Work Text:
Da Qing walks in through their front door and closes it behind him, without letting it bang shut behind him like usual. The highly unusual behaviour makes Zhao Yunlan raise his head from the cozy pillow of Shen Wei’s lap to look at Da Qing with suspicion.
He carries a small wicker basket in his arms and sets it on the glass coffee table in front of the couch where Zhao Yunlan lies lazily with his head pillowed on Shen Wei’s wonderful thighs while he has his nose buried in his university work. Shen Wei sets his papers down and Zhao Yunlan puts his phone aside to get up from his lovely pillow and throws a curious glance at the basket.
“Damn cat,” he starts saying loudly but is violently shushed by Da Qing and he startles back into Shen Wei before he lowers his voice and tries again, “what did you bring in now?”
Da Qing shows him a thumbs up before kneeling down in front of the table and beckons both Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei near him.
“What are you-” he goes to say again but Shen Wei shushes him this time and goes down to his knees beside Da Qing in front of the table and Zhao Yunlan follows to join both of them on the floor.
The wicker basket on the table looks innocent enough covered in a blanket but Zhao Yunlan has zero faith in Da Qing. He could be playing some stupid prank on Zhao Yunlan and the basket might contain some weird pop up toy that would make him shout and then proceed to beat Da Qing’s ass.
Da Qing shushes at Zhao Yunlan again, ignoring the silent Shen Wei and gently lifts the blanket covering the basket and all three of them peek inside to check what exactly Da Qing brought to their home.
Kittens
Zhao Yunlan stares amazed as two fluffy tiny kittens sleep, huddled together inside the basket. He can’t help the cooing sound that leaves his throat but he’s joined soon by Shen Wei cooing as well at the tiny kittens cuddling together so he doesn’t have to feel alone by himself for long.
“Fat cat you didn’t say you had kids.” Zhao Yunlan says softly, to not wake up the sleeping kitties.
Da Qing snorts and turns back to look at Zhao Yunlan, “They’re not mine-”, Zhao Yunlan cuts him off,
“Of course they aren’t. You can’t have such cute kittens.”
Shen Wei huffs a laugh but otherwise doesn’t join in on their banter and Da Qing glares at Zhao Yunlan before continuing,
“Like I was saying, they aren’t mine. Someone left them outside the SID. I asked a nearby shelter but they’re full and can’t take them in for now,” Da Qing looks down inside the basket with a fond smile, “they’re too young to be dropped off in a shelter now anyway.”
Shen Wei looks at Da Qing and finally says something about the new guests napping peacefully,
“How young are they?”
Da Qing looks up at Shen Wei before he replies, “a little more than two weeks old I think. They’re very small for their age”
Shen Wei nods sagely before reaching a careful hand inside the basket and touches one of the sleeping kittens with a finger. Zhao Yunlan watches the slow smile bloom on Shen Wei’s face as the kitten doesn’t react to the finger and instead burrows further into its sibling to sleep some more.
Zhao Yunlan is abruptly reminded of when he first met Shen Wei, well met him first at least in his own timeline and how they started to talk after Shen Wei was petting a purring Da Qing near his feet.
He slowly inches his hand into the basket to rub at the fuzzy head of the same kitten Shen Wei is touching and Shen Wei looks at him with a smile, the same one he gave him all those years back. Zhao Yunlan smiles back, so much in love with this beautiful man in front of him that he even ignores how Da Qing is making faces at them from the other side.
Zhao Yunlan turns back to Da Qing, who scrunches his face at him one more time before looking at him with attention,
“So we need to take care of them for a few days?” he asks seriously.
“A few weeks definitely. Till the shelter can take them from our hands.”
Shen Wei nods in agreement before Zhao Yunlan can agree or refuse anything before he’s turning to look at Zhao Yunlan with wide innocent eyes and Zhao Yunlan is so helpless against that look that he might as well agree to whatever Shen Wei ever asks for.
“Fine fine. They can stay. We’ll need to go buy stuff for them.” Zhao Yunlan says before Shen Wei can turn the power of his eyes to devastating levels, “you can babysit - catsit whatever you want to call it, while Shen Wei and I get the shopping done.” he points at Da Qing and the guy listens to him for once without any complaint, settling onto the couch to keep watch as Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan get up.
The visit to the pet shop goes as bad as Zhao Yunlan expected it to go with neither of them having any idea about what to buy for newborn kittens despite Zhao Yunlan having Da Qing with himself for more than half of his life.
