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It’s thundering. Quite loudly, actually. Neve’s gotten good at drowning out distractions when she goes over a case, but the storm seems like its directly overhead, determined to wreck her focus.
It’s been raining for hours, which was almost cozy at first but then the steady rain turned into an all-out storm. Thunder, lightning, even some hail. The works. Her concentration may not appreciate it, but at least Neve is inside, tucked into the warmth of the apartment, so she can’t really complain. She does notice after a few hours that she hasn’t seen her shadow anywhere. She’s been looking over case notes and that troublesome kitten hasn’t made herself known once. She hasn’t climbed up for a pet, or made herself comfy on Neve’s lap, or begged for food.
Neve is Wisp’s person. Neve knows this, Rana knows this, Wisp makes it known on the daily. They’ve had her for a few months now and she’s settled in quite nicely. She follows Neve around the apartment, naps on her like it’s her job. She’s even taken to perching on her shoulder while Neve reads her notes. In fact, Neve’s gotten quite good at doing detective work with coffee in her hand and a cat curled around her neck.
Which isn’t to say Wisp doesn’t like Rana. Neve has come home more than a few times to see Rana on the couch with Wisp napping on her chest, offering excuses as if a two-handfuls-small cat can really pin a former templar down. The kitten likes Rana, but she particularly likes to inconvenience her. Wisp, on occasion, will wake Rana up at ungodly hours in the morning, unrelenting until Rana makes room for her in the bed. She’s also quite the little tattletale. Any time Rana inconveniences her, Wisp goes running to Neve, meowing like some great tragedy has occurred. Rana stopped her from scratching the sofa? She goes crying to Neve. Rana wouldn’t let her jump out the window to go chase a bird? Goes crying to Neve.
Sometimes, just to tease Rana, Neve will scoop Wisp up and kiss her little head, cooing about “poor little Wisp” and “Big Mean Rana” until Rana huffs and asks why she even bothers.
Rana complains about Wisp attacking her boots, her pants, her braid. (Neve has caught her and Wisp roughhousing, Rana letting the kitten harmlessly attack her hand when they think she’s not looking)
All of this to say, while Rana and Wisp have a begrudging affection for her, but when Wisp wants love or attention, nine times out of ten, she goes to Neve. Which is why, now that Wisp is nowhere to be seen, Neve starts to worry. Just a little. It's perfectly normal, she tells herself. They found Wisp outside during a storm, after all.
“Rana?” she calls lightly. “Have you seen Wisp?”
Rana’s head pokes out of the kitchen. “I assumed she was where she always is—glued to your side or clawing my furniture.”
“No…”
Rana had gone out and gotten a collar for Wisp soon after she moved into the apartment, so Neve isn’t overly worried about losing her, but…still…
She gets up from her desk just as Rana comes in from the kitchen, both of them scanning the room for a white little furball. Wisp’s nowhere in sight, so Neve heads towards the bedroom right as another clap of thunder rattles the windows. Sometimes she likes to nap on Neve’s pillow.
But the cat’s not there. Or under the covers. And she’s not in the washroom, either.
“Found her!” Rana calls from the living room. Neve walks—briskly—back in to find Rana crouching by the sofa. “Poor thing’s hiding from the thunder I think.”
Neve’s got her more flexible prosthesis on, so she crouches too and, sure enough, Wisp is as nearly as far back under the couch as she can go.
“It’s alright Wisp,” Neve says. “The thunder isn’t going to get you in here.”
“I doubt she’s going to understand that, Neve.”
Neve shoots Rana a glare but there’s little heat in it. She’s focused on the shaking kitten under the sofa. She reaches under to scoop Wisp up so she doesn’t get stuck, but to her surprise Wisp cries and slips further back, pressing against the wall.
“She’s terrified,” Neve sighs, sitting back on her heels. The prosthesis digs into her hip a little but she doesn’t want to get up just yet.
Rana gets down on the floor, pressing herself flat so she can see under again. “I don’t know if I can reach her.”
“I don’t feel good about leaving her there all night.”
“I don’t either.”
Neve gets down next to Rana again. The two of them laying on the floor, Neve feels like a fool. But she has to coax Wisp out somehow.
“How about a treat pretty girl?” she coos. The cat cries again.
Neve’s halfway to just asking Rana to lift the damn couch when another thunderclap shakes the apartment and Wisp goes flying out from under the sofa and right into Rana’s arms. Neve and Rana look at each other and blink.
The cat crawls up Rana’s chest, forcing her to quickly maneuver herself and bring one arm up to support her.
“Huh,” Rana says. “Well. That’s new.” She sits on the couch and tries to (gently!) set Wisp down on the cushions next to her but Wisp cries when she does, digging her claws into Rana’s leathers. Instead, Rana just keeps holding her.
Neve needs a moment. Perhaps a few moments.
Wisp went to Rana when she was scared. Wisp went to Rana for safety. Big, strong, heart-of-annoying-gold Rana Savas has their kitten cradled against her because she’s the only one Wisp would let hold her right now.
Damn the rain, Neve feels like she needs to take a lap around the block. Maybe two laps. Her heart is turning to goo, she’s going soft, damn it.
“Neve,” Rana’s voice cuts through the crisis Neve is currently going through. “You’re staring.”
“Sorry,” Neve says. “It’s just…” She waves a hand vaguely, trying to get control of herself. “You’re sweet with her.”
“I’m sweet with her?”
“Yes.”
Rana snorts. “You’re going soft on me Gallus,” but her voice is so fond, Neve doesn’t even quip back. She just leans forward on her knees, almost close enough to kiss her but not quite, careful not to crush the cat between them.
“You’re the one that made her a bed,” Neve breathes against her lips and then she kisses Rana before she can protest.