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Lux was tasked to find a place for her and Jinx’s first date. Now, technically, they have been to other ‘date-like’ events before, but nothing was overtly planned. For some reason, Jinx had insisted that Lux needed to pick the location. Lux had scoured the internet for hours and hours and hours and lost sleep over it. She needed to pick the best place possible! She eventually found a small, hole in the wall, cat cafe. It seemed a little sketchy and strange, but she knew that Jinx liked cats. So, why not? She hadn’t found anything better.
Lux entered the cat cafe thirty minutes before their planned date time. She walked around and checked it out. No cat approached her. She even got on her knees and did the ‘pspsps’ thing. Yet, they all seemed to back up and hide under a blanket in her presence. She started to doubt if this was a good idea.
The door of the cafe opened and Lux heard a gasp. “Oh my god!”
She turned and saw Jinx standing in the doorway. Her hand over her mouth in shock. She was practically vibrating and staring at Lux and the cats that were running away from her.
Lux walked over to Jinx and smiled. “Do you like it?”
Jinx started rocking back and forth on her feet. She seemed electric. “Yes! Yes! I’m so excited!”
Jinx hurried to the counter and pulled Lux along by the hand. She ordered a black coffee. She had to repeat her order probably three times before the cashier could understand her because of how quickly she was talking. Lux ordered a latte and the man seemed a lot more comfortable in her presence. Lux was more of a people person, she guessed. Jinx seemed to scare everyone away.
Except for cats, apparently. Jinx stumbled over to the middle of the cafe and sat down crisscrossed. All of the cats seemed to gravitate towards her. An orange cat ran over her lap excitedly, and Jinx giggled loudly. A black cat purred and marked all over Jinx’s knees. A rare brown cat laid down just out of Jinx’s reach and watched patiently, obviously not wanting to be touched. And, well, Jinx didn’t even try to touch that brown cat. She accepted the boundaries given. A tabby cat curled up in the space between Jinx’s crossed legs. Another, identical looking, tabby cat kept meowing at Jinx demanding attention.
Lux stood near her, completely shocked. She hated to admit it but, god, she was jealous. She was so jealous. She wasn’t sure if she was jealous of the attention the cats were getting, if she was jealous of the fact that cats liked Jinx, or if she was jealous of the closeness and touching. She hated herself just a bit for it.
A tuxedo cat approached Jinx and Jinx… just picked her up right off her feet. She held her by the arms, her long body stretched out in the air. Jinx grinned. Her smile was huge and her cheeks were high. She was giggling.
“Come here!” Jinx demanded of Lux. She looked up at her and Lux fell in love all over again. Those beautiful smiling eyes.
“They’ll get scared of me…” Lux replied. She gave out a nervous giggle. She was trying to make it seem more casual when, in fact, she was extremely embarrassed.
“Hm.” Jinx thought. She looked around at all the cats that surrounded her and started pointing and talking to them. “Lux is gonna sit here with me! You better accept her or you’re out! No more pets!”
The cats made no response because, well, they were cats.
Jinx gave a noise of approval and looked back up at Lux. “All good! Come here now!” She made grabby hands at Lux.
Well, now Lux wouldn’t dare resist the grabby hands. She smiled and walked over as slowly and softly as possible. The cats looked at her as if she was an intruder. She sat on the floor next to Jinx, their knees touching.
Jinx, once again, picked up the tuxedo cat and placed her in Lux’s lap. Lux gasped and held her hands near her chest, away from the cat. She wasn’t scared of the cat's claws or teeth, she was scared of the cat hating her.
Jinx grumbled. “Pet her! She wants it.” Jinx returned to looking around and surveying the other cats that were in reach.
Lux tentatively brought a hand down and started petting the top of the cat’s head. She started purring. Lux was mesmerized. A cat was purring for her! She gave it scratches and started petting down her body and-
The cat suddenly jumped out of Lux’s lap and walked away. “Oh no!” Lux said. She slumped down in her seat. Of course.
“She just needs a break. That’s why cats are so good!” Jinx started to explain as she set to petting another black cat. “They tell you when they’re done. Very direct. No need to interpret them!”
