#levicat

"He's not fat," Petra insists when Hange brings up the cat's weight gain. "He was just so skinny when I got him that he just looks like he's fat now." From her lap, Levi seems to agree with her, the tip of his tail curling slightly as Petra scritches behind his ears. Hange understands Petra's stubbornness; he was her first pet, and he had been a scraggly looking thing when she had taken him in. It was only natural that someone as sweet and kind as Petra would want to spoil something that pitiful looking, even if the cat was a huge grouch and wouldn't let Hange lay their head on Petra's boobs when he was around. Hange doesn't press the matter, and doesn't comment later on in the evening when Petra lets the cat lick the dregs of the bowl of ice cream they had shared earlier. Hange has studied Petra long enough to know that there were better ways to fight this battle.

Their opportunity to strike comes later in the week; Petra had an overnight business trip, and of course, Hange was more than willing to come in and stay with Levi for the night. It was actually pretty cute how Petra doted on the cat--she loathed the thought of him having to be alone for more than a few hours, or maybe she was just afraid that he had separation anxiety and would tear the place up and piss everywhere. Maybe it was a bit of both. Regardless of the motive, it was a good long stretch of time to follow the cat around with her phone, recording the cat's antics through the day. It was mostly clips of him giving Hange the side eye while he searched the house, likely looking for his missing mistress. There was a routine, and the cat knew it. At 5:15 in the afternoon, Petra would return and pour him a bowl of food. At 3:00 in the afternoon, however, it was Hange opening the door, and his dinner didn't arrive until 5:45. At around 7:00 in the evening, in spite of his initial spiteful behavior when they first arrived, Levi began to nudge at Hange's hands, determined to get some sort of attention before the evening was up. Shortly after, at 8:34 in the evening, Hange captures the perfect video of the cat bending over himself to lick his rear, futilely trying to grasp at his chub to help keep himself in place as he meticulously licked himself. A few minutes later, the video was edited and uploaded to Facebook, shared without a second thought. By around 9:30, the usual crowd had checked their pages and had liked and commented on the video slyly named "my pet's pet!!" Secure in her attack, Hange takes her book to bed, and Levi follows her, curling up at her feet and glaring at her.

At 6:45 the next morning, Hange receives the first text from Petra since early yesterday afternoon.

fine, i'll buy him a bag of diet food before i come home