The morning was bleak and cold yet the air is not soothing, it's dry to the point of stifling. Liam's mind is slowly awaken by the harsh morning breeze. His eyes is crusted and he stills as he can't find the will to move his body. Slowly, his skin feels irritated, as if thousands of ants crawls on it despite all the fur on his body. He moves his hind legs to curl outwards and screeches as it grates across the coarse surface. He swivels both of his ears around to sense the surroundings. Opening his eyes, he inwardly regretted it as the early rays of sun try to literally scorch his eyes. Squinting, his eyelids flaps to allow the inner counterpart to make way for his vision to function.
He allows his body to moves along with the aches and scratches on his body. Pacing slowly and curling his paws at times to profit from the safe ground that strangely calms him. He wills his being to be anywhere except from this place. His mind feels drowsy but he permitted his paws to have the mind of its own. He could somehow recall the sorrowful event from the previous night; in an effortless manner it is, as his mind works to unconsciously torture him in loops. He purrs as his body moves, igniting his bones to construct the effort.
***
The market is unusually busy today. The hustle of it irritated his ears no more. Zayn sat perched up on an empty counter. His tail swishes as he feels annoyed by the sudden packed patrons. The portion of food he had for the day is not enough as he could feel the cold air biting through amidst all the commotion.
Suddenly his body is knocked forth off the counter and Zayn yelped as his body hit the cold cement. He quivered and try to propel himself for a run. His eyes caught a silhouette of a pair slipper clad feet with one of them of extra toes when he turns towards a corner for his run. Before he could get further, the blond man caught his tail and pull his body backwards. Hissing, Zayn sets up a warning so that the man would leave him alone. The man faces him and Zayn instinctively let out his claws and scratches his feet.
Zayn run to hide himself under the dark of the empty market's counter. He panics more as he realized that he is now trapped under there with the man on the open side. The man let out a hurt-like-sound hit Zayn's head non so gently with something slimy. Dumbfounded, Zayn raised his head to the light and focused his eyes on the man.
"That fish is for you, tom. Sorry I kinda pulled your tail without thinking, such a nasty scratch you got me, eh?"
The man reached out his palm to pet Zayn. The man holds himself strong, bigger than Zayn he is, and a stranger to top it off. Feeling intimidated, Zayn hiss again and ducked out of the man's touch.
"Oh come on, let me pet you."
The man then crouched down to Zayn's level and kneeled near Zayn. He presents the back of his one hand to Zayn, curling his fingers in his palm and raised his curled middle finger a bit to brushed it to Zayn's nose. Zayn cents the man, stay still on his paws, not giving any reaction to signal his approval of the man. Then, the man rubs the stem of Zayn's nose with his knuckles, curling them in to his palm. Slowly, he moves his knuckles to Zayn's whiskers and brushes it on both side of his face.
"Nice tom, nice and strong cat you are."
Slowly, the man lift his hand and pet Zayn's head soothingly. He looked straight at Zayn and blinked his eyes. Zayn blinked back. The man kept staring at him until Zayn breaks down the contact. The man then nudged Zayn to the fish that he has just throw to Zayn. Zayn picks it in his mouth and bolted from the area.
"Not so fast there, tom."
Zayn finds his body being lifted from the ground to the man's arm. Struggling while trying to keep the fish in his mouth from falling, Zayn is suddenly being slide down from his rear end into a small cage, then it is closed on his face. He yowls and the fish he held on his teeth falls out and slides out through the cage.
"Sigh. So much for controlling yourself from getting a cat, Niall."
***
"Well, look at that. I guess another one from me, then."
Niall picked up the calico cat that is unconscious on his front porch, balanced it with the cage and his groceries that he holds with only one arm, a smile plastered on his face.
