House Cat [temporarily complete]

c.h.a.p.t.e.r s.i.x


One Week Later

Oriel hummed happily, watering one of the plants on the window sill in his room before turning to Chibi and sprinkling a little water on his little head with a laugh. \"He\'s been walking around today,\" the full-grown said in a singsong voice. \"He\'s recovering nicely. And with a little love and a little sunshine, if I water you every day, you\'ll grow up into a big strong man like him, too.\"

The full-grown laughed and put the watering can down on the ledge, slipping an arm around Chibi\'s shoulders and looking out the window with a happy sigh. The phone suddenly rang, and Oriel hummed as he stepped away from the boy for a moment, moving into the hall and picking the phone up from the cradle. \"Moshi Moshi, Futamaka Residence,\" he said warmly into the mouthpiece. \"Yes, he is; but he\'s not available at the moment. Would you like to leave a messa--?\" Oriel waited a few moments, then blinked, still smiling as he looked at the phone quizzically. Shrugging, he hung it up and went back into the bedroom. \"Strange,\" he mused, picking up the can once more. \"They asked to speak to Master, then they hang up. A little rude if you ask me.\" He smirked and leaned down to Chibi. \"Don\'t you ever be rude like that on the phone to people, ok?\" He kissed the tip of the boy\'s nose, then looked up once more as the front door alert chimed.

\"Company?\" Oriel mused curiously, blinking and moving down the stairs as the three fullgrowns assembled at the door.

Chibi lingered at the top of the stairs, sitting down and yet maintaining a decent posture just in case whoever the guests were spotted him - after all it would reflect badly on both Oriel and Master if he were to appear too lax in public company. He straightened his loincloth too, having ironed it the night before and mused for the millionth time how pretty the designs Oriel had added were to Dorian who just rolled his eyes having heard it so many times. Curiously he waited for the front door to be opened, his ears and tail flicking with suppressed cheerfulness.

\"Odd,\" Dorian murmured in Chibi\'s ear, always present somewhere near the door when that chime rang, always watching to see who it was. \"Usually Master tells us when we\'re expecting company.\"

Oriel reached out to open the door, but it was kicked open before he could touch the knob, knocking him back onto the floor as Master\'s bedroom door came flying open. His face was filled with both horror and rage as he hobbled down the hall, clutching his stomach, a pair of loose pants hastily pulled up to his hips and blood beginning to seep into his bandages as he ran down the hall fairly fast for a man as injured as he was. \"ORIEL!\" Master bellowed at the top of his lungs. \"GET AWAY FROM THERE!\"

It was far too late-- three men rushed into the entrance with guns lifted; the three fullgrowns were the first to be shot, one bullet each clean between the eyes in three rapid shots. Oriel turned on his heels and ran towards the stairs, his eyes flicking up to Master and then Chibi, wide and terrified as he reached the first step. The middle gunman lifted his arm and fired at the same time as Master lifting his own gun and firing.

Oriel collapsed on the stairs in a splash of crimson as the top of the middle gunman\'s head was blown to pieces. The other two lifted their guns up towards Master, but Master ducked and rolled across the floor in front of Chibi and Dorian, bullets making horrid cracking noises against the marble as they missed. Master\'s bloody hand reached behind him and kept the boys gripped tightly to his back and shielded as he fired two more shots-- the other two men\'s heads shattered in just under two seconds, and they collapsed on the floor as well.

Silence filled the estate as Master remained still, holding his gun aimed at the door. He waited, thirty seconds, then three minutes, and when nothing else happened, he slackened his bruising grip on the boys and dropped the gun, stumbling back to his feet and hurrying down the stairs. He stumbled in some of Oriel\'s blood at the bottom but didn\'t bother with trying to recover a stand; he grabbed for the robed neko immediately, and flipped him over so he could see Oriel\'s face and where he was hit.

The bullet had gone through and through-- right through Oriel\'s heart. He was gone. Master shuddered and reached up with one hand, closing Oriel\'s eyes as he leaned down and touched his forehead to the neko\'s, simply trembling as he held his mate in his arms.

