Statzia walked into her shared quarters, still toweling the sweat from her face. At Emma’s suggestion, they’d met after their duty shift and used an available holodeck to go on a trail run. Emma had heard about the recent updates to her prosthetic that Evelyn had helped to facilitate, and Emma was curious as to the improved response time in the joint after the most recent adjustments. She’d taken several tumbles during the run as her body adjusted to the increased response time, but it was probably the fact that she pushed herself into a strenuous activity so soon after the adjustment. 

 

K’Naut was on an adjusted duty schedule for the evening– overseeing some new diagnostic test they were running, so Statzia was on her own for the evening. After a shower, she’d planned to settle in with dinner and the next module in her command training. She crossed to the cat’s food dish, filling it with the designated amount of kibble, before snagging her crutch and seating herself to remove her prosthetic. 

 

Thunder sat hunkered down under the table. She watched through slitted eyes as the Interloper wandered around the room. She let out a sigh as the peebo set out her food in exactly the wrong way. Well…what the housecat assumed was the wrong way. When Statzia began removing her prosthetic, Thunder was so surprised, she nearly opened her eyes fully. Did her servant know that his pet came apart like that? Maybe if he knew, he’d get rid of it.

 

And where was her servant? He was usually here when the Interloper was around. Come to think of it, this peebo had been spending a lot more time here since the evening they had stunk up the place. Thunder wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Her tummy chose this moment to rumble.

 

The cat rose and stretched luxuriously. She slowly walked to her food dish and gave the contents a sniff. They appeared to be adequate. But instead of eating, she sat and glared at the Interloper, tail twitching.

 

When Statzia went to take her shower, Thunder waited until it was clear the human would be gone for a while, then began to eat. She grudgingly admitted that the food was fine. Probably due to her servant training his pet well. 

 

By the time Statzia returned from her shower, Thunder had curled up next to the fire in the hearth-nook, pretending to be asleep. 

 

Statzia exited the bathroom, her braids tucked up into a satin cap and her crutch under her arm. She made her way to the replicator, calling up one of her favorite meals, but one that made K’Naut fuss about the particular smell. Given his enhanced senses, he’d probably say something about the smell lingering, but he would just have to live with her snail steak curry every once in a while. 

 

She hopped her way to the table, setting down the bowl. She took another couple of hops to the desk, filtering through the small pile of PADDs to find the one with her command training modules on them. As she settled into her chair, she mused about how surreal it all was– married, back on a starship, on a command track to boot. She pulled up the next unit on the PADD and dug into the curry with her fingers. He’d probably fuss about her smelling like curry, too.

 

Thunder lifted her head and sniffed. What was that smell? It offended her senses. The cat stood and stretched. She turned her head back and forth, nose crinkled with her mouth open slightly, trying to locate the source of the offensive odor. There, she had it. And, of course, it was the Interloper.

 

She stalked toward the table. When Thunder saw that Statzia was reading from a PADD, she knew exactly what to do. The cat jumped up onto the table and planted her paw on the PADD. She had discovered some time ago that touching certain parts of the device guaranteed a strong reaction from her servant. Then, she began pushing the disgusting bowl toward the edge of the table.

 

Statzia’s gaze lifted as the cat lifted a paw, planting it squarely on the power button and turning the PADD off. “Hey!” She placed a hand on the device just as Thunder redirected her attention to the bowl. Statzia’s quick reflexes had her reaching out quickly, catching the bowl before it reached the edge of the table. 

 

She switched her bowl to the other hand, putting it out of reach of the feline. She scowled. “Well, aren’t you in rare form tonight.”

 

Thunder glared at the Interloper for a moment. Then, with all the indifference she could muster, the feline sat, lifted one leg into the air, and began to clean around the base of her tail. On the table. Where Statzia had been eating. The Interloper wouldn’t recognize the depth of the insult Thunder was giving her, in all likelihood, but it made the cat feel better.

 

“Nope. Not on the table.” Statzia reached forward, grabbed the cat in both hands, and dumped her on the floor. She wrinkled her face, looking down at the cat. “Do you do that when we’re not in here?” She made a face of disgust, picking up her bowl in one hand and her crutch in the other, having recently lost her appetite. “I’ll have to talk to K’Naut about cleaning the table before our meals now.”

