Morning

by Ola

A/N Yay! New story by me! Huh. That’s pretty stupid, considering I have two other, unfinished fan fictions, loads of classes and work, but oh well, I have to have an outlet for my crazy imagination, right? I will try to update this fic frequently, but then, it may happen that I won’t. I’ll really try, though.

-summary-On another note, this story is about a poor, depressed, college student who finds a cat on his doorstep. A very strange cat. A cat that…well, I won’t spoil it for you, eh? winks

-disclaimer- it’s all mine, for once! Copyrighted Ola, 2003. ) If you feel you absolutely need to borrow something, no problem. Just drop me a word, though, please?

That’s it! And now, hopefully, enjoy!! )

            Part 1

I’ll tell you a strange story, a story about my cat, except that he isn’t really a cat. Sounds strange already? Good then! He came to my door on the proverbial dark and stormy night. And it was really cold to boot. I was in my room being a depressed teenager. Actually, that had been one of the worst nights of my life up to date. I won’t go into details as to why I had let myself come to this point. But my spirits were at their all time low; they wouldn’t be able to fall that much lower before I was forced to do something drastic. Most probably, the permeating darkness and the horrible tempest outside made it that much easier to fall into self pity. Buried as I was in self-incrimination and dejection, it’s a wonder I heard the soft mewing above the storm. At first, I thought I was going mad. I mean it was the perfect weather to do so. But there is only so much strange noise you can hear before standing up and going investigating. Yea yea, call me crazy. If I was lucky, it would be a thief and in his shock at seeing me, he would shoot me through the head, blowing my brains out. As long as it would be quick and relatively painless, I wouldn’t mind in the least. I trudged to my front door, my way faintly illuminated by brief flashes of lightening, and made ready to part with my life. As in: “Dear God, I don’t know you, but please, let me go to Heaven if it really exists. Thanks pal. Oh, and make it as quick as possible too, eh?”

I wrenched the door open and saw…nothing. Ah! There! Something black and…small and…furry? Something that resolved into a…cat? It was certainly not on the list of things I had anticipated to find on my doorsteps. Okay, so I was waiting for a killer, or at least for an angry old lady with a lethal umbrella. I could only stare into its green eyes until it blinked and meowed again. All right, so it was around eleven, and there was no one on the street. Plus, the cat plainly wanted a shelter for the night, so I opened the door wider and stood aside, theatrically showing him in. I swear I saw him grin as he trotted in, leaving little paw-sized puddles of water on the floor and a bigger one when it sat down on its haunches and looked at me expectantly.

“What do you think this is? A bed and breakfast or something?” Obviously, he didn’t answer. I heaved a sigh and went to the kitchen, hearing him padding behind me.

“So what is it you want? Milk? I’m sorry I don’t have cat food.” I looked behind me and we starred at each other some more.

“Milk it is then. Good thing you didn’t come in the morning or I’d have eaten all of it with my cereals. Huh, for that matter, I’ll have to find myself something else to eat for breakfast.” I sneezed and only then realized that standing in the door had soaked me quite thoroughly, which got me quite annoyed.

 “One night. You hear me? I let you stay here one night, and only because nobody should be out in this weather. And then, you’re out,” I grumbled, shedding my wet clothes one by one as I walked into the bathroom, ending up butt necked as I stepped under a warm shower. Yeah, all I really needed was the flu after helping the stupid cat.

When I trudged back to the kitchen, the bowl of milk was empty and the cat sat on the couch. Yea, yea, I do have a couch in my kitchen and a TV too, but only because I have no living room, so a corner of the kitchen serves as one. I shooed the cat away and lay down on the couch still wrapped in my towel and turned the TV on, flipping through the channels. Okay, so I only had four of those, and I could watch all of them together, not that there was much to watch, though. But I somehow couldn’t feel as depressed.

“Damn you, stupid cat. You killed my mood.” I glared at it, becoming angry when it laid down were it sat and began to lick its paws. Fine. Be that way. I went back to glaring at the TV screen.

I woke up next morning feeling disoriented, and it took me a little while to realize where I was. The couch. Right. I had fallen asleep on the couch while watching TV after rescuing a cat…a cat which was…ah! Lying on my stomach! Get off! Get off me right now! I leaped into the air and glared at the feline, my head spinning from the abrupt movement. I never get up this fast, and that’s why. And the cat glared back, plainly annoyed at being roused from its sound sleep. Well, hey, whose fault was it? If he hadn’t scared the hell out of me, I would still have been blissfully asleep. Just then, off in my room, my alarm clock sounded. Arrrgg!! I plodded to the door, yanked it wide open and ordered him to go.

“Come on. I won’t repeat myself. Out! Or you’ll get my foot in your ass as a departing gift.” The cat glanced outside, and so did i. yes, it was light, but in the night, the rain had frozen and now the world was covered in ice. It was breathtakingly beautiful…and damn cold as well. If that cat could talk, he would have laughed in my face and said “hah, yeah, right. You can go out if you want to, but I’m staying riiiiight here until spring.” I harrumphed and closed the door again. I wasn’t evil, although this cat was getting on my nerves.

