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The spitter spatter of the rain drowned out other sounds in the narrow alleyway, and Yelena the orange cat is grateful for the never-ending thunderstorm with the heavy downpour, because it meant her scent can be masked and her little footsteps can be deafened.
Knowing her owner is no longer after her, Yelena crawled out of the dumpster she hid in, a half-eaten drumstick in her mouth that held a putrid stench of garbage. But it was still better than not having food at all, which was what Dreykov did to them all the time.
Dreykov was a cruel, cruel man. Always with his sharp tools and wicked instruments, slicing and stabbing and hurting. The cries of the other cats in the house often scared her in the early days, sometimes even her own joined in the cacophony until she got used to it, but she fought back every time nonetheless. Yelena had her fair share of scars, and one particularly declawed paw and a large scab that never healed properly was the proof of that.
But now she’s free. Alone, hungry and uncomfortably drenched. But free, alas.
Yelena enjoyed whatever meagre portions of her meal she could, then journeyed into the wet streets and parks that were so foreign to her. She had known nowhere but the four walls of Dreykov’s home, and only got to see the green leaves of a branch that tapped against a high window in where he kept his cats trapped. Occasionally warm rays of sunbeams would stream through the window, but the warmth of the sun was still a foreign concept to her.
And yet it seemed Yelena’s luck is often dry. She had escaped, not without effort, and yet the rain would not seem to stop. She was soaked to the bone and could feel a chill starting to set in. Her stomach was still growling, and she could feel her remaining energy fading away. She needed to find food and shelter soon... or else...
In the distant, she heard a soft purr. Yelena’s ears pricked in interest. And then she saw the most striking blue eyes she had ever seen, hiding in the shadows and silently watching her.
The cat came out of the dark, their eyes never leaving each other’s but their ears were pointed skywards with intrigue. She has a smooth black coat and a white chin and underbelly, with bright sapphire eyes that sparkled with curiosity. Her movements were poised, and every flicker of her bushy tail was filled with grace. Beneath the grime and unforgiving rain, there was no mistaking the glossy sheen of her well-groomed fur, unlike the patches of poorly grown fur on Yelena’s body after the years of cruel treatment.
Without a doubt, this black cat was obviously not a stray. Well taken care of, even. The snapped collar she still wore was the most obvious sign of that.
Then what is she doing in a dirty alleyway where strays fought for scraps?
They did not speak. Until the black cat placed a piece of bread on the ground with her gaze still locked with the ginger cat’s, as though offering it to her.
Yelena did not understand what it meant. After all, she was not used to being offered a hand in kindness. Her claws revealed themselves, out of habit, but she approached the offered shelter of badly arranged cardboard boxes and food, her hunger easily overpowering all her suspicions.
The black cat stepped backwards when Yelena was close enough to sniff the bread. Yelena’s mouth watered instantly, and she licked her lips – the bread was still fresh and smelled unlike anything else she had ever eaten. Without a second thought, Yelena bit into the bread and almost moaned at the burst of flavours in her mouth – soft, buttery and fragrant, with a hint of spice that she had only ever smelled when the humans in her neighbourhood cooked.
“Pretty good, huh?”
Yelena stopped her feast, and looked up at the cat who just spoke first in their encounter. The black cat was grinning, as though she was proud of herself, and that told Yelena everything she needed to know about her. Reckless, naïve, foolish, stupidly optimistic…
Charming.
Kind.
“My human sometimes got me bread that taste something like this. But really, this is nothing compared to what she made. Wished she made it for me every day though, but apparently she stopped when she realized it was making me fat…”
Of course she rambles, Yelena internally sighed. But she said nothing and enjoyed her last bite of the heavenly meal.
“I got it from that place over there,” the black cat nodded towards the end of the street, where they could see a pool of warm light on the pavement from a still-opened store. Some humans were standing under there getting shelter from the rain, some were purchasing the same bread she had eaten. “I gotta admit, even with my innate charms, it still took a while to convince that kind young man to give me some food,”
Yelena scoffed, and that got the other cat’s attention.
“Did I say something wrong?”
“There is no such thing as a kind human,”
The black cat frowned. “Of course there is, why else would he offer me food? And my human is kind too!”
“If your owner is kind, then why are you out here in the rain and begging for food?”
That obviously struck a chord, because her ears and whiskers drooped a little. What Yelena did not understand was why she felt sad for this stranger cat as well.
“I… I got lost, I think, there were so many cars rushing at me and it scared me a little… but,” blue eyes lit up with determination. “They are gonna find me, I know it,”
“And how long has it been?”
The black cat did not answer.
