Wilbur Robinson's Neighbor

7.Cats and Talks

   Wilbur has a inventor genius dad, a mom who taught frogs to sing and play instruments, even a intergalactic pizza delivery guy for an uncle, and he's never seen this many cats in one place before. Wilbur didn't know how it didn't cross his mind before.

   There were eight just like she said and in varying colors. Most were just big kittens and very cute. Wilbur thought it was the cutest that they all moved in a herd.
   Wilbur and Y/n sat in lawn chairs around a rusty old fire pit and played with whatever cat came crawling up.

   Wilbur wanted to say something but couldn't think of the best thing to say. He wanted to ask if she was okay but she'd just say she was fine. Which was true to her, she'd allow herself to be distracted and forget about it in a while. Wilbur didn't know that quite yet but he'd learn.
   Silence. Finally, a good first question floated into his mind.
   "How ya feeling?" It was simple. It could have been anything.
   Y/n yawned, "Tired. I don't know when I went to sleep."
   Wilbur was learning about her little by little and found that sometimes she deflected things by changing the subject, relating it to other things (that the person 'just so happened' to care about), or ,like this, making it seem what it isnt. She wasn't lying completely that way. It was like how he avoided questions with his 'excellent question' quip.
   Wilbur liked that about her. She has rules but she can also bend her rules. Unfortunately, this makes it hard to really talk to her that way. He was clever and could see through most people's tricks but even he got lost in her word trap. He's gonna have to be more direct, push her into a corner and limit her distraction use.
   "What is it with your dad?"
"He's annoying."
   "You don't look annoyed, you look pissed."
"I'm annoyed. It'll be okay."
   "You get annoyed whenever your dad comes up."
   She sits there, absent mindedly scratching a little black kitten under the chin.
   "He's always complaining." She finally starts, "Its like he never has anything nice to say and I'm fucking sick of it. And if he does have anything good to say it ends up sounding like he's making fun of me. I dont know if he is or not."
   Wilbur looked at her thoughtfully.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine. It's everyday, I'm used to it."
   Wilbur was sad for her, that was probably why she's so self conscious in the first place.
   "Well, if you ever need to get away from him, just call me and I'll come get you." Wilbur offered. She looked at him and her cheeks became rosy.
   "Thank you," her voice was light and airy again and her smile grew.
   Y/n felt amazingly warm inside. She's always wanted a friend like this and she finally has it.

   "The two bigger black ones are 17 and 18. 17 is the guy, 18 the girl, and the other one doesn't have a name yet." Y/n explained. Wilbur asked what all of their names were to try and help her distract away from her dad.
   "The two orange ones dont have names. The two calicos are Caramel and Mocha. Caramel is a lighter color." She picked up Mocha and held her close, the kitten snuggling its head against her.
   Wilbur was holding onto the nameless black one. So far he liked her the most.
   "So where's the 8th one?" He asked, scratching behind the cats ears.
   "That's one of the litters moms and she's probably walking around."
"One of?"
   "We had this other cat, Vados, who's the mother of 17 and 18 and a few others that we either gave away or ran off."
"What happened to her?"
   "She ran off somewhere, she was pregnant so she probably gave birth somewhere and just decided to never come back."
"That's sad."
   "I guess." Y/n said. She stared into the distance, looking how she was when she was daydreaming.
   "What's this other litters moms name?" Wilbur asked, bringing her back to earth. Y/n twitched slightly.
   "Octavia." Y/n seemed lost but at least she looked peaceful.
Wilbur watched her for a while before feeling that the nameless black cat stopped purring. He petted it some more and cooed at it.
   Y/n listened to him have fun.
   "Do you want her?"
"What?"
   "These may be my children, but we still dont need this many. Do you want that one?"
   Wilbur thought for a moment. He wasn't sure what his parents would think of it. They already had a dog and T-Rex (Mostly because they had no idea how it got there in the first place, neither time machine was that big).
   "I'd have to ask my parents first but yeah I love this one."
   Y/n smiled.
   "So what are ya gonna name 'er?"
   Wilbur scratched his chin in thought, "Nameless. That sounds good right?"
"Yeah, that's great." Y/n made a squished smile at the cat, "Hi Nameless!" She cooed.

   Wilbur and Y/n eventually got tired of the growing amount of mosquitos and went back inside. It seemed to Wilbur she had forgotten about her dad, at least for a while.
   Franny texted Wilbur that she needed him back at the house. The boy got up to leave when Y/n stopped him.
   "Hey, what's going on tommorow?"
"Probably just stay at my house, if you want."
   "Great idea." Y/n looked like she wanted to say something else but was hesitant.
   "Wilbur?"
"Yeah?"
   She shuffled her feet, "Thank you," she was turning red, "For... being here."
   Wilbur cocked his head before going up and hugging her. She froze up a bit but fast relaxed and hugged him back,  snuggling her head in his shoulder. He patted her on the back before letting go.
   "You're very welcome, friend." He smiled and head out the door.
   Y/n watched him head down the road back to his house through a window and sighed.
   Whether I'm screwed or not, he's treated me better than anyone else ever has.

   Half an hour later, Y/n got a text with a picture from Wilbur. It was him, his mom and dad, and his new cat. 'Meet Nameless Robinson!'
   Y/n giggled and sent some thumbs up and laughing emojis back.

   Y/n felt excited to wake up the next day, it's been a while since she's felt that.