Hey Dew! Just letting you know I'll be stopping by on Thursday to take a look around. Thank you!

Dew just stares at the email he received from Amy, feeling a ball of stress curl in his gut. Thursday? That's tomorrow. Maybe it's somewhat of a good thing they're leaving early. He absolutely cannot forget, he needs to clean his apartment and hide Spikes.

Dew sighs, staring out the window of the plane. This time Rowan let him have the window seat, though Dew isn't sure why. He's honestly kind of sad that they have to leave so soon, even though he didn't really want to come in the first place. He just wishes he could have explored the Easthem a bit more.

Dew can't help but wonder if he's going to be doing any more traveling. It would be super awesome to go visit Avia, since he has no idea how people can live in the sky. They must be really technologically advanced. Dew would also like to visit underground, because he doesn't understand why the people living there hate it so much.

Dew decides to talk to Rowan, for lack of a better thing to do.

"So, have you ever been to Avia? Or Osiphia?" Dew asks, turning to look at the Captain, who continues facing forward. His eyes do wander down to look at Dew, though.

"Yes, I had to travel with Allorn."

Ooooh, that's awesome. "What was it like?" Dew asks.

Allorn was the king before Marley. Dew isn't particularly sure of the details, but evidently the man tried to kill Marley several times, and eventually fell from the palace and died. Dew never liked him anyway, the guy hated abnormals. At least Marley genuinely cares about people.

"It was really hot in Osiphia. Avia was pretty. The people in Osiphia weren't very pleasant, but the Avian citizens were nice. They were a bit... posh, though."

Huh. That's neat. Dew finds himself wanting to visit both places. If they find the Origin, he just might be able to.

The rest of the plane ride is silent, and when they finally land there is a government vehicle waiting for them. The two make their way to it, and it drops Dew off at his apartment before driving off. When Dew enters, he finds Spikes laying on the couch. After he enters, though, she jogs up to him and greets him. Dew sits down, after putting his suitcase back in his room, and she crawls up into his lap.

Dew pets her, but she seems far more interested in checking him over. She starts by sniffing his arms, then his chest, then she moves on to his face. It's then that Dew realizes he most likely smells a lot like Captain Rowan.

After about five minutes, Spikes seems to get over it and she saunters off to go do whatever cats do in their free time. Dew sighs. The rest of Dew's day goes by uneventfully, and before he knows it he's falling asleep at his desk, drooling on a painting he'd been in the middle of, circa 5:00 in the morning.

Dew gets two hours of sleep, this is because his doorbell rings at 7:00 AM. and it surprises him, he shoots up so that he's sitting. The paper he'd been painting on last night sticks to his face—probably because he fell asleep on the wet paint—and he looks around the room in alarm.

Once he deduces that there is no immediate threat to his safety, he stretches and yawns, then glances around his bedroom. What woke him up again?

The doorbell rings yet again, and Dew realizes that Captain Rowan must be here. A glance at the time, though, reveals that that is most likely not the case, seeing as Rowan shows up to his house at 8:00 sharp.

It's then that Dew remembers.

Amy.

Oh shit.

Dew rips the piece of paper off his face and runs out of his room, sneaking up to the front door and looking through the peephole. Sure enough, Amy is standing out there in her button down and dress pants, brown hair in a perfect shiny bob. She has a clipboard in her hand.

Oh shit.

Dew backs a few feet away and manages out a weak; "Coming!" Before he sets out to find Spikes.

Dew is apparently fucking stupid, seeing as he totally forgot to set an alarm and prepare for Amy's arrival. Dew searches his apartment, tidying things up along the way, until he eventually spots Spikes sitting in his window. He grabs her, and sprints his way over to his bedroom closet. He puts the feline in there, then begins hunting around for all of her toys.

They are mostly little fishing poles with feathers and stuff in the end of the strings, and there are a few little stuffed mice. He grabs all of it and puts it in the closet with her.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," he mumbles, grabbing her litter box and doing the same thing. Then, he gets the mat that the litter box was on and shoves it in the closet as well. He also grabs her food and water dishes. Spikes will not be happy with him when this is over, that's for sure.

Dew tidies up a bit more, but when he hears a, "Dew, are you okay in there?" He finally gives it up and answers the door.

He smiles at her, though it's anything but positive. More like a nervous, adrenaline fueled fake happy.

"Hey, Amy," He greets, opening the door for the lady to step in. She does so, and inhales while glancing around his somewhat orderly living room. He isn't feeling a lot of emotions from her, mostly boredom and curiosity. This is to be expected, since she is at work.

"Hello," she greets, beginning to walk around the area. She looks over the furniture and glances around the living room, before making her way into the kitchen. Dew follows her.

"Have you had any issues? Any appliances failing?" She questions, opening his fridge and checking over anything in his kitchen. Finally, she turns to face him. He shakes his head.

"Nope. Everything's fine." Dew replies, internally praying for her to get the hell out as quickly as possible.

