#Trey only needs to walk by and CatMask will be distracted

[axvwriter]

CatMask brings Jaxon some gifts

Here's my attempt writing not only a canon character, but someone else's oc. I am not confident in this at all as I'm still new to writing fanfiction for canon stuff. Riddle is from Twisted Wonderland.

CatMask has taken a liking to @ryker-writes's Jaxon.

word count: 1,797

            Jaxon had seated himself near the Ramshackle Dorm’s fence. The old, dilapidated building rarely had visitors around, which made it a nice space for Jaxon to get away from everyone. The lunch he had grabbed before heading here was nearly gone. He brought the remains of the meal to his lips to take a bit but tensed as something brushed against his waist. Glancing over, he saw a black housecat staring into his eyes. Blinking and quickly adjusting his sight back to his meal, he frowned a little. Professor Trein has a cat familiar named Lucius, but he had some patches of white fur. He had seen some sort of cat hanging around some freshman, but that one had some weird fire ear whiskers.

            Plucking a small, cat-friendly piece from his food, Jaxon held it out to the cat still staring into his skull. The cat dropped its gaze to his palm. Leaning its head down, it quickly ate up the piece. Jaxon left his hand outstretched, allowing it the chance to sniff it. The cat stared at his hand, making no motion to sniff it.

            “Oddball.” Jaxon quietly muttered under his breath before slowly moving his hand towards its head. The cat lifted its head up, bumping it into his hand as it resumed its previous staring at his face. He gave it a few cautious pats, but with it showing no sign of hostility or discomfort, relaxed into truly petting it. The cat’s body rumbled in response.

            “Quiet one, huh?” Jaxon smiled a little at the silent purring. He shifted his body to get a bit more comfortable, unintentionally bringing his meal closer to the housecat. The cat shifted its gaze and chomped down on the rest of his food before he could properly react. Jaxon huffed, finding it rather cheeky for doing that. Slowly he wrapped an arm around the cat’s body, testing how far he could go. Upon its lack of response, he pulled the cat into his lap, hugging it somewhat as revenge.

~

            It was late, so late that even most night owls of the school were asleep. Yet Jaxon was out of his dorm, walking about the campus. He had used some of his unique magic on himself to fight back the sleep and nightmares that always came for him. Though was it really worth it when it almost feels like a nightmare could be starting right now? What if he had fallen asleep despite his attempts not to? Why did it feel like something’s following him? That something’s in the shadows, watching him, keeping pace behind, then jumping in front at times.

            Jaxon stopped, forcing in a deep breath. It was just his magic, just lingering longer than it should. He held it as he told himself it was likely a school ghost. Letting out the breath, he wondered how long a ghost would find this funny. How long until the ghost either jumped out at him or gave up and left? If it would show itself, then Jaxon could quickly make it regret messing with him. Crossing his arms, Jaxon decided to wait. It didn’t take long for him to catch glimpses of something white and something brown.

            Furrowing his brow, Jaxon tried to keep his breathing steady as he realized what was approaching did not look like a ghost. A white cat-face-shaped… mask? A white carved stone? A glossy brown guitar that seemed to be levitating in front of the mask? As it got closer, he noticed four white stones? Four white round objects that seemed to take on a walking pattern. It wasn’t until it was a few feet away that he realized it had some sort of body made of shadow. No wonder he had such a hard time seeing it fully before.

            As the creature reached him, it shifted smoothly onto its hind legs. It stopped, slouched, as its odd face reached the same height as his own. Jaxon stared at the being, taken aback. This didn’t look like a direbeast nor like a ghost. What in the twisted wonderland could it be? Was the creature becoming impatient with him? Perhaps as it was now, lightly pushing the guitar into him. Without thinking too much about it, Jaxon reached up and took the guitar. Once the guitar was in his hands, the creature slunk back down to all fours. Did it’s face change? Weren’t those teeth grooves slanted before?

            Something moved behind the being, catching Jaxon’s attention away from its weird face. Blinking, he realized it was the creature’s tail. Its tail moving lazily side to side. More movement caused him to snap his gaze back to its face. Which was sinking into its body? The face? The mask? The mask seemed to sink into the creature’s head, dimming it to match the same off-white of the stones in its… feet? Jaxon tensed as it reached one of its legs up, reaching for him- wait no, it was reaching for the guitar. It plucked a cord.

            “Do you… want me to play?” Jaxon breathed out. If this was some sort of nightmare, it was on the oddly calm side. Sure, he had never seen something like this before and it had stressed him by silently stalking after him in the dark… but it didn’t seem aggressive at all. Shifting his weight to subtly shake out some nerves, Jaxon plucked each one of the cords. The guitar sounded to be perfectly tuned. Keeping his eyes on the creature in front of him, he started to strum out a song.

