Nao leaned against a tree, watching the basketball game. Ryan was getting his ass kicked by Jake again.

Nao smiled. He loved watching Ryan play. Ryan’s face changed from super focussed to smiling and joking throughout the game. And when he jumped, you could see all his muscles tense and relax again.

Nao lifted his water bottle in a lonesome toast, and mumbled to himself: “here’s looking at you kid…” Then took a sip.

He stood there against the tree for some time, just watching over Ryan. When suddenly, he noticed a man he hadn’t seen before. The man was wearing a suit, and looking at the basketball court whilst talking on the phone. The wind was not right and Nao’s ears were covered by the hoodie, so he couldn’t hear what the man was saying.

He watched quietly. As the man hung up the phone, he started taking pictures. Nao tensed up. Was this the moment? Was this man looking for Ryan?

Nah he was probably going crazy. A guy in a suit taking pictures of guys playing basketball could also be there for the basketball. Maybe he was a scout. He could be taking pictures of Jake, of course. Jake was surely NBA material, right?

Nao decided to relax, and go with that story in his head. But he’d keep a lookout just to be sure.

When Ryan went back inside for his lessons, Nao left and went to get something to eat. He was hungry and he didn’t have any money, so his choices were limited. He could either go home and steal something from the fridge, or eat his horrible catfood, or he could go and beg for or steal some food somewhere else. He didn’t want to steal from Ryan, nor eat the damn kibble again, so he went to the market instead.

He sought out his target: a busy fish stall that smelled delicious. He walked into the nearest ally, got behind a dumpster, took his clothes off, and changed. Nao came out of the ally, wearing his cutest begging face and walked up to the fish stall.

“Meow”. He said to the fishmonger, expertly big-eyed and adorable.

The fishmonger did not react in the way Nao would have liked. 

No. Totally unprompted, the asshole hit his perfectly cute cat-self in the side with a stick. Nao flew a couple of meters and hit the ground. He didn’t even land on his legs as he should have, instead sliding over the cobblestones for a few feet before regaining his footing. 

“Auch” Nao mumbled under his breath.

Now he was hungry AND pissed-off. He decided to go on the offensive. Nao sneaked up to the stall and hid underneath. He positioned himself within jumping range of the best smelling fish: a huge turbot.

Now he needed to distract that major cunt of a fishmonger. Nao waited for some time until someone called the guy by his name: Eddy.

Good. Time for action.

“Hey Eddy, your mother is a whore!” Nao yelled.

The fishmonger called Eddy immediately turned around and walked behind the stall. Nao jumped up, picked up the fish with his teeth and ran.

Zigzagging through the market, he ended up back at the ally. Safe there for at least a second, he changed again, put his clothes back on, and walked out with the turbot in his hands.

Nao was happy. He walked home with a skip in his step and went inside to prepare the fish. He could eat it raw, and he would sometimes, but he actually preferred his food cooked.

Nao thought he was a pretty good cook, and made the turbot into a delicious meal. After he had eaten, he carefully cleaned up, making sure everything was exactly as Ryan had left it in the morning, and left the house yet again.

When he opened the door, there was a black car in front of the house. Behind the wheel sat a guy. The guy from the basketball court. He took a picture with his phone.

Nao froze up. OHSHITOHSHITOHSHIT! He thought, as he immediately jumped back inside and closed the door. Basketball scout my ass, shit is on! I’ve gotta save Ryan! Nao walked circles in the living room thinking about what to do. Then he realised someone had just taken a picture of him coming out of Ryan’s house.

OK. So the guy will think I live here too, that I’m Ryan’s roommate. So I’ll just pretend to be a pissed off human being, and chase the guy away. Yes, I’ll do that...

Nao gathered all of his courage and a baseball bat, and went out of the house. As he stood there with the bat, he realised the car was gone, and felt like an idiot for taking such a long time to act.

He decided that this was the time to warn the higher-ups about this.