Pass 2 - Shoalsandsuch
Sylvie Lushton was the perfect girlfriend. She was smart, the kindest person Loki had ever met, had a wicked sense of humour, and a great taste of music. She was everything Loki could ever want, and more. She was beyond his wildest dreams, perfect in every way.
Except for the demon she kept as a pet and insisted on calling a cat.
Alioth was a mangy grey alleged cat. No one knew how old he was since Sylvie adopted him from a shelter, but he appeared older than time itself. For all Loki could tell he hadn’t even started his current colour, but had just completely greyed. Sometimes he wondered if the demon was immortal, living off of spite and hatred.
Loki had never had a pet, but based on what he could tell from movies they were supposed to be friendly! A companion even! But Alioth seemed to be anything but, at least to him.
Around Sylvie he put on a facade of sweetness but the second she turned her eyes, the creature’s true nature was revealed. He terrorized Loki constantly, scratching at his skin, chewing up his belongings, throwing up in his shoes. Sylvie seemed to be completely oblivious to his reign of terror, dismissing his actions as accidents. Loki knew otherwise though. These were no accidents, this was a coordinated reign of terror.
So when Loki woke up to a mouthful of fur he knew he would be receiving no sympathy. Sure enough as he reached for his face he found Alioth laying squarely on his face. With a distant giggle he felt the cat lifted off of him.
“Good morning,” Sylvie said with a smile, cuddling Alioth in her arms.
She was still dressed in her sage green pajamas, her tawny hair pulled back in a loose side braid, as Alioth nuzzled beneath her chin.
“Morning,” Loki grunted, coughing up a mouthful of fur.
“Poor cat,” Sylvie sighed, “he must have gotten lonely last night. It’s so sweet he decided to cuddle with you.”
“Cuddle?” Loki huffed, “he was trying to suffocate me!”
“That doesn’t sound like my sweet boy,” she said, cuddling the cat closer, generating a chorus of purs from him. Loki wasn’t sure if cats could be smug, but he certainly appeared so as he mewled at Loki.
Loki couldn’t believe Sylvie was abandoning him with his sworn enemy for the weekend. No matter how many times he asked, or quite frankly begged, apparently there was no way she could bring the cat with her on her work trip, so Loki was stuck cat-sitting.
Grumbling into his coffee, he watched Sylvie grabbed the last of her things.
“Maybe this will be good for you two,” she said as she pulled her suitcase to the door, “finally give you a chance to bond.”
“Bond?” Loki huffed. “You’ll be lucky if he doesn’t murder me without you to keep an eye on him.”
Sylvie gave an exasperated head shake, “I really don’t know why you think he hates you so much.”
“Because he behaves while you’re watching him.”
Sylvie rolled her eyes, “just feed him on time, give him some cuddles, it’ll be great!”
Whatever protest Loki was going to make was lost as she pressed her lips into his. Pulling away she smirked, “I have a plane to catch, but I’ll see you two tomorrow.”
As soon as the door closed behind Sylvie, Alioth turned to him and let out a sharp hiss. Loki glared back at him.
Walking over, he knelt down to meet the cat at eye level.
“Listen here you little feline terror, for the next two days you are going to behave.”
Alioth stared at him, his green eyes tightening before he promptly began to pee all over the floor.
Loki let out a growl of annoyance.
“Seriously?” he groaned as he stomped off to find the paper towel.
Cleaning up Alioth’s mess, Loki washed his hands and redirected his attention back to his office. Despite being a Saturday, he still had to do a bit of work he had to finish. Pouring himself a fresh cup of coffee he made his way to his desk. Laying out his files, he began to scour over the charts. Getting up to grab a pen out of his bag, from the opposite end of the room he suddenly noticed Alioth perched up on his desk, next to his mug with a paw lifted. He had moved so silently, Loki hadn’t even heard him enter.
“Don’t you dare,” he huffed, afraid to move. The cat froze for a moment, before looking at him dead in the eyes and knocking his coffee all over his files.
Loki had to fight back a scream as he raced over to try to minimize the damage.
“Bad cat,” Loki barked at him, as he hopped off of the desk and scampered away.
Mopping up the excess brown liquid rapidly seeping through his carefully crafted work, Loki cracked open the window hoping the air would help them dry.
The rest of the day, his attempts to work were constantly foiled by the cat. Every time he turned his eyes from him, he found a new way to get into trouble. He scratched at the legs of Loki’s expensive bedside table, he buried himself in Loki’s freshly washed laundry covering it in cat hair, chewed up his leather loafers, no matter how high he put things up, or how sure he was that a cat couldn’t possibly get into a cabinet, he seemed to find a way.
