Vanille's Story

"Uendo, you coming or not? And if you are, make sure you're not in your normal form!" A little annoyed she had to be the one giving Uendo a place to stay on Earth since she'd already had living arrangements, Vanille wanted to introduce her new partner as a pet cat instead of a human. It was odd enough that anything would have joined Vanille in her home; at least people would believe that she'd gotten a pet, rather than replaced her girlfriend—with a boy of all things, too. Leaving her humble apartment complex the girl muttered to herself, "Probably still has those books against his face."

Sometimes that was literal, both awake and asleep. It's like he never wants to stop reading, even if it's the crappiest of human literature. However, she'd have to deal with it later. Working at the nearby Baskin-Robbins had its advantages to her. She had no issues walking to work and opening the little ice cream shop about 5 AM (especially since none of her former classmates woke up early enough to stalk her), the employees were friendly, the pay was nice, and—best of all—free ice cream! The last fact alone made her smile before the crack of dawn each day.

Uendo looked up from his book casting a glare at Vanille. He didn't like to be interrupted while he read and now was no exception. She wanted to take him to her job so she could show him to the rest of the team. The idea in itself wasn't very appealing but to add to that she wanted him to go as a cat. He had no problem being a cat at the best of times but that was when it made sense to be a cat. He had no intention of using his abilities so he could spare her reputation. His gaze left her and he turned back down to the book he was reading. It was a writing style humans the humans called anime and it had been reasonably interesting when he started. He soon became frustrated as the main protagonists in the story the story were nekos. He could have lived with that but they weren't just nekos though they were stupid nekos. The stupidity was annoying enough but he refused to have his species made a joke all because some neko was stupid enough to reveal himself to a human.

With a sigh he threw the book down beside (maybe a little too forcibly out of frustration) and got up stretching himself out. His tail took the most stretching because of hours on end sitting on it. The chairs on Katze were all engineered so that your tail could rest comfortably but human didn't have that problem. It was just compromise that he had to make to live on earth. He was aware that Vanille was already out the door and he quickly finished stretching. "Insulting." he muttered before shifting into his cat form. By insulting he meant both the anime he had just ceased reading and the ruse he was being forced to play in. Looking out the door he saw that Vanille was already some ways ahead. He put on speed until he could walk almost leisurely beside her. Her stride was much longer than his feline legs so he had to keep to a trot just to keep up.

"You make an adorable pet, Uendo; and it's not like you can't read while you're in that state; not to mention you'll learn more from different perspectives." She knew Uendo was practically addicted to learning new things, so this made a good deal. "Why would you hate it?" She didn't think any cat could hate being petted, either. All of the ones she'd met on this planet loved her. Near the end of her almost one-sided conversation, Vanille had made it to the shop, unlocking the front door and making her way to the back room to change into her Baskin-Robbins employee T-shirt and visor.

"Nothing broken overnight, that's good." Though anyone who'd break in and steal from an ice cream parlor is, though they have good taste in stolen confectioneries, an idiot. (Of course, Vanille didn't think they'd steal the money in the register. Gallons of ice cream just made more sense.) Checking around the lockers before she had to return to the front of the building, she was looking for something to keep her "pet" busy.

"I'm sure Dennis always left one of his textbooks here...." It was usually from his Economics or Business Ethics classes, though he brought in the textbook he had for his minor in Psychology a few times; that was the one Vanille found this morning, and hopefully it's the one that'll distract Uendo so he isn't bothered by being in his current form for a while. Dennis tried to use Vanille for one of his class projects, but she was too simplistic mentally to be of any help; and remembering her child-like replies to his complex questions made her giggle.

"Ui~," she started as she went back to the dining area of the Baskin-Robbins (calling out an on-the-spot nickname on top of it), "I got you something you might like."

Uendo was panting by the time they reached the Baskin-Robbins. He padded weakly over to one of the chairs at a table and collapsed under it. Spending most of your time reading didn't put you in very good shape. He tried to ignore the old pieces of gum stuck to the bottom of the seat and relax as much as possible. He knew he would have to move when the customers came in so he planned to rest himself up until then. What Vanille had said to him had situated itself as the prime subject of his thoughts. She was right that he could still read in this state though that didn't really matter if all he had to read were the shop's menus. What she had said about learning from different perspectives was something that (despite all of his knowledge) he had never thought of. There were of course things that he could get into as a cat that he wouldn't learn normally. He fell asleep thinking of all the possibilities that had just been opened up for him.
He was awakened by the thud of a book in front of him. He jumped up bumping his head against the seat and looked for where the noise came from. Vanille had dropped a large textbook in front of him and seemed to get a kick out of his reaction. He glared at him as he walked forward to investigate the book. Psycology he read though no joy followed. He already knew a lot about psychology from doctor's journals on Katze when he was trying to understand the ways of ignorant people (his father in particular) but it would do him no harm to learn a humans take on the subject. Smoothing down his fur he hooked a claw under the cover of the book and began to flip through the pages until something interesting caught his eye. When nothing did he turned back to the beginning with a sigh and read from there. He tried to ignore the pointless doodles and annotations scattered along the pages borders and locked himself on the information. Though this was a college level book he was hardly satisfied with depth it went into. Nonetheless he soaked in the information it did give with unwavering focus.
After about thirty minutes he felt the book yanked away from under his paws. He glared up at the employee wearing a dorky name tag saying "Hello my name is Dennis". He kicked at Uendo and Uendo jumped back with a hiss."Stupid cat." Dennis muttered as he walked away. Normally Uendo would have attacked ferociously at the note of being called stupid but right now he couldn't do it without unnecessary consequences. Instead he glared at Dennis until he went out of sight in the back room wondering why someone like that would even consider a great topic like psychology. He would plan for revenge later but for now his attention was drawn to the first customer who had come through the door. Rather early he thought since he already knew the store hours by heart. She was a few minutes before opening but Uendo padded to her to work his feline charm.

