Vaughn was mildly perplexed about his new friend's appearance, but what the heck did he know about anything. Certainly this little kitty wasn't smoldering in any way, and it really wasn't speaking, but that was obviously a preference. And he had to admit it was rather flattering that he had assumed such an innocent form, as though he thought Vaughn might be scared of his other one-
There was the possibility of this, there was no denying that. And yes, Vaughn was assuming the cat's gender. Did demon creatures adhere to normal genders? It wasn't something he'd asked.
"I should have asked your name before you stopped being so chatty, huh?" he said as he headed for the window, having to get a step to reach it because hey, stupid lower ground mortuary. "Maybe you can hide under my bed and tell me later-" Well, wasn't that an offer? One Vaughn immediately regretted and wanted to take back as soon as the words were out of his mouth. "Too forward? I'm not good at sociable," he murmured, pushing open the window for Mao to exit. "See you soon."
To say the next hour flew by would be the biggest lie Vaughn had ever told. He couldn't really focus on anything, and so he settled back with a coffee and pretended to do something with a spreadsheet, so that by the time one of his colleagues came to take over, he at least looked busy. To say he'd spent the whole hour thinking about his new cat friend was far more correct, but would also get him rather pitying looks and queries as to his wellbeing if he voiced anything along those lines.
It had spoken to him, Vaughn was sure of that. They had been communicating. And it had been eating one of his patients. Those were all things that Vaughn was convinced of.
What the hell was he doing?
Wearily, he handed over the lab and headed out of the hospital. It was a longer route than out of the window, but this was what normal people did. Waved casually to people they knew as they passed, enjoyed the feeling of going home for another day.
A little bit of Vaughn thought he'd find Mao waiting as soon as he stepped out of the doors. And he didn't want to admit that he was disappointed to find that wasn't the case. Perhaps he'd changed his mind and gone to do something else. Surely the prospect of coming home with him was not high on the lists of exciting demon preoccupations.
Well, he'd get over it (he was kidding himself).
He pressed the button on his car to turn off the alarm, following the beep and flash across the unreasonably busy parking lot to where his vehicle was located.
"You here, buddy?" he asked quietly, leaning against the driver's side door for a few seconds, looking around for any little black cats that might be wandering loose in the hospital grounds. Vaughn tried to not look suspicious, checking his phone for messages he knew he wouldn't have.