Merry Christmas, @maracujatangerine!
Coriander shuffled aimlessly through the house, still shaking off sleep as it walked. Once, the idea of waking up so long after its master would have sent shivers down its spine, but Miss Lydia didn’t seem to mind. In fact, she even seemed to like it - maybe it was wrong for it to take advantage of her clear lack of knowledge in handling a pet, but it felt nice to be able to lie in as long as it wanted. Almost like it was a person.
It walked into the living room, where Miss Lydia was sitting on the sofa, a blanket loosely tucked around her and laptop resting on her lap. She gave a weary smile as Coriander entered the room, her voice thick with exhaustion.
”Good morning, Cory. Did you sleep well?”
It blinked momentarily to process the question, before responding promptly.
”Yes, Miss.” It moved over and sat down by her legs hanging down from the sofa, wary of sitting down beside her when she hadn’t asked. She looked so tired, it was best not to disturb her.
Cory leaned back slightly, trying to look at the laptop, but it couldn’t quite make it out. Lydia, noticing this, smiled at it weakly.
”I am just doing some work.” She replied, to his silent question, “I had to wake up very early for it, and I am not sure if I will have time to do much else today.”
Coriander’s heart beat slightly faster at the chance to do something for Miss Lydia - this was what it had been hoping for when it woke up this morning, a chance to make up for taking advantage of its new owners lack of knowledge in handling a pet.
”I-is there anything it can to do help while you work, Miss?”
”I could maybe use a hand with some work around the house, although you do not need to do it now. You only just woke up - and you don’t have to do it if you don’t want, either. I can handle it on my own.”
While Miss Lydia had acted as if it was a choice, Cory knew the real order behind the words. It had been told to help around the house, and it must get on with it as soon as possible - especially if it wanted to make up for being such a bad pet.
”It can do it now, Miss, it doesn’t mind.”
She surveyed him skeptically, before slowly nodding. “Very well, then. Maybe you could wash the dishes just in the kitchen for me? I didn’t get to do it last night, and soon they’ll just stack up. Once you are done, you can come sit with me again.”
Cory stood up immediately, hurrying into the kitchen where yesterday's dishes were waiting. The job started off well, the pet washing dishes as fast as it possibly could, already imagining how pleased Miss Lydia would be to see everything done so fast.
Then, a glass dropped. The soap it had been covered in had just made it too slippy and it had slipped right out of Coriander’s hand, scattering the floor with frighteningly sharp shards. The sound of the crash made Cory’s heart shatter too - Miss Lydia was going to come in, and she was going to see, and she’d be so mad, and she’d finally take the chance to punish her disrespectful pet.
After hovering in silence over the glass for a few moments, it came to the conclusion that she somehow hadn’t noticed the noise. Now, there was a new threat - Miss Lydia could still find out it had broken a glass. All she had to see was the glass on the floor, or the cuts on its hands, or just notice that one was missing…
The most Cory could do was handle each of the little problems the situation had caused. It scrambled, picking up the shards as quickly as it could, causing more cuts to form across it’s hands, some even scraping its lower arms in its hurry. Every time it thought it had picked them all up, it noticed more in the corner of the room, or behind the bin, or right by the leg of the counter and it felt itself choked by sobs as it pictured it’s owner walking in as it searched the floor, or worse - standing on a glass piece and finding out in the worst way what her clumsy, clueless pet had done.
Once Coriander was finally satisfied with the clean floor, another thought entered its head. Wasn’t not telling her lying? It was her right to know, and even punish it if she wished - sure, she hadn’t yet, but it couldn’t be so sure there wasn’t a tipping point where she finally got sick of her useless pet.
Or maybe she’d be happier if she didn’t know, as long as she didn’t notice. Yes, it wouldn’t tell her, and as long as she didn’t ask about it Cory wouldn’t have to lie.
The final problem was the glaringly obvious cuts on its hands - it’s fine, she just couldn’t see it until they’d began to heal. Coriander, still feeling slightly uneasy about the situation, returned to washing up, wincing and whimpering as the soap stung its hands.
When it finally returned, Miss Lydia was still sitting in the same position working.
”Are you all finished already, Cory? Come, sit with me and take a break for a bit.” She gently patted the sofa next to her, and the pet obediently squirmed in beside her. It rested it’s head on her shoulder, curling one hand and pressing the palm of the other to its side so that the cuts wouldn’t be visible.
It went back to trying to make sense of the work on Miss Lydia’s screen, feeling slightly exhausted by the difficult task of the dishes. That, in combination with it’s owners warmth and the rhythmic sound of her typing, pulled it into sleep resting on her side once more.
When it woke, it saw Miss Lydia sitting more upright above him, her laptop moved slightly to one side and a slightly concerned frown on her face. Cory followed her eyes anxiously, finding out they were lying on a small smear of blood on his shirt - his clean, white shirt.
“Where did that come from, Cory?” She answered her own question by moving her gaze to the hand it automatically clutched close at the question.
She softly took it’s hands in her own, taking Coriander by surprise - it had expected her to be angry, or rough with it, but instead she was taking care to be as gentle and kind as possible as she brushed her thumb around the cuts on its palm.
”I-It’s so sorry, Miss, it… it dropped one of the glasses, and it broke, and it had to pick everything up, and it’s so sorry it didn’t tell you…”
Gently, Miss Lydia placed her free hand on its shoulder. “There is nothing for you to be sorry about. Just wait here, and I will get you some bandages.”
When she returned, she was holding a roll of bandages and an antiseptic wipe. It was so kind, so caring of her. It was more than it deserved.
She passed the antiseptic wipe over each cut, responding in hushed apologies and thank yous for being so good whenever Cory winced at the pain. Then, she wrapped the bandages neatly around each hand, softly explaining to it that it needed to be careful with them, because they could easily get damaged because of where the cuts were.
As much as Cory tried to listen to what she was saying, it struggled. Its owners touch being so kind, and so soft, and so gentle… that was enough for it to tune out of any conversation.
