No sooner had Tyler finished bathing, he went to bed. Once more the wine Tyler consumed did the job of putting him into a deep sleep. If it helped him take away the nightmares, then Lannor would tolerate this habit. It wasn’t like he could help; his inability to use his powers on Tyler still remained a mystery.

Lannor did not join Tyler until the fire died out. Before Tyler’s arrival he’d had been content to spend all his time in his feline form, now he found it depressing. As he pressed against Tyler’s warm body, the need to reveal himself was almost upon him.

Sunday Tyler tackled the living room. Lannor knew the work would be more than a day to do. Almost everything of little or no use ended up in the living room. A storeroom of sorts after Elizabeth left. There were items within the world he did not have time for. As technology grew, he found the delights of a simple life vanished. Lannor could not convince Elizabeth to do without most of the items she brought into the house and she never took them when she left.

As he sat on his hind legs watching Tyler tackle the living room, he hoped his intentions were to throw most of it away or ignore it. When Tyler discovered the small dual knob television in the corner of the room, he took a considerable amount of time adjusting the antenna. After almost an hour Tyler gave up, much to Lannor’s delight. He found the old brown box a distraction and received no pleasure in the vision the screen showed.

The evening once more ended with wine during dinner and a bath. Tyler enjoyed the bubbles while chatting with Lannor in an uncanny manner. Not that he didn’t mind Tyler’s one-sided conversations but his concern grew towards Tyler’s sanity.

Monday was no different though half way through the day Tyler gave up on the living room. With only the sofa and surrounding area clear, everything else remained stacked against the walls. Over this time it did not go unnoticed the attention Tyler gave the device on the counter. More and more often Tyler stared at it in his hand, sometimes misty eyed. Lannor struggled to understand what the device did and more than once considered knocking it off the counter to damage it.

Sadness skirted around Tyler’s appearance. Lannor had seen it in the past in the women he knew, a melancholy that often led to two possible endings, neither of which Lannor relished. No matter what he did he never managed to changed the outcome. They either left or died. Yet, with Tyler it was different, in a way Lannor could not understand. The habit of following Tyler around became a normal occurrence, and he found the longer Tyler remained the harder it was to be separated from him.

Tuesday morning Tyler rose, the dull throbbing in his head painful after drinking the previous night. Not that Tyler planned to become accustomed to drinking himself to sleep, but it helped him to relax and forget the reason he was there. The presence of the cat helped more than Tyler cared to admit and the conversations he had made him wonder more than once if he was going mad.

Like the morning past, the cat slept beside Tyler and after he dressed, followed him down to the kitchen. Accustomed to the systematic routine they fell into, Tyler prepared them breakfast. Two plates always dished out, and the cat was always ready for his when Tyler gave it to him.

The routine allowed Tyler to focus on the present more so than the past. Now away from the pressure his parents often placed on him and the constant hiding of his relationship with Damien; Tyler found with every day passing it was getting easier to let go the live he had. It still hurt to think about Damien’s abandonment, however this was Tyler’s chance to discover himself. Although, he would have liked family and friends beside him as he did.

After breakfast, Tyler informed the cat he’d be taking another trip to town. The cat didn’t seem impressed by baring its teeth at Tyler.

“Don’t be like that.” Tyler rubbed under the cat’s chin to calm him down.

“How about I buy something for you? Maybe a collar.” Tyler had meant it as a joke, however the cat took a swipe at Tyler’s outstretched hand, his claws coming into contact with Tyler’s skin.

“Ouch! Was the necessary. I was joking. No collar.”

Tyler rubbed his arm examining the scratches.

“You’re a nasty thing.” Tyler murmured. The cat seemed to dislike Tyler’s comments and jumped from the counter and left the room.

Tyler laughed out aloud and then frowned as the scratches on his arm ached.

“That cat is going to be the death of me.” Tyler joked as he reached out and retrieved his mobile phone from the counter. A quick swipe of the screen showed no new messages. Although the screen showed a service, Tyler wondered about that, yet he wasn’t brave enough to call anyone. There would be time once he got his head around his new situation. With his phone in his back pocket, Tyler made his way towards the front door and retrieved his car keys and wallet on the entrance stand by the door. A glance around the hall showed no sign of the cat and a smile touched his face as he called out, “I’m going now. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

From a room upstairs the sound of hissing made Tyler laugh out loud. Never had Tyler realised how intelligent cats were or at least the one who lived in the house was. On the drive to town Tyler found his thoughts on the cat and the possibility of buying him something as a token of appreciation for being company. He was the most intriguing creature he’d ever met. Tyler always had a fondness for animals, yet cats he’d been in contact with were never in any way like the cat in the house.

“I should give him a name?” Tyler said to himself. “Can’t keep referring to him as the cat.”

After a moment of thought Tyler gave a small chuckle.

“Better ask him first. He’s likely to be fickle about that.”

Tyler laughed a little louder. Things weren’t so bad.