Kynbound

I love my cat.
Let’s get that out of the way from the beginning. Even though she is gone, as of today, I have never, for one moment, believed that I would ever stop loving her. For seventeen years and eight months, this calico wonder has made her home in my heart, never failing to wrap me around her paw and jerk me around by my heart strings.
As the undisputed mistress of all she surveyed (all eleven rooms and corridors of it), she has dominated the lives and conversation of our family for almost long enough for a child to have graduated from high school. In a very real sense, she was one of the most important pillars of our family, and her presence both lightened the atmosphere and gave us something to talk about even in the darkest of times.
My cat loved people… primarily because she knew a few stares and quiet nuzzles could get any given person to pet her or give her what she believed she wanted at any given moment. She liked being with people, even if it was just in the same room, completely ignoring one another (incidentally, her favorite game).
In her youth, distant as that is to me now, she was a rambunctious and hyperactive ball of calico fluff, her medium-length fur usually disheveled from one event or another until she chose to let us smooth it out. When we got saltillo tile on the first floor, she could be found with red dust on her belly constantly until it was sealed. When new carpet was put into the master bathroom, she was the first to roll on the floor, and when new furniture was brought into the house, she was always the first to ‘test’ it. Heck, I couldn’t keep her out of my computer chair when I wasn’t sitting in it.
As she grew older, she retained many of her kitten-ish traits, being enthusiastic and affectionate to often extreme degrees, given our previous experiences with cats. She purred loudly, meowed insistently, ran at ridiculous speeds only to slam into walls, and generally made us laugh and smile.
When we went out of town, she always made her displeasure known upon our return.
She was an inside cat, mostly by our choice. While she enjoyed short periods outdoors, she could generally be trusted to want back in whenever her slaves decided to go back in, due to an incident with a coyote in her misspent (I can hear her indignant meow at the thought of her time ever being misspent in my head, even now) youth. If her life was a somewhat boring one by feline standards, she made up for it by being loved and lovable in general.
When she first became ill, over a year ago, I had my first close encounter with absolute panic. The cat, as we always referred to her (subcontext: Empress) as being, was listless, had lost her appetite, and she had, for some reason, decided that my sink was her new home.
We took her to the vet, where she was diagnosed as having thyroid problems, as is typical in elderly cats (as she was by this time). We began giving her medicine on a daily basis, and for some time, she was doing relatively better, even if she never quite regained the spunk and vigor of the now-lost past.
However, a month ago, what vigor had returned to her was rapidly lost. She gradually ceased to eat, began to have bowel problems… and she began to starve to death. The only time she seemed happy was when she was sleeping on one of us, being lightly caressed, comforting herself with her own purrs.
It was with a heavy heart that we listened to the vet start speaking of quality of life, a typical speech made whenever a loved one nears death… and, our hearts already broken, we eventually assented to euthanasia.
Less than five hours later, I don’t know if it was the right choice. Was it a mercy, an act of love? Was it a betrayal of the absolute trust one can only gain from an animal when that pet is treated as family? Or was it something in between… I can never know. While I understood many things about my cat, I will never know what she thought on this, her last day, what she felt toward us as she went into the final sleep.
I will never know. There are so many things about that last day that I will never know. I feel my heart breaking all over again as I write this. I feel the empty feeling of loss. The standard words are no comfort. The euphemisms and trite words of comfort that come out of people’s mouths at times like this feel like excuses and obfuscations. The bitter flavor of grief sours food in my mouth and makes the world a darker place.
I can’t even make the excuse that she wouldn’t want me to grieve for her… because she is a cat, and no cat would ever miss out on a chance to be the center of attention.

"Nico Nico nii..." Nosebleed looked at himself in the mirror. So... Beautiful... The clothes, the hair, the body, the makeup: all he's always dreamed of. He looked perfectly like his beloved idol. But one thing was missing: a crown. To fulfill his dream of becoming as beautiful as a princess. He took the diamond crown from the table and put it on his wig, smoothly.

Someone opened the door.

"It's time to settle things up, NOSEBLEED." Whore said it firmly while entering the room. That female troll was the ugliest and most dangerous of all.

Nosebleed was taken by surprised. He turned around, with a mix of fear and embarassment on his face.

Whore blushed immediatly when she saw Nosebleed's cosplay. She didn't know what to say.

"What are you doing here?!", asked the trap princess, ferociously.

"I came to tell you I am going to tell all the Fuwa nobles about your loli kidnapping!". Whore still blushed, but she faced Nosebleed firmly.

"Do it, then, you stupid troll!! Go ahead with your stupid lies! I am going to ban you from this kingdom forever!"

"Not if I kill you first." Whore spoke with an almost unhearable tone. She took a knife from her fur, and passed it through her paws. Nosebleed shook of fear, he stepped back taking a sword from the table.

Whore advanced, trying to hit the trap's neck. But Nosebleed moved quickly, as he had been trained by the best sword teachers, and avoided the attack. Whore shook the knife above her head, pushing it in Nosebleed's direction. Nosebleed tried to block with his sword, but whore sent it away with her knife. Nosebleed was unarmed.

"Heeeeeeelp!!!" Nosebleed screamed. No one came.

Whore's knife hit Nosebleed's wig, messing up all the hours of work on that hairstyle Nosebleed spent. "You loser! You are envy of me!", said Nosebleed. Whore, angry, tried to push her fist into Nosebleed's face, but Nosebleed rolled with her on the ground to catch his sword. He then, pointed it to whore's heart.

Whore had lost it.

"Last words?", asked Nosebleed.
"...", whore thought for a little... "N-nice outfit."
"You think?!" Nosebleed was surprised. The two of them were still on the ground, with their bodies over each other. Nosebleed was confused.

Then, something strange happened.

Something warm and soft... Touched Nosebleed's lips.

"...!" He was out of breath. What touched his lips were whore's lips. And he... Liked it!
The two faced each other. Whore sighed, waiting for her death. She closed her eyes.

But then, Nosebleed held her face with his two hands and kissed her again. Their lips floated on each other, beautifully, like sakura petals.

"Senpai, I'm sorry.", said whore. "I... Love you."

In this moment, whore's body started to glow. She was floating in the air. Nosebleed was stunned, too much adrenaline in those last five minutes.

That beast become something totally different... Whore was no longer a troll... She was a princess, as beautiful as Nosebleed in his costumes.

Nosebleed's eyes shone. "I no longer want vendetta. I want.. you"

Nosebleed couldn't be happier. He showed a big smile. "Nico Nico nii."