#he also adores tormenting his furball with bad cat jokes

[nekojitachan]

My kitty and I agree that we'd love to see more not in the stars. She wants to see that kitty representation.

Well, this isn’t Not in the Stars (not yet), but it’s kitty representation? Sorta? It’s what hit me when I sat down to write yesterday, and hopefully now that it’s out of the way, I can get into Not in the Stars.

It’s not Death!Neil, but it’s Cat!Neil! This is the set-up for the sequel to No Ordinary Cats, basically (Cat and Mouse, unless I think of a better title).

Uhmm, think it’s pretty safe - the violence is all off-screen/in the past, mention of NIcky’s past, Aaron’s past, Andrew’s past and Neil’s past (all very vague), of someone being homophobic (potentially), and potential drug use. All vague.

*******

Andrew pulled off on the side of the road on 76 near Lake Murray, before it merged into 26 outside of Columbia and when the traffic was non-existent; he got out to stand by the passenger side while he lit a cigarette. It only took a couple minutes before the door opened and Neil emerged, fully clothed. It was the first time his boyfriend was in his human form since that morning; he preferred to spend the time in the car curled up on Andrew’s lap unless he was driving (which was rare considering his utter disregard for traffic laws and confusion every now and then on what side of the road to drive on).

“Almost there?” Neil asked as he hesitated a moment before he leaned against Andrew’s left side, a warm, welcome presence; he wore one of Andrew’s old hoodies and black skinny jeans with tears at the knees.

“About two more hours,” Andrew informed his furball of a boyfriend as he rubbed the back of Neil’s nape, which prompted a faint purr. “Hungry?”

Neil raised his right hand and tilted it back and forth through the air in a ‘so-so’ sign, which meant that he could hold out a while longer and left getting food up to Andrew. “Just want to get this over with, to be honest.”

“We’ll hit a drive-thru,” Andrew settled on before he took one more long drag on the cigarette then tossed it aside, not eager to meet his ‘dear’ family but wanting to get it ‘over with’, too. He gave Neil’s nape a gentle squeeze before he let go and returned to the driver’s side of the new Maserati, the one indulgence he’d allowed himself after the whole Malcolms debacle (that Neil had practically insisted upon after the Nissan had been totaled).

There was something to be said for Neil in cat form curled up on Andrew’s lap while he drove, a silky-furred, purring creature he could pet in a soothing, mindless manner while he sped down the highway… yet having a gorgeous redhead in the passenger seat who smiled and chatted away about various landmarks or mocked idiots who drove below the speed limit was also nice. It wasn’t that Neil didn’t like to spend time with Andrew in his human form (oh did he enjoy his time with Andrew when they were alone and he wasn’t a cat), it was just after dealing with the last of his father’s people hunting him down but finding out that his mother’s family were looking for him, Neil was being extra-careful while they relocated across the country.

Across the country to Andrew’s long-lost family.

Andrew’s long-lost family, which he’d been more than ‘happy’ to ignore the last few months, except that they now gave him and Neil a logical excuse to leave California (to leave the scene of the crime, so to speak) and set up a new life far away from everything – Andrew reconnecting with the bastards who’d abandoned him.

He didn’t give a fuck about some identical twin his druggie (and now dead) mother had kept instead of him and an unknown cousin who’d stepped in to help said twin, but it gave him an excuse to get Neil the fuck out of Oakland before these mysterious Hatfords tracked him down.

Tracked them down.

Andrew wondered if he’d given something away in his posture or scent because Neil slowly, cautiously, reached over to place his left hand over Andrew’s right one on the gear shift. “If this doesn’t work out, we can always go somewhere else,” he offered in a quiet voice.

Andrew clicked his tongue as he entwined their fingers together. “I’m not going to Toronto or wherever north you have in mind so you can frolic in the snow.”

Neil scowled even as he tightened his fingers around Andrew’s. “Canada’s a civilized country that doesn’t believe in declawing cats in some parts, why wouldn’t I want to go there?” he asked with a sarcastic tone of voice. “You’ll just love Nova Scotia once you give it a chance.”

“That sounds rather cold to me.”