“That’s what I thought,” the rain slowed to a drizzle, and Yelena took it as her cue to leave. “Anyway, thanks for the meal, stranger. I wish you the best,”
“Wait! Where are you going?”
Yelena rolled her eyes as the black cat trailed closely behind her, but she kept moving on, hoping she would go away. “Nowhere,”
“Cool! That’s where I am heading too! And maybe we can be friends while we’re at it,”
“I don’t need a friend,”
“Oh come on, I thought that piece of bread was a token of friendship. I don’t even know your name!”
“You don’t need to know,”
“Speaking of names, it’s kinda funny how humans have the weirdest naming sense, don’t you think? Laura wanna call me Kate or Katie for whatever the reasons but Clint wanted to call me Bishop because it reminded him of his favourite comic book character or whoever that is. Anyway, that means I have two names which is pretty cool I think –”
The ginger cat stopped in her tracks and looked back at her with a raised eye. “So your name is Kate Bishop?”
The black cat, Kate Bishop, stared back at her with fully dilated pupils and the most pathetic (cutest) face she had ever seen in a cat. “You know, I’ve never thought of it that way,”
“Ugh,”
“Admit it, you need me around. How else would you get food without stealing?”
Yelena said nothing to that, and only kept walking as the happy little black cat trailed behind her excitedly, with spring in her steps.
Yelena thought she could lose her pesky companion two days in. After all, she was smaller, quieter and more alert. Kate was clumsy, loud and found every opportunity to rub her black coat against every human leg she saw, which annoyed Yelena to no end as her goal was to be discreet. However, every time she thought she lost the black cat, Kate Bishop always caught up to her in the end.
The ginger cat gave up on the third day, at this point only perched on a rooftop as she watched her companion do her classic Kate Bishop thing in front of another human. The pungent stench of fish and seawater led them here, and a proud yowl caught her attention as she watched Kate Bishop approach her with a rather impressively sized fish in her maw.
One thing Yelena could never figure out – Kate Bishop always willingly shared her meal with her. She noticed sometimes Kate would eat slowly, while Yelena dug into her meal like someone could steal it from her. Kate enjoyed every bite, while Yelena only ate ravenously, and that was enough to tell the difference between both cats’ upbringing.
Sometimes Yelena would finish her meal and then scan her surroundings hungrily. She could never have enough. And it was moments like these she prayed she would never go hungry again.
And of course, the very annoying Kate Bishop just had to do her thing, like approaching Yelena and giving her what was left of her meal.
Yelena’s green eyes narrowed to slits, her hackles raised. “What are you doing?”
“I can tell you’re still hungry,” Kate Bishop placed the remaining fish morsel before Yelena.
“That doesn’t mean I want you to give it to me,”
Somehow, Kate Bishop had the audacity to appear irritated. “Just take it, Yelena. I’m not hungry, at least not as hungry as you are,”
“I don’t want you to pity me,”
“I’m not pitying you,”
“What are you up to?”
“Can’t I just do this for a friend?”
“We’re not friends!” Yelena hissed. “I let you follow me because I can’t shake you off! You’re like – like an annoying pest that won’t go away. You think humans are kind? Then you’re a fool, Kate Bishop, and one day you won’t be this optimistic when what happened to me happens to you,”
As soon as those words came out of her lips, Yelena knew there was no taking them back, however much she regretted it. A flicker of hurt showed in Kate Bishop’s eyes, which morphed into disbelief, then anger, then disappointment. All those emotions she had expected and was prepared to see after she uttered those words, and yet she still felt a spark of guilt in her chest.
What she did not expect, however, was a different kind of sadness emanating from her. Sadness not because of Yelena’s words, but sadness for her.
“What did they do to you?” she asked, and that was enough to make Yelena’s resolve crumble. The ginger cat’s ears drooped at the reminder of her past, and her declawed paw began to itch horribly. She felt exposed under Kate Bishop’s scrutiny, and was tempted to tuck tail and run and never see her again, but her legs were rooted to the spot and refused to budge.
“I saw the scars, Yelena, but they aren’t from another cat, is it?”
Yelena took a step back when the black cat tried to reach out.
“It’s better if you don’t know,” she turned around and walked away, leaving Kate Bishop with the morsel of food she had offered as a token of their friendship. The air around her quickly turned cold, yet she knew it was not because of the winter air.
A pack of dogs stood before her, and their teeth glinted with drool dripping from their maws. In the centre stood a giant mutt with fangs that could no doubt tear her from limb to limb, and a jaw strong enough to break bones, but Yelena was not afraid. She stopped being afraid under the cruel treatment of Dreykov, nothing could faze her anymore, not even a pack of vicious, wild dogs.
