Gunpowder
Chapter Eighteen

Axis was looking at pictures of cats. Such a search was very uncharacteristic of her, but it was a way to relax.

She had simply looked up “Cats in the area,” and had been greeted with thousands upon thousands of pictures of the small fluffy felines. She hated to admit it, but she loved looking at the cute little creatures. As a child, she had always wished to have one as a pet, but to her dismay, her mother was allergic. She had even pondered the idea once she had become an adult, but truly had no time for it once she had graduated from police academy. She simply wouldn’t have time to give it the attention it needed.

She still wanted a cat. She loved them all, loved their big eyes and fluffy bodies. She was hoping to adopt one, now that she was in a larger house, and living with someone else who would not be employed, at least not for a while. But she knew she was already busy, and didn’t want to put stress on herself, or Poppy. She had just moved in, after all. A pet would be a big change, and wasn’t sure if she or her guest were ready for it.

At that moment Axis was viewing a picture of a fluffier feline with a calico pelt and fur-tipped ears. It wore a collar that had a bell attached to it. In the photo the animal was sitting proudly, with its fur pushed back and groomed.

All of the animals she looked at just seemed to get cuter and cuter. The child inside her was begging to adopt every last one, but she knew she couldn’t do that. Maybe in the future she would propose the idea to Poppy, and, if she agreed, they could pick out a cat together. Maybe it would help them bond in some way.

Axis opened up her planning document and typed up the idea, including a link to a pet adoption page she had found along with it.

She looked out the window that was placed just to the side of her desk. It was quite dark out, with the crescent moon in full effect. Her computer clock told her that it was 9:43 pm, around the time when she should have gone to bed.

It had been a very lazy day around the house. Axis had accomplished little more than taking a nap, having a ramen noodle dinner, and then browsing images of felines until the sun went down. She could hear her roommate typing away, as she had been for the last, well, since she had been left to her own devices. Axis had no idea what she was doing, but was told that another person had joined the network she was on, so at least she had figured that out. She wasn’t sure how she had done it, as she had had to ask someone for the key, but with Poppy’s tech-genius she was sure that it was an easy hack of some sort. She laughed at the idea of her friend doing some of the technological feats she had seen in movies, but she was far from convinced that such a thing would be impossible. She had managed to get into a encrypted rebel directory after all. She half-expected the house to become some sort of artificial intelligence that could make dinner or some kind of insane thing like that. She was sure it was possible in this day and age. It was world war five after all, and technology wasn’t getting any worse. Who knew what was possible.

She wondered if it would be appropriate to wish her guest a good night. She was still slightly uncomfortable with the woman being in a home with her, but she knew she was armed, and that her guest was still being monitored. A house arrest anklet had been placed on her, at least for the first few weeks it would stay.

Maybe one day everything would go back to normal. As normal as it could get in this crazy war-torn world.

Maybe one day Axis’s strange feelings towards this enemy would cease. But, now that she thought about them. They were nice. Almost pleasant. She liked them.

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