cat in the window

2

Dream's hopes came true.

A few days passed before he saw the cat again, but it gave him time to completely unpack and fill his cupboards. Dream had made the decision to buy some food for it, so when it came around every so often he would be better prepared.

"Hey G," He would welcome when the cat hopped to his window ledge. Usually, the cat would sit on Dream's bed and clean itself, before happily taking the food Dream offered. Dream had grown to like the stray cat more and more as days went on, and he thought the cat liked him as well. Considering it kept
coming back, it was a fairly safe assumption.

Somehow, having the cat around made Dream feel better. Despite being on his own for the first time in his life and spending most of his days alone working, the cat meowing at his window and pawing at his ankles when it was hungry or wanted attention was enough to make him feel less lonely.

Sometimes, the cat would come for food a couple nights in a row, and other times it wouldn't be seen for multiple days.

One specific night where Florida was undergoing a tropical storm, Dream heard the cat howling outside his window. It was past midnight and he was already in bed, but he couldn't leave it outside. Dream put his glasses on and opened the window, scooping the cat out of the rain and holding it in his arms.

"G!" Dream cried, worry laced through his voice. The cat squirmed in Dream's arms until Dream put it down. It shook itself off and cowered in the corner of Dream's room.

It was then that Dream noticed the cat was leaving a few small, bloodied paw prints on his floor. He frowned, slowly approaching the cat. He pet it before picking it up, being careful of how he held it.

"What happened to you?" He asked, as if the cat could answer him. It was unusual for it to come this late, so it must have been frightened.

He brought it into his kitchen and turned on the light, setting the cat on the countertop. It looked as though it had stepped in some glass and scratched its side on something sharp. Dream frowned, pressing his hand into the cats side, who hissed at the gentle touch.

A little bit of blood stuck to his hand when he pulled it away, and Dream carefully set the cat on a towel before rummaging through his medicine cabinet for bandages he knew he just bought.

Dream returned with a roll of white gauze into the kitchen, cleaning the wound on its side before lightly wrapping the bandage around its abdomen to soak up any excess blood.

Thanks to their previous interactions, the cat was trusting of Dream as he dressed its minor wounds and managed to pull a small piece of glass out of its foot. And of course, the cat took the food Dream offered him.

It stayed still on the counter, looking up at Dream and tucking its ears back.

"Are you scared?" Dream said softly, hesitantly reaching his hand out to pet the cat. It let him, and he was soon able to pick it back up. "I think you should stay in here for tonight." He mumbled, transferring the towel to his couch and setting the cat down on it.

The cat sat and meowed, looking up at Dream. "Want me to stay?" The cat swished its tail, which Dream had picked up as a friendly signal over time. He sat next to the cat and stroked its fur, watching it as it began to get comfortable. It pushed its paws into the cushion, laying down and cleaning itself.

Dream could feel himself get more tired as the night wore on. It felt like hours had passed since the cat woke him up, and Dream got up to turn off any remaining lights and retrieve a blanket before returning to his spot on the couch.

"I'll stay here." Dream whispered, setting his glasses down and laying on the couch. The cat crawled between Dream's body and the back of the couch once he draped the blanket over himself, and they soon both fell asleep.

When Dream woke up, he stretched out and looked over to where the cat had been. It wasn't there, in fact there was no extra weight on him at all. The bandage Dream had tied around the cat was sitting on the floor in a pile, a few blood stains on it.

Dream could hear some noise in the kitchen and sat up, rubbing his eyes, equipping his glasses, and groggily walking over to the doorway.

"G... What are you doing..?" He mumbled, opening his eyes and letting them adjust to the light, and more importantly, what he was seeing.

It wasn't a cat, that was for sure.

A thin man with brown hair and a navy blue shirt stood was leaning against the counter, eating food from Dream's fridge.

Dream's eyes widened at the man, who stopped what he was doing and looked directly at Dream.

"Who the fuck are you?" Dream barely got out, before the man swore under his breath and abandoned the food. There was only one direction out of the kitchen, and as Dream stepped closer the man suddenly turned into-
a cat.

A cat?

Dream's eyes weren't decieving him. The cat, the one he had cleaned and fed for several nights, and that was asleep next to Dream the night before, had turned from a man back into the cat.

It bolted around the corner towards Dream's room, and Dream was quick to follow. He watched as it left his room as panicked as it entered, jumping out the window Dream had left open last night.

"What the fuck!" Dream shouted out the window, watching the cat run across the roof like their first encounter, except it didn't look back this time.

Dream couldn't conjure up the right thoughts to even deal with what he just saw, simply staring out the window, eyes blinded by the sun, as the cat disappeared once again.