“I heard pathetic mewling from miles afar,” the dog in the centre, undoubtedly the leader of the pack spoke. He was a mongrel with a body the size of a young wolf, and his fur was matted with dirt and something that resembled rust, which Yelena wondered if it was blood. Behind her she could feel Kate Bishop bristling with unease. The tension in the air was so thick both the cats felt suffocated.
Yelena bared her fangs and hissed, despite knowing she was no match for the dog in the middle, let alone a pack of them. Still, she had nothing to lose, and would be ready to go down with them as long as she could get a few scratches in. The pack, now rabid and barking relentlessly with spittle flying from their jaws, were ready to pounce and tear her apart, until the black cat put herself between Yelena and the pack.
“Knock it off, Kingpin. This isn’t what we agreed on,”
“She isn’t part of the deal, little cat,” the mongrel known as Kingpin growled, leering at Kate Bishop who remained unflinching, though Yelena could see unease radiating from her tail alone. “And I thought we agreed on you staying out of our territory,”
“We were just passing by, no harm intended,” Kate’s blue eyes glowered, unafraid. Yelena was impressed with the whole exchange, considering the black cat was not a stray, and yet she was not afraid in the face of a predator.
If looks could kill, Kingpin’s would have them dead already. “Then I suppose there’s no harm in letting go whatever food you’re carrying with you right now,”
Yelena hissed, her head hanging low as she was ready to attack if the pack approached them. But Kate only got closer to Kingpin, desperately trying to put as much distance between the pack and her companion.
“Give us a chance, Kingpin, Yelena doesn’t know about your territories here,”
“But you did, and you led her here despite knowing,”
“We were hungry. And we weren’t taking much,”
“Anything that is here belongs to Kingpin, and Kingpin alone,”
“Yeah, big guy, and yet that giant heap of leftovers from the butcher’s remain unraided, I thought you were doing a charity,”
Kingpin snarled. “Even if there is food in abundance, none of it belongs to you, cat,”
The dogs began to inch closer, and Kate Bishop’s whiskers trembled with panic. Still, she remained unyielding, standing in between Yelena and the dogs.
“We didn’t tear you apart because somehow the humans always take a liking towards you. Clearly you can always get them to give you something,” Kingpin growled, and the other dogs started barking viciously, spittle flying everywhere.
Kate Bishop inched backwards, the fur on her spine began standing on ends.
Kingpin crouched, ready to pounce. “Clearly now you need to be taught a lesson!”
Yelena bared her fangs, then jumped just as Kingpin began reaching for the black cat. Kate Bishop, despite her bravado displayed earlier, stood rooted to the ground while Yelena buried her claws into Kingpin’s eyes, his maw snapping just inches from her soft belly. The leader of the pack howled in pain and shook the smaller, orange cat from his snout, tossing Yelena towards the dumpster.
Other dogs were about to charge at Yelena, when a stack of unwanted bamboo rods fell between them, scaring the dogs away from Yelena for a while. The orange cat recovered and looked upwards, seeing Kate Bishop desperately pushing things off awnings and balconies to scare the dogs.
“Yelena, jump!” she screamed, and the ginger needed no other warnings. She focused and jumped as high as she could, claws catching onto a ledge which she climbed up and began making her way up the roof, towards Kate.
Both cats watched as the dogs barked and tried to scale the walls, one of them even almost succeeding in reaching them. But the rain made the walls slippery, and no dogs could ever match the athleticism of a cat.
With a grin, Kate Bishop led the way out of Kingpin’s territory. Yelena followed, and couldn’t help but smile herself too, and she found the wall between her and the stranger cat beginning to chip bit by bit.
In the days to come, Yelena began to accept offers from the black cat, and she would scout out the area to make sure they would not run into dogs or other larger animals again. Kate Bishop would go around begging for food from humans, and always succeeded each time. At that point, they trusted each other enough for the other to be away for some time, knowing they will be together to share their spoils at the end of the day.
It was a particular cold evening – snow was falling in gentle drops, and the ground was slippery with a thin sheen of white. Yelena and Kate Bishop stayed close enough to a human settlement where they could feel warm air drifting from within the building, but far enough that they would not attract any humans that would do harm to them.
After finishing their meal, both cats sat close to each other to share their warmth. Kate Bishop, as usual, purred and laid on the ground with content as she always did after finishing her meal.
“You need to walk around, work off that extra weight,” Yelena got off the floor and stretched, her claws peeking out of her toes as she sighed in satisfaction, feeling every joint in her body pop. “All you do is eat and sleep these days,”
“Mind you, I’ve walked enough today,” Kate Bishop laid on her back, her white belly exposed. Yelena playfully poked at her belly, which Kate flinched and curled into a little ball, mewling at the ginger cat. Yelena chuckled and dropped to her side, their bodies almost touching while their tails swirled happily, eyes fixed on the full moon in the sky.
