Chapter Text
Life.
In a way, it's much like a raging fire. Despite every effort made to the contrary it can never truly be controlled or contained. One small mishap...one stray ember...one mistake, can cause the smallest flame to burst into a raging inferno...and yet there is a calming, almost peaceful, beauty to the blaze.
However, all too often there will be those who find themselves standing far too close to the fire to truly appreciate just how hot it burns. Mesmerized... Fearful... Arrogant... The cause can be numerous, but the result is always the same...stay too close for too long and nothing but ash will remain...
Sometimes it's too much to bear. Sometimes it's clear a step back is needed, but with no ability to do so on ones own...sometimes all it takes to appreciate the destructive brilliance raging just outside your grasp is to be drawn back by those who wish you no harm.
A bonfire is far more magnificent without the haze of smoke clouding your eyes and burning your lungs after all...
“What on earth are you doing in here babe!? Why is there so much smoke!?”
“Don’t worry about it! I have everything under control, now get out of here!”
“Like fucking hell you have everything under control! Open the fucking window before we suffocate!”
“I was getting to it for fucks sake, get the hell out of here Lapis! I. Have it. Under control.”
“Are you fucking serious Jasper!? I’m just trying to- My oven! Jasper what did you fucking do!?”
“Dammit Lapis! Don’t look- Fuck! I was just trying to make those sugar cookies you like okay!?”
“I don’t give a fuck what you were doing, dumb-ass! It’s not fucking worth it if you burn our house down!”
“Fuck you Lapis! Insolent little bitch, see if I ever try and do something nice for you ever again!”
“Bitch!? At least I’m not a stupid fucking piece of shit that can’t work a simple convection oven!”
“You know what? Fuck you Lapis and fuck your stupid little oven thing too!”
*NYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW*
Lapis and Jasper froze at the sudden pain filled screech that echoed around their kitchen from the open window that Jasper had just thrown Lapis’ small convection oven through. It took a moment for reality to clear away the rage induced haze from their eyes, but when it did both their faces fell into matching looks of unease.
“Oh God, Jasper you threw the oven onto something out there! Oh God, Oh God…What if you killed whatever it was? It sounded kind of like a cat…oh fuck what if it’s not fully dead and just lying there suffering!? Oh God, I’m gonna be sick…” Lapis’ rambled, staring at the floor in horror as her hands pulled at her cobalt blue hair.
Jasper found herself simply staring at Lapis’ little meltdown for a moment, before taking a deep breath and forcing herself to push down the current whirlwind of emotions inside her mind. Which was about as easy as swallowing a mouthful of sewing needles, but Jasper knew she needed to be the one who took charge of the situation since Lapis was overly sensitive to concepts such as loss of innocence and death.
It’s not like Jasper could blame Lapis for that though, not with everything the smaller woman had been through in her life. The world may see nothing but a spiteful and vindictive young woman, but Jasper knew better.
“I’ll go see what I hit and if it needs to be put out of its suffering.” Jasper said with a solemn tone as she turned and made her way towards their back door, her large calloused hand gently ruffling through Lapis’ hair as she passed.
Lapis was momentarily dumbstruck by the gentle and loving gesture. It really shouldn’t surprise her anymore how quickly the two could go from seething anger to butterfly touches, but it always seemed to suck the air from her lungs.
“T-throw the oven in the dumpster while you’re out there, knowing your strength that old thing probably exploded upon impact.” Lapis softly called after her with Jasper offering a small grunt of acknowledgment as she stepped out into the alley behind their small home.
The small alley was fairly well maintained by the neighborhood with trash being properly placed in sealed bins or the large dumpster at the far end of the street so it was rare for them to get any sort of animal back here since there was no readily available food.
Jasper grimaced at the sight of the small convection oven, true to Lapis’ guess it was completely destroyed. It probably hadn’t helped that Jasper threw it hard enough for it to bounce off the old concrete wall of the large warehouse that lined the opposite side of the alley from their house.
*GRRRRROOOOOOOOWWWWWWW*
The large woman’s eyes shot towards that sudden sound to find one of the tiniest cats she had ever seen stuck under one of the larger pieces of oven shrapnel. From what Jasper could tell it seemed to be okay, only stuck, and she breathed a small sigh of relief that the screech they heard was probably one of surprise rather than pain.
“I’ll be with you in a second fuzz ball, I gotta pick up the rest of this shit first.” Jasper said with the gentlest tone her gruff voice could handle, remembering what Steven had tried to teach her about interacting with animals the last time she had failed at holding his pet tabby cat Lion.
A small frown made its way onto her face when the cat’s response to her words was an angry hiss followed by a squeaky yelp of pain. Maybe the cat hadn’t gotta away from her temper unscathed after all.
