Delinquent Student and his Pet Teacher

“Urgh…” 

In the almost empty teachers lounge the cat’s leg twitches and bounces nervously. It’s been a decade since he’s felt like this. His clothes feel tight, too tight. The eyes landing on him, watching him as if they can see right through him. Days have passed now and whenever he feels the wolf’s eyes on his neck they start these old familiar feelings right back up. Luckily for Puss he hadn’t done anything since then, but just his stare, his knowing stare with a smile that felt like he made fun of him every time he saw him was already enough.

Puss couldn’t relax at all, he had been stealthy about all of these secrets for most of his life now and he’d like to keep it that way, but he didn’t know if Muerte would just slip all of this to his ‘friends’ or not. He didn’t know anything about him after all.

A few of his students noticed that Puss had been way calmer and quieter these past days, especially a certain white cat. He knew she’d been very caring for him for a while, even before all this happened. This particular day she came up to him in the hallway between classes, she just wanted to make sure if he was alright.

Puss smiled softly at her very cute and nervous attempts to ask if he was feeling alright, that question in itself already made him feel much better. “Am I that enchanting that I have been on your mind, mujer joven?” He threw her a wink and she looked away flustered. It wasn’t an unusual thing for puss to do, they all knew him as overtly flirty even if it was never directly towards a single student. A sudden shudder made him snap out of his lax posture.

“Flirting with students I see…” The white wolf walked up behind him and while Puss pushed his anxiety down the girl in front of him seemed even more flustered, she didn’t see anything intimidating in his actions of course, why would she?

“Tss, tss, tss.” He leans down past Puss and talks directly to the white cat with a grin. “Did you tell him already?” She gasps and hides her face behind her paw while pushing the wolf’s snout away with the other. “That’s-! That’s not what it is, you idiot!” 

Muerte laughs with her but she seemed too embarrassed to stay so they both watch her leave. Dread set in while Puss watched her leave, oh how much he’d give for her to have kept talking with him. 

The wolf hadn’t leaned back at all but Puss could still feel himself grow annoyed at how well this mutt was able to act in school. Act as if he was one of them, what a liar. He could still feel his bloodlust underneath that slimy smile of his. “Using your students to make you feel better, are we?” He almost breathed into his ear and now Puss was the one to push him away. “What are you blabbering on about, that wasn’t what that was about.” Well, Muerte wasn’t exactly wrong about this. Of course Puss would use the interactions with his students to make him feel a bit better now after what happened, but the wolf’s implications just didn’t sit right with him.

Feeling like he only wanted to verbally push him into a corner, Puss was ready to retaliate and took a deep breath as he turned to him. 

Just as he opened his mouth Muerte didn’t waste another second of them being alone in the hallway. “Tonight after sundown. Yyy lane. Don’t be late.” 

Puss couldn’t even get a slight sound out when Muerte already left. What else could it have been then just to call him over. Puss grumbles and shivers, what could he have planned for him now? He knew the place where he wanted him to be and hoped that he didn’t want to meet him there alone.

Now wait a minute, His ears twitched and he kept his eyes intently on the wolf as he left. He knew where he would be this evening and he knew the area well. Puss made sure nobody else was watching him so he didn’t seem suspicious, but this, this was a chance! He breathes in, lets it sit for a second and breathes out while he takes a step into the teachers lounge.

His heart started to race a bit as his thoughts played more and more with the idea to run away. If he had a chance to get away from his watchful eyes it’d be when he knew exactly that he wasn’t watching him. Then a wave of guilt crashed into those thoughts as he saw these teachers in the office. He thought about the white cat girl he’d been talking to just moments ago and how he knew about how these teachers used her and how he had helped her in the past. 

But his life was still on the line on all this and he couldn’t just keep on living like this. In fear, not knowing when the wolf planned his next terrible move, not knowing if he’d finally take his life or not.

He sighed onto his desk as he thought about Kitty…

She’d been with him through his past lives, starting a new one now once more without her would be… difficult to say the least, even if she wasn’t exactly in his life at the moment. He mulls it over again and again until the day ends not having a single clue of what he would do. 

