Chapter Text
"Lately I've been talking to the stars, Like they hear me crying in the dark. Empty spaces where there was a heart, Forever floating but I've spun too far. Reaching out with frozen fingertips, Distance in between us infinite. Falling for a dream I can't resist, You see me so it means that I exist."
—Void—
Friday had started like any other day. Wake up, wash her face, apply her morning skincare routine, apply mascara, attempt to make her hair presentable, pick an outfit that was put together enough for the office, grab her laptop bag and get into her car for the usual morning traffic.
The office loomed over the brightening sky, ever the monotonous thing with its outdated beige walls and ugly, tacky carpet. Why a billion dollar something company had such ugly interior décor is still something she couldn’t understand after five years. Though it made more sense when she remembers both the chairman and CEO are well over 70.
Then again, being one of the few young people actually employed there, she knew to keep her opinions to herself — for the most part anyway. Her Teams messages to her work bestie were a different story.
Speaking of which, the younger woman wasted no time in sending her their normal morning greeting on their chat before launching into a coded rant about her boss. And so, the day continued as usual.
Her data administrator job wasn’t prestigious by any means and it definitely would disappoint the big dreams her younger self had, but it has been her most stable job. It definitely outshined her previous customer service positions and it paid more than enough to have her afford her bills and spend on herself moderately. Maybe even afford a nice vacation every year if she budgeted smart enough.
In this day in age and economy, its what any young adult could hope for. Lofty dreams and careers — those seemed so far out of reach, especially for someone like her. The United States isn’t exactly a forgiving country, even less so in Southern California. Everyone came here to become an influencer, an actor, a musician — the next big thing in the city of stars — but every native knew better. They’d sooner be chewed and spit out than achieving those dreams.
So data admin it was. Just getting to this position had her climbing her way from being a receptionist, talking to the right people and getting certifications online to make up for her lack of a college degree. She’s aware her boss still looks down on her for being a college dropout, but as long as he acknowledged that he’d be lost without her technically doing the job of two people, she didn’t give a shit about his opinion.
“Itzel, I’m going to need you to stay a little later today,” speak of the devil and he shall appear — and ask her for OT sadly, “the execs want to begin the integration into Workday next week. I’ll need you to get the report on what project locations need to be synced over and which need to be created."
"Yeah, of course," came her automatic, amicable response despite internally dying and mentally flipping off his retreating back.
She had been looking forward to leaving on time too, but no rest for the wicked and all that. It should have been expected though; the higher ups loved mulling over decisions for months, dropping them mid way through, only to then suddenly decide to go all in and expect the work to be done within a week. Of course it never did get finished within a week and when they realized that, they pushed back the date to months in the future. It was exhausting and it made her consider looking for a new job, but one scroll through Tik Tok and enough videos about how terrible the job market currently is was enough to have her give up searching.
The familiar ping of a Teams message has her pause her internal cursing and realize her work bestie sent something.
Gia A.: Drinks after work? :D
Itzel O.: Can't, just got OT :(
Gia A.: What! Again?? Its Friday!! >:O
Itzel O.: Dude I know! But the 1% wants their reports (¬_¬")
Gia A.: Boooooooo hope the geezer gets 2 flat tires. Well I'll be at the bar for at least 2 hours so come by if you manage to finish soon!
Itzel O.: I'll let you know
With a sigh, she looks to the time on her screen and mourns what could have been a nice start to the weekend. If she really locked in though, she just might be able to finish within an hour and join Gia with at least one drink accompanied by their usual hot wings.
It's enough motivation to have her putting in her earbuds and play some music to help knock out the reports.
"Fucking finally!" Her groan rings in the empty top floor of the office. She finally managed to compile the reports and quickly sent them to her boss, all within an hour and 20 minutes. A little later than she wanted, but earlier than the 2 hours she expected.
If she hurried, she could get to the small bar Gia was at within 10 minutes and finally enjoy a drink to end the week. With renewed energy, she quickly shuts down her laptop and disconnects it from the monitors, shoving it unceremoniously into her bag before practically skipping down the stairs. She makes it to her old Tucson before long and wastes no time in peeling out the parking lot; all too eager to forget about the corporate world.
