I ended up staying pretty late over at the Moon's place. Halloween passed by a few days ago, but since trick or treating doesn't really happen in this neighbourhood, Miss Moon had an overabundance of candy that had to be gone through. It's been days, and we only just managed to finish sorting it out tonight.

By sorting it out, I mean eat!

So much candy... I'm on a candy hype, and it's probably not healthy for me to have had so much chocolate, but I'm a er for anything Reese's. Good thing I don't have the cat problems when I'm humanized, otherwise this amount of chocolate would definitely be life threatening!

Humanized me means I get human problems instead. Cat me gets the cat problems. So long as I don't eat the human food while I'm a cat, or vice versa but that's less detrimental and more weird than anything, I'm all set and healthy!

It was past midnight before Jongup finally pulled up on my sidewalk to drop me off. He probably wasn't going to sleep for a while, he'd had way more candy than me, but I wanted to get back home to my cats rather than pull a potential all nighter over there. Feta and Gouda are very cuddly, very needy, and I hadn't told them I was spending the night with Jongup, just that I'd be gone a few hours for dinner. If I stayed the night when they were under the impression I would return sometime soon, not only would I be a filthy liar, they'd possibly kill me.

Kill me with cuddles, that is. Trying to lay right on top of my face while I'm sleeping, thick fur clogging up my nostrils and throat. Both laying on my chest and preventing good air flow. Not even cat form would save me. They'd plop right on me with no ing cares.

“Let me know when you get home,” I said to Jongup as I slipped out of the van, purse slung over my shoulder.

“Got it, dude. Let me know when you're inside and the doors are locked,” he returned.

“Will do.” Once I shut the door, he was off. As I walked up the pathway to the stairs, I fumbled with my keys, holding them up to make sure I had the right one. I only had two, one for my apartment and the other being a spare key to the Moon's house, but I like to know beforehand that I'm using the right key.

I'd been so focused on making sure I had the right key that, after I carefully took the cracked concrete steps, I nearly tripped and smacked myself against my screen door at an obstruction my foot hit right in front of my door. “What the ...” I mumbled to myself, rubbing my foot and inspecting the porch.

What I'd ended up almost tripping over was a pumpkin of moderate size, cracked open right in front of my door. A growl rumbled in my throat, a default cat reaction whenever I came across unwelcome vegetables of any kind. I poked at it, turning it over and watching a bunch of seeds and pumpkin chunks spill out from it.

What the hell is this pumpkin doing here? Halloween's over! Pumpkin time is done!

I caught sight of another one a short bit down the porch, about halfway between my door and the door to apartment A. It was past the air conditioner that hung from the window on the porch, so I counted it to be on the part of the porch that didn't belong to me. I was still curious, though, and I took the few steps necessary so I could poke that one, too.

Not as cracked as the one in front of my door, also not as big, but there was still a split down the side.

Okay, so there are two cracked pumpkins of unknown origin on the porch that hadn't been here when I left earlier. When had they gotten here? Why were they here? Had the neighbour decided he wanted pumpkins but dropped them and didn't bother to clean them up? Or had someone decided to just chunk pumpkins on the porch? If so, why the did they do it?

I furrowed my brows in contemplation, glancing around the night suspiciously before slinking into my apartment. Feta and Gouda came clambering from wherever they'd made themselves comfortable and meowed their presence to me while looping through my legs.

“Hello, my kitties,” I greeted, squatting down to give them both pets. Feta propped herself up on my knee and gave me the headbutt of cat love right against my cheek full force. “Yes, I know. I love you, too.” Next thing I knew, Gouda had tried to climb and curl up in my lap, so it's probably best if I take this party to the couch.

With a grunt, I stood back up and made sure I had my triple lock engaged. Top lock, bottom lock, the drawer that was directly in front of the door pulled out. I made myself comfortable on the couch, pulling my sketchbook and pencil bag out for later use. Both cats took the liberty of making sure I couldn't use my lap for anything but making themselves comfortable and sleeping.

Rather than message Jongup that I was inside, I elected to call him. Confusion still plagued my brain at the presence of mysterious smashed pumpkins, and I had to tell somebody about it.

“Hey dude, sorry I forgot to message you. I'm guessing you made it inside okay,” he answered, mouth clearly full and I could only guess that it was more candy. Moon Jongup is a candy eating fiend. He also forgets often to message me that he'd made it home safely, which means I end up messaging him to make sure he made it home fine before I got comfortable for the night.

“Um, you're fine. I figured as much.”

“So is something up? You could've just messaged me.”

“I'm... Well, I'm a bit confused? There are some smashed pumpkins on the porch and I have no ing idea why they're there.”

“...There are pumpkins on your porch.”

“Uh huh.”

“Did you clean them up?”

“No, they're not mine! Why should I clean up a mess I didn't make?”

Jongup made some kind of noise of agreement or acknowledgement or something. “So you called to tell me someone left some smashed pumpkins on your porch.”