—

The sun was setting and Puss had found himself on another rooftop, this time on top of a multistory building with a door leading to the roof. Sitting between the space of a ventilation unit and the ridge off the roof he clenched his paw. Next to him down on the road a few people scurried around, it was a wider alley with a collection of big containers leading up to a dark cloaked figure sitting on top of them.

What was he doing here, this was the worst idea he’s had yet, but he had to make sure that Muerte was where he said he was going to be. 

Surely he couldn’t possibly expect him to just join him down there with all his goons right around him.

Nervously he sat there, checking from time to time that Muerte was still down there and that nobody had found him yet. After some time had passed he was sure nobody knew he was there, since they didn’t come to get him either nor did the wolf seem concerned to send someone after him.

A sharp warning whistle shot through the air from down the street.

Puss’s eyes shot open and his claws dug into the wall next to him, he felt his fur once again stand straight up as he froze in place. Commotion started down the street in the opposite direction of him. He looked down and nobody was coming his way. Now. Now, now, now, now. He grabbed his stuff and bolted.

He was sure Muerte didn’t notice him, nor where he was. He ran from the place as quickly as he could, climbing from rooftop to rooftop until he reached the street below.

His legs carrying him as fast as they could, he hadn't noticed that he was running towards Kitties place. 

When he noticed where he was going it was already too late, the building was right in front of him. His eyes immediately landed on the light in her window, she was here.

He could even see her shadow moving in the window, she was here and safe! A wave of relief washed over him, but what was he doing here, he couldn’t possibly ask her for help!

Yet his legs carried him there anyway. He stumbled to the doorbell and rang it frantically, the door chimed open and his legs were exhausted but they could still carry him up the stairs. Reaching the floor she was on he started to stumble, his breath heavy, he could feel his legs wanting to give in and he threw his hat to the side.

What was he doing here?

As a door clicked open, in his mind he could swear he heard a whistle

What was he doing here?!

Looking to the floor he cursed at himself, this wouldn’t end well, his thoughts filled with the idea of Muerte following him to her place and using this opportunity for his own good. 

What was he doing here?!

“Puss?” His legs gave in when he heard her voice, it calmed him so immensely to even know she was safe and here. “Puss, what the hell are you doing here?” She hissed at him, but he wasn’t able to look at her at all, too ashamed that she could even see him like this. He knew she would just scoff at him again. For a moment he felt his body too weak and exhausted to keep himself up, he blinked, being sure that he would hit the ground, but when he opened his eyes he felt her paws catching him before he did. She kneeled down to him, grabbing his head. She wanted to see his face and yet he still couldn’t manage to look at her. “What is going on with you, Puss?” His paws immediately held onto her before he knew it, his mind begging to tell her how he’s on the edge, how he couldn’t take it anymore, that he needed someone, how he couldn’t be alone anymore, something, anything, yet his voice got caught in his throat “I- I can’t…”

“Can’t tell me, huh.” The disappointment in her voice felt like a knife through his heart, that wasn’t what he wanted to say, not at all, but she wasn’t wrong.

She let go of him as if she wanted to throw him against the wall, for a moment he was left there on his knees and alone after she stood up and picked up his hat.

They couldn’t look at each other and the hallway was painfully quiet. Kitty kept holding onto his hat, walking back towards her door and waved it towards the inside.

“Go on… come in.”

