Chapter Text
“Michael”
“Yes”
“Is that a cat?”
“Yes”
“Why do you have a cat on your lap for gods sake?”
Maybe Michael should have told them earlier. Maybe he should have told them already three days ago, or just send them a text saying “Guys I found a cat and I’m keeping it”. Maybe he shouldn’t have just went to band practice with a kitten in one of his beanies and maybe he shouldn’t have just plopped it down on the small couch next to Calum who almost chocked on his burrito at the sight of the tiny animal. But now it was too late.
Let’s just say the boys had a splitted opinion on Michael’s new friend. Calum was the first to aknowledge the kitten, because, you know, Michael dropped the bomb right in front of him. Like literally. Well he actually dropped the bomb next to him and the bomb wasn’t a bomb, the bomb was a kitten in a beanie but well. (Michaels head was steaming from just replaying this scene in his mind)
So after placing the cat next to Calum and patting his friend a few times on the back to prevent him from suffocating on mexican food, he slowly made his way backwards to the other small couch placed on the opposite of the one his Friend was sitting and eyed him with hooded eyes. Calum coughed a few times until he regained his normal breathing and blinked at the small creature next to him who was busy playing with the hem of Michaels beanie (He already destroyed Michaels favourite yesterday) before looking over at Michael with a questioning look.
The tanned lad just kept on looking back and fourth between his friend and the kitten before Michael rolled his eyes. “That’s a cat Calum” “I see that. But why do you have a cat? And since when?” Michael watched the kitten curl up in on the sofa and clean his paws with his tongue and he smiled at the cuteness. “I found this little buddy in front of my apartment last Saturday after I went home from our movie night. I just couldn’t leave him at the outside it was raining and cold and oh god Calum look how cute he is he is licking his paws.” “Last Saturday? You have this since three days? Did you even plan on telling us?”, Calum practically yelled while pointing dangerously at the animal next to him.
The purple haired boy let out a gasp. “This” has a name, he thought to himself.
“Don’t talk like that about Robert Alexander the third!”
“Oh my god don’t tell me you actually named him like that”
“I did”
“I can’t believe this”
“Well, he didn’t complain”
“Yeah, cause he is a cat Michael!”
Michael was pouting by now and slumped back in his seat. This really wasn’t going the way he imagined it would be. Bringing the cat to band practice, telling the boys this was the newest member of the band and making them all laugh, that was his plan. Then they would all play with Robert Alexander the third and go and eat some ice cream. But by now only Calum was the only one knowing about the kitten and he really wasn’t happy. Great, two more band members to go.
And while thinking about breaking the news to the other boys, Luke paddled into the room with his phone in his hand. He plopped down on the space next to Calum and as Michael started screaming and Calum pushed him of the couch, the poor boy had no idea what was going on and almost shit his pants. Of course he fell face forward on the hard ground and could only see Michael rushing to the spot he just got pushed from and that’s it. No one helped him up, no one asking “Oh god Luke are you okay?” No, nothing. Instead he saw Michael rushing back to his seat and holding a fucking cat in his head and shooting Luke angry glares while petting the small animal and Calum shaking his head whispering “what an idiot” before returning to his burrito ( the burrito was cold by now, what a waste of food) So Luke got up from the floor, stood there in the room and just stared at his friend petting the damn kitten that he almost crushed and oh well, Luke felt bad now.
“Is someone going to explain me this?” “Michael found a cat and is keeping it.” Oh.
“You got a cat Michael?” “YES AND YOU ALMOST KILLED HIM WITH YOUR BODY GOD DAMMIT LUKE CAN’T YOU JUST WATCH OUT ONCE?”
The blonde boy paddled awkwardly to Michael and sat down next to him, who, of course, backed off more into the corner as far away from Luke as possible as if he had an contagious disease. (“How Immature” Luke thought to himself)
“I’m sorry for almost killing your cat, forgive me?”
“No”
“What’s his name?”
“Robert Alexander the third”
“Oh my god did you name him after me?”
“No”
“Can I pet him?”
“Hell no”
Luke was giving up now.
So while Luke was pouting at Michael and Michael was hissing at him as he tried to pet the kitten and Calum was frowning at his cold burrito, Ashton made finally an apperance in the room and just stood there blinking at the cat on Michaels lap. And when Michael looked up and saw Ashton with an unreadable expression in front of him he didn’t quite know what to do because :
1. Calum already wasn’t so fond of Robert Alexander the third
2. Luke’s opinion didn’t matter (at least to Michael)
3. Ashton was the daddy of the group and his word was law
And if Ashton was against the purple haired boys new friend, this would get difficult. And before Michael could even register, the oldest boy already started holding one of his speeches about responsibilities and how much work a pet will make and he is on tour most of the time how could he even deal with a pet and when he added how Michael couldn’t even take care of himself how would he take care of an other living creature the boy just rolled his eyes cause wow he can take care of himself, Ashton is only saying this cause he got lost in a shopping centre once (to his defence, it was totally Luke’s fault) so Michael didn’t care.
Michael didn’t even listen anymore to Ashton, who was currently storming through the room with his hands up in the air , Michael was to busy playing with the paws of his kitten and he giggled, he fucking giggled as the small thing grabbed his finger and started biting it playfully.
Ashton noticed that he wasn’t paying attention by now and scowled at the boy with the cat.
“Michael!” the boys giggle stopped and he looked up with a smile on his face.
“Huh?”
“Are you even listening to me?”
“Yeah”
“No you are not, stop playing with the cat and listen to me!”
