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Leone stares at his newspaper, not even reading it. He just needs an excuse to look away from the spot on the ground next to him. He takes another sip of his coffee before risking to look down, just for a brief glance.
Narancia is still sitting there staring at him. Not in a seat, of course, just crouched on the ground like the world’s cutest gargoyle. NO, not cute, annoying. Annoying, and vaguely creepy. Leon realizes it's been longer than just a quick glance at this point. He’s going to have to say something.
“I’m not giving you any of my coffee, rat. Go beg for scraps somewhere else.”
Narancia just keeps staring at him. Ears relaxed, but twitching slightly when Leone talks so he can listen better. It’s hard to tell exactly what he’s thinking. His tail is just a stub hidden under his skirt, so a lot of body language gets lost. Not that Leone particularly cares to know what this brat is thinking.
He’s not the one who wanted to adopt. Bruno was. And they only planned on one, which they got, and it wasn’t Nara. It was Fugo.
Leone found Nara in an alleyway and gave him a piece of his lunch because he felt sorry for him, and the brat took it as an invitation to follow him around all day. Leone adopted Nara on his own, mainly to prove a point about how Fugo should be more grateful. Pedigree bitch.
Never should have given him that first snack, because now he feels entitled to a portion of every meal Leone eats. So every meal Nara will either whine and beg for food, steal it off his plate when he’s not looking, or steal it off his plate while making direct eye contact. Because he knows he’s going to get away with it. Because it’s just easier for Leone to give in and make himself a bigger plate than he needs, knowing he’s going to lose a quarter of it, then to try to break this habit.
But today, Nara isn’t trying to get himself any food. He’s just sitting on the floor and staring. Not even staring at the food, staring at Leone. Leone stares back.
Narancia closes his eyes and opens them again.
It’s not blinking. It’s too slow for that. Much too slow. And it’s not like there was some kind of bright light that he was reacting to, either. It was too relaxed. Maybe it was just a one-time thing. Maybe he’s just tired.
Nara blinks again, just as slow.
Alright, now it’s a pattern. Time to pretend to be a concerned parent. For appearance’s sake.
Leone gets up from the kitchen table and pats Nara on the head as he walks by. Ruffles his ears for a second. Doesn’t feel feverish, that’s a good sign. He goes back upstairs and opens the door to the bedroom, quietly shutting it behind him.
Burno is still asleep. But not for much longer. Leone starts shaking him to wake him up.
“Bruno.”
“Mmph.” Bruno swats him away and rolls over to go back to sleep.
“Bruno. I think there’s something wrong with Narancia.”
Bruno sits up bolt straight and grabs Leone’s shoulders.
“What happened? Is he hurt? Do we need to call an ambulance? Who do we need to kill, I’m ready.”
“What?”
“I have a kit hidden in the back of the linen closet and a spot out in the ocean nobody will find - ”
“ No . He’s not hurt. I think. He’s just staring at me. And he’s blinking super slow. It’s weirding me out.”
“Oh. Bruno stops shaking Leone’s shoulders. “Is that it?”
“…Yeah?”
Bruno grabs his blankets up around his neck and flops back down onto the bed.
“It’s nothing. It means he loves you. Can’t believe you woke me up over this.”
“…He loves me?”
“Yes. It’s how catboys show affection. Now let me sleep.”
It shouldn’t come as a surprise. Narancia says he loves people, even Leone, all the time. He doesn’t say thank you, or you’re welcome, or please, or I’m sorry . He says ‘ I love you ,’ for everything, as a catch-all phrase for politeness, because learning all the individual phrases is too much work. Now he’s gotten so lazy he’s not even bothering to say it out loud anymore. It’s nothing new, just a new way of saying it, so it shouldn’t be a surprise at all.
And Leone is a good husband, so he leaves and shuts the door behind himself as quietly as possible. And his mascara must be expired or something because it’s suddenly dripping down his face as he sees himself in the hallway mirror. He takes ten minutes to shut himself in the bathroom to wait out whatever cosmetic malfunction this is and reapply his face for the day.
Maybe closer to half an hour, but nobody will know.
When he finally comes back out, he’s just as composed as ever. No red-rimmed eyes. No flushed face or trails of tears. He goes back to the kitchen where he left his breakfast, and finds it intact, for once, despite being left alone with Narancia for… a while.
Narancia is in Leone’s chair, siphoning the warmth from where he was sitting. Leone sits in the chair next to him and pulls his plate back over in front of himself.
Narancia watches, tracking everything that moves like the hunting machine he is before going back to staring at Leone. He blinks again, even slower this time.
Leone blinks back.