Me and My Mister (CatNap X DogDay)

Chapter 25 - Not-So-Secret Forest

An hour later, Catnap woke up to the sound of footsteps that were unawarely close to him. The footsteps were quick, and impatient.

His head ached, beads of sweat formed around his body—thanks to the sun—and his vision blurred a little. The tree he had leaned on turned uncomfortable, for, of course, he'd been there for too long. At least he had been well rested now.

“Why am I here again?“ Catnap muttered, could've been half-asleep.

He jerked up his head and got up on his knees. He peered from behind the tree, and froze in place, now fully awake, when he saw that one familiar dog he loved—Dogday, the only someone he didn't want to see. Now, he remembered why he even ran here in the first place.

Great, just great. Dogday was now searching for him. He felt terribly bad. He'd be expecting his other friends to be looking for him, too, but he had also been worried about what they would've thought of him if he did come back.

Cats in denial… quite funny, don't you think?

“Catnap?“ Dogday called out noisily from behind the trees that were the only things covering Catnap, “Catnap?! Please, come back! Where are you?! This tree, it talked! Can you believe it?! It said that it had seen you!“

Catnap gulped. He immediately hid back behind the tree he had slept on, hoping Dogday's eyes wouldn't catch him.

Please don't see me, Catnap's mind repeated, Please don't see me. Please.

He just could not let Dogday see him. He decided to keep on moving. He ran, not caring where his destination would be.

The wind gushing through him, he moved. He crouched when he needed to, he crawled when bushes would get in the way, and he jumped whenever a hole would appear in front of him. A mixture of anger, fear, and sadness had been filling him up.

In his head, it seemed like a new internal conflict started to form.

☆

Dogday kept on walking and looking. Surely that strange talking tree, was genuinely a talking tree. It was telling the truth.

Or maybe it was a figment of his imagination.

Maybe fear and worry is finally making him mad.

I can't think about that, I might lose my spirit, Dogday thought, and imagined his hand slapping himself on his face.

He tugged his ears—nervous habit—and his eyes had started to shake. He couldn't bare losing his best friend forever (although Dogday does not want to add the word “forever” any more. All knows why.)

It has almost been half the day, and Catnap still hasn't come out, or been found. This was truly the worst Sunday ever, and for him, every Sunday was the best, especially when spent with Catnap.

There was once one Sunday where they tried baking cupcakes, and ended up making cup-coal instead because of how rock-hard the dough ended up, and one where they snuck out of the house and walked around Playtime CO.

But, Dogday thought, there could be no time to remenisce about the past. He needed to find Catnap.

He begun to cross the path going west. Trees danced with the wind, and light started to creep in around any holes that were present. As he went deeper in, the sunlight grew brighter and brighter.

His walk grew slower, and his steps became silent, and he thought about the situation.

Catnap running away because of a dream. Catnap ignoring me since yesterday, after the aquarium.