the fog comes on little cat feet

[rangerbecket]

WHO: Raleigh Becket
WHERE: The Corydon #36, The Inn
WHEN: 7 September
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: N/A
STATUS: Open

---

Raleigh had actually gotten the cat a week or so earlier but it had taken him a little while to settle on the name if only because the torrents of rain had distracted him from such trivial things as cat naming and driven him to spend most of his time catching rainwater and trying to keep from drowning. Once it had lightened up, though, he'd been able to do a little more venturing out and the snow-white cat had been called Yuki on more than one occasion and it'd just stuck.

Yuki, luckily, fends for herself. She comes back filthy at the end of the day and she usually brings him presents he doesn't want but she damn sure earns her keep. Right now, she's whining at him as he's making his way along the banks of the swollen river, checking his fishing lines and whining for a bit of the catch.

"You're supposed to feed yourself. Careful, you. Don't know how well you swim." He doesn't know what breed she is but Yuki seems to know what she's about because she carefully bats at the water and backs up when the current's too swift for her liking. Once he gets the fish up and out of the river, he heads up to the inn to clean it with Yuki following, ever hopeful that her master is going to give her something for her troubles.

Raleigh settles to work close to the fire, trying to dry out, and Yuki takes advantage of the warmth to clean herself and let her fur dry out. She sprawls on her back and lets out a long, anguished sigh.

"You're not getting this. You hunt for your food, you know that."

Comments

[womanofvalue]

Peggy opens her mouth and then closes it, not sure how to even describe her tense relationship with Steve. "It's complicated," is all she has to say on the subject, seeing as once upon a time it would have been simple, but those days are unfortunately long gone. More's the pity for her.

"I'll still take complicated over not having him at all," she's quick to clarify, seeing as she's missed Steve that much.

[rangerbecket]

"I would take complicated over not having Yancy," Raleigh agrees, giving her a soft, understanding smile.

"I'm glad he's here, Peggy. That's good, that you get a chance to see him again even if it's hard. You get a chance to say things you didn't get to say. I think about that a lot."

[womanofvalue]

"One day," she says, and she hopes that it's not a lie, "maybe he won't come, but maybe someone else will and they'll fill that void for you in a way that no one has yet," she says. "It took me two years, but I was starting to find that at home. Now, with Steve, the only thing I keep thinking about..." She feels silly talking like this, but she also thinks it's important.

"He owed me a dance. Still does. I intend to collect," she vows.

[rangerbecket]

"Well, you seem like a woman who gets what she wants. I wouldn't want to get in the way of that," Raleigh says, chuckling lightly. "I figure you probably are going to collect that dance one way or the other."

He likes that spirit, though, and Peggy's a good friend. He's glad she's getting a chance to see someone from home that she thought she'd lost.