It was the first time Yelena ever felt at peace, and in the presence of someone she could call a friend.
“Do you dream, Yelena?” Kate suddenly asked. Yelena’s eyes remained on the moon, wondering what it would feel like to pluck it out of the sky. Would it still maintain its luminance? Or would it dim and fizzle out (like everything else that comes into her life)?
She thought about Kate Bishop, the first ever being that was selfless enough to offer her own food to a feral cat she had never met before, putting herself between a pack of wild dogs and a cat that had sidelined her and tried to ditch her with every chance she could find.
The ginger cat felt herself warming up to Kate Bishop, but wondered how long the friendship would last.
“Not before,” Yelena admitted. “All I saw when I slept was blood, and a devil with a sharp knife who took and took from me until I had nothing else to give. When I escaped, those images were gone,”
“How about now?” Kate Bishop, still laying on her back, tilted her head far enough that she was looking straight into Yelena’s green eyes while upside down. The ginger gasped, staring into the sapphire blues mixed with stormy grey hues that were a close resemblance to the moon she admired earlier.
“Now I dream of a meadow, a place where I can run free and without fear. I can hear a stream nearby as I dart through the freshly cut grass, and I know food is abundant because the fish in the stream are never-ending,”
“That’s a beautiful dream,”
“Yeah, but the best part of the dream, I wasn’t alone. You were there,”
“Am I now? Was I annoying in your dream too?” Kate chuckled.
“You won’t stop chasing the bees,” Yelena purred. “Until you got stung, and your nose swell as large as my paw,” Kate snickered, and mumbled about how she would never get stung by a creature a million times smaller than her. “But most importantly, you were there, and I would never be alone again,”
Kate Bishop grinned. “Are you growing attached?”
“Get over yourself, Kate Bishop. Even if you did grow on me,” Yelena said, though there was no bite in her words. Kate Bishop giggled, and both cats basked in each other’s silence, enjoying the calm of the night compared to the chaos they experienced in the past few days.
Kate Bishop broke the silence after a while, and she spoke with a shaky, uncertain tone.
“Yelena… I don’t know if I’ll ever go home again, but I’m glad you’re right here with me,”
A wave of sadness overwhelmed the orange cat. “You will get home, you just need to remember how,”
“And if I remember, what then?” Kate asked, and Yelena would be lying if she said she had never thought about that question. “Where will you go?”
“Away. Far away from Dreykov,”
“But you will be alone,”
“I have been since I was born,”
“Or we could be together. You know I would follow you wherever you go,”
And that was what scared Yelena the most. A cat like Kate Bishop, a heart like hers which deserved to be cared, protected and sheltered, and not tainted and abused like what happened to Yelena. She could never stomach that thought, and she would never allow that.
She had to kill that notion in the black cat’s head so it would be easier for both of them.
“Wherever I go, it’s not a life for you,” Yelena snapped. “You have never known hardship, Kate Bishop – ”
“I saved us from Kingpin’s pack!” Kate stood, and scoffed incredulously.
“- You will not survive this, and I think it’s the best of us to not have your blood on my hands,”
Kate protested. “That’s not what you think, Yelena, you know that,”
“it doesn’t matter what I think,”
“It matters to me, aren’t you tired of this hero’s act?”
“I’m not being altruistic, Kate Bishop. I’m just trying g to save myself from my own guilty conscience. Once I get you back home, that’s where we part ways, we will never meet again,”
“But Yelena-“
“You don’t know anything about me,” the orange cat hissed. “You are spoiled to the core, your mind is incapable of grasping the concept of bad deeds being done in this world, and if that time comes it will break you,”
If.
Because Yelena wished it would never happen to her, but that thought and her true intention was unspoken, all that came out of her mouth was malice.
Both cats were silent for a while, and though guilty that she had to shatter the younger cat’s wishes, she was glad Kate Bishop gave up trying to convince her to think otherwise. But what she said next only surprised her.
“I’m not gonna force you. I don’t want you to feel cornered, so it’s fine if you don’t wanna tell me the truth or why you acted like this to me. I thought we were growing close these few days, but just… I don’t want you to be alone. I won’t talk again, if that irritates you less. I just want some company, and I know you do too. You could have left when I slept,”
Yelena did not answer. She hated to admit that Kate was right, that there were so many chances she could leave the black cat while she was asleep and never come back. But something about how Kate Bishop put herself between a cat she had never met before, and a pack of dogs capable of tearing her apart, made Yelena want to at least do the same for her.
