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Harry was the last kitten of his litter left, but he wasn't entirely sure that was a bad thing. At least now he didn't get teased for being the runt of the group, considering he got to sleep with a bunch of younger kittens that treated him like a pariah for being the biggest out of all of them. Their caretakers also took special care to make sure he got a little more attention than the babies, which was nice. He really loved having his ears scratched.
Harry's days were spent napping in the corner of the playpen, eating, play wrestling with the younger kittens, and snuggling close to the new people that came to visit him every day. He didn't understand why so many people came to visit, but he always made sure to rub against their legs and purr extra loud in the hopes that he'd get taken away like the rest of his litter had.
One morning, a fairly young blonde man comes in, sits in the middle of the play area and waits. None of the kittens are sure why they weren't immediately picked up and cradled against this stranger's chest and hang back, looking and waiting for Harry to make the first move. Harry decides he should hang back, because, well. He really doesn't know why this guy is here and not picking them up.
Taking a tentative step forward, Harry meows loudly, making sure his mouth opens wide to show off his impressive teeth. So maybe he still has his milk teeth and they're a bit loose, but his permanent ones should be coming in soon. He should still be pretty intimidating, if he says so himself.
"C'mon, lil kitty," the guy whispers and offers his hand to Harry, who shyly sniffs the air as if he'd be able to smell the guy from this far. In his periphery, he sees his whiskers move in time with each twitch of his nose.
Slowly taking a few steps forward, Harry sniffs the suspicious man's hand. He smells like another, older male cat. Harry decides he doesn't like that and rubs his face against the guy's hand to try and overpower the other cat's scent with his own. The blonde takes this as an invitation and reaches out to scratch the top of Harry's head. Harry's long gone at that point, barely registering the fact that he's climbed into this strangers lap and curled up as the man strokes down his side.
"S'alright if I take you home with me, lil kitty?" The blonde asks, scratching Harry under the chin. Harry responds by kneading his paws into the guy's leg and purring louder than ever before, happy that he's being taken like his brothers and sisters.
- - -
The next time Harry wakes up, he's curled up with a soft blanket in a small cage and very, very confused as to where he is and what's happening. With a small meow, he looks out of the cage and into the blue eyes of the larger and very intimidating cat that's sitting right outside his cage.
The larger cat just blinks at him before stretching and walking away, and. That's not what Harry was expecting. Standing up to stretch, he realizes there's not much space for him to stretch comfortably. Now that the larger cat has left, Harry feels like he could safely cry for someone to let him out of this small space.
With a deep inhale, Harry lets out a loud and drawn-out yowl and waits a moment. With no response, he prepares to let out an even louder cry when the larger cat comes back and sits in front of the cage door and stares at the latch. Harry watches as he reaches out a paw and flips the lock on the door. The door catches on a claw and swings open as the blue eyed cat pulls his paw back.
"Aw, Lou. You can't just teach the new cat how to open the carrier," the blonde guy appears suddenly and scoops up the larger cat in his arms. The cat meows indignantly at being handled and placed across the room.
While the blonde was moving the larger cat, Harry had crept out of the cage with his whiskers twitching as he took in all the strange new scents. The floor is soft and covered in toys. More toys than Harry had ever seen in his life.
In about two seconds, he forgets about exploring in favor of pouncing on a small ball that rattles as it rolls away. Intrigued, Harry sits in front of the ball and stares at it as he reaches a tiny paw out and bats the ball gently. Following the ball's movement with his eyes, he sees the larger cat reach out and paws the ball off into a new direction.
"I'm Louis," the older cat announces, looking steadily at Harry and blinking. Looking back at the older cat, Harry decides he can't be that bad and approaches him slowly, sniffing around his face.
"I'm Harry," he responds, tentatively rubbing his face on Louis', relieved when the older cat doesn't pull away. Harry decides he likes this other cat.
Both cats jump as they hear the sound of a shutter go off and look up to see the blonde boy holding his phone up and snapping a picture of the two with a bright grin plastered on his face.
"Glad you two are getting along," he mumbles as he types out a message on his phone before joining them on the floor.
"That's Niall," Louis tells Harry as they watch Niall reach for a toy mouse and toss it around the corner of the couch. Both cats track the movement with dilated pupils as they both dash off in a race to the mouse.
- - -
When Harry wakes up a few hours later, he's purring. He's never woken up purring before, but he's curled into the side of a purring Louis. Rolling over, Harry thinks that being taken by Niall was one of the best things that could've happened if it meant spending his days napping with Louis.