By the end of the day, Loki felt exhausted and defeated. Getting into bed for the night, Alioth hopped up trying to take his favourite place laying right on Loki’s face but Loki hoisted him up, placed him outside the bedroom.
“Only good cats get to sleep in the bed, and you are a very bad cat,” he said, slamming the door shut.
Laying back down he shoved a pillow over his ear to drown out his mewls of complaint, and eventually drifted off to sleep.
The next morning Loki couldn’t help but feel a bit bad for the cat. He was relieved Sylvie would be back later, that would hopefully put them both in a better mood. Stepping out of the bedroom into the kitchen, he froze. The apartment was quiet.Too quiet.
“Alioth,” he called, before he realized that would probably make him less likely to come. Instead he opened the fridge, pulled out his breakfast and cracked the can of wet food. The sound usually made him come running, but Loki couldn’t hear the sound of any pawsteps.
Putting the can down, he felt his panic pick up as he started looking around the space.
“Alioth?” he called again, a bit more desperately. Grabbing the bag of cat treats out of the pantry, he shook them and started searching around the apartment.
Peeking under the couch, he wasn’t there. He wasn’t in the bathroom, or their bedroom either. Stepping into the office, Loki’s blood turned to ice when he noticed the still open window from the day prior.
“Shit,” he hissed, “shit, shit, shit.”
Shoving on his shoes, he raced outside and looked around their yard.
“Alioth!” he called, shaking the treat bag frantically, but only the whistling of the wind met him.
Running his hand through his hair, he tried to straighten his thoughts into something rational. But it was difficult against his rising panic. Opening his phone Loki typed in the first number he could think of.
“Loki,” his brother bellowed from the other end of the line bellowed, “what’s up man?”
Thor wasn’t exactly a problem solving genius. But he was Loki’s only family member who still lived in town, and all of his friends were also Sylvie’s friends so they would want to immediately tell her Alioth was missing. So his brother would have to do.
“I lost Alioth,” he stammered into the phone.
“You lost what?”
“Sylvie’s cat, Alioth.”
“How’d you do that?” Thor questioned.
“I left a window open. Thor, I have to find him. Sylvie loves this cat, he means everything to her. If I lose him….” Loki trailed off, his mind flashing through the worst case scenarios.
“She wouldn’t break up with you over a cat,” he encouraged.
“Break up with me? No, she’s going to kill me.”
“Loki.”
“Actually she’ll kill me, resuscitate me, then kill me again!”
“Loki!” Thor bellowed, “you need to breathe. Maybe we can find him. I’ll ask if anyone has seen him on the community facebook page. Why don’t you do a lap around the block?”
Loki nodded. Despite seeming hopeless, he couldn’t think of anything else to do so he started walking. He looked high and low, but all he managed to find was a series of questioning looks from his neighbors for shaking his bag of cat treats so hard he sounded like a walking maraca.
“It's no use,” he texted Thor.
After a few moments Thor responded with: “Don’t worry, I’ve got an idea. Meet me at my place in like an hour.”
Loki figured he should ask Thor for some details about what this “plan” involved but he was desperate he decided he would take any help he could get.
Continuing to look around, eventually he made his way to Thor’s place. Knocking, Thor swung the door open, holding a small grey cat. Relief rushed through Loki at the sight.
“You found Alioth” he cheered, leaning towards the cat.
“Not quite,” Thor smirked. As Loki got closer, Loki noticed that this cat’s coat was smoother, and its eyes more blue then Alioth’s were.
“What is this?” Loki demanded.
“A replacement cat!”
Loki stared at him blankly, in shock. Trying to comprehend his words.
“A copycat if you will!” Thor continued, looking very proud of himself.
“Oh my god,” Loki grumbled,“Thor!”
“What? It’s the perfect plan! She’ll never need to know!”
“She’ll be able to tell this isn't her cat!” Loki hissed, growing increasingly annoyed.
“How? They look identical!”
“No they don’t! Even I can tell this isn’t him!”
“Well,” Thor huffed, “you’re always telling me how annoying her cat is! This one is way better! It's like an upgrade!”
“Thor!”
“And the shelter doesn’t take returns!”
“You adopted this cat!”
“For you!” Thor said, holding out the very confused animal who blinked up at Loki and let out a small mewl.
“I don’t want it!
Their argument was interrupted by Loki's phone ringing. At a glance he didn’t recognize the number, but it at least broke off this conversation so he slid it open anyway.
“Hello?” he barked into the phone.
“Hello, is this the gentleman with the cat?” a meek voice answered, “From the facebook?”
“Oh, yes,” Loki said, forcing his voice to calm down remembering Thor’s post.
