Chapter Text
“You should get yourself a pet.”
“Your life’s too empty! You need a pet to keep you company!”
“Have you ever considered adopting a cat or a dog?”
For the past months, day in, day out, that was all Mr. Egbert heard. People urging him to get some manner of animal companion to, supposedly, ‘fill the void’ in his life. He tried and tried to explain that just because he lived all by himself that didn’t mean his life was lacking or that he felt lonely.
No one seemed to listen to him though.
At some point, he just chose to ignore those ‘advices’. He was doing fine on his own.
But that aspect of his life was soon to change.
It was a night of heavy rain and strong wind. Egbert’s car was at the garage, being fixed. Something about a busted engine and a heavily damaged radiator. He had a feeling he would have to say goodbye to half of his monthly payment to cover that.
That was the reason why he was rushing down the street, umbrella in one hand – not that it was working for much – and suitcase in the other. He hated that he had to stay at the office until almost 10PM, and hated even more the fact that the bus he took didn’t stop anywhere near his house. There were good 10 blocks until he could reach it, and half-way his shoes and socks were soaked, and his pants were dripping. With a sigh, he began walking slower. Not much of appoint to run now that he was that wet. At least his suitcase was more or less impervious to water, so his paperwork would stay undamaged.
While crossing an alleyway, he could swear that he saw something by the corner of his eye. For a moment, he couldn’t really believe in what he thought he saw. It couldn’t be it.
Not being able to simply ignore it and walk away, he stepped back to face the alley, and his eyes went wide when his suspicions were confirmed: there was, indeed, someone lying there on alleyway, soaking wet and face buried on the ground.
In a rush, he walked towards the seemingly unconscious figure lying there. Turning the body over showed it was a young man, wearing a hoodie, baggy trousers and sneakers. He was still quite alive, much to Egbert’s relief, but placing a hand over that stranger’s forehead told him almost instantly that the poor guy was burning in fever. God only knew for how long that guy had been there, passed out and under the rain.
Ignoring the rain for a while, he closed his umbrella, hanging it on his arm, so then he could carry that guy to his house. He could think about calling a hospital or something after that. At least he had to get that fellow out of the rain.
It took a little longer to cross those remaining five blocks with the extra weight, but soon enough he reached the front door of his house. Sure unlocking the door and opening it was a bit of a chore, but he managed to do it.
When inside, he placed the stranger on the couch and sighed, hands crossed in front of his chest. Now, just what was he going to do with that guy anyway? Well, first things first: he had to get him at least partially out of those wet clothes. So, taking off that hoodie and whatever was under it was the best option, for now. He also needed to get himself out of his own dampened clothes, and take a warm shower.
Pulling down the hood that was covering the guy’s head, Egbert couldn’t help but stare in wide-eyes surprise at what he uncovered. That guy… he had cat ears.
There was a long pause as he just simply stood there, looking at those ears and wondering just what he got himself into, because he clearly couldn’t call the hospital on that guy now, since they certainly would treat him as a sort of freak. And now he just noticed how that guy’s nails were way too sharp.
Shaking his head to dismiss his thoughts for a while, Egbert decided he was going to think about the ramifications of his decisions later on. Right now he was just going to try and help that guy out. He finished taking off the hoodie, and the white shirt underneath it. He wasn’t going to do anything about those pants, because things were already quite awkward as they were.
Folding those wet clothes, he carried those with him upstairs, to put them on the laundry basket in the bathroom. He took off his clothes and took his well deserved warm shower. While showering, he was trying to figure out just what to do. And hospital was out of question, but then, could he just give normal ‘human’ medicine to that guy? Maybe he would have a bad reaction to it… And was him always like that or did something turned him into a half-cat… thing? Was he really going to have to take care of him for long?
It was definitely frustrating thinking about all these things. And he sure wasn’t going to figure those out in a minute or two. The best course action, for the time being, was to leave that guy be, and see what happens. Maybe being out of the rain would help with his fever subduing or something. Or at least that’s what Egbert hoped for. If not, then he would be forced to take that guy somewhere, and sure enough all hell would break loose if he did so.
He stepped out of the shower, dried himself and went to the bedroom. He put on his pajamas and grabbed a blanket before going downstairs again. The other man was still sleeping like a rock when he got to the living room. Egbert wondered just how he ended up lying in some alley like that, as he covered the guy with the blanket. That was all he could do for now.
Pretty much exhausted from work, he didn’t even eat anything. He just wanted to lie down on his bed and sort all those thoughts he was having. Something told him he wasn’t going to fall asleep that soon.
Off to his bedroom he went, and, unexpectedly, his tiredness was way beyond his level of worry, as he started slumbering just a few minutes after lying down.
For hours, the house stayed in complete silence, aside from the clicking of clocks and the soft humming of the refrigerator in the kitchen, with everything being really still.
That is, until Egbert’s unexpected ‘visitor’ began to wake up.
He shifted on the couch, grunting and sniffling. Then, his eyes started to open very slowly, but then shot open when he found himself at an unfamiliar place.
Sitting up straight almost in one go, that soon proved to be a very unwise move, as his head was banging from the imminent cold that was going to hit him soon. He laid down again, rubbing his burning forehead.
Ugh… I feel like shit… Where am I? He thought to himself. Last thing he remembered was starving and walking under the rain around that neighborhood, and then passing out. Looking around, he could see that he was in a pretty regular and bare living room. Quite boring, in his opinion.
But, well, he was indoors. That sure beat wandering in the rain and dying from pneumonia or something. Apparently someone was nice enough to help him out.
Suddenly, he realized his hoodie was nowhere to be seen. OK, however did that wasn’t freaked out by his cat bits. Or, wasn’t freaked out enough to kick him out. It could go either way. But it was a relief either way. He took the time to check if all his things were still on his sylladex, and they were all intact. That was good too.
… I’m starving. Was the only thing crossing his mind. It felt like eons since he ate any decent food. And, well, if this was a house, it had to have food, right?
Carefully, he sat up, throwing the blanket aside. He was going to worry about being terribly sick later. He had to fill his stomach with something, anything. He got up and was able to spot the kitchen from where he was standing. He walked there and couldn’t help but smile when his eyes rested on the refrigerator.
Walking to it with almost soundless steps, he opened it up, and grinned widely when he saw that it was stuffed with food.
Fucking jackpot. He thought to himself as he reached inside and pulled out a carton of milk. Luckily, it was almost full. Not even bothering to look for a cup, he started gulping it down directly from the box. Until it was completely empty.
He took a second look inside the refrigerator, trying to find something else, and was more than happy to find a rather tasty looking beef in a Tupperware, just waiting for him. He picked it up and closed the fridge. He opened the recipient, took the piece of meat from it and started to eat. Sure it could use a little bit heating up, but he couldn’t care less at the moment. He was so damn famished that he didn’t have time to think of such trivialities.
When he was done with the beef, he just put the Tupperware somewhere on the sink and went back to the living room. He would look for more food, if his head wasn’t weighting so much.
Lying down again, he let out a sigh, covering himself with the blanket again. Whoever helped him out was a true life-saver, and he was sure to return the favor, somehow.
But now, all he wanted to do was to rest. The cold coming his way seemed quite nasty, and he was sure that he was going to wake up feeling even more terrible the next day.