For the first time she felt protective over the other cat, and despite her annoying charm Yelena felt less lonely with the black cat around.
“I was under the care of a human once, before I left that place,”
Kate Bishop looked at her with surprise, but Yelena continued.
“His name is Dreykov, and I was a kitten when I was taken in. How could I have known anything anyway. That man barely fed us, and sometimes when he did, it’s rotten leftovers or something that just isn’t right for us. But we got used to it anyway.
Then one day he just comes and grabs us, put us in places where he uses his tools to cut us open. I was numbed. I don’t understand what he was doing, but I’ve seen other cats not surviving it. Sometimes he beats us, sometimes he puts us in such cramped spaces there were cats that killed each other for territory.
So don’t tell me what you know about humans, Kate Bishop. You and I lived under very different circumstances. You’re lucky, privileged, while I was dealt a bad hand and had to go with it,”
Both cats stood staring at each other, unmoving, waiting for the other to speak. Yelena expected the black cat to come up with some retort, or some ridiculous claim to defend her owners which Yelena was convinced Kate will never see again. But the black cat’s eyes were fixed to the ground, as though she were ashamed, or contemplating an apology.
When Kate Bishop met her eyes again they were filled with sadness, before flaring with determination.
“I will show you,” she said. “When I go home, I will show you. There is goodness in the world, Yelena, someone just needs to show you,”
Yelena was about to snap, when she heard the familiar grunt of a man behind her. She knew she would regret it if she turned back, but her instincts made her look anyway, because no way he could be here.
It felt as though some unseen entity had her heart in a tight grip, squeezing forcefully while fear bled into her entire being.
Yelena gazed at the familiar shadow that had beaten the fear into her, and she felt every strand of hair in her back raised. Her claws were out, and his scent was unforgettable.
Dreykov.
Kate Bishop noticed Yelena’s anxiety and stepped towards her, until she followed her gaze to the large man currently in the butcher’s shop, and the rhythmic thunk thunk thunk of the cleaver against the chopping board brought out every morsel of panic in Yelena.
This can’t be happening, she thought. I got away!
Fearfully Yelena turned and ran. Kate Bishop was still confused, but followed her nonetheless, and as she bolted after Yelena she accidentally knocked over an empty can.
“You have to leave,” Yelena hissed.
“Leave? What got you so riled up?”
“That man who has been the bane of my existence? He’s here. If he sees me he will take me back, and he will catch you as well. And you do not want this man to catch you,”
Loud thundering footsteps echoed in the alley, and both cats stopped, looking back fearfully.
“Kate, go. I’ll distract him,”
“I can’t leave you,”
“You can. We barely know each other,”
“That’s not what you said earlier!”
“It doesn’t matter!” Yelena howled. “Go!”
Lightning flashed as both cats were showered with rain, and the shadow of a large figure loomed over them. Yelena looked up fearfully, directly into wicked glimmering eyes and a sinister grin she had not forgotten.
Kate Bishop hissed, her entire body arched and poised to attack. But she was hesitant, while Yelena felt her heart drop to the pits of her stomach, and her ears were tucked close to her head, her feet rooted to the cold hard ground.
She did not feel as brave as when she attacked a dog that was five times her size and capable of disembowelling her.
She did not feel as safe as when she laid with Kate Bishop after a cold but fulfilling meal, staring up at the night sky and thinking about dreams.
All she felt was fear and dread, and this time it was not just for herself.
Dreykov spoke, his voice like the blades of a grater being run through roads. He reached down with his grubby hands ready to grab Yelena, and though in one paw her claws were out and all she needed to do was to swing, fear had her in a tight grip and she was unable to move, unable to speak, unable to run.
His hand loomed, so close Yelena could smell the sweat that dripped off his fingers. Flashbacks of being tied down and cut open flashed in her mind, and every memory the fear only tightened its grip on her, never letting go –
“Get off her!” a familiar voice brought those memories to a halt, and Yelena jolted, her eyes focused on the abuser before her. Kate Bishop, with the energy she did not know she possessed, pounced upon Dreykov with all her claws brandished and ready to kill, landed onto his face and instantly attacked with her claws and fangs.
Dreykov screamed, and he retreated far away from Yelena while he fought to get the black cat off him. There were rivulets of red across his eyes and lips now, while Kate Bishop with all her fervour climbed around the large man’s shoulders and head, attacking viciously with everything she had while evading his hands. Yelena was soon brought back to her senses, and looked around her, finding a way to escape.
The man kept walking backwards, until his back was against a large dumpster where he almost careened over the edge. Without wasting another second Yelena bolted forwards, sinking her teeth into Dreykov’s leg. He screamed again, and this time while trying to kick Yelena away he slipped and fell head-first into a heap of garbage.