Then again, Da Qing has never been an ordinary cat, in his growth or his eating habits.
He glances at Shen Wei, who is listening attentively to the helpful girl in the pet store, as she explains to them what to buy and how to take care of their kittens and Shen Wei nods along like an attentive student, instead of his usual “Professor Shen” vibe.
Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei finally return home, armed with a bunch of kitten food, small toys and a litter box for training the kittens, only to find Da Qing snoozing on the floor in cat form with both of the kittens snuggled right into his fat belly.
Zhao Yunlan puts down the bags from the pet store and tiptoes near Da Qing, sitting down on the floor to watch cats doing what they do best.
Sleep.
Shen Wei shuts down the door softly behind him and comes over to sit down beside Zhao Yunlan. Da Qing opens one eye to look at them before closing it back again and going back to being a lazy fat cat. One of the kittens stirs a bit before burrowing closer into Da Qing’s fluffy belly making him wiggle. His tail swishes around in the air behind him and Shen Wei goes to pet Da Qing, scratching his furry head to soothe him.
Da Qing’s whiskers twitch but he starts purring soon, loud enough to rival the engine from Zhao Yunlan’s monster jeep. Shen Wei smiles and uses his fingers to scratch under his chin, Da Qing’s purr increasing in volume the longer Shen Wei keeps at it.
The noise must wake up the kittens because all of a sudden both of the little tiny fuzz balls start squiggling around, pushing their tiny little noses into Da Qing’s squishy belly.
“Gonna take a wild guess and say, I think they’re looking for milk,” Zhao Yunlan says as he looks at the kittens, “damn cat you don’t produce any milk? Do you?” he sniggers when Da Qing’s purring stops immediately and he opens his eyes to glare at Zhao Yunlan, radiating disdain in a way only cats can manage to.
His eyes widen and he starts to squirm in place after that though and Shen Wei looks at him with mild concern as the kittens make barely audible mewling noises and Da Qing starts to wiggle away from them.
“They’re nosing around his belly for milk.” Shen Wei says and Zhao Yunlan can hear the amusement laden in his words. He looks at Zhao Yunlan before getting up from their seat on the floor, “Stay with them. I’ll get the kitten formula.”
He picks up their bagged purchases from the floor and walks into the kitchen and Zhao Yunlan turns back to look at the kitties. He uses a finger to stroke their tiny little heads and one of them turns around, leaving Da Qing’s belly and latches onto his finger instead.
Zhao Yunlan feels immense fondness take hold of him immediately as he coos at the tiny little being holding onto his finger. He feels small little bumps around the mouth of the kitten currently sucking onto his finger and it must be the kittens growing their baby teeth.
He turns back to share the discovery with Shen Wei like a proud parent discovering their child’s first teeth when Shen Wei sits down beside him again, this time armed with the two baby bottles full of kitten milk.
Shen Wei hands one of the bottles to Zhao Yunlan and Yunlan has a moment of panic where he questions himself if he has any idea how to feed a baby kitten. Shen Wei does it quite easily when he gently picks up one of the kittens in his palms, cradling it close to his chest as he brings the bottle close to the kitten’s nose letting it sniff at the feeder of the bottle.
The kitten inches it’s pink nose towards the bottle and mewls in a soft voice. Shen Wei brings the feeder close to the kitten’s mouth and it latches onto the feeder immediately, making little gurgling noises as it drinks its milk.
Zhao Yunlan looks at Shen Wei who is staring at the baby in his arms with a besotted look and grins at him,
“You’re a natural at this, Xiao Wei.”
Shen Wei’s cheeks tinge a soft pink as he looks up at Zhao Yunlan with a fond look on his face before he talks in a hushed voice,
“You try it too. Feed the other one.”
Zhao Yunlan’s face falls as he looks apprehensively at the kitten still slobbering all over his finger. Shen Wei nods at him in what he must think must be an encouraging manner but only serves to worry Zhao Yunlan more as he looks at the small kitten sucking on his finger and staring up at him with sparkly blue eyes.
He uses his other hand to gently pick up the kitten, supporting its butt and it sits calmly in his hand, still chewing on his finger. Zhao Yunlan cradles it to his chest and the kitten lets the finger go in favour of nuzzling against the t-shirt he wears. Zhao Yunlan quickly picks up the bottle from his lap and brings it close to the kitten’s nose, letting it sniff it like he saw Shen Wei doing and the kitten loses interest in his shirt quickly when it smells the milk, immediately latching onto the feeder with enthusiasm.
