My Darling Feline (Bill X Fem! Reader)

Chapter One: Antlers

For thousands of years, humans ran the show. Top of the food chain, masters of fire, Wi-Fi, and bad decisions. It's in our wiring. We are linear thinkers. Point A to point B. Predator spots prey, calculates distance, goes in for the kill. That's how we survived. How we built cities, wrote poetry, invented taxes. We were the blueprint.

When one contemplates the streak of insanity running through human history, it appears highly probable that homosapiens are biological freaks, the result of some remarkable mistake in the evolutionary process from ape to man.

Now? Not so much. The world doesn't belong to us anymore. Humans, once the loudest, messiest apex predators, are fading into the background. And in our place? Beings that look a lot like us, talk like us, think like us, but with fur, feathers, scales. Anthropomorphic animals who didn't just survive, they evolved, carved out their own society, and claimed the spotlight we once thought was ours forever.

~

"No way—is that a human?"
"Yeah, I think so!"
"I've never seen one in person before..."
"Look at her—she's got no fur!"

The stares. The whispering. The pointing. You'd think I'd be used to it by now, right? But nope. Still awkward. Still exhausting. Being one of the last humans walking around a world packed to the brim with bipedal, fully conversational animals is about as fun as it sounds, which is to say, not very.

Today's my first day at Cherryton High, and am I thrilled about it? Ha. Not even a little. New schools always mean the same recycled crap, just repackaged with different names, different faces, and maybe a few more tails and snouts this time around.

I've only been here for, what, five minutes? And already I've heard rumors about a flirty little rabbit who apparently has her own courtyard for her "after-hours activities." So yeah, something tells me Cherryton's going to be eventful, and I can't quite decide whether to dread that or take it as entertainment.

Anyway, before we go any further, let's get the intro out of the way. I'm Y/N L/N. One of the rare humans still roaming the Earth. I'm sixteen, I'm starting my sophomore year, and I have a deep, irrational hatred for tomatoes. Within this society, everyone's divided into carnivores or herbivores, but humans like me? We don't exactly fit neatly into either box. We're omnivores. Meat, veggies, fish; you name it, we can eat it.

And yes, I know eating meat is illegal. Calm down. I'm not saying I'm out here munching on bacon behind the gym. I'm just stating the facts about the human diet. We're weird like that.

So. That's me. That's the world. And this? This is the start of whatever bizarre chapter fate's decided to throw at me next.

Let's see where this shit goes.

•••

My heart was doing that annoying thing again, beating way too fast, like it was about to punch a hole through my ribs and escape without me. I tried to breathe through it, but all I could think about were the infinite ways this year could go straight to hell.

I'm not exactly a magnet for drama. I've always been more of a background character, the quiet one, the observer, the "leave me alone, I'm just here to pass" type. Making real, lasting friends? Not exactly my strong suit. Constantly moving around doesn't help, and, well... being human in a school full of animals? Yeah, that tends to make things weird.

"So... beautiful."

"What an odd species."

The comments followed me like an echo. The stares didn't stop either. Wide eyes, flared nostrils, twitching ears, the works. I did my best to tune it all out, pretending I was somewhere else. Somewhere less... animal-heavy.