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It was a regular day in the neighborhood. Nebula's tail swished languidly behind him as he splayed himself out in the autumn sun, covering his black fur and the rest of the roof he laid on in a warm blanket of relaxation.
In all honesty, Nebula considered himself quite lucky that he had came across this neighborhood at the right time. The humans were used to seeing cats out on the street and both species seemed to have reached an unspoken non-disturbance agreement with each other. Dogs, of course, weren't out of the picture, but they usually didn't bother with the cats aside from a few loud sniffs.
To start, he had first heard about the place through rumors about a large tremble that had shaken the ground, scaring a majority of the local cats away. When he had went to see for himself, however, the area wasn't as bad as the stories claimed to be. Without the competition of the locals, he had easily established his influence there.
When the humans had eventually rebuilt the area and cats had started to scope the area once more, they had been quick to discover the new territorial markings. A few aggressive cats had wanted to fight Nebula for control of the new neighborhood at first, but he firmly stood his ground. They eventually backed down after varying degrees of threats were aimed their way.
Interestingly, almost none of the old local cats had came back. The only cat that Nebula knew who did was Aldin: a mysterious loner who didn't want anything to do with anyone else.
But Nebula wasn't one to pry. Whatever other cats did, he didn't really care unless it was a serious issue.
Taking his mind off the past, he half-heartedly swiped his paw at a blue butterfly passing by and dozed off.
Or tried to, at least.
"Nebulaaaa!" A cat yowled from the distance. An irritating, all-too-familiar voice jolted him awake.
Nebula was going to make her eat roadkill one day.
"Come out from where you're hiding, you rat! I know it was you who put that rotting sparrow in my water source the other day!"
Oh. It seemed he already did that tactic already…
"I see you on the roof, Nebula!" The cat called out again. "If you don't get your tail down here right now I'll jump up there and throw you off!"
"You're going to have to reach me first," the black cat taunts back, peeking his head over the edge to see a tortoiseshell cat glaring at him from the roof of one of the moving houses humans ride aroud on the street. She was thunking her tail onto its surface in irritation.
"Are you going to bet on it?" Said cat challenged him.
Blue eyes met orange ones.
Then Nebula said, "Yeah, I will. After you catch me." Then he leaped off the roof, jumping to the top of another nearby house.
"You piece of dog shit!" The she-cat cursed out after him. A bird flew off a nearby tree, startled at the loud yowling so early in the morning.
"How did it all even start?" Eldar asked him. He was sitting on his haunches, tail curled up neatly by his paws as usual. His cream-colored pelt was a stark contrast to Nebula's.
"How did what start?"
Eldar shifted his gaze to look at Nebula. "The whole rivalry thing with Hegemonia. It was like you two met and suddenly decided to make each other's lives miserable from day one." His green eyes blinked, then he thoughtfully added, "Actually, you're not the type to pick a fight for no reason. It's more like if Hegemonia suddenly messed with you and dragged you into going along with her whims."
Nebula let out a yawn. stretching himself out. "Well, it's similar. We've known each other for a while, actually. Before I moved here and met you."
"Really?" Eldar's whiskers twitched. "I never heard about that."
"It's embarrassing being associated with her."
"Hegemonia is going to throw a fit if she hears that."
"Throwing fits is all she knows how to do," Nebula retorted, sitting up. "It was how we met, after all."
He had been staying in a vastly different neighborhood from the present: looming, square houses that grew bigger than trees, streets that were significantly louder and dirtier, and the only relatively safe areas being the dark places between the humans' long houses. The cats that lived there were fighting all the time—over food scraps, over territory, over anything, really.
"That sounds like a horror to live in," Eldar commented, wrinkling his nose at the description. "I prefer the peaceful areas much more. I didn't even know houses could grow that tall."
"The humans could get quite hostile if you moved in their way," Nebula added, agreeing with Eldar's words. "It was why I eventually left."
