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 Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 11:11 pm
Shep didn't know about her cat, and that was the way Erika wanted it. He wouldn't be happy if she popped up and told him that she had acquired a pet, and wanted to take care of it. Him. She didn't know how to convince Shepherd that the small ginger tabby was essential to her happiness, and wasn't sure she wanted to put another burden on her big brother.
For now, she contented herself with climbing up the fire escape with her cat at her heels. "C'mon, Tomlin," she whispered, peeking over her shoulder. Her sneakers were beat up, but no more so than the worn-to-white jeans and neatly patched hoodie. "My room's right here." She had left the window unlocked. Shep was already asleep, but he was a light sleeper; she jimmied the window up as quietly as she could, wincing with each protest from the old window. She would have to oil the grooves tomorrow, she thought.
Once the window opened wide enough for her to slip through, she clambered through and held out her arms for Tomlin to hop into. She set him down quickly right on the coverlet of her bed, perhaps sensing he didn't like to be held. She shushed him, one finger held against her lips, and skittered out to the kitchen to find something for him to eat. What did kittens even like? She decided to take some of the lunch meat from the fridge, hoping against hope that Shep wouldn't notice.
"This is my house," she told Tomlin, setting the bowl of water and the plate of lunch meat on the floor before her cat. "Shep lives here, but we have to be quiet, or he'll get mad."
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Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 9:34 am
The cat tensed on the fire escape, judging the distance and considering if it was safe to aim for the windowsill beside her instead. But the outstretched arms were waiting, and he couldn’t bear the thought of disappointing her. Tension shifted to bunched muscles as he leapt up into her arms. The way Erika held him was almost comforting, not restricting. Nothing like the animal control people. She only held him for a moment after all.
Jumping down off the bed, Tomlin padded silently around the room while he waited, examining the furniture and the awkwardly sticking window. He rubbed his cheek against her leg when she returned, gratefully accepting the food and water as if it was a feast. As far as he was concerned, it was. “You are wonderful, Erika.”
He ate quickly, bad habits from life on the street, as if he might be shooed off or have it taken away before he could finish. His bracers chinked on the edges of the bowl, a faint windchime scraping.
“Shep doesn’t like being woken up?” he guessed when he’d finished. He wasn’t a big fan of ‘having to’ do anything just because someone else said so.
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Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 1:59 am
She smiled, glowing under her cat's thoughtful praise. Her? Wonderful? Wow! She didn't even know what she could really say to that, other than wow. "You're wonderful, too," she said, stoutly; she knew instinctively that her Tomlin was simply the best, most wonderful of cats, just like she knew that her Shepherd was simply the best, most wonderful of brothers. Really, in some ways, Erika thought herself very blessed.
The brunette bent down to kiss the top of Tomlin's fluffy copper head once he finished eating. She was glad to see he'd eaten everything; later she would have to ask what he wanted to eat, because she had some allowance saved up. Erika had been half-thinking of purchasing her own mp3 player or a better CD player or even headphones that weren't half busted, but, she had responsibilities to her cat. She wasn't going to depend on anyone else to look after her Tomlin, she knew that for sure! Not even the cat himself.
"Shep works a lot so we can live here and I can go to school," she told Tomlin at his question. "He'd be okay if I woke him up because I needed him, but if I woke him up now he'd be kind of mad. He'd never hit me though. Shep is a good person, and I love him a lot."
She paused, thinking about that for a moment. The things Shepherd gave up for her numbered in the hundreds, if not the thousands. A college education. Sleep. A good job. Peace. Free time--he always came to Back-To-School night, and he had given her the best, most beautiful winter coat for her birthday. It'd been really useful in the rain and the wet of springtim, too. "So we need to take care of him, too," she whispered. "You 'n me 'n Shep, we are a family. That's how it works."
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Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2011 6:56 am
“You’re not eating?” he asked, looking up into the wide grey eyes when she bent to kiss him. It was terribly sweet, he thought, the way she came down to his level to talk to him.
