Chapter Text
“I’m sorry, Mr. Cat, but you just make me so angry sometimes!” Kaeloo says, patting a bandage down on his leg as the cat lies on the couch. As usual, they’d ended up playing their little “game” where he pissed her off enough to make her beat him up. In some odd way, it was a bonding ritual for them in the way that other friends would bond over playing video games or discussing books together, though there were a few occasions where Kaeloo ended up feeling bad about it; Mr. Cat, for his part, honestly didn’t mind as long as it was warranted.
“Anyway, do you want to get ice cream? There’s a new ice cream parlor that opened up near my apartment!”
“Okay,” Mr. Cat shrugs, moving into a sitting position to get off the couch. Kaeloo summons a portal door to lead them straight to the ice cream parlor. The two of them head out the door, leaving Smileyland uninhabited save for a few sheep and sapient flowers, until the next day. They’ve come here almost every day after school to play games with each other since they met for the first time two years ago. Prior to their friendship, Kaeloo used to just check in for a few minutes each day to make sure nothing was wrong as part of her guardian duties, but now that she has a friend to spend time with, the two of them spend hours on end having fun together in Smileyland.
The ice cream parlor is a large building with cheery signs in bubbly font above the glass sliding doors. The interior is decorated with pastel pinks, blues and yellows. There are elaborate displays of balloons to celebrate the store’s grand opening, and the white tile floor is so spotless that the patrons can see their reflections in it.
This would never be possible on the west side of town , Mr. Cat thinks to himself.
The west side of town and the east side of town are so different that an outsider might not even be able to tell that they were parts of the same town. The east side is where the more affluent residents of the town live. This is the part of town where everyone lives in a cookie-cutter house with a neatly maintained garden. It’s where all the good restaurants, schools, parks, and other things are. This is where the low crime rates are. It’s also where Kaeloo lives. The bad side of town is… the exact opposite, to say the least.
Mr. Cat has learned a lot about this divide at the prestigious all-boys private school he goes to in the east side of town. While the school provides its students with an excellent education, it’s also a breeding ground for bullying. The other students are fully aware of certain details that Mr. Cat would have liked to keep to himself, such as the fact that he lives on the west side of town, the fact that he is only able to attend this particular school because of a merit scholarship, and the fact that his family is both abusive and neglectful to the point where they wouldn’t do anything to help him if he was bullied. However, even though his home life and school life are horrible, there is still one source of joy in his life: Kaeloo.
Kaeloo isn’t like the other people in his life. In fact, she’s the exact opposite. While the others are cold, harsh individuals who look down on him with cruel sneers, Kaeloo is gentle, warm, and kind, always ready to greet him with a loving smile on her face.
Unbeknownst to Mr. Cat, Kaeloo is just as grateful to have him in her life as he is to have her in his. A natural extrovert, Kaeloo has always wanted to have friends, but the kids at school, the park, or anywhere she goes, really, seem to dislike her for some reason. The few who do consider being her friends change their mind when they see… “her”. The other one. But not Mr. Cat - no matter what happens, he stays with her.
The line moves forward, and it’s their turn to order.
“I’ll have two scoops of strawberry ice cream with chocolate sauce, sprinkles, and a cherry on top!” she smiles at the man behind the counter.
“What about you, Mr. Cat?”
“I’ll have one scoop of vanilla,” he states plainly.
The cheapest thing on the menu , he thinks to himself.
“Are you sure that’s all you want?” Kaeloo asks, puzzled. Mr. Cat always tries to avoid talking to her about his life and only gives her vague details when asked questions about himself. The only thing she knows is that he lives with his parents and his two brothers, goes to one of the most prestigious schools in town, and that he lives on the west side of town. She doesn’t know anything about the abusive home environment, school bullying, and financial struggles that he goes through. Kaeloo has lived a rather sheltered life; even though her parents are away traveling, they leave her plenty of money to buy whatever she needs and pay rent for the apartment where she lives, and she doesn’t watch much of the news or pay attention to politics, so she knows next to nothing about how the world really is.
“Yeah, I think I’ll try something simpler to see if this place can do anything right,” he says in the most arrogant voice he can, hoping that she’ll buy his excuse. It works.
“Alright,” she shrugs.
The man behind the counter hands them each their respective ice creams, and Kaeloo grabs extra spoons just in case one of them drops theirs and needs a new one. They sit down at a small round table with two plastic chairs. Kaeloo uses one of her spoons to scoop out a huge chunk of ice cream with chocolate sauce and sprinkles drizzled liberally over it. She smiles in bliss as it literally melts in her mouth. She looks over at Mr. Cat and sees him hungrily eyeing her ice cream, even though he’s trying to be discreet about it.
“Would you like a taste of my ice cream, Mr. Cat?” she offers.
“Oh, uh, n-no, I wasn’t looking at your ice cream, I was just spacing out and I happened to be looking in your direction,” he says, crossing his arms. Kaeloo ignores him and places a spoonful of her ice cream in his mouth using one of the extra spoons she got. It’s the most delicious thing he’s ever tasted.
“This is actually… not that bad,” he admits. She feeds him another spoonful, and even though the taste is heavenly, he feels bad for depriving her of her ice cream. He decides to return the favor.
“This isn’t bad either,” he says, putting a spoon of vanilla in her mouth.
“It’s really yummy!”
Her eyes are practically sparkling. He tries to feed her another spoonful, but she’s so distracted that he ends up smearing it all over her face.
“Oops,” he says sheepishly, grabbing a napkin to wipe it off of her. He hopes she isn’t too mad.
“Mr. Cat -” Kaeloo says, and he instinctively holds his arms in front of himself in defense.
“It was just an accident!” he cries, closing his eyes tightly. The seat they chose was in a secluded corner of the ice cream parlor, so nobody really pays attention to them. Kaeloo feels a wave of self-loathing wash over her as she watches her best friend cower in fear of whatever he thinks she’s going to do to him.
She gently places a hand on his forearm and he tentatively opens one eye.
“I know it was an accident! I’m not going to hurt you! I just wanted to tell you that you had some ice cream on your chin,” she explains, and he slowly lowers his arms. She grabs a napkin and gently removes the ice cream from his face. Mr. Cat relaxes a little, his eyes no longer wide with terror. Kaeloo badly wants to ask him what’s wrong, but she knows that it will end like all the other times, with him desperately trying to change the subject. So she changes the subject herself, telling him about the new Princess Pony doll she bought yesterday and how excited she is to play with it. Unfortunately for Kaeloo, Mr. Cat is not a fan of Princess Pony, so he won’t play with her. Fortunately for Kaeloo, though, it does get the conversation to veer off-topic like she intended. They spend the rest of the evening chatting and laughing like nothing happened.