The first thing Monnayage became aware of when he ebbed back into consciousness was the light, breathing object on his chest. Whatever it was, the warmth it gave comforted him, and the noise it made upon his waking reassured him with its rumbling. Before he even knew that it was Maneki, he felt a sense of relief from the presence.
For some reason his eyes did not want to open, nor did the signals his body sent him make much sense. For one, the smells--besides Maneki's cat-like one--were all wrong. His house did not smell of almonds and desert heat. It almost overwhelmed him it was so strong.
In fact, everything came off stronger. Sounds especially. While Maneki's purr soothed him, it was still loud. The sound of his own breathing, his own heart, even, pounded in his ears and caused a stabbing pain in his head to start.
But wait. It wasn't just his own breathing. Someone else was there. And, as he focused a little more, he could detect something like the smell of . . . blood?
<Yes,> Maneki said, answering his thoughts. While she'd said it as softly as possible, the sudden intrusion of words felt like a shout, a horn that clanged around against the walls of his head, and he groaned.
<Wha--why can't I move? Where am I?> he asked feebly as he tried to stem off the pain in his head. <Who else is here?>
Instead of answering with words, for which Monnayage was grateful, Maneki shared with him what she saw. The cat's vision was slightly distorted, her perception of color and light being different than his own, but he could see that she lay atop him. He was under the covers of an unfamiliar bed. Whatever room he was in, it was small, though decently furnished.
And there, beside the bed, sat a man. Or a boy. Monnayage couldn't tell which, he looked so . . . scrawny.
Maneki turned her head so that he could see the linen on the floor. Through her eyes, the red staining it seemed to glow. It could be nothing but the blood he smelled, and there was a lot of it.
At first he felt worried that it might be Maneki's, or even the lad that sat beside him, but that didn't make much sense. His cat seemed fine, as did the boy's. So then whose. . . . ?
But of course it was his. How could he not have recognized that right away? It smelled like him.
That woke him up a little. His eyes, though so heavy he wouldn't be surprised to find they'd been turned to stone in the night, opened. Vision blurry, he couldn't make out much, though he recognized many of the blurry things from what Maneki had shown him.
"What--nnk!" As he'd tried to move to face the stranger next to him, a bruising pain made itself known on his torso. "Gods!" he said through clenched teeth. What in the seven hells of some unknown religion had happened last night?!