“This is Mrs. Davis, from Hart street, and I think your cat might be in my tree.”
Loki’s heart soared with optimism.
“Thank goodness,” he sighed, “Thank you so much for calling. What’s your address?”
“147 Hart Street.”
“I’ll be right there!”
Hanging up, Loki looked at Thor still holding the grey cat out for him.
“Someone found Alioth. The actual Alioth, not that imposter.”
“What am I supposed to do with this one!”
“I don’t know,” Loki said with huff, "figure it out!”
Racing out the door, Loki jogged the few blocks to the Davis’ home, keeping a close eye on the time. Sylvie’s flight would be landing any minute, but if he grabbed the cat now, he could still make it home, get the place cleaned up and she would never need to know anything happened.
Finally he made it to his destination. Mrs. Davis was already standing in the front yard waiting for him, she was dressed ready to garden with a large floppy hat and rose covered apron.
“Mrs. Davis?” Loki asked as he approached her.
“Oh hello,” she said with a bright grin, “you must be the man with the cat?”
“Loki, yes.”
“Well,” Mrs. Hart planted her hands on her hips. “I was working in my garden, tending to my prize winning azaleas when all of a sudden I heard a hissing sound coming from my tree. I didn’t get a good look, but I was sure I saw some grey fur and a tail!”
“Well that sure sounds like him,” he managed a half laugh, “Where is he now?”
“Still up in the tree.”
Loki glanced up at the massive oak tree and let out a sigh.
“I can call the fire department, although it may be a minute before they can get over here,” Mrs. Davis offered.
Loki checked his watch again and realized that he couldn’t afford to waste any time waiting.
“It’s okay,” he said, “I’ll go and get him.”
Grabbing a hold of a knot in the tree Loki pulled himself up, and began to climb. It was an awkward, rough climb, resulting in a number of scratches and scrapes, but eventually he could make out a shape of grey fur perched in a branch above.
“Here kitty,” he called, clicking his tongue to try and summon him.
Pushing himself higher, he leveraged his step onto a branch and was finally close enough to grab him. Reaching out for him, a tail swung into his face. Loki barely had time to question the black stripes on it, before the animal whipped around to hiss at him and Loki found himself face to face with a racoon. Stumbling back in shock, he lost his foothold and went tumbling to the ground, hitting a series of branches and twigs before landing on Mrs. Davis’ azaleas.
Everything hurt, as Loki stared at the sky. He could still make out the shape of the very angry racoon hissing at him through the branches.
“My azaleas!” Mrs. Davis’ cried once the ringing in Loki’s ears stopped, “You… hooligan! Look what you've done!”
Letting out a groan, Loki forced himself to push himself to his elbows.
“I fell.”
“Onto my azaleas!” She huffed, “And you didn’t even get the cat!”
“Not a cat,” Loki started to brush off the azalea petals from his back, “that was definitely not a cat.”
“This is what I get for trying to be helpful,” Mrs. Davis threw her hands up in defeat, “no good deed goes unpunished.”
Shaking her head, she gave a last pointed glare to Loki, “now get off my lawn before I call the police for property damage.”
Forcing himself to his feet, his body ached in protest. Giving another glance at the time on his now cracked phone, if he didn’t head home now, Sylvie would arrive with both him and the cat gone. And that would be even worse.
His entire walk home, he continued to scour the neighborhood for even a glimpse of grey. But as it got darker, it was basically impossible to see.
“No luck with Mrs. Davis,” Loki texted Thor on the way..
“So is operation copycat a go?” Thor responded.
Before Loki could reply, he saw Sylvie’s cab pulled into their driveway. Loki dropped his head, trying to find the words to tell her what had happened.
“Hi,” Sylvie gave him a wave, as she pulled her suitcase out of the trunk.
Loki gave her a half wave.
Treading up to him, she planted a kiss on his cheek.
“I missed you,” she beamed.
“I missed you,” Loki said honestly, “how was your trip?”
“Exhausting,” she sighed, “I’m so happy to be home.”
As Sylvie stepped up to the door, and pulled out her key, Loki felt a lump form in his throat knowing he was about to break her heart, when she was already exhausted.
“Look Sylvie…” he started, “I need to tell you something.”
“Mhmmm,” she said as she pushed in her key, “just let me get settled, then we can talk.”
Rubbing the back of his neck Loki forced himself to keep talking even though his mouth wouldn’t form the words.
“It’s just, well you were gone, something happened, and it was my fault, and I know that…”
Twisting the key in the lock, Sylvie gave him a questioning look.
“What I’m trying to tell you is that Alioth…” he said as Sylvie pushed through the door.
Flinging the door open, the two of them were met with the most beautiful sight in the entire world. Alioth sitting right at the door, peering up at them with bright eyes.
