowing that she could at least anticipate when the woman would return. Until then, she had her own space.
She set out to explore.
The room was rather small, though rather spacious for someone who lived on their own. L-shaped, the part closest to the door had more furniture for a living area, while the further part was more for cooking and dining.
Luka carefully inventoried it all, finding the hiding spots. Closest to the door, there was the shoe rack, the couch, and the dresser on which sat a television. There was another chair and a coffee table, but neither provided adequate shelter. The bookcases that sat around the TV, as well as a dresser, all sat flush against the floor, offering no room.
Further into the room, there was the kitchen. It was built in the elbow of the L-shape, and Luka briefly considered the cupboards as a hiding place, if only her grip were strong enough to pull the doors away from the magnets that held them shut.
The final part of the space was the dining area. The surprisingly large table was pushed against the wall, accompanied by two chairs. A food dish and water bowl were pushed against the opposite wall, just for her. Between the two, the door through which Miku had disappeared sat in the last wall.
There was nowhere to hide in this half of the space. Luka practiced her drinking a little more, momentarily refusing to accept cat food once again. In the corner between the door and her food was a cat tree of all things, and quite a tall one at that. Luka took a moment to look at it from a distance, so she could see the sharp image.
It had multiple levels, a couple of scratching posts, some hideouts, multiple areas to rest, and some suspended pom-poms.
Demeaning. But perhaps she could hide in one of the enclosed resting areas, if she could reach it.
She returned her attention to the living area. Next to a dresser, which also sat under the window, was her litter box. On the opposite side of the same dresser, closer to the kitchen, was a little cat bed, just her size.
Luka wasn't sure she'd ever feel comfortable sleeping there, out in the open.
She ignored the bed, instead hopping to the top of the dresser. Miku kept nothing on the surface, which helped her avoid any nasty surprises, but Luka immediately turned her attention to the window.
Even if she couldn't see well, it was immediately clear that Miku lived multiple stories up. This was higher still than the drop from Gakupo's lab, and there didn't seem to be any trees waiting at the bottom to cushion the fall.
The windows wouldn't be an option.
She sat down, looking at the space again. There was other furniture, blocks of wood Miku kept things in. Art lined the walls. Another window sat directly above the dining table. A carpet sat in the center of both the living and the dining area. The front door was just there, locked.
So many stories up, the front door would be her only way out.
Luka sighed. She wondered if she would have to try to escape every day, and potentially risk teaching Miku how to better keep her inside, or whether it would be wiser to play it cool for a while and then catch her off guard. The sooner she got home, the better, she thought, but if she never got out...
It was late. The sleep she had gotten during the day hadn't made up for her long trek. If she wanted to get home, she needed to be well-rested, well-hydrated, well-fed. Otherwise she risked stranding herself in the middle of a desert yet again.
Swallowing her pride, Luka chewed some of the mushy cat food, washed it down with some water, then delicately made her way up the cat tree, digging her claws into the soft, plush material until she got to the top. There was a closed area up there, with only a narrow entrance and nothing else. Miku probably wouldn't be able to reach her.
Perfect.
She curled up in the tiny space, knowing that it was too tiny for her to fit in, no person should ever be able to climb a cat tree, much less fit in it, but she could, because this body was not her own.
Luka did all she could; pray that cats dreamed, and that she would dream of home.