All is Cold and Bright in Lantern City

So far he'd had a bad day and just needed something to make him feel better. The cat he was following was doing a pretty good job of that. He was still cold and walking still hurt, a lot, but this cat looked like it wanted to show him something. He likes cats. He thinks. He… can't really remember anything about his life before… before her. But he thinks he likes this cat. It's a black cat. It's good at maneuvering through the crowd of the city. He isn't. People keep bumping into him, and the bright lights of everything around him are disorientating. He wonders where the cat is leading him. He hopes it's somewhere warm. He can't really tell where they’re going. His vision is kind of blurry and everything everywhere is so bright, too bright. It hurts his eyes. He wants to sleep. It's cold out here. And… when he opens his eyes he realizes he lost the cat and that he passed out against a uh… he thinks it's a restaurant of some kind. He struggles to get himself back up to his feet and blearily looks up at the sign of the store or… whatever it is. But then he remembers everything is too fuzzy for him to see what’s on it. It looks warm inside though. So he walks in. 

The store is empty when he walks in. It's a small cozy restaurant with booths and a few tables filling the limited space. It has nice decorations. Soft watercolor paintings of the surrounding landscape and of the city when it's all lit up at night. There are a few plants with beautiful blossoming flowers and some without. And the warm air that surrounds him is welcome. He takes a moment to close his eyes and relish in the feeling of the numbness in his limbs melting away. 

“Hello,” he jumps violently at the voice. His eyes shoot open as he steps back looking for the source. It's um… he thinks it's a bull demon, or maybe a water buffalo. He can't really tell when his vision still isn't all that great. It's standing behind the counter and it might be holding something too. He hopes it's not a weapon. “Uh hey there, sorry I didn't mean to spook you, I just wanted to ask if this is your cat,” he holds up the thing in his hand. Oh, it's the cat. He's holding it by the scruff. He tries to say something but no words want to leave his mouth. All he can do is curl further in on himself soaking up the warmth of the place and shuffle on his aching feet. The demon hums before speaking again. “Hmm, can't speak, can  you? Well here,” the demon walks out from behind the counter then and he flinches sluggishly and bumps into the wall that somehow appeared behind him. “Woah it's okay, I'm not gonna hurt ya. I know I look pretty intimidating but I promise I'm almost completely harmless. Just, here,” the demon holds out the scruffed cat to him while trying to stay as far away from him as possible. He reaches shaky hands out and grasps the dangling cat. When the bull or whatever he is, pulls back he stands back up to his full height, he hadn't even realized the guy had bent down. 

He brings the cat closer to himself, tucking it up close to his chest. The cat mewls and even purrs a little. He thinks it's just as appreciative of the warmth as he is. “There see, she seems much happier like that,” standing at his full height he can see how people might find this particular demon scary, but he's seen and been around plenty of demons and she- they were much scarier. This demon was not scary, he was friendly and warm. Or, maybe that last one was just the air around them. Still he backs away from the towering bull, or tries to, there's still a wall behind him. So really it's more like slowly shrinking into the corner between the wall and the sitting booth that's also behind him. The bull demon is looking him up and down, his eyes linger on his meager clothing and bare swollen feet . That reminds him, his feet hurt, he'd like to sit. So he does. He slips all the way down into the corner and instantly his feet feel better. He holds the cat closer as now that he’s on the floor the demon bull is much much taller. But soon he too is crouching down to be at his level again (not that he was at his level when they were both standing up). 

He’s still eyeing his frozen feet. He tries to pull them closer to himself but doesn’t want to risk squishing the cat, it's a female apparently. The bull lifts his hands up in what he assumes is meant to be a soothing gesture and the tone of voice he uses with his next words certainly mirrors it, “Take it easy okay I'm not gonna hurt ya remember, your feet don't look so good. How long have you been out in the cold?” But he still isn't able to answer. He wishes he could. This store is warm but he only possesses so many pieces of clothing so he's still cold.

“Hey bud,” his attention is drawn back to the demon in front of him, “Do you need help? I can get you some warmer clothes?” He doesn’t have any words to answer with so he just nods his head. He does want help, he does want warmer clothes. He's hungry too and so, so tired. “Alright okay, now, would it be okay if I picked you up? I wouldn’t want you to walk on those feet of your’s, they’ve got a bunch of cuts on ‘em.” He has to think about that for a moment.

The… bull demon wants to pick him up. He wants to touch him. He can't remember the last time he's been touched by another person. It… sounds overwhelming but the demon's thick fur looks warm, so he hesitantly nods his head again. The demon smiles warmly at him (is everything about this demon and his store so damn warm?) and very slowly and carefully eases his arms underneath him. He’s jostled just slightly as he’s hoisted into the demon’s chest. His fur was indeed very warm and the chef’s clothes he was wearing were very soft. The cat in his arms looks around wildly in the new position she’s being held in. 

He’s tired and this feels safe. He's sure the demon wouldn't mind if he closed his eyes for just a moment…

-----

So far he'd had a bad day and just needed something to make him feel better. The day had started out just perfectly fine. A bright and sunny winter day. And slowly everything went downhill. A nice fairly unsuspecting human family with two fairly rowdy children. They ordered their food with barely a glance at him or his coworkers and sat themselves at a booth near the back. With all the other customers in the store it was already loud in the small noodle shop but those kids were loud. They were flat out just yelling over the noise just to be hard and everyone could definitely hear them. 

