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Grub looks up from where he's nestled into the cove of Yenna's sleeping body. Across the room, the Tav is slipping from her bed. Grub tenses as she passes. It's a habit. The creak of her footfalls make his ears twitch. He's used to the even breathing of everyone else who sleeps here, and the gentle shifting beneath sheets. It's his favorite sound, knowing that no one is around to make him so nervous, and he can focus on his favorite person in the world and keeping her safe.
The Tav's giant shadow keeps his attention until the Dog's claws start tapping toward her. His eyes dart to the Dog, watching him press his head into the Tav's side. One loud plop of his tongue on the back of her hand. She points and sends the Dog back to bed.
Grub watches the dog now, laying down in front of the embered fire, but not going back to sleep. Grub stares at him. The light changes suddenly, and the embers go out. Grub hears a second pair of footsteps following after the Tav. He can smell the cold scent of the grave on the Vampire from here. Grub yawns, stands up to re-adjust himself, to press himself closer to Yenna, pressing his fur up against the warmth of her breath. He may be just a cat, but the Vampire came home smelling all wrong, and Grub doesn't want him anywhere near Yenna.
The Tav and the Vampire disappear behind a door that clicks shut after them. Grub stares at the door for a few moments longer to make sure they aren't coming back out. His eyes fall shut, crack open, close again, and he tucks his head under his paws.
Fierce sounds emit from behind the door again. He looks up at the door again, pressing himself against Yenna's face. She sniffs in her sleep and moves her head so she can breathe.
"...Don't you dare judge me..."
The Dog whines from the floor.
Grub hears the Tav hissing like one of his own kind, calling the Vampire a piece of shit.
Shadows crawl across the walls from the torches out on the street. The Bear has left the window nearest to his bed open. Grub hears distant drunkards singing, the roll of pre-dawn delivery wagons passing along the road. He begins to think of the delicious mice that scratch behind the walls during the day. Yenna whimpers as she dreams. He ignores the gasps of delight and terror that are coming from the Tav from behind the door.
After some time passes, Grub lifts himself up from his slumber and leaps up to the windowsill to watch the morning come. From his comfortable little vantage point, he sees his less fortunate, much less cautious brethren darting across the streets without a favorite person of their own to curl around them. Cricket song shimmers in his ears, and he wonders if he's ever eaten a cricket. He's had plenty of spiders before.
The scent of blood reaches his little nose just enough for him to register it and let it go. That could be anything at all.
When the door finally opens again, Grub is still thinking about crickets. His ears turn back to acknowledge it, and the thumping of the Dog's tail against the floor. The scent of death approaches, and Grub scurries down from his perch and slips underneath the bed. Body made small, eyes and ears alert, he watches the Vampire bring the Tav back to her bed. He lays her limp body down and stares at her for such a long time, eyes shining in the darkness. Grub stares at him in turn. He tunes out the rest of the night, only focusing on this threat. He can feel his fur spiking, his heart pounding. There is only hiding so he won't be found. So he can keep Yenna out of harm's way.
He can't help how he responds to such things.