Nao saw Smelly go, and waited for a while.

When she had turned around the corner, Ryan was still standing in the doorway looking dejected.

Nao was just happy the vixen left, and meowed happily as he ran towards Ryan. That didn't go as well as he had hoped. The door slammed shut in his face.

Ow, that hurt. I probably deserved that. Nao thought to himself, as he licked his paw and rubbed it against his forehead.

He jumped up the windowsill trying to get a view of what Ryan was doing inside, but without any luck.

I should apologise to him, Nao thought.

Maybe I should give him a gift to make up...

Ryan brought Smelly food. I’ll bring him food too! He likes chicken as much as I do, so I’ll go and get him a chicken!

And Nao ran off.

It wasn’t hard to find a chicken. The petting zoo had chickens. So Nao only had to pick one, kill it, and drag it to Ryan.

What a horrible idea, Nao thought to himself. If I survive the fight with the chicken, how the hell will I get it out of the petting zoo? I can’t climb the fence with a chicken in my mouth!

But he needed the chicken, so it was time for some heroics.

Nao ran back to the blossoming tree, climbed it and changed. He put his clothes and shoes back on, climbed out of the tree and ran towards the petting zoo.

He smelled the hoodie. It still smelled of Ryan. He pressed the hood against his face trying to get as much of the smell in his nose as he could. His heart made a little jump in his chest. There were all these weird flutterings in his stomach as well. Was that because he was hungry?

Stopping for a moment, he closed his eyes and thought about how Ryan would react to getting the chicken. He imagined that he would pick him up, and hug him and kiss him and…

Nao imagined himself changing and kissing Ryan in his current shape. Their lips would touch, it’s be soft and warm and then he would sneakily lick Ryan’s bottom lip. And then he’d…

Nao felt himself getting a little bit too excited, and snapped back to reality.

“Idiot!” he scolded himself out loud. “Now go get that chicken!”

***

Nao sneaked up to the petting zoo. He had to wait a bit until there weren’t any people left to see him steal the chicken.

He sat down on a bench and watched the petting-zoo from afar, pondering which chicken to pick. He could wait for hours; Ryan was at work anyway.

Nao had been sitting there snoozing for quite some time, when he finally saw his moment. The petting zoo was empty. The street was empty. This was go-time.

Nao ran up to the petting zoo, jumped over the fence, picked up the fat brown chicken he picked out, put it under his arm and jumped the fence again.

The chicken started making a lot of noise and Nao saw people coming up ahead, so he quickly snapped the chicken’s neck, and put it under his hoodie. He strolled up the street as if nothing had happened and smiled. Winner winner chicken dinner, he thought to himself.

***

As he got back to the house, he checked the cat flap.

It was back open. Thank goodness.

He stuffed the chicken though the cat flap and changed. He crawled out of the sweater and through the cat-flap. Ha, he was back inside with his chicken.

Now he had to check if he was really alone. He did a short check of the apartment. When he confirmed that he was indeed alone, he changed back into his original shape and dragged his clothes and shoes inside.

Time to prepare the present. He figured he’d put it on the table. That’s where food should be. He lay the chicken out nicely, but something didn’t seem quite right.

Oh yes. The chicken had died by breaking his neck. That’s something a cat couldn’t do, so he had to fix that.

He changed back into cat form and bit the chicken in the neck repeatedly. He shook it around in his jaws violently until the chicken’s neck looked totally ravaged.

Good. Nao thought to himself. Ryan will be proud and pleased. And then he’ll stroke my fut, and cuddle me and kiss…

“Stop it!” Nao screamed at himself.

This wasn’t ok.

He could not think about Ryan like that. For fuck’s sakes he was his guardian. And his cat. And Ryan was a human. Who liked women. Or at least he that liked that stupid Smelly.

Disgusting filthy Smelly. Its her fault. All of it. With her stupid tits and her squeeky voice. Ryan was MINE! You took him from me, you made him throw me outside, you BITCH!

Nao sighed.

He knew it wasn’t completely Smelly’s fault. Blaming her just felt really good. Blame her so that he didn’t have to face the ridiculous fact that he’d fallen completely head over heels in love with a human being.

He didn’t even know when that had happened. Nao just realised it now, but maybe he’d been in love with Ryan for a long time already.

Of one thing he was sure. He had to do something. He couldn’t just sit by playing the cat whilst Ryan was having a relationship with this woman.... what if she moved in?

He felt that his heart would literally break into pieces, if he had to bear witness to them being happy together every day.

No, he’d have to go and get Ryan for himself...