He came back into the room and she was already talking. That was the first thing — the camera running, the small voice going, and rswfire answering it the way a person answers someone they live with. What are you commenting on. Tell the people. Luna was up on the height, wherever the height was, and he stood beneath it asking her to come down without ever going up to get her. The food had been eaten while he was out. He noticed that first, said so, called it impressive. The evidence of her appetite was the evidence of her recovery, and he read it out loud before he read anything else.
Then came the long negotiation over the cage, which was not a negotiation because only one party was making demands and it wasn't him. The door was open. He said it several times, in several directions — to her, to the camera, to the room. It's open. Nobody's stopping her. Nobody's stopping you. She had always wanted out of there before. Now she stayed. He named the contradiction plainly, said he couldn't figure her out, said he got the feeling she might actually want to be in there, and then he did the thing that took the most patience of anything in that quarter hour: he waited. I'm waiting. I'm waiting, Luna. I'm right here. He offered help four or five times and each time appended the same clause — but I know you can get down — so that the offer never became a retrieval.
Bailey moved through the field the way an established resident moves. rswfire greeted him, asked him directly whether he'd been mean to the little girl while the house was empty, then answered his own question on Bailey's behalf and on Luna's — he won't hurt you, he's just getting used to you — and noted that the geometry had made contact impossible anyway. She'd been behind mesh. She could afford to be a little punk. He knew how Bailey was.
There was a stretch where nothing happened except attention. He tracked the burps still coming. He heard the purring and said so, said it was sweet, said he felt it. He worked backward from her non-response when he came in and concluded he'd probably woken her. So he withdrew — announced the withdrawal rather than performing it silently — and left the cage door open in case she changed her mind. For now. How's that.
The dry food was a first. He marked it as one: Luna discovering it, seeming to like it, Bailey circling the same bowl because kitten food had always been his favorite and he was not happy about sharing. rswfire repositioned the water dish so her tail would stop coming out of it wet, noted the mess she had been making constantly, everywhere, and said the eating was good to see anyway. Both things were true at once and he let them be.
The last third belonged to the distance between the two cats. She wanted the shoulder again. She went toward where Bailey had gone to get away from her. rswfire intercepted without force — no, that's not a good idea, come on, it's okay baby — and named the terms: he's curious about you, but you have to approach him differently. You two can get to know each other from a distance. You've got to give him time. He's a big baby, he's not used to having a little kitten around. He said he was unfamiliar with this cat behavior. He said he was literally raising a little child. He put her back up on the height and told her she could explore, just a little bit at a time, and gave the practical reason alongside the relational one — he had a lot of work to do in there, and the space was not ready for her, not at all.
He told her about the move then, in the middle of everything else. One more week. A new environment. It would look similar but it would be different. Then he returned to the only instruction he'd repeated more than I'm waiting: get some rest, you really need it, you still have a lot of recovering to do. Sleep on that pillow. Near the end he sat and deliberately didn't acknowledge her, because acknowledging her would bring her over, and what she needed was the nap. The camera kept running. She kept using her voice. You really like to use your voice, don't you. What are you commenting on. Tell the people.