Policeman and the cat

10 - The cat's morning

"Nelly," she heard the voice of her human and opened her eyes.

"Would Nelly do for your name?" he asked seeming uncertain.

She yawned and nodded, as the human had moved away, she leaned on his back. 

Warm~ 

The Witten, now freshly named, enjoyed the warm sensation of the human's back, it didn't last, though, as he got up and she had to scramble to not fall on the floor.

"Can you eat human food?" Ian asked.

Nelly's eyes sparkled. She had never tried, so "Dunno!" But "Can I try?"

"Sure!" Ian replied and went over to the kitchen counter.

She had felt the sensation of ingredients on his hands as a ring, but it would be her first time to actually taste what he would make! That alone had her skipping as she followed, now looking at him boil the rice, chop veggies, open a tuna can, then throw it all together on the pan. His movements were fast and practiced and no wonder, she knew that he had been cooking since very young. Even before his hands were big enough to wear the ring on his thumb.

Seeing him go out of his way to feed the dustbuns, Nelly snatched some up without even thinking.

"Nelly can you not?" Ian asked, not seeming happy.

At first Nelly didn't even realize what that was about, but then she noticed the dustbuns in her hands and put things together. The big dustbun had been upset about it too-- "Eh?" She couldn't eat them?

"No pet eating, please," Ian said.

Yet the one most surprised at this was not her, but the big dustbun. She transformed and settled on Ian's head, looking almost close to tears as she smiled.

Nelly half-pouted and let the dustbuns go. 'Even if you like him too, he's mine,' Nelly thought.

"Thanks," the dustbun said, to which Ian replied with a "Sure."

Nelly sat down still pouting. "I need to eat to grow stronger," Nelly said, peering at Ian. And there was no time to waste! She couldn't allow that dustbun to top her much longer.

"Are there no Astrals outside?" Ian asked as he turned his eyes down to the frying pan and put out the fire.

Right! Since becoming a Witten Nelly hadn't ever left this apartment, but now she would! Then it was no issue! "There probably are," she replied, feeling excited to go out and hunt some! Despite having an almost human-ish shape (almost as human-ish as Ian was), she still had canines that could cut into astral bodies.

Nelly happily ate the food Ian had made! The tuna thing in it was the best part as far as she could tell. Nelly's body was directly based on Ian's so obviously she could handle the heavy amount of spices in it like it was nothing.

She didn't notice the touched look Ian had about seeing her eating normally. And after cleaning up the dishes, Ian got ready as Nelly followed him around, along the way he pulled a hoodie over her head and after looking at her feet for a while he picked her up and Nelly settled on one of his arms, holding on to his shoulder for balance. She wasn't sure why Ian was carrying her, but he was warm and it was comfy to be carried.

All would be perfect if the dustbun hadn't crawled in Ian's jacket.

"You are coming today as well?" Ian asked.

"Mhm, gotta protect you," the dustbun replied.

There was no need for the dustbun if she was there. "I can protect Ian," Nelly said. 'So back off' her eyes told, looking towards the dustbun.

"I'm stronger," the dustbun replied with the faintest huff of superiority.

Hnnnn. How mortifying! Nelly didn't have anything to say there. She resolved to eat a lot, grow a lot and eat the dustbu-- no, wait, Ian had said not to eat 'pets' and it looked like Ian considered both the fish and all the dustbuns in his house as pets now. A pity.

Nelly looked around in wonder as Ian carried her and while she did spot a few prey, she didn't want to move away from Ian while he was carrying her like that. Yet after going to a store and getting her a pair of flip-flops, Ian did put her down.

Hnn-- Missing warmth. At the very least Nelly clung on the hand that used to have the ring on it, letting go only for the times when a good prey came into sight.

Nelly hunted a few Snarlings ( a snake with butterfly wings) and a bunch of Rompels (chimera like creatures with shape-shifting ability). Nelly didn't judge her food by the looks, so the Rompels's last-ditch effort of making themselves look horrid did nothing to stop her from munching on them. Ian did seem to freak out from one of them, but he avoided looking from then on, so Nelly figured it was fine.

She held on his hand as walked into a magic-themed club and passed a few oracle girls to reach a place with a lot of astral presences. Just before they entered Nelly noticed a camouflaged rompel sticking to the wall. Obviously she snatched it, munching on it as they went in.

Yet then most eyes in the room gathered onto her.

Or more like, on the thing she was munching on. Nelly looked down on it, not sure what was wrong - it looked like a human body part, a male body part, hairy and all, but the fact that it wasn't bleeding was a dead give-away that it wasn't a corpse, right? So... why did they look so oddly?

Ian raised his glasses to look at what she was holding and feeling a sudden danger of losing her meal Nelly stuffed it all in her mouth at once. Crunch. Gulp. safe--

The eyes moved away all of a sudden. Huh? Were they all just after her food?