The large, old grandfather clock chimes from the foyer twelve times. I poke one eye open, almost smiling at the small blonde face that rests a few centimeters from mine. His little eyes are closed-err, the visible one is. His whiskers twitch slightly and one paw is completely stretched out, resting against my collarbone. Slowly, I lightly run the pad of my index finger over his forehead. Beneath my touch, he jerks slightly and his lone eye pops open. He yawns widely, making me giggle.
"That was attractive." I whisper to him, dimly wondering if cats could understand the English language.
He climbs off of me and I sit up. Slick, Dory, Lollipop, Beige, Ginger, and the lilac kitty all sit on top of the coffee table, silently glancing around at each other as if they are amidst a conversation. I yawn and look around. Tj is conked out on the couch. I can hear Daniel playing Call Of Duty upstairs in his room-despite the late hour-and Alice steps into the family room. The left strap of her spaghetti-strapped blood red tank-top has fallen off her shoulder, the hemline of the shirt barely reaching the tops of her Akatsuki pajama pants. With every step, her shirt lifts and flashes a sliver of her smooth tan skin. She holds two flower-printed t-cups, one steaming and one not.
"Morning, gorgeous." She whispers softly, for Tj's sake, and hands me the cold cup. I hold it carefully within my hands, smiling widely at the sizzling brown liquid inside. We have other plastic cups, but my dad used to bitch at me if I tried to use the dishwasher to wash them. Since I'm incredibly lazy, we've just resorted to using the old, glass cups that belonged to my great-grandmother.
"Have I ever told you how much I love you?" I grin up at her and take a small sip.
"It sounds familiar, but hearing it again would be nice." She smiles and sits down beside me, gray eyes shifting towards Tj's unconscious form. "You passed out at around ten. Your poor kitty, you had him in such a death grip." She lets out a small laugh and looks towards said kitty, who is trotting towards Scorpion, who sits on the floor beside the coffee table-watching the approaching cat with a bored look.
I sigh softly and pass my cup back to Alice. "My bad."
It's midnight. Half the room is bathed with the cool, earthy moonlight, so I can somewhat see my way around the room. Despite living my entire life here, I still distinguish random shadows from actual furniture.
So I end up stubbing my toe on the coffee table.
"Shit." I yelp, jerking back and wiggling my foot like I burned it.
Alice chuckles lowly. This is a recurring occurrence, so she's long given up making sure I haven't severely injured myself. The cats glance over with slight concern and confusion, especially because their precious table trembles from beneath them. I ignore them all and continue on my journey to Tj. I press the back of my hand against her forehead, frowning at the flare of heat against my skin. I shuffle into the kitchen and turn on the light. I don't dare venture into that room blindly. The counters are so sharp you could cut your toe off. Blinking at the sound of little paws padding across the floor, I look over to see all the kitties watching me from within their strange little rows. I stare at them for a few moments, uncomprehending, and then face palm.
"You guys must be starving." I mutter into my hand. "Alice?"
Said woman is in the room instantly, moving towards the garage. "I'll look for food. For right now you can just feed them ham and get them some water." Her gray eyes flicker towards the trashed, crowded room and grimaces. "This may take a while."
"Don't bother with it." I don't want to risk losing her.
Our garage is a deathtrap under construction. It has years of storage items, old furniture, lawn care stuff, my grandfather's art collection, and it's packed to the brim. It also hasn't been touched in several years, so I'm not sure what unearthed horrors lay within there.
She nods and moves to the cabinet beside the fridge-where we keep all of our Tupperware. She opens it as I open the fridge and pulls out twelve bowls. The fills two with tap water from the sink and I pull out two cartons of ham from the deli drawer in our fridge. I set them on the island counter behind me and walk over to my kitties. I scoop up Deidara and bring him back to the ham with me.
"I owe you for strangling you in my sleep." I kiss the top of his head lightly when he meows questioningly.
I set him down and open the ham. Grimacing at the wetness against my fingers, I rip a small piece off and set it on the counter in front of the kitty. He blinks and bends down, sniffing uneasily at it. "It's just ham." I smile slightly, ripping off more pieces and distributing them equally to the twelve bowls Alice sets up in front of me. She takes the other tub of ham and does the same.
Deidara licks the ham up and chews at it awkwardly. I laugh and toss him another piece. He inhales that one too.
