Chapter Text
The gutsy fall winds ruffled Phil’s hair as he walked down the city street, hands in his jacket pockets. He hummed a tune under his breath while he absentmindedly scanned the warmly colored leaves before him that crunched under his feet.
Walking home after a long day of work was by far one of Phil’s favorite parts of the day. No grating voices badgering him to fill out more paperwork, no screeching old people over the phone to yell at him for something outside his job description, no clicking of a thousand keyes giving him a headache.
Yeah. Walking home was great.
He took the same fifteen minute walk from the train station to his apartment every day, sometimes taking a short detour to visit the crows at the park. They had taken a liking to him for some reason. Might have been because he would give them whatever he didn’t eat from his lunch. Unfortunately, it was getting too cold and dark to go to the park after a 9-5 shift, so he didn’t go there very often this time of the year.
In fact, it was pretty nippy out at the moment.
Phil shivered as another harsh wind hit him. He sighed as he pulled his hands out of the warmth of his pockets to pull his backpack off so he could find the hat he stupidly decided to not put on.
He stood in the middle of the sidewalk digging through his incredibly unorganized backpack, shoving papers and random objects he never took out to the side. In his rush to find his hat, he accidentally pushed his lunch bag out of his backpack. He watched it hit the floor and grimaced as the contents spilled out. His half eaten sandwich and now opened container of berries laid pathetically on the ground in front of him.
He groaned and dropped his backpack on the ground next to him, preparing to lean down and pick up everything that fell.
A flash of brown fur darted in front of his hands before he could reach for a single berry. He shouted in surprise and fell flat on his backside. He winced as his hands landed on the rough concrete.
Phil looked up. He was staring eye-to-eye with the creature that had almost caused him to break his tailbone.
A brown tabby cat stood proudly in front of him holding the sandwich in its mouth. Phil could make out a few features, like that the cat’s face had a few scratches littered on it and that its canines were slightly longer than he had normally seen on a cat.
He could also see that it didn’t have a collar.
Phil sat up slowly, trying his best to not startle the feline. The cat stepped back warily.
“It’s alright, mate.” He said in what he hoped was a soothing voice. It was probably more afraid than anything. “You’re just hungry, huh?”
The cat eyed him. It seemed as if it didn’t know whether to stay and listen to Phil continue this one-sided conversation or to turn and run the other way now that it had Phil’s lunch in his mouth.
“You can take that.” Phil shrugged as he reached over to grab his lunch bag slowly, doing his best not to startle the cat. “I wasn’t very hungry today. Someone brought everyone sandwiches today at work so I didn’t really need the sandwich I brought for myself. Funny, right?” Phil chuckled to himself as he began cleaning up the mess on the ground. The cat watched him pick up the spilled berries. Phil looked at the container in his hand, then back at the cat.
“Do you want some? Wait, do cats eat berries? I don’t want to poison you by accident.” Phil muttered to himself. He guessed the cat didn’t care about poisoning though because it dropped the sandwich slowly from its mouth and stood over it, as if protecting it. Phil smiled and placed the container of berries on the ground in front of him then stepped back to give the cat space. The cat kept its eyes on Phil as it walked over to the container and sniffed the berries. Once it deemed them edible, the cat leaned down and ate the fruits. Once it was done, it flicked its tail and walked back to the sandwich, picking it up in its mouth. It turned back to Phil and gave him what seemed to be a single nod before scampering off to who knows where.
Phil sat there slightly dazed. He grabbed the container and put it back into his lunch bag. He stuffed the lunch bag in his backpack zipped it up before he slung it over his back.
That was an… interesting encounter.
Phil resumed his walk home, going over what had just happened in his mind.
Another gust of wind blew past, blowing Phil’s hair in his face. He shivered, hands going up to his ears to protect them from the cold. He stopped in his tracks as he remembered-
Shit.
Phil forgot to grab his hat.
He groaned and continued walking home. He’d be fine. It was only five minutes. He’d be fine.
The next day was average, if not dragged on far too long. It was boring enough to make Phil almost forget about the feline encounter from the day before.
Almost.
He had packed extra lunch meat in his lunch bag in the morning just in case he happened to run into the cat again. The poor thing definitely wasn’t getting enough to eat if it had to steal food from people.
Phil walked home just as he had the day before, this time remembering to put on his hat and gloves before leaving the train. They say the human brain needs to learn from its mistakes so it remembers not to do them again.
A ‘meow’ came from behind him, startling him out of his thoughts. He turned around with a smile to see the same brown tabby standing a few feet away. It flicked its tail as it stood there unmoving.
“I was hoping I’d see you again.” Phil chuckled as he pulled off his backpack and opened it, reaching in to pull out his lunch bag. “I made sure to pack a bit more cat-friendly food.”
