Cats and Chats

The interior of Sweet Dreams was a surprising, but welcome, respite from the hustle and bustle just outside of its front doors. Due to the lack of windows, there was no natural light, just a soft yellow glow seeping through the fluffy carpet.

A man in a unicorn onesie approached them.

“Table for two?” He asked with a deadpan expression.

Zan nodded. “Yes, please.”

He led them to a table in the furthest corner of the room. The table itself was less of an ordinary table and more of a kotatsu, low to the floor with a heated blanket. Lena plopped down on the corner most cushion, and tucked herself under the table.

“What do you think?” Zan asked, taking a seat opposite her.

“I love it.” Lena answered earnestly, leaning against the wall behind her and shuffling her legs under the table to fully enjoy its warmth.

A menu of light appeared on the table, and Zan tapped on it to order her drink.

“What would you like?” Zan asked Lena, who had become one with the corner.

“I’m not sure… Maybe just some normal tea?”

“Alright.” Zan tapped a few times again, and the menu disappeared. She glanced back up to see Lena’s face of pure sleepy bliss. “I’m guessing you didn’t have any kotatsus where you’re from?”

Lena lazily shook her head. “We didn’t have much of anything, to be honest.”

“No?” Zan couldn’t help but be curious. “What’s, like, the biggest difference with life here?”

Lena straightened her posture a tad and took a moment to answer. “The water.”

“The water?”

Lena nodded, refusing to elaborate.

“How is the water different?” Zan asked in an attempt to probe further. “Like, does it taste different?”

“I mean, yes, but it’s mostly that it’s so easy to get here.” Lena yawned a large yawn. “Everything’s really easy to get here, but having clean flowing water whenever I want is really neat.”

Zan struggled to imagine a world without convenient access to water.

“So how did you get water before?” Zan questioned.

“A well.”

“A well?”

“Yeah, you know, a hole in the ground with a bucket where you-“ She mimed a winching motion.

“Right, yeah…”

“I do love showers though,” Lean said, “I mean, they’re kind of scary, but they feel really nice.”

Zan didn’t know how to process, or respond to, that information. Thankfully, she didn’t have to.

The onesie wearing waiter approached their table and placed down their drinks. Zan took a big sip of her milkshake to deliberately give herself brain freeze, and forcibly stop her brain from thinking.

Lena poured out her tea from the teapot, and stirred in a dash of milk and sugar. She took a long and satisfying sip that didn’t result in brain freeze.

“Mm, yeah…” Lena placed her teacup back down and looked at it lovingly. “Things are better here.”

“You don’t miss it?” Zan asked, “Your old home, I mean.”

“No.” Lena answered very quickly, then backtracked. “I mean, uh, there are some things I miss, I guess.”

Zan arched a single eyebrow upwards in an impressive display of control over her facial muscles, prompting Lena to elaborate on her answer.

“I miss my cat.” Lena spoke quietly, circling the rim of her teacup with the tip of her pinkie.

“You have a cat?!” Zan asked, not containing her excitement at all.

Lena hummed affirmatively, smiling at the thought of her little fluffball. “His name was Paul, and he was a ginger idiot.”

“Awww,” Zan grinned, “I wish you had pictures to show off. How come you didn’t bring him with you to New Sol?”

“He died.” Lena took another long sip of her drink, leaving Zan in a stunned silence.

“I’m sorry.” Zan said, eventually.

“Oh, it’s okay…” Lena shrugged but a hint of sadness snuck into her voice, in spite of her best efforts. She shuffled awkwardly where she sat, as though the cushion beneath her was suddenly the most uncomfortable thing in the world.

“I never would have left if he were still alive,” She spoke again, unsure of why she was speaking at all, or what she was going to say next. “He was the only thing for me there, so once he died I didn’t have anything left to keep me tied back, you know?”

Zan leant forward over the table and reached out, though stopped just short of touching Lena’s hand. She gulped.

“What about your family?” Zan asked, her voice soft yet still piercing through the quiet room.

Lena pushed her cup away and leant against the wall again, fully retreating. “It’s kind of… Complicated. I’d, uh, rather not talk about it, if that’s okay?”

“Of course.” Zan also retreated and straightened her posture, then forced a bright smile onto her face. She moved the conversation quickly onwards. “How’s your drink?”

“It’s very nice.” Lena nodded at her own words, but didn’t have much else to say about it. “How is yours?”

“It’s good.” Zan took a big milky gulp. “Thanks for coming with me, by the way. I’ve been wanting to do something like this for a while, but never had an excuse. But now I’ve got a cute new friend to spoil and help reach her full fashion potential!”

“It’s okay, I’ve had a lot of fun.” Lena murmured, blushing a soft pink. Not because Zan called her cute, but because she said they were friends.

“You know…” Zan rested her chin on her hand. “Maybe next time we could go to a cat café.”

Lena tried to imagine what that would be. A café with cat theming? A café run by cats? She figured anything was possible in this brave new world.

Zan quickly picked up on Lena’s ignorance.

“It’s a café, but there’s cats everywhere.” She clarified.

“Everywhere?”

“Yep. You can cuddle or play with them while you have a drink or eat some snacks.”

That sounded like heaven.

“Yes.” Lena nodded seriously. “We should definitely go.”

Zan giggled. “Alright, next time then.”