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Cats are different from humans. They use subtle body language to communicate more often than humans and more often than some other animals Cass has met. She can read the differences, but she hasn’t interacted with them enough to understand their nuances yet. She lies down next to Damian’s cat, Alfred, and watches.
The cat slowly blinks at her. That means trust, right?
Cass blinks back, squeezing her eyes tight. When she opens them Alfred has disappeared. The human Alfred says trust with his body around Damian easily, more easily than he had around Cassandra when they were first getting to know each other. The cat probably feels the same way with how easily it accepts Damian’s presence and noises. The name makes sense. Damian’s body language loudly broadcasts love towards both Alfreds.
He’s more ambivalent towards Cass. He’s awkward sometimes, almost shy if it wasn’t for his pride. Cass has learned more about him, words-wise, from Stephanie than his own voice. Steph treats Damian like a little brother which should be weird because Cassandra is his actual sister, but her family is weird like that — a bunch of tangled strands that don’t reflect any dynamic she’s seen. Damian’s mother and Lady Shiva worked together, somehow, in ways Shiva was cagey about whenever her terse conversations with Cass came close to that direction. Shiva had never mentioned Talia’s child in the times she and Cass had met, but Cass had never needed to know.
“Did Talia ever mention me?” Cass asks Damian when she finds him in the library. Damian was still new, coming into his own, but at seventeen Cassandra had already been perfection. Shiva’s child had to have been known in the League of Shadows.
Alfred (the cat) must have left to look for Damian, too. The black-and-white cat was sprawled on an armchair across from the boy, taking up as much space as possible as it napped. In cat body language, that obviously means comfort. It wakes at Cassandra’s voice and meows at her, recapturing Damian’s attention as well. Damian must have been distracted by the cat for a while, since his hands are completely relaxed around the heavy volume in his lap. Cassandra can recognize the edges of the word “Gotham” on the cover.
“I think so, indirectly. You were more of a rumor there than anything else, since most of your time has been spent here, in Gotham, or in Hong Kong. I am glad that you’re back here. Gotham benefits from your presence.”
Thankfully, unlike most people, Damian doesn’t feel the need to keep talking when Cass doesn’t respond immediately. He glances at her, to check for acknowledgement, but doesn’t stare for long.
After a few moments, the cat meows again, staring at Damian this time. It stands up and stretches in a way that looks so re-energizing it has Cassandra wanting to mimic it. Damian grins at the motion, and stretches his arms as well. He puts down the book he was holding and reaches underneath his own chair, radiating delight.
Alfred must have read Damian’s stance too, because in an instant it’s standing alert at its owner’s feet and meowing loudly in anticipation. To the surprise of both Cass and the cat, Damian tosses her the toy. “Alfred loves this one,” Damian says. “Have you played with him before?”
Cass shakes her head. She had caught the toy out of instinct. She turns it over in her hands, but to her it looks almost identical to all of Alfred’s other toys she’s seen around the house. Damian is perfectly tidy, but Cass has witnessed the cat grab the toys out of neat piles to stash them elsewhere. There’s nothing unique about this toy that would explain why Alfred loves it more than the others. It does look a bit more well-worn, and Alfred has given up meowing for pawing at Cassandra’s legs.
Handling a cat toy is a bit different from anything she’s done before. Cass can tell that Damian can tell, but there’s no judgement in his gaze. Alfred is excited to follow however Cass swings the weighted mouse, jumping as if the hunt is real.
It’s different, swinging the weighted mouse, awkward and unsure. She had felt this feeling in conversations, in missteps that Damian matches, sometimes, where her other family members don’t struggle, but very rarely physically. The low stakes of play coupled with Damian’s expression make it fun. The cat chases the toy as if there’s a pattern even with Cassandra’s sporadic motion, and Cass recognizes her own movements in its frenzy to catch it.
Cass recognizes her own focus in Damian when she looks up at him, and his adoration feels familiar, too. Maybe their awkwardness is finally giving way to something more like siblinghood, as much as Cassandra knows siblinghood.
Maybe she’s getting better at reading cats’ body language too, she thinks, as Alfred arcs into the air to successfully grab the mouse.
Damian shouts with pride, and Cass can’t help but join in.