I Unintentionally Became Her Kitten

Chapter 128: The Apartment

Alisha made a brief phone call from the garage. She only informed Tye that Marco was gone and that should anyone ask why, remind them to mind their business.

And then we went inside to find Sophia sitting with a steaming mug of coffee.

I didn’t realize how much I needed some coffee until the smell hit me.

Sophia barely glazed up as I made a bee-line for the pot and investigated, finding there was definitely enough for three people so I helped myself without thinking about it, and put Alisha’s together as well, though she went upstairs for the moment.

When I sat at the table, Sophia murmured a ‘morning’ and continued to drowsily alternate between sipping at coffee and staring off into space. 

I yawned, wondered if Emily was going to be okay out there in the big scary world, and drank more coffee. The caffeine certainly took the edge of exhaustion off.

When Alisha came back down, her posture was looser and she settled in next to me to quietly drink her coffee.

“So…” I said softly. Sophia turned her gaze to me. “Anything we want to do today?” I asked.

Alisha technically had the day off. I wouldn’t push her into anything but doing something not traumatizing would probably be good for her.

Sophia nor Alisha said anything though.

There was an almost silent slurp when Alisha took a sip of hot coffee. 

“Shopping?” I offered. “Or… coffee?”

“I don’t know what to do,” Sophia replied finally. “I can’t go home… but I don’t want to stay here.”

“I can contact some people and see if there’s a cheap apartment for rent somewhere,” Alisha offered. She had her phone out already, though it was sitting with a dark screen in front of her.

“I don’t know. I’m pretty broke at the moment,” Sophia said. “My class payments were due this month.”

“Mm,” Alisha acknowledged. She was still thinking, quietly sliding her finger up and down her phone screen to watch the slight sheen change with the residue.

“Do you make enough at your job to pay for a very cheap apartment?” I asked Sophia. “Like… what’s the budget?”

“Well I only make about two hundred dollars a week. And a lot of that goes into gas money and paying for college,” she explained.

“I can find an apartment for you for three hundred a month,” Alisha considered. “But I don’t know where it would be off the top of my head.”

Sophia took a deep breath. “To be honest,” she said. “I’d rather… figure out living at home.”

“No,” I protested. “It’s not safe there.”

Sophia countered with, “Dad has a temper but he’d never seriously hurt me.”

I didn’t know what to say. I opened my mouth, let it hang open a bit too long, and finally shoved the coffee mug to my lips. 

“While I don’t doubt that he wouldn’t kill you,” Alisha said. “There’s something to be said for being able to function without worrying about getting slapped. How about we make a deal?” She had put on her ‘big boss’ voice again and made a point to hold her coffee mug and keep her back straight, exuding confidence.

I shrank a little and Sophia anxiously adjusted her own posture around her coffee. 

“If you agree to live in an apartment for a month I will pay for it both for that month and the next month. That gives you time to sort things out. You won’t have to sign a lease or anything, I’ll handle that.”

“What’s the catch?” Sophia asked.

“Nothing. You just have to stay away from your parents for extended periods of time,” Alisha explained.

Sophia went silent again.

“I did not have a good relationship with my parents either,” Alisha explained. “And when I managed to get time away from them I could think a lot clearer. I want to give you that chance.”

Sophia inhaled, slowly, her shoulders rising with the action. And then she sighed. “Okay. But I’ll pay you back for it… eventually.”

Alisha shook her head. “It’s trivial for me.”

Sophia pouted but I gently reached over and put a hand on her shoulder.

“It’s okay,” I reminded her. “For now just worry about yourself, okay? We’ll be fine.”

“I know that but–” she sputtered a little, flustered. “I can’t just–”

“You can. I know it’s scary. But you’ll be okay.”

Another round of breathing for her. “Okay,” she agreed. “But I still should get my stuff from home.”

“Understandable,” Alisha agreed. “I’ll have someone trustworthy accompany you. Just in case.”

Sophia swallowed nervously at that, but didn’t protest. 

I got up, coffee mug empty, and went to the kitchen again, starting to scour around for breakfast ingredients. I brought out some yogurt which Alisha and Sophia accepted. The morning continued lazily. Alisha sent out a couple texts but I had a feeling without her usual work contacts it was a bit more difficult to find the information she needed. 

She said nothing about the Emily situation for the rest of the day. I suspected that wasn’t just because Sophia was present. By now I’d learned her coping mechanism was almost entirely suppressing emotions and unnecessary thoughts.

After Sophia had woken up a bit more she wandered out to where I was scrolling through recipe ideas in the kitchen.

I looked up and gave her a nod. “Are you feeling okay?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Are you going to bake something?” she asked.

“I want to. But I haven’t decided what yet,” I explained.

“Muffins?” she offered. She leaned against the counter. “I’ll do it with you.”

“Really?” I asked. She hadn’t struck me as the baking type.

“I could use something wholesome,” she said. “How about chocolate chip muffins?”

“I’m down. Should we do double chocolate?” I asked.

Sophia nodded agreement. “Do you have everything you need?”

“We should.”

We picked out a recipe together, and after I gathered the ingredients to make sure we did, in fact, have everything, started the process of mixing things together. I picked out osme music as well. It was just a low key pop playlist from a while back but it was filling the air with something more human than the pervasive silence. When the batter was done, I panicked as I realized there was no muffin pan.

Sophia found the baking dish I typically made brownies in and we decided to try it. There wasn’t a lot of reason to rush out to buy a muffin pan for one incident.

Alisha came in at one point, curious, and found us staring in the oven window together.

“That smells good,” she commented. There was still judgement in her tone though.

“We made muffins,” I explained.

“Muffins?” she repeated.

“Well… square muffins.”

She came over and looked in the window behind us at the baking dish.

“It looks like brownies,” she commented.

“But they’re slightly healthier,” I told her. “And puffy.”

When they came out, they did look like puffy brownies.

Sliced into squares, they were crumbly but the chocolate was good.

AN: Sorry for the long wait. A lot just happened. Well... very little just happened which feels like a lot when your brain is used to constant stress.

Long story short loosing my work routine made me home routine fall apart which made it very hard to do literally anything. I have still been writing but focusing on specific tasks was impossible until I reoriented. I'll probably be updating this story slower than before. I do have a satire pokesmut going for when my brain is really spinning its wheels on productive writing. It's for fun, I'm not paying much attention to it, but it was based on a dream I had where I was Kitten having a dream that she was in a pokesmut. And naturally it turned into a new writing project.

Anyway, thanks for reading, your support always means a lot! <3