This isn't normally how routine inspections go. Typically, Dew remembers and prepares ahead of time, getting everything ready far before Amy arrives. She has told him before that he's one of her best tenants, seeing as he pays his rent on time and takes good care of the place and whatnot.

If she found Spikes, though, it would all be over. This place is heavily against cats—or, pets in general, and if his secret pet was found she would kick him immediately.

Amy continues looking around, checking the walls for holes and turning the faucet and the shower on in the bathroom. She's generally just making sure that the place has been kept in as good of a shape as it was when it was first rented to Dew, four years ago.

Finally, the woman enters his bedroom. Dew goes with her, and he watches as she glances around, inspects the furniture for damages, and begins making her way out.

When the two turn around to leave, though, Dew notices something.

The closet door is open.

Oh fuck.

Suddenly, Dew hears a loud, mrow, come from the other room, and he immediately fakes a massive coughing fit to try and distract from it. Amy's eyebrows pinch together in concern, and she makes her way over to him.

"Are you okay? What was that?"

"Just-Just me coughing," he says, eyes watering a bit. She nods, looking him over, then makes her way back into the living room. She's looking at the ceiling, which is why she doesn't notice Spikes sitting by the front door.

Dew is so fucked.

She turns around to face him. "Well, your place seems to be very orderly. You've done a good job taking care of it. Let me know if anything breaks and..." blah blah blah, she continues talking to him but Dew can't stop looking over her shoulder at his fucking cat.

Apparently Spikes woke up this morning and decided she was just going to ruin Dew's life, because that is exactly what's going on right now. Dew subtly snaps his fingers and points to the kitchen, trying to get the cat to take the hint.

Surprisingly, she seems to, as she sits there and stares at him for a moment longer before walking behind the couch, out of sight. Right then, Amy turns around. She begins making her way to the front door and calls over her shoulder;

"I'll see you in a few months!" Before opening it and taking her exit.

Dew lets out a massive sigh of relief, before speed walking his way to the other side of the couch. He picks up Spikes, holding her underneath her arms as he glares into her green eyes.

"Spikes, what the hell?" He questions. She meows back.

Then, the front door opens again.

Dew looks up and finds Amy coming back inside. "I'm so sorry, I forgot my... clip... board..."

The woman freezes in the entryway, staring at Dew, who has been caught red handed with a cat in his arms. She examines the scene for a moment, before her eyebrows pinch together in a clear mix of anger and frustration.

"Dew."

Dew drops Spikes, who immediately walks over and jumps onto the couch, laying down on it and beginning to give herself a bath.

"Amy, this isn't what it looks like."

"Oh? It isn't?"

"No! I'm, uh, cat sitting. Sorry, I should have told you."

Amy stares at him for a long time, arms crossed over her chest.

Come on! That was a believable lie, right? Dew could be cat sitting! Though, the way Spikes is lounging on the couch proves that she's more than a little comfortable here. Surely Amy won't kick him out when he has a cat here, right? There's no way she's that heartless.

Suddenly, Amy begins looking around. Like, looking around-looking around.

She goes into his kitchen and begins searching through his cabinets, before checking in between all the little crevices of furniture. Then, she walks to his bedroom. She checks behind his mattress, then in his dresser drawers, then she finally opens the closet...

And is met with all of Spikes' belongings.

Oh, Dew is so fucked.

"Just cat sitting, huh?" She asks, clear anger and resolve in her tone. It radiates out, and Dew tries his best not to let it infect his mood. Oh no.

"C'mon, Amy, please. I'm sorry, it was just... I was just..."

"Get rid of it."

Dew blinks. "What?"

"Take that cat to a shelter. You aren't allowed to own pets and still be my tenant."

Suddenly, Dew thinks back to when he first got Spikes. He was 18, and he'd just moved out of his mother's house. He remembers back then that he was an absolute mess. He already screwed up suicide when he was 17, and his mom just wouldn't let him move on from it. He was struggling every day not to try again, because he was sick of being so lonely and emotional all the time.

Then, he moved here. He was walking by the pet store one day after work, when he had the urge to go inside and look around. That's where he met Spikes, and she was just a little kitten. She was unbelievably fluffy—spikey, as a matter of fact—and Dew fell in love with her on sight.

So he adopted her, and suddenly he felt happier. Having a little feline companion truly brightened up his days. It got him out of his dark place. He genuinely enjoyed her company, and she enjoyed his.

The thought of life without her... going back to how he'd been. So miserable all the time, feeling like he had nothing to live for. Just a suicidal high school drop out with nothing special about him but his famous mother.

Yes, just that thought is unbearable.

"I...I can't do that."

"Then you're out. Grab your things and leave, I want you out of my apartment within the hour."

Then Amy leaves, and Dew slowly falls to his knees. He runs a hand through his black hair, the bags under his eyes weighing him down almost as much as his stress.

What the hell is he gonna do now?