Phil pulled out the meat from his bag and placed it on the ground in front of him, taking a step back so the cat could take it without feeling threatened. The cat took a few steps forward to the meat, sniffed it, and looked up to Phil. It meowed before reaching down and grabbing the meat in its teeth. What confused Phil was the fact that the cat didn’t immediately gobble it up like the berries. Instead the cat turned back the way it left last time and carried the meat away.
Phil shrugged. Maybe it was saving the food for later?
Whatever the case was, he was just glad that the cat took it.
The rest of the week Phil continued the routine. Pack extra food, head to work, come back, feed the cat, and come home. The tabby didn’t come any closer to Phil than when it grabbed the food from in front of him, but that was okay. He didn’t want to scare it away by forcing it closer. Sure he was worried about how it was faring in the cold, but there wasn’t much he could do about that. It wasn’t like he would be able to give the cat a blanket to carry off in its mouth with the food.
He enjoyed his brief encounters with the cat. He would greet it, tell it something worth mentioning that happened that day while he gave it food, and then said goodbye when the cat was tired of his rambling.
The people who passed him holding a one sided conversation with a cat must have thought he was crazy.
That didn’t matter to Phil. This had easily become his routine and Phil hated straying from routines. The cat seemed to like routines as well. It never showed up late to meet Phil at the same spot every day. It was definitely a smart cat.
Just as he had always done, Phil walked down the city streets to his apartment. It was a relatively safe walk given the fact that he was normally walking in a pretty open part of the city, although there wasn’t much foot traffic around during the colder months. He figured most people would rather take other methods of transport instead of walking in the cold. Not him though. He enjoyed his walks.
Now, Phil was a bit scatterbrained. There were a thousand thoughts and ideas rushing around his brain. He was very easily lost in his own head leaving him unaware of his surroundings.
He knew it would be his downfall one day.
Still, he was quite surprised when he was shoved into an alley by a man with a black ski mask and complete black attire, pretty fitting for a typical robber.
“Let’s make this quick man. Give me all your money and I’ll let you go without you getting hurt.” The robber hissed in his ear as he pushed Phil against the side of the building.
Phil’s hands shook as he held them up in a placating manner. “Y-yeah. Okay. Can I grab my wallet from my backpack? It’s just in my side pocket.” He winced at how pathetic his voice sounded.
The robber held a switchblade out in front of him. “Just give me the bag and I’ll let you go.”
Phil’s eyes widened.
“Look, I can give you my wallet and everything in it. There’s nothing important in my bag can I just-”
“Hand me the bag old man.” The robber hissed.
“I’m not that old.” Phil muttered as he shakily took his backpack off of his back.
His bag held everything important to him. Sure, it was just a bunch of junk with no real value, but it had emotional value. That had to count for something, right?
He was going to go home and have a break down after this.
As long as he made it home alive.
Phil handed his backpack to the robber defeatedly. The robber took it in the hand that wasn’t holding the switchblade threateningly in front of him.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” He snickered under the mask. “Although, it would do you good to drop the attitude. Bold of you to do while I’m holding a knife just inches away from your throat that I could oh so easily-”
The robber paused his monologue to suck in a harsh breath of air. A loud hiss forced both men to look down. Attached to the robber’s leg, claws and teeth sunken into flesh, was the brown tabby cat.
“Fuck!” The robber hissed in pain as he backed up and dropped Phil’s backpack and the switchblade to grab the cat. The cat swiped at the hands nearing him, yowling as it began to scratch at the robber mercilessly. The robber fell over and covered his face with his hands to keep his mask from falling off.
Phil took this as his chance to grab his backpack and the robber’s switchblade. He held the knife out in front of him grasped in both of his hands.
“Get this fucking cat off me!” The robber screeched as the cat continued to scratch at him.
Phil took a shaky breath and whistled, getting the attention of the cat. It stopped scratching with a huff and jumped off of the man. It turned around and gave one last hiss before pouncing over to Phil and sitting at his side, glaring at the robber who was lying on the ground curled up in a pathetic ball and shaking.
Phil looked down at the cat, then back at the man.
Holy shit.
“Uh- don’t rob people.” Phil said. “Karma.”
He turned around and walked out of the alley, completely out of it. The cat followed next to him.
Phil didn’t speak for a block. He still held the switchblade in his hand.
“So.” He finally said. “That was something.”
The cat meowed back.
Phil looked down at it.
“Thanks for saving me. You’re quite the fighter.”
The cat’s tail flicked.
Phil paused to take off of his backpack to pull out his lunch bag. He pulled out the meat he had packed in the morning and put it on the ground. The cat grabbed it in its mouth and watched Phil zip up his backpack.
Phil started walking again, expecting the cat to turn the other way as it always had. He was surprised when the cat sprinted back to Phil’s side and continued walking with him.
