Pretty Kitty

Casimiro stopped the car in front of a huge apartment building.

"Oh, please," Nova scoffed quietly. "Don't tell me you stay in the penthouse."

"Of course I stay in the penthouse. Why wouldn't I?" he said with a raised eyebrow.

Nova rolled her eyes, stepping out of the car.

Of course he stays in the penthouse. Why wouldn't he stay in the freaking penthouse? She would stay in it.

If she had that money.

She shook her head to herself and followed the tall man inside.

He wore a black dress shirt and pants with no tie and no jacket. He held his phone in his gloved hand. His hair was pushed back, but was slightly messy.

It looked soft.

Her eyes widened. Why would she think that? Focus on other things, Nova! Gosh.

"How come you don't have a gun on you?" she asked curiously as they made their way into the elevator.

He chuckled. "You know I own this building, right?"

"Uh-"

"And almost every building on this street."

"No need to brag," she mumbled, staring at the doors as they closed.

Casimiro pressed the button labeled '60' and it lit up yellow.

"I don't carry a gun with me because I don't need to."

"I mean, I could have a knife and just kill you right now," she said.

He glanced down at her with a slight smirk, but said nothing.

Her mouth opened in offense. "Hey! I could kill you without even needing a weapon!"

He still said nothing, amused by the red flush of anger on her pale cheeks and the fire in her eyes.

Nova glared at the ground. How rude.

She glanced up at him and found his silver gaze on her. She flushed, stiffening, and pursed her lips.

How cute, Casimiro thought as he watched the flush spread to her ears and neck.

The ding of the elevator broke the silence and the doors opened to a keypad.

Nova curiously watched him input the code.

122321

She looked up at his side profile, wondering why he so obviously let her watch him put the code in.

He didn't pay attention to her as the solid metal door moved to the left and opened up the view to the penthouse.

Welp. It was huge. And beautiful.

Nova scrunched her face up, aggrieved. Why couldn't she be rich? It wasn't fair.

Everything was mostly black and modern looking. There were no wires sticking out, no pipes bursting, nothing leaking from the ceiling. Geez, and it smelled nice, too.

She walked to the huge tinted windows and looked out among the city. People were bustling around, oblivious to anyone who could be watching them. Adults heading to work, teenagers hanging out, toddlers swinging from their parents' arms.

Grief hit her in the heart. She remembered when her parents used to do that with her. She felt so free and loved.

Darkness twisted in her stomach like a pit of evil, consuming her kindness and her will to do good and abide by her morals. How dare they take her parents. The tendrils of revenge coldly wrapping around her until she was barely human enough to think.

"You should eat something," a deep voice spoke, breaking her out of the spell of darkness.

Her heart ached deeply as she walked towards the tall man. He probably knew a little about how she felt after he lost his mom.

Casimiro watched the woman. She was very hard to read sometimes. Her shoulders were tensed and taught, her eyebrows pulled together. She was bothered by something, but he doubted it to be the fact that he basically kidnapped her. She could very much have hurt him any time she wanted, but she didn't.

She was intriguing, to say the least.

Nova stopped in front of the black kitchen counter and stared at the plates of food.

Wow. That's a lot of food.

She looked up across the counter at Casimiro.

"Eat."

And that was all she needed.

She dug into the variety of foods as Casimiro watched her silently. Soon, his phone rang.

He stepped away as he answered the call, Nova looking at him in confusion.

"Boss," a man said. "We found a copy of her records. Her name is, um…"

"What is it?" he asked impatiently.

"It's Nova."

Interesting name, he used to know—

"Nova Orion."

The world stopped.

"What did you say?" he asked quietly, in a dangerously low voice.

Meanwhile, Nova had finished her fill of foods and put the empty plates in the sink. She started to wash the plates and look for a rag to dry them, when she found a dishwasher.

"Ooooooh," she gasped. She opened it and put the dishes inside. "This is so nice," she whispered. "I want a dishwasher."

When she finished stacking the dishes inside the dishwasher, she closed it and walked into the living room.

She saw Casimiro standing with his back to her in front of the large windows. Seeing as he was busy on the phone still, she took it upon herself to explore.

She walked around the large living room and came to a set of stairs leading up.

Her mouth gaped open.

"It keeps going up," she whispered exasperatedly.

She climbed the stairs quietly and came to a dark room. She was astonished to find that there were no other rooms.

Casimiro's room, like the rest of the apartment, was mostly black with a little bit of white and red here and there.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when something touched her legs. However, once she looked down, she found a beautiful black cat looking up at her with two different colored eyes. One green and one blue.

Nova pet the fluffy cat as it purred. It flopped down, the white collar showing. It was jeweled and bedazzled with a little white bow on it, too. She grabbed the silver heart tag.

"I see you found Stella," a voice rumbled close behind her.

Nova jumped a little, surprised by how silently he was able to sneak up on her.

"Stella, huh?" Nova mumbled, scratching the cat behind the ears. "Pretty name."

"Similar to yours," Casimiro pointed out.

"When did you get her?"

"About a year ago. I distinctly remember a certain someone saving a pet shelter on fire. Perhaps that someone thought I was one of the firemen when they handed a tiny kitten with singed fur to me."

Nova's mouth gaped as she stood up and turned around. "I didn't know that was you. I was just handing the animals to random people trying to save them. I was the only one small enough to get through the door when the wood collapsed over half of it."

"I remember," he said solemnly, his silver gaze searching her face. "I didn't know you were the one hunting me though. I believe our paths crossed in more worlds than just the one I run."

Nova scoffed, rolling her neck as it started to hurt from looking up at him. "Yeah, about that. I got a couple things to say to you…"