Muffins - Loki & Ylva alternate universe stories

Cat sitting II

The next day is much of the same: the cat keeps an eye at her from his chosen spot, either the windowsill or the bookcase, and only moves around the house when she's out of sight. On the plus side: he keeps using the toilet instead of the litter box and he eats his food without making a mess. He's not much trouble, even though Ylva would like it better if the cat would finally warm up to her. So she keeps talking to the cat, cause for Lisa to make fun of her for it.
"I don't understand why you keep talking to that animal like he can understand you. All he does is glare at us."

"He glares at you, yes," Ylva objects. "I like to think he's only watching me."

Her cousin starts to laugh. "Sure, that hellcat tolerates you better because you're the one to feed it!"

"Or because I talk to it! Isn't that right, kitty?" The cat blinks at her, sitting a few yards away in the window.

Lisa shakes her head with a smile. "All those bad dates made you a crazy cat lady."

"At least this cat is not dating other girls behind my back!"

"You don't know that, who knows what kind of pussy this stud is chasing when you're at work!" Lisa lets herself get chased out of the room by a laughing Ylva. "I'm going to Marc's," she says by the door. "You and your cat boyfriend have a nice evening!"

Ylva turns into the kitchen, calling out to the cat. "If you want to have a choice in your dinner, better get your butt in here. Otherwise I'm choosing."
She doesn't expect the animal to turn up, but a few minutes later the black cat pads around the corner and jumps up a chair. "Going to help me make dinner, buddy?"
Of course the cat doesn't say anything, yet Ylva keeps talking anyway while she prepares her food. With the pasta sauce simmering on the stove, she opens the fridge to get something for the cat. "What's it gonna be buddy? Looks like you got a choice of steak tartare and salmon. Boy, Thor really spoils you." Ylva takes out the fish and meat, holding it up for the cat one at a time. "Fish or meat, Lokitty?"
Against her expectations, the cat actually responds to her question, putting his paws up on the table when she holds up the salmon. "Okay, salmon it is! You can have the steak tartare tomorrow."

Ylva chats on, finishing the dinner preparations. Then she puts her plate on the table, and Lokitty's bowl with chopped up salmon on the floor next to the table. "Bon appétit," she says to the cat, before twisting her fork into her spaghetti.

After a few bites, the cat's stare starts to get annoying. The black animal is still sitting on the chair across from her and when he sees he has her attention, he looks pointily from his bowl on the floor back to the table. He does it a couple of times, making sure Ylva understands what he is telling her.
"It's a good thing Lisa can't see me do this," she mutters, taking the bowl from the floor and putting it in front of the cat on the table.
The cat is happy though, his features changing into something that resembles contentedness before he carefully puts his front paws on the table and lowers his head into his bowl.

Ylva takes her last bite of pasta as the cat cleans his jaws, his little pink tongue curling out. "Too bad you can't help me do the dishes," she says, taking up their plates from the table. "Although you did clean out your bowl completely."

When Ylva settles on the sofa to watch some tv, the cat jumps up on the armrest and folds his paws under him. It seems like their dinner date made him decide she is okay to be around. He is sitting on the other side of the couch, but still; they're making progress! She's happy for that, because the best thing about cat sitting are the cat cuddles and she was starting to fear this cat would stay put in the windowsill for the entire week. There's not much on tv, so Ylva settles for a cooking show. The cat is not interested and at some point he starts cleaning his fur. He also makes another visit to the bathroom, the sound of the flushing toilet still nothing short of amazing to Ylva.
When he comes back he curls up in a corner of the couch and it's there that Ylva leaves him when she goes to bed.