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“Alright,” Lin said, holding a small bowl that filled with bread, milk, and a smidge of sedative. She knelt in front of the wet carton box with the hurt cat inside, watching her under one of the boxes lids. “Now, don’t get frightened or try to scratch me. It’s food, and I meant it when I said about being rat food.”
Lin was talking softly despite the meaning of her last words. The cat had obviously gone through a lot, and she didn’t want to scare it any more than it already was. And it seemed to be working since it stopped hissing when the freezing cold left its space to Lin’s warm apartment.
Though, Lin was sure that if one of her officers ever hear her talking like that, her authority would be permanently damaged for the rest of her life.
Carefully, Lin put the food in front of the animal. And for the first time, it didn’t shy away or hissed at the closeness of her hand. Though it didn’t made any attempts to approach it either.
Slowly getting up on her feet again, Lin left the cat alone with its food in the kitchen. She got out of her apartment and walked to the door opposite of hers. After taking in a breath, she knocked on the door.
A dark-skinned woman with a silver streak on her long hair opened the door and peeked. Recognizing the face in front of her, she then opened it widely and greeted Lin with a smile. “Chief Beifong, hi! Did you need anything?”
“Hello, Lirin," Lin said with a polite smile. "And yes. One of your daughters was a healer if I remember correctly? Is she home?”
Five minutes later, Lin, Kanna -a fifteen-year-old that reminded Lin Suyin a bit- and her older waterbender sister Malina was standing in the police chief's kitchen, looking down on the hurt and very sleepy stray cat.
“You did well by giving it some sedatives,” Malina said, sitting on the floor with her sister and taking the bowl of water Lin gave to her. “It’ll make it so much easier to heal it now.”
“Let's say I was cautious,” Lin said, crossing her arms. “If you weren’t home I’d have to clean the wound myself, and I’m not a big fan of claws.”
“Yeah, it’s kinda obvious,” Kanna blurted without thinking. An elbow landed to her side from her sister immediately while the chief glared down on her. “Sorry,” she grimaced as she rubbed her side.
Malina bent half the water from the bowl and slowly navigated it to the cat, who was trying very hard to stay awake but was losing the fight. Its green eyes were on the glowing water now was closing to its wound.
It tried to run away, but Kanna quickly caught it before it could even get up fully. It hissed when the water made contact, but when it realized it took away the pain instead of causing it, the cat calmed down. Kanna slowly let go of it, and the cat didn’t make an attempt to move. Only watched Malina and the glowing water in interest.
“Aww, see she’s helping you,” Kanna said and slowly scratched its head. The cat leaned to the touch briefly before putting its head down and closing its eyes.
Lin and Kanna watched Malina work in silence. Until Kanna decided to share her thoughts. “Hey sis, I’ve been thinking, you know how lonely Bobo feels when we leave for work-”
“No, we’re not adopting it,” Malina answered before sparing a glance. “Bobo needs enough care as he is -and no 'but's.”
“Huh, well, it was worth a shot,” Kanna said before leaning slightly back and looking up to Lin. “Are you going to keep it, Chief Beifong?”
Slightly aback by the question, Lin shook her head. “Oh, no. I’m too busy to take care of and train an animal. Sometimes I even have to spend the night at the station.”
“I could feed it for you-” Kanna started but stopped when her Lin gave her a look that said drop it. “Nevermind,” she muttered in defeat.
“And I’m done,” Malina said, then bent more water from the bowl and gave the cat also a quick bath before rising back to her feet with her sister. “It’s healed, clean, and sleeping. Shouldn’t be much problem for the Chief of Police?” she said with a kind smile.
“Thank you,” Lin nodded and smiled in kind. As she followed them leave, Kanna not-so-subtly tried again on Lin adopting the cat, which the older woman only rolled her eyes and wished them goodnight as they closed their door.
Lin went back inside, took off her uniform at last, and went back to the kitchen to eat something herself. She poured the dirty water down to the sink and washed her hands.
While she was busy stirring the pot of leftovers on the stove and setting up the table, she stole a few glances at the cat sleeping soundly. Since Kanna wasn’t around to see, Lin let the small smile tug at her lips.
After finishing her meal, Lin wrapped the sleeping cat in an old towel and put it in an empty basket laying around at the corner of the kitchen. She took the basket with her and left the kitchen, closing the door behind her.
Putting the basket in front of the heater, Lin took a look outside. The snow had started to paint roofs and streets to white. It had certainly didn’t slow down since it started. While tomorrow the city was going to be in disarray because of it, Lin always found a certain calmness that came with the snow. It silenced the city and covered its ugly parts.
Though, it only lasted until Lin remembered the fact that the homeless and the poor people didn’t have such luxury of thinking about the beauty that came with the snow.
