"Do you want me to bandage you, or do you want to do it yourself?" Sera's voice was quiet, as if not to wake the sleeping neko.

Unfortunately for Sera, a neko's ears are very sensitive and he woke. Napping was all he could do to keep the wound from healing, but now he had a bit more energy, and it physically pained him to still have a wound to speak of. Still, he kept himself bleeding, though it had long-since stopped by now. Why isn't she healing herself? he wondered. He was also hungry again, despite just having eaten. Such was the way he was used to - being constantly tired and hungry. 

Thorn wanted to surprise the human, give her a lesson on how exactly a neko, such as himself, properly healed a wound that would have killed them had they been human. It would be quite the experience, that's for sure. He moaned a little and looked at the scene before him, not talking.

Not receiving an answer from Slash, Sera decided to bandage the brown-eared neko, whatever a bandage was. All Thorn knew was that the human was wrapping white material around the other neko's chest. He hadn't stopped purring.

"Your turn," Sera stated, turning to the black cat. "You gonna bandage yourself or should I do it?"

"Nah, I got it," he smirked, but he didn't reach for the bandage. He took off the shirt he was wearing, mainly because he hardly ever wore one and it felt weird, a feeling he didn't need at the moment, closed his eyes and concentrated. A pulse of almost green light came from the tip of the wound. It ran the length of his injury, sealing first the broken tissue and then regrowing his skin, leaving no trace of it left behind, except a thin, unnoticeable scar on his chest that would heal normally in a few minutes. Inside he felt the blood he'd lost because of it flowing back in his veins, and his blood that was already on the floor dispersed into water and evaporated. 

Thorn opened his eyes to reveal they'd turned a glowing, earthy green before that color melted back into the normal brown-red. He waited for their reaction, sort of anxious to see how they'd process what he'd just done. It wasn't every day one saw a neko healing, and he guessed the human pets never needed to heal themselves if either female near him had even seen one of those. 

The human had watched with her jaw on the floor. "That was amazing!" she exclaimed. "Can all nekos do that?"

"All nekos should be able to do that," he replied rather sarcastically, pulling the shirt back over his head. Should I? he thought, glancing over at Slash for a second. Should I heal her too? Every neko could heal themselves, but not every neko could heal others. That was a gift certain nekos were born with, and he was among those who could. To heal another neko required the healer to have physical contact with the injured. It intrigued him why she didn't heal herself. 

Sera mused, watching Slash for a few moments, "So... she should be able to heal herself?"

Did she even know how? It was complicated to explain, but the one who taught him explained it pretty simply: if a neko just concentrated on feeling their body heal, it would. Sometimes it took a while, depending on how serious the injury was, and all of it required energy. A stab to the heart was nothing, but to heal Slash's wounds would knock him out for at least a couple hours. He spoke again, rather softly, "but not every neko can heal the wounds of someone else..." 

"And you're one of those nekos?"

Thorn nodded, deciding to give in and heal Slash. She would probably bleed so much she'd pass out if he didn't, and that's just another thing the human would have to explain to her mother. The thought of running into her mother terrified him, but somewhere inside he knew he'd have to face the woman eventually. No one could hide a neko like himself in their house forever, no matter how hard they tried... and he got the feeling the birds in this house belonged to her. Staying on the task at hand, he turned to Slash, placing his hand on her shoulder. 

"This is gonna knock me out..." he muttered, his eyes glowing green again. This time, instead of focusing his energy into healing himself, he poured it all into her, letting it flow into her veins and seal up the wound she bore. Soon enough, her glowing injury faded, the wound completely healed and blood from it merely water vapor. The neko himself looked and was physically drained from the whole ordeal. It did, in fact, knock him out. He wouldn't wake up for three hours.

Thorn's ear twitched, and he turned his head to look at where the sound had come from. His eyes were (no surprise) red from the darkness of the place he was in. He yawned and stretched, not wanting to get up but making himself sit anyway. The neko found himself purring, though he didn't quite know why. Where was he? How'd he get here? And... what was the other scent he smelled in the house? Among the questions in his brain, he voiced one. "How long was I out?"

