“You weren’t frightened? Not even a little?” Vinny gaped incredulously as Kat explained what had had happened that morning to the other servants. Meyrin and Baldroy merely gaped, speechless.
“Well, maybe I was a little scared at first, I had to learn to walk again and everything, it’s not the same as if you had two feet.” Out of the corner of her eye she caught Sebastian watching her. He had been doing that since they had left the Earl’s study. She raised her eyebrows in question and he looked away, weird…
“Meyrin, Baldroy, Vinny, I believe you have work to finish before the end of the week, yes?” There was a collective groan amongst the dispersing servants. Here’s my chance to ask. “Sebastian, is there something wrong?”
“Hmmm, oh my Kat I believe you will have to repeat yourself I’m not at all with it this morning.”
Kat frowned; internal alarm system going crazy, since when did Sebastian need something repeated? “Is something-“
The butler glanced at his watch, “Oh, my look at the time, I have to dust the library. Kat, be a dear and straighten the kitchen, then muck out the stables and exercise the horses, please?” He beat a hasty retreat out of the kitchen before Kat could recover from her shock.
Dear, please, what in the…there is something seriously wrong here, that didn’t even sound like Sebastian. Usually he’s a grouch in the morning and he never calls anyone dear.There was a slight temptation to pursue the answers to her questions but...there was work to be done.
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That had been close; Sebastian dusted the library that morning deliberately slow, needing time to think. About Kat, about the Earl, about the Demon who had gotten away, about everything.
The last two should have been his priorities, simple, right? But for some reason seeing Kat like that had made him feel…ashamed. Like he had let her down or something, she had been gorgeous as far as cats went but still, this nagging feeling of disappointment persisted, and he had no clue why.
Maybe it’s because she is the Earl’s servant as well, and if I failed her I failed the Earl. That must be it. There is no other explanation. He looked up and caught sight of Kat galloping the gray along the forests edge, black hair flying behind her like an ebony banner, a look of pure happiness on her face. Why do I feel as if there is something happening I cannot explain?
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The wind whipped in Kat’s face as she pushed the gray gelding to his limits, feeling the muscles of his legs flexing beneath her as they ran over the velvet green of the Phantomhive lawn. This was a chore she didn’t mind doing, she didn’t get to do it often, the Earl usually rode at least once a day with his instructor but the poor instructor had called in sick today, cold or something.
Gently pulling the reins, she brought the horse to a gradual halt, rewarding him with a pat on the neck. He glanced back at her with his large brown equine eye.
Feels nice…
Kat blinked, frozen, what in the world was that? Turning in the saddle Kat looked around her for anyone who could have spoken. Seeing no one she turned the horse towards the stable where she curried the sweat from him and gave him a good rub down.
Patting him once more on the neck she went back into the kitchen, expecting to see Sebastian there, new questions for the currently oddly acting butler. One of them being who else was outside except for Vinny? She knew Vinny’s voice and while the voice she had had heard had been male, it wasn’t Vinny.
Instead the kitchen was entirely empty. Weird…usually Sebastian is cooking by now. Kat pursed her lips, there was something seriously off in the Phantomhive household today. Deciding to check the library where he had said he would be dusting, she set off.
She opened the door and peeked inside; sure enough he stood there with his back to her, wiping down the windows. Quietly she slipped inside and tiptoes closer, why isn’t he noticing me? Usually he notices me.
With a sigh of disgust she dropped the silent approach, earning no reaction from the butler. “Okay, Sebastian, what is wrong with you today? Seriously?”
He looked at her with surprise over his shoulder, “Kat, are you finished already? Finish the laundry with Meyrin then.” He went to move passed her to the door.
She blocked him, narrowing her eyes, “Not until you tell me what’s wrong. Is it about this morning?”
“Nothing is wrong.”
A small shred of anger made her temper begin to kindle, “You are lying to me.”
“I am not, it has nothing to do with you what so ever.”
A red film descended over Kat’s eyes an instant before there was a brief flash of pain. Before she knew it she was poised on Sebastian’s chest, fangs bared, and claws ready. How dare he lie to me! I could smell that lie a million miles away! He must think that I am stupid! I’ll show him, I’ll… Kat blinked and pulled back. What was she doing?
Sebastian blinked in similar surprise beneath her.
My god, what have I done?Tearing away Kat ran from the room and down the hall and out of the house, towards the forest.
Feline tears pearled at the edges of her eyes, I’m a monster, if I attack friends so easily, that’s all I can be. I have to get away, before I really hurt someone.
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Kat trotted through the forest moving as smoothly and quietly as a shadow, the moonlight cutting across her back and shoulders, showing where she moved. She had been walking for hours now, her soft paw pads were cut and bleeding in places and sore all over.