“See you’re a natural too.” Shen Wei says and Zhao Yunlan laughs softly.
“You never fed me with this much care.” Da Qins snarks in a low voice from where he’s rolling around on the floor, green cat eyes looking in avid interest at the kittens in their arms.
“That’s because you were never this cute or this lightweight either.”
Da Qing unsheathes his claws, hissing at Zhao Yunlan’s words and the noise makes the kitten in Zhao Yunlan’s arms squirm anxiously. He shushes it slowly in a soft voice and the kitten slowly settles down again, still drinking from the bottle.
Da Qing goes back to rolling onto his back and pretending to bat the invisible insects in the air with his paws before saying,
“They won’t drink all of it now. You need to feed them a few times.”
Shen Wei nods as the kitten in his hands lets go of the bottle in its mouth and snuggles into his chest. Zhao Yunlan snickers as he teases Shen Wei,
“You see Xiao Wei, even the kitten wants to snuggle into your chest. You should stop blaming me.” he winks as Shen Wei goes pink-cheeked again and rolls his eyes at Zhao Yunlan.
The kitten in Zhao Yunlan’s hands lets go of the bottle suddenly and Yunlan frowns down at the kitten before asking Da Qing and Shen Wei.
“It didn’t drink a lot, did it? That was very quick.”
Shen Wei looks appropriately concerned as well even as the other kitten in his arms snoozes peacefully, cuddled in Shen Wei’s warmth. Da Qing gets up and walks over to Zhao Yunlan, peering over Zhao Yunlan’s hands and stares at the kitten before saying,
“It’s fine. You’ll feed them again in a few hours anyway.”
Da Qing swishes his tail and walks away in the direction of his cat tree and Shen Wei raises an eyebrow at Zhao Yunlan who shrugs in response.
Da Qing comes back swiftly, dragging a fluffy old blanket in between his teeth and drops it in between Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan. He fluffs the blankets for a second, kneading it with his paws before backing away and looking at Shen Wei once and then turning to look at Zhao Yunlan.
“You’ll need to burp them too. Like they do to you, human babies.”
Shen Wei nods in comprehension and puts down the snoozing kitten on the blanket and Zhao Yunlan goes to do the same. The kittens inch closer to each other on the blanket, crawling on their bellies and Shen Wei slowly starts rubbing across one’s back, patting at times in between and Zhao Yunlan takes his cue from Shen Wei before following the same routine.
The kittens wriggle under their touch, trying to escape and Zhao Yunlan keeps his touch light but still pats at the kitten’s back softly trying to get it to burp. One of the kittens meows in a low sound before a little burp is heard and Shen Wei laughs, continuing to pat lightly at the kitten’s back making it burp again. Zhao Yunlan’s one follows it’s sibling’s footsteps and burps a tiny sound and Zhao Yunlan praises the kitten with a hushed voice.
The kittens wiggle around on the blanket and Shen Wei gathers them close together before carrying them to the cat carrier they bought at the store. Zhao Yunlan checks the carrier once again and opens the door and Shen Wei bends down to slowly place the kittens, blanket included inside the carrier and slowly shuts the door.
Shen Wei backs away and goes to wash his hands and Zhao Yunlan kneels down in front of the carrier to watch the kittens sleep in their blanket without any fuss for a few more minutes bringing his documents from work with him to the floor as he works while keeping an eye on the sleeping kittens.
Shen Wei calls him into the kitchen after he’s done with their dinner and they sit down for their food. Da Qing sits down with them and gobbles his dinner quickly before transforming back into cat form and jumping out of the window making Zhao Yunlan look behind him in curiosity, ignoring it after a while- He’ll take a calm night with Shen Wei over other shenanigans any day.
Shen Wei pushes Zhao Yunlan out of the kitchen after they are done eating, preferring to putter around the kitchen alone and Zhao Yunlan goes back to bury his face in the couch with the papers from work again.
Zhao Yunlan looks up when Shen Wei comes out of the kitchen and calls for him. He’s carrying the feeding bottles in his hand and Zhao Yunlan understands quickly, walking to the cat carrier and helping Shen Wei open the door and bring out the still snoozing kittens.
“Time for their dinner?” he asks Shen Wei with a smile and Shen Wei nods, softly picking up one kitten, who wiggles in his hand before opening bright blue eyes to look at Shen Wei, radiating displeasure at being woken up.
