Aloe Vera Flowers - OMORI Oneshots

7. Quiet Hours

Summary: Sunny drops by Faraway park.

Ships: N/A

Content warnings: Animal death

Genre: Gen

Notes: This one's really really short you guys, I hope you don't mind...after working on the last chapter I really needed a break haha. And this is my first time properly writing in the first person, so I'm still kinda getting used to it and it probably sounds a bit awkward (^_^;)

And you know how in the sections of the game during Faraway Town, if you go around at night and there are a ton of cats around? I wanted to do something with that :)

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Mewo died today.

I felt a bit bad since she was Mari's cat and not mine. But we had to take her to the vet, and mom told me that she just needed a check up...But they put her down. It's still weird to talk about her in the past tense.

Now I can't sleep, and It's really late. I don't want to bother Mari...She's been super upset. She didn't cry in front of me, though. I don't know why. I turned over in my bed to look at her to see if she was still mourning.

Mourning...it was weird to say that.

But she was asleep, and our clock said it was well past midnight. She's always so welcoming when I have nightmares, and lets me sleep in her bed, but...

I was getting restless all of a sudden. I decided to get up, and I crept past the laundry basket, grabbing my nightlight (only Mari and my parents know that I still have one; it's in the shape of a cat and can change color. It's kind of embarrassing, but I still really like it). Making sure not to step on the creaky floorboards, I carefully opened the bedroom door...I needed to do something. I just wasn't sure what yet

I've never gone out in the middle of the night by myself. I'm afraid of the dark, but having my nightlight helped. I'm still not sure why I decided to get up...I think I was too distracted to focus on anything, really. Too sad, too.

I almost went to the backyard to sit in my favorite tree, but remembered that we're working on a treehouse out there now, so wood was scattered across the grass. I didn't want to step on anything. Kel stepped on a nail last weekend, and it wasn't pretty. I can't remember why he wasn't wearing any shoes, although it didn't really surprise me.

I walked out on the sidewalk in the front instead, but I wasn't sure where I'd go. I stared at Kel and Hero's house for a while...It looked so...what's a big word that Mari uses a lot...foreboding. Their house looked foreboding in the dark like that.

I kept walking along the sidewalk, just going forward, and heard the sound of crickets chirping and some birds that decided to stay up late. It felt like it was my body pulling me forward and not my brain. It happens sometimes...I still don't know why. Eventually though, I reached Faraway Park where I started to hear meowing, of all things.

It felt like a trick at first, and I thought I was going crazy, that maybe Mewo was getting to my head. But there were cats there, all along the park. One was sitting on top of the monkey bars, and some were sleeping soundly on the grass. Two of them were chasing each other around the basketball court. I don't think any of them had collars.

I sat down on the swingset, trying not to bother any of them. I wanted to pet them really bad...

One of them, the one on the monkey bars, dropped down and looked at me, as if it could read my mind. It was orange and had green eyes. It meowed at me.

"Hello." I said to it.

It walked forward to me and rubbed against my leg. I smiled. "Hi there." I said again. I pet it, it's tail raising up as I ran my hand across its back.

"Are you alone, too?" I asked as I picked it up. It stood on my lap. I was surprised it hadn't run away from me yet. I always think I'm going to scare animals. I always seem to ruin things in some way or another.

It rubbed against my arm. "I think I'm sad today." I said. "I don't think you get sad, though. Are you sad?" I asked as I looked down at it.

The cat situated itself on my lap and I continued to pet it. "I don't think you're sad. I don't wanna make you sad, too."

It didn't respond.

"Maybe I didn't deserve Mewo." I said as I looked up to think. "I don't deserve a lot of things from Mari..." I pet it's head as it started to purr. "Do I deserve you?" I asked, looking down again. It rolled around and looked at me. It wanted tummy scratches.

"Okay." I said as I started to scratch it's—or, his—stomach. He closed his eyes. I smiled at him. He didn't have a collar.

"Can I name you myself?" I looked around. No one was here, and it didn't seem like there were any owners looking for the cats. Maybe all the strays come out at night to play with each other to make sure no one takes them.

Maybe I shouldn't name him. He seems just as happy without one.

I gently picked the cat up and sat him down back on the grass. It was getting late.

As I picked up my night light from the ground and began walking out of the park, I looked back at him. The rest of the cats were getting sleepy, but he was looking straight back at me.

"Thank you for letting me visit." I told him. "And thank you for making me feel better." I said.

I let him see me smile. I thought he deserved it. And I thought maybe I did, too.

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Notes: I thought it would be a good idea to practice writing in the first person for this one! So things might sound a bit off...I was trying to get in character by changing the tone, but I worry that it just sounded awkward. Writing a silent protagonist is super hard!!

Also! I was thinking of maybe just posting the next chapter as a bunch of headcanons? I have so many lol, it's really fun to write them when I need to take a break from the normal chapters. And it also gives me time to work on some longer ones!