Chapter Text
Caelus slowly opens the train doors and steps in. Clutching the bottom of his shirt tightly to his body, holding up the bundle underneath his shirt, he looks around to check for any potential witnesses. Finding no one, he closes the door quietly and turns right.
He's silent, but fast as he makes his way through the Astral Express. Luck is on his side today, as he doesn't run into anyone. At last, he tiptoes past the rooms of his companions and slips into his own room.
Mission complete.
He releases the breath he was unconsciously holding, and walks towards his bed.
He pulls up his shirt and lets a white, fluffy cat fall onto his mattress.
You might find yourself asking, Caelus, what is this? What is going on? Why are you sneaking a cat onto the train?
Honestly, he doesn't know. This entire thing was one giant impulsive decision which slowly brewed at the back of his head for the past 3 days or so.
It first came up when one day, while taking a stroll through the Central Starskiff Haven, he began to be followed by the previously mentioned cat. Now, Caelus may steal books and destroy public property, but he sure isn't a pet thief. So instead of falling victim to his desires, he simply offered the cat a piece of his lunch, scratched behind its ears, and continued on walking.
The next day, the cat showed up again. This time, it brushed against his leg while he was counting starskiffs. Till now he is impressed by the sheer strength of his own will, and that he didn't abandon his job just to stroke the feline again. Once his job was over, he was finally able to pay attention to the cat. Its fur was clean, and without knots, but it had no collar. Caelus isn't a pet thief...
The third day, he was eating his meal when the cat startled him by jumping into his lap. He barely managed to avoid choking on his food. He'd resume eating if it wasn't for the small, soft head bumping into his hand, demanding attention. Haa... what a cute little brat.
"Oh my, I've never seen it approach someone like this before!" comes from behind him. He turns around to see a foxian lady.
"Excuse me?"
"Oh, my apologies! Didn't mean to disturb you. It's just that this cat isn't known for being sociable, you see. Many tried to approach it, but it always ran away."
"Ah, really? Does the cat have no owner?"
"No, appears not. None that I've seen at least. For the longest time, this little fellow simply roamed the streets, though it never ate the food given to it by the passerby."
So a stray...
.
.
.
Caelus is no pet thief, but when a pet isn't owned, it cannot be stolen.
And so now he's digging through the depths of his closet for a blanket and some pillows to create a makeshift bed for the cat on the ground.
"Here's where you're going to sleep! I know it's not much, but I promise I'll buy you a proper bed late—" The cat completely ignores its bed in favor of his own. It sniffs at the bed sheets and ends up curling up on his pillow, where his scent appears to be the strongest. "...Or you could do that. Sure..."
Caelus sighs. He crouches down and runs his hand through the cat's fur.
"You know, for a stray, your coat is strangely clean. Was someone secretly taking care of you? Or are all Xianzhou Luofu cats this upkept?"
The cat doesn't reply, of course.
"Well, no worth wondering about that now," he trails off in thought, "General."
The cat's ears perk up, and it opens his eyes to stare at him intently.
"Do you like that name? I think it fits you. You remind me of him a little." he smiles, however it doesn't last long.
"I haven't told anyone about you though," he remembered. "No one on the express knows that you're here." he groans. "How do I even tell them what I did? Oh hey Himeko, Welt! Just so you know I went ahead and brought a random street cat into the train without asking for your permission! Hope you don't mind fleas, bye~! Yeah, right." he grimaces, letting his head fall onto the edge of his mattress.
"Argh! Damn it! And the train leaves in just 3 days too! How am I supposed to build up the courage in such a short time?" The whines are muffled.
Caelus looks at General and contemplates his options, but the cat leans forward and bumps its head against his, effectively halting any kind of productivity.
"Haa... well, I'll just keep you my little secret until I figure out what to do. What could go wrong?"
The thing is, Caelus is around 3 and a half months old, technically, and he has yet to learn the rule of 'What can go wrong, will go wrong'. Which is why he never expected to open the door to his room, a discreet bowl of food in hand, and come face to face with Dan Heng holding a hissing General by the scruff of his neck.
It's been barely 24 hours, and he was already exposed. How comical. Caelus gapes.
"What... is the meaning of this?" asks Dan Heng as if the cat wiggling around in his hold didn't bother him one bit.
"Uhh... a... robo-pet?"
Dan Heng twists the cat to face him and opens its mouth to reveal sharp fangs, a tongue full of keratin spikes, and saliva pooling all around the throat. Not a screw in sight, alright.
"New, updated version." he adds, as if it'd actually work.
"...Uh-huh." He takes his fingers out just before General tries to bite down on them.
"Listen..."
"Why is it in your room, Caelus? Did you sneak it over or..? Does— Does Himeko know about this? Welt? Pom Pom? Anyone?"
Disappointment and annoyance seep into his voice, and Caelus feels word with each passing second. He can't even look him in the eyes, he's too ashamed of hiding something from the people that took him in with open arms.