Everything happened so quickly that by the time Chibi came to his senses he was sat at Dorian\'s side surrounded by splatters of blood and the fallen bodies of both fullgrowns from Master\'s home and the invaders who\'d tried to slay them all. Hidden behind Master they\'d both been spared the worst of the carnage, but now he was gone, abandoning them for Oriel nothing could shield the two kittens from the aftermath of the attack. Somewhere deep down Chibi knew Oriel would be rushing between them by now, quick to offer comforting hugs and kisses, but the hall remained silent and Master did not move to take Oriel away and tend to him - a fact that made Chibi\'s heart quake. Leaving the eerie hush that had descended upon the entrance intact Chibi got to his feet and padded downstairs, across the crimson stained floor to lock the door, keeping his eyes trained upon it even as he passed Master.

\"Stop,\" Master\'s dark, deep voice said immediately, muffled against Oriel but no less demanding of obedience. \"Stay away from there. Go to my room and stay there. Dorian, you go tell all the others to do exactly the same thing; you gather them all and take them to Oriel\'s room, you close and lock the door, and you stay there until I tell you to.\"

It was the most Master had ever said in one appearance before. Dorian, pale and trembling, hurried down the stairs on all fours, finally spurned into moving. He ran past the bodies, refusing to look at them, and towards the kitchen where most of the others would have been gathered about now to prepare supper.

Chibi stopped, but unlike Dorian he remained where he was, gazing out beyond the door where everything appeared as calm and quiet as if nothing had ever happened. He knew a neko as small and insignificant as himself was only likely to get hurt, even killed if he didn\'t obey Master\'s orders, but he\'d already lost one parent today and he refused to abandon the other.

\"I SAID MOVE!\" Master roared loudly enough to rattle the windows, lifting his head and staring bloody murder at the little one.

Chibi clapped his hands over his ears and shuddered violently, but stood his ground, taking only the smallest of steps back towards the stairs.

Master coughed and shuddered once more, clutching harder at Oriel\'s body as blood dripped from his own lips and several nekos ran by carrying the smaller ones in their arms, whispering orders for them to keep their eyes shut tight as they were carried up the stairs hurriedly. Some of the kittens were weeping softly, some didn\'t listen and looked at the gore-- but that also ended in them weeping even harder than the ones who were only crying because of the noise and hearing Master yelling.

Quickly the last of them ran up the stairs, and Dorian was the last to follow. When he saw Chibi still standing at the doorway, his expression became horrified anew and he ran towards the boy, grabbing his arm and pulling him towards the stairs.

Chibi struggled vehemently against being separated from Master on every single step and even lashed out at Dorian, scratching him in a determined effort to be left behind. He didn\'t care about obeying rules or being the unquestioning submissive he was supposed to be as Master\'s property, only protecting what little he now had left.

Dorian continued to try and bring Chibi along, but when he was scratched, he looked at the boy as though he\'d been slapped, and shook his head, running up the stairs quickly and down the hall, slamming Oriel\'s room door shut. \"Are you looking to get thrown out?\" Master asked through grit teeth, though his forehead was still pressed to Oriel\'s as he coughed once more and blood dripped onto the neko\'s lips.

Chibi turned on his heel, dodging through the mess of bodies until he reached the front entrance and shut the doors locking them as quickly as he could before returning to his Master, \"Throw me out, kill me if you wish, but right now I won\'t abandon my family.\"

He\'d had enough of dealing with the insolent. He\'d do that later.

Master\'s eyes closed tighter as he sat up slightly, and drew Oriel onto his lap, cradling the warm body gently and shuddering once more. After an hour, when the body had begun to cool, Master put Oriel down gently and straightened his body, folding his hands carefully and brushing some hair out of his eyes before walking over to the phone by the foot of the stairs. He picked it up and dialed a number with blood-slick fingers.

\"Yes. Yes. Seven. Three for disposal, four for burial. No. Bring Kiba as well.\" He hung up the phone and turned icy eyes onto the Runt.

By now Chibi had sat down, not trusting his legs to hold him up any longer and was staring listlessly at the floor - not daring to go anywhere near Master when he knew he was furious over his defiant actions. He raised his head as he heard Eiji on the phone and caught the full brunt of his glacial gaze, flinching, but not looking away by some strange miracle. \"..........\"

\"Get over here. Now,\" Master said venomously, pointing to the floor directly in front of him where he wanted the boy to stand.

Chibi did as he was told this time in silence and stood before his Master with his head bowed.

The man reached out slowly and picked the boy up by the front of the throat this time, holding him up by the neck so that they were at eye level. \"If you want to disobey me, you get out of this house immediately and you never come back. Is that clear?\" He clutched a little tighter. \"IS THAT CLEAR?!\"

Chibi nodded as best he could, reaching up and yet letting his hands fall back down limply at his sides as he accepted Eiji\'s threats and the choking hold upon his neck with barely a gasping mewl.

