Chapter Text
In true feline fashion, it was the cats who chose to adopt Tim and Selina as their human was just dragged along for the ride.
The first to spot the small boy was Miss Kitty.
Catwoman’s colony expands over a much larger than typical territory, often spanning the entire Bowery and parts of the surrounding areas. The cats in the colony have studied Catwoman’s actions both heroic and villainous and have taken to following their human’s lead, taking the people in their territory under their protection, especially the young and defenseless.
So, when Miss Kitty saw the small human being followed around the dark alley’s of the Bowery, she knew that nothing good could come from it. The big humans following the human kitten were very large and intimidating, smelling of stale alcohol and leering at the kitten with bad intentions.
There were too many for her to deal with herself so she called out for her colony mates and was joined by Isis and Otto just in time as the humans had corralled the kitten into a dead end, cornering the baby away from human aid and were closing in.
The moment she took in the situation, Isis took the lead, jumping from their rooftop perch onto the leader of the large humans soon joined by the others. Despite the human’s being so much larger than them, they scared them off with only a few measly scratches and bites to the face. In Isis’ opinion, they were weakinglings, obviously cowards who lived on the outskirts of their colony, going after easy prey because that was all they could manage.
She didn’t revel in their easy yet successful territory battle like her colony mates, instead turning to the young human that had likely been what caught Miss Kitty’s attention in the first place. They were a small creature, even compared to other young humans, curled up in a ball to make themselves even smaller.
Taking a step closer, she could smell how badly the boy reeked; of sweat and pee, fear and desperation, loneliness and hopelessness. The human kitten was a mess, seemingly abandoned by their own clowder long before this moment.
She took her time as she edged closer to the kitten who seems not to have noticed that it’s been saved. It just keeps clutching its head to its knees, whispering pleads, likely for mercy.
Clearly this kitten cannot be left alone, so Isis took a final risky step to be right beside the tiny human. Even a being as small as this can be dangerous when it feels threatened but this little one seemed too broken to even think of lashing out, instead crying harder when she rubs against its hand and clutching onto her desperately as she squirms her way into the ball he’d turned himself into and began to purr.
Seeing her safe, the others followed her once again, crowding the boy in their scent and soothing him with their rumbles.
It took much longer than Isis would prefer for the kitten to relax enough for her to begin leading him back to Catwoman’s home, knowing there’s no safer place for this kitten who clearly needs their help.
It’s a small miracle that they get the small one back to Catwoman’s home unscathed and when he falls to the ground in the main den, she begins to groom his head, encouraging the other cat’s in the den to join her as she cleans their newest kitten of his somber scents.
Selina would like to say that she hadn’t been scared when she noticed the child collapsed in her living room, covered in a living blanket of recognizable cats, but she was left holding her breath until she finally saw the boy take a shallow one himself.
The cat’s had brought people and animals in need to her for help many times before but they’d never brought someone into her home. Before now, her home was reserved for their colony alone and she was wary about the implications, especially because Isis, the only one bold enough to pull a move like this, looked extremely protective of the kid, seemingly weary of Selina herself though she held her head up with pride, as if daring Selina to go against her.
It takes much longer than Selina would like to get the boy out of shock and cleaned up and as she slowly gets the story of what happened, she understands why her cats stepped in but not why they all seem so attached, barely leaving his side. Hecate had even tried to jump into the shower with the kid.
They seem to have decided to take him in as one of their own but she couldn’t just abduct a child, especially not one with clothes as nice as this kids, so she eventually brings him to a safe bus stop and gives him cash to get home.
Or at least, she didn’t think she could steal the child until she ran across the boy again, this time in his own home that she had just broken into.
In all of her research, the Drake’s hadn’t been in the country for over a month now and weren’t scheduled back for another two so it was a shock to come across their young, rarely mentioned child alone in the mansion, no nanny in sight. In her week of scoping out the building, the only person she’d seen was the elderly housekeeper that had only come by for a few hours twice.
She’d almost missed the child who was silent as a mouse and crept around the house in the dark. She’d later learn that the boy rarely ever left signs that he lived in the house, feeling ill-fitted leaving a mark in the pristine mausoleum. The only part of the house that shows any signs of life is the boy’s personal rooms, and even those are oddly barren for what’s expected of a rich child. Even his bed was stripped of all but the sheets, Tim preferring to instead make a nest of blankets and pillows in his bathtub, only feeling secure enough to sleep in the lonely mansion there.
The more she looked around the house, the more the clue pointed to the answer she didn’t want to see.
The boy was severely neglected and she dreaded having to admit to Isis that she was right once she got the Drake boy back to her apartment.