(no subject)

[ephitomis]

Kitten Danger

The thing is this. Andrew doesn't feel lonely, it doesn't matter how much Nicky likes to tease him about it, Just because he's living alone for the first time in his life, doesn't mean he misses everybody else.

It's true. When he was little Andrew dreamed of living alone, of not having to share his space with people he didn't trust and didn't understand him. Having his own house, and his own room and his own living space, is a dream come true. Even in the dorms, he always had to share his space with everyone else.

So he's happy. Content. Not lonely.

Neil is the one who is lonely. After all he's the last one of the original foxes still at Palmetto, and while his capitan duties have him running around all day, he still calls Andrew every night before falling asleep. Neil talks and talks, even if Andrew doesn't say anything in between. Neil tells him about his day, about the new foxes and about Robin.

Neil has also already planned all his vacations. It's easier for him to travel rather than Andrew, and since Andrew lives alone, Neil can just come over when he wants. It's easier this way.

Another reason why having an apartment alone is the best.

So really, everyone thinking that Andrew's lonely? Really don't know him.

It's why he doesn't answer Nicky's daily phone calls anymore. It doesn't seem to matter to his cousin that he's in Germany, since he feels like Andrew's lonely, he stays up until late in the night to talk to him and it's the most unnecessary thing he has ever done. And knowing Nicky that's a lot.

Andrew answers once a week, and he tries to be consistent with it, so that Nicky might realize he only needs to call on Wednesday nights. He's not so lucky. 

So one day Andrew decides to bring the heavy hitters. Nicky has always been strangely resistant towards Andrew's cold and apathetic attitude, but is strangely weak towards Neil's requests. Andrew, who knows intimately what it means to be unable to say no to Josten, can't really blame him.

"Tell Nicky to stop calling me. We agreed on once a week," he tells Neil one night, interrupting him in the middle of a retelling of a play. Neil stops, probably surprised, but then continues like they were talking about Nicky the whole time.

"I know, he calls me after you ignore him. He thinks you're lonely,"Neil tells him, as if Andrew didn't know.

"So tell him I'm not, and to stop calling."

“Hm,” Neil says, but doesn’t add much else. It irks Andrew, who used to be the one in the relationship that didn’t talk much at all.

“What?” he asks, then. He’s not irritated, not yet, but he’s starting to feel something, and that’s more than most people manage to get from him.

“Nothing,” Neil replies after a moment. “I will talk to him,” he promises, “ not that I can’t promise anything. Why you all think I can make anyone do anything is a mystery to me.”

Andrew doesn’t tell him it’s because he can make Andrew so things, so everyone assumes Neil must have strange powers. The bastard doesn’t need to know that.

“Hm,” he simply comments, happy to have resolved the situation for the moment. He’s happy to keep the rest of the night silent, while Neil prattles on at the phone.

He doesn’t enjoy indulging anyone this much, but he thinks Neil might deserve it after everything he’s gone through.

Andrew is just feeling sorry for him.

Neil works his magic, and Nicky starts calling him only once a week, but he demands they stay on the phone for at least an hour. It’s a heavy price, and sometimes Andrew is tempted to just not answer his nosy cousin, but then he thinks of how much worse it could be.

Still, Andrew can’t get out of his head Neil’s hm. What did he mean? It was the kind of sound Neil made when he was thinking about a puzzle too hard and couldn’t figure out the answer. Andrew knows it from hours spent studying in the same room as Neil and his calculus homework.

It’s just that he doesn’t understand what Neil was thinking then.

It’s on his mind for most of the week, and the one after that, but even if Neil and Andrew continue their daily calls, Andrew doesn’t bring this up.

It would be different if they were face to face. Andrew wouldn’t need to speak at all, Neil would just understand that there was something on his mind and figure out on his own what it was. They work well enough mostly because Neil is unsurprisingly self sufficient even in this. 

He compensates for Andrew, most of the time, who doesn’t have the force to voice his feelings on good days.

Still, one night, after almost three weeks, Neil doesn’t call.

It… Andrew isn’t worried. They don’t really have a set time to call each other, nor an appointment. It’s just what they usually do… but then Neil doesn’t call.

He could take the cellphone and dial Neil’s number himself, but he doesn’t need to. The calls were always a way to make Neil feel less lonely. If he doesn’t need them… well, Andrew can enjoy an entire night spent without someone annoying him to sleep.

So Andrew spends the night eating ice cream and reading a book he has already read. He remembers everything, but there’s nothing else in his apartment for him to do.

At one point in the night his cellphone chimes and Andrew picks it up slowly. It’s a message from Neil: Sorry abt 2night. Emergency with the foxes. Call u tmrw?

It’s written in such tragic english that Andrew almost puts it immediately back down. But he doesn’t.

He wasn’t worried, nor lonely, but he’s… not unhappy to hear from Neil. A part of him wants to reply to never call him again, the other wants to call him now and hear about this emergency.

Andrew puts down the cellphone and gets back to his book.

