I Unintentionally Became Her Kitten

Chapter 46: An Exhausted Routine

Alisha's alarm went off probably just a few hours later and she dragged her weight upright.

I unlatched myself from her so she was free to shut her phone up.

And then she got out of the bed.

I made peace with the idea of not getting any sleep and followed, feeling the tiredness in every joint. She skipped showering for once, probably in part because there was still some dampness to her hair.

I stumbled down the steps to the kitchen and started the coffee maker, hoping it would help me wake up. In the meantime I sat at the dining table with my phone and put my head down just to jolt upright at a gentle tapping next to my head.

Tye was standing there, watching me expectantly.

“Huh?” I asked.

“I think you fell asleep,” he said.

I looked at the coffee machine through the doorway. It had finished brewing in what felt like a split second.

“Oh,” I managed and stood up to hobble over to it.

“If it's not too much trouble, I will accept a cup of coffee.”

“Yes, of course,” I said and grabbed a third mug along with the usual two.

I poured some into each and went to give one to him just to find him directly behind me. I stopped so abruptly the hot liquid sloshed around and spilled over onto my hand.

It burned pretty bad but I had the self discipline to turn and put the mugs on the counter before shaking the heat away with a pained hissing.

Tye took a couple steps back staring blankly.

He had dark circles under his eyes and his skin was rather pale. It was apparent he had been helping Alisha with whatever needed to be done last night and then got up early this morning just like us.

I sighed. “I'm okay,” I stated carefully.

“You look like you haven't slept,” he commented.

“I did, just not a lot.”

“Hm,” he mumbled and took the least full mug to drink.

Alisha joined us a moment later, getting her milk from the fridge and stopping as she saw I’d already added some to hers.

“Thank you, Kitten,” she said tiredly as she put it away again and started to drink deeply.

I quickly wiped up the spill before taking my own mug. It did help. I felt the caffeine fueling my blood and making it move faster which then fueled my ability to get going and get dressed upstairs while they had a brief discussion about plans for the day.

It wasn't going to be the usual routine I’d witnessed before. These were other captains that I had never met, which made me a little nervous but I trusted Alisha to let me know if things were going to be unpleasant.

I went back downstairs to see Alisha giving Tye a death glare.

I hesitated to move closer but Tye broke their eye contact obediently.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“Yes,” Alisha told me. “Nothing to worry about.” She rubbed her under eye area briefly, which no longer had visible bags but I suspected that was far more due to makeup than her feeling better. “Are you all set to get going?” she asked.

I nodded.

“Alright,” she pat my head a couple times as she passed by.

Tye was scowling still. He had submitted to whatever Alisha asked of him, but he wasn’t exactly pleased about it.

I followed Alisha out to the front where we waited as Tye pulled the car around.

I felt awkward, not knowing exactly what to say or do to relieve the tension but it was quickly negligible as the car ride was its usual quiet, Alisha typing on her phone and Tye driving along while I was left to my thoughts. There wasn’t a lot going on in my brain. The nightmare last night had me rattled still, but watching the greenery pass by was helping take my mind off it. It had been just a nightmare after all… based off of something I’d seen in the day and a fate that could feasibly fall on someone I knew.

The routine today was pretty much the same as it was with Sergei and Andy and the suburbs woman. Tye and I went with Alisha, she took the ledger, checked over the numbers, briefly counted stacks of bills, and chatted about potential concerns before Tye carried the boxes out to the Escapade and loaded them in the back. The biggest difference was today she met with six captains instead of three. They were far more pleasant than Sergei, treating her more like Andy did. Which was to say, sometimes sickeningly sweetly and sometimes just a bit too amicably.

It was preferable to the way Sergei and Nicco treated her, though it did sometimes leave a bit of an icky feeling under my skin. So far, none of her captains, other than the suburb woman, were female. Part of me hated this fact while another understood. Even if I was of the opinion that woman were as capable as men to take managerial roles and even take difficult, traditionally masculine roles… society didn’t necessarily agree. And we lived in this society so until things changed more it would remain this way.

I just worried more about Alisha’s mental state when she was constantly surrounded by men like this, with no strong female presence to help her feel vindicated when Sergei or Nicco said or did something that was sexist, whether it was explicit or not. Even her mother wasn’t going to fill that role. It had to be exhausting for her.

I clung to her a little in the back of the car, feeling tired and sleepy, and her hands were soothing when they pet my hair. If there wasn’t so much anxiety in me, I probably would’ve fallen asleep for part of the time. We finally finished the rounds by going to the laundromat, as usual but unlike usual Claire was there on time, waiting for us rather than the other way around. She was more chipper than usual, humming softly as the bills were passed through the machine.

Alisha stared at her as she did so. The makeup hid the dark circles but her eyes still had a certain expression that gave away how tired she was.

“Did you find the rat in Sergei’s men?” Claire mentioned off-handedly. 

Alisha continued to stare as her breathing maintained a steady pace. “Yes,” she said finally.

“That’s good,” Claire said.

“There’s more,” Alisha continued. “But I couldn’t get him to tell me anything.”

“I’ll let you know if I see any inconsistencies in the spending and revenue reports… but I think if they’re smart they’ll have an alternate money stream.”

Alisha nodded.

Claire finished up the last box and checked off the last of the numbers. “Everything looks good today so there’s that,” she offered. “And in other good news,” she went to grab something out of her purse. “This came in yesterday,” she told Alisha and handed her an envelope of a very standard business size and shape.

Alisha opened it briefly and then held it out to me.

I took it, confused. Did she want me to carry it for her? She had a purse so…

“It’s your card, Kitten,” she explained.

I looked in the envelope and pulled the sheet of paper out to find a credit card glued to it. It was a very pretty gray and blue pattern with Kitten Smith in white letters.

“Thank you,” I said, a little blindsided. I had forgotten she had ordered this and it felt a little unreal to have access to more money than I could probably understand. Not that I was going to be using it, but it was still… a lot.

Alisha gave my knee a quick pat before she stood. “Thank you, Claire,” she said.

“It was no problem,” Claire told her and began organizing the papers and things as we left.

I still carried the envelope in my hand as we rode back. Alisha dismissed Tye for the day and offered him the day off tomorrow, which he accepted. He was worn out enough that, other than this morning, he hadn’t really said anything the entire day. I didn’t know if he was the one to interrogate the rat they’d found but he had been there to watch over the process, at least. I knew him well enough by now, I knew he would not have enjoyed that.

Once he was gone, driving off in that grey sedan I had now concluded was his car, Alisha went upstairs and took a long shower.

I got settled on the bed, tired enough to consider sleeping despite the fact it was only the afternoon. Things were starting to feel normal again. The disturbed feeling and the dread was fading away over time, so I might get away with sleeping without having any nightmares tonight. 

Alisha got out of the shower and did her usual hair drying routine before slumping onto the bed.

“I’m just gonna take a short nap, Kippen,” she murmured sleepily. “If you want to join…”

I was happy to get in the bed and scoot closer to her, soaking in some of the warmth still radiating off her skin from the shower. But the sleepiness wasn’t going to take me down yet, so I scrolled on my phone for a while… and then it vibrated with a text from an unknown number… with a photo attached.