79 His Friends (12)

Since the kitchen was empty, Kyro left the apartment once the fox got tired and went away to take a nap. He drove to the nearest store that sold recently butchered animals and got some fresh chicken breasts. The lady at the counter tried to entice him into buying more, but he managed to escape her plans once more.

Back home, he found the apartment silent as a grave. Upon entrance, he saw the fox sleeping on the sofa where he last saw it, but Lucy was nowhere in sight. He placed his peace offering on the counter in the kitchen and went in search of the cat.

There were a couple places Lucy liked to sulk in the most, but a few of them were out of order by now. Under the bed was taken by the fox as its hiding place, while it was now sleeping in the living room. This meant that only the study was free.

Kyro's eyes first went to the shadows under the desk, but there was nothing there. He then checked the rest of the room, to little more luck. Could Lucy have hid in the living room anyway? Despite the fox sleeping there?

It was unlikely. He stepped into the room and pivoted on his heel, taking a thorough look around. Then, he spotted something in the corner of his eye.

Up above, at one of the top shelves, a dark silhouette was squeezed atop the books. Lucy had done his best to hide himself, but it wasn't easy with all that fur. Parts of it were hanging on the side, along with the tail that hadn't fit into the free space.

"Are you certain that's comfortable?"

The ability of cats to sleep everywhere was truly wondrous. Kyro was not certain how Lucy got up that high, let alone how he found it tolerable to rest on all those different-sized book that must be cutting into his stomach. Not to mention that he didn't even fit fully into the space there and a part of him was hanging on the side.

With the tips of his fingers, Kyro could reach the cat, but he didn't want to just drag it down. That's why he brought over a chair and got up on it to get close to His Sulking Majesty.

"Are you done yet?" he asked.

Lucy meowed at him with obvious anger and his claws extended, but he didn't move. This was probably more related to there being no space than the cat not wishing to escape, though.

"Won't you reconsider it? I brought something for you." Kyro extended his hand to let Lucy smell the chicken on him, but the cat did not give him the opportunity.

As if having gone crazy, it clawed at the books and tried to get out. There wasn't much space and his movements weren't careful, so the next moment he was falling with a loud screech. Kyro grabbed him in midair, but the cat didn't care and continued squirming, which led to him losing his balance and falling down.

Once they were on the ground, Lucy screeched again and ran away after shaking his fur a bit to have it fall into place.

"Sometimes, I really wonder why I try so hard for you." Kyro massaged his side; there was probably gonna be a bruise there. "Damn cat."

The little fox came over, probably woken up by the commotion. Its ears were flickering right and left as it took note of the chair, the couple fallen books, and Kyro on the ground. Then, the fox sat down, not coming closer to him.

"Are you judging me now?" he asked, pushing himself off the ground. He dusted himself off and picked the books up to return them to their shelves. There didn't seem to be any damage on the covers, so he was quite glad for it.

The same couldn't be said about his hands, however. Now that he raised them up, he saw that they were marred with dozens of scratches, a couple of them deep enough to draw a drop of blood. With a light curse, he went into the bathroom to clean himself up.

Logic told him that the cat couldn't be faulted, but it wasn't easy not to blame him. The damn monster hadn't held back on the scratching in the slightest.

Still, he returned to the kitchen after cleaning his hands and placed the chicken breasts into Lucy's bowl. The cat wouldn't come out here in a while, so he brought it to the bedroom, near the bed under which Lucy was hiding.

"Iris, come," he called the fox so it wouldn't steal the food and led it into the living room. They sat down to watch a movie, and the fox instantly stole the remote control to make sure the channel stayed on the romance one. Their fight lasted for good five minutes before Kyro gave up.

His pets were having their own thoughts today, not caring for him in the slightest. 'Whatever, I can sit through this for some half an hour before sleep. I won't die. Probably.'

He was half-asleep already when the fox came over to lie down on his knees. It cooed gently and returned to watching the movie. He patted its head, smiling slightly. At least the fox didn't abandon him fully.

When he was about to stand up to go to sleep, a dark shadow jumped on the sofa and came to rest by his side. Lucy didn't say anything, just lay down quietly next to his leg. Kyro moved his hand to stroke the cat's fur, and Lucy licked his fingers, right where they were scratched.

This was… Kyro looked up at the movie that had been going for only half an hour, then the pets looking very comfortable around him, and breathed out heavily. It seemed like they were going to watch this chick flick to the end.