Kate Bishop dropped next to Yelena and grinned. The ginger cat could only nod in appreciation, for once in awe that even in the face of danger the black cat did not abandon her.
Both cats stared at each other hopefully, until Dreykov’s furious yells and rubbish being thrown everywhere reminded them they had to run.
“Let’s go, Kate Bishop!” Yelena shouted, and with a burst of adrenaline both cats scurried out of the alleyway. The rain only fell harder around them, making it even harder to run through with the sea of people that nearly pushed them to the road.
Behind them, Dreykov bellowed like an enraged beast, and eventually they reached a corner where the only way to outrun him was to run across a busy road, where vehicles zipped past at a speed fast enough to draw the wind from their little lungs.
And Yelena was overcome with the terrifying reality that they would have to brave the road, a literal path of death trap or risk capture by the man who would make them wish they were dead.
Kate Bishop looked at her with anxious eyes. So Yelena knew she had to be the one to be brave enough to take the first step.
“Follow me closely, alright?” Yelena said, and stepped forward, skipping past just as a car drove past too closely to her tail. Another car came closely, so she had no choice but to kept moving forward, every honk and swerve of a vehicle adding further to her anxiety. She could feel the wind slapping against her body mercilessly, and there were moments where she was way too close to being run over or slammed directly into a vehicle, and not once did she dare to hesitate and look back. She could only hope her companion was following her.
With a final leap, Yelena hopped onto paved ground victoriously. She turned around, expecting to see the black cat closely behind her, but to her dismay Kate was still stuck on the other side, her eyes growing wide with fear.
“Kate! You have to run across!” Yelena shouted, wanting to reach into the traffic to help Kate but there were way too many cars.
Behind Kate Bishop, a very livid and murderous Dreykov was shouting at people to give way and stumbling towards them with a large cleaver in hand, Kate’s scratches like angry marks on his face. Kate Bishop looked back fearfully, and knew she had to make the run for it.
Without another thought, Kate darted across the road. Cars whizzed past her so quickly and a loud honk made her flinch, startling her and causing her to stop in the middle of the road. She was about to make it to the pavement when she felt a force struck her in the side, and one of her feet went under a heavy wheel.
Something in her foot crunched and snapped, and it made her howl in pain and drop against the tarred road. Just as she felt she was about to be run over by another car, Yelena was at her side and dragging her to the roadside by the scruff of her neck. Just then, a loud thud followed by a sharp screech sounded and Yelena looked towards the source of the noise, and was met with Dreykov rolling off the hood of a car that had stopped abruptly in the middle of the traffic, the cleaver in his hand dropping on the road. Cars skidded to a halt around them, but the big man laid on the ground, limp and unmoving.
Kate’s whine caught her attention again, and Yelena mewled in apprehension. The black cat’s foot was stuck at an odd angle and there was a darkening bruise at her lower abdomen. She laid on her side and trembled, obviously any movement brought a sharp stab of pain to the poor cat.
“Come on, I’m gonna get you help. I won’t let you die at the side of the road,” Yelena used her mouth to pull Kate up, then leaned Kate’s weight against her own body. Kate slumped against the orange cat’s leaner body, but together they carried on.
“We are strays, Yelena. We are meant to die in the streets,” Kate mumbled, and that made her heart sink.
Bubbly, optimistic Kate Bishop was giving up, and she could not let that happen.
“Not you,” Yelena rubbed her cheek against Kate’s head. The black cat purred softly, despite her broken leg and the stabbing pain in the side. “You are meant to live a long life, in a warm house with your stomach full of good hot food,”
Yelena carried on down the path, down the empty streets where most stores were already closed, until she saw a warm light in the distance, and hope bloomed in her chest. Despite the late hours, there were still humans around. She only hoped the human she was about to meet would be kind enough to help a wounded stray.
A large glass structure halted her way, but the warmth and brightness emanated from within was unmistakable. Kate lost her balance and slipped further onto the pavement, Yelena in her panic leaned down to lick her face.
“I’m sorry, Yelena, it just hurts really bad,”
“It’s okay,” the orange cat tried to soothe her, hoping she could take some of the pain away. “You made it. We made it,” Yelena yowled as loud as she could, and desperately she began scratching the glass, but it seemed no one was coming out.
She felt disappointment begin to settle, until she saw movement from within, and a woman then emerged, her face full of curiosity. The woman’s curls bounced around her shoulders, and unlike Dreykov’s sneer that was almost plastered on his extremely punch-able face, this woman radiated kindness, and at first glance Yelena felt she could roll on her back and trust her with belly rubs.
