December 19, 2013

Cookie was gone.

Gone as in vanished from Tao's pillow in the middle of the night. Gone as in no longer visible to the eye. Missing. Off adventuring without informing anyone. Being a mischievous scamp.

Running out into the corridor, he glanced one way and then the other. Lay was kneeling down, peering into the shadows beneath the curled, regal legs of a small table. Beyond him in one of the rooms, Sehun and Chanyeol scoured a closet, pulling clothes on their hangars from a railing like a two-man conveyor system; Sehun pushing them into Chanyeol's hands, who piled them on the bed.

Baekhyun moved on in his search to find Kyungsoo and Xiumin in the kitchen. Xiumin was gazing into the oven while Kyungsoo pulled out plates and cups from the cupboards, reaching into the darkness to feel for the small black feline.

“Anything?” Xiumin asked.

Kyungsoo retracted his arm. A coat of dust and a wispy strand of cobweb on his fingertips made Xiumin grimace in disgust. Kyungsoo rubbed them together and looked up. “Nothing.”

Chen checked under the cushions on the sofa, looked around and then headed over to the curtains. Cookie liked to bask in the warmth of the radiators when she wasn't demanding snuggles, and she had hidden herself behind the drawn curtains more than once. But she wasn't on the radiators or behind any of the curtains either.

Baekhyun joined Junmyeon and Luhan in searching the dance studio. There was an alcove they used to store equipment. They climbed up on a chair and squeezed between things, calling out the kit's name, but finding nothing.

Kai walked in when they were pushing some of the equipment back into position. “No luck?”

“We have no idea where she's gotten to,” Junmyeon reported regretfully.

Kai shook his head. Baekhyun frowned.

Cookie had never gone missing for this long before. When they went back into the living quarters, all the doors were open, every bed undone and the dorm was practically thrown on its side. None of them could find her, and they were worried that maybe she'd been discovered and kitnapped. Tao was on the verge of tears, calling out the young kit's name as he ripped covers from the bedding and throwing pillows over his shoulder.

“Cookie? Cookie!”

Baekhyun set things down in their correct place with a bit more grace, although he too was worried. He tried to console the rapper but Tao continued burrowing, searching beneath and around everything, like a dog digging a hole in a garden. Cookie had been missing for a few hours now, the only clue being a depression in a cushion that she had jumped on. It looked like she had used it to clamber up onto the back of the sofa, but after that there was nothing.

“Cookie Monster!” Xiumin called loudly.

Chen added his voice to the cause. “Cookie Monster, where are you? Come on, man, this isn't funny. Seriously.”

“Cookie!”

Though the front door was open, there was a knock on it anyway. Onew nudged it wider. “Are you guys high?”

There was a moment of silence.

Onew whistled.

“No,” Kris swallowed. “We, uh … lost something.”

“We lost the Cookie Monster,” Baekhyun supplied helpfully.

Onew blinked at them. “You lost the Cookie Monster,” he repeated slowly. “Okay, well, where did you have it last?”

Chen looked at him, deadpan. “If we knew that, we'd still have the Cookie Monster.”

“Well it has to be somewhere,” Onew said, inviting himself in. “It didn't just get up and walk away.”

“Yeah, actually, it did.”

Onew squinted at them. Obviously he thought they were all mental. Tao strode in, wiping at his eyes, and he asked, “Do you guys need help finding it?”

“Her.”

“Do you need help finding her?” Onew corrected himself. “I can get SHINee in here to help look if you need extra hands...”

Baekhyun knew he was still rather confused, but he offered anyway. The noise was probably bothering them. He looked to Onew's hand and saw him twirling a chocolate stick between his fingers. Oh, so he'd got the short one. That explained it.

Because their manager didn't yet know about Cookie, they really didn't want anyone else knowing about her presence, so they were preparing to tell Onew no when a small black kit scampered through the door, straight up to Tao and mewled.

Tao let out a squeal and snatched up Cookie, burying his face into her sleek fur. “My baby! There you are!”

Onew's eyes softened and dawned with understanding. “Ohhh! You mean she's yours? We were wondering who she belonged to.” He smiled. “She sneaks into our dorm from time to time. We call her Piper.”

“Her name is Cookie,” Tao mumbled.

“More importantly, she's been in your dorm?” Kris asked. “When?”

“Uh … first time she came in was the seventh,” Onew said. “She's been dipping in and out since then. Quite the charmer.”

Cookie purred loudly, melting the hysteria that had wrought the past few hours. A few of them petted the small fluffy bundle of fur, who revelled in the attention. Baekhyun scratched behind her ear fondly while Onew was updated with information regarding the kit.

Nineteen days they had known her and she'd single-handedly made them wreck their own house.

Xiumin was not amused.