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“It doesn’t matter how much faster it is, Puss! It’s too risky! If we got caught, it would add on a full day of breaking out of prison. That is not faster .”
“But that’s only if we get caught, and we won’t! We--”
“You don’t know that!”
“--have done so many riskier things, this would be a walk in the park!”
“There isn’t a single reason to think that it won’t go wrong.”
“Your route would have us walking for so long we would be tired by the time we arrived!”
“We’ve walked farther to get water. We’ll be fine.”
“If we are chased on the way back, we will have to run all that bit farther just to lose them!”
“We’re not going to be chased on the way back!”
“Oh, so now it is not risky!?”
“That’s right.” Kitty crossed her arms, fuming. “Chases have never been a problem for us before, and that’s not going to change now.”
“That is exactly what I said about the faster way!” Puss sputtered and gestured with his paws. “The only difference is that risk is your way!”
“And it’s ‘my’ way because it’s the better way!” Kitty said sternly, pacing around their cabin. “It’s safer, it’s less risky, and we won’t be captured on the way in.”
“And it is going to cost us hours of sneaking around, all during which we could be exposed!” Puss threw his paws up into the air. “The quicker it is over with, the safer!”
“That’s not how it works, Puss!”
“Says who!?”
“Says me!”
“Wait!” Perrito interjected, hopping into the air between them to catch their attention. “Why don’t you just split up and go your separate ways? Then you can both take the path you want.”
Kitty looked away, trying not to groan too pointedly.
“The whole point is that we work together for the heist, Perrito.” Puss murmured, trying to put aside his frustrations for the moment.
Perrito blinked as gears clicked together in his head. “Oh, wait. That wouldn’t work, then. Nevermind.”
“Yeah, just like your ‘quick in-and-out’ plan wouldn’t work. We’re doing it my way, and that’s final.” Kitty stomped her boot on the wooden floorboards.
“Hey! That isn’t fair! We need to come to an agreement on this, and you need to figure out why the faster way is clearly better for both of us!” Puss argued.
“I said it was final!” Kitty yelled.
“So that’s it, then? You say it is final, and it is?” Puss shouted.
“That’s right!” Kitty yelled back.
“Fine!” Puss said, crossing his arms to match hers.
“Fine!” Kitty crossed her arms tighter.
Puss stomped away to the front door of the cabin. He slammed it behind him without looking back.
Perrito took a deep breath. Their first big argument since the Wishing Star. This was going to be… something.
“Ugh!” Kitty groaned frustratedly, pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace. “Why can’t he just see that this is the better way!? It doesn’t need to be this difficult! If he could just--” She sucked in a breath, and stopped pacing.
“Kitty?” Perrito asked gently, sitting by her boots.
“Mierda.” Kitty whispered, covering her paw with her mouth.
Perrito led her to the nearest armchair. “What is it?”
“Perrito, what have I done?” Kitty whispered, covering her eyes with her paws as her ears flattened.
“You had a fight?” Perrito answered.
“I yelled at him! Why did I do that!?”
“Because you were frustrated. It’s not unusual to do that.” Perrito consoled, confused. He was missing something here.
Kitty stared into the flickering flames of the fire.
Perrito startled with how reflective her eyes were all of a sudden. “Kitty, are you crying!?” It took a lot to push Kitty to tears. Something was up.
“I just--I--he--” She wiped her eyes and stopped blinking in an effort to stop crying. “I don’t--”
Perrito had a feeling that the reason she wasn’t finishing her sentences wasn’t because she didn’t know what words to use, but more like she thought it was stupid or embarrassing. It might help if he could figure out what it was and say it for her, to save her the trouble. Then they could talk from there, right? Yeah! That might be good.
Let’s see. Kitty’s main problem was always trust related, right? But this didn’t really seem like it could fall in that category. What else could it be? Oh! The wedding! Puss ran from the wedding, and that really hurt Kitty. Maybe this was related to that? But Puss didn’t run, he had just gone outside. And slammed the door. But he was going to come back eventually.
But they technically didn’t know that, did they?
Perrito knew that, but maybe Kitty wasn’t sure right now.
“He’s not going to leave you, Kitty.” Perrito tried.
Kitty buried her head in her knees.
Bingo.
“I just ruined it, didn’t I?” she mumbled, muffled through her fur. “I ruined it, and now it’s over.”
“It’s not over!” Perrito chirped, hopping up next to her in the plush armchair. “He just went outside to cool off, like you were doing inside. That way when he comes back, you guys can figure out what you were arguing about together again.”
“But I…” Kitty sniffed. “I should have just agreed with him. I just didn’t want him to get hurt.” Her voice was strained. She still wouldn’t let herself cry freely in front of them, but something was better than nothing.
“That’s sweet.” Perrito murmured. “I’m glad he has you looking out for him. But I don’t think going along with everything he says will do either of you any favors.”
Kitty shivered.