Then the mother has the audacity to come to him to complain about the noise. He apologized and said there was nothing could do. She scoffed hautingly and mumbled something about ‘his kind’ under her breath as she walked away. He could feel his eyes twitching as he struggled to keep his composure. He really wanted to throw her out but she technically hadn't done anything blatantly wrong, so unless someone were to complain about her he'd have to suffer through serving her and her noisy family. He really hoped someone would complain about them soon.

And then when they had finally gotten their food of course another complaint about how long it had taken. He really didn't want to show this woman and everyone else in the store what ‘demons like him’ could really do but she was pushing it. But finally hours, literal hours, later he did. By throwing her out and banning her from coming back. He could take the obvious dislike and straight up racist comments being thrown at him from her but he refuses to let any of his coworkers be subjected to the same treatment.

And that was that. Good riddance. She had well overstayed her ‘welcome’ far past the original time she and her family had walked in. It was a shame her husband was actually quite nice. He wonders how someone like that could get stuck with someone like her. He sighed heavily as he sweeped the last bit of dust from the store out onto the street. Closing time could not have come sooner or at a better time.

The cool air of the city was actually quite relaxing. It helped ease some of the tension from his muscles. He sighed heavily again and used the broom he was holding to prop open the door. Some fresh air would be nice after the day he's had so far. Everyone else had gone home already so it was completely quiet as he walked behind the counter to the back. All he had left to do was take inventory and then he too could go home. He was very ready to collapse in a nice warm bed.

It looked like they had just about everything they needed though when he bent down to check though the flour bins some of them were pretty low. And when a loud bang sounded from the front of the store he nearly hit his head on the shelf above in his haste to stand up. And he nearly crushed a black cat as it bolted around the corner into the storage room, probably just as startled by whatever it is that it had knocked over.

He swiveled around to find out where the creature had run off to only to find it trying to hop into the still open flour bin. He very quickly shot forward to grab it by the scruff and pull it away from the bin and it only meowed meekly as he pulled it into the air. It was probably some stray that had gotten in through the door that he had left open. It was bound to happen. Looked like it was pregnant too so it was probably just looking for somewhere warm to have its litter.

 He had a feeling he was going to be sighing just a few more times today. He bent back down to close the flour bin properly, and started straight for the entrance to kick the cat out and close the door to make sure no more strays would wander in. 

But when he got to the front counter someone else was standing in the store. Just quivering in place with their eyes closed and their arms wound tightly around themselves. They looked like they might be a human in nothing but a very tattered, very dirty white dress. In winter. Their lips and feet were concerningly blue.

“Hello,” they startled and jumped back a few feet, and when their eyes opened he could immediately notice their lack of pupils. So definitely not human, or at least not fully human. “Uh hey there, sorry I didn't mean to spook you, I just wanted to ask if this is your cat,” he held up the cat slightly and it ‘mrrped’ slightly at the motion. The; well, demon he supposed, looked vaguely between him and the scruffed cat and opened their mouth like they wanted to say something but closed it almost instantly when no sound came out. They curled in on themselves then and shuffled their feet.

“Hmm, can't speak, can you? Well here,” he walked out from behind the counter to approach the demon with the cat and it flinched away from him and bumped into the wall behind it. He winced at the sight and bent down slightly just to be a less opposing figure on this demon much smaller than him. 

“Woah it's okay, I'm not gonna hurt ya. I know I look pretty intimidating but I promise I'm almost completely harmless. Just, here,” he held the cat out to the frightened creature in front of him, staying as far away as he could to not invade the very little space the demon had given itself. Its hands shook as it reached out for the cat. But she did start purring once she was curled up against its chest. “

There see, she seems much happier like that,” he grunts slightly as he straightens to his full height again. The demon looks up at him and seems to just stare and soon it must think better of it cause then it backs up and sinks to the floor between the wall and a booth seat. It looks much smaller then and he crouches down to the floor as well. The demon is clutching very tightly at the cat and looks extremely weary. And being this close he can see the dark circle under its eyes and the thin fabric of the dress.

And the cuts that cover the bottom of his bare feet. 

“Hey bud, do you need help? I can get you some warmer clothes?” the demon looks to be on the verge of crying and simply nods its head. His heart aches at the look of despair on the demon's face and refrains from sighing out his empathy for it.  “Alright okay, now, would it be okay if I picked you up? I wouldn’t want you to walk on those feet of your’s, they’ve got a bunch of cuts on ‘em.” The demon visibly pauses at that it's probably been awhile since its had any interaction with literally anything else, so he gives it all the time it needs to think it over. And eventually the demon hesitantly nods its head.

He smiles the best he can at that answer and hopes it helps soothe the demon's fears. He carefully eases his arms underneath it and tries not to move it too much as he tucks it and the cat close to his chest. And then he sets off for the booth seats all the way in the back, they’re the ones closest to the really good heater and this demon looks like it could use all the heat it can get. He sneaks a quick peek back down at the demon just to check up on it and freezes mid walk when he realizes the demon had fallen asleep. Well that was quick. He sighs again, for a good reason this time and is glad the demon felt safe enough to sleep so easily.