"Dennis, don't call my cat stupid. Don't kick him either."

"Oh, he's your pet? Sorry, Vanille; he was trying to read my book. Cats. Can't. Read. English." She almost clawed his eye out herself for that while he was waving the book around. Uendo was sure as hell smarter than Dennis was, and five years younger to boot.

The doorbell rang when a lady—about 30 by the looks of her—walked in, only for her to be met by the white-furred cat now at her feet.

"What a cute kitty," she said, undoubtedly happy to see Baskin-Robbins' new resident. The woman's little daughter, probably no older than six, ran up to Vanille and asked her if she could play with Uendo.

"Just make sure you be nice. He doesn't like when someone plays rough with him." The little girl happily walked over to Uendo, kneeling down and stroking his back with the end of her nails. It was obvious she must have had a cat at home. Meanwhile, her mother walked up to the counter and ordered two cones, one chocolate and one cotton candy.

"I'm sorry for coming in so early; she woke up at 4 this morning and this was the only way she'd calm down for her first day of school." While Vanille took care of getting the ice cream and assured the woman the timing was alright, Dennis rang up her order.

"Dominique, come say thank you to the nice lady." The girl stopped petting Uendo after her mother had taken the ice cream, running up to Vanille and giving her a thanks before saying goodbye to Uendo and leaving. She didn't thank Dennis; he had a disheartening scowl on his face—glaring at the cat that caused it, too—because there were a few claw marks on the inside cover of his book, just at the edges. He must not have noticed the paw prints on the pages yet.

Now this, Vanille thought, is a good way to start the day. She couldn't help but smile a little wider than usual.

Uendo nodded his thanks to Vanille for coming to his defense before he settled under the chair. Though he was thankful he was also angry that he couldn't come to his own defense because of the ruse he was forced to play. Language and communication was the prime marking of any intelligent species and now it was cut from him. It made him feel much stupider for that reason alone. Logically he was still as smart as ever but without a way to communicate it didn't really matter.

the arrival of the customer was able to distract him from his pity as he walked towards her. She looked about in her early thirties and he was sure he could sap some information from her before she left. By the time he noticed the child beside her it was too late to hide. He looked up weakly to Vanille as the girl asked if she could pet him. He wasn't a fan of lying but he hoped that she would at least come up with a partial truth as to why the girl couldn't pet him. Hasn't been himself lately or something like that. As he expected Vanille was too nice to deprive the girl of him and the girl knelt down to pet him. Thankfully she did so with experienced hands so it wasn't too uncomfortable in fact he felt a part of his enjoying her touch. Meanwhile the more logical side was in a frenzy thinking of the many consequences this could have. For example he had no idea where this girl had been before entering the shop. It was a good question so he set himself at what he did best and searched for an answer. It wasn't anything that could ever benefit him later but he had nothing better to do at the time. The scent on her hands was disguised by a cinnamon scented soap she had used earlier so he looked for other means. She was wearing a backpack so he felt it would be right to assume she was going to school only to be confirmed by her mother's next comment. Why she thought all of the sugar in ice cream would succeed in calming someone he let remain a mystery to him. Probably more placebo effect than anything else he figured setting back to the search. Right when the answer was on the tip of his tongue the girl said her goodbyes and left with her mother. Uendo was sad to see her go only because he was sure he could have sapped more information from her.

With a sigh he secluded himself to the corner and watched as more customers entered the restaurant. Every now and then he would approach a customer if they looked interesting enough but he was never truly satisfied with the information he got. Either they didn't stay long enough or they were just too boring for him taste. Anyone who was truly interesting in any way fit into the first category and left too quickly for him to break into anything that might have been remotely interesting about them. This problem was averted when he saw a women in her early thirties come through the door. She was dressed in a business suit so that almost inured she would be interesting and she carried a lab top so she probably planned to eat while she worked at it. Everything he could see was interesting about her so he walked to her with an increased skip in his step. He was just starting with the normal cat form (arching his back and rubbing against her shins) when she convulsed in a fit of sneezing. He jumped back but not before he was splattered by the byproducts of her sneeze. He didn't delight in the slightest about being covered in her sneeze but it made him even more interested. He listened as someone asked her what was wrong avidly awaiting the answer though he wasn't satisfied when he receieved it. "No it's nothing just cat allergy." she said glaring down at Uendo at her feet. You've got to be joking he thought mood dropping at the notion.