“Are you walking me home?” Phil raised an eyebrow.
The cat didn’t respond.
“Alright then, mate.” He chuckled. “I’ve never had my own personal escort before.”
The cat did, in fact, follow Phil all the way home. It only left once it watched Phil enter the apartment safely.
The cat walked Phil home the next day.
And the next.
And the next.
Even as the days began growing colder and a light frost dusted the ground the cat was adamant about following Phil.
He didn’t understand why the cat was so insistent on making sure he made it to his apartment before leaving, but he didn’t mind having something to talk to on his walk home.
The first day the cat was late to meet Phil at the normal spot was a week after they had begun walking to Phil’s apartment together. A few minutes passed before he saw the familiar brown tabby walking down the block with something held in his mouth. As it neared, Phil could make out the outline of whatever was in its mouth. It was small and squirming in the cat’s hold. Phil grimaced. Did the cat catch a rabbit and want to show Phil? He heard cats did that sometimes.
He watched the cat place the ball of yellow fur it held in its mouth on the ground, barely suppressing a sigh of relief when he saw that it wasn’t a dead animal.
Although he wasn’t sure what to make of it.
He tilted his head as the yellow ball sprung up and ran to hide between the brown cat’s front legs.
The tabby seemed to roll its eyes at the antics of the small animal and pushed it out of hiding so Phil could clearly see it.
“Is- is that a kitten?” Phil questioned, awestruck.
It was so tiny. Much smaller than a kitten should be.
The kitten hissed at him causing Phil to step back. The older cat swatted at it.
“Is… is this your son?”
The brown cat snorted at that and the yellow kitten hissed. Again.
“Okay, not son then.” Phil raised his hands. “My bad.”
In an attempt to win the little yellow kitten over, he reached into his backpack to grab the meat he had in there. Just as he had done with the brown cat, he placed it on the ground in front of him.
The kitten watched Phil place the food down with eager eyes. It glanced at the brown cat as if it was asking for approval. When the brown cat nodded, the kitten pounced on the food and gobbled it up without a second thought.
It was incredibly endearing.
A yowl broke through the calm atmosphere.
Phil looked up to see a cat barrelling straight for them. Another brown tabby almost identical to the first one, only it had less scratches on its face and had more black patterns on its fur.
The first brown tabby stood up lazily and walked over to Phil, sitting down next to him on the sidewalk before it started licking its paw.
The new cat stopped in front of the yellow kitten, fussing over the thing much to its dismay. The cat looked over at Phil, then at the cat next to him who the cat let a string of hisses and yowls loose at. The cat only spared a glance before going back to grooming itself.
The yellow kitten bounded away from the older cat when it was distracted and made its way towards Phil. Its eyes were caught on Phil’s untied shoelaces. It started swiping at his laces, paws getting tangled in the string. The brown cat’s eyes narrowed. It walked over to the kitten and grabbed it by the scruff, pulling it away from Phil and the other cat. The kitten mewed in disapproval as it was carried away from its toy and back to their original spot on the concrete.
Brown cat one meowed at the other as it moved away. Brown cat two hissed something in reply with the yellow kitten still in its mouth, ears flattening. Whatever it was saying was interrupted by a harsh wind blowing against them and soft snow flurries starting to float down around them, landing on the cat’s pelts. The yellow kitten shivered in cat two’s hold, mewing its discomfort as it tried to huddle closer to the older cat’s chest for warmth.
Phil’s weak heart shattered. He pulled off his winter hat and placed it between himself and the two cats.
“The kitten can go inside my hat. It’ll be warmer than just being out in the cold.”
Phil didn’t know if the cat understood what he meant or not but he watched as the cat’s warry eyes darted between Phil, the hat, and cat one. It cautiously walked over to the hat and placed the kitten down next to it. The kitten hurriedly buried itself inside the hat when it felt the warmth coming from it.
Well, that problem was solved.
Now, why were these cats here? Why had cat one brought Phil the kitten?
Was it for the food? That would make sense since he had been feeding it over the past few weeks.
Phil blinked the snow from his lashes and the wind blew more in his face.
Maybe it was this? The cold. These cats obviously were cold and malnourished, most likely from living on the streets if the amount of dirt on their pelts was anything to go off of.
“Do you cats need a place to stay? Is that why you brought the kitten here?” Phil asked the cat at his side. The cat looked up at Phil and meowed, head nodding slightly. Phil looked at cat two who looked torn. It looked up at Phil, then down at the kitten covered in Phil’s hat. It huffed before reaching down and picking up the hat, kitten inside. It gave a comforting purr at the kitten’s startled yelp before walking over to meet its friend.
Cat one began walking the path to Phil’s house leaving Phil and the other tabby to follow after him.
Phil was going to have to review his apartment’s policy on pets. He hoped they had nothing against cats.