Taking home a homeless neko (PatricioINTP & Kichou)

[Perlin]

Patrick was in a foul mood. Normally he got groceries on this day of the week. And being a bachelor, the food was simple. Just nuke it in the microwave and that’s it. But today he suffered a damned double delima, and for him that caused untold grief. He works at home via the Internet, located outside the city a short bit. And his car was stuck in the mud due to an all day thunderstorm that won’t let up. Either he can go without food for a night, or have to trek through the cold rain and mud.

He took the latter. Now cold, hungry, and dirty, he got some frozen food in a large bag over his shoulder and he is now getting from the highway to the exit to his private home. And the sun was already setting. First he waited for the rain to end, then he tried to get his car out in the storm (failed), and now its getting dark in March. Grumbling how he wished he had some help... heck, just give me a cuddle buddy to warm up to!... he was chugging through when he heard a cat meow off the road, coming from below a tree.

 

[Kichou]

Marci let out a mew as she lay beneath the tree, curled up in a ball as she hugged her knees up to her chest. Her dark brown cat ears drooped as she felt the rain coming down on her, which made her shiver and let out another cat-like meow. Her normally fluffy tail looked small due to being soaked in water and was also a dark brown with lighter brown rings that went from the base and all the way to the tip. Her short dark brown hair looked just about black as it stuck to her head and face from the rain and her eyes that were a bright green were tightly shut.

She looked like a poor pathetic neko, which was exactly what she felt like. She had been wandering the streets for a while now, and it showed since she looked just a little skinnier than one of her size should--she looked to be perhaps no more than five and a half feet tall. A whimper escaped her lips before she mewed again, wishing that someone, anyone, would find her and at least take her somewhere inside where it wasn't so wet.

 

[Perlin]

Patrick approached, sneezed, and then saw and looked down with his blue eyes a most sad sight. “Damn it”, he mumbled, knowing he could not just walk away like this. And why not? His home was just over there below the hill. Putting his bag down, his stomach growling, he pulled off his coat and wrapped it around the neko girl. “Don’t you have a home?”, he asked. He let out two more loud sneezes, grab his single bag of groceries, and pulled her up.

“I live just down the hill there. A few more paces and you will see it.” Patrick was talking far too loud, and just not realize it due to the wind and thunder still haunting the horizon. Taking her hand, he pull her onwards, scared he will without a doubt get a cold. And he did not know how much longer his bag will make it. It broke the moment he opened the door and went in. Patrick did not care, kicking the frozen food boxes and a bag of small shrimp out of the way as he directed the neko in. “Just allow me to...” He picked up all the food and carried it to the kitchen counter, sneezing once more.

The living room had a couch in front of a large window, and a chair in front of a TV. The dining table was behind the chair without a dividing wall. The kitchen, due to the placement of the cabinets, was T shaped, the long part of the T connecting to the dining room, and one of the short parts of the T to the living room. The other side went to a half bathroom and back door. One could walk from living room, kitchen, and dining room in circles. Where the living room and kitchen connected, a hallway went to the rest of the house. To the left was Patrick’s den where he worked via a computer, and right was first the main bathroom and then his bedroom. At the end of the hall was a guest room he never used.

 

[Kichou]

Marci sniffled and looked up as a man approached her. She whimpered and tried to shrink away from him, not knowing who he was and just feeling scared. But as he wrapped her within his jacket, she blinked her wide eyes in surprise; why was some stranger helping her? She just blinked at him when he asked about her having a home and held the jacket close to herself as he helped her to her feet.

As she stood up and wasn't curled up, it was revealed that she wore an old-looking dark blue shirt and a pair of ragged black pants. She also had a bright blue collar around her neck, but if there had been any tags of ownership they were gone now, so it was just a plain collar.

She winced a little at how loud the human was but she couldn't get herself to talk and she was too kind-hearted to really tell anyone they were doing something wrong. She just hurried along after the man in silence and looked up at his house as they approached it. As soon as she stepped in she jumped in surprise at the bag suddenly breaking. She stepped back as the man stooped down to grab the food and she stood silently as he did so. She noticed that he forgot something and picked it up before following after him to the kitchen.

Marci placed down the food next to the rest and then gave a hesitant, small smile at the man. "Uh....Do you want help?" she asked slowly, like it was a little hard to talk. Really, however, it was just because she was still in shock from recent events.