“As cold as your heart, apparently.”

They spent much of the drive to Nicky Hemmick’s house bickering, which Andrew privately enjoyed (not that he’d admit it); when he did stop for food, he made sure to pick a place that had fish sandwiches, just to tease his boyfriend. Neil gave him one of his haughty ‘cat looks’ but ate the thing, never one to turn down food that was still good (or mostly good – the furry bastard had an iron stomach). By the time they’d reached Hemmick’s house, the conversation had switched to Neil needing to wear a licensed tag while in his cat form and what type of collar Andrew was going to buy him (Andrew was leaning toward spiked black leather).

“If you even think of putting a bell on me, your precious leather seats will be shredded beyond repair,” Neil threatened as they pulled into the driveway of a small house with faded yellow paint but with recently cut grass. “Uhm, is this it?”

“So the GPS says,” Andrew drawled as he put the Maserati in park. “What did you expect for two guys barely of legal age?”

“Uhm….” Neil’s fine brows drew together as he seemed to think about that. “But you were doing all right on your own.”

Andrew snorted at that as he turned off the car; he noticed that someone had flipped on the porch light and figured they’d have company soon. “All right in a one-bedroom apartment.”

Neil turned to smile at him even as he undid his seatbelt. “But I liked our apartment.”

So had Andrew; the place had grown beyond a place to crash into something more the last several months, someplace that had belonged to him and Neil.

Now they had to start over again, with two strangers.

“Follow my lead,” Andrew reminded his boyfriend in the French he’d learned from the furball as the front door opened to reveal a young man with black curly hair and a dark complexion wearing brightly colored clothes – Nicky Hemmick. “And let me do the talking.”

“What talking?” Neil murmured, yet he gave a slight nod in acknowledgement.

Nicky waved in excitement as he rushed down the porch steps toward the car, which made Andrew sigh as he reluctantly left the vehicle; Neil did the same, though he paused slightly when another figure, almost identical to Andrew, slipped out onto the porch. Aaron Minyard was dressed in baggy jeans and an oversized blue t-shirt, his blond hair cut short on the sides and left spiky on the top. Andrew only spared him a moment’s thought before he stood in front of the Maserati with Neil behind him as Nicky barely came to a stop a couple of feet away.

“Hi! You made it! We were getting worried because of the time but you made it! And wow, what style! Nice ride, cuz! Nice ride and nice cutie!” He gave a too-appreciative look at Neil while Andrew caught Aaron grimacing at the comment. “You are the boyfriend, right? You’re-“

“He’s Neil, and he’s off-limits,” Andrew warned while Neil shuffled even more behind him as if to hide, spooked as always by strangers like the half-feral creature he was. “We were slowed down by an accident outside of Asheville this morning.”

“Uhm, okay.” Nicky gave a nervous laugh as he finally got the hint and took a step back. “You still made good time, but I guess it helps to have such a nice ride.” He cast an envious look at the Maserati before he shook his head. “Where are my manners? Come on in, do you need any help with your stuff? We’ve a room ready for you and there’s food!”

“We got it,” Andrew informed the- his cousin, he reminded himself, aware of Aaron’s silent, sullen attention from the porch as he and an anxious Neil fetched their few belongings which had survived the run-in with the Malcolms from the back of the Maserati.

Neil had always traveled light and was a creature of few possessions, and had only been upset about losing his blanket from their apartment being trashed; once it was clear that he was staying with Andrew, he’d converted the contents of his binder to digital accounts. Andrew was annoyed over the loss of a pair of Doc Martens he’d broken in just right (and had taken that out on Romero Malcolm, along with the asshole daring to think he could treat Neil as a belonging), but otherwise had also learned to not grow attached to things. Once they’d decided to leave California, they’d stocked up on a few necessities and figured they’d get whatever else they needed once they hit Columbia.

Nicky clucked his tongue when he noticed the one duffel bag slung over Neil’s left shoulder and the two bags in Andrew’s hands. “That’s it? That’s all you have?”

“And an expensive as hell car,” Aaron muttered as he shuffled toward the door, his attention still focused on Andrew.

