Archive of Our Own

‘Look out world, it’s me, Houdini! Don’t ask how I got that name, it’s not important. Just know that I’m a lot of fun, and I’d make a great addition to your home.’

The Facebook page for the Northern Faerghus Humane Society haunts Felix’s dreams. He wants to know who runs it, and he wants to give them a piece of his mind.

Some of the posts are a lot more reasonable than others, but a lot of them are just too much for him. He gets it, he does; giving the animals that are up for adoption big personalities on the posts advertising them makes them all stand out a bit more.

Felix just wants a cat. He wants a cat and he’s been keeping an eye on the page for a while, and he barely even uses Facebook because - among other reasons - his father keeps sending him requests to play Matchington Mansion (whatever the fuck that is). He just wants to know when a cat becomes available that feels right. But sometimes reading the posts makes him feel a little bit like he’s losing his mind. He’s sure Annette would love all the captions, and gladly volunteer to help write them. She and Ashe would love to sit around with cute animals and write up ads for them.

Actually, that thought makes him a little less sour towards the whole thing, but that’s neither here nor there. He certainly wouldn’t admit to that. It’s just a good indicator that he’s not the sort of person they’re trying to appeal to.

‘Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Kylo Ren. I’m a little rough around the edges, but I’m a sweetheart once you get to know me.’

The cat that’s staring up at the camera in the pictures attached to the post looks like he could be a good fit. He’s got big round eyes and dark fur; Felix doesn’t really want to get a light-colored cat, given how dark his wardrobe is in general, so he thinks a black cat is probably what's for the best. The post also says that he is a couple years old, which is what's best for Felix - skip the crazy kitten phase.

He keeps the page up on his phone for a few hours while he works, and ultimately he ends up over at the humane society.

There's a man with red hair sitting at the front desk when he walks in. He looks up, flashing him a smile. “Hi, how are you?” he asks.

“I'm fine. I, uh, I'm here to look at cats,” he tells him.

“You've come to the right place,” he says with a laugh. There's a name tag pinned to his shirt that reads 'Sylvain Gautier' and then, below that, 'Adoption Coordinator'. He throws his arm out to indicate the hallway where Felix assumes the cats are located, then steps out from behind the desk and calls over his shoulder. “I'm stepping away from the desk, hold down the fort for me.”

As he leads Felix down the hall, he looks back at him. “So, do you have anything in particular in mind? Long hair, short hair, age preferences? Do you have any other pets at home?”

“No other pets. I'm thinking young adult,” he says. “Short hair, maybe.”

“Okay, cool, we've got some cool cats that might fit the bill,” Sylvain says, and he laughs, and clears his throat, then says, “You know. Cool cats. Anyway.”

Sylvain Gautier: Adoption Coordinator is a whole lot, and Felix kind of wonders if it might be worth going on a short road trip to go to a different shelter. His mind calls him out on his bullshit, forever, because he's honestly a little bit charmed by the man at the same time he's annoyed by him, and he doesn't know where that came from but he banishes the notion entirely. He is here for a cat, and nothing more.

When they enter a long room lined with walls of cat cages on either side, a few of them seem to perk up at the sight of Sylvain. It becomes apparent why a moment later, when Felix watches as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a few treats, fingers slipping through the bars on the fronts of the cages to slip treats to eager feline mouths.

“Sorry, they're needy,” he says with a shrug as he turns back to Felix. “So, this is the main cat room. There's another one, but that's mostly kittens, so I figured we would start here.”

“Right,” Felix says, nodding slowly as he starts to walk along the cages. He spots the cat he had seen on Facebook earlier - Kylo Ren, he reminds himself - lounging in the back of his cage. The other cat in the same cage is much more interested in Felix, rubbing its face against the bars and looking up at him with wide eyes. “Hi,” he says quietly, to which the cat responds with a plaintive 'mrrp?'.

“That little grub right there is Turtle. He's a personal favorite of mine. Been here about a month now. I don't know why, he's really people-oriented,” Sylvain explains. “If there's anybody you're interested in meeting, I can get them out of their cages for you to do a little meet and greet.”

