Ghost Eyes one-shots

Cat Café (Tobias & Rudy)

Genre: fluff
POV: Tobias
Words: 1,569
Suggested by @0Strawberry00
(Sorry it took so long! I wrote most of this right after it was suggested but I forgot about it until now. I hope you like it though!)

The school day had just ended and I was waiting for my mother to come and pick me up when my friend Rudy skipped over to me in his usual overly cheerful manner.
"Hey, Tobi!" he greeted me.
"Hello, Rudolph," I said. "Do you need something?"
"Oh! I was just gonna ask if you wanted to go to this cool place with me," Rudy explained excitedly. "It's called a cat café. It's a café, except they have a bunch of cats there and you can pet them and you can even adopt one if you want! Oh, but my dad won't let me have a cat so we can't do that but it's still pretty cool, right?"
"That sounds ridiculous. Why would you want to have a horde of flea-ridden beasts running about while you're trying to eat?"
"Because they're really cute and you get to hang out with them. Also, I'm pretty sure they don't have fleas," Rudy said. "Will you please go with me? My mom's too busy to take me there so you're my only hope!" He looked at me with sad pleading eyes I couldn't say no to.
"Very well," I sighed reluctantly. "I'll ask my mother if I can accompany you to this 'cat café.'"
Rudy's face lit up as soon as I accepted his invitation. "Oh, thank you, Tobi! It'll be fun, I promise. Tomorrow's Saturday so we can go then. Unless you're busy. You're not busy, right?"
"No, I'm not busy. But I still don't know whether my parents will allow me to go."
"Oh, okay. Well if they say you can let's meet there at 2:00 pm if that's good for you. Here's the address." He handed me a scrap of paper with an address written on it and a cutesy doodle of a cat in the corner. "Don't mind the cat. I was bored during class."
"I see. Well, presuming my parents approve of this outing, I will meet you at this glorified petting zoo tomorrow."

Time skip

Surprisingly, my parents let me go to the cat café with Rudy. Mother was glad I was making an effort to socialize with kids my age, and after a lot of convincing from her, father reluctantly agreed as well.
My mother drove me to the address Rudy had given me, and she gave me my father's phone so I could text her when I needed her to pick me up.
I stood in the parking lot as I watched her drive away. And then I waited. And waited. And then it was 2:30 according to the clock on Father's cell phone and Rudy still wasn't here.
Where is he? I thought. This isn't just some cruel plan to leave me here until I go insane listening to all this incessant meowing, right?
Just as I was about to text my mother to bring me home, I saw Rudy's father's truck pull into the parking lot. Then the pastel-donned red-headed boy who I seemed to have befriended for a reason I could not comprehend quickly ran over to where I had been waiting.
"Sorry I'm so late!" He apologized through gasps, out of breath after his dash across the parking lot. "My brother needed help with his homework so my dad had to help him before he could drive me here. Were you waiting for long?"
"I've been here for half an hour. It's fine, though. Let's just go inside," I said, not wanting to stand here any longer.
"Okay. Come on, then."
I followed him to the entrance of the café. As soon as we stepped inside, the meowing that I could hear from the parking lot was far louder. There were about a dozen cats, most of them either napping or being pet by one of the customers. The building smelled of coffee and pastries, and there were paintings of cats in pastel colors on the walls.
A little ginger tabby promptly padded over to us and mewed in greeting.
Rudy gasped. "Oh my gosh, hi! You're so cute and little!" He patted its head and it purred in response. "Tobias, look! Isn't he cute?"
I looked at it. It looked like a cat. Nothing special. "I suppose so," I answered half-heartedly.
Rudy picked up the cat and held it up to me. "Wanna pet him?"
I didn't. But I knew that Rudy wanted me to, so I did anyway. The cat's fur was surprisingly soft. And Rudy was right, it didn't have fleas. I continued to pet it, and then it gently pawed at my face and meowed sweetly.
"Aww, I think that means he likes you," Rudy said.
"Perhaps. Or it just wanted to see what my face felt like."
Rudy laughed a little as he set the cat down. "Maybe. Now come on, let's go get something to eat."
He walked up to the counter and I followed him, avoiding a cat that had decided it was a good idea to run across the room directly in my path.
Rudy ordered some coffee and pastries for us, then we sat down at one of the tables.
"Mmm, this is really good," Rudy commented as he took a bite of his strawberry-flavored cake. "Here, wanna try some?" He pushed the plate toward me.
"Uh, sure." I took a bite of the cake. "It's, um, very sweet."
"Not as sweet as you are though!" Rudy said, then laughed at the cheesiness of his compliment. "Sorry, I know that was pretty silly."
Normally I would be annoyed by something like that, but something about seeing Rudy laugh, seeing him look genuinely happy for once, it made me feel happy too. I smiled a little.
"No, I liked it. It was a very... you thing to say."
"Heh, thanks." He looked away but I could see him smiling.
He went back to eating his cake and I drank my coffee. It was the first time I'd had coffee since Father didn't like us to have much caffeine. It was very bitter, but I liked it.
Suddenly a cat jumped up onto the table. It was the same ginger tabby from before.
"Oh, hello again," Rudy said, petting its ears.
The cat hopped down from the table and onto his lap.
"Tobi, look," he said. "The cat likes me." He pet it more and it purred happily.
"Yes, it seems like it does. Good for you, Rudolph. I'm glad that you have befriended this cat," I said, making an attempt to sound supportive of his current activity.
We eventually finished our coffee and desserts, and Rudy befriended as many cats as he could in the process. They seemed to like him, and several of them followed him even as we left.
"You guys have to stay here, okay?" He tried to explain to them. "It was nice to meet all you kitties, though!" He pat each of them on the head as he said goodbye. "You should say bye to them too, Tobi."
"Why? They can't understand me."
"Come on, please?"
"Alright," I sighed. "Farewell, cats. I'll probably not see you again, but I hope you have a good life getting pet by strangers in this café."
"Hey, Tobi, look." Rudy pointed to the ginger tabby who had been following us around. It was now curled up on a pillow in the corner next to a black cat with bright blue eyes.
"Yes, I see. It's the cat from before and another cat. What about them?" I asked.
"Don't they kinda look like us?"
I looked at them closer. I couldn't see the resemblance, they just looked like generic cats to me. "Uh, not really."
"Well their fur is the same colors as our hair, and they're friends," he said. "So I think that if we were cats we'd probably be those cats."
"Why do we need to decide which cats we would be?"
"Just for fun. Hey, do you need a ride home? I'm sure my dad would take you when he comes to pick me up," Rudy offered as we walked outside.
"Ah, no, but thank you for the offer," I said. "My mother is going to pick me up."
"Oh okay. I'll see you at school on Monday though right?"
"Yes, Monday is a school day, so unless something goes horribly wrong I shall be there."
"Horribly wrong? Like what-?" Rudy asked, looking concerned.
"It's just a hypothetical, Rudolph, don't worry," I reassured him.
Just then, Rudy's father's truck pulled into the parking lot.
"Oh, looks like I gotta go. Goodbye, I love you, see you on Monday, friendo!" Rudy said, hugging me quickly and then skipping over to the truck before I had time to react.
"Uh, goodbye," I called after him. I watched as the truck drove away, then messaged my mother to inform her that I was ready to be picked up.
I sat on the curb, thinking about the day as I waited. This wasn't the sort of place I'd typically like, but it was fun spending time with Rudy today. He was a strange boy, and I didn't quite understand him, but I was beginning to take a liking to him. I was glad to be his friend. Sure, we were both dealing with a lot right now, but I was starting to think that together, maybe we could have a brighter future.