“Way to go you brute…” Jasper sighed to herself as she made quick work of gathering and disposing the remnants of the oven aside from the chunk still pinning the cat. Once she was done she made her way back over to the small creature and crouched down, ignoring the enraged hiss she received for apparently getting too close.
Now that she was seeing the thing close up she could tell this was no ordinary cat. Its fur was a pale green accented with an unnaturally bright yellow on its head and the tip of its tail and paws, but what struck Jasper the most were the cat’s glaringly green eyes…its incredibly intelligent green eyes…
“What are you?” Jasper whispered, feeling her pulse rise as she watched the cats gaze lock onto her own before its eyes narrowed and it let out another hiss. A thousand questions exploded through Jasper’s mind at the thought that this weird cat could somehow understand her. However, before her mind could run off to imagination land and leave her sitting in the alley like a moron the sound of a door opening grounded her back in reality.
“It landed on a kitty? Is it okay?” Lapis asked with worry thickly laced through her tone as she took a few steps closer to where Jasper was crouched.
Jasper chafed at the tone, it was the same one Lapis used whenever she was bandaging up a cut or other such wound on Jasper that the blunette herself had inflicted. It was a guilty tone and Jasper hated it almost as much as she hated the situations that caused Lapis to use it.
“Well are you fuzz ball?” Jasper asked mockingly, watching closely as the cat’s gaze flicked between the two of them before it tried to burrow further under the chunk of oven it was pinned beneath. “Yeah I don’t think so, creepy cat you are coming inside with us so we can figure out what to do with you.”
The reaction to her words was instantaneous as the cat began to hiss louder than before, unsheathing its claws in preparation to fight off Jasper should she try and grab her. Jasper smirked devilishly at the display as she flexed her right hand. Her skin was tough as leather and extremely calloused from all the manual labor odd jobs she had done over her lifetime, she wasn’t worried in the slightest about what this tiny cat could do.
“Lap’ I’m gonna grab the little beasty and when I do I’m gonna need you to take that last piece of the oven to the dumpster for me.” Jasper spoke slowly, locking eyes with the cat as she flexed her right hand once again only this time it was for the cat to see.
Whatever Lapis had said in response to Jasper’s demand was lost on the larger woman as she was completely focused on the small standoff she was having with the weird green cat. It had stopped hissing and was now very blatantly glaring at her, it even flexed its own right appendage as if in challenge to Jasper.
A wide smirk filled Jasper’s lips seconds before her hand shot out like a skilled viper. The cat was apparently ready for the strike however and while Jasper managed to grab the cat by the scruff of its neck it did manage to sink its teeth into her wrist while bring its claws up into her forearm.
“Ow, you little shit! Got a lot of fight in you for something so small!” Jasper bellowed with laughter as she stood, pulling the small creature up with her once Lapis had pulled off the shrapnel and began rushing towards the dumpster.
The cat merely growled through its teeth as it tried to do as much damage to the large woman’s arm as it could. Jasper was about to mock the small cat for losing their little contest, but was stopped as she felt Lapis’ hands work their way around her grip on the cats scruff.
“Be careful Jasper she’s hurt! Look the poor thing’s leg is all cut up!” Lapis complained angrily as she began prying the cat loose from Jasper’s grasp.
Sure enough when Jasper’s eyes flitted down to the lower half of the cat that had been covered by the oven piece she saw a rather large gash going from the cats hip down its right leg. It caused Jasper to pause for a moment as the wound didn’t look like it was caused by the oven, in fact it looked like the fur around the wound had been singed off…
Jasper’s mind snapped back into focus when she felt the cat finally get pried free from her grip. “Careful Lap’ that thing is fucking…vicious…huh?” The assertion slowly faded out as Jasper stared dumbstruck at the cat as it lounged happily in Lapis’ arms while said woman scratched gently behind its ears.
“Maybe if you tried a little harder to seem less threatening animals wouldn’t be so adverse to you.” A small sigh followed Lapis’ words as she took a step closer to Jasper. “Alright let’s see it.”
Jasper huffed in annoyance, glaring angrily at the small green cat, before presenting her right arm for Lapis to inspect. The smaller woman gently took it in her free hand and began to examine the series of small claw and puncher marks. Doing this had caused her to stop her scratching of the cats head, which caused the cat to glare up at Jasper, which also caused Jasper’s own glare to deepen in turn.
“You just need a little cleaning and a few Band-Aids, nothing major, come on let’s get inside and get you two feisty girl’s fixed up.” Lapis said with a small snort of laughter as her hand returned to the cats head, making it purr with contentment.
“Let’s just hope it doesn’t have rabies.” Jasper huffed as she followed Lapis back inside, taking one last glance back into the alley for reasons she didn’t really understand before shutting the door behind her and following Lapis towards their bathroom.