Hegemonia was one of the most notorious cats at the time. The she-cat was practically known for making anyone run away with their tails between their legs. If they didn't, they were likely dead already.
Despite that, it was pure coincidence that they met. Nebula had apparently raided one of Hegemonia's food stashes while out scavenging, so she tracked him down to confront him.
"Which means to fight you, basically."
Nebula flicked one of his ears. "Pretty much."
He was injured at the time from an accident, and wasn't able to take her head-on, so he made the risk to ambush her during the night instead. He won, somehow. Hegemonia was caught off-guard.
"And then she got mad?" Eldar meowed with amusement.
"And then she got mad," Nebula confirmed. "No one had dared to do that to her before. She was probably wondering what kind of audacity I have to do so."
Hegemonia must have saw him as a rival from then on, because she was always trying to find Nebula to challenge him to another fight. Nebula eventually recovered from his injury, and their skirmishes would escalate to full-on brawls over time. But Nebula would find himself enjoying their matches more often than not.
"Did she actually follow you all the way here, though? How much time did that even take?"
"No," he said, shaking his head. "I eventually left the loud neighborhood. There was no way she would have known where I went unless she was tailing me herself at all times. We met here by chance as well."
"You must have been surprised."
"I can't say I expected it. We instantly recognized each other."
"It's like fate wants you two to be together."
"Don't say such scary things."
Krampus, Lunda, AR, and Wisdom were a few other cats that Nebula would often meet. They didn't exactly start off on the right paw, but time soothed things over.
"Nebula!" Krampus called out to him when he spotted him walking past. "Check this plant out!" He weaved through the leaves, mottled brown fur brushing against them. "This smells, like, really good for some reason."
"The last time you chewed on a random plant, you got a stomachache that lasted for a week," Wisdom said, swatting his head with a paw. He sniffed the plant cautiously. His senses were duller than most cats' from birth, so it often took him a while to keep up with others physically. He lived up to his name, though. "It just kind of smells like grass."
"That's a disgrace to the plant!" Krampus cried out. He pushed Wisdom's paw off his face. "It smells amazing."
AR also sniffed the plant, then rubbed her cheek against it curiously. "He's right, actually. Making a nest out of this would probably make me want to sleep forever."
Nebula watched as both AR and Krampus laid down, squashing the plant with their weight. AR stayed still, however, while Krampus was wiggling around in the dirt.
Wisdom also watched next to him, a skeptical look on his face. "Is it really that good?"
"Well, it's catnip, so they're not exaggerating," Lunda said. She sniffed one of the leaves, then took a bite out of it. She used to be a kittypet, meaning she was taken care of by a human, but later wandered off to explore the outside beyond her yard. She probably had came across it during that time.
"Oh, no wonder," Wisdom only swished his tail side to side. "From how many cats were glorifying it I half-expected it to be a lot more interesting than… this."
Nebula had only heard tales of the mythical plant. Extremely rare to find, but it was said that one bite would send you to eternal bliss. He had thought it to be fictional, but it seems they came across it on a rare stroke of luck. Looking at the plant now, though—squashed, half-covered in dirt—Nebula couldn't help but find it anticlimactic, and it seemed Wisdom thought so too.
Meanwhile, Krampus shot up from the ground. "It's edible!?" he asked with excitement. Without waiting for an answer, he took a big bite out of the stems.
"Krampus, what in the world are you doing?" AR asked incredulously, watching him from the side. Her amber eyes flickered in disdain at his messy actions.
"Eating it, obviously," Krampus said, speaking around the chewed up stems. The leaves pitifully quivered from the stems that were dangling off of his mouth.
"Well, the plant's probably… ruined by now," Lunda said awkwardly. "But it's not harmful at all. It just makes most cats go crazy for it because it smells and tastes really good. Like Krampus."
"Am not," said cat protested.
"Krampus is already crazy even without the plant," Wisdom said, flicking his tail.
"Excuse me!" Krampus exclaims in mock offense.