I woke up in a drunk haze sitting slumped over in an alley with cheap beer cans all around me. I felt aches all around my body when I moved. Every muscle feeling battered and bruised.

It was the first time I ever got drunk. Kicked out of my apartment, almost broke and with no place to stay or friends to call, I had given up on the thought of living.

"I feel so fucking sick." I muttered. The acidic and bitter stench of my breath makes me want to hurl. I slowly pushed myself up and tried to get a grip of where I am. I didn't recognize this place. I probably wandered off in a drunken stupor, but couldn't remember from where or why.

But something, or rather someone, stopped me from getting up. As I looked down I saw a woman resting on my lap face down.

"A cosplayer.. pretty old one at that."

She looked about someone in her late twenties, maybe early thirties. Probably a bit older than me, I'd guess. Did I have a fling with her yesterday?

I carefully poked at her neck, but she didn't seem to notice much at all... outside of the ears twitching? 

"No fucking way, right?" No way that those things could be real, must have been watching too much anime. I'm probably just seeing things, eyes playing tricks on me. Yeah, catgirls, if those were real then I wouldn't even be a 2D lover... nah I probably still would be. 

Out of curiosity though I tickled the back of the ear and...

"Wait, they are real?!"

They felt real, they twitched again as I lightly scratched them and even weirder, the woman seemed to enjoy the touch as well.

"Nyaa~"

Am I hallucinating? Have I perhaps died and reincarnated into a parallel universe? This makes no damn sense. But as I caressed the woman laying on my lap, it definitely felt like it was similar to petting a cat. I sat there baffled at what I was experiencing, spacing out. Too busy with trying to comprehend the situation, I didn't even notice I woke her up.

She perked her head up towards me, eyes half closed as she was still not fully awake.

"Hmm?" 

"Ah, sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up."

"Mm..."

She didn't speak, only making grunts and noises to communicate... does she even know how to speak Japanese? How the hell did I even meet her?

She lazily rubbed her head against my hand, seemingly finding the feeling quite comfortable. Maybe it was due to her being half asleep that she was leaning against me.

"More...." She sleepily begged.

I decided to scratch her chin a little. she didn't seem to mind me doing so, and promptly went right back to sleep, pinning me against the wall with her head on my chest.

Still dumbfounded as to if I'm going insane or not, I decided to lean back and fall asleep as well, hopefully this time not waking up...

I often have nightmares, or had, since I suppose this is the last time I will have slept for the rest of my life. In these nightmares it was often that there was a theme of people leaving me, much like how it went in real life. No matter how much I cried, wailed, yelled for help or screamed, there was never anyone to hear me.

I was alone in the void, and I got swallowed.

I have never been good with relations, romantic or friendly. It's always been the case that I have creeped out many people, aside from a couple that I got to know via mmorpgs. I always kept to myself, and as long as I got to be away from others, I usually felt at peace. But it was lonely, knowing that not a single being would care if I vanished.

In the nightmare I would often die that way. Being unsupervised and young, I would find myself getting into dangerous situations, and then when I inevitably died a horrible death due to my mistake. people would look at my body and either look at it in disgust or laugh.

I always felt that that nightmare would come true one day.

...

I felt something wet on my knee as I slowly woke up. With the sun still rising, I guessed it would be around 6-6.30am. I looked towards the strange sensation that woke me up, and found her licking my knee, her tail swaying lightly in the air.

"...What?"

I pulled away my leg instinctively. She looked at me with a mix of confusion and worry, and reached out her arm towards it for what I assume is to keep it in place.

I could see a tiny bit of blood trickling off my knee, it could be that I scraped it earlier when I got drunk. Was it that that got her so worried, a small cut?

"I-it's fine, no need to worry. Just a small cut." I tried to assure her. But it seemed like either she didn't believe me, as she went and stared at my wound again.

Just by her gaze I could tell what she wanted to tell me, and I don't think she'll back out.

"I'll help." she said, as she grabbed onto my leg and continued licking my knee once again. It was a weird feeling, having this random person.. or animal, or something, wrapping her tongue around a cut. It wasn't painful, nor exactly uncomfortable, but it felt weird to me nonetheless.

But I guess it was fine if she wanted to. It's not like I care all that much about what happens to me. Instead, I petted her head as she licked me, which caused her to blush a little.

"Thank you." I said to her. "It means a lot to me."

If only for a little while, I get to see someone that cares about me. It's more than I ever could have wished for.

She licked away peacefully, not minding the taste of blood. I tried to recall what had happened that caused it, whether it was a fall or a fight or anything like that, but my head was a mess. All it managed was to give me a headache when thinking about it. It wasn't worth thinking about anyways, but I guess I didn't want to face the elephant in the room.

Her, where did I find her? How, how did I find a catgirl? Why exactly is there such a thing?

It seemed too much for my head to think about as my hangover only got worse from it. I gave up and laid back, looking at her doing her thing. Noticing my gaze, she looked back at me. We laid there eyes locked for a second, before she closed them and gave me a kiss.

"Wha-?" 

"Thank you... too."

This only confused me more as my first kiss had suddenly been taken from me. Seriously, what did I do yesterday? 

Apparently my confusion didn't really concern her much, as she finished up licking the wound without batting an eye. A gentle smile formed as she looked satisfied at the result. And well, credit where credit is due, the wound did indeed stop bleeding. She lightly blew on it after, her cold breath grazing my skin.

As I wanted to ask her something, my stomach growled. I hadn't eaten in a while, probably. I checked the pockets of my coat, all i found were a couple coins. 

"10, 20, 30, 80, 130, 230, 330, 331, 332, 342, 343, 344... "

It's enough for onigiri for the two of us, after that I'm probably out of money.

I forced myself to stand up, my joints still somewhat aching.

"You must be a little hungry too, right? Let's go get something." I said as I took off my coat and wrapped it around her. It almost fit her, but was still a bit on the long side. Which is good as her tail would have a bit of room, and her ears could easily be hidden inside the hood, making her seem like a regular person if not for her behavior.

She struggled a little bit as I put it on, showing that she's somewhat uncomfortable inside it, but she gave up once she realized I needed her to wear it.

I went out the alleyway and looked around... but I haven't been here ever.

Not knowing where to go, I decided to check my phone to see if I could figure out where to go.

"Dead battery, of course."

Deciding not to overthink it, I stopped thinking and walked off to the right. This apparently scared the cat woman as she suddenly clutched my arms in the hopes I wouldn't abandon her. I gave her another pat on the head and, with her in tow, wandered off to find a store of some sort.