The room smelled distinctly of Erika, and indistinctly of a second presence, presumably sleeping in the other room at this late hour. He waited for the exact relationship Erika’s Shep was to her, but it didn’t come. There was a lot of information in those short phrases, though. His tail flicked in little sharp motions back and forth as he listened, only stilling at the qualifier - he’d never hit her? The statement jarred in the girl’s otherwise glowing review. A residual worry from the fighting they’d been in, he wondered? Or some earlier caution? This was not exactly a fancy part of town, and he wasn’t so naïve as to think every child in the area could say as much, or with such certainty. Not all the bad things happened in alleyways. Well, he was here now, and whatever else, he would scratch up anyone who even thought about hurting his senshi. Or her Shep.
“Sounds like he’s really busy,” the cat said at last. “Best if we don’t bother him, then. With senshi things. We’ll take care of that ourselves.”
He settled on Erika’s foot, stomach resting on the battered sneaker as if it was a comfortable mattress, tail curling around her ankle - a somewhat awkward position that made him look like a small ginger dragon on a hoard of precious things.
“We’ll protect him. That’s what senshi do."
Home and family? Yeah, the alley cat could definitely get used to this.
"Is there anyone else in our family?” he asked, an afterthought. Just because no-one else lived here didn't mean there wasn't anyone else to look out for.
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Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 1:20 am
She shook her head, brown bangs never going near her eyes--once they would have, but after an encounter with the wrong side of a bully's scissors her hair remained cropped close to her head. Erika was trying to grow it out with very little success at all; it seemed to be deliberately growing slower, just to spite her. Realistically she knew it wasn't true, but it felt that way, especially when she looked in the mirror and she still looked like she'd been run over with a lawnmower. "I'm not really that hungry. Don't worry, Tomlin."
She patted his tail, and smiled when he settled over her feet. Her fingertips traveled from the top of his head to the tip of his tail, and then again; she'd rarely interacted with cats, but it came naturally--easily, even. Just good logic, she supposed. She wouldn't like it if someone petted her the wrong way. "We can take care of each other," she said, sounding delighted like this--like instead of just saying that they'd take care of things, he'd said they were going to have a trip to Disneyland. (Which, by the way, was only one of her deepest, most secret dreams.)
The question as to her family caused the bright smile to drop away, and she visibly shrunk into herself. "Not anymore," she said, and deciding to take a risk, she told Tomlin: "Momma's dead. Father beat her to death because she did something wrong. Shep called the police and got Father put away in jail for a very, very long time, and he says that Father's not our father anymore, so that means he isn't. But I don't know what else to call him. So… I guess that it's just you, and me, and Shep."
Erika thought for a minute, and dug around in the kangaroo pocket of her hood. She removed her henshin pen, the black and cobalt blue catching the light in an odd way. "And maybe the Jovians." Was it uncharitable to be uncertain? Erika did not trust easily… she never had. Probably she never would. "They seem nice… but so do a lot of people, until you get to know them. What do you think, Tomcat?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 5:50 am
Food, and the gentle hand along his back lulled him, and he settled into a boneless orange footwarmer, more comfortable than he could remember ever being. His eyes drifted closed, and he nodded at Erika’s happy tone, a movement that rubbed his cheek and chin against her ankle. Yes, they would take care of each other, he thought, the beginning of a soft rumbling purr reaching his throat. And nothing bad would–
He felt the change in her posture, the curling in, and a sliver of tail-twitching worry ran through him, building to utter horror as she spoke, the bottom dropping out of the daydream-perfect world he’d wanted for her, for their family.
“Oh Erika,” he said, concern outweighing the sadness that touched his voice. He couldn’t think of anything else to say, because what was there that he could offer in consolation to that? He didn’t know how to comfort her, not when she spoke so matter-of-factly about such callous tragedy. There was part of him that was fiercely berating himself, for not being here sooner – but it was a small, almost selfish feeling, and quickly dissipated under the depths of his worry for his little senshi. Any troubles he’d had in his rough-edged life seemed trivial, mere inconveniences.
With slow, careful movements, he arched his back up beneath her hand, and climbed into her lap, curling there instead as if he could shield her by proximity alone.
“Shep was very brave – just like you,” he said at last. It was inane, perhaps, but he felt he needed to say something – anything – to take that expression off her face. When the pen came out, he licked at her hand, reassurance and approval in the little rough-tongued gesture.
“I trust them. But you take your time – they’ll still be here when you decide. It’s good to have someone to call on. We won’t be alone.”
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