Felix nods, glancing over at Sylvain briefly before carrying on to do a loop of the room to get an idea of the cats that are there, who haven't all been featured on the Facebook page. When he returns to where he started, he finds that Sylvain has taken it upon himself to free Turtle from his prison. It's suddenly difficult to tell for certain whether Turtle is a small cat, because he looks tiny now that he's being cradled in the redhead's arms. And what's more, Felix is suddenly wondering if Sylvain was hot before he picked up a cat.

He has seen calendars of hot guys holding cats before. He had always rolled his eyes, and he had never gotten the concept. But here is this man, standing there in a maroon sweater and holding a cat like a baby and speaking to said cat in a soft affectionate voice, and it's doing things to Felix. 

Sylvain glances up at him, seemingly aware of the eyes on him. “Sorry. I like to give them personal time. The cat team clearly doesn't love them enough,” he says.

“Clearly,” Felix echoes, because he doesn't even know what to make of this whole situation.

“Is there anybody in particular you're curious about?”

“Turtle,” he answers, mostly because the most honest answer at this point might actually be Sylvain instead, and he's not about to admit to that. And maybe if Sylvain isn't holding a cat, then he won't be nearly as interesting.

“Hear that, little buddy? You've got a bite,” Sylvain says to the cat, sounding genuinely tickled by the thought, before handing him over to Felix.

Turtle is a tabby cat, for the most part, but he's got enough white fur that he should have been out of the running immediately. But he is a sweet cat, Felix can admit that much, based on the way that he has immediately started rubbing his face against Felix's shoulder as he holds him.

“He likes you,” Sylvain proclaims, which sounds a little ridiculous given the fact that just a few minutes ago this very same man told him that Turtle is people-oriented. But maybe this is how the bonds that get animals adopted are formed.

“He's not bad,” he says, and as if understanding that Felix is selling him short, Turtle lets out an indignant mew.

Sylvain laughs, watching them as Felix shifts Turtle in his arms, lifting him up to look at him better. “So, what are we thinking? Sparks flying instantly?”

“I don't know,” he says. “Could I see, uh… Darth Vader?”

“You mean Kylo Ren? Yeah, no problem,” the redhead says, opening the cage door again and taking a moment to try and coax the black cat out before ultimately having to drag him out by force. “Don't worry if he doesn't warm up to you immediately, he's like that. Moody. Not even I can win him over. Anyway, cat swap?”

Felix nods, offering Turtle back up to Sylvain, who skilfully takes hold of him and hands over Kylo, making wrangling two cats look easy. “Thanks,” he says, looking down at the cat in his arms whose eyes have grown incredibly wide but has gone limp.

“We're not sure exactly what his story is since he came in as a transfer, but he's definitely kind of skittish,” the redhead, who has returned to snuggling Turtle, says in between peppering kisses over the cat's head. The sight makes Felix's stomach flip. “But, to be fair, that obviously could just be his nature.” 

“Could be,” he agrees with a small nod, looking down at the cat. He's starting to tense up again, claws tugging at the fabric of Felix's shirt. “I think being here isn't any good for him.”

Sylvain nods quickly. “That's what I've been saying. Some animals just need to be in a home environment. That said, he has brightened a bit since we put Turt here in with him.”

“Turt,” he repeats, shaking his head to himself.

“Yeah. Nicknames are good,” he says with a brief grin. “So, what are we thinking? Need a little more time with either or these guys, anybody else?”

Felix shakes his head. “Mostly I wanted to see my options, to have something to think about. And I probably need to do a little work to get my apartment ready for a cat first anyway.”

He almost worries for a second, irrationally, that Sylvain is going to think he's just wasting his time, but the man just nods. “Sure thing. If you like, you can fill out an application today so that when you come back, all you have to do is pick out a cat.”

“That would be good,” he says with a small nod.

“Great. Let me just put these rascals away, and then we can get you squared away.”