Its as she hits her first red light by the train tracks when she realizes she never sent a message to let Gia know she was on her way over. Against her better judgement, she quickly unlocks her phone to shoot off a quick "omw," only a sudden flash has her blinded for a fraction of second before she could even hit send and has her phone slipping near the gas pedal in shock.
"What the fuck!"
Her gasp gets drowned out by a loud bang and a series of sparks as the street light in front of her malfunctions from the impact of the lightening that struck. All too soon, a cacophony of car alarms floods her ears from the parked vehicles that were too close to where the lightning struck and the worried voices of people scrambling to run away from the electrified zone.
Well, consider her flabbers completely gasted because it takes her a full minute to reboot her stunned brain before she quickly looks around to see the other drivers leaning out their windows. At least she wasn't the only one who needed time to process just what the hell happened. There hadn't been a forecast of thunderstorms at all and even looking up at the sky has her mounting confusion growing; the sky is clear.
Despite the logical voice in her head telling her to just ignore the weird occurance and keep driving to the bar, she decides to safely cross the intersection and park a few feet away from the damaged area in the tracks. The voice in her head is getting louder about how stupid this decision is as she realizes that the lightening also damaged the crossing bars for the train and if she's remembering correctly, the train was due to pass by soon. Just as she's contemplating turning back around to her car, she sees something small and fluffy twitch from her peripheral.
Itzel inches closer slowly, her curiosity piqued, but once she sees a tail and ears all caution immediately leaves her. With a soft gasp she jogs over to the poor cat and kneels beside it, noting with relief that its side is lifting with each labored breath.
"Oh poor baby," her voice is a soft coo as she tentatively pets it fluffy back, checking to see if she can see any visible wounds. "You didn't get struck did you? God damnit….looks like no bar for me today."
Despite her last sentence, there is no regret in her tone as she tries her best to be gentle to move the cat's body to inspect it and fortunately doesn't find any wounds. Though her anxiety is quick to remind her it could have internal injuries — after all she isn't sure how close it had been to the strike.
"No collar…either you're a stray or runaway…," her voice is low as she mumbles to herself and leans back on her legs, "though you look too fancy to be a stray…"
She's no cat expert, but just looking at its white fluffy and brown tipped fur let her know it has to be a ragdoll; those weren't exactly cheap. The fact that it was just by some train tracks with no collar though did make her doubt its owner was responsible. With another furtive glance around she decides to just take the poor thing to a nearby vet and get it looked at to start — she could figure out the logistics after.
"Okay, lemme go get my blanket from my car. I'll be right back sweet thing." She knew the cat couldn't hear her, let alone understand her, but it felt right to talk to it anyway.
A quick jog later, she's coming back with a throw blanket she keeps in her car and makes quick work to gently scoop the unconscious cat. For a beat Itzel stays still waiting for it to stir in pain, but when it continues to stay knocked out, she lets out a breath and hurries over to her vehicle. She makes quick work to have it settled on the passenger seat before she closes the door and makes her way to the driver side to begin her way to the nearest vet. If her memory is still good, there should be one up the street from where she is.
Not even 5 minutes later she pulls into the small parking space and thanks her lucky stars that the vet is still there. She once more is gentle when picking up the cat and shuffles her way into the building, noting with interest that despite the rundown appearance from outside, the inside is still well kept with only one older woman sitting down in the waiting area. It doesn't take long for them to ask her about her visit and to have her fill out a form for new patients, but when it comes to taking financial responsibility it has her pausing.
"I wouldn't mind covering for it if it doesn't have a microchip," she responds slowly as she watches one of the vet techs take the cat and her blanket to the back. "It seems unlikely that a cat like that wouldn't have an owner though.."
"No worries, we can scan for a chip and let you know after its been evaluated." The young receptionist smiles gently and hands her a price estimate. "This is just in case nothing comes back; just so you're aware of the possible cost. It might change if it needs any major surgery. Should take us about 30 to 45 minutes, you're welcome to wait in here or we could give you a call once we're finished."
Itzel takes the estimate and glances over it, surprised at the low amount; she was honestly expecting it to be over $500. "Could you give me a call instead? I'm kinda hungry and the taco place across the street is calling to me."