Dan Heng notices him slowly withdrawing into himself, so he passes the cat to Caelus, which curls up into the crevice of his neck and purrs, and continues, this time with a softer, yet no less no-joke tone.
"Look, you can't just bring an animal you found onto the train without telling anyone about it, much less without even asking. Do you know how potentially dangerous that is? Most first time passengers experience extreme nausea the first time they jump, who knows what it could do to an ordinary animal."
"...om po..." Caelus mumbles under his breath, and despite Dan Heng straining his ears to hear him, he can't.
"What?"
"...ut Pom Pom is fine..."
.
.
.
"Does Pom Pom look like an ordinary animal to you?"
Caelus remains silent, head hung low, with the cockered cat still rubbing against every part of his collarbone. At least it seems to have made him loosen up a bit.
"...'m sorry, Dan Heng."
Dan Heng sighs and massages his temple, feeling a headache coming on.
"Just," he inhales, "return the cat where you got it from, and we can pretend this never happened. I won't tell anyone and we will put this behind us. Okay?"
"But General has no home."
"You named it already?"
"Apparently he's been on the streets for ages and no one took him in. They tried but he was probably too scared to let them near."
"If the cat—"
"General." Caelus jumps in.
"...If General," he spits the name out as if it personally wronged him, his family, and his horse, "is as timid as you say, how come he's completely happy and content in your arms right now?"
"I don't know."
Which may not be the best answer right now, but it's the truth, and Caelus is anything but a liar. (This situation doesn't count, no one ever asked him if he was hiding a cat in his room.)
Dan Heng sighs for the upteenth time that barely ripe day.
"You have until the jump to find the cat a new home and leave it there. Understood?"
Caelus gnaws at his bottom lip. He looks up only to have Dan Heng already all up in his face, arms crossed across his chest and leaning over him as if to intimidate him into submission.
"Understood?"
"...Understood."
"Good." He pats his head, then walks around him towards the door.
"We're gonna have a problem if I find out you kept it. Remember, this is for your own good."
The door closes.
Caelus slides down against the door.
"Oh we're done for now, General."
Turns out, looking for someone to take care of General isn't as easy as it looks, and Caelus would be happy about that since it would mean he could use it as an excuse to keep the animal with him, be it not for Dan Heng. Now all that's circling in his head are increasingly wild scenarios of the cat suffering alone.
The issue isn't even a lack of people wanting to take in a stray cat with potential diseases (the women love him!), it's that General doesn't want to stay with them.
It goes something like this:
1. Caelus walks around, asking people if they're interested in adopting a stray cat in need.
2. A person coos over General and agrees to take him in.
3. Caelus hands General over and walks away.
4. General walks away as well.
You see the issue.
So it's two options. One, hand General over to someone and run like the wind, or two, face Dan Heng.
.
.
.
Goodbye little General.
Caelus passes the cat to a couple, their young child already starry-eyed at the animal.
The first time he gave General to a person, he nearly went back for him himself. Hearing General's sad meows pierced his heart the longer he took to leave, his legs felt like they were weighted down by a 100 ton weight.
It got better after that, considering General always ended up tailing behind him a few seconds after, but now he feels that slight hesitation in his feet accompanying doubt in his gut. This time, it's for real. And he has to speed up or his heart will break.
He breaks into a sprint, startling a few bystanders, and runs through allies, scales fences, jumps over open canals and ends up breathless near the starskiff stop to Stargazer Navalia.
He supports himself by putting his hands on his knees, and it almost reminds him of the whole Goethe Hotel misunderstanding. May not be a life or death experience, but he sure ran as fast.
He moves to wipe his sweaty forehead with his sleeve when a chuckle reverberates behind him. He'd move to straighten up, but he can guess that the person is a bit too close behind him by the warm breath hitting his neck. The person takes the hint and steps away, so he can turn around to assess whether he should consider signing up for next year's marathon or it's just a fake alarm.
Lo and behold, there stands none other than general senior, possibly direct ancestor of General junior. His feline smirk still stretches over his face the same way it had the first time they met.
"What's the rush? A lion's chasing you?"
"Ah, general..." he sighs, "far worse, far."
He's aware he's most definitely breaking several etiquette rules by talking so casually, but he's exhausted and exhausted men don't care for law.
"I've been trying to get rid of a cat, but it's like it's glued to my leg. Whenever I give it to someone, it always ends up following me back home..."
"Oh? How surprising. I always thought you'd be a passionate cat person."
"I am! But my friend said to get rid of it so I have no choice."
The general chuckles lightly, "The incredible trailblazer, stopped by a friend? Why not fight back for your desire, hm~?"
"Dan Heng is scary, sir."
He bursts into a laugh and Caelus doesn't know if his cheeks are red from embarrassment or from running.
"Haa~ Well, if that's so, I wish you all the luck to succeed. I heard cats can be quite clingy with people they adore." his smile feels a bit too wide, but Caelus shrugs it off. The general has always been a bit... weird.
"By the way, what brings you here, general? Also running from cats?"