 

As soon as Statzia touched her, Thunder gave a warning growl. Outraged, the cat shot across the room and climbed to the top platform of her cat tree. She glared at the Interloper from her perch. 

 

Statzia placed the bowl back in the replicator and set it to recycle the remnants of her dinner. She sighed. “You know, I had a cat once. His name was Pickles. Scrawny, mangy thing I rescued.” She hopped her way on one crutch to the table. “He loved nothing more in the world than to stretch out on the navigation console of my shuttle and nap.” She paused, lingering at the table, remembering the day she’d wandered down a dark alley and found the creature with its head in a jar. “That, and beg at the replicator for jellied greel worms.”

 

She picked up her PADD, making her way to the hearth nook. She piled several cushions together and settled down with the PADD in her lap. “K’Naut could probably tell me what you’re saying. I’m not sure I’d like what you are trying to tell me right now.”

 

Thunder ignored her.

 

Some time later, K’Naut quietly slipped into his quarters. He removed his boots by the door and dropped his work vest and belt on the chair of his desk. He pulled his uniform shirt over his head, transferring his combadge to the waistband of his pants before shoving the filthy garment into the ‘cycler. It was time for the annual inspection of the ship’s entire EPS system.  He’d spent hours crawling through the Jeffries tubes. It was surprising how filthy the tubes were, so he ordered his team to clean as they performed their inspection. He stepped toward the head to take a shower.

 

He paused to smile at Statzia, who was dozing in an uncomfortable-looking position in the hearth-nook. Her PADD, held loosely in slack fingers, still displayed one of the command training lessons. He was about to wake her, knowing that she wouldn’t appreciate the aches created by sleeping that way, when he heard a sound behind him.

 

He turned to see Thunder staring down at him from the top of the cat tree. 

 

“What are you doing up there, kitten?” he asked. She rarely climbed that high, being rather less athletic than her ancestors.

 

<your pet tried to kill me>

 

Though K’Naut almost automatically translated the cat’s communication into words in his head, she wasn’t using words. Her utterances were given as expressions of emotion combined with descriptive imagery. So ‘your pet’ was given as a depiction of K’Naut holding the leash of a contemptible creature and  ‘tried to kill me’ was an expression of the relief that a great personal threat had come and gone without doing any harm.

 

K’Naut spoke to Thunder in Federation Standard, which she generally seemed to understand. He could use her form of communication if he needed to, but he found that trying to force his thoughts that way gave him a headache.

 

“How did she try to kill you?”

 

<taste the air>

 

K’Naut sniffed. The lingering odor of the curry made him wrinkle his nose. He glanced over at his sleeping bondmate and shook his head. He turned back to the cat.

 

“She wasn’t trying to kill you,” he said. “That was her dinner.”

 

<it was going to eat that?> Thunder added emphasis by making her face look disgusted. She was the only cat he knew that used facial expressions that way.

 

K’Naut chuckled. “I wouldn’t eat it either, kitten.”

 

<that is not funny. I demand you get rid of it>

 

“Feisty, aren’t you?” K’Naut replied. Then he switched to her speech to be sure she understood.  <she is here to stay, Thunder That Frightens One’s Foes. you are just going to have to get used to it>

 

Thunder stared at him for a moment. Then she turned away from him and curled herself up to sleep.

 

K’Naut sighed. He went over and knelt next to Statzia. 

 

“Z, wake up,” he said. He knew better than to touch her to wake her. Leftover reflexes from her past life made it dangerous. She had nearly broken his wrist once.

 

“She fusses over my dinner choice,” Statzia said, her eyes not opening, “yet she is the one bathing her nether regions in the middle of the dining table.” She wrinkled her own nose. “And neither of you get to comment on the smell of my dinner when you smell like the underside of Engineering.” She gave a smirk, cracking one eye open. “I heard you come in, but I was going to pretend I was still asleep.”

 

K’Naut grinned at her. “I see how it is,” he said. “I stink, eh? Maybe I’ll go to bed without a shower.”

 

He backed away from Statzia’s raised eyebrow.