However, she did not expect the woman to turn to Kate’s sorry state and instantly have tears in her eyes. Almost as though she recognized the cat immediately.
“Laura?” Kate mewled piteously, and Yelena’s eyes widened.
The human shouted for something, or someone, and seconds later a man came barrelling out of the glass door, his face just as worried as the woman’s. They spoke in hushed tones, clearly worried, and Kate Bishop desperately reached out for them, the familiarity in her eyes was unmistaken. The man scooped the black cat in his arms gently, holding her while being careful with her broken leg. Yelena was in awe – she had never seen a human hold a cat like that, as if the slightest misstep could break her.
Another pair of hands held her, but unlike Dreykov’s manhandling, the woman’s hands were warm and aimed to placate her. She knew instinctively this human would never harm her, and so Yelena relented and let Laura Barton carry her into their shelters. At that moment, Yelena realized one thing.
Somehow they had managed to stop at the Barton’s, and Kate was finally reunited with her family.
On the days Kate recovered from her broken paw, Yelena sat in the cage watching her companion gingerly picking through morsels of canned tuna and milk. The kind woman who nursed Kate back to health gave her the same food as well, but Yelena could hardly stomach the food until she knew Kate was okay.
Somehow Clint was empathic enough to realize Yelena’s woes, and so unlocked the cage and let her out. Yelena was wary at first but the human moved out of the room, and the ginger cat hopped onto the table where Kate still laid on her cat bed.
She sniffed Kate’s neck, before rubbing her face against the black cat’s, purring softly.
“Missed you too,” Kate returned her affection with a lick to her face, Yelena only purred louder.
“How do you feel?”
“Much better, and the food’s always better at home,” Kate’s blue eyes sparkled as she met Yelena’s. “I hope you are getting used to it here,”
“I don’t think I’d need to. They would put me back out in a couple of days anyway,”
“Yelena, they are good people. They are not Dreykov,”
“I know they are. Or they wouldn’t have taken me in... but no human would ever willingly take in so many strays like this. This is where they give stray cats away. They would give me away, and we would be separated again,”
“But I’ll always find you. No matter who took me in. I’ll run away and come back here to you. I’ll memorise the way so I can get back here. Always. You’ll never not have me,”
“Yelena...” Kate nestled under Yelenas chin. “I just wish you don’t have to run anymore. It wasn’t fair what happened to you.”
“Every suffering, every pain I got through led me to you, and i would do it again if it meant getting back with you,”
Kate Bishop lowered her head and whined, the food no longer seemed appetising to her. Kate would be cared and well fed by people who truly loved her meanwhile...
Yelena would be on the run, always suffocating to get back to the only constant in her life, and she would live in life of luxury, never hungry or cold again.
And yelena could only watch.
“Let’s leave together,” Kate said suddenly, knowing she would never regret what she said.
“what? No,”
“I want to be with you always. I don’t care if it rains or snows or if we are both hunting for scraps on the streets, I want to do it with you. I can’t just be living in a home in luxury while I don’t know what happens to you out there, if you’re going to be abused or abandoned again.
“Kate, you just got back home. You can’t leave again,”
“I’ve decided. And if you leave without telling me I’ll leave too, I’ll find you again, just as you vowed you’ll always find me. Nothing will keep us apart,”
Yelena said nothing, and instead nestled under Kate Bishop’s chin and felt safe again. Together she felt like they could face the world.
Outside the ward, Laura Barton watched as her beloved pet cat seemed comfortably snuggled against another cat, a stray nonetheless, when before this Kate wouldn’t even want to go near another cat. She wondered what happened in those 3 weeks when she had gone missing, and could not help but be fascinated with the strange camaraderie she was witnessing.
Her husband, Clint caught her watching the two cats which were pretty much stuck like peas in a pod ever since the orange cat was released from her cage.
“It’s funny, she has never warmed up like this to another cat,”
“Three weeks of solitude can do a lot to a cat, I supposed,”
“I’ve seen the wounds she went through, Clint,”
“Bishop?”
Laura shook her head. “No, the ginger. She clearly went through years of abuse. And somehow Kate managed to make friends with an abused cat. I would hate to give her away,”
“What are you saying? You’re not putting her up for adoption?”
His wife looked back at him with a knowing look, and Clint shook his head.
“No, Laura, no. The kids will go crazy if there’s another cat in the house, it’s too much,”
“But look at them!” she gestured at the two cats, where the orange cat was on top of Kate and playfully nibbling her ear. Kate yowled but it seemed she did not mind as much, her paws digging into her favourite blanket as she usually did when she was relaxed. “I can’t take them apart,”
“Laura,” Clint sighed.
