They stared at each other from across the room, one pissed and one pleading. Ashe lay on his stomach, his fake ears discarded on the dining room table because he doubted they were helping his cause. He was getting desperate; he’d already spent three hours trying to win over the other increasingly irritated inhabitant of their six-room house on the outskirts of the city.
“Damn it. This is hopeless,” he muttered to himself, pushing against the floor until he was on his hands and knees, silvery white hair falling into his eyes as he glared at the frustrating object of his current mission.
He just couldn’t get Cormac’s damned cat to like him.
Saka stretched out along the carpeted floor, obviously enjoying Ashe’s frustration. She was Cormac’s beloved feline companion; lonely in his apartment while waiting for Ashe to give in to buying a house together, Cormac had adopted the black and white stray eight months ago. Even though she was a pound kitty, she got along with almost everybody; she was one of Usagi’s biggest fans. There was only one person she didn’t care for, and he had been using the three days while Cormac was shooting in Arizona to try and sway her.
Despite the hundreds of dollars Ashe spent on new toys, gourmet kitty good, and a veritable labyrinth of a kitty condo that took up most of one of their spare rooms, the cat showed no signs of warming up to him. So, though it was nearly impossible to infuriate Ashe, Saka was doing a good job of it. Too frustrated to continue trying to win the cat over, he was relieved to hear his phone ring.
“Ashe darling!”
The silverette held the phone out, away from his ear while the person on the other end screamed his name. “Good morning, Mary.” He politely waited until she was done screeching before continuing. “Hearing from you this early in the morning is an unexpected pleasure. Has something done wrong with the renovations in the baby’s room?”
“Oh, Ashe, it’s simply awful. The artist fell off the ladder, and said she simply couldn’t continue because she sprained her wrist. It’s an absolute disaster!”
He could hear her over-emphasized word even with the phone held out at arm’s length. He waited until she deteriorated into dramatic fake sobbing before he risked putting the phone back to his ear. “That’s unfortunate. There’s nothing to be done about it- I’ll have to finish it myself.”
“Oh really, Ashe darling? I had no idea you could paint!”
Ahse narrowed his eyes at the phone, suddenly suspicious that the previous painter’s accident wasn’t so accidental. “One of my many talents,” he said tightly, making a mental note to send flowers to the injured artist he had personally selected.
“Well fantastic. I’ll be ready for you in half an hour at most. Don’t be late, Ashe darling.”
The way the last words were purred made Ashe wince. He’d shown up for scheduled client conferences with Mary only to find her in various stages of undress every time. She’d been in a towel last time. Despite being happily married and heavily pregnant, the cougar had her eyes set on Ashe. The fact that he was gay and living with Cormac didn’t seem to matter.
“Great, I’ll see you then.” Ashe hung before she could say anything that would ruin their designer-client contract. When the line went dead, he stared at the phone for a few silent moments before huffing out an irritated sigh.
“Well, Saka, looks like you’re getting what you wanted. I’ll be back later,” Ashe told the cat. She gave him an uncomfortable stare before rolling over so her back was to him.
Mouth pressed into a thin line, Ashe grabbed his jacket and shoved his feet into the closest pair of shoes. Even though they were Cormac’s and two sizes too big, he had to get moving, so he threw his hood up over his fair hair and hurried out to brave the pouring rain.
----------------------------
Ashe was exhausted and covered in paint from head to toe when he got back to the car. He had spent six hours trying to finish the enchanted forest mural in Mary’s nursery; it should have taken him two hours at the most, but the ladder ‘fell over’ twice, and the cans of paint ‘accidentally’ fell directly on his head seven times because he kept refusing to take off his paint saturated shirt.
So it was no wonder he was so exhausted, both physically and mentally, and that he was ready to fall into bed despite his promise to wait up for Cormac.
“Saka, I’m home!” he called out, a hint of bitterness in his voice as he hung up his jacket and kicked off Cormac’s shoes. He was putting them in the closet, bent over, when he froze. He always got a friendly meow when he came home, cause the cat assumed he was Cormac. Of course, Saka would stalk off as soon as she realized it was Ashe. But she always came to the door.
“Saka?” Ashe called out her name.
“There was no response, not even the usual irritated hiss that came when he interrupted the cat’s peace. Worried, Ashe stepped over the minefield of cat toys to get to the kitchen. If calling Saka didn’t work, Ashe knew what would bring her running; the sound of the can opener popping open a fresh can of moist food.