Shen Wei laughs and brings the bottle closer to its little mouth again and the kitten must already be used to the smell because it grabs on quickly. Zhao Yunlan gently holds up the other one and expertly holds it in his hands and feeds it with the bottle in his other hand. The kittens make no fuss at all and drink peacefully, even burping after they are done when Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan rub their backs. Shen Wei cleans them up with tissues when they pee after their dinner and Zhao Yunlan makes faces.
Look don’t get him wrong, but it’s his first time being a cat dad to an actual kitten.
He glares at Shen Wei who calmly cleans everything up before gently putting the kittens back in their carrier and gets up from their seat on the floor all with a smug look on his face.
Zhao Yunlan cleans up and huffs as he goes to bed muttering about too perfect men who can do everything right.
Shen Wei comes in behind him a few minutes later, sliding in smoothly behind him, throwing an arm around his waist with a soft sigh of Zhao Yunlan’s name and Zhao Yunlan weak as he is ever for all things Shen Wei, turns in place to face his love and Shen Wei smiles indulgently at him.
Zhao Yunlan leans into Shen Wei’s space and breathes in sharply when Shen Wei’s hold on his waist tightens. He smirks when Shen Wei looks at him suspiciously before saying,
“Be good ah-Lan.”
Zhao Yunlan fights off the shiver that races down his back at Shen Wei’s words and reaches up to kiss Shen Wei. The kiss remains shamefully chaste despite Zhao Yunlan’s best efforts to turn it into something not.
Zhao Yunlan makes a face when Shen Wei breaks off their kiss but his husband smiles at him with soft sparkling eyes in the dim light of their otherwise dark bedroom and Zhao Yunlan feels himself drowning in the love always visible in Shen Wei’s eyes.
Shen Wei leans forward and plants a kiss on Zhao Yunlan’s forehead and Zhao Yunlan closes his eyes as Shen Wei says in a soft voice,
“Sleep Yunlan.”
Zhao Yunlan falls asleep thinking about how having kids even if they are of the animal kind cuts into his sex life with his beautiful husband.
He wakes up groggily the next morning when he throws an arm around on the bed and is greeted with empty space. Zhao Yunlan blinks open bleary eyes and checks the time, it’s an hour before he has to be up for work anyway.
The empty side of the bed is still warm, showing Shen Wei didn’t leave too long ago. He slides his feet into slippers as he goes off to hunt for Shen Wei.
Zhao Yunlan finds Shen Wei in front of the cat carrier feeding the kittens their morning meal. Shen Wei turns to look up at Zhao Yunlan as he comes to stand beside him. The kittens make excited noises when they see Zhao Yunlan despite having their mouths full of milk and Shen Wei shushes them.
He kneels down and strokes their fuzzy backs and feels one of them arch up into his touch.
“We need to give them names. For now at least.”
Shen Wei nods in response to his words and tells him to think of names as he cleans up the kittens.
Zhao Yunlan thinks of cute and simple names for the kittens before his mind arrives at the answer in a brilliant stroke of mind. Da Qing would hi-five him at his naming skill and Shen Wei… well, he supposes Shen Wei won’t even know what he’s talking about, but that waits to be seen.
“Mew, ” he says loudly and Shen Wei throws him a quizzical glance and he motions towards the black and white kitten in Shen Wei’s hands, “that’s Mew.”
Shen Wei furrows his eyebrows and purses his lips as he tries out the unfamiliar word and Zhao Yunlan giggles as Shen Wei tries it out.
“What about the other one?” Shen Wei points to the other kitten rolling around on the blanket and Zhao Yunlan picks up the completely white wriggling kitten in his hands, laughing as it hisses in a low voice at Zhao Yunlan before suckling at his thumb.
“And this is MewTwo .”
Shen Wei frowns at him and Zhao Yunlan struggles to not laugh out loud.
“You’re naming the kittens after pokemons ??”
There’s a loud voice from behind him and Zhao Yunlan glares at Da Qing for surprising him in his own house before laughing and nodding his head at Da Qing, who just as he had expected, raises a thumb at him in response.
“Pokemons?” Shen Wei’s voice sounds out with confusion and Zhao Yunlan scoots closer to him, dumping the kitten in his hand in Shen Wei’s lap and back hugs him, “Don’t worry about it baobei. It’s a childhood thing” before dropping a kiss under his ear, snickering when Shen Wei shivers against him.
