This is not fanfic for the anime Mahou Tsukai no Yome/the Ancient Magus‘ Bride, per se, but it is inspired by something in an episode, a reference to the nine lives of cats in a different angle than I’m used to seeing it. 

It’s also sort of Real People Fic.

It also involves pet death, be forewarned.  Also, I made myself cry.

🐈

The doctors were doing their best, but the body on the table had already been attacked by disease and by age, and the cancer that was eating its insides was too much for them.  The little body shuddered and stopped while they were trying to save him. 

Drake bounced up into the air, shaking himself as if from a long sleep, and looked around.  There in front of him was a very fluffy calico cat, mostly white, looking very regal. 

He sniffed her.  She sniffed him back politely.  He checked himself over, moving in slow circles a few times.  

“The humans did it.  They made it better again!  I knew they could.”  He wasn’t quite as energetic as he had been as a kitten, but he had perk to his step and a joy to his smile.  “They always – oh.”

He looked down from his bookshelf perch at the small body on the table, at the vets, sad, at the woman on the phone trying not to cry.

“Oh.”

“Oh,” the calico echoed.  “It is time to move on, Drake.”

“Where’s the Grey One?”  He turned around a couple more times, looking around the small vet’s office.  “He said he’d be here.  He said it would be fine, he’d be here.”

“The Grey One has elected to stay on for some time, to look after your people.  You two have done very well for them.  You helped them through some very hard times.”

“He’s haunting them?”   Drake, never the best at being nonchalant, sat down and washed a paw.  “Can I?”

“No, I’m afraid not.  One cat haunting per family.  No, Drake, it is time to move on.”

“Move on?  But?”  He looked out as if he could see his people.  “They’re going to be all alone.”

“They’re smart people.  They won’t be alone for long.  And I will look after them until then – we will.”  She looked to one side and a cat much like Drake but greyer, taller, stepped forward.   “Now Drake.  Where would you like to go?”

Drake flexed his claws and thought about this.  His people – but they were smart, she was right.  “I,” he considered.  He rolled onto his back and remembered all the things about his humans, about Gatsby, about Amber and Katherine and Isis and all the other people he’d met for a while.  “I want to be with people who will play with me,” he decided.

“Then go.”  The calico gave him a little nudge.  “And enjoy your third life, little kitten.”

🐈

Making an appearance: Drake, of Tales for the Sugar Cat. 

Puffy-Buffy, my childhood cat, and Lynx, my husband’s childhood cat. 

Mentioned: Gatsby, the cat we had with Drake. 

Isis, Amber, and Katherine – the kitties of people who lived with us.