Tabby's Writing Game: Day 28
Soft Sunday!!
I bring you more witchrry. Mostly because I didn't know what else to post. Hope you like it!
On the morning of the nineteenth, Louis woke early, even earlier than Harry for once, an odd feeling filling his chest cavity. He stayed in bed, wrapped around his partner’s warm, sleep-soft body for a few moments, but he kept feeling odd, like he was being… pulled, somehow. He kissed the back of Harry’s curly head as he departed their bed, tucking the duvet around Harry’s clothesless form so they stayed warm without him. He hurriedly got himself dressed, too, shivering a bit. The temperature was colder today. As he made his morning cuppa, he jumped at a plaintive meowing, faint as it was outside and he was in. Without bothering to dress for the weather, Louis hurried to the door, hoping it was the Interesting Kitten. And it was. They sauntered right in, twining around his legs and purring loud enough to feel. “Hi, love,” Louis cooed, crouching down to pet them. “It’s good to see you. I’m glad you came in.” The kitten bumped their frigid little nose against his hand. “Sure is cold, isn’t it?” “Meow,” answered the kitten. “My Harry and I don’t have any cat food anymore, but we do have some tuna somewhere. Would you like some of that, love?” The kitten meowed at him again, eyes bright. “Come along, then,” Louis said with a smile. He went back to the kitchen and found a can of tuna, scooping out half of the can onto a small white plate with a golden rim and small golden decorations on the outer portion. Harry collected a lot of pretty mismatched dishware, this white and gold one just one of many.
They settled at the island together, Louis with his tea and current book and the Interesting Kitten with their tuna, which they lapped up happily. By the time Harry rolled out of bed an hour or so later, looking adorably sleep rumpled, the kitten had curled up into a loaf beside Louis’ cup, half-full of now-lukewarm tea. Their tail wrapped around the ceramic and the tea inside the cup vibrated slightly with the kitten’s purrs. “Good morning, darling,” Louis greeted them as soon as they entered the room, but he quickly noticed that their gaze was caught on the kitten before they met his eyes. “Good morning, Lou. Where did she come from?” Harry nodded toward the kitten. Louis’ brows raised. He hadn’t known the kitten was a she. He scratched behind her grey ear. “When you got irritated the other day and wanted me out of the house to clean, I went to the cafe and she ended up following me home that evening. Same thing the next day. She’s been hanging around here the last few days, too, but she decided to come in today. I was kind of hoping I could give her to you for the Solstice? You’ve never really mentioned if gift-giving is a thing for Witches on the Solstice like it is for Christmas, but she seems sweet and it would be nice to have a cat around again, you know?” he rambled, gesturing occasionally with his book-filled hand. However, Harry barely seemed to hear him, having caught the gaze of the Interesting Kitten, their green meeting her yellow-gold. Louis watched as they stared at each other in silence for a whole moment after he’d shut up, both eerily still, that is, until the kitten un-loafed and elegantly strode across the island, from Louis’ end to the end Harry was standing near. She sat primly at the end, curling her white-tipped tail over her bicoloured paws, waiting patiently for something Louis didn’t understand. “Astraea,” Harry whispered after another moment, almost gasping. At that, the kitten leapt into their arms, walking across their shoulders and settling atop them like a cat-shaped scarf. She nuzzled into their face, closing her eyes and purring. “What?” Louis asked, bewildered. What the hell did I just watch? Harry just smiled shyly at him. “She told me her name. Or, I sensed it, rather. She’s one of Shadow’s great, great grand-kittens, and she’s… she’s my Familiar,” they explained, their voice soft in a way Louis hadn’t heard in years. That explains the disappearing acts, Louis thought idly. Shadow had had that uncanny ability; apparently Astraea did, too. He smiled at them. “I’m glad that you found each other,” he told them, genuinely. He was happy for them in a way he didn’t know how to express, so he got up and embraced them, holding Harry’s narrow waist and scratching behind Astraea’s grey ear. He kissed each of their foreheads, smiling tenderly at them both.
