Chapter Text
It was a quiet January night. The snow that had flaked around had painted white everywhere. It was late so streets were quiet. The white-red decorations of the shops shone among the white snow.
A strong wind blew.
Nines tried to hold the phone near his ear and slid the other hand into his pocket. The weather was very cold. He just want to go home and take a warm shower.
He eagerly nodded to his worried brother. Although his brother can't see Nines nod from the other end of the phone. "Yeah, Connor, I'm close to home...Okay."
He pressed the phone to his ear firmly and continued talking ehen his brother's voices were not understood because of the beanie he wore.
"What? Okay...Yes, I'm available on Wednesday, you can come...I'll call Tina."
He couldn't stop smiling of his brother's joyful sound. He sniffed his nose, hoping not to get sick. "Okay, I have to go now... Say hi to Hank." He hung up and put the phone in his pocket.
Despite moving into separate houses, his brother Connor often called to check on Nines and came to visit him. Even though they had grown up and became a big men, Connor always felt the need to protect his brother. He was two years older than Nines. But if they asked strangers, they would all think Nines was big brother.
Connor was shorter than Nines and had a slimmer body, a very cheerful personality. In contrast, Nines was more muscular and taller than Connor. He was not very good at communicating with people, often misunderstood. Instead of Connor's warm brown eyes, Nines' ice-blue eyes had a big reason for Nines' 'don't touch me' look.
Combining all of this, Connor looked like a cute social butterfly little brother, while Nines looked like a tough and mature big brother. Well, Nines still liked Connor's protective attitude.
The snow was starting to fast. Nines could see his breathing creating white smoke in the air. He accelerated his walk by hiding his face in the collar of his jacket as much as possible.
Snow had painted the roofs of all their houses and workplaces in white. It was actually a beautiful view; Nines liked silence, and white. He could enjoy this view, if it weren't so cold. <
He took a deep breath and turned right. This street always creeped to the Nines. There was no light source on the street, the city lights coming from outside the street lighted the street slightly. Normally Nines could have preferred another way to go home, but the shortest route was this street, and Nines wanted to arrive at his home as soon as possible.
In deep silence, the street looked even more creepying. Thanks to the light from the other end of the street, Nines was able to see the trash and empty cardboard boxes ahead. The walls of the street were, as far as he could see, equipped with abusive and incomprehensible writings.
He hesitated for a moment and gathered his courage to enter the street. The ground were slippery, they did not cleaned the snow from this street. Although he wanted to run off this street as faat as possible, he had to slow down his steps to avoid falling.
Unfortunately, slowing down didn't prevent his foot from slipping. Nines tried to regain his balance, but he couldn't make it and fell on his ass near the carboard boxes.
"Great," he said. "Now my butt is wet too!"
He rubbed furiously his aching butt. His hand froze when he heard a low sound.
Hissss....
What was that?
Nines put his gloved hand on the floor and slowly turned his head to the sound. As he turned, he jumped; A pair of bright and spooky eyes staring at him from the darkness between empty wet boxes.
Nines stared at it without ceasing. The thing regressed a little more, and the voice repeated more loudly.
Hissssssss.....
Nines jumped again but continued to look. His hand slowly went to the phone in his pocket. He pressed the flash light button on his phone's screen and held it to spooky eyed thing.
Cat.
As Nines held the light of his phone, he saw it was nothing more than a cat that hissed at the bottom of the wall. Of course, what else could it be?
He could not stop the shocked laughter freed from his mouth. Was it all because of this frail, lovely fur ball? Nines had always loved cats, now it was a great irony that one of them scared Nines so much.
He put his gloved hands on the wet floor and tried to lif the boxes. Meanwhile, he kept the light where the cat was.
Another hiss... Apparently, this cat was scared.
Nines crouched and with one hand on the ground, he put his phone on the wet floor and brought his hand closer to the cat. It only caused the cat to sink into the wall behind it, of course after hissing again.
Nines spoke as smoothly as possible. "Calm down, kitty, I won't hurt you."
The cat continued to look at Nines in a defensive glare.
'If the shop hadn't closed, I could have bought it some cat food or something' Nines thought. Now all he could do was get a little closer to the cat.
All of the cat's fur was rised, and it's small ears leaned back. It was clearly scared. If the weather hadn't been cold, Nines would have left this frightened cat and would have gone home, under normal circumstances the cats could have live with the food they found. But in the cold, this poor cat couldn't find water or food. He was soaked, he could've died if he stay wet like that until the morning. This cat needed a warm place...
Warm?
With the idea in mind, Nines pulled out a glove from his hand with his teets and extended his hand to the cat, hoping that the heat in his hands would please the cat.
The cat hissed again the hand that appeared in front of him, but when the hand came a little closer, he stopped.
Nines smiled with joy, his idea is working.
He watched the cat skeptically slowly lowered it's head and sniff the fingers in front of him. The moment it's little wet nose touched his fingers, Nines felt a growing fondness in his heart. He pulled his hand back little with purpose to get the cat out of the boxes, thinking that it would follow his hand and approach him.
But the cat would not looked so happy with it. It stared at Nines and made a threatening sound.
"If you were human, I think you'd punch me right now." Nines joked.
