The next day after the mess with the Nine was resolved, I was right back at my day job with Mr. Stent. But this time, I wasn't bothering to hide my ears and tail.
When I walked into the office, the middle-aged electrician actually commented, "You know, after you hit the big time with the bounty money from the Nine, I didn't think you'd be coming back."
I smiled, "That won't last me forever. Besides, making a living through honest work is nice, especially when it's directly helping people."
Mr. Stent nodded,
"Glad to have your help, then. Are you going to be putting the hat on, or are you going to be open about your catness?"
"I'm done hiding who and what I am. Now that I've gotten some recognition for offing the Nine and cleared up the worst of Brockton Bay's villains, I shouldn't have anything to worry about."
Mr. Stent got a somber expression there,
"Be careful. That's what Fleur thought before she was murdered. She was a good friend, and I miss her."
I nodded seriously,
"I know. I'm not relying on the goodwill of scumbags. I'm relying on my situational awareness, combat skills, and the gang of strays, bobcats, and a mountain lion I bribed to guard my home while I'm sleeping. Not joking there, they've even agreed to take marching orders from Ms. Night when they're on duty."
The fifty year old man blinked.
"Well, that's definitely a unique security detail. Anyway, we've got our first job of the day; a guy wants to install a ceiling fan in his kid's bedroom, and his wife is too paranoid about him zapping himself to let him DIY it."
As we got in the van, I snarked "She's probably right."
Today's work shift was shockingly uneventful, considering. Sure there were plenty of people a bit shocked to see me, but most seemed content to leave me be and let me get on with my day job. There was one case of one particularly unfortunate person who'd lost family to every single villain I'd killed and wanted my autograph, but that was the extent of my fame thus far.
Then I got home to find that Amos the Cougar had offed an unpowered empire 88 straggler who'd tried to sneak into my home while I was away. At present, there was a tense standoff between police and the twenty-odd cats who I'd basically hired as security, and I was going to have my work cut out for me de-escalating the situation.
Stepping between the police and the cats, I announced "Right, I can translate. Officers, what exactly are you trying to tell my security?"
The police officers blinked in confusion for a few moments, before they answered.
"What do you mean about these cats being your security?"
"I can talk to cats, though there's a bunch of different languages and dialects and I don't know all of them. I made an arrangement with this lot where they'd protect my home from intruders in exchange for a steady supply of food and water, shelter, companionship, and medical care."
It took the quartet of police officers a bit to figure out what to ask next. I definitely overheard them wondering if they should make this the PRT's problem, before eventually opting against it.
"Could you please ask your... security to return the man's body for identification? If nothing else, we would like to be able to notify next of kin."
I nodded.
{Amos, the humans want your kill.}
{Why? I thought you said that humans don't eat their own kind?}
{They usually don't; but they want to figure out which human you killed. There's a bunch of human thinking stuff that needs to be done to properly account for him being dead.}
{Will they give my kill back after they're done looking at it?}
{That's unlikely. Humans get really weird about human corpses and making sure they're treated respectfully. No, I don't understand it either.}
{Then no.}
I replied in an exasperated tone.
{I'll get you sausages; they're a type of meat tube that's been flavored and carefully seared a bit to taste extra good.}
{...Fine, but only because I'm curious about the sausages.}
I turned to the police officers.
"Managed to explain things to Amos. He's agreed to let you take the corpse away, but I'm going to have to get him some sausages tonight."
The officers quickly retrieved the body and drove off. I turned back to Amos.
{I'm going to the local place where the humans distribute their stored food to get some sausages. I should be back before too long.}
{Understood.}
And so off I went to the grocery store, to get some sausages Amos would appreciate. Anything with onions or other alliums in it was right out; while I could handle those just fine, they were poison to most cats. Also, cats didn't generally have a receptor for sweetness, so there was no point getting a sweet sausage. Ultimately, I just got some simple cured beef sausages with a light herbal seasoning.
When I got home, I informed him {Just so you know, it's considered customary to heat sausages just before eating them. The idea is that if the inside gets hot enough, it kills all the disease in there and makes sure you don't get sick from eating them.}
{Having nearly died from eating a diseased kill once, I would prefer never having to worry about that again. Please heat the sausages.}
And so I found myself cooking a dinner of pan-fried sausages for a Cougar. Amos's plate of sausages supplied (and the rest of the bunch fed as well), I finally relaxed, stretching my claws and sharpening them on one of the many scratching posts I'd acquired. Ah, I could get used to this.