 

“What’s this about you getting up on the table?” he asked, turning his attention back to Thunder. 

 

<one must defend oneself> the cat replied loftily. 

 

“And cleaning yourself?”

 

<it had to be punished>

 

K’Naut sighed. “We’ve talked about this. Do I need to turn the zapper on again?”

 

Thunder flattened her ears and responded sullenly. <no>

 

He leaned to give Statzia a brief nuzzle on the cheek before going to clean himself.

 

Statzia waited until K’Naut had walked into the bathroom and closed the door before sitting up. She turned towards the cat, who had her back to Statzia. “I don’t like the sound of the zapper, either. If we’re going to have to live together, could we come to some kind of truce?” The way that K’Naut always talked to Thunder made her think the cat would understand what she said. It was worth a try, anyways.

 

Thunder stared at Statzia for a moment, then began to slowly climb down from her perch. The cat casually crossed the room to sit just out of Statzia’s reach. She began cleaning her face.

 

K’Naut emerged from the bedroom, which he’d converted into a hydroponic and asomatic bay, wearing only a pair of light sleeping shorts. He carried a bowl heaped full of salad greens. He stopped midstep when saw what was happening. He stayed close to the wall as moved around to sit next to Statzia. 

 

“That’s her thinking activity,” the Caitian murmured to his bondmate. “What happened while I was showering?”

 

“I asked her if we could come to some kind of a truce.” Statzia absently ran her nails through the fur along his arm. Since their bonding ritual, she’d kept her nails filed into points. “I know I’m coming into a space she previously claimed. I just want to be able to live in peace. Maybe the occasional ear skritch, if she’ll let me.” 

 

K’Naut fished a cube of raw shrimp from his salad and handed it to Statzia. “Try giving her this.”

 

“And you two complain about my dinner.” She said with a chuckle. Pinching the raw seafood between her fingers, she rolled onto her side, extending the offering to Thunder. 

 

The cat stopped her bath to glance at the piece of shrimp. She stretched her neck out to sniff it. She delicately took the shrimp in her mouth and backed up to wolf it down. Then, she approached Statzia’s hand to sniff the human’s fingers.

 

K’Naut handed Statzia another piece of shrimp.

 

As she extended the shrimp, she reached her free hand back to K’Naut, slipping her fingers into the soft fur along his jaw. She smiled, noting the brief, soft rumble in his exhaled breath that he insisted was not purring–Caitians did not purr. She gently scratched with one hand, her other offering the shrimp to the cat in front of her. 

 

Thunder took the morsel and gobbled it up. She began licking Statzia’s fingertips intensely, as though trying to remove every molecule of shrimpiness.

 

<she’s not so bad. I want more> the cat murmured during a pause to her licking.

 

K’Naut smiled, as much from the feline’s sudden change of heart as from Statzia stroking him. “I think she’s coming around,” he said, handing over more shrimp.

 

Statzia chuckled softly as her fingers found her favorite spot behind his ear and he gave another rumbly breath. “At this rate, I’m going to feed her half your dinner, bondmate.” This time, as she extended the shrimp, she held it closer to her.

 

Thunder didn’t hesitate in getting closer to take and consume the treat. She bumped her head against Statzia’s hand. <more>

 

“OK, but this is the last piece,” K’Naut replied distractedly, because of Statzia’s wandering hand. “You’re going to make yourself sick if you eat too much of this.”

 

He handed Statzia the shrimp.

 

Statzia felt K’Naut lean into her hand, and chuckled softly. “Do I need to stop so you can eat your own dinner?” She leaned back against K’Naut, extending the morsel of shrimp. 

 

Thunder ate the last piece of shrimp before sitting next to Statzia. The cat began to clean her face.

 

Statzia eased herself back on her cushion. Carefully she reached out her free hand and gave the cat a soft skritch behind the ears with her nails. 

 

Thunder pushed head against Statzia’s fingers and began to purr.

 

<she’s better at this than you are, servant>

 

K’Naut grinned and said, “Thunder appreciates your technique, and so do I.”

 

Statzia chuckled. “I would do this a lot more often, if she would let me.” Her hands, in both Caitian and feline, worked around the ears and into the fur of their neck.