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“It’s going to storm. We should start keeping an eye out for shelter.”
That was what Kitty said in response to Puss and Perrito successfully picking and legally obtaining the ingredients for lunch and dinner. They had messed up this task quite a few times in the past, so Puss had maybe been anticipating some sort of positive reaction, but then again, being able to shop for groceries was probably just the bare minimum. So he didn’t question that.
What he did question, though, was the weather. The skies above them were perfectly blue, without a cloud nor even the slightest breeze. He sniffed the air. It didn’t smell of rain, either.
“How can you tell?” Puss asked.
“Can you predict the weather?” Perrito asked, wagging his tail excitedly.
Kitty smirked. “Wouldn’t you like to know, weather boys?”
Perrito gasped dramatically and rolled over. “The pure sass! It’s too much!”
They chuckled over that.
“Guess I’ll set up a camp, then.” Puss offered.
Kitty nodded. “Perrito and I will get a head start on the sandwiches.”
And they did.
The sun rose overhead and started sinking again as they enjoyed their fresh sandwiches in the shade of a decent lean-to. Perrito really had the art of sandwich making down pat! Something about the acidity of each ingredient and whatnot. Puss didn’t really understand it, but it tasted divine.
A gentle breeze washed over them. It was the most perfect temperature for a gentle breeze that it could be. Puss grinned and leaned back, content.
“This storm is going to be bigger than I thought.” Kitty said, her eyebrows pinching together in worry as she looked up into the sky. “Maybe we should go back into town and find some more durable shelter.”
“What, you don’t like this one?” Puss joked, elbowing said structure. It only partially collapsed afterwards. Perrito giggled.
They went into town after lunch. They did have enough to pay for a night in a one bed room at the inn, but it just felt like such a waste to Puss. Sure, the wind was starting to pick up a bit, but it was still only a little cloudy.
“Are you sure?” He asked Kitty one last time before passing away their coins. She nodded. There went the money.
“Guys! Guys! Look!” Perrito exclaimed, hopping around excitedly. He pointed towards an artist painting live portraits of people in the street. “We have to try this! Look, look!”
“Don’t we already have custom portraits of Team Friendship?” Puss joked.
“Not in color! ”
“What do you say, Kitty? It might be fun!” Puss turned to Kitty, who was staring aimlessly into the air with pinched-together eyebrows.
“Kitty?” He asked again, gently placing a paw on her shoulder.
“Hmm?” She asked, turning towards him.
“Are you okay?” He asked sincerely.
A worried expression passed over her face. She sighed. “I think I’ll be fine.”
“Is there anything we can do to help?”
Kitty hesitated, then shook her head. “Just being here is enough.”
“ Vale. Let’s go get a family portrait. For Perrito.”
Kitty nodded, and they headed over. Perrito ran in a few circles right there in the street, and when it was their turn to be painted, he had some difficulties sitting still, until Puss started petting his head. Then he almost melted.
Puss didn’t notice at first, but it was starting to get darker. According to his stomach, it wasn’t dinnertime yet, so he looked up in confusion. The sky was full of gray clouds. Not dark gray, not yet, but close.
The artist glanced up as well, then called to the rest of people in line. “Sorry, folks! Looks like this will be the last one. I didn’t bring my watercolors today!”
A few brave souls laughed heartily as they left.
“Good call, Kitty!” Puss said.
Kitty grunted in reply.
The artist blew on the painting a few times before rolling it up and handing it to Perrito, who carried it in his mouth as gently as he could while wagging his tail ferociously. “Tharf Eu!” he said with his mouth full.
The receptionist at the hotel offered them a tired smile as they returned. “You folks got a room at the right time! Now that it looks like it’s going to rain, the rest of the rooms are sold out. Suppose I could have warned people to get more business, though. My hip’s been acting up all day!”
“Your hip?” Perrito asked curiously.
“That’s right. I got it replaced a few decades back, and now it’s a little built-in barometer.” They chuckled. “I shouldn’t have gotten the deluxe version, I guess.”
Puss offered a small laugh even though he didn’t actually get the joke.
They went up to their room.
It was really dark outside now. Perrito carefully laid the painting down on a chair and worked on closing the curtains to the best of his ability. They had learned earlier that he wasn’t immune to the (mostly) irrational fear of thunderstorm noises.
Kitty made a beeline for the bed and sat silently on its edge, paws resting palm up in her lap. Her ears weren’t quite folded back, but they seemed to be heading in that direction.
“Hey.” Puss greeted her softly.
She glanced up.
“Is it okay if I make the soup? I think I’ve seen it enough times to not burn it this time.”
Kitty gave him a small smile and a nod.
Puss nodded back, then turned towards the kitchen. Then he turned around and fluffed the pillows behind Kitty without saying a word. Her eyes twinkled.