Andrew’s eyes narrowed slightly at the snide comment. “Life in the foster system taught me to keep things to a minimum,” he drawled, and felt a slight twinge of satisfaction when Aaron’s shoulders tensed at the jab and Nicky’s breath hitched.

“What about the boyfriend,” Aaron asked, his tone bitter as he glanced over his shoulder while he opened the squeaky storm door. “He a foster kid, too?”

“Vagabond, you could say,” Neil called out as he followed Andrew close enough to be his shadow, his steps just as quiet. “My mom didn’t like to stay in one place very long.”

“What about your dad?” Nicky asked, and judging from young man’s stunned expression, Neil had graced him with that smile. “Uhm, yeah, the house, let’s show you the house,” he sputtered in a rush to change the topic. “It’s not much, but it’s something!”

Perhaps, perhaps not, but it was better than a trashed apartment, a bunch of uncomfortable questions which Andrew (and Neil, especially Neil) didn’t want to answer, and a too obvious starting point for some freaky cat-shifting British mobsters with unknown intentions on the hunt for Neil. The only person who knew about Andrew’s suddenly unearthed family (other than a certain furball who was checking out their surroundings with an intensity that Andrew could feel from behind him) was Pig Higgens, who the doctors gave a twenty percent chance of regaining consciousness one day after his run-in with the ‘lovely’ Lola.

Unless these Hatfords could manage to wake the not-quite dead somehow.

They entered the house to step into a kitchen at least twenty years past due for a renovation; the floor was covered with clean but worn linoleum, the cupboards were small, metal ones painted the same pale green as the walls, and the white countertop bore a few chips in spots. Yet it was clean (except for a couple dishes in the sink) and showed signs of personality (the novelty mugs and dish towels, the curtains with smiley faces, the magnets featuring male pin-up models on the fridge), was better than most of the kitchens in the foster homes where Andrew had grown up.

“You can, uhm, just set the bags down for now,” Nicky told them with a nervous smile as he gestured to an open spot off to the side, near the doorway which led to what looked to be the living room. “I’ll give you the grand tour after something to eat? I made chicken enchiladas, I figured if you’re from California you must like Mexican food.”

They hadn’t eaten much that day, the stop for fast food aside, so Andrew nodded, which made Nicky grin with satisfaction. “Just sit down, I’ll make up your plates.”

Neil waited for Andrew to sit first and grabbed a chair at the table next to him, even scooted it closer, his pale blue eyes quick to take in everything and lean body tense as if ready to spring into motion at any moment; Andrew knew that he wanted to shift into his cat form and poke his whiskered nose into every crevice of the house until no spot was left uncovered, to ensure that the place was safe and find a hidey hole or two. Since that wasn’t possible right then, Andrew reached out to rest his right hand on his boyfriend’s nape and gave a blank look at his brother when Aaron gaped at him.

“Ah, so you like guys, too,” Aaron eventually spit out with a small moue of disgust which nearly made Nicky drop a plate over by the sink; a drop of sweat ran down the side of his face and his hazel eyes slightly glazed.

Andrew continued to gaze at his brother while he rubbed his thumb along the side of Neil’s neck. “You hiding something from me, FB?”

Neil made a faint spitting sound as he gently nudged Andrew in the side with his bony elbow. “Considering how often you threaten to neuter me? Not funny.”

“Well, there you have it,” Andrew told Aaron with a slight nod. “I seem to ‘like’ guys.”

“You like tormenting people,” Neil murmured in French as he glanced around the room through his overlong bangs, only to repeat the faint spitting noise when Andrew ran his fingers through his boyfriend’s thick hair – the wrong way. “See!”

Aaron stared at them in disbelief while a smiling Nicky returned to the table with two plates. “This is all such a surprise – I mean, first finding out about you after Aunt Tilda died, and then when you’re finally willing to talk to us, that you have a boyfriend and want to come here!” Nicky’s expression grew wistful while Aaron glanced aside as if he found the stove to be of paramount interest. “I mean… we’re so happy you’re here, but it’s… well, I’m happy to have something in common already,” he admitted as he twisted his fingers around a silver chain he wore. Then his expression turned almost lecherous. “We both have excellent taste, cuz!”

