Chapter Text
Emmett knew what he looked like, at least vaguely. He could feel his ears, his tail, his paws, but he never knew what he actually looked like. Not in the shadows. One of the first things he noticed once free, it’s that Emmett was short. And that warmed and hurt his heart. He could almost hear how Becker would laugh at him. At least Emmett was not the shortest player on the spies.
It was Son, for the small amount of time Emmett knew them. But after that, it was Jomgy Rolsenthal. Their constantly frizzy hair almost crossed the boundary but they were just the tiniest bit too short, and Emmett loved to rub it in their face.
“Whatcha doing, short fry?” Emmett asks, knocking on the doorframe of Jomgy’s workshop. She doesn’t even swivel her chair to face it, all she did was pat the corner of her workbench and Emmett made his way over.
The metallic scraps and wires littered the table, chicken scratch handwriting covered thrown aside sticky notes, and chewed pen caps added to the clutter. A desk light loomed over the space, lighting the rest of the room as well. Fresh band-aids were plentiful in the open desk drawer to her left.
“Is this a new thing or like… something Denzel gave you?” Emmett had to hold mewself back from stealing a piece of wire to mess with later, but instead, mew just bats at the lamp’s pull string.
“It’s just some schematics I picked up from the core, I wanna check them out to see if they’ll help us at all. I was thinking of trying to make it like a kind of faux electric blood.” Jomgy pulls their goggles from their eyes, wiping the sweat off of their brow.
“When you say ‘ picked up from ’ you mean you stole them right?” It asks, holding its chin up with its paw.
Jomgy tried to smother the laugh, but it was too easy to let it all go. “Yes Emmett, I went all the way past Hades, deep into the Core only to steal this battery shamanic. I have nothing better to do than almost get heatstroke undercover.” The sarcasm was deeply baked into their words.
“I don’t know! I don’t know how deep you’re into the spy thing! We don’t hang out too much in our free time! You could be a real cat burglar!” Emmett punched Jomgy’s shoulder as the laughter took over the two of them.
Soft snickers and laughter distract the engineer from their work, the lithium component was giving them some struggles so why not take a break. With a lone pencil, they threw their hair up. Sticking the point right through the matted red locks. Turning from their desk Jomgy sits in front of Emmett, its tail swaying back and forth.
“So what did you come in here for, Tabby?” Jomgy pushes back from her desk and looked at the cat.
“Can’t a fella just sit in on a friend without getting accused of something?”
“If it was Malik or Denzel, yeah of course. But, Emmett, the chaos you bring into the shop is guaranteed.” the band-aid scrunched up with the joke snarl. “Don’t knock things off the desk today, please.”
A faint expression of hurt fits onto Emmett, a paw comes up to mew’s chest. “I cannot believe you Jomgy! The trust! Where did it all go?”
“Dude!” She snorts, “You broke my last set of goggles! It took three weeks to get a new pair!” the chuckled phrase assured Emmett she wasn’t mad about it. But it was very true.
“Okay okay okay,” Emmett’s eyes roll, “Truce for now!” mew’s tale flicks and hits Jomgy’s leg. If they weren’t paying attention to Emmett’s every move she probably wouldn’t have noticed.
“A hit!” Jomgy clutches the wrong leg , “You did a hit! I’m injured, I can’t play! I’m out of commission!” a small pang of nostalgia from Becker tries to show itself in Emmett, but it pushes the feeling down.
“Come on, shorty! You’re fine!” it boops their nose. A light glaze of pink dusts over their cheeks. Almost instantly they pull down their goggles a bit too quickly, bumping the band-aid at their nose. They let out a small hiss.
“Oh heck, you okay?” It pushes off the desk and leans over Jomgy, lightly setting a paw on their cheek, more pink peeks onto her cheeks. She pulls away.
“I’m fine Emmett, I’m okay!” Jomgy’s hand comes up the to band-aid and peels it off. The small scab under it seems to have picked itself up at the edges, they let out another small hiss, touching the bridge of their nose. Their eyes cross trying to assess the damage.
“No dude you’re not okay, here,” Emmett says grabbing for a new bandage from the drawer and begins to unwrap it. “I got you,” a softer tone settles into mew’s voice.
“No no, it’s fine I-” they try to grab for the band-aid but Emmett bats their hand away.
“Jomgy,” a more stern touch comes into the softness, “I’ve got you, hun. Now hold still for me. Please.” his paw rests on her cheek once more but this time Jomgy doesn’t push away as he pulls up her goggles. The dust of pink turns into a banket.
Emmett’s paws are feather light pressing the adhesive into the sides of her nose. Softly pressing the sides into her face, Emmett smiles sweetly. “If you keep blushing like that I’m not going to be able to see where the band-aid is.”
Even with that snarky remark, Jomgy stays still, not even a twitch. Looking at Emmett. Its fur is soft against their cheeks, its paw pads warm, its green eyes looking plush daggers into them. It’s sweet.
Jomgy’s hand comes up to the paw on their face, holding it there. They rub their thumb against the fur. Emmett doesn’t move at all, almost frozen as his pupils form into saucers. The warmth from the table lamp couldn't match the warmth in his chest, it was nice to feel that kind of warmth again.
“Can I...” Emmett mewed almost a whisper, but Jomgy didn’t need him to finish his sentence before they lean forward in their chair. A small soft pick was put on Emmett’s lips. Something experimental, something curious. A sweet smile took Emmett’s lips as they part.
Jomgy sunk into mew’s smile, her own face pulling the same expression as mews. Neither spoke, just soft smiles and sweet stares. Thinking about what to do next, the both of the hoping not to spoil the moment.
“Can we do that again? Not just now, but, in like general?” Jomgy took the opportunity to say the first thing in her head. She could see stars in Emmett’s eyes as it through.
“That might be nice, yeah we can do that.”
Emmett pulls at Jomgy’s coat into another kiss, “and again” mew began to litter kisses over their face, “and again.”
Jomgy just giggled.