With a sudden click, the light went out. A comfortable darkness fell over the room in a hush. Her eyes flexed and vision expanded as she tracked his cautious footsteps from the lamp to his mattress. By the edge of the bed he stood, gazing out through the open patio doors, staring over the silhouetted jungle treetops at the rising, pale Moon. Gentle, he called her name to the night and waited. After an unanswered fourth attempt, he crawled under his thin sheet, and wrapped it around his shoulders. From under the couch she watched, ignoring his pleas.
For three nights this pattern had played. He had been gone. She had been worried. The joy at his return had come with caution. What if he left again? She wasn't ready to open herself up to an inevitable hurt again. She wasn't ready to come to his call.
In the daylight, she'd tested the mirage. Glancing against his calves. Visiting close enough for a scratch behind the ears before darting away. Faying an imaginative hunt, only to hide and observe him from behind the branches of the canopy.
She needed her safety to be certain and until he'd proven he was here to stay, she'd stay hidden. Close, but out of grasp.
The new inconsistency of his behaviour had threatened their bond. What if he hadn't come back? She'd only just found safety in the last year spent with him. Until all of a sudden, their routine had broken. She needed a return to her autonomy, to her power. But she felt powerless when he still held her heart.
Hour's spent pacing, searching, watching for his return. The startling stranger had come and gone without him, calling her name in annoyance, leaving meals at the wrong times. Outside of those few fleeting minutes she had had no company save herself, and his ghosts.
Eyes illuminated, she'd kept watch through the nights. Fueled by anxiety. Days had melted to aeons, and apart from the occasional nap in a sun ray she hadn't slept a wink in the eternity of his absence. Waiting patient through the endless nights. Her green gaze hanging like lanterns in the dark, beacons she’d set help him find his way home.
She had been worried.
She had been sad.
Now that he had returned she felt angry.
Scorned, unloved and hurt.
Her nose wiggled. She could smell his sleep coming, the scent of his dreams, sweet as the jungle's night blossoms. The palms fluttered as a breeze weaved through the branches, the forest had come alive. Critters, and creatures stirred, as a nocturnal choir of birds sang their lullabies to the stars. In the calm she let her ears fold, and extended her claws for cleaning.
A family of neighbouring howlers screamed amongst themselves, as the monkeys crashed from treetop to treetop. Her ears shot up in alert at their shocking, sudden volume, and he stirred, the sleeping spell broken.
He looked to the night and yawned. His extended, sleepy breath carried a comfortable, drowsy contagion. Against her good sense, her guard, she found herself involuntarily mirroring him. And he heard her.
"Pyjamas?" he called softly.
Her green eyes starred in silence, hidden in the shadows. His gaze locked to hers, he reached for his phone, and rose. To the floor he crouched and peered under the couch, using the light from his lock screen as a torch.
"There you are, have you been hiding?" his fingers laced through her fur as he scooped her to his arms. Pyjamas arms stretched, claws extended as she pantomimed hooking at the floor, feigning reluctance. He answered with an affectionate kiss to her brow, and returned her to her place beside his pillows.
In the dark he whispered his affections and apologies as he stroked her ears. Pyjamas walls crashed. Against her resolve, lost in serene reassurance, she purred her answers. He had returned. Despite her fear's instance, their love had never left.
Thanks for reading!
-Mr. Write