"No more." I smile at him as he scoots a little closer-looking for more handouts. He sits his little rump down on the counter obediently and watches our hands as we work, his little tummy no doubt growling from hunger. When we're finished, Alice and I both load our arms up with the bowls and set them down on the floor against the wall closest to the swinging saloon doors, lining them up so each kitty has enough room to maneuver around. Alice takes the two water bowls and sets them down closer to the counters and Lilac and Ginger break away first to lap the chilly liquid up. I wash my hands off as Alice tosses the ham buckets away and then washes hers.
"I'm going to play doctor!" I muse loud enough for Alice to hear and chuckle. Opening the top drawer in the counter furthest from the fridge, I skim through all our medicine supplies until I find the thermometer. I pull it free and trudge back into the family room. I click it on, wait for the little screen to illuminate, and then lightly position Tj's right ear-the one that I can reach without waking her-so I can slip the little pointy end in. I hold the button down. It beeps and I take it out.
Sighing at the high temp, I lightly stroke her face. "Tj, honey, wake up." I say softly, jarring her from her peaceful sleep. It tugs at my heart. Because of the virus, she hasn't gotten much sleep and waking her when she finally gets some just seems wrong.
Tj jerks awake with a small gasp. Several of the kitties, hearing this distressed gasp, trot hastily in the room-full little bellies swaying with the movement. I motion for her to sit up, or at least roll over, and she groans. "Is it high?"
"One oh two." I nod, frowning. "I need your other ear. Move."
She grumbles something incoherent and rolls over, face burying into the tan couch cushion. I scowl. I'll have to disinfect that later with some Lysol or something. Pushing the small little end into her free ear, I press on the button and once again wait for the beep. It beeps loudly and I pull it out, twisting the screen so I can examine it.
I smile. "Ninety-nine. So it's going down."
She breathes a small sigh of relief and smiles halfheartedly, exhaustion entering her soft features once more. "I'm sleepy."
"I know. Come on, lets go get into that warm, snugly bed of yours." I coax her up and pull her blanket off, draping it over my arm. She sighs, mumbling something about it not being very snugly unless her favorite boy-band were in it, and bounds up the large, grand marble staircase. I trot after her, motioning for the kitties to follow me-which they do-and Alice rounds up the rear with a bottle of medicine and some candy in her hands.
Tj turns into her bedroom, the first one on the left, and flops down on her bed. She's a major Directioner-or a fan girl of that new British band One Direction-and has totally amped up her room accordingly. Her once light purple walls and ceiling have been completely covered with posters. Several pictures frame the large circular mirror that sits on top of the vanity makeup table in the corner and even more are taped to her large, old fashioned headboard-some of the tape peeling because of the carvings beneath them. I toss the blanket over her and tuck her in, pressing my two forefingers against my lips before pressing them to her forehead. I refuse to kiss the sickly.
"Night, hon." She smiles and bids me a throaty goodnight.
I pick up Lollipop and Beige as Alice steps forward to administer the medicine. Taking in the disgusted look on my darling little sister's face, I feel extremely thankful I don't have to take it myself. I do pills and pills only-if I can get away with it. Alice hands her the little bowl of M&Ms and steps back. I set the two kits in my arms down onto the edge of her bed and scrub them behind the ears.
"Keep her safe, guys." I wiggle my finger at them. "Make sure she's okay. If she's having any problems, make sure to come get me, kay?"
Lollipop roams around the bed, little paws flopping out and moving as if he were drunk off his ass. I giggle and shake my head, smiling when he plops down on Tj's stomach and they both fall asleep.
Alice ushers us all out. I had Daniel set up litter boxes in all the bathrooms before he retired to his room so I don't worry about closing the door. It shuts with a soft click and we move further down the hall. Sarah came home around five, pissed as hell thanks so some asshole at her work. She works at a local bookstore. As soon as she'd walked through the door, she'd chosen her two cats, the silver one and the brown one with unnatural green eyes, who'd she'd named accordingly. The silver one is now Moonlight-despite Alice cutting in to tell her that Moonlight is a boy and the name was girlish- and the brown one was name Brownie.
We pass her door and stop in front of Alice's room. She scoops up Dory and gestures for Ginger and Lilac to follow her into the room. I blow her a kiss and she smiles warmly as she shuts the door behind her.