It was a temptation to go back to the manor, to where she could curl up in her bed, warm and happy, looking forward to work tomorrow. But she knew that she couldn’t go back, if she did and hurt Sebastian or one of the others she wouldn’t be able to live with herself.
Why did this have to happen to me? Was there some cosmic meeting saying, yes lets totally ruin her life so she can never experience happiness or friendship again. She growled at her own thoughts, startling an owl into flight.
Well I never!
And on top of that there are voices too; I’m a monster and crazy, a wonderful mixture. The big cat’s stomach growled, reminding her that she hadn’t eaten anything that morning or afternoon, what with everything going on it had completely slipped her mind. As if today could get any more worse. Another stomach growl and she snorted, I suppose I could try to hunt something, at the very least it would be a learning experience.
Kat lifted her head and sniffed, the scent of a herd of deer a couple hundred yards off reached her. That will work. Picking up the pace she started to run, her sore paws protesting each step. Closer…closer…there they are! Kat burst from the forest into a small meadow.
The drowsing deer were caught by surprise, freezing in place long enough for Kat to finish closing the distance between them and to prepare to leap onto a back of an old doe.
Just as she was about to spring strong arms wrapped about her neck, flipping her onto her back, and pinning her to the ground. She hissed and swatted at her attacker making contact with flesh, and yet the pressure on her neck persisted.
“Kat, it’s me.” Sebastian? She instantly stopped struggling and looked up, her eyes finally adjusted to looking up at the moonlight. It was Sebastian.
Twisted her head to the side she rolled onto her feet, “What are you doing here? It’s not safe to be around me.”
“I believe that is my decision to make, and plus the Earl is looking for you.”
“I’m not going back, I’m not about to hurt someone…else.” She added, the scent of blood reaching her nose.
“That’s not up to you.”
The fur on her back stood on end, “Oh, and how isn’t it? You guys are my friends, almost like my family, if I…you’re irreplaceable and I couldn’t take it if something happened to one of you.”
Sebastian frowned, “Don’t you think that should be out choice as well? Or do you believe us that weak, as to not be able to protect ourselves?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“That’s what it sounds like,” he persisted, “Kat, why don’t you at least think about coming back, at least for a little while?”
“Why should I?” She sat down with her back to him, tail twitching with irritation.
“Because it would not be the same without you there, and Pluto would never be bathed again, you know how terrible I am at it.” He sat down next to her, “If you are simply afraid of hurting one of us, you shouldn’t be, I know you have more self-control than that, earlier when you attacked me I provoked you, I should have known better than to lie to you.”
She looked at him with surprise, “You lied?”
He nodded, “Yes, I did. When I said it had nothing to do with you, it actually has everything to do with you. As you know I have a certain…fondness for cats and I couldn’t help but think that you were very cute.”
Cute? If she hadn’t been covered in fur Kat had a feeling she would have been beet red. When had she ever been called cute by anyone other than Rhose? And that was only a father-daughter kind of cute. “I’m still not sure.”
“Well think on it a little more, the Earl isn’t expecting us back for a while yet. I told him I had to convince you to come back; he seems to know how stubborn you can be.”
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Kat was curled up beside Sebastian, her head resting on his knee. While she thought she allowed him to scratch her gently behind the ears. A little earlier her sides had started to rumble, startling him until he realized it was her purring.
While she was preoccupied he studies her feline profile, she really was cute as a cat, but what had prompted him to say that to her face? Was it really only because he liked cats that he had said it?
Or was it something else, if it was, what could it be?
There was something about her that was different from anyone he had ever met. She was an interesting human at the least and an extraordinary woman at the most, there were things she did that most female demons would hesitate to do.
“Sebastian?” She looked back him without lifting her head.
“Hmm?”
“I think I will go back, it might be selfish of me, but I really never wanted to leave to begin with.”
Maybe that was why, she fascinated him. That had to be the reason he liked her so much, she was interesting person, she thought of others constantly, only thinking of herself in the barest degree. He had never met another human like her, even the human nuns and priests, who professed to only wanting to take care of man’s immortal soul, had more than their fair share of human baseness.
They all wanted things, they all wanted people to listen to them, to give them some sort of power, even if it was for a greater power.
Kat was perfectly content being with people; she listened, acted, and thought of others always before herself. He couldn’t recall her ever doing anything frivolous and utterly selfish, no matter what she might say. “Very good then, shall we go home?”
She gave him a toothy cat smile, “Yes.”
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Thanks to everyone who's reading! Sorry I havent posted in a while I've been busy, Drama Play in TWO WEEKS! But back to the story, Next Chapter: Lets just say a character is finally making a reappearance...
Thanks for reading again!
-Shadowquill