Yep, I finally did it! Was supposed to be out on Monday but the universe is against me so it’s here now :D And along with a pic I drew, hope it makes up for the wait :P
Make sure to check out @qookyquiche‘s Kittens!AU doodles on which this is based ;)
Also, thanks to @rachel3003 for reminding me of this AU again :D
A few raindrops dribbled down onto the sidewalk as Alya gently adjusted her grip on the box. Marinette glanced up and saw Alya smiling down to her. It didn’t really help but it was nice to know Alya looked after her the whole time.
Because to be honest, Marinette was pretty scared. She missed he mother and her siblings and the further Alya went the further she would go away from everything she formerly knew. As excited as she had been before, this was terrifying. None of her siblings had returned yet after being taken by a human and now that she understood what that meant she wasn’t so sure about wanting to go with Alya anymore. Sure, she smelled good, her fur was groomed, she looked decent and nice but would she be alone with Alya now? Would she ever see her mother again? Would she ever see the human family again with which she had lived?
She started mewling and pawing the grid the best she could, while trying to maintain her balance. Immediately, Alya kneeled down and her face appeared in front of the grid, looking worried. Marinette tried to get to her, propping herself up on the grid that was parting them, continuing to meow loudly.
“… Marinette-…”, Alya said a few times, with human speech in between, sticking her fingers through the grid to brush through her soft fur. Marinette soon discovered that she could play with Alya’s fingers, trying to catch them before Alya would pull them away again. Marinette was so caught up in her game, concentrating on trying to chew on Alya’s fingers, that she didn’t even really notice Alya had begun walking again, now entering a streetcar to bring them somewhere else. The human got distracted a few times, giving Marinette the opportunity to bite into her stilling fingers, before she would earn her attention again and lose the fingers.
Like this she didn’t even realize they had reached Alya’s apartment, up until she put the crate down to pull out the jingling thing most humans owned. The door opened and Marinette cautiously but curiously stepped closer to the grid to try and decipher any different smells but the full load of Alya that she got.
She must live here, Marinette thought as a wall of her soft scent washed over her nose because Alya lifted up the crate again, carrying her in.
The apartment was small and cozy. Alya lived alone, Marinette decided, because there was only her scent and a homely feeling that was only there when the owner was home. Well, she did smell another few people but the scents were faint and almost unreadable. The most prominent out of the weak other person’s smells was a male but she couldn’t find out more.
Alya put the crate down on a thick carpet in the middle of the biggest room, probably her living room since there was a couch. Then she opened the crate and sat down in front of it.
“… Marinette?”, her voice had changed inviting, almost unsure.
The little kitten cautiously held her tail a little higher than her back and her ears turned with each little noise she heard. Was it okay to step out? After all, Alya’s scent was so prominent, was she allowed to be here? But Alya had brought her here so…
A hand appeared in front of the crate, turned upwards in an invitation. When Marinette still didn’t take it, the hand turned over to brush over the carpet, almost digging. Marinette’s playful predatory senses won.
She bolted out, catching the hand and pinning it to the floor, laying down in its palm to chew on the base of the thumb. She heard a little yelp, then a laugh but didn’t think too much of it. She was focused on punishing her prey for being too inattentive so she didn’t even notice the other hand starting to pet her while Alya laid down on the carpet, grinning all the while.
When Nino came by for the first time Marinette had already lived with Alya a few days.
Living with Alya had been fun and relaxing up until now. She always had Alya’s attention when she wanted it and if not, she played with the toys she had brought for her or the scratcher that stood in one corner of the room.
As far as she knew Alya was one of the younger humans, without a family yet and just starting to live a life. Because of that she was often able to stay at home with Marinette because she spent much time in front of the sometimes glowing, warm thing on her desk that she pounded her fingers on in a calming pattern. It sounded a little like rain when she did that.
And Marinette just loved laying down on the warm thing, especially when Alya sat in front of it. It was one of the things that smelled the most like Alya, like the bed, but this one was warm itself! And it smelled weirdly good, Marinette couldn’t describe the smell.
Maybe a little harder than pillows, yes. And a little sharper than the kitchen counter.
Alya always removed her from there, though. The first few times had been fun and Alya had merely poked her to get off while the glowing thing that stood tall was doing weird, fast things.
However, as Marinette had done it more often since it was warm and she wanted to be with Alya she had either held her off in the first place or just immediately put her down on the floor again.
So Marinette had decided to climb up on Alya’s leg when she was working and curling in on her lap. There it was warm, too, and she even got patted sometimes while definitely being close to her human. Her human.
Marinette scrunched her nose as she once again went for Alya’s shoes that were in the hallway, carefully and silently since Alya could peek out of the kitchen and catch her at any time.
The memory on her mother and siblings were faint but still sometimes taunting her. And the human family her mother and father had stayed with were and even weaker breeze of the past but still present. Though, Marinette liked it here.
With her human. She considered Alya her human. That was good, right?
Marinette chewed on a shoelace, her tail excitedly stretched up while she thought about that. But she didn’t get far, since a knock on the door startled her.
She immediately jumped up, running towards the kitchen to hide between Alya’s feet. She just laughed, put away her apron and scooped Marinette up, walking to the door.
No, no, wait!, the kitten tried to signalize her, that thing is making weird noises! Don’t go there!