"No, no, of course not. There's a pearl I've been trying to get. It's a very rare trinket here on Xianzhou Luofu, and when I finally catch a lead, someone ends up stealing it away, so I have to start all over again. I'm trying my luck here, as you can see. It has a beautiful, white color with a metallic shine. The first time i saw it, i knew i had to have it.~"
"You sound very passionate about it, general, but what's the pearl for? Does it have powers or something?"
"Haha, it wouldn't do good to reveal everything so readily, Caelus. Who knows who might be listening in. The less people know about it, the better."
"Why tell me then?"
"Hmm, I sure wonder." his grin threatens to slice his face in half. "Well, it's getting late and I do recall you have something to return to, correct?" he doesn't wait for a reply, and instead walks away, turning behind a corner and out of Caelus' view.
He stands confused for a while, when something rubs against his leg. He looks down, and... sighs.
"Hello little General..."
He begins walking back to the Express.
Once safely in the confines of his room, he lets out a tired exhale, puts General on the bed, and drags himself to the closet for a pair of pajamas. He peels off the shirt off of his back and unbuckles the belt of his pants which immediately slide down a little. He grabs a shirt and shorts and walks back to his bed to change. General is busy intensely staring at the wall.
He throws the clothes on himself and crawls under the covers, staring up at the stellar ceiling. He mindlessly rubs at Generals head, musing of today's encounter.
"What a weird guy..." General looks at him, and from the corner of his eye, he swears he sees confusion hidden behind those glittering eyes. "A general, yet he has enough free time to chase after pearls, as if there weren't immortal beings running amok just a few weeks prior." he huffs out.
"I thought he'd be unapproachable, you know? Back then, he seemed unreachable. Like he was superior to everyone, and you were but an ant in his presence. He wasn't even there in person." Scandalous.
All goes quiet for a while.
"...But then he sought me out, even after we already dealt with the stellaron hunters..." something akin to hope sparks in his voice, but hope for what?
General mrows.
"It was... surprising? Exciting, maybe. Definitely shocking. And a little scary, honestly." he smiles. "But unforgettable. I don't think I've enjoyed spending time with someone this much before. Except for March 7th and Dan Heng, of course, but that's different. They're my first ever friends. But this..." his breath hitches.
He gulps.
"... It was different."
General sits atop his chest, like judgement. And he does feel judged right now, strangely. But not in a bad way. He feels lighter. Like he confessed so much, despite not saying anything at all, really. Like he's sure of the truth, and is now only awaiting the final verdict.
The judgement had been carried out, and he's guilty.
General purrs under his throat.
A tall silhouette looms above him. Its long hair draps down and hides the figure's cheshire grin. Starlight illuminates their pale, scarred skin. Donned in Adam's robe, it leans over Caelus' sleeping body and holds a hand out to gently wipe a speck of dust off his eyelash. He grumbles at the ticklish feeling and shakes his head, nearly bumping into the hand more and risking waking up.
It chuckles and crouches down until its warm breath hits Caelus' cheek. A palm cradles his neck at the pulse point. His life within one's hands, but he doesn't move the slightest bit. He presses into the warmth. Naive.
With a caress at his jaw, the figure thumbs at his lower lip. Soft. Very soft. A pair ghosts behind his ear, then his temple.
The warmth leaves and Caelus unconsciously chases after it, much to its amusement.
"Unreachable..." it mumbled into the dead of the night.
"Not for you. Never for you... my pearl."
The morning comes, and there is nothing to prove its existence.
"The Astral Express will jump in 10 minutes!."
"Shitshitshitshit,"
Caelus dashes down the hall, opening up every door he can, storming in, and eventually out as he leaves disarray behind.
He's akin to a headless chicken, when Dan Heng spots him, and when he's slammed into.
He catches Caelus before they can both fall, but Caelus is out of his hands before they even regain balance.
"What's g—"
"GENERAL! GONE!"
"You didn't find an owner yet?"
"I'm sorry! I tried! But he didn't like anyone, and then i met Jing Yuan and i got tired so i went to sleep thinking I'll continue tomorrow but i forgot and General's gone and i can't find him and oh my god what if something happens—"
Dan Heng grabs his arms and forces him to stand still.
"Caelus, listen. It'll be fine. Calm down. General will be fine." he's lying through his teeth. There's a reason Pom Pom is the only animal on the train. He doesn't want to recall the bloody incident with the bird.
But gods, he'll lie to hell and back if it makes Caelus calm down.
"Listen, where did you last see it?
Caelus breathes harshly, but it's better than before.
"My— My room. Before i went to sleep, he was with me."
"Are you absolutely sure he didn't just curl up somewhere under the bed or behind your desk?"
"I— yes, yes."
"Did you check behind the closet?"
"N..no."
"Then go check. I'll search the main wagon, and we will meet here, okay?"
"...Okay."
There's no chance the cat is in Caelus' room. If it was, Caelus would know. It was glued to his side for the past 3 days after all, but Dan Heng would rather he find the body than Caelus.
Still, the cat didn't seem normal, so the only thing he can do is hope that somehow, the jump doesn't do it anything too bad.