Work Text:
On the list of things he cared about, Gyro would always have his inventions at the top. A strong second place was the few people he considered more than work acquaintances. And third was cats.
Now, Gyro wasn’t really by any means a crazy cat person (he was sort of crazy in general), but they were the most relatable animal for him. And over the years, he’d become the favorite person of every stray cat that roamed near his apartment, leaving out scraps and kibble on the fire escape. He’d even taken in and named a few of the returning visitors.
For the last several years that he’d lived in his lonely little apartment, he’d have at least one cat to greet him when he came home. But as they were returning strays initially, by the time he’d welcomed them into his home as permanent members of his ‘family,’ they were grown animals with a bit of age on them. Naturally, Gyro knew their lifespans would be significantly shorter.
Still, it did make his heart ache when one eventually would pass away, and he knew the most he could do would be to let them have good last days. He was reserved with his grief. But then came the day when the one remaining cat in his apartment, who was also the first one he’d taken in, took a final nap on Gyro’s bed. That goodbye had been much harder, but still, Gyro had gone into work right after, dry-eyed and somber.
Ever since then, for the last several months, Gyro hadn’t adopted any other cats. He’d just occasionally put food out on the fire escape, but grief had no bearing on Gyro’s fondness for cats. He followed plenty of themed pages on social media and shared absurd and amusing feline memes with Fenton and Launchpad over Quackchat.
The two ducks knew Gyro was probably lonely without an animal companion waiting for him at home anymore, but they also knew Gyro wasn’t going to actively try and find one. So they decided they would help out...sort of.
One day, while on lunch break, Fenton smiled slightly as he leaned over to show Gyro a picture. “I found an InstaPic account you might like.”
Gyro grabbed at the phone impatiently to flip through the pictures of a tiny, fuzzy tuxedo kitten with white paws and blue eyes and snorted, “Oh my god, look at this puny thing. It got its claw stuck on that blanket!”
“Check out the rest of the pictures,” Fenton urged with a smile.
“Hah! It got its face covered in wet food! It looks so ridiculous!” Gyro cackled, making more heckling comments at the tiny kitten, dubbed ‘Surprise’ according to the account. As he continued to chortle at the kitten’s deemed lack of intellect, he followed the media page to keep up with it.
For the next few days during lunch break, Gyro would see more pictures of ‘Surprise the Kitten’ show up on his InstaPic feed and grew more and more amused and adoring of the baby cat’s antics. He also became intrigued at the discovery that she was polydactyl and had six toes on each little paw.
“Haven’t you always said you’d like a six-toed cat?” Fenton asked as he leaned over Gyro’s shoulder to look at his phone screen.
“So I can train it to pull switches? Yes.” Gyro shrugged, flipping to the inventor message board he frequented to get into another argument.
After a week had passed, Launchpad texted Gyro.
“I have something to show you in the garage after work!!! :D”
That particular day, Gyro wasn’t exactly in the best mood to see whatever chaos the pilot had brewing in the mansion garage, but Fenton offered to drive him there on his way home. It wasn’t like he had anything better to do.
When they arrived, Launchpad didn’t seem to be there, so Gyro opted to sit on the couch and wait, arms crossed impatiently and unsure why Fenton was grinning so much. Before he could ask why, Launchpad finally stepped into the garage, holding a covered box and the ducklings following close behind.
“Hey Dr. G, we have something for you!” Launchpad announced, plopping the box in Gyro’s lap.
Gyro eyed the box suspiciously. “What is it?”
“A surprise!”
Not wanting to open the box just that second, the chicken continued to glare at the top of the box, trying to deduce if it was some sort of messy immature prank by the ducklings. They were all staring at him in anticipation to take the lid off.
“What kind of surprise is this? A good one right?” he asked, almost accusatory.
“It’s a surprise .” Dewey smiled, holding his phone up.
“Okay, but that doesn’t answer my question. What kind of surprise it is? I-”
Gyro felt the box shift with something moving inside.
His eyes widened in realization, and he immediately glared at Fenton, who was grinning widely.
Oh, you son of a blintz.
Gyro yanked the top of the box off and was staring down at a tiny pair of blue eyes belonging to a kitten...a six-toed kitten wearing a bright red bow on its collar. It squeaked in assumed greeting.
“Is this the freaking kitten from InstaPic?!” Gyro almost screeched, neither angry or excited.
“Surprise!” Launchpad and Fenton both cheered.
Suddenly Gyro finally began to relax, wheezing a bit with confused laughter. “What is this?”
“Your new kitten!”
“But I didn’t-!” Gyro cut himself off, finally having the wit to pull the kitten out of the box and hold it. “Is this for real?”
“Yeah! It’s for real.” Fenton grinned, sitting next to Gyro to watch him examine the animal. “We wanted to surprise you.”
“I found the little lady eating my Sugar Quacks cereal in here a couple weeks ago,” Launchpad explained, “and we both knew you’d probably like her.”
“We wanted to keep her, but Granny’s allergic.” Webby pouted.
“We figure if you keep her in your lab, we can act as surrogate pet owners,” Huey piped up.
“We had the kids set up a social media account for her last week and got you to follow it.”
“We’ve been laughing at you all week,” Louie snickered. Gyro was too enamored with letting the kitten chew his bowtie to get angry.
“Aww. Well...thank you.” Gyro managed to smile genuinely. “As much as I hate surprises and the idea that you named her that , I think we’ll get along.”
“That’s good,” Fenton replied, “because where else are we going to find a six toed cat that you can train to help you in the lab?”
“Hmmm.” Gyro smiled, holding the kitten up to his face and bracing himself as she pawed at his glasses and his beak with a soft meow. “Lil Bulb will be jealous of you!” he addressed her. “Yes! And I’m going to have to change your name on your social media account! Isn’t that right, Lil Mew?”
The kitten chirped in response, and Fenton laughed. “You already have a new name for her?”
“Look, I already know it’s the most creative thing I’ll ever come up with. Besides, I like having my wards, animal and robot labeled by descriptors! When she’s older, I can just call her Big Mew.”
One of the triplets almost coughed in laughter at the ridiculous name, and Gyro shot them a glare that prompted them to leave the garage.
“So are you really going to keep her in the lab?” Fenton stroked the little cat’s head with a finger.
“Well, since kittens are notoriously curious and need constant attention? Probably.” Gyro smiled even wider, the delighted expression not changing even as Lil Mew’s paw made his glasses go askew. “You are going to be my worst behaved intern. Congratulations.”