Felix absolutely does not take notice of the way Sylvain's shirt is just tight enough that there's a pleasant hint towards muscles under the fabric as he replaces the cats in their cage and locks the door.

“Seeya, felines,” the man says before leading Felix back out to the front of the building. He digs around in a drawer for a moment, pushing files aside, before he pulls out an application and sets it on the counter. “And… something to write with… There we go.” His fingers brush against Felix's when he hands him a pen, and it feels like it's on purpose.

Felix stands there as he fills out the application, and out of the corner of his eye he might also be looking at Sylvain and what he's doing. He thinks he sees Facebook up on the computer screen.

“I'm done,” he says, setting the pen down and reaching the paper out to offer it back to Sylvain.

“Great. We'll take a look at this and you should get a call in the next couple of days, just letting you know if the application has been approved,” he explains, taking the papers and sliding it into a file folder on the counter behind him. “Then it'll be good for six months, so you can pick a cat at your leisure.”

Felix nods his understanding; he'll be able to find a cat in that time, no problem. Before he can stop himself, he asks, “Are you the one who runs the Facebook page?”

“Oh,” he says, glancing over at the computer before his gaze returns to Felix with a little laugh. “Yeah. I have fun with it.”

Felix feels that he has gotten enough of a feel for who Sylvain is that he shouldn't be surprised that he's the one manning the Facebook page. “Right. Well, anyway, thanks,” he says. “See you.”

“See you… Felix,” Sylvain says, having opened up the folder to take a peek at the name on the application. “I'll be looking forward to it.”

Felix, initially, feels better about the whole interaction with Sylvain once he is no longer standing in the same space as him. It was a brief, surface-level attraction - the sort of thing that he has largely considered himself somewhat above. Sure, he's gotten fleeting crushes, but they've been exactly that - fleeting. Inconsequential.

The problem, however, comes when a few days pass and he can't quite stop thinking about Sylvain. When he sees posts from the humane society, he can't help but picture him sitting behind the counter writing them. How he might laugh to himself at his own stupid jokes.

When Sylvain calls to let him know that his application had been approved (“though it's really just a formality, I knew you'd be a good cat dad from meeting you”), he is with Annette and he is apparently a little bit too transparent, because she just about immediately demands to go with him to the shelter to meet Sylvain after he hangs up the call.

“I mean, I'm kind of thinking about getting a pet myself,” she amends. “But I also want to see this guy for myself, to make sure he's good enough for you.”

Felix can feel his face heating up. “It isn't - there's nothing to make sure of. Nothing is going to happen,” he says firmly. “He isn't even anyone special, he's just the guy who works there.”

“Which is why you're doing your best tomato impression?” she teases him, a delighted laugh falling from her lips. “It's okay to be interested in attractive strangers, Felix!”

“I never said he was attractive.”

Annette simply laughs. “You mentioned that he had red hair, and we all know you have a weakness for that,” she teases, twirling a lock of her hair around her finger to drive her point home.

“I have no weaknesses. Never forget that,” he tells her instead of acknowledging that maybe yes, he does have something of a soft spot for red hair, which makes no sense, because it's just hair .

“Sure you do, tough guy. I might have believed you a couple years ago, but I know you too well now,” she says, grinning at him.

Felix huffs but doesn't fight her on it any further, knowing that it's an argument that he isn't about to win. “Anyway, sure. We can go to the shelter whenever, and you can get your… familiar, or whatever you call it,” he says. Annette has been practicing witchcraft lately, which he is pretty sure is absolute bullshit, but he's not about to say so to her face.

“It doesn't work like that. I can't just take any cat as my familiar, there has to be a spiritual connection,” she protests.

Blinking, Felix pauses for a second then shrugs. “Then we can see if you spiritually connect with any of the cats there.”

She hums her agreement, but just as quickly, that deeply troubling smirk returns to her lips. “And we’ll see if you spiritually connect with your handsome animal shelter boy.”

He groans, rubbing his hands over his face. “Don't make me uninvite you.”