— 

He lays down on the couch, his 4 paws drooping off the edge, he was deadbeat exhausted and it showed. Kitty just silently watched him as she made him tea. Last time she surely enjoyed the view of him being so miserable, but this was different. He came to her for help, or at least for something like that, she wasn’t sure yet. It was a surprising thing for him to do, so unlike him she was unsure why he would do this. “So… are you going to stay this stupidly stubborn or are you going to open your mouth now?” His face barely twitched even when the tea cup clanked on the small plate. Slowly his movement started back up as he mumbled some words, they got clearer with every syllable. “I’m… Kitty, I’m sorry.” It looked like it took all of his strength to get himself up from the couch as he tried to look Kitty in the eyes. “I shouldn’t have… I never should have done that…” She could tell the weight he put behind those words, he meant all of it. “I know I shouldn’t have set you up like that, I didn’t… I didn’t know it would turn out like this and I’m… ashamed that I even had the thought that it would be fine! I…” His struggling really got to her. She paced towards him and put her hand on his shoulder, the tea cup got set on the table in front of Puss. “I’m glad you finally see it that way, Puss… but… to be honest with you, I did plan on ratting you out… just before you did that…” Puss doesn’t quite have the energy to snap his head towards her, his paw in his face he groggily looks up. “W- what?! What do you mean?”She pulled back and sat down on her stool next to the sofa, resting her elbow on the sofa’s siderest. “Well… I already knew I couldn’t trust you with that, I had my hunch, you know. You just managed to beat me to it, as everyone always does, it seems.” 

She seemed lax, but her words stung in his heart. “I.. really deserve this don’t I…” He chuckles sadly, feeling the need to cry swell up.

“I… don’t know what you’re going through, but yeah… you do deserve me treating you like this.”

His face fell back down on the sofa, this time he buried himself into it. He couldn’t believe it, all his stupid actions catching back up to him. She watched him struggle once again, a small smirk appeared on her cheeks and yet she couldn’t bear to watch him like this any longer. Her paw landed on his head and went down to his shoulder. Feeling him twitch under her paw in surprise she continued as his head rose up. “And now that it seems you’ve learned your lesson I might lighten up a bit on you.” She shrugs, being unsure of it herself. With her paw still on his shoulder he looked into her eyes, knowing how paranoid she was, knowing that he did something unforgivable to her and when he saw her smile, he snapped. Tears swelled up, he didn’t believe that Kitty would actually consider letting him into her life again like this and just like that he broke and immediately started to ugly sob into her couch. Totally unexpected for Kitty, she flinched back. She expected him to lean into her, try to kiss her, or be any kind of flirty, but not this! “Puss…!? W-what happened to you?” Did he feel that guilty about what he did? Kitty was sure that even if he had felt incredibly terrible about this, he wouldn’t just break down over her like this? Her arms wrapped around him tightly after she instinctively walked over to him, he stopped for a second to realise what was happening, even this was too much, she even hugged him?

“I don’t deserve you…” He cried into her. She sighed and continued to pet his head. She very visibly disliked the touchy feely-ness of this situation, but made a very strong exception for him. Why, she sighed, oh why was she always doing this for him. Deep down she knew. “No… no, you do.” She grabbed his face to look him in the eyes. “You do deserve someone to slap you when you’re doing something stupid.” The smallest laugh lifted the situation, lessening the tension in both of them. The sudden tenderness made Kitty remember their past, the tough and the fun, how they stuck together in their hardest of transitions in life. It has been rough, but they’ve always found back to each other again.

The moment grew ever so sweet when Puss’s tears slowly dried and Kitty lingered with her eyes on him, in return he removed her paws from his face quickly and turned away. “Thank you, Kitty.” Him rejecting her advances made her suspicions tingle again, “Truly from the bottom of my heart.” He couldn’t take her tender touches, not right now, he couldn’t even take the way she was looking at him at that moment. Images in his mind of someone staring at him flashed up and made him tense up with the thought of someone having interest in him again. Every ounce in his body yelled at him to tell her what happened and yet he couldn’t bear to speak a word about it. He takes a deep breath to look back into her confused face.

“I’ve been discovering something… about myself and I don’t think this would be such a good thing to do.” At first she was confused, but by the way he looked at her, she had seen this expression once before. As if he found something that had been a mistake, too afraid to tell her, thinking he was too broken to be accepted. Her eyes widened as she realised when she last saw this. “Oh!.... Oh….” She nodded as if she knew, “You think you might be… you’re… are you?” as she gestured Puss interrupted her already. “I don’t want to think too much about it, something just ha–” His words got cut off by a sudden knock on the door.

There was no chime of the bell, nothing to indicate that someone would be coming to the door. The knock seemed suspicious, too suspicious.