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“Stens.” Clyde held up his hands placatingly as he looked at the younger man across the kitchen island, his words soft and soothing, trying to calm his boyfriend down.
He didn’t think it was working.
Stensland glared at him from over his shoulder, still slightly hunched over, guarding, protecting. “Don’t you ‘Stens’ me, Clyde Logan. You can’t make me,” was his petulant reply.
“Babe,” he tried again, shifting to the side, holding in the sneeze he knew was coming.
“No.” He followed the action, keeping himself across from Clyde, his body still angled away from him, though he kept his face turned, watching.
“Come here.”
“No.” Stensland curled further forward, stance ever protective, arms curled around the object he held, shoulders hunched over, knees bent slightly as if ready to bolt at the first sign of danger. “I won’t!”
Clyde wanted to yell in frustration, was nearly tempted to do so, but for the fact that he knew it wouldn’t solve anything. Never had, but usually it made him felt a little better. However, this time it would only make Stens angrier at him, and he might actually go back to his apartment for once in the last month or so (he’d promised he’d break the lease, but he’d known the younger man had a few issues with clinging to things). That wasn’t his intention.
“Honey, listen, we just can’t have a cat.”
His boyfriend just looked at him with that face of his, that face that Clyde had a very difficult time resisting. “I can’t give him up Clyde!”
“I’m allergic to cats.”
“You said only mildly allergic!”
Another desire to shout, to do something. It wasn’t Stensland’s fault, not really. And, after all, he did love the man. He was just frustrated that he just couldn’t say no. He’d known it since he first saw the gray tabby huddled against his boyfriend’s chest that this would be a lost cause, especially with the way it purred so contentedly and how Stensland looked down at it, obviously so happy.
“Stens I can’t…” he then sighed, dropping his shoulders, giving up. “You promise you’re gonna take care of him?”
The smile that lit up Stensland’s face as he turned fully towards him, tiny kitten still held against his chest, was worth it. If only he could keep that smile there permanently, protect him from anything that would cause it to fall. Unfortunately, life didn’t quite work that way, but he would do his damnedest to make Stensland happy, even if that meant sacrificing his ability to breathe.
Finally, the man let him approach, his defensive stance easing, hands still curled around the feline. Clyde wrapped his arms around the two, smiling at the slight vibration he felt from the purrs. He pressed his nose into Stensland’s hair, breathing in that scent that was so distinctly him. Maybe this thing with the cat would be okay.
“Love you,” Stens murmured.
“I love you too, babe.”
Then Clyde sneezed.