“Face it, Clint, you can’t do it either,”
Clint Barton met his wife’s eyes and Laura stared back defiantly; her arms crossed. Finally, he relented with a sigh.
“Alright, but we have to make sure she gets her shots,”
The doors to the ward opened quietly, but both cats turned to look at them immediately. Upon closer inspection, Clint saw the tell-tale signs of abuse the older ginger cat went through - One paw was deeply scarred and the joints were cut off. Her belly held a long surgery scar that Clint did not even want to know it was for. Curiously, he reached for her belly to take a closer look at the scar.
The orange cat hissed and attempted to bite his hand. Clint yelped and shot back, while Laura giggled at him.
“Alright, not fond of me already?” Clint chuckled.
The cat laid down leisurely and studied him carefully with a nonchalant expression, but the position allowed him to see a name carved into the inside of her leg, the scar suggested it had been there for quite a while.
“Yelena?” Clint read aloud, and that seemed to get the cat’s attention as her ears twitched.
“Is that your name? Yelena?” Laura cooed, and the ginger cat yowled in reply. Somehow the cat warmed up more to Laura, as she hopped into her embrace the moment his wife opened her arms. Oddly, Clint could not help but feel a twinge of jealousy at the sight.
“Would you want to stay with us too?” Laura brushed a gentle finger against her nose, and Yelena chittered in reply.
Kate stood as well, mewling at Clint as she begged for attention too. He chuckled, and lifted the cat onto his shoulder as she limped to him. “At least I still have a cat that adores me,”
“Oh don’t worry about it,” Laura scratched Yelena behind the ears, who seemed contented to just rest against her shoulder. “We are going to take good care of you, poor thing,”
Yelena looked back at Laura with hopeful eyes, before switching her gaze to Kate in Clint’s arms.
The married couple did not seem to notice both cats staring at each other, a glimmer of hope and happiness in their eyes.
The Bartons live in a farmhouse, and the fireplace was Yelena’s favourite spot to lounge about. The kids definitely seemed like too much sometimes, especially Nate Barton, but Kate Bishop sometimes find the older cat watching over the youngest kid as he slept, cuddling close whenever he had trouble sleeping.
Sometimes they would get guests, and Yelena at first flinched when she heard a female voice that spoke too eerily alike Dreykov. She had hidden behind the couch when the red-headed woman first visited, but soon warmed up to her as she lovingly cooed at Yelena and gave her treats.
For some reason, the frequent visitor became Yelena’s favourite human, and part of her did it to piss off Clint.
Yelena was enjoying the quiet of the night by the fireplace while the Bartons enjoyed their dinner, then Kate Bishop strutted through the room to her.
“Why are you always so mean to Clint?” the black cat sat beside Yelena, licking her own paw.
“Hmph, that man was going to prick me in the butt!”
“Those things are meant to be good for you, Yelena. Yeah, they sting a bit, but still they prevent diseases,”
Both cats leaned against each other, and Yelena let out a contented sigh, her crooked tail thumping the carpeted floor gently. It took a while to get used to, but she could not deny that the Bartons were good people. She had forgotten what it was like to be in pain or hunger all the time, and to be able to spend time with a companion for life… she felt like she was the luckiest cat in the world.
A soft rumble resonated in her chest, and Kate Bishop chuckled. “What are you thinking about?”
“This. This moment. The quiet, the calm of every moment. You. When I was with Dreykov, every day I wondered if it would be my last. I’ve seen carcasses of other cats being thrown out after his cruel experiments. I’ve seen kittens being starved to death in the cages, and the cries of cats being inhumanly spayed. You have seen the damage he did to me, Kate, and I think part of me will always flinch whenever a human touched me unexpectedly.
“But the Bartons’ kindness… I didn’t know what it was like to be cared for, to be loved. I feel pampered for the first time, and it made me sad because not every human can be like them, that out there, there are still some other cats suffering under people like Dreykov. Every day I feel grateful, Kate Bishop, that we met that night,”
Kate Bishop nuzzled her nose into Yelena’s chest, and it brought her comfort like nothing else could. The warmth of the fire nearby made her feel giddy, and it had Kate pondering.
“I’m glad I met you too. And I know the Bartons are trying their best to help every stray animal out there, giving them a good home. That’s all I have to know. I know we’re too powerless to help others like you, but at least Dreykov can’t hurt them anymore. And I think that’s enough,”
“That’s enough for me too,”
Both cats laid on their sides and basked in the warmth of the fireplace, finally at ease and contented with each other’s presence.
“Say Yelena… Do you think we’ll ever become humans?”
“That’s a weird thought,” Yelena paused. “But I wonder too,”