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Chuck wasn't good with animals. After all, he never had one to practice. When he was a child he had a friend with a dog. He was excited to meet the animal but was quickly put off by the amount of energy the dog had. Chuck just didn't like the quick movements and that the animal kept jumping up his legs. He didn't like the sensation of the dogs tongue coating his arm in saliva, either, although his friend seemed just fine letting his dog lick his arms, even his face. It was a bit gross.
Chuck had never considered getting an animal. He was swimming in work before George Hamlin died and after he was gone, well, even more work. So it wasn't like Chuck knew what he was doing when he heard a loud "Mrrreow!" from the other side of his door.
The cat was bright orange and swooped over his doorstep even before he fully opened the door. She strutted in like she had made an appointment and was right on time, her soft paws on the hard floor never making a sound.
Chuck looked after her as she disappeared around the corner. What now? He was equipped with extensive knowledge of the law, and how to appease George Hamlin when something didn't go his way, and how to get his brother out of trouble after his... many mess-ups. But how to deal with a stray cat in his house wasn't his expertise. After dumbly staring at the turn she disappeared behind for far too long, he blinked once. Twice. Shook his head and closed his front door. Then he hurried after her.
When he arrived in the living room the cat was already perched on his couch. As if she owned it. Chuck slowly approached, scared he might startle her and loose her in his house. It wouldn't do for him to have her just wander around wherever she pleased.
"Good morning" Chuck whispered, feeling foolish. The cat stared at him.
Chuck had reached the couch, and the cat hadn't blinked once. He felt watched. And he didn't know what to do now. He didn't know how to pick up a cat, and frankly, he wasn't all that keen on doing it wrong and getting scratched. So he didn't even attempt it. Instead, carefully and not too close for her to feel much movement, he sat down next to her. The cat's eyes were still trained on him. They were a yellowish brown, and although her gaze was piercing, the colour was warm and deep. It felt like she was compelling him to sink deeper into the cushions and stop worrying about the intruder in his house.
It was probably better to wait for Ernie to come by, instead of trying to handle the animal himself. It wasn't like she was set on destroying the place, yet. And Ernie seemed like the kind of person who had had a dog in his childhood. A cat should be a piece of cake. After all, this cat seemed far less hectic than the dog of his friend had been.
She didn't have a collar, but she might still belong to someone, Chuck thought. Maybe she escaped from one of the houses on his street. He might have to make a flyer... Weren't cats chipped? Chuck had no idea how to check for that, but before he knew what his intention was, his hand already moved towards the cat. Slowly. He was still scared to startle the cat and get slashed.
"Do you belong to someone?", he whispered.
His hand hovered over the cat's head. "You must belong to someone. You're too clean to be a stray"
His hand hovered over the cat's head. Still.
...
The cat butted her head against his hand and he jumped a bit. But looking down, she still just sat there, neck a bit extended to rub the top of her head against him. She stared at him, expectantly. If she had the ability to talk, Chuck imagined she might ask him if she had to do everything herself over here. His hand moved in a motion that he thought resembled what he knew petting an animal should look like. It felt awkward, but the cat didn't seem to mind. She lay her head down on the couch, curling into herself, and then she started purring. The soft rumbling encouraged Chuck. He was doing something right. His strokes became longer and bolder and Chuck's muscles started relaxing. He hadn't even noticed how rigid he had been until now.
He might've sat there for hours. His hand had formed into a sort of comb, slowly brushing the furr with his fingers while the cat purred, satisfied. It was relaxing. Although Chuck sat inside all day, doing nothing felt like a chore most of the time. He tried to keep his mind preoccupied by reading all the magazines and newspapers from front to back attentively and came up with solutions for cases that were discussed in the magazines before he got to the page that contained how it was ruled in the end. But even when he was deeply focused on a case, in the very back of his mind he still knew that he was surrounded by electricity, that it was buzzing through the streets just outside his house. He knew that he was caged in, that he was isolated from the world and he knew that he felt powerless.
But right now, his mind had been too caught up in the feeling of the soft furr and the calming breaths that made her body slowly rise and fall under his hand. It was nice. The silence in his mind.
The ring of the doorbell tore through the calm atmosphere mercilessly. Suddenly, the cat's eyes were wide open, she leaped off the couch, zig-zagging across the room, and was gone. Chuck had jumped up too, looking around nervously as if to check if anyone had witnessed this moment of peace. He didn't want anyone to see him like that.
He shook his head, righted his shirt, and went to open the door, already set on barking at Ernie for... something. He opened the door, and he- caught his voice before it could escape his throat. He was staring at the face of Howard Hamlin.
"Hello Chuck", he smiled brightly, "I hope I'm not disturbing your afternoon?"
Chuck needed just a second to click his brain into the right mode to talk to Howard.
"Oh no, of course not, Howard! It's nice to see you. What brings you here?"
He moved over to let Howard into the house, carefully moving his eyes over the other's body to check for any car key or phone shapes in pockets. Of course he trusted Howard to be mindful of his condition, but he still checked. He had to.