"Well, it's just you and me, kitties." I smile down at all of them.
I stop in front of Danny's room. It's directly across from mine, the door shut tightly. I knock on it lightly after ushering Deidara and Slick into my room, holding Scorpion. He mumbles for me to enter and I do so, stepping over a pile of dirty clothes and into his man-cave. I set Scorpion down onto his neatly made bed and pad my way over to where my brother is sitting, focused intently on the large screen in front of him.
Bending down to his level, I lick my lips and plant a big wet one on his cheek.
"Ewe, Alex!" He cries, using his shoulder to wipe at his face-and failing miserably. I snicker and ruffle his hair as I stand.
"Don't stay up all night. And make sure these clothes find their way into the dirty hamper-or else you'll be washing the clothes for the next month." I say as I shut the door behind me and then step into my room. I close my door behind me and sigh softly. Soft raincloud gray Japanese lanterns, with black clouds painted on them and sakura-trees, cast a soft glow around my room. I don't spend much time in my room after dark, mainly because I secretly believe it's haunted. Not that the soft, earthy glow helps with my fears, because there are so many shadows stretching across the large master bedroom as we speak.
The large, old fashioned mahogany canopy bed-with long matching gray curtains wrapping around the connecting higher frame and tumbling down the posts to the floor. It's pushed against the farthest wall from the door, facing it, while my desk and laptop is pushed up against the wall to my far right and the separate bathroom and closet are to my left. My bay window is to the left of the bed, covered with cushions and pillows and my Akatsuki Plushies. The walls are a soft, almost beige colored white and the ceiling is the same.
My two kittens sit atop the bed, at the very end. They look rigged,-er Deidara does, Slick just looks indifferent-, and for a few moments I wonder if I can leap over them and onto the bed.
But I decide to spare them the heart attack. Flipping off the lights, I blindly move forward to my window and grab my Deidara plushie. He's one I can't sleep without. My parent's got him for me for my seventeenth birthday, just before they died, and if I breathe in deeply, I can still smell my momma.
Hugging him to my chest, I cast the world outside my window a long look. The bay window faces the back, though the view is almost exactly the same. We're surrounded by woods on either side. I sigh softly and turn back to my bed.
"Alright, if anything paranormal happens, feel free to jump on me until I wake." I laugh awkwardly and glance around. I mean, come on. If you're entire family has grown up and died in this same house for generations-all the way back from before the Revolutionary War from 1775-1783-there's bound to be a few ghosts lurking around.
The cats don't seem fazed. Their red and blue eyes, glowing in the darkness of the room, watch me as I shuffle towards the bed and then let out a loud grown. Damn, I knew I'd forgotten something.
I move back to the lights and flip them on. Walking over to my drawers, I kick my sneakers off and start tugging at my clothes. With one arm, I pull the large dresser open and with the other, I struggle with my shirt. My eyes are starting to droop, body starting to go numb. I'm so tired. Two college classes and dealing with Daniel and the kittens has taken a lot out of me. I curse silently and stop with the drawer and focus on untangling myself from my shirt. I finally tug it off and wiggle out of my jeans. I glance down, staring at my light blue bra and white panties, and then let out a grunt.
"Screw it." I abandon the dresser and flip off the lights.
I crawl into the bed and almost send the cats flying. I'm not sure why I make my bed in the mornings, I usually end up yanking all the blankets free and wrapping myself in a cocoon-like structure. Deidara lets out an irritated yowl and Slick simply leaps elegantly over the flying blanket. I giggle tiredly and reach over, picking both cats up and tugging them back up with me. I set Slick on the pillow next to my head-he doesn't seem to be a cuddler- and hug Deidara for a few moments, scratching his head. My eyes close, the warmth of his little body pressing against my collarbone is strangely comforting. His little blue eye stares at me for a moment and I press my lips against his forehead and release him.
"Alright, I won't kill you tonight."
He moves, but doesn't go far. I hear him plop down somewhere behind me as I grab my plushie and hug him to my chest. I curl up into a ball on my side and tug the blankets up to my neck.
"'Night kitties."
Slick says nothing, curling up into a tiny ball, his head resting near mine. Deidara yawns loudly, trying to meow in the middle of it. It makes me giggle and shake my head.