“It's too late,” she says in a bright sing-song. “No take-backs, Felix. You invited me to come see cute animals with you, you have to take me.”

“Fine. Don't be embarrassing.”

“Worried about looking cool in front of your crush?” she asks, and she looks like she's about to burst with the laughter she's holding back. He wishes he could hate her.

“No,” he says. “I just - anyway .” Beside him, Annette starts giggling. “I'm going to go on Friday. Come with me if you want.”

Sylvain is there at the desk again when they show up on Friday, and he sits up a little straighter when he catches sight of him.

“Felix,” he says brightly. “Welcome back. Oh, you’ve got company today.”

“Yeah,” he says, glancing back at Annette and resolutely ignoring the way that she is already looking at Sylvain with far too much interest. “We’re mostly here for her sake. This is Annette. Aspiring songstress and baby witch.” If she’s going to embarrass him, he’s sure as hell going to return the favor.

“Felix didn’t mention he had such a cute friend,” he says, shooting a quick wink in her direction. “I’m Sylvain.”

“He didn’t mention you being such a flatterer,” Annette says.

Sylvain looks thrown off for a grand total of a fraction of a second. “He mentioned me?” he asks, then laughs and shakes his head. “Anyway, you know where to find the cats. I’m more than happy to pull any out for you if you’re interested in meeting them, just let me know.”

Felix glances back at him as he heads for the cat room. A vast majority of the time, Felix prefers for employees of whatever establishment he’s at to just leave him alone - he doesn’t need help finding whatever he’s looking for, thank you - but he finds that he’s a little bit disappointed when Sylvain stays at the desk.

Once they’re in the cat room, Annette wastes no time in going around the room, chattering at the animals. Many of them seem plenty eager to meet her, and she sticks her fingers through the bars to greet as many of them as she can.

“Oh, Felix! Look at this one,” she coos, and when he moves to join her, he sees that she is peering in on Kylo Ren and Turtle. From the back corner, Kylo Ren glares back at her.

“Turtle?” he asks, because while she does have a surprising soft spot for grumpy assholes (not that he would know anything about that), he also knows that she’s fond of tabbies.

“Uhh… Yeah,” she says after briefly pausing to check the information sheets hanging outside of the cage. “He’s adorable. And such a sweetheart.”

Felix hums, because he can’t disagree with that. “He’s kind of cute.”

“Don’t sell him short,” she says, giving him a sharp look as if he had just said something that mortally offended her, instead of simply giving a cat a lukewarm reception.

Felix rolls his eyes at her fondly, and asks, “Do you want to hold him?”

“You’re just looking for an excuse to get Sylvain in here.”

“I’m just trying to help you,” he says, and he steps back out into the hallway so that he can get Sylvain’s attention before she can say anything else.

More than happy to help them, Sylvain saunters back into the room and opens up the cage in order to pull Turtle out. “Couldn’t stop thinking about him, huh?” he asks.

“It’s for her,” he says, gesturing to Annette. “He’s got too much white fur for me, I think.”

“Ah,” he says as he passes off the cat to her. There’s a flicker of confusion across his face, but it passes just as quickly as it came. “Fair enough.”

If it wasn’t already evident that Turtle was a people person, it’s even more apparent with the way that he immediately clings to Annette, seemingly recognizing a soft heart when he sees it. He reaches his paws up to hold onto her shoulders in a feline facsimile of a hug, and she’s a goner.

“Oh, oh sweetie,” she says, looking down at the cat who simply meows in response and tucks his face against her neck. She doesn’t show any interest in pulling him away, but Felix suspects that if she even tried, she would have a hell of a difficult time doing so with cats’ surprising strength.

“I think he likes you,” Sylvain comments with a laugh, a grin on his face as he watches them.

Annette hums, ‘aww’ing again as Turtle lets out another little mew. “It’s okay,” she tells him, running her hand over his back.

She braces him in her arms, lightly rocking on her feet as though she were trying to soothe an actual, human baby. When she looks back at Felix, she lets out an exasperated sigh. “I left my wallet in the car because I didn’t actually intend on adopting a cat today,” she says.