Ashe hurried to fetch the can opener from the top shelf next to the window. Though a whole side of the fridge was full of gourmet cat food, Ashe grabbed a can of the cheap moist food from the pantry. The sound of the can opener whirring was the only sound in the house.
Saka was still nowhere to be seen, and Ashe graduated from mild concern to fear. “Saka!” He shouted for her again. His frown deepening, he began to search for her only to groan at what he found, hands covering his face.
The window in one of the guest rooms was wide open.
Not only was the bed soaked from the rain, but it was a perfect avenue of escape for an unhappy kitty. Ashe had left her alone, and she’d probably run out as soon as he was gone. Cormac would be heartbroken- but far more importantly, Saka was probably soaking wet, afraid and alone in the streets.
The thought kicked Ashe into full blown panic. He ran out the door without a single thought spared for his shoes or jacket. Ashe was drenched seconds after he went outside, his hair sticking to his head and paint running off his skin and clothes as he dashed down the street.
“Saka!” he shouted her name over and over as he searched for her. Ashe was shivering before long, his breath misting in the air, but it didn’t stop him; he searched every alley, every nook and cranny, in widening circles.
He found her four streets away. Saka was huddled under a box in an alley, dirty and soaked. Her fur was plastered to her body, her ears down and her tail tucked over her nose. Her eyes looked huge, and she was shivering worse than Ashe.
“Saka,” he said her name softly, gently. Her eyes flicked up to him, but she didn’t seem to recognize him; at least, she didn’t hiss at him. Moving slowly, Ashe knelt on the ground, pain searing through his leg when he planted his knee on broken glass. He didn’t even flinch, bending lower to the ground and opening his arms.
They stared at each other for a long moment, the only sounds the pounding of the rain and the occasional ‘whoosh’ of passing cars. Then Saka broke her trend of hatred; Ashe found himself holding a mewling, quivering ball of wet fur. Holding her with one arm, he stripped his sweater off. Even though it was soaked, and left him shirtless, it was the best he could do. It protected her from the rain, and the bouncing, as he ran as fast as he could back to the house.
The first thing he did was pull the quilt off his bed, twisting it into a nest that would keep Saka warm. Then he cranked up the heater before running to the kitchen. He filled a bowl with the cream he’d shelled out big bucks for, and tapped his foot impatiently while it warmed in the microwave.
Saka didn’t touch the cream when he brought it out. She had curled up at the very bottom of the nest, her tail over her nose and fur sticking up in every direction.
“Hold on, I’ll be right back,” Ashe said, like the cat could understand him; he was still too used to familiars that could become cat-eared children.
Ashe was running again, to the master bathroom that time; he grabbed his cordless hair dryer off the stand and brought it back. Turning it on the lowest setting, he tested it against his skin. Then he used the dryer on the cat. Rubbing her fur up the wrong way, he meticulously dried her bit by bit, until her fur was sleek and dry beneath his fingers. He didn’t even wonder at it being the first time Saka let him touch her.
Once his worry for the cat was gone, Ashe noticed another problem- he was soaking wet and shivering even with the heater on. Bare-chested and nearly barefoot with all the holes he had put in his socks, he was in serious danger of catching a cold. Knowing he didn’t have time in his schedule for a sick day, Ashe lurched to his feet, his thoughts on a warm shower and his fuzziest pajamas.
He hadn’t gone more than two steps when Saka started to yowl. And it was a yowl, not a meow; it was the most pathetic thing Ashe had heard in his life. Ashe froze in place, his heart aching for the poor animal. He turned back slowly, and saw the cat’s ears were pressed flat against her head. There was no way he could resist that.
Sighing, Ashe returned to the blanket nest. He crawled into the cat’s shelter, curling up with the cat by his stomach. Saka cuddled close to him, and it wasn’t long before she was purring.
Ashe smiled fondly, running his fingers along her silken fur. He found himself growing drowsy, the long day with Mary and the mad dash through the rain catching up to him. His eyes drifted shut, and he was lost to the world.
The door opened an hour later, and the rain chased Cormac inside. Cormac shook his head, long hair flinging droplets of water onto the hardwood. He kicked off his shoes and shucked his jacket before padding into the house.
He didn’t get very far before he stopped, just past the entryway, just far enough to see the picture perfect scene on his living room floor, and hear the mix of soft snores and purring that drifted up from the pile of blankets.
“What kind of trouble did you two get into?” Cormac smiled fondly down at his lover and their cat. They were entirely too cute to resist; though Cormac had been looking forward to sleeping in his own bed, he curled into the blanket nest with his lover, and let Ashe’s gentle, even breathing lull him to sleep.
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