Craft Alongside your Maker

With a steady gait, Sunny walks into the trees, that which conceal the hangout spot.

In his arms, he carries with him a rather portly cat with silky brown fur. It is nestled comfortably and curiously enough, what looks like a rolled sheet of paper embraced in its sleepy paws.

Stopping just before the pier, Sunny tilts his head to look at the skies. Bright, blue and clear. Nodding to himself, he walks forwards, and at the very edge, leaps onto the water.

The water catches his feet as if it were solid, rippling floor.
He takes a step forwards. The sky changes color: Purple.
Another step. Red.
Another step. Turquoise.
Another step. Pure white. Neither he nor the cat react to these changes.

He was now before the small island, and with a deep breath, steps forward into the stone torii, and walks out into the patio of a cozy cottage. Chairs, pond, a bench, a long hose and a flamingo. The rays of the sun here feel pleasantly cool.

Setting the cat down, who lets out a small meow in response, Sunny waddles into the home of a certain person, taking off shoes and socks.
The interior was, in small terms, organized chaos.
Numerous shelves line the walls, all of them filled and displaying numerous trinkets that feel both familiar and alien to him. All of them however, just serve to amplify the homey and comfy feeling permeating the place. Balls of yarn, a radio, flowers, hats, figurines, framed photos of creatures that he doesn't even know.

Shifting aside a sweater hanging indoors, Sunny pauses at the sight of a portrait.

It was him, dressed in a white-collared shirt with a black vest. A vibrant crown of flowers was neatly placed on his head. The portrait stares into the viewer, a small, barely noticeable smile on its face.

Sunny blushes. This wasn't here before. Shaking his head and walking past the art-piece, he draws nearer to a half-closed door. Familiar humming echoed through it. Knocking on the wood with a finger, he inches the door forward.

An unseen force immediately drags him into a warm embrace. "Sunny~!" Omocat sings out, swaying side to side with Sunny in her lap. The boy in question comfortably returns her hug.

"Got my invite, did'ja?" She asks with an excited smile down at him. Her gaze never wavers from his eyes.

"Mhm. What are we doing?" A nod, a tinge of curiosity in his tone. His eyes glance around the room, which was a messy workshop, to be concise. Onto to the table, he looks upon the unfinished sweater atop the desk, long golden needles entwined in the strands.

A snap of her fingers, the desk was cleared. "We..." Omocat trails off, pulling a cushioned chair out of nowhere and placing Sunny atop it. "...are making!" she finished with a brilliant smile, standing up and moving towards a wooden crate, rummaging around with a hand.

"...Making...?" Sunny asks, leaning onto the desk with an elbow and propped chin.

"Making!" Was the answer. Out of the crate, Omocat pulls out and sets down 2 slabs of metal on the desk. Beside it, two extra clumps of the same material, smaller, palm-sized. Sunny stares, even more confused as the Cat with the Cash sits beside him on her own plush chair.

With a pat on his head, a quick hug, and a smooch to his cheek, Omocat nabs the two small clumps. "It'll come to you naturally, don't you worry a thing, just watch me!"

With her bare hands, the feline goddess easily molds the raw ores in her palm. It bent like clay, the two metals shifting into each other seamlessly. Sunny stares.

"Iron and some nickel..." She murmurs under her breath, kneading it as if it were dough. It changes color rapidly in her hands, along with expanding outwards...? A sphere is formed, one she immediately sets aside. "Now, you try!" She turns to him with an expectant smile, gesturing towards the slabs.

"...I don't think I can do that." He replies, staring unsurely. Despite his seeming agelessness now, Sunny was still quite mundane in comparison to Omocat.
"Of course you can~!" She reassures him with a squeeze to his shoulder. She points to her forehead, tapping it with a nail. "Expand your mind, Sunny! That's... haha..." She awkwardly looks away, avoiding his questioning stare. "...inside joke, don't worry about it." She hurriedly adds. "Go, go! It's time to create!"

Grabbing his wrists, Omocat guides Sunny's hands onto the slabs. Not really certain where this was all going, Sunny nevertheless tries to imitate what the goddess did. To his surprise, iron and nickel gives way to his touch just as easily. Letting the encouraging, murmured words of his...