Shen Wei leans back against him and Zhao Yunlan looks over his shoulders to see the kittens play fighting with each other in Shen Wei’s lap. He unwinds a hand from Shen Wei’s waist and plays with the kittens, tickling their bellies, scratching behind their ears, letting them attempt to bite his fingers. Shen Wei pulls his hand away from the kitten’s mouth and says with a low voice,
“Don’t encourage them to bite.”
Zhao Yunlan nods and tucks his face into Shen Wei’s neck again, kissing the area where his neck and shoulders meet before biting lightly and Shen Wei shudders before leaning away from Zhao Yunlan who makes a noise of complaint.
“Don’t play. Go wash up, we have work.”
Zhao Yunlan laughs but gets up and pads towards the washroom, knocking on Da Qing’s head, where he is lazing on the pillow.
“You get the day - off, Da Qing,” he tells the guy and Da Qing raises his head to stare at Zhao Yunlan in suspicion. Zhao Yunlan whistles as he makes his way to the bathroom, “Use it wisely and be a stay at home dad for them.”
A quick shower later, he’s out dressed and ready, racing through breakfast as Shen Wei explains the kitten milk formula to Da Qing. He nods in understanding and Zhao Yunlan pats his shoulder before Shen Wei makes his way out to the door and Zhao Yunlan follows getting ready for a whole day of work again.
The weeks go by with them taking care of the kittens and they fall in a pattern easily. When the SID gets busy with a case and Da Qing can’t take care of the kittens in the daytime when Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan aren’t home, Shen Wei decides to just portal back a few times in the middle of the day to feed them. The kittens sleep during the time without them anyway, making no fuss about anything at all.
The next week Zhao Yunlan finally decides to just take the kittens to work in their cat carrier. Guo Chang Cheng and Wang Zheng have been bothering him about meeting the kittens ever since Da Qing told them about it and it’s much better for him to take the kittens to his office anyway. He can get Shen Wei to come to him in his office instead of coming home.
Shen Wei looks at him with narrowed eyes like he knows what Zhao Yunlan is thinking but doesn’t want to call him out on it. He doesn’t complain when Zhao Yunlan finally does take the kittens to work the next monday though.
As soon as he walks into work, Zhu Hong screams in a high pitch about how Zhao Yunlan has finally brought the kids around and everyone promptly forgets about their work and gets to cooing at the kittens. Zhao Yunlan forbids them to play with the kittens in work hours but he still catches them cooing at the kittens who stay inside their carrier in his office.
Zhao Yunlan himself takes them out of the carrier sometimes and sits down on the couch in his office and plays with them so it’s not like he can blame them too much.
It’s one of those times when Shen Wei portals into his office and Zhao Yunlan has one of the kittens crawling up his shirt and perching on his shoulder while the other chews on his jacket, slobbering all over and scratching it up with its teeth.
“Hey baobei.” he looks up with innocent eyes even as MewTwo on his shoulder nuzzles against his neck, tickling him and Mew in his lap pulls at his jacket. He gently tries to disengage the kitten, aggressively trying to make a new hole in his jacket as Shen Wei looks like he is about to laugh but is instead channelling his stern Professor persona.
“Zhao Yunlan.” Shen Wei tries for stern but his tone comes out fond instead and he picks up the kitten from his shoulder, sitting down on the couch beside him.
“You’re playing with them at work?” he asks as he tickles the kitten in his lap, not caring as Mew starts scratching at his suit jacket.
“Couldn’t resist. Work’s pretty light today Hei Lao ge.”
Shen Wei nods accepting his excuses and asks for the kitten food and the feeding bottles as he goes off to the SID kitchen to prepare their food leaving Zhao Yunlan alone with two handfuls of hungry kittens.
Shen Wei comes back with their food to find one of the kittens on Zhao Yunlan’s head, making a place for itself and purring in contentment and Zhao Yunlan playing a balancing game as he tries to stay still enough to not jostle the one on his head and the other one in his lap as he fiddles with his phone in his hand.
Shen Wei stands at the door and takes a second to take in the ridiculous sight of Zhao Yunlan sitting absolutely still, being careful enough with the kitten on his head and his heart throbs with how much he loves Zhao Yunlan and his tiny ways of showing his affection.