“But Ash look how cute he is he is biting my finger oh my gOD”
The boy with the golden mop of curls rubbed his temples in annoyance because wow this was nerve wracking. He kneeled down in front of the purple haired boy who was busy with the kitten again (he was currently mouthing to it how cute he is with a high pitched voice) Ashton started with a “Michael do you really think you can take care of this kitten” and Michael just kept on playing with the kittens paws and it looked like he tried to make the kitten have a little dance on his lap and from the corner of his eyes he saw Luke watch the scene in awe and he actually laughed at it (Ashton wasn’t surprised, Luke would jump off a cliff if Michael asked him to) and Ash knew this conversation was leading to nothing so he sat down on the floor and glared at Michael (still playing with that damn cat) and as Michael catched the boys sore face, a pout formed on his lips.
So if Ashton tried to make Mikey feel guilty, Michael could do the same. He swirled the kitten around, so his face was turned to Ash and took his two front paws between his fingers and pulled it up so he was standing only on his back paws, tummy slightly poking out and small meows of protest leaving his mouth. (Michael had to suppress his squeals as he watched this overload of cuteness)
He slightly ducked down behind the kitten that was still meowing (or yawning, Michael wasn’t sure) and started wiggling with the little cats arms as he said with an high pitched voice “but look how cute I am Ashton” and “You can’t say no to me Ashton “ “Pwetty Pwease?” “please don’t throw me out Ashton I lub u so much” and when Michaels head poked out from behind, still with a pout and puppy dog eyes, Ashton had no choice but to groan and release a “fine” which made Michael let out a “yaay” and him making his friend perform a victory dance on his lap with fist pumps (well more like paw pumps)
Ashton groaned again and plopped down on the couch next to Calum who just watched the whole scene silently (he still held that fucking burrito in his hand for some reason) and frowned at Ash who just thought “What now”
“Why can Michael have a kitten, but I can’t have a puppy?”
“Oh god are you for real right now Calum”
“Yes that’s not fair!! I want a puppy!”
“If Mikey can keep the kitten and Cal gets a puppy, can I have a penguin?”
This was getting ridiculous
“You aren’t getting a penguin Luke and Calum isn’t getting a puppy, we are a band not a fucking Zoo”
Luke watched sadly how the boy next to him played with his cat as his wish crashed into a pool of destroyed dreams. Luke and his penguin going for a walk in the park. Luke and his penguin going to grab some ice cream. Luke and his penguin falling asleep together on the couch after a marathon of animal documentaries from the discovery channel. He let out a long deep sigh while the two boys on the opposite of him watched him in confusion (sometimes not even Calum could understand what was going on in the youngest boys head)
So he just shook his head and turned to Michael and goes “Welcome in the band Robert Alexander the third” as he held up his burrito for a toast and Ash snorted cause who the fuck would name his pet like this. (Michael Clifford apparently)
And when Ashton said “we should make a keek with him” Michaels eyes lit up and he nodded eagerly because he wanted to show the world that he has the cutest cat on the entire planet. They filmed a keek and made some selfies of themselves with Robert (they all agreed to call him only Robert, the entire name was too long) and Michael couldn’t be happier. Even though they didn’t even practice one song by now, the boy felt like he accomplished something today. And he didn’t mind that Luke’s head was pressed against his shoulder by now and smiling fondly at the kitten that was fallen asleep on Mikeys lap, no he enjoyed it and maybe he should make some room for cuddle sessions with them two on Saturday evenings.
He could feel his cheeks heat up when Luke nuzzled his nose into Michaels neck and mumbled “this is nice” and indeed, this was really nice, but it would be also nice to play video games all day or to meet Will Smith, or to get his dick sucked by the blonde boy next to him (Michael would never admit it tho)
And Michael was more than annoyed when Ashton started with “Is Robert even a Robert?”, because yes Michael was more than sure that that he could tell apart from male and female genitals and Luke had to suppress a giggle as Calum added with raised eyebrows “maybe Robert is a Roberta” and Michael shot him a death glare cause even through Luke is unbelievable cute, he needs to learn his boundaries and laughing at Michael is a no-go. (Michael would forgive him anyways but Luke didn’t have to know yet)
“Of course he is male”
“I don’t think so”
“You wanna tell me Robert is a girl?”
“Well, did you check?”
Mikey held up the kitten in annoyance and squinted his eye trying to find his little friends little friend but oh well there was no sign of him and Ashton pointed at the Robert- now- Roberta and yelled “told you so” before going back to his phone. So what if Michael couldn’t tell if it’s a girl or a boy, he was the owner of a really cute kitten and Ashton wasn’t and if he asked if he could play with Robert-now-Roberta he wouldn’t allow him to. Totally hardcore.
But now the boy had to find a new name for Robert Alexander the third and he really wasn’t the most creative person. So far the boys had the names:
1. Charlie
2. Oreo
3. Roberta (Don’t ask)
4. Molly
The boys had no idea how hard it is to find a fitting name for a fucking cat and Michael groaned when Calum said “What about Dexter”. “ Calum that’s a boys name” and he just shook his head and broke into a discussion with him and Ashton.
Michael almost didn’t notice Luke whisper “We should name her Fluffernutter” which made the whole room go quiet and all eyes landed on the youngest boy who just shrugged “it’s a cute name”
Of course Luke was confronted with several “are you for real” and “why am I even in this band” and Michael adding “ shut up Luke”
They really were getting sick of this and “This fucking cat will be the death of me” wasn’t the nicest way to express this because the purple haired boy throw his hands over the kittens ears and glared at Calum shout whispering “You are hurting his feelings” which earned a head shaking form him and Ashton.
“Robert is a girl Michael”
“I don’t care”
“You can’t name her like that”
“Don’t tell me what to do”
And maybe they discussed this a bit too long because it was already getting dark and Luke was snoring against Michaels shoulder and Calum left the room.
“I will just deal with this tomorrow” he thought to himself, before placing his head on Luke’s and closing his eyes.