Then he went and made the soup.
The storm hit about halfway through. First a few drops started, then it was suddenly pouring like a flood. It was loud .
“Puss?” Perrito was suddenly by Puss’s feet. Well, by his stool. This mini kitchen was designed for taller species.
“Puss?” Perrito repeated. “It’s Kitty.”
Puss quickly turned off the stove and went back to the bedside.
Kitty was not okay. Her ears were flat against her head, her eyes were pinched shut, and her breathing was coming out in tight, forced breaths. Her legs were drawn close, like she had started curling into a ball, but had stopped. Her paws were still face up in her lap.
“Kitty?” Puss asked tentatively.
No response.
“Kitty?” Puss asked again. He started moving his arm forward, then thought twice. He looked at Perrito, eyes wide. “Should--I??”
Perrito’s face of concern mirrored his. “You know her best.”
Puss gulped. “We should have talked about this earlier.” he blurted. “That would be really nice right about now. Just having the response actions already planned out.”
Perrito pressed the side of his head into Puss’s leg.
Puss took a deep breath.
“Kitty? It’s me, Puss.” He said once more, this time reaching out to gently, gently, touch her on the shoulder.
She reacted instantly, hissing at full force an inch away from Puss’s face, then scrambling chaotically off the opposite side of the bed and underneath it.
Puss flinched. She hissed at him.
This wasn’t like before. This was a full-body hiss. This was the kind of hiss you gave someone you hated with all your guts and wouldn’t mind pushing them into a hole of infinite suffering and pain. This was the kind of hiss reserved for people who were actively trying to murder you.
And she had done it towards him.
Puss blinked a few times and took a few steadying breaths. She hadn’t meant it. She couldn’t have. There was just something wrong.
He smacked himself in the face. Of course! “I should have realized.” he mourned.
“What’s that, Puss?” Perrito asked, looking rather small.
“The receptionist’s hip. The weather. Perrito, it’s her paws hurting.”
Perrito’s mouth formed an ‘O’.
Puss quietly walked back into the kitchen, Perrito following at his side.
“Isn’t there something we can do to help her?” Perrito asked, his voice full of concern.
Puss sighed, looking into the pot of unfinished soup. He picked up the ladle and turned the burner back on. “Dinner couldn’t hurt, could it?”
They made the soup. The storm raged on.
Puss called Kitty’s name and peeked under the bed, but the lack of her reflective eyes staring back at him told him she was still curled up into a ball somewhere in the dark. He set down a bowl of soup underneath the bed and left.
Hopefully they would remember to clean that bowl and put it away before they left the hotel. That could make a nasty surprise for whoever stayed next.
Puss and Perrito ate their soup on the table, speaking in tones just barely louder than the raging storm about the marketplace, the town they were in, what they might be doing tomorrow, where they could go next.
It was hard to tell with the storm, but it felt late, so they went to bed. Puss gently lowered one of the pillows onto the floor, hoping Kitty would be able to use it, and curled up on the remaining one. Perrito slept at the foot end.
The next thing Puss knew, he was sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He had just had a nightmare, he knew that much, but what was it about? The fuzzy memory of a sword stabbing his gut came back to him, and he shook his head. His brain hadn’t known what being stabbed would feel like, so instead he just felt all the pain in the world for that brief second before he woke up. What kind of nightmare was that? That was pathetic! He wasn’t even breathing heavily or anything.
He did have a lingering feeling that he shouldn’t go back to sleep right away, though, so he sighed and peeked over the edge of the bed at the floor, wondering how Kitty was doing.
To his surprise, her blue eyes were already staring up at his.
Puss’s ears tilted forwards and his eyes widened.
Kitty blinked slowly at him.
Puss tilted his head and blinked back.
Kitty glanced from him to under the bed, then back.
Puss copied her.
Kitty shuffled ungracefully on her back underneath the bed.
Puss hopped down and crawled in after her. She was already curled up on the pillow, which was now underneath the bed and against the wall. Her paws cupped each other in front of her.
Puss looked at her questioningly, but she didn’t respond, so he stretched and snuggled up against the edge of her pillow, on the floor. He closed his eyes.
It was only raining now, a pleasant continuous background noise to fall asleep against.
He didn’t know how long it had been before he woke up again, sharp memories of running for his life still fresh in his mind. He blinked through the confusion and realized his breathing wasn’t even, and took a few deep breaths to fix that. Not fun, but as far as nightmares go, not that bad. Usually it would get worse than that. Something had probably woken him up. Thunder, maybe.
His ears perked up. Not thunder. Purring. He rolled over and looked up, and there Kitty was, watching him and purring through the night. Warmth swelled in his chest.