The day after he’s on his way home later than usual, the nearest supermarket was out of his favourite ice cream and so Andrew had walked the longer distance to go to the other one. He’s glad to have found it there, because he doesn't know another supermarket he could have tried.

He’s walking towards his house, wondering if Neil would call at the usual hour, and if he wanted to even pick up the phone, when he hears a noise.

He stops and frowns, confused. Then he hears the noise again and, this time, recognizes it for the meow it is.

Andrew huffs annoyed, and makes to keep walking, when he hears a scuffle and a hiss, followed by another meow.

It doesn’t sound like a full on fight, but there’s something going on in the alley and he knows he should leave it well alone. It’s not his responsability if some dumb cats gets themselves killed.

He takes another step, determined to leave the animals to their fates, when something launches itself out of the alley.

Andrew can see a cat, and after the animals another cat, hissing. The first cat looks worse for the wear, while the second one has a couple of scratches but nothing too worrisome.

It’s obvious who is the underdog in this fight and Andrew watches for a moment the two animals hiss at each other before sighing. He takes a step closer and then starts stomping towards the second cat. 

The animal looks at him wary for a second, then annoyed and then he finally runs away with another hiss.

Alone, Andrew looks at the first cat and then sighs. The animal is clearly in bad shape, and well, there’s a veterinary not that far from there.

Why does he get involved with this shit?

Andrew takes his jacket off and then goes to pick up the cat, when the animal startles, hisses at him and starts walking back towards the alley.

See? This is the usual thanks Andrew gets when he tries to do anything. Isn’t it?

He almost walks away again before he hears another meow, this time smaller and more high pitched than the previous one. He has two seconds to count inside his head before he gives up and curses: a motherfucking kitten. Of course.

Andrew looks back towards his own house, but he already knows it’s a lost cause and walks towards the alley,

He can’t see the cat for a moment, but then he notices a movement out of the corner of his eye. Just behind one of the dumpsters he can see the cat and one little kitten. They’re nestled in a way that it will be difficult for Andrew to pick them up without having to touch the dumpster.

This night is just getting better and better… He sighs again and then proceeds to move the dumpster.

The mother cat fixes him with a rather fierce glare, while the little one doesn’t seem to even have his eyes open yet. He knows people would try to talk to animals in this situation, maybe calm them down, but Andrew doesn’t really want to talk right at that moment.

So he just extends his hand towards the mother cat. If she scratches him then that’s that. He won’t force her to come with him if she really didn’t want to. 

Surprisingly, however, she sniffs him a moment and then pushes her head on the back of his hand in greeting. Well, That's that.

He picks both cat up and then brings them to the clinic. They tell him that the mother is in bad shape, but that she’ll pull through. The kitten is too small to be on his own, and he needs around the clock feeding.

The nurse tells him they’ll take care of that but Andrew thinks back on the fierce protectiveness of the cat he just saves and frowns. He knows that if he was in her place he would hate this: having his kitten in the care of complete strangers…

And well, it’s not like she knows him, but she has accepted Andrew in some way. So he extends his hand and demands: “I’ll take him.”

The nurse seems surprised for a moment and then says, slowly, “Sir, I don’t think you…”
“Around the clock feeding,” Andrew growls, finding the idea of having to explain himself incredibly distasteful. “I’ll take him.”

They try to make him rethink his decision a couple of times, but Andrew doesn’t bulge and so they have no other choices but to give him the cat and all the formula he will need. They give him a crash course on how to take care of a kitten, and he doesn’t tell them this feels way easier than taking care of Neil Josten for even just a minute.

So he takes the kitten, the formula and the wipes and tells them he would be back for the mother. 

“You’re taking them?” the nurse wonders out loud and Andrew hadn’t meant it like that but… what’s another stray in his life, really.

When he arrives home he feeds the kitten and then cleans him and then he looks at the tiny animal in his home and wonders what the fuck. 

It’s then that his cell phone rings, almost summoned by his panic attack, and Andrew answers without even looking at the caller. 

“What happened? Where were you?” Neil asks, which is a little hypocritical since he was the one who didn’t call the night before.

Andrew doesn’t really know how to answer the question, or how to explain to Neil that he thinks he has adopted two cats. He just…

“Do you think I’m lonely?” he wonders, out loud, looking at the living proof of it just in front of him.

Neil doesn’t answer for a second. “I think you’re not used to live away from your family. While I’ve had a lot of experience. Why?”

Before Andrew can answer, the little kitten meows and Andrew can feel the silence on the other hand of the cell phone.

“A cat?” Neil wonders, evidently confused.

“Two,” Andrew admits, because what else can he do?

Neil stays silent for a couple of seconds again before repeating. “Two.” Thankfully Neil doesn’t ask him if he’s sure, or what he is doing.

He doesn’t even use the furballs against Andrew. He pauses and then asks, taking it all in stride, “You know Nicky will want to name them, right?”

And Andrew can’t help but say: “Fuck.”