Chapter Text
Abbas trotted down the alleyway, their head low to the ground and their mouth open as they tasted the scent of their quarry. They rounded the corner and heard a squeak. Their ears flicked back and they dropped into a crouch, slinking towards their prey. The rat looked up and Abbas pounced, their teeth and claws sinking into the rat as it thrashed briefly before falling limp. Abbas dipped their head and unhooked their claws, picking up the rat by the back of its neck. They made to slink back the way they came, but a sound behind them drew their curiosity. They turned, and still carrying the rat, prowled down the alley towards the sound.
Two male humans were arguing, their rough voices reaching Abbas’ ears from where they approached. One thrust out a hand, something that wriggled caught in the meaty digits. Abbas leaped onto a nearby dumpster, tucking their paws under them and setting down the rat on the filthy lid. Both of the male humans stared at Abbas with a cruel sneer. Abbas untucked a paw and extended their claws, using their rough tongue to wash between them, an unspoken threat to the two males from the wolf-sized feline. The one holding the wriggling thing growled at Abbas as they examined their long, sharp claws. The male stepped closer, still growling as the wriggling thing gave a yell at the increased pressure of the male’s fist. Abbas’ ears went back and they hissed, both at the proximity of the male and at the pain of what was enclosed in its fingers. The paw they had been grooming flashed out across the human's face.
The human yelped and dropped the thing in his hand to the ground, backing away. Abbas leaped down from the dumpster, still hissing, to stand over the suddenly motionless bundle. The male cursed at them but made no attempt to come closer. Abbas dipped their head to the top of the bundle and picked it up by a hood of cloth on its top, the rat of before forgotten. Suddenly the bundle burst into motion, thrashing from side to side as Abbas rose and turned from the two males and began to lope down the alley, quickly vanishing from the two males’ sight. The bundle grew still.
As they rounded the corner Abbas shivered from their muzzle to the tip of their tail, making the bundle shake, at the feeling of something soaking into their fur although they remained dry. As Abbas began to slow, approaching the stretch of alley they called home, the bundle began to thrash again, right up to the point where Abbas dropped it into their nest and lied down to get a better look at it. What they now realized was a skeleton in a red, fuzzy hood began to grumble, with only a few legible words sticking out to Abbas. They mewed gently at it, lowering their head, and again felt something soak into their pelt.
“th’ fuck?” The skeleton’s ramblings cleared into something understandable.
“it has a soul, why isn’t it working?” Abbas purred in amusement, which caused the skeleton to stutter in his one-sided conversation. “yeh can understand me?” The skeleton sputtered. Abbas responded with a gentle headbutt to his upper half.
~le timeskip~
"well this is a purrdicament." Edgy muttered, still processing that the massive pelted animal in front of him could understand what he said. The cat headbutted Edgy again, making him sway on his feet. Somehow he got the feeling that was their version of a groan. He was contemplating the dynamics of a cat even knowing what a pun was when the cat rose. Startled, Edgy, slightly alarmingly, pin-wheeled his arms as he fell backwards into a pile of fluff. The cat sniffed at him, sneezed, and then padded away into the recesses of the city. To put it quite simply, Edgy was confused.
"what" Edgy could only say, even as the cat returned with its teeth-no wait they, they're able to understand him, fuck he needs to ask about pronouns if they have any-tightly clenched in a mass of brown fur.
(being worked on need more ideas)