“Yeah? It weirded me out, dude,” I said. “Why the are they there? They weren't there when you picked me up earlier, so it had to have happened while I was gone. Part of me thinks the neighbour dropped them on his way into his apartment and just left them there instead of picking them up.”

If so, the neighbour is a slob and needs to learn to clean up after himself.

“What makes you say that?”

“One of them is on his side of the porch. There's one like, right in front of my door, and the other is most of the way on his side of the porch, between the air conditioner and his door,” I explained.

“I mean... it's probable? But what the hell would he want with pumpkins after Halloween? Jack-o-lantern carving times are over, man,” Jongup sighed.

“I dunno, maybe he wanted to make some pumpkin pie?”

Jongup made a disgusted noise. “Gross! Jack-o-lanterns are the only good use for a pumpkin!”

“To you maybe, but other people enjoy the taste of pumpkins.”

Not me, but other people. Other people like the neighbour, I guess?

“Don't see how, they're so ing starchy and weird and-”

I rolled my eyes to myself and scratched behind Gouda's ears after she decided my lap wasn't good enough and that she was going to try to loaf on my chest despite me not being laying down. Halfway draped over my shoulder, purring into the ear that wasn't currently listening to Jongup go off on pumpkins being an F tier vegetable.

“If the pumpkin on my side is still there when I get up tomorrow, I'll clean it up,” I sighed out once Jongup's rant was done. “But I'm leaving the one on the neighbour's side of the porch. It's on his side so he can deal with it.”

“Sounds fair to me.”

--

It's time for some early morning sunbathing!

I may not be a morning person, but I am a morning cat. And the way the rays of sun hit that porch window are always the best. As I settled into the window, my eyes stared at the pumpkins still on the porch. Another instinctive growl rumbled through my throat because PUMPKINS.

F tier vegetables, left on MY porch. Taking up space. Once I'm charged up for the day, I'll clean the one in front of my door up. For now, I'll stare at it menacingly because I can't be bothered yet.

As I'm loafed up on the inside windowsill, glaring fire at the smashed pumpkin, the neighbour stumbled out of his apartment. Yawning as he locked up his apartment and adjusted his bag, stopping in his tracks once his eyes scanned over the pumpkins on the porch. He looked as confused as I felt when I came across them last night, so I guess these heathen vegetables didn't belong to him.

He nudged the one on his side with his foot. Based on the frown that graced his face, the neighbour must have a distaste for pumpkins as well. Neighbour man grabbed the pumpkin on his side, carefully balancing it in the crook of his elbow, but rather than just leave, he tiredly approached me. “Do you know where these came from?”

I meowed because nope. But even if I did, it's not like I could tell him. Why is he asking me when I clearly can't answer him?

“Do they belong to your owner?”

I meowed again, offended, because NO.

Clearly, he caught onto the distaste in my meow that turned out more yowl than anything. Holding up his free hand in surrender and adjusting the pumpkin that was in the crook of his other arm to sit more comfortably. “Guess not if one of his cats looks like I just insulted their entire existence. My bad.”

Stretching out of my loafing position, I guessed I could forgive the accusation. After all, I had thought that these pumpkins belonged to him when he clearly had no love for the orange lumps of vegetable either. “I wonder where they came from then...”

You and me both, neighbour man.

The neighbour shrugged. “I'm only getting the one on my side. Whoever C is can clean up this one.” He motioned at the smashed pumpkin in front of my door with his foot, and that seemed fair. I'd decided the same thing last night, just vice versa. “Have a good day, kitty. I've got to get to work.” Then off he went, down the cracked concrete steps, disappearing around the corner before returning sans pumpkin to load up into his car.

Work, huh. I wonder where he works at... If it's somewhere in town, I wonder if I've actually met him before while he was on the job. Or maybe he worked in the back somewhere and was unable to interact with customers?

Wait, why am I curious about this? I shouldn't be curious on knowing more about the neighbour! I'm dead set on never meeting him!

I didn't wait too much longer before humanizing and throwing on some clothes to start my day as a person. Which included the tedious task of cleaning up the pumpkin from my side of the porch. Definitely the hardest of the two to clean because while the one on the neighbour's side of the porch just had a hefty split, mine had cracked pieces and pumpkin guts spilling out.

With my cats watching from the window and music blaring from the phone in my pocket, after picking up the pieces of smashed pumpkin and carting them to the outside trash can, I had to take to the porch with a broom. Flicking pumpkin seeds all over the place with frantic jerks because the seeds stuck to the porch in dried pumpkin bits, and I regretted not cleaning this when I'd gotten home around one in the morning last night.

Or maybe it would've been just as much of a hassle to clean but I would've been doing it in the dark...

...Yeah, I'll deal with the daylight cleaning, thank you very much!

After scattering pumpkin seeds off the porch, down the steps, and onto the grassy area, I returned back into my humble abode for the day.

--

A/N:

I never did learn why those pumpkins were there...