SMALLER BODIES INITIATIVE: Two Of A Kind!

SMALLER BODIES INITIATIVE: Two Of A Kind!

Summary:

A tiny Catnap toy has been given life. Curious and still exploring the world with the eyes of a child, Playtime Co. has decided that it's time for Catnap to have its first-ever companion: a little orange dog.

💜🧡

(Cross-posted to AO3! Here!)

Fluffy fluff fluff :) baby floompas :) scrunklies :))

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A tiny purple toy cat was placed in a padded room. It was surrounded by bright things: building blocks, magnetic letters, cushions and stuffed toys. The door to the room was closed and a woman remained inside. There was a single trapdoor to one side of the room, concealed by a lettered block. The cat twisted and sniffed, trying to get its bearings. 

The woman leaned over and scratched the kitten’s head. 

“Now, Catnap, this is called the Playhouse. Play-house.” The woman repeated the word. 

Catnap just blinked up at her. 

“Chicken,” it said boldly before rubbing its back on the leg of a stool. 

“No, Catnap, not chicken - Playhouse. P-L-A-Y-H-O-U-S-E.” 

The cat looked confused. “Pwayhoose?” It tried to repeat her. “Pee-ell-ay-why…” 

The woman had changed out of her lab coat to wear much softer clothing (and because she didn’t want Catnap to scratch her uniform). Now she sat in comfy jeans and a bright orange jumper, hair pinned back, notepad in one hand. She carefully observed the cat’s attempts at speaking. 

She scooped up several wooden blocks and spelled out the letters: PLAYHOUSE. 

If Catnap were to work in the Playcare, it needed to know where and what it was doing. The higher-ups believed that a toy should be given orders similar to a computer, and then carefully monitored as it carried out its tasks. This scientist wanted to see what would happen if she treated Catnap like a genuine living thing - an animal or even a child. It really was like a tiny, furry, bright purple toddler. 

That and she wanted to introduce Catnap to its first friend in a closed environment. 

“Playhoose,” Catnap repeated. It started sniffing the blocks. 

She smiled. “Very good, Catnap. Good kitty. Well done!” As one of the teachers in Playcare’s school, the woman found it odd that she was talking to an animate object instead of a proper little boy, but she didn’t mind. She liked Catnap. She ensured that the concept was embedded firmly into its mind before revealing the next tidbit of information. 

“Do you know what a friend is, Catnap?”

“Yoo!” the cat said. Then it sneezed up a little whiff of poppy gas. The woman instantly placed her hand over her nose and leaned back. Fanning the air, she leaned forward and reached for Catnap’s collar. She twisted the moon charm so it looked like a backwards C; this made Catnap’s fur bristle a little. It looked rather affronted. “Chicken,” it repeated again, this time with much more haughteur. “Chi-cken…”

The woman’s thoughts were a mix of aww! and oh boy…

Her jumper wriggled slightly. She quickly placed a hand on it. 

“Can you say ‘friend’, Catnap?” She smiled. “You say ‘friend’…”

“Foo,” answered the cat. 

“Can you say ‘friend’ like a good kitty?”

Catnap scrunched up its face in intense concentration. Then it said, “Fwond.” 

Close enough, the woman decided. “Good kitty!” she said warmly. She reached over to scratch the cat’s ears again; it purred and puffed up, knowing it had been very good indeed. “A friend,” the scientist said, “is someone who you love to spend time with. You feel safe with your friends. Friends are very good to have, aren’t they?” 

The toy kitten frowned again. Then it stuck out its foot and started to lick it. 

“A friend is someone who you like a lot. Friends make you happy, yes?”

Catnap, who didn’t have a friend yet, just looked at her as if to say, Huh?

Her sweater wriggled again. 

This time, she pulled up the wool and revealed another tiny, curious toy: an orange dog as vibrant as her clothing. The dog - a little cocker spaniel - immediately propped itself up on its front paws and sniffed the air excitedly. Its tail started to wag. 

Catnap froze. 

It stopped licking its foot and left its leg stuck out in an undignified fashion.

The orange dog sprang out of the woman’s lap, barking and wagging its tail furiously. Then, it spoke in perfect English: “Hi! I’m Dogday!” Dogday looked around wildly, and then added, “Dogday says… FETCH!” It sprang out of the scientist’s lap and happily scuffled behind a collection of magnets. 

“No, Dogday, come back -” the woman pleaded, reaching out and missing the dog. 

It returned with a large orange ‘D’ in its mouth. “The letter ‘D’ is for dog!” it said proudly. 

Catnap’s fur brustled. It quickly snapped its foot back under its body. Who was this? The cat had never seen a dog before. It was fairly quiet, curious and affectionate, and felt bowled over as if by a strong wind when Dogday bounced and yapped. Dogday dropped the letter and turned to Catnap. Both animals had wide smiles on their faces, except Dogday seemed like a genuinely hyperactive nut while Catnap dug its claws into the carpet of the Playhouse. 