“Well, you do still have the option,” he says, an amused smile pulling at his lips because he knows her better than that.

“Don’t even say that!” she says, looking down at the cat in her arms and pulling him a little bit closer to her chest as if he might be taken from her if she let her guard down for a moment. She looks down at him for a moment, then begins the careful work of extracting him and then handing him over to Felix. Turning back to Sylvain, she says, “I want to adopt him.”

“I figured as much,” he says with a soft laugh. He quickly goes over the adoption fee and what it covers, as well as the process from here forward. “So if you want, you can go ahead and get what you need from your car, and I’ll get the paperwork ready. I’m sure Felix here will look after your new friend in the meantime.”

Felix hums an affirmative, and she digs his car keys out of his pocket before hustling out of the room to head out to the car. He follows Sylvain out into the lobby, where he opens up the same drawers from the week before to pull out the application paperwork. He looks back up at Felix and asks, “So, she’s not your girlfriend?”

There are a lot of things about that statement that throw Felix for a loop, because them coming in together is the only evidence he can think of that would point to them being together, and that feels like quite the leap. He shakes his head and means to tell Sylvain that no, she is not his girlfriend and leave it at that, but instead what he says is, “I’m gay.”

Sylvain sputters for a moment, then lets out a laugh. “Oh,” he says, and that grin has returned to his face which Felix assumes means he’s up to no good. “So, I guess that means she won’t mind if I ask for your number.”

Part of Felix is curious about how often he pulls this. He knows that some men use animals to pick up women, and working at an animal shelter could be a strange extension of that; he wonders how ethical it would be. And in all honesty, he really shouldn’t take him up on it - he doesn't date, and really he never has, and if he’s going to get a cat from this shelter then he should probably keep certain things separate.

Instead, he shifts his hold on Turtle so that he can cradle him in one arm as he reaches over the desk and nabs a sticky note off the desk. He pauses halfway through writing down his number, looking back at Sylvain. “You already have it. You called me.”

“Well, technically, yes. I could pull your application and save your number, if I wanted to be a creep about it,” he admits with a nod. “But I think it’s a whole lot better if I go about this the right way.”

Felix can’t argue with that, and he can appreciate the respect of boundaries there. So he nods, then finishes writing down his number and hands it to Sylvain.

“Perfect,” he says, smiling down at the sticky note before carefully folding it and slipping it into his pocket. “I’ll text you later, so that you’ll have mine, too.”

It’s about then that Annette walks back in with her purse, oblivious to the conversation that had just transpired. She hurriedly fills out the paperwork and when she finishes it, she takes Turtle back from Felix as Sylvain looks over the application.

“Are you going to rename him?” Felix asks as he watches her. She’s looking down at the cat who is staring back up at her, and he almost feels like they’re communicating; he would almost be curious about the spiritual connection thing Annette had talked about if he believed in that kind of thing.

“I’m not sure yet,” she says with a hum. “I mean, he looks enough like a Turtle.”

“Does he?” he asks, skeptical.

“Well, not like a turtle . But it might not be a bad name for him,” she says.

Sylvain steps away from the desk for a moment, coming back a couple of minutes later with a cardboard cat carrier. “I don’t know if you want this, but I’d highly recommend it at least for getting him to and from the car. Cats can be runners, you don’t want to take any chances,” he says. “If you want, we can get him set up in here while we take care of payment, then the two of you will be on your way.”

Annette hums in the affirmative. “I want to try and leash train him, but for now, definitely the box,” she agrees.

Sylvain folds up the carrier with a practiced ease, and with her assistance he gets the cat into the box. He gets payment from her and just like that, Annette is a cat owner (and Felix is only a little bit jealous).

Felix glances back at the desk as he heads out the door, finding him looking right back at him. Sylvain winks, and it haunts Felix for the rest of the day.

He doesn’t immediately hear anything from Sylvain, which is fine. He hadn’t really been sure what he was expecting, and in all honesty, helping Annette get her cat settled in and acclimated keeps him occupied enough.