Jinx was infatuated by the cats. Eventually, the cashier brought over the coffee and latte that the two had ordered. Jinx didn’t even make eye contact with him. Lux had to get both of the drinks out of his hands. Jinx was too distracted by the gray cat that had appeared out of a cat tower and was asking for pets.
Lux sipped her drink and watched, quietly. She was burning inside. Of jealousy, probably. She debated if Jinx was going to leave her for a cat. That was stupid, right? But, seeing Jinx’s wildly smiling face now made her feel like that was a real possibility.
Suddenly, Lux watched as an orange cat started to make a bee-line for her lap. Lux moved her drink away, and hoped that this would be the cat. It was. He walked into her lap and sat there. His little paws rested on her thighs and he started kneading there. It hurt. Oh god, it hurts. Her thin pants did nothing to protect her against his tiny claws. She winced but decided to lightly pet the cat on the back anyway.
“There you go!” Jinx said happily, watching Lux. “You just gotta chill out and they know that.”
“Jinx…you’re the least chill person I have ever met.” Lux replied.
“Well, it’s a certain kind of chill, I guess. Cats are creatures of pure chaos, like me!” Jinx smiled and sipped her coffee. A cat looked at her curiously and Jinx brought the coffee cup down so the cat could sniff it. The cat did, and then went on their merry way to the cat tree.
“Why did you do that?” Lux asked. She didn’t understand anything about cats.
“They were curious. I let them sniff.” Jinx said simply, as if it was the most obvious answer ever. It was not obvious to Lux.
The two sat for a while longer, and eventually left the cat cafe. Jinx was hesitant to leave, but she explained that she didn’t want to overstimulate the cats or overwhelm them. Lux didn’t really understand that. They were cats. But, Jinx seemed to know more than her about them, so Lux accepted it.
“Thank you for bringing us here,” Jinx said quietly. The two were walking to the bus stop. They would, inevitably, get on the bus and then get off at different stops.
“You’re welcome!” Lux said happily. She was still jealous, but at least now she got Jinx all to herself. She held her hand as they walked.
“No, really. I loved it so much.” Jinx emphasized.
“I know,” Lux replied, smiling to herself. “The cats didn’t like me very much. They absolutely loved you, though!”
“We understand each other.” Jinx mumbled.
Lux felt her heartbeat heavily in her chest. She didn’t understand Jinx. Not like how cats did. That was so stupid to think, wasn’t it? Jinx wasn’t going to date a cat. Maybe the thing that Lux was most jealous of was the fact that it seemed the cats and Jinx were on the same wavelength. Lux felt like sometimes she never understood Jinx at all.
The two got on the bus in silence and sat next to each other, like always. Their thighs pressed together. For warmth, obviously.
" It’s nice to understand something,” Jinx started again. She looked over at Lux and flicked her temple. Lux jumped. “You’re crazy, I don’t understand you at all.”
Lux laughed at that. “Really? You think I’m crazy?”
“Mhm,” Jinx said. “How early did you get to that cat place before me?”
Lux stuttered. She was being found out! “Five minutes…”
“No lying, blondie!”
“Thirty minutes…”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Jinx seemed satisfied with herself.
“I don’t understand you, either.” Lux said softly.
“Yeah, you do.” Jinx corrected.
“What? How do you know?”
“You should see how other people treat me, sunshine. You get me. I promise.”
Lux didn’t have an answer for that. She doubted it, but Jinx never lied. That was part of her shtick. She stared at the dirty bus floor. She felt Jinx’s eyes on her.
“Can I go home with you?” Jinx asked.
Lux’s eyes widened. She felt her face heat up. Jinx has never been over to her apartment before. What does this mean? Oh god.
“Yes.” Lux stuttered out. “I mean, I guess. If you want to.”
“I do.” Jinx placed her hand, face up, on Lux’s thigh.
It made her face heat up harder and her muscles twitch. She stared at the hand for a moment, trying to figure out what it was saying to her. Eventually, she realized. She intertwined her fingers with Jinx’s. It was going to be okay. Maybe Jinx said that she didn’t understand Lux, but Lux disagreed. Jinx was always so patient with her. She always comforted her. She was perfect for her. And, just maybe, Lux was perfect for Jinx too.