"Ah, I just thought it'd be nice to catch up!" Howard's voice never wavered or strayed away from anything but honest kindness. When Chuck first met him this had been disconcerting. He felt somehow like he was being manipulated by him. But he came to learn that the man was just like this.
Howard walked past him into the house, carrying paper bags filled with groceries that Chuck had totally missed. He tended to get tunnel vision when checking people for items that could harm him, but that he could've missed the bags baffled him a bit. He hurriedly closed the door again, rushing after Howard, when he remembered the cat. Somewhere in his house, there was a cat. And Chuck had no idea how to explain this to Howard.
"Here, let me help you with the bags.", he said firmly on the way to the kitchen and took one bag out of Howard's hands.
"Is Ernie ill?" Chuck put the bag on his counter.
"No, don't worry. I just thought I could come by instead, today." Howard placed his bag next to Chuck's. "How are you doing, Chuck?"
"Good. How are you? And how is the firm?" The perfectly memorised automatic response rolled easily off his tongue as he righted the bags.
His eyes moved between Howard and the bags as he worked and every now and then he dared to glance toward the living room. No cat in sight.
He worked around Howard, putting away the groceries as the other launched into a detailed description of what the different branches of HHM were dealing with right now. By the time he got to the Sandpaper case, Chuck's kitchen was spotless again.
"Oh, and Chuck?" Howard's voice had receded from the excited chattering to a softer tone. Chuck's eyes were immediately focused on Howard. Changes in tone meant he needed to focus. "Jimmy started working at Davis & Main" Chuck blinked. Once. Twice.
The cat sat in the doorway to the kitchen.
"As what?" His brain was firing in a million different directions at once. Jimmy at Davis & Main? The cat was right behind Howard. So close to the Sandpiper case? Very close. "As a lawyer", Chuck answered his own question, trying to overplay how his brain couldn't seem to concentrate as different parts of his brain fought for power. "Of course."
Howard nodded, carefully mustering Chuck while explaining how that had happened. Jimmy was going to work on the Sandpiper case. If Howard turned around he'd see an orange cat. The cat was slowly blinking at him. If Jimmy worked this closely together with him, he could ruin the image Chuck built up for HHM. For himself. The comfortable togetherness with the cat felt like a weakness. If Howard spotted her, he would have to search for her rightful owner. If Jimmy messed this up, Chuck would loose the respect of the law community. Just one glance... Just one reckless con... "Chuck, are you okay?" Chuck should've never brought Jimmy to the mailroom. Chuck had finally built something for himself. The cat had calmed him. And now Jimmy would pull one of his tricks and… and Chuck had vouched for him!
"Mrrreow!"
Howard blinked. Once. Twice. Then turned. Chuck's brain felt like it had overheated and shut off. The cat swished her tail back and forth. He watched as Howard spotted the cat and crouched down.
"Hello you", Howard said in his usual friendly voice and held his hand closer to the cat. Chuck wasn't an expert, but Howard seemed not much more experienced in dealing with cats than himself. The cat had already established that she didn't care about how awkward a fully grown man would act around her as long as she could get some pets out of it. She headbutted Howard's hand.
Howard looked behind himself up at Chuck and smiled brightly. His eyes shone, caught up in the exhilaration of getting the approval of an animal.
"What's her name?"
Chuck was startled out of a trance. "Oh," He laughed awkwardly. "I don't know. She's not mine. She just… walked into the house earlier!" He didn't feel like explaining that he had sat with the cat for a long time, doing nothing but petting her. He wouldn't admit that he hadn't felt up to the challenge of picking her up.
The cat swooped around Howard, rubbing her furr all over his suit, before turning to Chuck and headbutting his legs.
"Seems like she wanted to get to know you", Howard said while standing up.
The cat looped around both of their legs while the men watched her in silence. Chuck would've liked to crouch down and pet her again, but doing it in front of Howard felt wrong. So he didn't.
The cat circled them one last time, staring expectantly up at them. When she realized they wouldn't crouch down again, she turned, tail flicking. She walked right to Chuck's front door.
"Mrrreow!"
Chuck squeezed past Howard and quickly opened the door, wide enough for a human to fit through. With one last flick of her tail and no glance back to the men, she walked down the stairs across the street and disappeared through the cat flap in the door of a house across the street.
Howard chuckled. "I guess she really did just want to meet her neighbour!"
"It seems so...", Chuck said softly, still watching the cat flap swing back and forth.
"I..." Chuck started "Thank you so much for coming by Howard! It was nice to see you again!"
"Oh, of course." Howard seemed a bit thrown off by the sudden pleasantries but caught himself quickly. "If you need something, don't hesitate to ask me!"
Howard left shortly after, and Chuck was alone again. He missed the orange spot on his couch. His mind kept wandering to Jimmy working at Davis & Main. He wondered if Howard's image of him had changed, even if, replaying the events, he had done nothing out of the ordinary. It was just the cat that was out of the ordinary.
It was good, though, that the cat lived across the street. Because that meant she wasn't lost. That meant that she might visit again.