Hm. Sunny realizes there wasn't really a clear indicator of what their relationship was. They were too comfortable with each other that it never just popped up. Affectionate, amorous, doting? All yes.

Huh. Internally, he does a mental shake to his head and refocuses back on his now given task.

And just like Omocat said, it came naturally to him, whatever this was. Metal was shaped into a compressed lump, shaped like a vague, bent oblong.
"Perfect, perfect!" The woman using the top of his hair as a headrest warmly states, entwining her fingers with his for a moment. Soft.

With a hand, she lifts the lump a few inches off the desk, and there it remains. A snap of her fingers, a glass of water appears, the contents of which, she pours around the lump. The water fills an area around the lump as if gravitating towards...

Huh. "...A mini island?"
"Mhm! Your very own world... And I get to make it with you, hmhmhm!" A series of nuzzles and cheek rubs follow her words, flustering the quiet boy for but a moment.

Wait. World?

Omocat reaches into a drawer under the desk. She pulls out a hand-sized leaf, fanning it over the island and the 'sea' surrounding it. Before his eyes, greenery begins to rapidly sprout, the mix of ore rapidly shifting like grains, giving way to something more earthy, if colored brightly. Blue green tinges.
With every fan, he can even see small, visible puffs of air drift above the island. Clouds.

She's actually serious, making a tiny world...?

"There's the atmosphere... and..." Omocat retrieves the small sphere she set aside and leaves it hovering above the right side of the island. "There we go! We still have a bit more to work on, add plenty of details, maybe some more life, but we can get to that later..."

"...I'm just happy to see this..." She finishes her sentence, flashing that same smile at him that always had him feeling overwhelmed. Too many things being conveyed at once, in a single, gradient stare and a quirk of the lips with too much love.

"...what is this, exactly?" Sunny asks her, unable to look away from her gaze. He knows it's a small, and now living island. But...

"Something you made. A world." Omocat replies, simple and with a shrug, running her fingers through his hair. Her eyes stare into him, deep. It should have been discomforting.

"You'll love it, I promise. And it gets to be by your hands, and only yours. Isn't it great?"

"I, I don't understand... is this another 'thing' of yours?"

"S-Something like that, yeah. Don't worry about, m'kay?"

"..."

"I know. I know. And I'm sorry, but I promise you, it's better if you don't know." With a tired gaze, she cups his face tenderly. The weight behind those eyes feels unbearable up close. "Long as I'm here, you don't need to worry about a thing."

Staring.

"...besides." A shrug, an uneasy smile on her face as she softly lays a kiss on the tip of his nose. "No use talking about things that are never going to happen."

"Like?"

A bout of silence. This time, Sunny sees the visible shake of her body, as if suppressing something. Her eyes scan his every feature, as if remembering everything to the very last detail.

She stares at him like that sometimes. He catches it at the edge of his vision. Searching, as if expecting something to just go... wrong and desperately hoping it doesn't.

It hurts to see her like that but...

A hug. A tight embrace. No words were exchanged here. Nothing was need for this familiar gesture, now conveying a different set of unspoken words.
'Please.'

Any further questions die in his throat as he returns her wrapping arms.

For minutes, they remain like that. She doesn't let go, nor make a sound.

"...This is your world. Do you want to name it?" Omocat croaks out. Her voice was strained, holding back a cry. Fingers were shaking in his hair.

Sunny doesn't understand, but he's here in her arms nonetheless.

"...Not now. Maybe later...? Let's just..."

"...Mm."

...

"...I love you. Please, please, never doubt that."

Sunny knows she does. Sunny would never doubt that.
But hers was a love that he can't seem to match, no matter how much he returns it. All-consuming, permeating his every being, as if she already knows everything that he is, and ever will be.

And Omocat loves that. His past, his present, his future, whatever he was. Sunny's only wish is to know what is it about him that makes him deserving of this.

And hopefully, start making steps to return it. But for now, this is enough. And to her, it will always be enough.

A gentle heartbeat thumps against his ear. It's calming.