Already planning the things to do tomorrow in her head, Lin realized how tired she was and how tiring tomorrow going to be. Pushing herself from the frame, Lin looked at the sleeping cat one more time before going to her own warm bed.
When Lin woke up, she saw her room was filled with that white-gray light that only happened when it snowed. Getting up and stretching, she saw the snow still continued to fall, though at less speed.
Lin went to the bathroom, washed her face until she fully woke up, and returned to her bedroom to wear her uniform and put on her usual makeup before breakfast.
But her ordinary morning quickly became something else when she entered passed her living room and a cat was waiting for her in front of the kitchen door.
“Oh, I forgot about you,” Lin said to the cat, who was watching her with its bright green eyes. It didn’t run away, nor hissed when Lin walked to it opened the kitchen door. It merely followed Lin inside with its tail up in the air.
“Someone’s feeling much better,” Lin said, watching it from the corner of her eye while turning on the small radio she kept at the kitchen. As she took out eggs and butter for breakfast, the cat blinked once and went over to the spot where it was healed last night. Lin saw that it was he before the cat sat down but continued to watch Lin with his attentive eyes. His tail started to move around and curl slowly. When he licked his mouth, Lin smiled, understanding the real reason behind his excitement.
Now in daylight, Lin saw new details of him that she didn’t realize or cared enough to look last night. The cat was slim, but his structure was on the larger side. He had a dark gray coat with black stripes on its face and back, going all the way to the end of his fluffy tail. The bath last night obviously gave his fur a shine.
Lin had to admit, he was a very handsome cat still despite being a stray. He had this… expression on his face. Like he could start talking hin any minute, he was just waiting in the right moment.
“I hope you like scrambled eggs,” Lin said, before taking another egg from the icebox. Deciding on tea instead of coffee for a change, Lin put the kettle on the oven. She then started to break the eggs into a bowl. The cat didn’t move an inch the whole time. Maybe it wasn’t always a stray, Lin thought, judging by how well-behaving it was so far.
When the tea was ready, and the egg was cooked, Lin took a quarter of the egg and put it on a small plate. She put it in front of the cat and took hers on to the table. They ate in silence other than the radio. Lin sometimes looked outside from the window to watch the few snowflakes that fell on the windowsill.
She almost dropped her fork when something touched her thigh. It was the cat. Standing on his hind legs and holding on to her with his front paws on her pants. On top of it, that smug look was on his face again, and it was tall enough to bump his head to her elbow from his position.
At first, Lin thought he was after her breakfast, so she grabbed its nape to bring him back down, but the moment she touched her, he started purring, and it hit her then. He wasn’t trying to eat her food, he was just wanting some pets, and amazed by herself, Lin was giving it to her.
Shaking her head at herself, Lin stuffed the rest of her breakfast to her mouth and gently pushed the cat off of her. She put the dishes into the sink, turned off the radio, and left the kitchen. The cat didn’t leave her side for one moment.
She put on her coat and scarf, scooped the cat from his neck and locked her apartment door with her bending. The cat meowed slightly until she was out on the street and put the cat on the ground. The moment his paws made contact with the snow, it jumped back to the short stairs that led to her apartment door.
“Look, you shouldn’t have gotten used to it. It was one night only,” Lin crossed her arms to the cat, who only meowed loudly and pawed the iron door. “Whatever,” Lin dismissed him and took off for work. “Mr.Jun will get rid of you anyway when he sees you.”
But the cat didn’t wait around to meet Mr.Jun. Instead, he started to walk after Lin. Avoiding the ankle-deep snow mostly by following her footprints.
Lin realized he was coming after her when she turned the first corner but ignored him, thinking it'll leave her alone soon enough. Yet, she was gravely mistaken. The cat continued to follow her, and every time Lin tried to shoo it away, it waited until she turned around and resume walking for it to do the same.
When the wide and -currently-white square of the police headquarters came to view, the cat was still keeping up with the annoyed Chief of Police. In fact, he was acting like they were playing a game, getting on Lin's nerves enormously.
They crossed the square together. Since Lin wasn't the first person who walked into the building, the cat had more options than Lin's footprints. He was happily jumping left and right, even managing to pass Lin. But much to Lin's disappointment, he always turned and checked if she was coming. At the repeating gesture, Lin had a harder time to be annoyed by her company.
At last, they reached the big stairs that led to the main entrance to the building. Lin once more ignored the feline coming after as she climbed up the stairs. She nodded to the guard that waited at the door and entered the building. She heard the guard stopping the cat after her, talking about the rules as if the cat could understand it. Then, judging by the hiss and a yell after, failing to grab the cat and returning to his job using colorful vocabulary.
A small part of Lin wanted to go back, but the rational part of her pushed that thought aside and reminded her of the mountains of paperwork that was going to be take all day to be finished.