He walks in after a moment and picks up the kitten from Zhao Yunlan’s head and Zhao Yunlan looks sheepishly at him. He takes one of the bottles from Shen Wei’s hand and starts feeding the kitten in his lap as Shen Wei gently settles back down on the couch beside Zhao Yunlan with a squirming kitten and a bottle of kitten food in his hands.
Kittens fed, Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei watch with an approving gaze as both of the kittens walk to the kitty litter box in the corner of Zhao Yunlan’s office and do their business there. It took them a few days to train them but they took to it quickly once they got the hang of it and Shen Wei feels proud of them learning their ways rapidly.
The kittens wobble back to them as Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan have their own lunch, Shen Wei for once not complaining about the food being ordered in and instead just happy to spend the time with Zhao Yunlan.
As Zhao Yunlan puts away the trash, he finds one of the kittens trying to climb his legs like he’s a scratching post. He penguin-walks over to the couch, letting the kitten climb him slowly as he shows it to Shen Wei.
“Do we need to get them a scratching post yet?” Shen Wei asks gravely as he takes in the kitten now almost up to Zhao Yunlan ‘s knees. Zhao Yunlan snorts inelegantly before saying,
“I think that’d be a good idea or you can carry him around in your pocket so he doesn’t scratch me any more,” Shen Wei rolls his eyes in response and Yunlan picks up the kitten and places it on the couch beside its sibling, turning around to sit down on Shen Wei’s knees, laughing when Shen Wei’s freezes under him, “I only like your scratches on me after all.”
“Zhao Yunlan.”
Shen Wei puts all of his annoyance in his name and Zhao Yunlan leans in closer, inches away from Shen Wei’s delectable mouth, “shhh the door’s closed anyway.”
Their lips meet in an unhurried kiss and Zhao Yunlan gently coaxes Shen Wei’s lips to open under his touch, with Shen Wei taking control of the kiss easily after that and Zhao Yunlan happily following his lead as he gets kissed to an inch of his life.
“Chief, I need you to come out here!”
They part from each other startled when Lin Jing’s voice comes from the door and Zhao Yunlan is still trying to catch his breath when Shen Wei pushes him off his lap, leaving him scrambling to stand steadily on his feet.
Shen Wei stands up immediately, checking up on Zhao Yunlan for a second before pushing up his tie back in place from where Zhao Yunlan had managed to unravel it.
“I’ll head back then.” Shen Wei says and twists his wrist in an elegant motion, portal blooming to life in an inky swirl of energy.
“Take the kittens back home? They aren’t good for anyone’s productivity here.” Zhao Yunlan says with a sigh. Shen Wei turns back to him with an amused look, definitely thinking about how he caught Zhao Yunlan himself playing with the kittens earlier.
The portal dissipates behind him as Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan put the unhappy kittens back in their carrier and then Shen Wei is leaving in a rush of dark energy after grazing Zhao Yunlan’s lips in the barest whisper of a kiss.
Zhao Yunlan fixes his hair to look presentable, well more presentable than his usual unruly mess to fix the damage that Shen Wei just did with his wandering fingers and goes out to meet his team.
The meeting turns out to be as useless as Zhao Yunlan had expected it to be, with Lin Jing inventing yet another gadget that exploded right in the middle of the office, singing Da Qing’s precious fur which resulted in Lin Jing receiving some brand new scratches on his face.
But the actual highlight of the day might have been watching the flying Da Qing as he jumped in the air to scratch at Lin Jing. Zhao Yunlan wasn’t even aware Da Qing could still manage to jump that high without it resulting in a mild earthquake.
Salaries threatened and bonuses cut, Zhao Yunlan finally makes his way home to the one person he always wants to be with.
Zhao Yunlan walks up to their apartment and opens the door with a loud shout of,
“Baobeiiii...I’m home!”
Shen Wei looks up from his seat on the couch with an amused smile and red ears as Zhao Yunlan walks in, toeing his shoes off quickly as he makes his way towards the couch.
“Did you miss me a lot baobei??”
Zhao Yunlan asks and Shen Wei makes a face at him but still holds out a hand for Zhao Yunlan to take, which he bypasses entirely and falls down to his knees in front of the couch, going straight for the kittens playing around the table.
Shen Wei rolls his eyes at Zhao Yunlan’s antics even if his lover does laugh at him before raising his head for a kiss which Shen Wei is only happy to oblige to.
“Missed you as well Xiao Wei.”
Shen Wei laughs lightly before whispering back, “You saw me at lunch.”
