Disobey

Both Leah and Adam sat in the car, quietly. The air was tense between them, or so Leah felt, but she couldn't quite read Adam's face. Maybe he was angry at her, or better yet, he didn't care!

"I should just keep you locked inside your cage forever," he barked, breaking the silence between them. Leah flinched nervously, not knowing what to do.

"I... how did you even get in the bag? Ugh, that was so... unprofessional," he sighed, hitting his head against the steering wheel, "what's gonna happen if dad finds out I brought a damn cat to work? He'd... ugh..."

Leah felt kind of bad for what she'd done, but at the same time, it was necessary for her to get a hold on her surroundings. So far, she had one important piece of information and a potential lead on what her circumstance was - unfortunately, it came at Adam's cost.

"Mrrow..." Leah replied, trying to give some kind of comfort to her distressed partner.

"Sorry... how would a cat even know what was going on, I shouldn't have yelled... at... you... why am I still talking to a cat, argh!"

Adam started the ignition and began their drive home.

Leah looked out of the window as they drove past the acres of wooded area that surrounded the Carlhart mansion. It made sense as to why Madam Carlhart had been so adamant her child was safe. Entering the mansion without getting lost in the woods would be one thing, getting past her near military-grade defense would be another.

It wasn't long until they made it out of the Carlhart property and back into the city. Leah had recognized the highway that they were on, solely by it's name. She could almost guarantee herself that she was still in De'Lapin, and not some other extraterrestrial world.

It was the nicer side of De'Lapin. She had primarily lived in the Northern side of De'Lapin where she had spent a few years of her life, which was the less than stellar part. The other few she spent living in another territory, the Moralis Kingdom. Here, however, there was way less scrutiny against gray occulos in particular, so it had become a gathering area for gray tiers. In fact, De'Lapin had the highest concentration of gray-tiers, despite their extremely rare appearances.

They drove through a relatively nice town, partly suburban, with bustling outdoor restaurant and cafes with people walking their pets. And when she saw pets, she meant tame looking animals. Very few of them were regular house pets, like cats or dogs, hell, was even a fox walking on a leash. That's how you know you were in a well off place.

"Home or the office..." Adam muttered. Once at a stoplight, he angrily whipped his head around at the small kitten and growled, "You better stay put. All I have to do is some overbearing paperwork, and it won't take long. Behave."

Leah felt bad. Really, she did. But there were things she had to do, he would understand if he could... understand her cat lingo.

Leah continued to stare at the expensive stores and offices, oddly only colored beige or white, as they made their way through the town. Finally, they arrived at a location with large window panels that covered half the building, the other half being covered in red bricks. With neatly trimmed bushes and trees, plus two poles bearing the De'Lapin flag and the De'Lapin police flag. Most notably, above the entrance were bold silver letters that spelled out 'DE'LAPIN POLICE STATION'.

Ah, so he was a police officer.

'But why would a kid like him be handling a large police investigation?' Leah thought. He seemed no older than her-well, no older than her previous self-and someone of such a young age probably wouldn't be allowed to even glimpse at such an investigation. Maybe in other territories, sure, but De'Lapin's justice system was so hardcore that most of the lower ranked officers had to go through 4 years of training alone. This territory had a lot of pride in their police, and understandably so.

Adam parked the car in a parking lot just behind the building, underneath the shade of a tree. He rolled down the windows slightly and turned off the engine.

"Don't mess up my car," he wagged a finger at her, "don't make any noise, and don't die. It's not that hot out, so you shouldn't die in 30 minutes anyways."

'What an awful pet owner,' Leah shook her head.

She watched as Adam disappeared into the back door of the building, waiting a few seconds to make sure he didn't come back out. With her tiny paws, she clicked the lock button open and wrenched her claws between the car handle before it popped open.

Leah slid between the small crack of the door and hopped right out of the car. She tried closing the car door back shut, but it was too heavy. If Adam got robbed, oh well. At least she tried.

The kitten darted beneath cars and across the large field in front of the station, hopping into the bushes just beside the entrance. There wasn't much of a plan, honestly. The weight was all on her inability of getting arrested as a cat.

All she had to do is not get caught.

She carefully watched, waiting for an opportunity once someone walked in or out of the station. Once again, she engaged the aerflow in her legs, pumping it up as much as she could. Finally, a civilian came out of the glass doors. Leah darted past them and into the building, right into the open foyer and down a random corridor, finally hiding behind a vending machine.

"Woah, did you see something blue come out of nowhere?"

"Mm, maybe?"

Leah scanned the surrounding area carefully. The interior was a crisp white with splotches of black and gray - as if the color were sucked out of the building.

'There's got to be some kind of map around here,' Leah thought, scanning around the walls for any indication of direction. It was a golden opportunity for her situation, but she didn't quite plan anything through. Luckily enough, she never really thought things through, so doing something as brazen as this was nothing new to her.

She peeked down an empty corridor. No one in sight. Casually, she strolled down the building, glancing at the fancy architecture of random glass box rooms and minimalistic stairs. It felt more like a business' headquarters rather than an actual police department.

Finally, Leah found a room labeled "CID". The Criminal Investigation Department, if she remembered correctly. Though she had no idea if that was really the place she was looking for, maybe it had information she needed.