“I mean, what if he says he wants to get swamp gruel, but you hate swamp gruel, but you say yes anyway? And then the whole time you’re at the restaurant you’re trying not to puke and he can tell you’re not happy but can’t figure out what’s wrong because you won’t talk about it? And then he decides it must be because you’re not happy with him, so then he gets super sad, and then you’re both sad when you could have just gone to the BurgerBoy next door!” Perrito cried out exasperatedly.
Kitty snorted. “Been reading those books at the dentist’s office again, have you?”
“They’ve been getting wild lately!”
Kitty sighed. “I get your point, but I just--” She swallowed and turned her head even further away from him. “I just always feel like if I mess up, he’s going to leave again.”
A ping of sadness hit Perrito’s heart. Oh, Kitty. “You know he’s not, though, right?”
She nodded a bit too unconfidently for Perrito’s liking.
“He loves you so much, you know. Every time you’re out running errands, he ends up talking about you even though you’re not there.”
One of her ears raised in interest.
“Like, this one time, he was just trying to explain to me how siphons work while he was cleaning people’s fish tanks for quick cash, and he ended up telling me a story about the time you infiltrated a fancy ball with him, and filled your hoop skirts with jewels, and then tripped and launched them--”
Kitty groaned. “Across the room, I know. It was awful.”
“He said it was one of the thirty two times he fell in love with you again, or something.”
Kitty chuckled in disbelief. “What?”
“Yeah, thirty two. I think. The number keeps changing.”
Kitty turned that around in her head for a few seconds. “You must be getting sick of hearing about me.”
Perrito shrugged. “Not really. He did get around to explaining the siphon eventually, you know? And he always looks so happy when he’s telling stories about you.”
Kitty nodded. She let out a deep sigh. “I guess I shouldn’t be worried, then.”
Perrito wagged his tail. Another therapy dog win!
Kitty glanced out the thick glass cabin window, noticing the fading light as the evening transitioned into night. “Puss should come back soon, it’s getting dark. I’m going to start some tea.”
“Ooh! Good idea!” Perrito yawned. “I’ll take a little nap right here until he comes back.”
Kitty nodded, and headed over to the little kitchenette, hopping up onto the countertop. When she clicked the stovetop on, though, she heard a strange little sound. Suspicious, she quickly turned the stove back off and listened. If there was a gas leak or a problem with the oven, they would want to deal with that sooner rather than later.
The sound happened again, but it wasn’t coming from the oven, it was coming from outside. Surprised, Kitty peeked out the window. She didn’t see anything until she looked down. Lo and behold, Puss’s hat, covering the rest of Puss, who was sitting down on the ground leaning up against the cabin.
Crying. He had to be crying. That’s what the noise was.
Oh, no, no, she had made him cry. How could she!? What should she do? Send Perrito out there? No, no, he was sleeping, and really she should be able to do this. Had he been out there crying against the house this entire time? Alone!? Out in the cold?!?
She twisted the handle of the front door, letting it make a sound to warn Puss before she slowly exited the cabin, quietly sitting down alongside him.
The brim of his hat hid his face.
“It’s a nice night.” she said. It was neither true nor a lie.
Puss didn’t respond.
“Listen, Puss, I--”
“I’m sorry.” he interrupted.
Kitty was taken aback by how his voice sounded. She had never heard him hoarse like that before. “What?”
“We’ll do it your way.” he said. After a pause, he added another “I’m sorry.”, with the same wobbliness as before.
“Puss…” Kitty started, aching to tilt his hat up so she could see his face.
“I--I didn’t mean to run.” His voice was getting quieter and squeakier by the second. “I swear.”
A sinking feeling slid down Kitty’s spine. “Did you think I was going to leave you?”
His silence spoke volumes.
“Oh, Puss.” Kitty murmured, scooting closer. “I could never.” She rested a paw on his shoulder to test the waters. He seemed to lean into it, so she slid it behind his back and caught him when he turned to wrap his arms around her. “I was actually in there thinking that you would leave me.”
A mouthful of scrambled protests started pouring out of Puss’s mouth.
Kitty put a finger over his lips, smiling. “Exactly.”
Understanding dawned on Puss’s face, and he took a shuddering breath and buried his face on her neck.
They didn’t cry on each other. Not yet. They weren’t quite there yet, but they would be someday.
“Do you actually want to do it my way, or were you just agreeing to agree with me?” Kitty asked him gently.
Puss let out a heavy sigh into her shoulder. “Safety first.” he muttered.
Kitty smiled. “Thank you.”
Puss started to pull away.
“We don’t have to stop hugging just because our argument is resolved, you know.”
A sly grin slid over Puss’s face, and he dove back in to his previous position.
The two of them stayed like that until it was dark and cold outside. Then they went inside, warmed up with some good tea, and snuggled together the exact same way in bed.
They did the heist the slow way. They both made miscalculations. Kitty had underestimated how exhausting the journey would be, and Puss underestimated the amount of security the place had. In the end, though, they were both glad they had chosen the path they did. When they all worked together, no problem was too big to handle.