Kaz

Kaleb was at a serious disadvantage in this chase. He was far slower on his two legs than the cats four, not to mention that it could run through the crowded streets much faster than him. But it seemed Kaleb had lucked out in that he didn't have to chase the cat far. After rounding a corner he just caught sight of the cat climbing through a pet door to an old condemned building that looked like an amalgamation of a victorian mansion and an apartment at the edge of town.

The front door was boarded up but a quick glance down an ally revealed a fire escape that Kaleb used to climb through a window. The room he found himself in was a fully furnished bedroom that matched the style of the building. It was around this point that Kaleb realized that he was trespassing for donuts… 'well I've gotten this far' he concluded, moving further into the building.

Exiting into a hallway it doesn't take him long to find the stairs. The bottom floor was a bit more open than the floor Kaleb came from, with arches separating the rooms instead of doors. At first he found only three rooms, a sitting room, and dining room with an attached kitchen, but after a second look he found a closed door behind the staircase. 

Opening the door he was met with many surprising sights. It was a study, with bookshelves lining the walls. The room was in much better shape than the rest of the house, lit up with candles and without a speck of dust. It didn't take long for Kaleb's eyes to land on the most surprising thing in the room. Perched atop a pile of pillows and blanket in the room was a young teenage boy with long black hair… and he was eating Kaleb's donuts. And at the same time, just like how quickly Kaleb saw the boy, he saw Kaleb. 

"Who are you?! H-h-how did you get in here?!" he stammered, jumping off his pile. "You shouldn't be here! Your trespassing!" 

"And you're not?" Kaleb counterred.

The boy didn't seem to have an answer to that. Instead he moved on to a new line of questions. "What do you want?" the boy finally asked with slight hesitation. 

"Well I came here to get my donuts that some cat took back" Kaleb blatantly answered.

The boy's face underwent a drastic change at that sentence. Going from angry, to confused and surprised in seconds. "Wait a minute, you followed me all the way here, and into my house?"

Now it was Kaleb's turn to feel flustered, but before he could answer something clicked. 'Wait… he said "you followed ME here"… is he the cat?!' 

"All of that for some donuts?! Are you crazy?" the boy continued while Kaleb was still processing what he had said before.

"You're that cat! The one that stole my donuts!" Kaleb accused, "How is that even possible? What are you?"

At this point the boy gave out an exasperated sigh, threw up his arms in annoyance, turned around, and started walking back to his blanket nest. 

"You know what? I'm done." He said, "Please, see yourself out."

 Decisively ignoring his request Kaleb followed him into the room. "Come on! The least you could do is answer my questions after you stole my donuts" Kaleb practically whined. 

"I have zero obligation to do that," the boy huffed whilst burying himself underneath his blanket pile.

After thinking for a Moment Kaleb came to a solution. "Well, if you answer my questions I might buy you more of those donuts." he lazely said, as if he wasn't almost broke.

That got the boy's attention, as his head suddenly appeared from underneath the pile. He looked conflicted, his love of donuts battling his distrust of others. "I'm listening" he spoke slowly, "but I reserve the right to deny an answer to any question I wish not to answer."  

Surprised by the formal sounding agreement but not perturbed, Kaleb started his questions. "Ok then. First off, what's your name?" 

The boy was genuinely surprised by this. He never expected Kaleb to care about his name. After a moment he replied, "my name is Kaz." 

"Neat, Mine's Kaleb" Kaleb replied, "sooo… what exactly are you? If you don't mind me asking."

Kaz shrugged, "I am a cat. My master was a practitioner of thaumaturgy, I was given a human form through one of his experiments. Before that I was one of the many sentient animals found in Three Portlands." 

"Wow, so I'm guessing this was his place huh" Kaleb thought out loud, "What happened to him?"

"He was subject to the failure of one of his experiments" Kaz answered with another shrug. "The lab is still covered in the stains to this day"

"Gross" Kaleb shuddered, "how old are you anyway?"

"In this life I'm around fifteen, counting my past ones around the fifties." 

"Wait, you have multiple lives?!" Kaleb gasped.

Kaz smiles cheekily "Well the stories of cats having nine lives had to start somewhere. It's rare but some cats, both sentient and non sentient, are occasionally born with nine lives."

'Well that explains why he talks like an old man' Kaleb thought. "Alright here's my last question" he starts, "could I meaby… stay here for a while?" 

"What?" Kaz deadpanned. 

"I mean, I don't really have a place to stay… and you've got plenty of empty rooms... I could help fix and take care of the place…" Kaleb continued sheepishly, getting quieter with each sentence.

Kaz just stared at him for a moment before bursting into laughter. "Youll help fix this place up huh?" He said, "well then how about this, I'll let you say here for a week, and I'll see if by the end of that time your worth keeping around."   

"Deal"