“How are we even related?” Aaron mumbled as he got up from the table to fetch a can of soda from the fridge with trembling hands, then left the room without another word. Nicky stared after him with a worried expression, while Neil gave their meals a few careful sniffs before he picked up a fork and began to eat.

Judging that to mean it was fine to do the same, Andrew started breaking up the three cheese-covered enchiladas on his plate while Nicky jumped up to fetch them something to drink as well. “Uhm, I’m sorry about that,” the young man babbled after he set the soda down in front of them. “Aaron’s been through a lot in the last few months, between Tilda’s death, finding out about you, me appearing and deciding to stick around to help him out and now you guys showing up.” He gave a nervous laugh as he toyed with the chain once more. “He’s not so much homophobic as… well, my parents and aunt are ‘old school’, I guess you could say about it.” Nicky’s dark eyes dulled with an old pain and his smile faltered when he talked about his family. “He’s got a lot to unlearn.”

Andrew frowned while he swallowed a bit of dinner (it was pretty good). “He better learn quickly.” He wasn’t going to put up with Aaron sniping at Neil, brother or not.

Nicky appeared ready to argue at that, then glanced at Neil, who had finished two of the enchiladas and pushed the remaining one around on his plate (a sure sign that he was full); when Andrew scooped it on his plate, Nicky smiled. “I’m sure he will.”

The rest of the meal was spent with Nicky babbling about the house and where everything was, his job as a waiter at a local diner, and the neighborhood. Once they were done eating, he did indeed give them a tour of the house (Aaron ignored them from his spot on the couch), culminating with the bedroom on the second floor which was ‘theirs’. “It’s not much, but the bed’s new and something tells me you two won’t mind sharing.” Nicky gave an exaggerated wink while Andrew reminded himself of all the reasons (not many) why killing his cousin right then would be bad.

Mostly they had to do with the Hatfords.

As soon as the pest left and closed the door behind him, Neil was busy examining almost every inch of the room, checking the windows and beneath the furniture (behind as well), crawling into the closet and standing on the tips of his toes to look up the walls as much as possible; Andrew sat down on the bed to watch the show. “You gonna pull up the rug, too?”

Neil gave him another haughty look. “I want to make sure it’s okay.” His hands twitched and crept toward the hem of his shirt.

“No,” Andrew said in a rush as he straightened up. “No changing, not tonight, not until I put on the new lock,” he insisted as he gave the door a potent look. “And then not outside the room until they’re both out of the house.” They’d talked about it on the drive to Columbia, the rules for Neil’s shifting in a household of strangers.

Neil made a low growl of frustration as he stalked toward the bed then curled up next to Andrew, only to relax against him once Andrew threaded his fingers through Neil’s auburn curls. “It’s… it’s so difficult. I want to make sure it’s all right, to know we’ll be all right here.”

“We will,” Andrew assured his lover as he held out his left forearm; even with the armband covered by the sleeve of his black t-shirt, Neil understood the meaning behind the gesture, as when Andrew motioned to the bag which contained the gun he’d pocketed from Romero Malcolm. “We’re prepared this time.”

“Hmm.” A slight purr escaped Neil as he rested his head against Andrew’s right shoulder. “Still, I’ll be happy when I can check everything in both forms.” He was quiet (save for the faint rumbling which was softer in his human form) for about a minute before he slowly pulled away. “About Aaron.”

Andrew frowned as his hand dropped from Neil’s hair. “Yeah? He’s a bit of an asshole.” When Neil’s upper lip twitched as if to form a smile, he gently flicked his boyfriend on the nose. “Collar with a bell,” he taunted.

“Shredded leather,” Neil shot back as he swiped his right hand over his face, then became serious once more. “He smells… odd.” At Andrew’s unspoken question, Neil’s brows drew together. “Something chemical.”

Andrew had caught the slight shake to his twin’s hands earlier, and the sweat on his forehead even as they sat in the air-conditioned kitchen. “Hmm.” Something to consider. However, right then he was tired from driving for a few days and just wanted to enjoy being on a comfortable bed with Neil stretched out next to him.

*******