Tiny Fissures

Marmalade

    Behind Chocola's closed eyes she tried desperately to make sure her ears didn't twitch when she strained to listen. The door creaked slowly, and she could hear the slightest sound of a foot falling into the shed.
"Shhhhhh," Chocola could hear the familiar voice of Hazelnut, "they're still sleeping." Hazelnut and another figure shuffled quietly past the door and squeeked it shut. Chocola could hear one of them give a small hiss when the locked clicked a bit too loudly.
Despite knowing at least one of them was Hazelnut, something kept her glued down and frozen. Hearing more shuffling, Chocola could sense one of them hop up to sit on a nearby pile of books. It took all she had to not flinch.
"Weeeeell," a new, sleepy voice sounded out, "They don't look to rouuugh, so they were at leaaaast taken caree of thaaaaat muchh."
"Bring it down a little bit," Hazelnut said from further back in the shed, "And yeah, I guess. That brown one wasn't really able to tell me why they ran away, just that their owners were 'bad', so anything could've happened."
"Theyyyy'll figure it ouuuttt in their own timeeee, they haaave to learn what's gooood firssst before they understaaannnd."
Chocola slowly raised up, giving a fake little stretch before looking around. A bit behind her to her right sat a slim, dopey faced cat girl. Her long tail and short hair were orange with small, slightly darker orange stripes all throughout. Her skin was white like Chocola's but had a slight tan to it. She wore a hot pink tank top and knee length khaki shorts. Her shoes were hot pink too. A very strange looking kitty.
    The orange kitty straightened her back a little, her tail swishing very pleasantly. "Loooook who's uuuup, Hazelnut looooook," the cat gave a lazy gesture with her dopey head, and from further back in the shed Hazelnut looked up from where she was packing books into a black backpack.
    She gave a small nod before she got back to it, "Good morning, you haven't slept too long. It's only midday." Chocola hummed a bit, and looked back to the orange kitty. She looked at some place just above Chocola's head with wide aquamarine eyes and her mouth slightly open. Chocola notes her eyes, there's been a large amount of green in Chocola's life recently.
    When a good minute of silence passed Hazelnut snapped her fingers in the strange creatures direction, "Come on," she insisted, "Introduce yourself! And tell them where we're going to, I went to get you before I did." The orange cat moved her entire head in one smooth motion to look at Hazelnut, "shouldn't I waiiitttt till the otherrrr kittieeesss wake upppp? That'll be threeeee introductionsssss," Chocola perked up a bit then. "Chocola will wake them up!!! Time for sleepy heads to be up anyway!!" And before she could see the orange kitty reach out to her in protest she began to shake her sisters awake.
    Cacao was the first to be roused. She lifted up and gave a soft sleepy stretch. She smiled sweetly at Chocola, before turning and locking eyes with the cat girl. Almost instantly she seemed to be awake, or at least more focused. Oh, Cacao was so interested by this kitty. Chocola could feel her own skin burn from it, she couldn't imagine what kind of singe the catgirl feels. Instead of flinching and hissing like Chocola imagined her doing, she simply looked back in a dazed wonder.
    Then it was Vanilla, who always took longer to get up than most cat girls. At first she refused, digging her head further into the small mound of pillows and blankets. When Chocola wined and shook her more,  she at least lifted her head. "Just a little more Chocola," Vanilla whimpered. Chocola shook her head, "Noooo!!! You have to wake up Vanilla!!! No time for sleepyheads!!!" Chocola could see her sister forfeit in the way she went slightly more limp before raising up slowly. Vanilla rubbed her eyes and sat hunched over for several minutes. Before long, she too turned around to see the catgirl. "Oh," Vanilla breathed, "Hello."
    With all three cat girls attention, the stranger broke free of Cacaos citrine bind and gave a limp wave. "Helloooo thereeeee," she drew out, "myyyy name is Pumpkinnnnn. Meeee and Haaaazelnut found a neaaatttt place in the wooooodddssss a whiiileeee agoooo. It waaass an abaaandoned cabinnnnnn. My familyyyyy, my brooootthherrs faaamilyyyy, and a fewwwww otherrrr escapeeesss and suuchhhh live theeerreee in cabinnsss we buiiilltttt," Pumpkins tail swished all around, "We'reeee going to hop on a traiiiiinnn to get thereeeee. Our sonnn kissessss the conductorrrrrr so he stooooppss for us to hooopppp on when it's tiiimmeee for us to goooo back hooomeeeee." Snickering, Hazelnut walked over to sit next to Pumpkin. "Thats a strange way to say they're dating, Pumpkin." Pumpkin shrugged, "Saaameeee differenceeeeee." Chocola didn't think she understood what that meant.
Chocola straightens her back, "So, at this place, are there people there?" "Just cat girls and boys, Stanley comes to visit every once in a while but not too often." Chocola paused, cat boys?
From beside her, Vanilla moved to stand on her knees, "There are boy cat girls?" Pumpkin snickered a bit, "They're juuussttt called cat boooyyyssss, and yeesss, thereeee are cat boyyssss. Haaaave you guys neverrrrr met oneeee?" All three cat girls looked at each other before shaking their heads. Honestly, to what Chocola can recall, she had never met many other cat girls either. There was Milk of course, and they had heard of Fraise from Kashou, but there weren't many cat people just walking around. Bells are hard to get, and without one you can only walk around with your owner.
Hazelnut hopped off of the books and made her way towards the door, "Come on guys," she called, "it's a pretty good walk from here to where the train is, we aught to get going."
Chocola climbed to her feet and helped her sister stumble up. Cacao stood close by, all while staring daggers into Pumpkin. Despite this, Pumpkin simply leaned by and waited for the three to hobble after Hazelnut out of the door. The sunset kitty followed behind in a drifting sort of way, and made sure to lock the shed door behind them nice and tight. A bit further ahead of them Hazelnut had stopped to wait on them, and once they were close enough Hazelnut set out down a slim trail behind the shed. Chocola felt safe sandwiched between the inky and amber cats.