            After a couple of songs, Jaxon suddenly realized the empty space in front of him. He stopped, looking off to the sides to try to figure out where it went. Did he really get caught up in playing to lose sight of the creature? Or did it somehow teleport? Then he felt light pressure on his shoe, prompting him to look down. At his feet was the black cat from lunch earlier today. It had one paw on his shoe, staring up at his face. Its gaze felt way too similar to the shadow being’s unblinking gaze for this to be a coincidence.

            He knelt down and the cat reached up, using its paw to pluck a cord. Was this something that familiars could naturally do? He didn’t recall ever hearing about familiars being able to transform. Jaxon sat down, getting comfortable. The cat climbed onto his lap, nosing at the guitar strings.

            “Demanding little crap.” Jaxon half-heartedly grumbled. He strummed away, creating melodies for the cat which curled up on his lap, refusing to blink or even move its gaze away from his face.

            It wasn’t until near dawn that he saw the cat shift back into the large shadow being from before. The sight was rather odd. It was as if its fur grew and extended into a big fuzzy blob until it smoothed out into shadow. The transformation was rather fast, making it difficult to take in even that. Instead of an increased feeling of weight on his lap, it lightened instead. Its shadowed mask pushed out of its head and the grooves of its teeth slanted. He felt a pressure tug at the guitar. Letting go of it, he watched as the odd creature walked away with the guitar levitating in front of its carved mouth. Watching it slink away, Jaxon could roughly guess it to be a foot longer than his own height.

~

            Jaxon sat at a table in the library, rubbing at his forehead. It had been a few days since he saw that odd familiar. Familiars are supposed to help their mages, right? He wondered if he could somehow get that familiar to help him understand what he was reading. Though would it even help him? Familiars are loyal to only one mage at a time, right? He briefly wondered if he could ask Lucius for help, but the idea of the cat telling the professor how stupid he is…

            Jaxon grumbled, shifting up in his seat as he heard a slight commotion. Must be some freshmen getting a bit rowdy in the library. He took a moment to stretch out his limbs, waiting for someone to quiet them down.

            “Enough. Quiet in the library.” A somewhat familiar voice caught his attention. Jaxon looked over as the most bizarre sight arrived before him. The shadow creature, which he could have sworn was taller than that, was walking on its hind legs as Riddle seemed to levitate in front of its mask. The beet red of the boy’s face portrayed that Riddle had not agreed to be carried about like this. Yet he wasn’t casting off fire spells. Had he simply given in to the odd being’s whims?

            With a quiet thud, it released its hold on the back of Riddle’s blazer collar, dropping him by Jaxon’s table. Reaching its head past Riddle, the creature pulled a chair out. Riddle glared at the shadow that barely reached over his head.

            “What is the meaning of this?” Riddle asked, just to find himself being pushed into the chair by one of the creature’s feet. Riddle huffed and adjusted himself. The shadow leapt up, transforming into a cat as it gracefully landed onto the table. Riddle briefly focused his attention on Jaxon.

            “Is this your doing?” Riddle shifted his gaze away as the cat nosed the open book on the table over towards him.

            “No… I don’t know what it’s doing.” Jaxon answered, watching the cat. Riddle reached out to take the book, pulling it closer and briefly glancing over the page.

            “This is one of the third years’ study subjects.” Riddle stated and glanced curiously at the cat, the red finally fading from his face. The cat nodded then looked over at Jaxon. Riddle followed its gaze, giving Jaxon a questioning look. Jaxon stared in surprise and offered a small shrug. The black cat suddenly reached over and batted Jaxon’s face. Riddle let out a small laugh.

            “If only it would talk.” Riddle tapped the cat, gaining its attention. “Come on, I’m quite good at animal linguistics. Tell me what you want from us.”

            “…”

            “I’m not sure it can talk.” Jaxon muttered. Riddle let out a huff.

            “Trey thinks so too. I don’t need to look over this subject… Do you want Jaxon to show me something in this book?” Riddle asked. The cat stared into Riddle’s eyes for a moment before reaching a paw out to Jaxon’s head. It seemed to pat Jaxon’s head.

            “Right, I forgot that Trey’s mentioned its not very good with yes or no questions.” Riddle sighed. “I’m afraid we’ll have to figure out what it wants as I doubt it’ll let me leave.”

~~~

CatMask brought Riddle to Jaxon to try to get Riddle to tutor Jaxon. Those two are stuck there until they finally figure it out or until Trey comes to get Riddle and CatMask.