Snippet #1839966

Mikuo woke up in pain. Same as normal then. Just a normal day, for a person who was anything but normal. He sat up, his muscles complaining, the dark purple of fresh bruises already formed on his skin. Just another day. Reluctantly, he got out of bed, being as quiet as possible. He didn't want to wake his uncle. Then again, considering how drunk the older man had been the previous night, it was unlikely that would happen. Still, he couldn't risk it. He couldn't afford to take another day off school. He couldn't afford any more questions from the school about his physical condition. The bruises were hard enough to hide, he didn't want to have to explain the scars as well. That would just make things worse. Much worse.

Good thing my normal school clothes have long sleeves... he thought sadly as he got dressed, his body protesting as the fabric rubbed on his bruises and half-healed cuts. He held back a whimper, biting his bottom lip so hard that it drew blood. Not enough to be noticed much though, which was the main thing. As long as no one noticed...

He snuck out of the house, quietly closing the door behind him. He hadn't had breakfast, he couldn't risk stealing anything from the fridge. His uncle would notice, and then he'd be in for it when he got home. And then there was definatly no chance he'd get anything to eat for a while. He'd learned to cope with that though. He'd had to. He was the Cat, he'd had no choice but to endure this. Like the rest of the Sohma family, he was cursed, but he was more so than even them. An extra curse, in a way. As if he didn't have it bad enough.
Shut up. That's selfish. The cat deserves it. So that means, I deserve it. he thought, repeating in his mind what he'd been told so often before, by various family members.

The cat is worthless.

The cat is evil.

The cat should die.

That was what he was always told anyway, so much so that he just believed it now. It was just a matter of time.

Moving stiffly, his body sore, he trudged towards the school, bag slung over his shoulder. A small cat, sensing Mikuo's emotions came over and rubbed itself against his leg, and he crouched down to stroke it properly.
He liked cats, he could talk to them better than he could humans, he could tell them anything.
"Hi there. Come to cheer me up, huh?", he asked, his voice quiet and sad, while stroking the cat's ears. The cat, a gray female tabby, lifted her head into his palm, to indicate where to pet. Mikuo obliged, earning a satisfied purr from the tabby. "At least I've made one person feel better.", he said, a tiny smile appearing on his face.