“May I?” Puss whispered, gesturing towards her paws.
Kitty looked at him for a long while, but finally nodded just the slightest bit.
“Are you sure?” Puss said cautiously, wary of her hesitation.
“Yes.” she whispered with a hoarse voice.
Puss got to work, gently cradling her paw and massaging them as gently as he could. Kitty sucked in a breath through her teeth and went still, but gradually relaxed, and finally let out the breath she was holding as she melted into the pillow and resumed purring. Puss also let out a sigh of relief, glad that what he was doing was helping rather than hurting. He switched paws every so often, concentrating on just one at a time.
Puss didn’t know how long it had been, but he registered his eyelids falling lower and lower in the back of his mind.
Kitty leaned over and gently kissed him on the forehead. “Come here.” she whispered, making room for Puss on the pillow.
Too tired to say anything, he obliged, curling against her with his head by her neck. Her purring warmed his soul.
Puss was the first to wake. He tried not to move, but still looked around as best as he could. He couldn’t hear the rain anymore, and it seemed to be lighter in the room than before. The storm had passed.
Kitty looked exhausted. All her eyeliner had run down her face, leaving her eyes red and swollen and the white fur on her face somewhat grayed. Her nose was still wet.
She was beautiful.
Puss was not going to wake her up. She needed the rest.
He was not going to wake her up.
Puss ‘in boots’ In Boots was going to let Kitty ‘soft’ Soft Paws sleep in.
The Cat In Boots possessed some amount of impulse control, and would use it to not wake up the love of his life when she needed the rest.
Puss kissed her on the forehead.
“Sorry.” He whispered as Kitty slowly opened her eyes, a hint of a smile already on her face.
“Is it morning already?” she responded, her voice groggy and rough.
“Si, pero solamente si quieres.” Puss winked.
Kitty groaned, shutting her eyes again. Puss chuckled. There was a brief moment of silence, as Kitty’s face shifted into a mournful frown.
“Puss…” She began, looking guiltily to the side of Puss’s face. “I’m so sorry I didn’t warn you. It’s just--I didn’t--it hasn’t been this bad in ages. ”
“It’s alright, mi amor . You know I would have done the same. Worse, probably.”
“I hissed at you.”
Puss started to speak, then hesitated. “I know you didn’t mean it.” he tried.
Kitty shook her head. “You looked so hurt. I feel terrible about it. I’m so sorry, Puss.”
“It’s alright, Kitty. I forgive you.” Puss headbutted her affectionately. Despite already knowing she hadn’t meant it at all, hearing her say it lifted some weight off his chest.
Kitty sighed. “Next time… Next time I’ll let you know in advance.”
“But you did, didn’t you?”
“Not really. Not how I should have.”
“But it was something.”
Kitty still looked guilty. Puss put a paw on her shoulder. “How about this? The next time you feel a bad one coming on, you say, ‘Puss, I’m going to be a bog monster for the next six hours. Please obey my every wish until I am comfortable enough to sleep through most of it.’ Eh? How’s that?”
Kitty snorted and elbowed him in the arm. “ Bog monster?”
“Perhaps some sort of groundhog, then?”
Kitty laughed into the pillow, muffling her voice. Perrito slept on.
“For next time, is there something I should do other than the shoulder touch thing, that didn’t work?” Puss asked, a bit uncomfortably, fiddling with his thumbs.
“Hmm.” Kitty pondered. “I really don’t know. I guess just go for something and hope for the best. That question goes both ways, though. How’d purring work for you?”
Puss smiled full of caring. “It was lovely.”
Kitty kissed him on the forehead. “I’m glad.”
They talked for a while longer, then both fell back asleep, curled in each other’s embrace. And from that point onward, it wasn’t unsurprising for Kitty Softpaws to suddenly whisper in Puss’s (or Perrito’s) ear, “It’s bog monstering time.” before mysteriously disappearing. She struggled with it at first, finding it difficult to admit when she was feeling weak and vulnerable, and harder still to ask Puss and Perrito to spend time essentially taking care of her. It got easier each time, though. It also helped that if she desired, Puss would willingly stay by her side the entire bog monster time, massaging her paws when they didn’t ache too painfully or cradling her in his arms while purring up a storm or just laying a solid arm’s length away, keeping her company during the worst of it. Eventually, she had no problem at all saying “Bog monster time. Bog bog.” like an idiot, even when they were in public. Especially when they were in public.
There were rumors about this. Some said that Kitty had an extra sense for bog monsters, and took it upon herself to slay them whenever she sensed them, lest they wreak havoc upon her carefully planned heists. Others said that Kitty herself occasionally transformed into a bog monster, like a werewolf.
Kitty loved both of these rumors and intentionally propagated them whenever she could.