 

[Perlin]

Between sniffles, Patrick told her he was okay. Just miserable from a string of bad luck. Leaving out something for him, he adds, “You like shrimp, right?” He put it in a bowl full of water and put it in the microwave. Before continuing. “Crazy spring storms. I’m just glad there is no tornado watch or anything. Living with mud instead of concrete.” He sits down and then took the first good look at her.

“My name is Patrick. Single and alone.” He said that waving his hand around his home. “I manage and write a website for a company in another city online, and am actually working on a fiction book right now.” Pausing to blow his nose, he finished by asking, “So what is your name? To be honest, I never had a neko before so this is kinda new to me.” The microwave said it was done, and he finished preparing it for her as he listened.

 

[Kichou]

Marci nodded her head to the question about the shrimp and just stood off to the side, not wanting to get in the human's way. She shivered a little and hugged the jacket close to herself to try and stay as warm as she could. Her eyes looked around the kitchen and onto what else she could see of the house and was thinking to herself how nice of a place it was. It was much nicer than the other house she once lived in with her previous owners and much more cleaner.

Her eyes focused back on the man as he introduced himself as Patrick. She sniffed and just nodded at the information he said and was mentally interested in the book he was writing. Of course, she couldn't read very well, so it's not like she could probably ever read it.

"My name is Mercinda, though my previous owners gave me the nickname of Marci," she explained in a quiet voice, her ears perking up slightly as she caught a whiff of the food. Her stomach grumbled slightly and she blushed a little in emberassment at it.

 

[Perlin]

With the shrimp on the table, Patrick said, “Go on”, as he started his own. He still need to go tomorrow for proper food and not just microwavable. He did not really like how little information she gave him, and thinking about it she might not really want to talk about it. Alone. Why was she alone? He sat down watching her eat quietly, waiting for his own to finish. Seeing that she had one outfit of clothes, was that all she had? Not just groceries were needed. So he opt to shoot in a different direction while hoping to avoid the why’s.

“So tell me, what is it that you need. I mean your clothes are obviously messy, but you don’t have anything else. If this rain lets up for tomorrow I might get you some more. But what else? Sorry for my ignorance, but...” The microwave dinged. “... I lived alone for so long, and never considered having a pet. I am not exactly prepared for a new house member.” He then quickly added, “Not that I don’t want you! I just need as much information as you can provide for me as possible. Besides what you need, what do you want? What will you like to do?” This is as much as a get-to-know as a request to learn how to take care of a neko.

 

[Kichou]

Marci gave him a greatful nod and sat down to eat. The food tasted wonderful in her mouth and she enjoyed it slowly as she ate it. It had been a while since she had such a nice, warm meal. She listened quietly as the human talked and seemed to ramble on; she could tell how flustered he was, which she found silly. When he finished she couldn't help but to laugh. How could this human not know anything about nekos? Then again, she had just assumed all humans out there had one, so she couldn't blame him.

"I don't need much, really," she told him, still giggling a little. "I guess some more clothes would be okay....And then there's just a couple of things I'd need for my tail to take care of the fur." She paused. "Really that's all I need....I think. I never really needed much." That, and she was never given a lot, so she couldn't say what all she needed or wanted; just the basics was enough to make her happy.

 

[Perlin]

“Brush for tail, got it.” Assuming he actually can get out tomorrow. He sat back down to eat, now quiet. And wondering how much of a fool he might be sounding like. After all, leaving her back there will tear him apart. But at the same time, ‘HERE! You got someone to take care of now!’, was not part of his plan this screwed up day. There was not either that many hours left in the day. What else... what else... He looked over to her, remembering her laughing while the past few hours or so was more-or-less a whirlwind for him.

So he decided. Hands off. Let’s just wing it. Having a new family member. Gripes! “After eating I’ll show you to my spare room and you can do whatever you feel like you need to do with it. If you need anything, bark. Er, meow.”

 

[Kichou]

She chuckled again and her tail waved back and forth. She wasn't quite sure what to make of this human; they were definately very strange. And obviously they didn't know much about how nekos were really the ones that should be giving the help. "Uh....Okay. And if you need anything, just...call for me," she told him with an easy smile before she began to eat again.

She felt strange as she was being treated so nicely by the human, as if this human thought she was his equal or something. But again she had to wonder if she only thought that way because of her previous owners; it probably was.