But then a few days later his phone buzzes with a new message, and he doesn’t recognize the number.

[unknown] Hey, it’s Sylvain! Sorry I haven’t reached out before now.

For perhaps the first time in his lip, Felix almost wishes that he was better at communicating over text than he is; he knows he comes off as disinterested, which is usually fine except that this time he actually is a bit interested.

[me] It’s fine.

[Sylvain] How has Turtle been doing? If you know.

[me] He’s good. He’s a climber, he’s started knocking things off of Annette’s shelves. We picked out a cat tree, so that he’ll have something he’s allowed to climb all over.

[Sylvain] Sounds like that’s all taken care of. He’ll love it.

[me] Is his cagemate doing alright without him?

[Sylvain] Oh yeah! We got in a couple of new cats - there’s always always too many cats waiting for intake - so he’s got a new roommate and they’re hitting it off great.

And so it goes - at first, most of their conversation is cat-related and it’s really just small talk interspersed with pictures of animals at the shelter (not limited to cats or even dogs; apparently there is also livestock and small animals in the humane society's care), but after they go on for a bit longer, it evolves into a bit more than that.

He learns a lot about Sylvain - he’s a big reader, and every so often when he gets the chance, he’ll give the animals literary names, but most of the time the dog and cat teams give the animals their names. He had studied marketing in school, with the expectation that he was going to take over the family business, but for reasons that he has left vague, perhaps intentionally, he is instead working at a humane society. He has tried to go vegetarian three times and failed each time - he likes buffalo wings too much.

It’s strangely nice, and it gives Felix something to actually look forward to during his day. His heart does a strange little leap in his chest each time he receives a new message from Sylvain. He’s just easy to talk to, in a way that few people ever have been for him. He doesn’t connect easily, but Sylvain he just - he gets . They don’t see each other in person for a while, but they talk over text enough that it’s more than enough.

A text arrives one evening with a few links and then the message ‘Okay, which do you think is best?’

When Felix follows the links, they all lead to listings for small wedding dresses, designed apparently for small dogs or cats. At first he thinks that maybe this was some kind of mistake, but he’s quickly learning to not think that anything is too far fetched coming from Sylvain, and there’s no way someone could send four different links all for roughly the same product by mistake.

[me] The second one, I guess. What is this for?

[Sylvain] A wedding, obviously.

[me] A wedding where a cat is the bride?

[Sylvain] Yeah. The groom is also a cat, don’t worry, it’s nothing weird.

In spite of himself, Felix snorts at the message; he’s grateful that he’s alone with no one to witness it. He only briefly mentioned to Annette that he had given Sylvain his number, and for some reason he’s not quite ready for anyone else to know the extent of this. Partially because he doesn’t know the extent - Sylvain hasn’t asked him out or anything like that, and so he’s still trying to figure out whether or not he might have read things incorrectly. After all, he’s never been the best at reading people.

[me] Thanks for the clarification. I was worried you had developed an inappropriate relationship with one of the cats.

[Sylvain] No, as much as some of these animals are real cuties, they’re very much not my type.

[me] I’d definitely hope not.

[Sylvain] That said, I guess my type does have a bit in common with cats. A little aloof until you get to know them. Sharp.

Felix puts his phone down and walks away from his phone. From what he can tell, Sylvain just like this; he flirts with anyone, just because he feels like it. He’s admitted to that much. But he hasn’t really ever flirted with Felix , and honestly even now Felix isn’t sure 1) if he is flirting with him even now, and 2) if their sexualities align. He thinks Sylvain is bi, from the stories he’s told, but it’s difficult to be sure, and outright asking would be too obvious.

He does a lap of his apartment before returning to his phone, where there’s another message waiting for him:

[Sylvain] Anyway, yeah. It’s just a fun little thing that I’m working on.

[me] A wedding?

[Sylvain] Yeah. Who doesn’t love love?

[me] I think I’m neutral on it.

[Sylvain] Sounds like you’ve never given it a shot.

