With a shove of her hip, the door to the building swung open, allowing a hot burst of air to rush over her. Grimacing at the feel of it, she walked forward, shutting and locking the door behind her and sat her coffee cup on the counter that held the cash register. Shaking the rain from her umbrella of sea blue, she latched it shut and set it in the far back corner of the room. Looking around the warm room, her eyes fell on the thermostat, and with an agitated noise, she moved towards it to turn it down a bit. She only kept it this warm in the spring for the customers that wondered in. Today, nobody would come in, they never did when it rained this hard. Jabbing at the button with a disgruntled look on her face, the numbers dropped to 68 degrees. Deeming this satisfactory, she grabbed her coffee and glanced over the counter at the phone, noticing the little red light blinking up at her. Sighing, she slipped around towards it and again jabbed at a button, this time causing a message to crackle to life and play in the quiet room. It was from her friend Amy, asking again about some art opening a few weeks from now, done by some guy, something Drognan. Amy wanted her to go with her, as her girlfriend said she wouldn't.

She only half listened to the drawn out message, part of her thoughts wishing Amy would shut up already, while the other part drifted to the man in the coffee shop. She was used to the stares, people thought she was odd and stood out too much. They looked at her like she carried the plague or something as equally repulsive. But not him... He stared, slack jawed, as if he were completely lost in staring at her. At first, she was startled by his eyes, so dark and fierce, with a faint circle of silver around his pupil. They reminded her of her own eyes in a way. Then she had smiled as she noticed the streak of red paint running along his jaw, mingling with his dark facial hair. It suited him, she thought. As she smiled at him, his jaw had snapped shut and he had twisted back around to face the window. With a small laugh to herself, she had grabbed a napkin and scribbled those exact thoughts on it, and quietly walked closer to him. Dropping it over his shoulder to the table in front of him, the man had been so lost in his thoughts, that he didn't notice at first. As she walked to the door of the shop, he had reached out and snatched up the napkin, reading it. By the time he seemed to understand the words, she had already opened her umbrella and was walking out the door.

Her mind wondered back to here and now as the machine finally beeped, indicating the message was over. Making a mental note to call Amy later and pushing the delete message button, she waited for it to erase before heading to the back of the shop towards a closed door. Shouldering the door open, she absentmindedly stepped over a black hunk of something on the floor. Looking down at it, she gave a small smile before squatting down and reaching for it, letting her fingers bury into the long, soft, silky fur. “Vince, you really shouldn’t sleep right in the walkway. One of these days, I may not manage to step over you.” The hunk of what seemed to be nothing but fur stirred, a set of pointy ears emerging, followed by bright green-orange eyes. They stared up at the woman, as if to say “Yeah, like that would ever happen.” Moving her fingers up to between the cats ears, she gave him a good scritching, causing the cat to purr, which sounded remarkably like an old diesel engine, before standing and moving on. Down the short hallway, she mounted a set of stairs and looked back to see the cat slowly stretching and taking a step forward. The old cat would follow, as always, to be fed his can of wet food. Frowning at the step that creaked on her way up, she reminded herself to call the landlord to see about getting it fixed. Arriving at the second floor landing, she placed her left hand on the railing that curved around to the left, the silver charm bracelet making a soft jingling sound, and lightly trailed it along as she walked down another small hall to the only door on the floor. She glanced over at a potted plant to the right, reaching out to feel the dry looking soil, the bracelet yet again jingling at the movement.. Digging her fingers softly into the soil, she murmured to herself that she needed to set it out to be watered by the rain. After dusting her fingers off on the black pants that hugged her legs and hips comfortably, she reached for the silver knob and turned it, swinging the door open with a soft creak.

Yet again, she stepped over something laying on the floor as she closed the door behind her, barely glancing down at it. Upon the soft swish of the door closing, two more sets of ears removed themselves from the lumps, followed by blue and yellow eyes. “ Well, come on then. Food for all the starving creatures.” Abruptly, the eyes and ears untangled themselves, revealing a large siamese looking cat with piercing, sky blue eyes, along with a smaller, long haired tortoise shelled cat with eyes the color of sunflowers. Smiling down at them, the woman turned and kept walking through the room, which led to a kitchen.

The kitchen was a quaint little thing, filled with more shit than it could really hold, she thought absentmindedly as she took a drink from her warm coffee before placing it on the kitchen table. Glancing at the time on the clock (3:30), she set about pulling three small plates from the cupboard above the dishwasher and three small cans of wet cat food. Popping the lids open, she filled each plate, her mind wondering yet again to the man at the coffee house. It had been kind of nice to feel as if someone were enjoying the way she looked rather than raising their nose at her. It was a rare thing for her, and she would remember it for a while yet. Tossing the last can in the garbage under the sink, she balanced the plates carefully and turned to feed the three cats that watched her silently, tails flicking and eyes curious. “Lyra, Leonardo, Vince,” she named each cat as she gave them their plates, only to be greeted by continuous staring rather than faces being stuffed into food. “What?!” She exclaimed to the cats, resting her hands on her knees, staring back. After a minute of silence, she averted her eyes and stood, giving the cats a huff, “It's none of your business!” Turning and stalking away, she grabbed her coffee and walked from the kitchen to what appeared to be a small living room. Turning on the stereo, the CD in it kicked on and blared it's blissful melody of Eluveltie, a folk metal band, as she kept walking. Kicking off the black shoes that still weighed down her feet, she walked into her bedroom and plopped onto the queen bed that was adorned by blood red sheets. Red like the man at the shop had on his jaw... Shaking her head, she twisted back and around to place the coffee cup on the bedside table before flopping back with a soft sigh.