This week's prompts are from GTAE and Lincoln Neal with "better together" and "another Monday", bringing us back to Ben and Chocolate Cake, returning to their home after the attempted burglary and Cake's mauling of said burglar. Enjoy!
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Home Sweet Home:
Almost as soon as they got back home, Chocolate Cake’s ears perked straight up and her tail poofed up. She dropped to all fours and started pacing around the house. It took humans an investment in quadrobics to move anywhere as naturally as cats could using their hands and feet. They also had wider-set and larger toes for better gripping, making them excellent sprinters and climbers. Humans still won the endurance game, but it was a rare human who could outrun a cat, whether it was on four legs or two.
Chocolate Cake circled around Ben protectively, rising up in a stalking crouch before wandering through the house again, sniffing at everything. It had been a couple days, but he supposed the burglar’s smell still lingered here and there. Enough for Cake’s superior sense of smell to pick it up. Enough to make their house still feel like a part of it wasn’t theirs any longer.
He knew how she felt. You were supposed to not just feel safe, but actually be safe in your own home. Instead someone had broken into theirs, violating that sanctity and sense of safety. Yes, having a bipedal human-sized predator on the premises did offer a sense of protection and yes, Chocolate Cake had neutralized this intruder, but that didn’t make the sense of violation any better. They’d been lucky that it was just some junkie and he hadn’t had a gun or worse.
They’d spent the weekend in a hotel as the police did their investigation and crime scene cleaners follows up after. The results of the burglar’s blood test would be back soon, but Cake had already gotten a broad-spectum antibiotic and anti-viral cocktail just to be safe.
No charges had been pressed so far. It was still a possibility, but the police had assured him and Cake both that it was unlikely that any would follow. Cats had more leeway in the legal arena when it came to the use of force, particular when their homes were invaded or they or their humans were threatened. If Ben had been the one to mutilate the invader, he’d be in a holding cell for aggravated assault, battery with intent and attempted murder. As he’d told the cat a time or two, she could get away with a lot more than he could, but on the flip side that came with more responsibilities.
Other than that and some follow-up questions, the police hadn’t said much about everything. One of them had let slip that they were looking at the intruder in connection to similar home invasions. Whether or not he’d be able to give them much was a different question. He was expected to survive, but he wouldn’t be out of the hospital or even eating unassisted for a long time.
Ben stood in the living room where he’d found Chocolate Cake on top of the intruder, biting and clawing at him as he burbled out pathetic wet screams and let out a breath. Everything was clean. The rug and furniture were spotless and there wasn’t so much as a single droplet anywhere. It didn’t seem real, like a bad dream that he’d woken up into and couldn’t quite shake off. He supposed something like that might change how he looked at his lifelong companion, but it didn’t feel that way. This was the first time he’d ever seen it for himself, but he knew how dangerous a cat could be. Chocolate Cake was “only” a hundred twenty pounds, but that was a hundred and twenty pounds of apex predator that had spent thousands of years alongside humans in a cultural and societal symbiosis.
Agriculture had never been cats’ strong suit, but there was a joke that Ben had heard once. It said that cats were actually the best farmers in the world. Humans were their crop, but instead of meat, fruit or wheat they harvested all the comforts and benefits of civilization. In exchange, cats provided companionship, comfort and security that had once meant the difference between life and death for early humans and their nascent societies.
“Hey,” Ben said as Chocolate Cake circled through the kitchen again, sniffing and growling under her breath. He came up and ruffled her hair. “Thanks.” She didn’t react like she normally did, leaning back into his hand and letting out a brief purr for more pets. She was still rigid, ears raised, tail lashing back and forth. “You did good, you know. I know I’ve been a little quiet the last couple days, but I’ve never really seen that side of you and... I was worried about what could have happened to you.”
The cat twitched her ears, but didn’t look back at him. She looked like she was even more on edge than when they’d first got back home.
“Cakers?” he asked, scratching her scalp. “What’s wrong?”
“Someone was here,” she replied. “In our house. In my territory.”
“I know, Choccy,” he said. “I know, but he’s gone. You got him and he’s not coming back any time soon.”
She looked over at him, her yellow eyes bright, her pupils narrowed to slits. She stared at him for a long moment, then her gaze shifted to the window that looked out on the neighbour’s house. The curtains were drawn tight, shut to the world. Ben didn’t follow her gaze. He didn’t understand. “Sure,” she agreed after a moment. “I got him.”