Cat vs Ocean part 6

[krystalkatzfics]

“The ships is so big!” Nino exclaimed after they had wandered through multiple corridors to find the main section of the ship. Sho had to agree. The princess was a huge ship and it was easy to see why people enjoyed cruising on her. Opulence and indulgence seemed to be built into the ship and while the ocean was calm it was easy to forget you were on a ship at all, you could easily be in a hotel or a resort somewhere. There weren’t that many people either, which wasn’t surprising given the price of even a weeks cruise aboard the ship, but those that they did met were friendly and relaxed, mostly elderly retired people that had the money to pack up their lives and take to the seas.

Many of them were viewers of his and almost all were very keen to tell him that they had signed to the anti-CAT-slavery movement and even showed their pin badges. It was a complete change to the those that he met on shore who wanted to argue that CATs were different from humans and dangerous, even trying to provoke Nino into acting in the way they wanted. They never got what they wanted. Nino wasn’t physical, but he had a nasty tongue when he wanted to and he mostly responded with that though he once had to defend himself when somebody had grabbed him by his tail and pulled him backwards.

Nino had hissed and spit scratching the man across the face who had tried to sue Sho for damages. He hadn’t been successful. Not because the judge thought that Nino was within his rights but because Nino was property and somebody had tried to damage him by pulling on his tail which was a lot more sensitive than even Sho had known. The expert brought in by his lawyer had gone into great detail how the average house cat could lose all function over his bowels if something happened to their tail and it was the same for CATs.

None of that happened on the ship, at least not yet, and Nino was probably the most relaxed that Sho had ever seen him. The CAT, now that he had calmed down from his panic and sea sickness was running around like a kitten poking his nose into everything. It was amusing and Sho was glad that he hadn’t called it off. He hadn’t been able to stop himself from snapping as many pictures as he could of Nino, sometimes with Nino’s permission, but most were candid shots of the CAT doing something cute like peering into a porthole with his ears crushed up against the glass.

“It is, we don’t have to explore it all in one night” Sho reminded him gently as Nino was trying to get him to go to an ice rink that was still open to the public until nine. He had once been forced into ice skating by his station and he refused to suffer the indignity of falling flat on his face with Nino watching. The CAT would love it, of that he had no doubt, Nino had a natural grace and elegance which was accompanied by almost perfect balance and Sho knew that he wouldn’t fall but Sho didn’t have that and he knew that he would be flat on his face in five minutes or less.
“Come on...”

“Eeeh! But I wanted to go to the ice skating! Satomi say’s its fun!”

“Nino, we’re here for two months we can go ice skating another day” Sho muttered hoping the CAT would forget his promise later when he was distracted by something else. Nino pouted for a moment but then his stomach rumbled and he gave a grin.

“Fine, another day...Food...”

“Yup, I was about to suggest that...”

“Yeah, but you are always hungry, Sho, and I was worried that if I eat I will be sick again” Nino hummed looking worried but Sho reached up and stroked the patch attached to his ear.

“It will be fine, I have some of those pills on me again, so if you start to feel ill, which you won’t, I will give you one, okay?”

“Okay, Sho...” Nino agreed before heading over to a large board that showed pictures of the different levels of the ship and where everything was. Nino’s eyes moved quickly over it before nodding with satisfaction and grabbing hold of Sho’s hand and dragging him away from the ice rink. Sho didn’t know where they were going but they did take three flights of stairs before reaching the level that their room was on.

“Nino where are we going?”

“For food! The place over here serves burgers!” Nino grinned happily his eyes almost shining as he made that statement. Sho chuckled knowing that he should have known that would be where Nino went for dinner. They didn’t eat out much since the CAT didn’t like other people around his food but whenever they did it was always somewhere that served burgers. It didn’t matter if they had buns or were served on a plate with gravy the CAT had an obsession with them.

“I should have known. You and your obsession”

“I like burgers! The creator would buy them for his son! He would share them with me sometimes. I really like the burgers”

“And the creator’s son, he’s also the one that let you play on games right? Would you like to see him again?” Sho asked finding it odd that Nino never asked for that. The CAT shrugged a little and then mumbled;

“Maybe...One day...But in the future...”

“Why in the future why not now?”

“Cause he died...About a year ago. He had something wrong with his cells...I think the creator said it was cancer. He had it since he was born, ne? The creator was trying to find a cure...It was how he ended up creating CATs...” Nino mumbled in the flat voice he used when Sho was getting him to talk about something he didn’t want to. He didn’t hear it very often but when he did he knew that he had pushed Nino too far but he couldn’t help hum;

“I’ve...I’ve never heard that...”

“The creator doesn’t want people to know. ‘It’s nobody else’s business’ I only know cause the creator’s son told me...Burgers!” Nino shouted just when it sounded as though he was going to cry and he grabbed Sho’s hand dragging him forward into the restaurant in front of them.

TBC

A/N: This took a sadder turn than I meant it too but I had to figure out why the CATs were made...>.<

Comments

[reveetoile]

Makes sense also makes sense why the creator doesn't really like CATs they were his failure when he tried to rescue his son

[yumi_usagi]

Nino is so cute! Love the part “the CAT doing something cute like peering into a porthole with his ears crushed up against the glass”. I can totally imagine that!
Don’t worry about the sad story, it made the fic more interesting.