Kitty Comes Home

Graduation day at Haven Willis Academy of Engineering came with many job offers. Top of my cohort, I had to give a pre-written speech on rising above through effort. It took me a week to memorize it. I had one thing in mind during the ceremony. A government position designing new generations of city-wide water filters and air purifiers. The reason why? It came with a ticket into the city for one family member or spouse.

Before I agreed to anything, I decided to visit home for a month. It was one last helping hand from the sponsors who had recruited me into the academy. Crossing the walls of the bubble outside was as strange as the time I came inside five years prior. The people inside called it paradise dome. From the outside it looked like a bubble stuck on water.

The bottom of the walls was solid metal covered in screens broadcasting a three-sixty view of the countryside. For five years, the real sun had not grazed my skin without the protective glass. My tan was gone, and I dreaded the sunburn that would inevitably befall me.

My father was waiting for me by the boarder’s opening. We walked home through the narrow streets of the outer city. It was on top of the old camps constructed by the workers that had built the bubble. Tall, cramped buildings, made using the least amount of leftover materials possible. I admired them my whole life. The bubble was opulent where the outer city was efficient.

Louis, the man who had raised me as his daughter, was ecstatic when I told him about the government position. I didn’t have the heart to tell him. He was not the one I wanted to bring with me. I loved my father. But he lived well off, for the outer city, and he was not somebody I could build my life with. Neither were the men I had met in the bubble.

I tried to date but it became clear that I was nothing but a conquest to them. Thankfully, my telepathic abilities helped me discover their intentions. Before I would propose to them to come back to my place. That had been my attempt at living a new life, separate from my past. To try and feel at home in an alien, confined world.

In those years, I missed the outer city, the people in it mostly. Not that I had tons of friends. There were the twins Sheila and Sheamus. I had known them since we were children. The kids of the owner of the neighbourhood convenience store. I remembered the ice cream their mother would make. They had a good milk supplier who got a cut of each sale. People would come in early in the morning to buy the delicious spheres. Their neighbour made the reusable plastic cups people used. I had fixed the convenience store’s old freezer my whole childhood. In exchange, they had always kept treats aside for me. It was often the stuff that were getting past their shelf live, and there was always some ice cream as a desert. They kept some in the apartment upstairs for family and friends. Louis didn’t complain. My weight gain made him appear wealthier.

Then there was Dante. He was the one I missed the most. And I dearly hoped he was not taken. One could say asking my childhood bully in marital union was a bad idea. But that was only on the surface. It was only once I had been about to move away that I realized he had served as my protector as we grew up.

I had been the shortest, fattest girl in the neighbourhood, with a tutor that had been expelled from the bubble. Easy picking from the kids who wished they would have been fed like I was or taught to get a chance to leave for better places.

Dante had never been jealous of that. He just seemed to enjoy upsetting me over the smallest things. Never anything scary or serious.

The day I was preparing to leave, he came to our apartment to say his goodbyes. My father almost didn’t let him in. He didn’t know my friends well. He did not leave the building often and I hung out with them at the convenience store.

Dante and I sat on my bed in silence. We were seventeen. I was waiting to see what he would do to get a rile out of me one last time.

He kissed me. Then left me in shock without a word.

I cried, putting the last items in my bags.

Later, as I was alone in my dorm room at night. I would remember that kiss. How his hand had grazed my thigh for a moment. I started touching myself thinking about him. It made my body go through changes.

Growing up, Father and I had debated rather I was a witch who could turn into a cat or a cat with enough magic to turn human. He would often describe his surprise when the kitten he had found alone in the streets turned into a babe the next morning. I would make for a poor witch, since I had barely any telepathic abilities. Only enough to hear people’s thoughts upon contact with their heads. Since Louis had raised me like a human girl, I made for a cat with poor hunting abilities.

I started to go into heat every month, right as the moon was one-quarter full. Not that the moon was very visible to the people of the bubble. The city was bathed in artificial lights at night. That was when I learned that my eyesight was different. And that, my body always knew where to look to find that rocky thing in the sky.