“... is right here,” Loki exhaled.
Without thought he surged forward and scooped the cat into his arms. Despite his mewls of protest, he peppered the cat with kisses. Any resentment he once held for him evaporated under his pure relief in seeing him there and unarmed.
Sylvie stared at the two of them, her brows creasing in confusion,
“I’m glad to see you two had some bonding time while I was away,” she laughed..
Giving Alioth a small head scratch, she went to put her suitcase in their bedroom. Once she was out of sight, Loki quickly looked at him. He looked pristine, not a speck of dirt or scratch on him. He must have never even left the house, Loki realized. A small part of him was annoyed by all the misadventures he had gone through trying to find him, but a much bigger part of him was relieved that he didn’t actually lose Sylvie's cat.
“You must be hungry…” he said carrying the cat to the kitchen. Getting out his dinner, there was a knock on the door.
“I’ll get it,” Sylvie called.
Hearing the door click open, Loki recognized his brother’s voice and a distant mewl. Sending the realization he hadn’t responded to Thor crashing over him. Scooping Alioth up, he scrambled into the hall, where Thor was greeting Sylvie holding the same grey cat from earlier.
“Sylvie!” Thor boomed, “You’ll never guess who…”
Loki desperately lifted Alioth above his head, waving him to catch Thor’s attention. Thor’s lips curled into a smile as he noticed him, before looking back down at the cat in his hands.
“I got-” he finished his sentence with a nervous laugh, “as a pet. It’s this cat that I adopted.”
“Oh!” Sylvie chirped, “He’s adorable!”
“Yep.” Thor chuckled nervously, “sure is. Thats why I got him.”
“He could be Alioth’s twin!” she smiled.
“He could, couldn’t he!” Thor said, giving a pointed look to Loki.
“Does he have a name?”
Loki could see Thor’s mind go blank.
“Dog,” he stammered.
“Well that’s interesting. Loki, come look!” Sylvie said, turning to summon him.
“Thor got a cat!” he said feigning surprised, “wow!”
“Sure did,” he smiled tightly, “got this new cat. Forever. I guess.”
“Is there anything else you needed?” Loki said, trying to end the interaction before Sylvie got any more suspicious.
“Nope, just wanted to introduce you to Dog!”
“Well, nice meeting him, have a good night,” Loki said quickly, all but slamming the door on his brother.
“That was… weird,” Sylvie commented, once the door was closed.
“Well, that's my brother for you.” Loki laughed sheepishly.
“By the way, what were you going to tell me?” Sylvie redirected, “Outside?”
“Oh yeah! Just that I missed you so much…”
Sylvie gave him a questionable look.
“You said you were tired right?” he said, trying to quickly redirect the conversation, “let's get ready for bed.”
Showering Loki tried to scrub as much of the scent of sweat and azaleas off of his body, before joining Sylvie sitting in bed in her pajamas chewing on her lip intently reading something.
“Anything interesting?” Loki asked as he laid down next to her.
“Some hooligan smushed all of Mrs. Davis’ azaleas. Isn’t that awful?”
“Terrible,” Loki said too quickly, “who would do such a thing?”
“I don’t know,” Sylvie said, her face turning stern, “maybe the same guy who posted about looking for an old grey cat this morning.”
Loki froze, before cringing.
Sylvie gave him an unimpressed glare out of the corner of his eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” he rushed out, “I left a window open, and I thought I lost him, so I spent the whole day looking for him. But then it turned out I hadn’t lost him at all. I know I messed up but…”
“Loki,” Sylvie hushed, “I’m not mad.”
“You’re not?”
“It was an accident. Alioth is a sneaky little cat, I can’t count the number of times I’ve been sure I lost him. I’m just upset that you felt like you needed to hide it from me.”
“I just…” he sighed, “I know how much he means to you.”
Taking his face in her hand, he brushed her thumb along his cheek.
“You mean a lot to me too.”
Loki leaned into her touch, his body flooding with warmth and relief.
“And I could have saved you and Mrs. Davis’ azaleas a lot of trouble by telling you he likes to hide behind the dryer.”
Loki let out a small laugh.
“That would have been good to know.”
With that, Loki pressed a kiss onto her lips. Laying back into bed, Alioth jumped up onto the bed and curled into his pillow, right above his head.
“I can move him,” Sylvie offered.
“I don’t mind,” Loki said honestly for once. At least this time, he wasn’t planted directly on his face.
“Good night,” Sylvie said.
“Good night,” Loki echoed.
With that he drifted off to the sound of Alioth’s purs, mixed with Sylvie’s gentle breathing. There was no more perfect sound in the world.