We decided to bring those kittens home.

Well, more like, Leo coaxed me into it with his pleading gaze. He agreed to hold them in his hands as we walk, and it’s not like he didn’t enjoy a walk full of the kittens’ playful gaze. Earlier I taught him to whistle, and ever since, Leo had been occasionally whistling to tease those fur balls.

There are four kittens, in all. All of them is white in color, and they have a mark or a spot or a smear of color somewhere on their small body, except one. That one is just plain black. It had no marking whatsoever, and it seemed solitary. Its siblings don’t seem to play with it either…

We decided to go home by foot. Since, I don’t want the loud meowing of kittens disrupt the other passengers on the bus. Besides; we have to stop by a pet shop to buy grooming necessities for kittens.

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We got home after getting the most urgent supplies for the kittens. Leo is extremely delighted of his new friends, he more than happily help me set up a corner in the living room for the kittens’ bedding. He got so attached to them; I literally have to order him to go upstairs so that I could get him to change clothing.

He even listened well when I told him I have to cook us dinner and that he is not allowed to disturb me. Without putting on his usual sad look whenever I told him that we should be apart for a bit, he simply went on his way to sit next to the kittens’ bed and play with them. My house is filled with adorable meowing and Leo’s occasional whistles.

Without Leo anywhere near my range of movement, I could swiftly prepare dinner for us. A hearty dinner, even. As we went out earlier, I call in for my housekeeper and she did a lot of shopping for me. There were a lot of fresh food in the fridge; I could make us a hefty sum of dinner consisting of various Mexican foods. I could even make us a simple fruit pie, enough just for the two of us.

I drag Leo away from his new pets for a bit and told him to eat. I taught him to eat tacos, and he—as he always is—still ate messily. He ate happily though, and he had learned to clean up the mess on his lips with a tissue paper, so I no longer have to do it for him. Still, out of habit, I reach out to him and fix him up. We ate in a delighted mood; I no longer remember the events that made me cry my heart out a day ago.

Leo finished more than half of the dessert I made him—he really seem to like the custard I made that I didn’t have the heart to take my share, half of the pie. So as usual, I let him take half of my portion, which he would finish in minutes. “You really like that pie?” he nodded fast with traces of custard still on his fingers and lips. I giggled, reaching out to help him clean his hands and face. “Pie over cookies?” he pondered for a bit as I wiped his hands, before slowly nodding. “I’ll make more for you tomorrow then. Would you like that?” he tried his best to pull his lips up in the widest smile he could, and he nodded repeatedly to show his excitement. His eyes sparkling bright.

“But first, we have to check on your wounds, Leo.” His expression stiffened to my words and he kept still, clearly gulping. “I know you hate that I have to clean your wounds, but we’ve been doing this everyday right? Come on. I’ll give you more fruit pie tomorrow if you agree,” he looked up to me in his sad puppy-like eyes as he always do whenever we have to go on a bandage changing routine. His wounds heal a lot faster than I expected, though. When I checked yesterday before going to the amusement park, even the festering flesh on his chest had shown a rapid pace of growth in both new tissue and skin. Still, he disliked this activity more than anything.

But when I think of it, he disliked whenever I took off his clothes. He seemed more cautious whenever a lot of his skin is exposed to air, and he seemed a bit jitterier about it either. It made me wonder, now that I realize… his keeper, his cruel keeper might’ve taken his clothes off for torturing purposes. It could explain why his old clothes are minimally damaged, unlike his body.

I took his hand in mine and gently pull him towards his room, now proceeding gentler than ever after realizing things a little too late. I still distract him with anything he likes, of course, so I gave him the black kitten he had grown attached to. That kitten is very calm, even when Leo squirmed and writhed as I undo his sweater, then on to the bandages.

The wounds on his arms are gone. The flesh and skin had grown back together; the only thing that’s left to know that his arms was once wounded is the gore looking scar it left. I trailed my fingers gently around the scar, making sure that it had really healed. “You healed,” I muttered. As he didn’t show any sign of understanding my words, I pointed it out to him and he seemed shocked himself. “You don’t really know the wonders of your body, do you?” he tilted his head in confusion and slowly shook his head, still trying to digest my words.

As I proceed to the large festering wound on his chest, the condition is almost the same. But since this wound was the largest and the worst of all, it still hasn’t healed completely unlike the rest of the wounds. I have to clean this one the way I always do, and Leo still dislike it. Same goes to his back, smaller wounds are gone except for the deeper wounds that still shows the shape of a wounded flesh. I bandage his torso nicely and put his clothes back on, then let him off to play with his pets as I tidy up.

Well that was odd. How could a human being heal so fast?