It was hard at first. To go through such a fever, far from my support system. I had to take sick leave from classes two days out of every month. My biology teacher took the opportunity to hypothesize that the contaminants outside the bubble must have dysregulated my hormonal cycle. I might have told the accommodation centre that I would get bad period cramps. I didn’t actually bleed. I would just be horny, feverish, and quick to anger for a few days.

On my day back outside, I caught the flu. My old tutor had told me it would happen the week before I went to the academy. Upon his expulsion, he had thought he would die from all the diseases he had contracted. The bubble made its inhabitants weak to pathogens.

As soon as I got better, I went to the neighbourhood convenience store. I wanted to wear my old clothes, but they didn’t quite fit anymore. I didn’t want to stand out like a sore thumb in the streets.

I had to stain some of my least favourite clothes from the bubble. It was fun. I didn’t often dabble in the abstract arts. Using bleach, beet juice, and motor oil. Now these looked like proper clothes you would find at a second-hand store with the fashions of the bubble.

I almost ran to the store. Five years. My sponsors had supplied only one computer to my father for me to communicate with him. I had requested him to give news to my friends. But I suspected he did not.

There they were that evening. Sheamus and Sheila were inside chatting.

“Kitty!” Sheila ran out from her spot at the register the hug me.

“It’s been a while.” Sheamus took her place behind the counter, leaning his broom against the wall of cigarettes.

“I missed you guys so much.” I tried to keep the tears in. It was a losing game. They flowed as soon as I saw Sheila’s roll down her cheeks.

“How are you?” She rubbed my arms with a smile.

“In a dilemma. Besides that, pretty good. I just recovered from a bad flu. It feels a lot better now that my muscles stopped aching and stuff. What about you?”

“Our parents got divorced.” Sheamus started. “They are still on good terms business-wise. But they both moved out of the apartments upstairs.” He chuckled. “On the upside, we can bring people up to our separate rooms now that we don’t have to share one.”

“They have been dating around.” Sheila laughed. “Knowing them, they just felt old and wanted to live a little. They’ll get back together once they get it out of their system.”

“As you can see, Sheila is still in denial.” Sheamus was serious.

“Doesn’t hurt to hope.” She flipped him off.

The doors opened behind us, “Oy Sheamus, you got anymore of those... Kit?”

We all turned to Dante, who was staring at me bug-eyed. He seemed taller somehow. He must have been pumping iron.

Approaching step by step, he narrowed his eyes. Right until he was at arms length and poked my cheek. “What are you doing back here?”

“I graduated,” I gave him back his suspicious gaze. “I’m back for a visit, amongst other things.”

“Visit, uh?” he tilted his head then gave me a smile. It looked a little pained. “I didn’t think you could gain more weight.” My frown had his smile become genuine. “They had good food in there. I’m getting jealous.”

“I ate steak once a week.” I bragged to him. “And chicken, pork, lamb—”

“Yet here you are.”

“They have real cheese in there. Straight from the farms.” And it had not given me bathroom issues like all the ice cream growing up.

“I hope you are getting a good job to keep eating all that fancy stuff.”

“I have received over twenty-five job offers.”

Sheamus whistled, “Damn Kitty. What kinds of grades did you get for these fine bubblers to fight over hiring an outsider.”

I was too easy to gloat. “Top of my cohort. By far.” I grinned.

They stayed silent.

“How long will you be here?” Dante lost his smile.

“A month. I have a month to decide if I take the offer for the job I want.”

“Make sure to come by often while you still can.” Sheila hugged me again.

We all knew it was not easy to come in and out of the bubble.

“Please tell me everything I missed.” I tried to smile.

Aside from all the gossip, I learned that Dante didn’t have a partner. He came to hang out and smoke at the store once a week on his day off. He worked as a bouncer for the bar of the weirdo building. Most of us called them weirdos because the residents didn’t leave their homes much and non-residents were not allowed inside. Even as guests. It was not even a pricier spot.