“What am I gonna do with you? I have to go to school. If I come back here and see anything amiss, I’m gonna wring your little neck out. You hear me?” hey, I had to let my anger out on someone, right? I mean, I did have to go out, while he could lounge his skinny little black ass in my house on my couch! The world isn’t fair. I trudged to the kitchen, opened the fridge and…didn’t take out the milk. There was none. The cat drank it all. Right. I closed my eyes and prayed for patience. As it turned out, I got dressed, placed an old newspaper in a kitchen corner, ordered the cat to “do it there,” and gave him a bowl of water and cereals.

“If you ate half my breakfast, you can now have the other half.” And I went out into the cold without a gram of food in me. Fuck. And I had to run in order not to be late, although I usually was. Late, I mean. Especially the past few months. I had stopped caring about the world around me. Nothing mattered. Until now. Now, I had a cat in my apartment, and although I had considered ending my life several times, I couldn’t do that to the poor cat. So a few hours later, on my way back, I bought a litter, cat food, milk, and my cereals, although as I neared my place, I wondered whether that had been wise. Perhaps the cat had gone away. Yea, he materialized through the door. Or perhaps he wrecked everything, in which case, he better be ready to part with his life. The more I thought about leaving him alone for that many hours, the more I berated myself, while the worst of images played in my mind. I literally flew up the four steps to the door and opened it on record time…to find my cat sitting calmly on the sofa, watching TV. I’m not joking. His paw was on the remote, and as soon as he saw that it was me, he turned his head back toward the screen. And I know I definitely had turned it off when I went out. I was almost afraid to step further into my own home. Jeez…but everything was as I had left it this morning. He even drank some of the water and relieved himself where I had told him to. And…wow…he had munched on the cereals, although I had half meant that as a joke, because I would have sworn cats didn’t eat cereals…

I closed the door behind me, gave him some proper food, hoping he would like it, although after the cereals, everything would probably taste like heaven, and cautiously sat on the other end of the couch. The beastie turned toward me and quietly looked me over. It was very disconcerting. Were all cats like this? Or was I still dreaming? Perhaps I had died during that storm, finally taking the courage to slit my wrists. Yea, that must be it. I was lying in a puddle of my own blood and hallucinating about smart cat that acted like…well, not like cats an any rate. And I would never wake up, and I w…

“Oooow!” the stupid cat had pricked me! And now he was glaring at me! Oww, that really had hurt, so I wasn’t dreaming. Out loud, I told him so.

“Fine, I believe you. This is no dream. You won’t disappear in a puff of smoke,” and I swear he smirked, although by now, I shouldn’t be surprised by him anymore. I keep on calling it a “he,” although I really wasn’t sure if it was a male, but after all of that, I was a little skittish about simply picking him up and looking at his underside. But, on the other hand, I he did fight and scratch me, I would bleed to death and get the end I wanted.

“Come here little kitty. I can’t keep calling you ‘cat’ or ‘you’ eh? I won’t hurt you…” he didn’t fight, he didn’t even fidget when I touched him. But he looked at me with what could only be a grin, the whole time, as if telling me “no problem man, go ahead, look at my assets. Pretty good, don’t you think?” and yes, it was definitely a male.

“So what am I gonna call you?” he was completely black except for his face, and all his paws, like socks, and he had come to me during the night. But “night” wasn’t that great a name. “Storm?” a hiss. Wow, okay, not storm. “Blackie is too corny for you.” And then I remembered the icy morning and its beauty. He couldn’t be ice; that wouldn’t really fit, but… “Morning?” no hiss. “All right. Morning it is then.” But I wondered why I was naming a cat I might have to give away pretty soon? He really seemed smart though, and cats don’t get lost, per say, so since I had some time on my hands and was feeling in a good mood, I decided to test a little theory.

“Okay Morning, both paws out means “yes,” one means “no”. Here we go: your name is Morning.” One paw. Oh oh…I did a double take, not because he said “no” instead of “yes”, but because he answered! I mean, come on, I was joking here; trying to pass the time. But why “no?”

“You have a different name, but I call you Morning?” the second white paw came to rest near the first.

“You ran away from your previous owner?” one paw.

“They kicked you out?” one paw and a thump of his tail.

“You…didn’t have an owner?” two paws.

“So I don’t own you either, you’re just a passing visitor?” still two paws.

“Planing to stay long?” I joked, not expecting an answer, but both paws stayed put.

“Huh. Well I guess I can’t make you leave, eh?” one paw. I sighed.

“Fine. Make yourself at home. I’ve got some homework to do.”

That night, still cold but full of stars, I crept into my bed after a proper, warm dinner sitting in my stomach, and before I closed my eyes, Morning crept into my room. No, no, not the morning of dawn. Morning my cat. His yellow green eyes glowed eerily in the dark, two dots in the middle of a face that was slightly lighter than the rest of the room; his body, of course, was lost in the darkness. He padded across the wood floor like a ghost, then jumped up on my bed and ah! curled on my stomach! I froze, but his warm weight didn’t leave me. I rolled my eyes and went back to sleep. It wouldn’t be my fault if I accidentally squashed him during the night. And thus ended our first day together, the first of many more to come.

A/N so? Did you like it? Hate it? Please tell me? This being the first chapter of many, I need to know whether to continue in this manner. Of whether to continue at all! )

Ola