“Come on, guys! It’s starting to rain!” I glanced at the sky in frustration as both my kitties raced a squirrel up a tree. Why did they have to be such good climbers?

“Taehyung! Jimin! We have to go home! I’ll make you guys popcorn and we can watch a movie!”

That got them down and I grinned before I had one Cat-Boy hanging on each arm. “Good kitties.” Taehyung pouted because I’d promised him I wouldn’t call him kitty anymore. What could I do? They were too adorable.

The rain was really starting to come down and we walked faster. Jimin hissed, since he in particular really hated water. As we passed an alley, I thought I heard a cat’s mewl. I looked at my kitties. “Was that you?”

Both of them shook their heads and cocked their ears in the direction of the sound. Taehyung pointed to the alley. “It came from in there.” He tugged at my hand and Jimin mewed at me, wanting to get home and out of the rain.

“Hang on, Jimin, I just want to see what that is.” I could see a shape huddled against a dumpster, and once I saw a tail and pointy ears I knew I was looking at a Cat-Boy. I let Taehyung go first, and he knelt on the ground, sniffing at the huddled figure on the concrete. Even Jimin stopped whining and crouched next to him.

The Cat-Boy was slumped with his back to the dumpster. He had black ears and matching eyes—both were almost swollen shut. His tail was matted with both rainwater and blood, and his clothing was ripped to shreds. Taehyung was shocked into silence and I knelt with them, putting my hand on the injured Cat-Boy’s shoulder.

He flinched at my touch and shrunk away from all of us. “What’s your name?” I asked quietly over the hollow sound of the raindrops falling faster and faster into the smelly dumpster. He shook his head and didn’t answer.

“It’s all right, kitty.” Jimin scooched closer. “Riseul's really nice.”

The Cat-Boy’s mouth moved and I put my ear closer to his lips. “Y...Yoongi.”

“Yoongi. Okay Yoongi, we’re going to help you up, all right?”

The boy only shook his head and whispered for us to get away. His master would find him and take him home.

That was my first clue. Master?

I ignored him and gently took his arm. Taehyung and Jimin helped out until the Cat-Boy was standing, leaning onto me for support. One of his legs was bloodied and he could barely stand. I felt a rush of anger course through me; who would do something to such an innocent creature?

“What happened to you?” I asked. Jimin glanced at the deep gray, rumbling sky, and hissed again at me. “Never mind. I’m taking you home. Come on.”

It took some doing, pulling and bribing, but we finally made it to the house with Yoongi in tow. Jimin held Yoongi’s hand as we dashed inside, and I had to avoid another shower of water droplets as my kitties shook themselves free of the offending wetness. Yoongi attempted to do the same, but stopped when he grabbed his head in pain. I quickly changed into a sweatshirt and sweatpants and went into the living room, where Jimin and Taehyung had laid Yoongi on the couch.

I bent over the Cat-Boy with a towel and wiped his face clean, noting as I did that instead of a bracelet, he was wearing a collar that was less a collar and more a choker with metal spikes on it. You could barely make out his name stamped on it. I put band-aids on the cuts on his face, and then turned my attention to his torso, removing what was left of his shirt. He grimaced as the material slid over the grazes on his skin and I gaped at the amount of scars all over him.

He fell asleep as we bandaged him up, and Taehyung lent him some clothes. Taehyung and Jimin curled up next to him, instinctively knowing he needed comfort, and Yoongi grasped each of their hands in his sleep.

“We’ll keep you safe, Yoongi.” Taehyung promised him. He and Jimin fell asleep a moment later and I watched them all fondly.

I decided to sit with them, and turned the TV on low so as not to wake them. The rain outside turned into a full-blown storm and I snuggled against Jimin’s soft tail, which twitched next to my cheek. I was just falling asleep when a clap of thunder jerked me, and my kitties, awake. Suddenly I had three frightened, mewling Cat-Boys huddled all around me; Yoongi in particular couldn’t stop shaking, making me wonder if something had happened involving thunder or loud noises in the past.

I patted each of them on the head and gave Yoongi an extra squeeze, telling them that it was just a storm and everything was okay. Yoongi wrapped his arms around me and put his head on my shoulder. He still wouldn’t say what had happened to him, but I was glad he felt safe around me.