The receptionist huffs in amusement and assures her that they'll reach out. With that Itzel walks out and begins her small trek to the restaraunt, wondering just what the hell her Friday has come to.
Forty minutes and 4 tacos later, Itzel distractedly nibbles on the straw of her horchata drink as she completes her dailies in her current favorite game: Love and Deepspace. She had always been an avid otome game enjoyer, for years now honestly, so when her Google Play suggested LADS in early 2024 she wasted no time in downloading the hefty game. She'll admit though, the terribly long downloading time almost made her give up on it entirely, but she resolved to give it a chance at least.
Now 2 years later and she's still as obsessed as when she first started. At this point her monthly spending on it could be classified as a bill. Itzel did try to budget herself with it considering that she couldn't pick one man to main — they each had their own endearing qualities and with each card and myth she read through, it had become harder to not love them all. Instead, she accepted that she'd never be able to fully rank up the cards she got or even get every card for the multi-banners; she had to pick her battles with expenses.
After all, she lived alone in a 3 bedroom townhouse and still sent her mother — who went back to live in Mexico with her husband — money on top of her normal bills. While inheriting the humble townhouse had been a nice upgrade, the downside of being the only one to financially help her mother sometimes made her wonder if it had been worth it. Despite being the youngest, she is the only one still single in her family of three and of course, her older brother always got preferential treatment growing up and even now. Her sister, the eldest of the three, on the other hand only started receving better treatment after she had gotten pregnant at 17 and moved out. Giving their mother grandchildren seemed to have softened her to her sister, but only by a little.
Itzel had only been 12 when her sister moved out with her boyfriend and begun her own life. Leaving her with her mom's then boyfriend (now husband) moving into their home and having her deal being treated as the Cinderella alone. It often left her to daydream how different their life would have been if their father was still with them.
He would be rolling in his grave if he knew how her mom's husband was useless outside of drinking and thinking he was never wrong. She could count on one hand the intances in which he actually wasn't useless throughout her life, but ultimately her mother refused to divorce him; something about it going against Catholic values. Itzel had stopped practicing the religion once she was old enough to start denying her mother. She'll just never understand how her head strong mother downgraded in her taste in men so badly; her dad had been the complete opposite of Hector. Grief did funny things to people she guesses.
"Are you trying to be a model with that pose?"
Rafayel's sarcasitc quip has her blinking and glancing down at her phone, reminding her what she had been doing before getting lost in her thoughts. His cocked hip and head tilt has her smiling as she cheekily bops his head with her finger in response. Before he can finish his dialogue about the head pat though, she quickly taps the dialogue bubble to pull up the interactions and manuveurs into the character switch. Itzel liked to keep the home screen randomized and then rate each of their chosen outfits to pick who would win to remain on her home screen.
Only she would have if the game didn't keep glitching each time she tried to click on Xavier.
Her brows furrow as she tests the other guys with no problem, but the moment she tries to pull up Xavier again the cafe remains empty until the game decides to just force close itself. Leaving her staring at her actual phone home screen in confusion; even the purple cat widget with Xavier is appearing empty.
Before she could even attempt to open the app again, her screen lights up with a call from the vet and the weird glitch is easily tucked away in her brain as she answers.
"Hi, we're calling from the vet. The ragdoll is cleared to leave, but just to let you know, he didn't have a chip," the receptionist's voice is amicably neutral as she delivers the news.
Well, shit. Did she own a cat now? Was she finally chosen by the cat distribution system?
As her brain is busy calculating the cost of all the supplies and food she had to buy now, she automatically responds to the young receptionist that she'll be there in a few minutes to pay the bill. She barely remembers to throw her trash out as she hurriedly walks over and tries to recall where the nearest pet store is. How would she even take it home or the store? Hopefully the vet would be nice to give her one of those temporary carboard carriers.
As it turned out, the cat thankfully had no injuries and was just unconsious from the stun of the sudden strike. Though apparently after he had woken up midway into the check, he had gotten a little aggressive and it took a lot of treats to calm him down enough to finish the flea bath they had left to finish. He also had no fleas either, which seemed a bit oddly lucky, but at least she didn't need to worry about bathing it back home. She's just more grateful that the vet did thankfully hand the cat in those carboard carriers and with that, she paid and began her journey to a nearby Petco.