He brought his hand closer to the cat again, the cat touched his fingers with it's nose and continued to sniff.
They repeated this several times; When Nines reached out, the cat sniffed, but when he pulled back, the cat was not coming towards him.
He reached out to the cat again and stopped crouching and sat down on his knees. With one hand still in front of the cat, he put his gloved hand on the cardboard piece above the cat.
The cat was licking his fingers. It was unaware of Nines' move.
Nines tried to prevent the excitement in him and started lifting the wet piece. He tried to push back the cartons he had lifted, leaving a gap in between, but the sound caused the cat's attention to be directed there.
The cat hissed angrily and tried to escape, but Nines didn't allow it, quickly grabbed the cat with his gloved hand. Trying to draw the cat closer to him, the cat was struggling with all its strength and trying to claw Nines' gloved hand. Nines refused to give up, bringed the stubborn cat closer to himself and pressed it to his jacket.
He began to caress the cat's little head with his glove-free hand, making sure the cat did not scratch.
He mumbled calmly against irritable hisses. "Calm down. You're safe."
The poor cat's left ear was cutted to half, it must have hurt a lot. It's fur color was brown, but the fur was so dirty that he might be wrong about the color. There was also a sour garbage smell coming from the cat. Who knows how long it's been on the street.
After a while the cat's hisses diminished, caressing the head seemed to calm the cat.
"See, be calm like this. Good kitty."
He pulled his hand from the cat's little head and and opened his jacket's zipper. Without waiting for the cat to fight back, he pushed the cat into his jacket and pulled the zipper up till the cat's neck.
Then he continued caressing the cat's head. It tried to move in his jacket for a while, but then it felt the heat and calmed down. Still, Nines could feel the cat's claws on his sweater.
When the cat looked up at Nines, Nines couldn't help but smile. The beautiful green eyes of the cat stared at Nines with an angry expression, it was a such a human look. There was a scar in the middle of his little nose. While Nines continued to caress it's head, it's was closing it's eyes and trying to open them again.
Nines put his hand under the cat's neck and started scratching it. "You are so cute."
The cat tried to bite Nines' hand in response. Nines didn't mind, he took his phone off the ground without interrupting it and started to move towards the end of the street. "Let's go home."
--
Until they went home, cat tried to bite Nines' hand several times, but it didn't cause any problems. It even stopped hissing, seeming to be resisting to sleep.
Nines opened the door and walked in, sighing deeply as the warmness hits his face. There was nothing like home.
His home was small but comfortable. He didn't have many things because he lived alone and didn't like much furniture. So he had plenty of room for this fur ball.
Trying not to disturb the cat, he unzipped his jacket and took the cat out, putted sleepy cat on the couch.
After taking off his clothes and wearing his pajamas, he looked more carefully to cat in the light of the home and decided to wash it. This would be better for both. After the cat had cleaned and slept, he could take a shower himself.
He took the cat back into his hands and headed for the bathroom. Meanwhile, the cat's sleep began to lost, it had already got his paws on Nines' hands.
"Shush. I'll just clean you up a bit. Then you can sleep as much as you want." He approached the bathtub and opened the water.
Hearing the sound of the water, the cat became wild again and tried to get off from Nines' hands. Nines tried to protect his face from the cat's claws. He brought a hand to the back of the cat's neck and held it there, lifting the cat so that the cat could not scratch him. He checked at the temperature of the water with his free hand; tempature was suitable for the cat. He exhaled as if to apologize, bringing the cat closer to the water.
"I'm so sorry, kitty, but I have to do it." And he began to wash the cat, but the hissing and struggling of the cat did not help.
Nines tried to finish him as fast as possible. After a five-minute fast and challenging cleaning adventure, Nines turned off the water and took the towel on the side and wrapped the cat in the towel. During this time the cat was hissing angrily.
Well, at least the cat was clean now.
He pressed the cat in the towel to his chest and stepped into the hall. Putted the cat on the couch and keeping it with one hand, he began to dry the cat. When the dirt on the cat's fur was gone and dried, the fur turned out to be a sweet brown. It had a few darker lines on his back. Even if he hadn't had a chance to look before, he was now, the cat was a male.
At least he knew the cat's gender now, so he didn't have to call him "it" anymore.
Nines put the towel aside and tried to put the cat on his lap. The cat clawed into his hand, taking advantage of Nines' surprise, escaping between his hands and running under the sofa in front of the wall. After a short shock wave, Nines stood up patiently and sighed his hand, it was clawed more than he could count in the night, and headed for the bathroom to take a shower.
The cat still wasn't around when he came out of the bathroom and put on his pajamas. He should still be hiding. Slowly approaching the sofa and leaning over, he saw the cat sleeping curled under it. He looked much smaller and softer in this state.
This scene warmed the Nines' heart, he tilted his head and whispered. "Well, good night you too."
He wanted to reach out and caress the cat's fur, but he knew to cat's react. It was enough stratch for Nines this night.
When he woke up he would have a long and tiring day in front of him; he had to take his cat to the vet and buy him new things.
Cat.
'His' cat.
He had a cat now.
He fell asleep with a smile on his face as he lay in his bed.