Every evening, I jumped by the store hoping to catch him before his shift. According to him smokes cost so much he would rather give that good business to friends. Sheila laughed. The amount he bought almost equated to those he had regularly bumed off Sheamus over the years.

During our first reunion, Dante had avoided touching me past his initial poking gesture. By the time his off day came, my heat overtook me.Fine,I thought.

I could catch him the next week. I still had two left. Sucked that it was in the middle of a summer heat wave on top. I locked myself in my old room. The old air cooler and purifier I had built before I had left was still there and worked fine after a little maintenance. I was reading erotica on my personal computer. Not the best remedy for my heat, but I was in the mood and bored out of my mind.

Louis kept trying to convince us to leave early. He thought I was sick again. He knocked on my door, “That’s it. Tomorrow we are going to paradise dome. They have good doctors. The environment here makes you ill—”

“It’s not a sickness.” I whined through the thin door.

I only felt unbearably hot and horny. Wanted to pull his head off every time he even breathed another “why stay in this dump?”

“What is it then?”

“A cat thing. It’ll pass in a day or two. I just need to be alone in silence.”

“When are we going? You said that government job was a sure thing. Did you lie?”

“I did not lie!” only omitted part of the truth.

“Why are we waiting then?”

“Because I want to see my friends.”

“Don’t you have new ones?”

“No, Dad! No fucking bubbler wants to be friends with a filthy outsider!”

“We are different.”

“You haven’t even asked who I want to bring with me.”

“I’m your only family. What are you talking about?”

“You are not the one I want to bring.” I finally admitted.

“Who then!?” He twisted the thin metal lock crooked and opened the door. “I took you off these streets. I am your father. Who else are you planning to bring?”

“Dante.” I was about to cry now, going from anger to sadness very quick.

“That kid? Does he know that?”

“Not yet.”

He took a breath closing his eyes, “You know what? If you would rather deceive me and not do what you actually planned to do, you can just leave this home.”

“What?”

“Leave!” He pulled me out of my room by the arm. “After all I have done for you.” He dragged me to the main door.

“Wait!”

He pushed me and said, “You are not my daughter anymore.” Slamming the door in my face.

Seconds later I heard him close the locks. I kicked the door yelling, “Fine then you’re not my father either!”

I stormed off to the elevator. Then I remembered it needed a key. I threw open the stairs’ door. I went down a flight and realized how I was dressed. Cut offs of shorts and a tank top. I would have turned back into a cat but with the heat, I didn’t have the energy for a full transformation. Going down five flights of stairs with sweaty, exposed thighs chafed them bad enough. The walk to the convenience store was a bitch.

I had to focus not to start a fight with the four men that cat called me. Then I got paranoid that I was starting to transform by accident.

Dante would be there that night. He was the last and first person I wanted to see. The circumstances were not good, but I knew he could keep me safe.

There he was. Smoking outside with Sheamus, who ran inside as soon as we made eye contact. By the time I reached out front, I was too scared to look at Dante. Not in my state. I tried to walk past him eyes down when arms caught me. Large arms that pulled me up against Dante’s chest from the back. So high, my head was near his, like I weighed nothing. That was not normal.

My first instinct was to seek the safety of the ground beneath my feet. He breathed right into my ear, which did not help with my heat.

“Come home with me tonight.” His voice was close and low with need.

I stopped moving, melting into his hold. One of his hands let go of my waist to rub the upper top of my thigh. Slipping a finger under the fabric of my shorts slightly.

“Dante!” Sheamus ran to us with a vest. “Put her down! What’s wrong with you?”

Dante did not move. He was waiting for something. But what? At the risk of outing my magical abilities, I touched his temple. Shaky hand reaching up to get a look into his mind.

There was a fog. Out of it, two golden eyes shone, staring back at me. A curse. That was the only thing I could call it. That thing gave him inhuman strength. It was also summoning all the neediness in my body, making me rub the back of my head against his shoulder.

I used my last drop of willpower to put it at bay for now. Chasing the fog away with something between a plea and a promise. Speaking directly into his fogged-up mind,“Not here...Please.”