The shopping trip itself wasn't too bad with the ragdoll inside the box, it seemed he had tired himself out and decided to just sleep while she picked things out. Just the cost of it all including the vet bill though had her grimacing and staring at the box with a contemplative look more than once. She did think about adopting a cat sometimes, but she was always too indecisive to follow through with it.
The universe had a funny sense of humor, really.
She lets out a sigh of exhausion as she finally pulls into her garage and parks, taking a small minute to process just how much changed within the last two and a half hours. It's already past 8:30 and the fatigue is starting to make her eyes feel like they weigh tons, but with a shake of her head she opens her door to get out. Making sure the ragdoll is still sleeping, Itzel starts hauling out the bags of new cat accessories and crossing her small front yard to open her house door. For now she'll just dump the stuff in the living room and worry about assembling everything tomorrow; she's too tired to worry about anything else besides the food and litter box. She may have gone crazy with the amount of stuff she bought, but she's an anxious person by nature.
"Okay, I really hope you like your new home," she mumbles softly to herself and the stirring cat as she finally unloads the cardboard carrier.
She can feel him shifting as he's no doubt looking through the holes to watch the new surroundings and once she closes her door behind her, she hesitantly opens the top flaps. Rather than pick him up out of the box, she lets the cat pop its head out and sniff around, fully expecting it to make a beeline under her couch. Thats what cats did when they went somewhere new, right?
Instead, he takes her by surprise as he turns his head to stare at her with impossibly blue eyes and jumps out the box to approach her. He wastes no time in headbutting her legs and meowing softly up at her.
"Oh…you're a lot friendlier than I was imagining," there's wonder in her tone as she crouches and slowly extends her hand for him to sniff, only he completely nuzzles into it instead. "Very friendly. Thats good for me at least."
The more she stares at the cat and pets him as he purrs contently at the affection, the more he starts to remind her of a certain blue-eyed prince from her favorite otome. Wasn't Xavier a ragdoll in the kitty event too?
"Lets see…since you remind me of someone, how about I call you by the nickname I gave him?" Those pretty blue eyes lock onto hers as she gently scratches his chin and smiles in amusement. "Does Estrellita work for you? It means little star in Spanish."
She wasn't expecting much from the cat, but to her surprise, he sets his paws on her knees and purrs even louder as his tail twitches happily. It gives her the crazy idea that it might actually understand what she's saying.
Man, she really needs to go to sleep. There's no way a cat would understand her.
A huff of laughter escapes her as she grins at him and can't resist the urge to pick him up to place a quick peck on his head. "Okay, I'm glad you seem to like it, Estrellita. Now lets get you some food while I set up the litter box cause I really want to go to sleep."
Itzel gingerly sets down the cat again and moves over to the bags that she dumped, fishing out its feeding plate, water fountain and wet food. She carries the stuff over to her kitchen, setting them down on the counter and begins cleaning the fountain and plate. Once done, she decides to just give him the whole 3 oz can for today and sets the plate down on the cute raised wooden platform it came with onto the floor.
Next, she begins filling the fountain with water and thanks her foward thinking for getting a usb charged one, before placing it by the food. Estrellita is already sniffing the food with interest, but gets distracted by the fountain and instead chooses to drink. With a shrug, Itzel moves on to put together the litterbox and looks around her house briefly, before deciding she'd place it in the extra upstairs bathroom. The half bath downstairs is too small to comfortably fit it.
With a yawn, she decides that she's done for the day and walks over to her ensuite bathroom to wash her face and teeth for bed. Its as she's in her walk-in closet slipping on some sleep shorts and loose shirt that Estrellita pads in, peering up at her with sleepy eyes.
"Aww you ready for bed too?" She coos as she picks him up and walks out, closing the closet door before also closing her bedroom door. "Oh…I forgot your cat bed downstairs…but something tells me you probably won't use it."
Her doubt is proven once Estrellita contently lays by her pillow as she set him down and lets out a cute yawn. She shakes her head and sighs before slipping under the covers on her side, feeling comfort envelop her as the ragdoll wiggles closer to her. Her fingers automatically reach up to gently pet his head and she wonders for the last time just how her life changed so much in the span of an evening before letting sleep claim her.