stoical - l.h.

four

❀❀

I manage to sit a far distance from the cat. I'd hoped that my jostling and moving around would wake it up and make it leave, but to no avail. The cat, Hiro, is like a deadweight, heavy on the blanket beneath him and happily sleeping on. I've never been around a cat, as I said before, and the thought of them has always sort of terrified me. They're just so weird, with their scratchy tongues and strange behaviors. Just now, Hiro is curled into an actual circle, and it is a mystery where his feet have gone. I mean, his legs are so long. How can he possibly tuck them underneath his body when he's curled up like that?

I'm almost stuck in a trance staring at the thing. Sorry, the animal. Despite potential fear of the unknown, Hiro is an interesting creature. His coat is sleek and looks soft, but the colors of it are so detailed. He isn't full black, or fully white, but a slight mix of both. The patterns of his fur are intricate and enchanting, grey, black, and white mixing together to form something like a personality, or an aura. I look into his sleeping face, and decide he might be cute. When his mouth opens, however, in a ferocious yawn, I'm able to see sharp teeth, that sandpaper, pink tongue. I jump back a little, but cannot tear my eyes away from the simple movement.

Hiro notices my gaze and locks eyes with me. His eyes are blue, and the first word that comes to mind to describe them is ice, even though ice isn't even blue. His pupils shrink as he looks at me, and my own eyes widen. The sight of it is a little bit amazing. If possibly, Hiro looks confused, but his interest is peaked. His ears move to the side, making him look funny. He does this strange, slow blink and nudges his nose towards me, but I don't know what it means. Maybe that he's about to attack? Maybe that he hates me? Probably both. I wouldn't be surprised or opposed to either, really.

Hiro stretches out his front paws so far that they reach my legs. I feel the pads of his paws come in contact with my skin, and I'm surprised that I don't feel sharp claws digging in. In fact, I don't see claws at all. All I see is round paws covered in white, fluffy fur. I try moving my leg backwards a bit, which is clearly the wrong idea. The cute, rounded paw suddenly grows claws, and they're latching onto my leg. Sure, it isn't deadly, and it doesn't even hurt much, but I still can't decide if retractable claws are more remarkable or terrifying.

Looking back up at the cat's face, I see his eyes trained on the spot where my leg moved. To my surprise, his pupils have expanded to fill up most of the blue. He looks almost playful, but dejected when I gently shove his paw away from my skin so I don't get hurt. Hiro lets out a disapproving mew, and I discover I've reached an all time low, feeling anxious around a cat because he might judge me or something.

In all of my focusing on this dumb creature, I haven't realized the voices outside of my door, but I do when they get a bit louder. I can identify Calum's deep voice and presumably Elise's voice. They don't sound particularly angry or alarmed, but I'm interested nonetheless. Their voices go silent after a few seconds of me trying to decipher any one word. My gaze returns to Hiro, but then I hear a gentle, hesitant knock at my door.

Furrowing my brow, I slowly say, "Uh...come in?"

The knob turns slightly, and in walks Elise, who is wearing a thin, white robe with her hair in a messy ponytail atop her head. She looks like she's just woken up, but doesn't appear grumpy or annoyed like I am when I wake up.

"Good morning, Lavender," she says sweetly. "I see you've met our little friend here."

I nod. "Good morning."

Elise walks closer to me. All of her movements are slow and deliberate, but seem like she's trying to hold herself back from moving too quickly.

"I heard you had a bit of a nightmare," she tells me. "Did you want to talk about anything with me? With anybody?"