But Alya either didn’t understand her or ignored her, since she already opened the door. Marinette stilled as she smelled that male scent she had noticed at the beginning. Her ears were firmly stretched up, curious to how he would look.
This human had a red cap over his very, very short fur. She immediately decided that she liked him. He smelled so much like the glowing, warm thing Alya always used and his smile was gently and sincere. His eyes immediately made contact with Marinette’s and he grinned, lightly waving while Alya said something.
“… Nino…”, that must be his name! It was a nice name.
Marinette mewled, stretching out of Alya’s protective and warm embrace to welcome this new person. He stepped in, talked to Alya and pulled his shoes off, then they all went to the living room and while Alya returned to the kitchen to continue doing human things the new person, Nino, sat down on the floor with her. He hesitantly stretched out a hand, grinning when she smelled on it. Yes, she liked him, because his fingers had the same hard, sharp warmth lingering on their tips as Alya’s. His hand suddenly turned and she jumped lightly out of surprise but stayed curious to what he was doing. The hand flicked here and there, the fingers moving so tauntingly, so fats, she could-… She could catch them…
Marinette opened her blue eyes widely while her pupils shrank to slits, then she crouched down. His hand lightly stilled, hinting to jumping away since it twitched but staying where it was.
The kitten followed every movement with her eyes before suddenly jumping forward, catching the hand. It didn’t stay long in her grip, though, since that Nino person pulled it away and let her chase after it. As she had caught it a little more often Nino switched to a mouse toy Marinette liked, letting her play with it while going into the kitchen to Alya.
Playing on her own quickly became boring so she followed him after a few moments, sitting down in the doorframe and watching the humans. It was weird.
They seemed to dance around each other, laughing too loudly sometimes, even doing the thing with the red in their furless cheeks. Were they mating? Were they not mating?
Marinette tilted her head a little when Nino’s hand went up to the back of his head after Alya said something, then he leant against the counter in another corner.
This time it really frustrated Marinette that humans neither had a tail nor moved their ears to communicate, then she would’ve understood what they were saying. But this was just weird. They acted so differently with each other than with her. So differently even than Alya and the mother of her old family.
She was confused so she let out a frustrated mewl and began trudging towards the humans who didn’t notice her at first but then the Nino one picked her up and began brushing over her fur so gently she snuggled deeper into his arm that he kept on his chest so that she wouldn’t fall and closed her eyes, quickly falling asleep.
When she woke up she wasn’t in Nino’s arms anymore. And the room was no longer illuminated by daylight but by a dimmed lamp in the corner that Alya liked to turn on when she was watching the other glowing thing in the evening. There were a few people speaking and music playing but they sounded somehow off. Marinette got up and stretched, lightly meowing in the process.
Immediately, the background noise stopped and she saw Nino’s head appearing over the armrest of the couch. He grinned and said something in his smooth voice, then Alya appeared beside him. Marinette looked up to them, walking up to the couch and propping herself up on the side to get up. She tried clawing into the fabric to hoist herself up but a pair of hands lifted her. Her tiny claws got stuck in the fabric of the couch’s seating area where she had tried to climb up and a gentle hand unhooked them. Then she found herself in the warm embrace of the two humans while the sounds of people speaking and music playing resumed.
She briefly checked that it was the glowing thing that smelled sharp but didn’t stand on the desk and didn’t have the clicking thing attached to it. It was boring, though, so she pushed against Alya’s arm with her muzzle, wanting to play. Alya provided her a little playing by lowering her hand to Marinette’s level on top of the blanket and lazily moving her fingers that were stretched upwards, so that Marinette could catch them. When she bit too hard, though, Alya pulled away and gave her a soft push in her side, causing her to roll over and bump against Nino’s leg which was automatically the next victim.
She heard the humans laugh and suddenly, there was something underneath the blanket!
The kitten jumped at it, trying to catch it but it moved away. She raced after that moving, hidden thing but it once again vanished and popped up on another place! She mewled, chasing after it once again but a second thing poked her from behind before vanishing.
This play went on for a bit before she was able to trace the moving thing to Nino’s arm which was underneath the blanket. Apparently, the moving thing was his hand then.
She gaped up at the traitorous humans, her tail swishing.
All she tried was protecting them from the dangerous thing right beside them and all it had been was their own body?
You tricked me!, she cried, tiny meows escaping from her muzzle as Alya already giggled.
They cooed something and then talked to each other as the moving thing appeared again. Marinette’s indignation was immediately forgotten at the new threat. So she jumped at it, trying to catch the moving thing again, mewling when she failed.
I’ll protect you, Alya!, she promised.
Until the moving thing revealed to be Alya herself. Then Marinette lifted her head high up and tried stalking off the couch, deeply disappointed in her humans. Tricking her into thinking they were in danger…
A pair of hands caught her midway and lifted her up to be snuggled against a stubby chin. She pawed at the attacked until she understood that it was Nino. So she snuggled into the embrace, starting to purr as she rubbed her head on his chin. It was so scratchy and comfortable and she could get scratched on the best places where fingers were too soft so she purred louder as he rubbed his chin between her shoulder blades, causing a giggle from Alya.
The evening ended in Marinette falling asleep on Nino’s neck since he leant back to allow his hands to be free again and let the kitten rest a bit more.
What Marinette didn’t know was that Alya had of course taken a picture to keep that memory for her humans. So she was naturally surprised to see herself hanging on one of the walls in a weird, scentless, flat and smaller version one day.