Only then was I let down, gently until I was steady on my feet. I promptly scurried inside the store. Sheamus yelling at me to wait, waving the vest. Nonetheless, I ran to the back of the store, aiming straight for the freezer. I shoved my head in. it was empty but cold.

Then a hand smacked my butt.

“Hey!” I turned around hissing. There were two men leering at my body. My irritated, angry switch had been flipped. “What the fuck is wrong with you, dickhead?”

“How much?” the taller of the two asked.

“What in me calling you a dickhead made you think I would be fucking you for money? Was it the ‘What the fuck?’ that followed your unsolicited hand on my ass?”

Sheila called out for Dante from behind the register she was guarding.

“Calm down you cranky bitch.” A hand fell onto the shorter asshole’s shoulder. He winced as he was forced to turn his back to me.

“Come on,” the initial offender tried to smooth things over. “We were just asking about her services.”

By the end of his sentence, Dante’s hand was latched on his throat, lifting him off his feet. “Kitty?” he glanced at me angrily, “Was it your intent to offer certain services to these two worms?”

“No.” I was transfixed by the veins on his neck bulging out.

“Seems like you two need to be educated on how to treat a woman.” He dragged one by the neck and the other by the collar. With the most vicious grin I have ever seen on anybody. That was hot. “First lesson.” He walked through the door Sheamus was holding open. “No means no.”

“Kitty come here!” Sheila was angry, opening the door to the cash counter.

I joined her keeping my head down. My anger was flipping to upset again.

She sat me on her stool for a scolding. She was still holding a metal pipe. Leaning on it like a cane. “Kitty, why are you walking the streets at night, half-naked, and alone like that? Most sex workers know to keep a weapon or hire a bodyguard. It’s not like you don’t have the money.”

I didn’t answer, bawling my eyes instead. “Louis kicked me out.” I finally sobbed after a minute. “He didn’t even let me get my stuff.”

Sheila gave me a hug. The ground shook for a split second. Soon after, Dante walked in with hand bleeding. She let go to stare at him, going from fuming to docile as he strode to us, hopping over the high counter.

Sheamus came in locking the door, “What the fuck was that?!” he closed the metal sheeting on the windows, shoving his key into the mechanism. “He cracked the pavement with his damn fist!”

Dante crouched down to me and grabbed my face with both hands. “Are you alright?” he whispered.

I nodded slowly.

“Are you?” Sheila pointed at his knuckles.

“I’ve had worse.” He took his shirt off, pulling it over his head.

I could not look away from his body and all the thick muscles working together like a well-oiled mechanism. No matter how much I wished I had the dignity to look away. My heat snatched it all away in his presence. He helped me put on his shirt. It smelled strongly of him. I had to touch my nose to make sure it had not transformed.

Dante pinched my cheek softly like he used to do when we were kids. My tears rolled down, touching his hand.

“Can I crash at your place tonight?” I managed to ask.

“Anytime Kitty.” He glanced at my mouth, “Can you walk?”

“No.” I bit my lip a little. “My thighs hurt.” More tears welled up. “They rubbed a lot.”

He nodded once before picking me up and sitting me on the counter. I shimmied to the edge on the other side.

“Are you sure this is a good Idea?” Sheamus asked us while Dante used the little door to join him in front of the counter.

“Yes.” We both answered at the same time. We didn’t spare him a glance, too sucked into each other’s eyes.

“Fine then.” Sheamus scoffed. “You better come back tomorrow to explain the hole you left in our alley.”

“It’s just a crack.” Dante scooped me off the counter.

“I’ll be content as long as you two don’t start fucking in our store.” Sheila shooed us to the backdoor.

I might have blushed more if I could have. My cheeks must already have been a shade of purple. My face was on fire from the heat, my heat, and the heat of Dante’s skin against mine. I did not faint like sex was not bound to happen the moment we were alone in a room together.

“See you later.” I mumbled as we exited the store.

Sheila waved a little closing the heavy metal door.