back next"Hiiiii Salem!!!!" Daisy cooed excitedly as soon as she spotted him. She and Dirt had had a shift together, so he thought it would be as good a time as any to let her meet the elusive catboy. He was in cat form, sitting on the back of the couch in a little loaf. His eyes were wide as he examined the new person.
"This is Daisy, my coworker I told you about!" Dirt explained, petting Salem's head.
"I've been really looking forward to meeting you!" Daisy said, clasping her hands together. She was sort of baby-talking, as if she were just talking to a normal cat.
"It's alright, bud, you can be boy form. She already saw a picture of you," Dirt said sweetly.
"Mrrrow....." Salem meowed cautiously, standing up and arching his back in a biiiig stretch. Daisy stepped forward, and held her hand out to Salem. He gave her knuckles a couple of sniffs, and then jumped off the couch, and hastily trotted into Dirt's room.
"He's a little shy around new people...." Dirt explained awkwardly, "Lemme go see what's up.... Excuse me.." He quickly shuffled into his room, shutting the door behind him. At first, he couldn't see where Salem had gone.
"Buddy?" they called out, thoroughly looking around their room. He kneeled down onto the floor and pulled up the blanket that was hanging off the edge of the bed, peeking underneath, to see Salem curled up under there, his reflective eyes wide and fearful. "Hey..." Dirt said softly, holding their hand out to him. "Come here, baby. It's okay."
Salem slowly crept out from underneath the bed, sitting down in front of Dirt where they were kneeling. "What's wrong? I thought you said you'd meet 'em.." he asked, scratching Salem behind the ears.
Salem transformed, and looked up at Dirt with scared eyes. "I'm getting bad vibes from her..." he said in a hushed voice.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know... I just feel like..." Salem wrapped his arms around himself. "I just feel like she's gonna do something bad.. I don't trust her..."
"Aw... It's okay, baby.. Daisy's my friend, they're a good person!" Dirt tried to assure him. Salem just whined nervously, his tail wagging with alarm. "Hey. I promise I won't let anything bad happen to you, okay?" Dirt said sweetly, gently holding Salem by the shoulders.
Salem looked up at them skeptically, his mouth all scrunched up to one side. "....Okay," he conceded. Dirt smiled, and gave Salem a peck on the lips before pushing himself off the ground, making an old man sound as both his knees cracked. Salem sprung up gracefully and followed them out the bedroom door.
"Oh my god you're REAL!!" Daisy exclaimed.
"Yeap. Hi.." Salem waved awkwardly.
"Wow... This is amazing! Do you, like, know about how many catpeople there are? In the world?" she excitedly asked.
"Umm eye dee kay," Salem shrugged, "Like a lot. We be fuckin'." Salem pushed past Daisy and flopped onto the couch.
"Wow! That's so crazy! How come I've never seen any before?" she wondered.
"Well we are kind of a secret.. Like even Brian was never supposed to know about me it was just an accident. You better not spill the beans, by the way," Salem answered. He was clearly peeved, lashing his tail violently against the couch.
Daisy giggled. "I won't spill any beans," she said as she awkwardly hovered above Salem.
"Um. Can you sit up so we can sit too, dude?" Dirt asked as politely as he could muster.
"Whatever...." Salem sighed dramatically as he sat up, pantomiming exhaustion. Daisy and Dirt sat down next to him, Daisy taking the middle seat which clearly had Salem even more on edge. There was so much tension in the room, and Dirt's anxiety was starting to rise. He didn't want to put Salem in an uncomfortable situation like this, but he didn't know what he could do at this point. Just kick Daisy out? She had just gotten here!
"So...." Daisy awkwardly droned, placing their hands on their knees. "What do you usually do all day? Do you.. work somehow? Haha.." It was obvious she could feel that Salem was not very comfortable with her presence, but she also didn't really know what to do about that.
"I do porn," Salem stated. "It's pretty fun or whatever.."
"Oh!" Daisy's cheeks turned pink and Dirt almost laughed out loud.
"Yeah so thats mostly what I do all day. And play video games and stuff," Salem continued.
"Oh, video games! I like those! Which ones are your favorite?" Daisy asked, relieved to have a subject change.
"Ummm y'know, like Minecraft... Undertale.... Sims.... Hunie Pop...." he listed.
"Hunie Pop? What's that?" Daisy asked, oh-so-innocently.
"Porn game," Salem replied nonchalantly.
"O-oh.." It looked like Daisy's soul had left their body. "Well uh.. I like those other ones! Haha... I also play TF2, God of War, Dead by Daylight.. Ever heard of any of those?"
"No."
"Oh." Daisy awkwardly cleared her throat, and Dirt sighed, slumping over onto the arm of the couch.
Salem did a big, dramatic yawn, stretching his arms out. "Well, I am pretty tired since this is usually when we go to sleep," he said, passive aggressively. "So you probably want to leave now." He stared her dead in the eye.
"Um..." Daisy squeaked, glancing over at Dirt, who had no idea how to react to the situation. He was sort of just frozen there with a stupid pokerface. Salem continued to stare her down, managing to be surprisingly intimidating for his small stature. His tail was puffed up, and his ears were flat against his head in anger. Dirt half-expected him to growl or hiss.
"I.. I'm sorry, did I do something wrong?" Daisy asked, looking between Salem and Dirt frantically.
Dirt tentatively put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry dude, sometimes he just gets like this..." he tried to assure them. Salem stood up and trotted away, quickly vanishing into Dirt's room, closing the door behind him. Dirt sighed, scratching the back of his neck like a shitty anime boy. "I uhh... Sorry. He's kind of unpredictable.. It took him a while to warm up to me, too!"
Daisy chuckled dryly. "It's okay, it's not your fault.. To be fair, it's kind of typical cat behavior, isn't it! It's just... really jarring when it's.. A guy. Hah.."
"Heh, yeah.. It's just kind of his nature, I guess. Sorry about that.." Dirt again apologized, despite already having been told it was okay and not his fault.
"No worries, man! Uh.. Should I... get going, then?" Daisy uncomfortably asked.
"Uhhhhh......" Dirt sighed, and dragged his hands down his face. "I mean.. We could like, go somewhere else and still hang out?" he suggested.
"No, that's okay! I uh.... I have things to do today, anyway, so. Yeah, it's okay, really!" Daisy said politely, all smiles and platitudes.
"Oh. Alright, then..." Dirt walked them out the door, waving goodbye as she drove away. I guess she doesn't really like me, then. She only wanted to hang out to see Salem... Dirt sighed and went into his room, where Salem was scrunched up in a ball, looking at his iPod touch. "Hey buddy," they said softly, approaching the bed.
Salem just let out a little "Mm.." of acknowledgement, not looking up at Dirt, his eyes focused on the screen in his hands.
"Thought you were tired?"
"Mmm.. Kinda. I just wanted to get out of her.. wretched presence," he said with a shutter.
"Pfft.. Well, she's gone, now. She just wanted to come to see you, so they just sorta skidaddled as soon as you left." Dirt laid beside Salem and put an arm around his shoulders, kissing the top of his head. Salem started quietly purring, leaning into Dirt's embrace.
"Well I'm pretty sleepy," Dirt said quietly. "I'm gonna hit the hay."
"Lawl 'hit the hay'... Okay, loser," Salem teased. Dirt just rolled his eyes and stood up to change out of his work clothes and into some comfortable sweatpants and an old loose-fitting t-shirt. Grabbing his blindfold, he got under the covers, and Salem quickly put his iPod away and snuggled up to him.