Zhao Yunlan leans back and sighs softly as he looks at Shen Wei’s face,
“Long enough to start missing my big beauty again.”
Shen Wei snorts and gets up from the couch, making Zhao Yunlan fall back to the floor while making theatrical noises.
Da Qing pops in through the window and bounces onto the couch, and looks at Zhao Yunlan on the floor before talking,
“Did Prof. Shen kick your ass?”
Zhao Yunlan smirks at Da Qing and turns to him to respond,
“The only thing Shen Wei does to my ass is..” before he’s being violently cut off by Da Qing yowling and Shen Wei shouting at him to stop from the kitchen.
“You’re so soo sooo disgusting you stupid owner. The kittens are here.” Da Qing hisses and Shen Wei shakes his head as he makes his way back from the kitchen with his tea in hand.
Zhao Yunlan looks at Da Qing before looking down at the kittens playing with each other near his feet before getting a brilliant idea.
He bends forward and the kittens come closer to him. He picks one up in his hand and lifts it up to eye level before singing,
“Wǒ men yī qǐ xué māo jiào”
The kitten in his head stares at him before batting at his nose and he laughs while singing the rest of the song.
“Yī qǐ miāo miāo miāo miāo miāo”
Da Qing makes a noise like he’s choking on his own tongue but Zhao Yunlan is on a roll. He picks up the other and turns it to face Shen Wei as he sings,
“Zài nǐ miàn qián sā gè jiāo
Āi yōu miāo miāo miāo miāo miāo”
Zhao Yunlan blows Shen Wei a kiss as he finishes his song and the kittens also meow, echoing his song and Zhao Yunlan raises them towards Shen Wei, grinning like a proud father.
“Xiao Wei did you see that!!”
Shen Wei nods before finishing his tea and joining him on the floor, making the kittens crawl into his lap immediately. Zhao Yunlan can understand them, he usually wants to do the same thing as well.
Da Qing who has been surprisingly quiet so far suddenly hops down from his seat on the couch, making his way between Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei.
“What is this damn cat? Are you jealous? Want some cuddles too?” Zhao Yunlan cackles loudly as he combs his fingers through Da Qing’s thick fur feeling the oversized cat purr under his touch.
Da Qing doesn’t reply for a while, enjoying Zhao Yunlan’s touch before he says something finally,
“The shelter called earlier. They can take the kittens back now.”
It’s quiet for a while. Zhao Yunlan doesn’t say anything and neither does Shen Wei. Da Qing continues talking despite the silence.
“I think they have someone who wants to adopt the kittens too. Unless you want to keep them.”
Da Qing throws a quick glance at Shen Wei as he says that before looking back at Zhao Yunlan. Shen Wei looks up at Zhao Yunlan as well, with an inscrutable look on his face and Zhao Yunlan refuses to make any decision without talking it out with him.
“What do you want to do Shen Wei?”
Shen Wei looks down, combing his fingers through Da Qing’s fur now as well and Zhao Yunlan wants to complain that Shen Wei won’t meet his eyes but his fingers are joined by Shen Wei’s and their hands entangle with each other on Da Qing’s back.
“I’m okay with whatever decision you take Zhao Yunlan.” Shen Wei replies back in a soft voice and Zhao Yunlan goes to protest because that’s not a real answer but Shen Wei cuts him off by squeezing their joined hands and Zhao Yunlan shuts up again as Shen Wei continues.
“But maybe we can go to the shelter and meet the other person who wants to adopt Mew and MewTwo,”
Zhao Yunlan bites on his lower lip as Shen Wei furrows his eyebrows over the kittens’ names.
“and then make a decision about them. You know our jobs make it hard for us to take care of such wonderful little animals.” he says with a low voice and Zhao Yunlan squeezes Shen Wei’s hand in comfort.
“Yeah, it’s hard despite them being the most adorable kittens in all kitten-kind,” Zhao Yunlan says with an emotional voice and Da Qing fluffs up in offence under their hands and Zhao Yunlan shushes him down as he continues, “yes, all kitten-kind including you, you fat fuck.”
Shen Wei nods in agreement when Da Qing replies how he can make an appointment for them at the animal shelter, so they can go visit and meet the other party as well as the shelter can see the kittens.
They leave the decision for the date for visiting the shelter for later and Da Qing hops away from under their hands again, leaving Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei on the floor still holding hands.