Putting the boy down, Eiji shuddered once more, clutching his stomach instead. \"Go to my room as I told you to,\" he growled. \"And you stay there until I go and get you. No matter what you hear, you stay there.\"

Chibi hesitated, but eventually padded off upstairs, retreating to Master\'s room and collapsing upon the floor the instant he was out of sight - he couldn\'t find any way to express his sorrow, not even through the tears which had served as such a good release in the past so he merely lay there upon his side and gazed vacantly at nothing in particular.

Several hours later: Three a.m.

Eiji walked up the stairs slowly, cleaned, and re-bandaged though he still wore the same pants and nothing else. The house was all cleaned perfectly as though nothing had happened; the hinges had even been replaced on the doors, and there were several more locks and deadbolts upon them now. There were also double the bodyguards standing outside the gates of the estate, and one new body sat just inside the doors of the estate-- a large, muscular male with rough gray ears and tail, and hard golden eyes: a wolf. He wore only a pair of tight black pants and two holsters, one with a 9mm and one with several knives. He sat at the door unmoving, jaw clenched and one knee up against his chest, his arm resting on the knee and his cheek against his arm.

Eiji went to Oriel\'s room first and knocked softly, ordering for it to be opened in a quiet tone. One of the fullgrowns unlocked and opened the door, and informed Master that everyone was accounted for but the three who had gone to answer the door, Oriel and Chibi. Master nodded and ordered everyone to their rooms, informed them that they were safe, and gave permission for all of them to sleep in each other\'s rooms if need be as long as they informed two other adults first. The nekos all hurried to their rooms, some carried since they were asleep.

The dark-haired man then turned to face the right wing. He walked down the hall slowly and opened his own bedroom door, finding the littlest one either asleep or mourning on the floor, he didn\'t know which. He picked the boy up, carefully this time, the same way he used to carry Oriel. He walked down the hall and down the stairs, through the estate and to the back yard, deep into the garden.

He walked until he reached Oriel\'s favourite place in the garden-- a large clearing surrounded with flowers, with a fish pond in the eastern corner shaded under the heavy branches of a weeping willow. Resting under the willow, as though still alive, sat Oriel\'s body, also cleaned, as well as a spade.

Eiji set the boy down several feet away from Oriel in the grass, and took hold of the spade, touching the tip into the ground and pushing down with his foot, breaking through the first earth as he began to dig. In under an hour he had a deep, square hole dug at the base of the willow, and he finally put the spade down, panting and shuddering, fresh blood marking the bandages around his stomach as he got out of the hole and walked over to Oriel. He picked the light body up carefully and kissed the lips once, softly, before placing Oriel into the grave and arranging him the same way he had in the house.

He got out of the hole once more and clenched his jaw hard, staring down at the pale body in the moonlight, appearing to be perhaps sleeping.

Chibi dared to crawl a little closer, but settled far enough away to give Eiji his privacy in the last moments both of them would ever see Oriel. His heart ached so badly he clutched at his chest, taking shuddery little gasps when the grave was finally completed and his mother - one whom he\'d shared a bond with for such a short while and yet loved deeply, was laid to rest - as beautiful in death as he had been in life. Yet still he could not cry and stilled his choked breaths, closing his eyes against the painful sight.

Eiji lifted both his hands, taking hold of his ring finger and pulling off the silver band he wore there. He placed it on the earth that had been piled to dig the grave, and took hold of the spade, scooping up the first shovelful of dirt with the ring on it and dropping it into the grave slowly. He looked at Oriel\'s face one last time before filling the shovel again and dumping more dirt into the hole, filling it quickly.

He worked hard and steadily, until the grave was completely filled and there was a soft mound of earth above where Oriel lay. Eiji then dropped the spade and got to his knees at the foot of the grave, placing his hands on the soft dirt and then touching his forehead to it, closing his eyes once more and falling still, his hair tumbling down on either side of him and curtaining his face as his shoulders shook.

At the first sounds of Master finishing the grave Chibi opened his eyes and when finally it was done he longed to move closer, offer the same pathetic, well intentioned comfort he\'d given Oriel. Carefully he got to his feet and took a few more faltering steps closer, but lost his nerve and just remained where he was, bathed in the pale moonlight which disguised how truly broken he was and transfixed by the finality the mound of earth represented.


------------------------------------------------------
e.n.d c.h.a.p.t.e.r s.i.x