The woman quickly scooped up Dogday, who was excitedly chattering, “Who’s this? Who’s this? Who’s this?”

She clutched the furry orange body tightly and smiled at Catnap, who looked as though someone had taken its chicken right before its very eyes. 

“Catnap,” she said calmly, trying to sound as friendly as possible, “this is Dogday. Dogday, this little fella here is Catnap…”

“HI!!” Dogday practically screamed. “HI CATNAP! HI! HI!” 

“Shhh, shh, Dogday, quieten down now,” the scientist pleaded, dropping her notebook altogether to put both hands on the wriggling ball of fluff. “Catnap’s very shy. You have to be very, very quiet. Catnap doesn’t like loud noises, does he?”

“Mrow,” Catnap said, having abandoned everything it’d learned in the anxiety of the moment. 

Dogday’s eyes, a pair of large black beads, seemed to light up. “Oh, right! Sorry!” The little dog was gently placed in front of Catnap, now moving considerably less and trying to restrain its excited whimpers and snuffles. As Dogday grew closer, Catnap noticed something: this toy had a zipper on it just like Catnap did. And it had a charm, too - an orange-and-yellow sun charm! It was like the polar opposite of the cool purple cat. 

Something lit up inside of Catnap. 

Someone else had a zipper and a charm!

Did… did that mean…

…did Dogday have poppy gas too?

Catnap had learned about its poppy gas long before it learned to speak basic words. The red smoke that funelled out of a tube in Catnap’s throat terrified the scientists. Words such as ‘hallucinogen’ and ‘nitrous oxide’ and other grown-up junk had been thrown around. While Catnap didn’t know what any of this meant, it knew one thing: it was scary. Its poppy gas wasn’t good. It was the one bad thing about Catnap, a cruel twist of fate that it had to keep subdued. With its moon charm twisted, a cord had tightened uncomfortably around Catnap’s throat, designed to restrict the airway that let the smoke out. It hated the gas. Stupid gas. Making everyone scared of it all the time. 

Maybe Dogday did have poppy gas. They looked like the same kind of toy - maybe they were even from a series together! It was like they were made to be friends. 

This idea cemented itself into Catnap’s head. 

It tried to be friendlier. 

Dogday saw this and brightened up considerably. “Hi, Catnap! I’m Dogday!” 

“Hi,” Catnap squeaked. 

Dogday absolutely beamed. “Ooh, we’re gonna be such good friends, yes we are, yes we are!! Look! You have a collar too?! Mine has a sun on it! Yours looks kind of like a moon… OH! I know, I know!!” 

Dogday reached out with a paw and untwisted the moon. 

Not recognising the scientist’s sudden apprehension, Dogday pointed to it and smiled. “There! It looks like a ‘C’! ‘C’ is for Catnap!” 

Catnap politely blinked. 

The scientist quickly reached over to redo the safety lock around Catnap’s neck, laughing nervously. “You see, kitty? There’s nothing to be afraid of! Dogday’s very friendly. He’s going to be your friend, yes?” She twisted the charm back around and tightened it. Catnap’s tail drooped miserably. Seeing this, the scientist scratched the kitty’s ears. 

Dogday noticed that its new friend was sad. “Oh no! Poor Catnap!” Its tail faltered in its wags. Then it sped right back up again. “Dogday says: When you see someone without a smile, give them one!” Then the little dog stood up on its hind legs and hugged Catnap’s side. 

That actually made Catnap tear up a little. It chuffed, and poppy gas would have come out if the charm wasn’t twisted to the right. Instead, a pleasant lavender spray came out. Catnap wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or devastated. It really wanted to share the secret of the gas with its new friend. It tried to stand on its hind legs too to hug back, but the toy cat couldn’t balance and fell over onto its butt. A puff of spray came out. 

Dogday relinquished the hug. “Oh, wow!! You produce spray too?! I do that! Mine’s vanilla!” 

The scientist leaned back and quietly scribbled down more observations, just letting the two toys chat. 

But Catnap was freaking out a little. Its fur was on end. It loved its new friend and wanted to share everything with it, but it looked like Dogday didn’t have the poppy gas, and Catnap was banned from talking about it. This made it sad; it didn’t like the roadblock. It felt like the scientist had placed a wall up between them. 

Although the little dog seemed to be very friendly, accepting and sweet…

Surely Catnap could find the right moment to share the secret of the poppy gas, right? 

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Beautiful fanart by nebu-lime!! <3

This story is part of an AO3 series I'm working on! :)

It's my newest passion project and hyperfixation. I really love these two, and it's strange looking back at how sweet and tiny they were at the start of the story. Little beans. <3