"Three hours, and my mom's home so keep your voice down," Sera ordered, but not in a bad way. At least, not that Thorn knew of. He was hesitant to meet the lady. After all, not every human was as nice as Sera.

Something in his heart sank with the word 'mom', as if a suppressed memory came back to him. As if... he wanted to see the person who'd raised the girl before him. Feel again what it was like to be bonded by blood to another one of your kind, to see that again, to see a mother with her child. It was more than common for nekos to leave their mothers at a young age, but for him... she was the one that left. He'd been six months old (about eight in human years), and after she'd taught him how to heal himself, she abandoned him. Left one stormy night and never came back.

For a good year now, he'd been alone, the only one he felt he could trust was himself, but... the way Sera had so bluntly defended him when he'd been stabbed, not knowing he could heal... maybe she was different than any other creature he'd encountered before. Maybe she was worth staying by, even if he'd have to once again resort to not being seen by a human in a house belonging to at least two of them. He felt torn, torn between wanting to stay true to his wild blood and wanting to be where he was, in the closet of the girl he'd saved twice now. 

She's different, he thought, staring at nothing in particular. She's not like the other humans I've seen. Of every human in that nest of them, she's the one that walked through the forest. She's the one who found me when I thought for sure I was undetectable. Humans were strange creatures, and each seemed to have their own aura about them, strong enough it could deter even the most bloodthirsty of killers. Her's felt strong enough to compel him towards staying. No, Thorn, he hissed in his mind, You're wild. Don't resort to being a human's pet, it'd disgrace whatever honor is on your name. You're only staying because you have nowhere else to go. Was he really telling the truth to himself, though? He had much to think about, but now wasn't the time. Now, he was considerably confused and bored, however fully rested he was.

Not once during this bout of thinking did he think about how he was stabbed, the neko girl Slash, nor did he particularly care. She was probably under the bed, as that's where her scent was coming from. Nothing could really get past him, save for idiotic birds who decided to fly too far from the reach of his claws. He could smell Sera's mother's scent from where he sat; hear birds flying to their nests and dogs barking in the distance; feel the tiny, quick scurryings of ants and squirrels outside; taste the air from inside and knew it would rain by morning. 

The scratchy call of a turkey vulture as it found some dead animal on the roadside for its flock to feast upon came to his ears. He could sense everything, and knew Slash could too, but he felt pity for Sera, who would forever be blissfully ignorant of the subtle sounds of nature, the sounds of all hearts beating in time as he lay upon the edge of sleep. He wouldn't trade a single second of this noisy world he lived in, however lonely it made him. 

For in that noise was true beauty that one had to live in oder to experience. Maybe that was why she was taking a walk in the forest: to attempt to understand the world in which all things came to his ears, as natural as breathing. The world was a beautiful place, despite humans trying to conquer every last scrap of land rightfully belonging to nekos and all creatures big and small.

Whatever the reason, she had spoken to him, and he felt compelled to reply to her words, yet none would surface to him for a while. During that while, he sat still, and stared at the floor, wondering how human minds worked. Then something came to him. 

He whispered it, not wanting to risk her mother hearing, "Why are you doing this?" he looked up at her, wondering the question himself. He wasn't injured when they met, like the case of Slash. So why was she doing this, hiding something labelled as an enemy to mankind in her closet, as if he were a regular, cat kitten and her mom was allergic to cats. "Do you not know the stories about nekos like me?"

"Uh, no actually. I haven't really ever talked about nekos with anyone. My dad didn't like them."

He had the most random urge to be pet at this exact moment. "The stories say nekos like me are killers... and that no one should try to tame them and we should be killed before we kill any humans," he looked at her again, red-brown eyes kind of... sad. His tail flicked with his sudden change of emotion. It was weird to him, feeling human emotions like grief and sadness. With a sad but dead-serious look he asked, "Do I look like a killer to you?" If anything, I'm a healer, not a fighter.