TAKE IT EASY • TC ✔️

3: A Dilemma of Sorts

Timothée stared at the cat, wondering if it knew just how much turmoil it had put its owner through the night before. He thought back to the cat-girl, moping on the wall outside the apartment complex.

Timmy had nothing to do with her, he knew that. The only connection he could make between him and her was that they lived on the same corridor and had skirted around each other a few times - and that was a tenuous link, at best.

Despite this, Timothée felt elated at the thought of her being reunited with her beloved pet. He imagined her diminutive face lighting up with joy, and the thought alone was enough to make him smile too.

He chuckled at the sight of the tiny little thing, leaning further out of the window and extending an arm to the cat in the same manner as Velma did to her surroundings. "You going to come in?" Timmy asked the little cat tentatively. He pulled up the window a little further, letting the chilly March air whisk past his bare arms into the apartment in the hope that this would encourage Julius to venture further into his abode.

If anything, it had the opposite effect. Julius flinched, looking up at him with wide, frightened eyes.

"No, no, no!" Timmy stumbled over his words as he attempted to console the distraught looking creature. "Don't- I'm not- I'm not gonna hurt you, I just thought you might want- do you?" Timmy trailed off, stepping back from the window so that his back was angled to face the room.

Julius peeked his head around the window frame hesitantly, twitching his little pink nose as he surveyed the room. Nothing seemed to give him any cause for concern or disgust, and finally he looked up at Timmy with what would be best described as a calculating gaze.

Timothée gave the cat a sideways glance, briefly digging the heel of one socked foot into the toes of the other as he wondered what to do. Surely he should let the cat-girl know that he'd made an acquaintance with her apparently lost cat, but what if he'd run off in the time it took for him to scurry over to her apartment? Timothée couldn't pick up the cat through the window and just cart it off to her apartment - besides, Julius would most likely find a way to scramble off.

He gnawed on his lip, torn between decisions. Julius let out a plaintive mewl, and Timothée drew his gaze back to the cat.

Fuck.

Before he could even comprehend what he was doing, Timmy backed away from Julius cautiously, so as not to alarm him. When at what he considered to be a safe distance, Timothée tugged a pair of sneakers onto his feet, disregarding socks and the need to tie his shoelaces completely. In fact, the boy was in such a state of disarray that he hit his head on the coat rack as he stood up, reeling backwards with a hand clamped to his head. He spat multiple unnecessarily aggressive curses at the metal frame, but was ultimately relieved when he realised that without the intervention, he would have forgotten his keys. Again.

Timmy sighed, taking one last look at the window. Yes, Julius was still there, tucked onto the ledge and whimpering softly. With that, he took off running down the grand corridor, finding cat-girl's door and skidding to a comedic halt. Well, it would have been comedic, had Timmy not tripped over his untied laces and slammed into the wooden door at the last second.

He recoiled with a groan, hoping the girl hadn't heard him fall, but with the sheer seismic quality of that stumble, it was a surprise the whole building hadn't rumbled to its core. Timmy took laboured breaths, knocking on the door with brisk urgency. It was only once he'd regained some of his poise that he heard the sound of running water, and of a shower being turned off. His eyes fluttered shut in frustration.