For 185 - prompt: pat
59. Duty
It's not really a job but the worst days of Keisuke's life have always been improved when he visits the digilab or the fortune teller booth, and spent at least an hour with one of them.
He knows, because Mirei has told him, that they're digimon. But they don't act like it, and they never talk. Mirei comments, wistfully, that they used to but she knows them so well, it's unnecessary.
Shiro meows and tugs his hand down, purring loudly at each pat. Kuro just kneads. All the punishment from Erika has left him immune to anything, even kitty claws.
It's blissfully quiet. They don't ask questions. They don't look at him with suspicion. They don't run away. When a cat is done with you for the moment, they're done on their terms.
Keisuke can respect that.
At night both cats stay in the busy off-white DigiLab. Mirei types busily at her computer. Her many monitors flash things he could never understand and he sits on the floor, petting cats. His digimon nap in the digivice.
"You can't look away forever, you know," Mirei says suddenly, without looking up.
Keisuke smiles by reflex. "Yeah," he says. "I know. Just a little longer is fine, right?"
"That's your choice, dear resident."
He's happy to make this choice.