***
It is a week later when they finally manage to make time and visit the animal shelter nearby. It’s a fine weekend with the weather feeling lovely for a drive out with the love of his life in the seat beside him, even if he does have a Da Qing in the back seat grumbling about being dragged along for the ride, but Da Qing grumbles about most of the things if they’re not dried fish so Zhao Yunlan ignores him.
The drive to the shelter takes them well out of the city and they pull up in front of the building as Zhao Yunlan parks and Shen Wei gets out of the car, carefully bringing out the cat carrier from the backseat with Da Qing’s help.
The kittens meow and hiss making their displeasure of being in the long car ide known to Zhao Yunlan who shushes them softly and coos at them. Da Qing leads the way in and soon they find the people working for the shelter who leads them to a medium-sized room full of pet toys and other stuff for pets to play with and then they ask Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan to wait as they bring the person who wants to adopt the kittens to meet them.
Zhao Yunlan stands up when a couple around their mid 40s enter and Shen Wei follows suit beside him. The couple walks towards them and introduces themselves as Wang Lei and Li Na and Zhao Yunlan finds out very quickly that they are one of the very happy and still very much in love kind of sweet couple.
Zhao Yunlan smiles in amusement as the lady, Li Na smacks her husband when he keeps talking about the growing crime rate in society when Zhao Yunlan introduces himself as a police chief. Shen Wei leads them over to the table in the room and they all settle down, conversation flowing quickly as they say how their son works in some other country and they miss having someone to take care of and deciding to get kittens because they love feeding the cats in their alley and would love to adopt some in their own home as well. Shen Wei looks at Zhao Yunlan with soft eyes and Zhao Yunlan can hear his answer clear inside his head.
The lady has settled down on the floor as Shen Wei had opened the carrier to let them see the kittens and she coos happily at them with her husband looking fondly at her. Zhao Yunlan can see the kittens would surely enjoy a loving home even if they have to get separated from him and Shen Wei but he knew this day would come anyway.
Shen Wei wraps an arm around his waist pulling him closer and the other couple doesn’t even blink an eye at them and Zhao Yunlan likes them a bit more.
“Right, so it sounds good. We were fostering the kittens for the past month and we kinda wanted to meet the person who would adopt them.” Zhao Yunlan says in a late explanation and the couple nod at him.
Shen Wei steps up from behind him and says, “We’ll leave the kittens under the shelter’s care and then you can finalise the other documents with them,”
Wang Lei expresses his thanks in a very enthusiastic manner while his wife looks at them with a large smile before Shen Wei changes his tone and says,
“I’ll ask you to take very good care of them. They have been with us for a while and we would like it if they were kept happy. It would make us feel very bad if they were treated badly.”
Zhao Yunlan shivers at the icy tone of Shen Wei’s voice and he doesn’t have to look at his husband to know that Shen Wei’s eyes would be blazing right now.
Zhao Yunlan spares a thought for the poor couple in front of him who look very taken aback at Shen Wei’s sudden change but smile warmly at him, assuring him that they would take very good care of both of the kittens and Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan can visit them any time they like.
Zhao Yunlan feels the tension coiled up in Shen Wei release as he slumps slightly against him as his worries thaw out and they pick up the kittens in their carrier again and go back out to the shelter people after saying their goodbyes to the couple.
They sort out their paperwork, signing off on the kittens and say their goodbyes to the kittens, who make pitiful noises when they both bend down and kiss them goodbye.
They try to walk away with hard hearts as the noises behind them keep increasing in volume and Zhao Yunlan walks briskly to the jeep before he turns back and snatches the kittens right back up.
He breathes out deeply with his head on the steering wheel, hearing Shen Wei and Da Qing quietly getting inside the car. Zhao Yunlan gets up and rubs away the stray tears on his eyelashes and meets Shen Wei’s wet sparkling eyes with a smile.
Shen Wei reaches out and holds his hand, squeezing it once - twice for comfort and Zhao Yunlan feels a genuine smile take over his face as he lets Shen Wei’s hand go and starts the car.
“We don’t need to feel sad, do we Xiao Wei?” he asks loudly as he drives back to the city.
Shen Wei shakes his head to say no and Zhao Yunlan throws a look at Da Qing in the backseat before gleefully crowing,
“Of course we don’t. We still have our own fat fuck at home”
Shen Wei snorts inelegantly and Da Qing yells his complaint, trying to smack at Zhao Yunlan from his seat and Zhao Yunlan just laughs loudly, as he drives them all back home.