Chapter One: The Cat on the Ledge
In a small, dingy apartment in a small district in Tokyo sat a young man, painting. His eyes were focused solely on the piece of artwork, working meticulously as every stroke of his brush had meaning and purpose. While the picture had no definite shape to it, it was designed to be so. Paintings sometimes did not create something tangible, but were meant to invoke feelings in the person gazing upon it. The painting had various hues and stroke patterns. The feelings that were put into the piece of art were something akin to annoyance, anger, frustration, and other feelings of the sort.
The young man huffed out an annoyed breath and sat back, studying the picture that held his thoughts and feelings. His lips were set to a scowl. He set down the pallet that held the various hues of paint and brushed his bright blonde hair out of his face. He had a fair face, more defined than most people’s, beautiful bright turquoise eyes, and long blonde hair that reached down to the backs of his calves. He had an odd sense of clothing. He wore a white undershirt with a loose shirt over it with an ugly pattern with a combination of greens, reds, and blacks over it, loose white pants, and black and blue striped socks. He didn’t care particularly too much what he wore, as the young blonde had grown up in a poor life style. He wasn’t unaccustomed to wearing hand-me-downs or living in not nicely furnished places. Besides, clothes are clothes. As long as he had some to wear, he didn’t care very much.
A growl of frustration was released as the young man finally pulled his hair up into a ponytail, as it had been bugging him for some time now, leaving three strands of hair in his face. He picked up his pallet once more and made to start painting a bit more when he heard the sound of a cat. His eyebrows furrowed and he paused, turning his head to looks at the window. A cat was perched outside of his window on the ledge, meowing innocently, as if nothing was truly wrong, and it wasn’t standing on a ledge that it could easily fall from. The young man set down his pallet of paint and stood up from the stool he had been sitting on previously. He walked slowly over to the window and stared at the ledge where the cat had been.
Keywords: Had been.
The young blonde blinked in confusion, eyes narrowed, brows furrowing even more than before. He opened the window and poked his head outside his apartment and looked down at the ground, wondering if the cat had fallen. When he saw nothing, he looked up, only to see the same cat on an even higher ledge than before, staring down at the blonde with curious eyes, meowing again as if it wasn’t in a single bit of danger.
Eyes wide, the young blonde held out a hand and beckoned the cat to him, cooing softly at the feline. “Come on, kitty”, he said gently, before noticing the cat wasn’t budging, “Are you stuck?” The cat meowed again in response. The young blonde cussed under his breath and carefully climbed through his window and clambered up onto the ledge. He stepped slowly and carefully along the thin ledges of the building, trying to get high enough, and far enough over to reach the feline. He slipped slightly and grabbed onto the wall even tighter than before. He stepped up onto an air conditioning unit to balance himself.
Down below, a few cars drove by nonchalantly, not noticing the blonde who was very close to falling to his death. One car in particular though, a seek black western car that was kept in very good condition, slowed down and then braked to a complete halt within a few seconds of steering to the curb. A young redhead quickly clambered out and around the car, looking up at Grimmjow with wide eyes.
“Whoa, whoa”, the young redhead called up to the blonde, reaching into his back pocket, “Hold on for a moment! There’s no reason to do that. My name is Renji Abarai, and I’m a cop.” He pulled out an FBI badge and held it up slowly. “Now stay calm, and we’ll get through this together”, Renji spoke slowly, as if speaking to a small child, “What’s your name?”
“Grimmjow Jeaggarjacques”, the blonde called down, trying to balance himself and look down at the redheaded cop, “But really, there’s no need for that! You see this cat...” He looked up at the ledge above him where the cat once was.
Keywords again: Once was.
Renji nodded with a tense smile. “Yes”, he called back, “And she’s a real beauty, Grimmjow.”
Grimmjow stared down at the cop with a confused look. “The... the cat’s not up here anymore”, he called down in a tone that voiced his puzzlement. Grimmjow watched as Renji nodded one more time and let out a yelp when the air unit he stood upon starting to give way underneath his feet.
Renji’s frame stiffened with anxiety as he started making his way to the building itself. “What’s your apartment number”, Renji asked hurriedly.
“Apartment 206”, Grimmjow yelled down to the cop, clutching on the sides of the building for dear life, “HURRY!”
Renji stampeded through the halls and up the stairs taking three stairs at a time. When he finally reached the desired apartment, he shoulder the door open and ran quickly to the window. He reached out and grabbed onto Grimmjow, just as the blonde was going to fall to his death as his feet slipped. The hauled the blonde back onto the sill before he could fall. Renji looked down as he could hear people who had gathered on the sidewalk cheering.
Grimmjow stepped back inside his apartment, letting out a shuddering breath. “Thanks”, he said taking a deep breath. His head jerked up as the small cat from before ran across the back of his couch. He stared in wonder. How the hell had that cat gotten inside? “That was the cat”, he said.
Renji stared over at the cat in surprise before looking back to Grimmjow. “You weren’t kidding”, he said with a sheepish and apologetic look on his face, “You must be one hell of an owner to crawl out on a ledge for your cat...”
Grimmjow looked over at the cop in surprise, waving his hands in front of himself. “It’s not my cat”, he said quickly.
“So you were rescuing someone else’s cat”, Renji asked in amusement.
Grimmjow opened his mouth to say something before looking at the window and then at the clock in alarm. “s**t, I’m late”, he cursed as the blonde stumbled over his feet and towards the table by his door. He slipped on his shoes quickly and grabbed his stuff, throwing a small bag over his shoulder as he headed out the door. “I’m sorry, but I have to go! I’m going to be late! Please, lock that up when you leave!” He bounded down the stairs, pausing in his rush to look at the redheaded cop that stood outside his apartment now. “Thank you again!”
Renji walked over and picked up a wallet that the blonde had dropped in his haste. He called out for Grimmjow to wait but the blonde had already left. The redhead began to sift through the wallet, trying to discern where to go to give it back. He then turned and closed the blonde apartment and locked it up for him before taking off.
