Starter || @attack-on-muses
It was not at all the type of day that Erwin enjoyed being out and about during. No one enjoyed storms, especially not when on foot, lugging grocery bags over his shoulder. At the very least, he didn’t have to worry about his milk, eggs, and the other few items he had purchased being soaked by the storm - unlike himself. The umbrella did very little, being he was fumbling with three bags and the handle of the contraption, with only one hand. It was times like this…
He paused when he heard a faint sound, nearly drowned out by the thunder. He quickly glanced around, vigilant, attempting to locate the source. A faint mewl from a small black kitten, drenched, hiding under the bench he had paused beside. Quickly, he crouched down, setting his bags aside to extend his hand.
❝ Hey there, little friend… What’re you doing out here alone? ❞
Obviously, he didn’t expect an answer. However, he did gently reach out, allowing the cat to sniff his hand, hoping to gain some level of trust - after all, there was no way in hell he was leaving this little creature out here by itself.
❝ That’s it… It’s okay, I’m one of the good guys. ❞
Ever since Levi could remember, he had been a stray cat. Even during the times where he’d had some semblance of family — flickers of an older cat, his mother, cleaning his fur and then mewling about how he should go into another room for a while (gone when he was just a kitten) — his human uncle teaching him how to survive as a stray, even in the company of an elder (likely due to the predetermined decision to later abandon the little feline) — a couple damn good friends, quite literally thick as thieves; alternating images of stealing food together, protecting them at all cost, letting them help get the dirt out of his fur when he hadn’t shifted in a while (taken away by some horrible strike of fate)...
That shack hadn’t been a home, and as he grew older, he realized exactly why she’d made him leave the room so often. Alternating hideouts with Kenny, that never would have stopped — so was the life of a criminal, and of a stray. His eventual place with Isabel and Farlan, it had been something close, but under the circumstances, they couldn’t have called it ‘home’ (even though they so often had said the word itself - an effort to find that shattered semblance of one).
So much had been lost over the years, and so he never should have gotten his hopes up - but after leaving the majority of his criminal history in the past — where it probably belonged (but did it really?) — and getting a couple degrees, becoming a teacher of all damn things... He had thought, for a little while, that everything was finally ‘figuring itself out’.
Even if that had been the case, it wasn’t all that long into the Neko’s time as a teacher that he found himself in yet another shitty situation. Job lost, evicted from his apartment due to a lack of funds and the struggle not to return to previous occupations, and then on the streets. A torn duffel bag with a few scattered belongings, hidden away in an alley, was all the man had left to his name. And so, living life as a cat, that had seemed the only chance (for the moment) of survival right now...
A rainy afternoon, after months of living on the streets again, would later prove to be the next ‘turning point’ in Levi’s life. Hiding under a bench as the rain hammered the pavement around him, the little feline had honestly hit his breaking point — cold, soaked to the bone from the storm, mewling with a combination of distress, distaste, and the pains of starvation.
By some stroke of luck, a man walking by with his grocery bags heard him and, much to Levi’s surprise, crouched down to speak. Hand held out, asking what he was doing out here alone — another sad meow was the only answer, of course, and Levi wasn’t entirely sure about this ‘good guy’ shit, but... options were limited, and he could decide on that later. Leaning forward, the Shifter sniffed at the hand offered, tiny body shaking with hunger and chill all the while. After a moment, he stepped out from the bench partially, nudging the hand and mewling again.
‘A little help here? Maybe?
Probably not, but it’s worth a fuckin’ shot.’
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