Only a couple of seconds pass before his phone goes off again.

[Sylvain] Don’t worry, I haven’t, either.

Maybe we can give it a shot together, Felix's mind supplies, but he doesn't allow himself to type it. It's far too much, too soon, and he isn't going to open his heart up for anyone. Definitely not some guy who is probably mostly only attractive because he acts as the gatekeeper to Felix's cat ownership dreams.

[me] Well, that could be. I still feel like most people would consider a cat wedding ridiculous.

[Sylvain] I'll make a believer out of you yet, Felix.

[me] By all means, try.

A few days after Sylvain sends the first text soliciting opinions on cat-sized wedding dresses, he texts again.

[Sylvain] Hey can you keep a secret?

[me] That depends.

[Sylvain] Good enough. Come by the shelter whenever you get the chance. The sooner, the better.

[me] You're being cryptic as hell. It's making me uneasy.

[Sylvain] No need to be uneasy! Nothing but good things, promise.

Felix wants to say something about how he doesn't know Sylvain well enough to know whether or not his word is good for anything, but honestly… He does actually trust Sylvain, or at very least he trusts him enough to show up to the shelter with no idea of what is waiting for him there, which to be fair isn't actually saying that much. It's a safe, known location, after all. Most likely, all he's at risk of losing is some time.

Which is why he ends up at the animal shelter the next morning, because he has the day off and he might as well indulge whatever this is.

When he arrives, he's thrown off by the sight of someone else at the desk. Logically, he knows that Sylvain can’t possibly be the only person who works the desk, but so far it hasn’t failed.

The girl behind the desk almost looks frightened by him, suddenly sitting up ramrod straight in her seat as she looks at him. For a moment, she says nothing but then snaps herself out of it, as if suddenly remembering that she’s supposed to be greeting him. “Hi! Ah, how can I help you?”

“Is Sylvain here?” he asks. If he’s not, he wonders how weird it would be if he just turned around and left, and whether or not this girl would report back to Sylvain that some random guy had showed up looking for him.

“Sylvain?” she echoes, her voice a higher pitch now that he has asked her a question that she probably hadn’t been expecting.

Conveniently, she is saved from having to answer because a second later, a familiar voice comes from down the hall. “Is that Felix I heard just now?” A moment later, Sylvain rounds the corner, a leash in his hand. On the other end is a fairly small dog (Felix isn’t extremely familiar with dogs or dog breeds, but he at least knows it’s some kind of hound) that suddenly decides that it needs to reach Felix now .

Felix stares down at the dog, and honestly, he’s not a dog person. They’re a lot to deal with. And even though Sylvain is pulling the leash back and trying to distract the dog to get it to be polite and give Felix a little bit of room, he’s suddenly compelled to demonstrate that he is not a terrible, heartless person - he’s heard Annette say that you can easily judge a person by how they interact with dogs (and he’s going to forever curse Sylvain for making him into someone who cares what someone he barely knows thinks of him). He kneels, offering his hand to the dog to sniff before petting it. It eagerly accepts, quickly rolling over onto its back.

“Sorry about her. Holly’s a sweetheart, but she’s not bright and she’s got too much energy,” Sylvain explains.

When Felix looks back up at Sylvain, he apparently stops giving Holly the attention she feels she deserves, and she whines at him. She wiggles closer to him, pulling at her leash in the progress. “I can see that,” he says.

“She’s a ham,” Sylvain says. “And she unfortunately was never, ever taught manners. She’s about a year old, and - anyway, you don’t care about that, do you? Let me just bring her back to her room, and then I’ll be all yours.”

He gives the dog another quick belly rub (he likes her, in spite of himself) and then rises back to his feet. She protests it when Sylvain urges her to carry on down the hall, but then storms on ahead of him, sniffing the air.

Felix is left to his thoughts for a moment, listening as Sylvain speaks to Holly as they return to the small dog room. There’s something fascinating about Sylvain - he’s good with animals, and seems to speak of all of them with so much affection. He wonders if it’s as tiring as it seems like it might be, letting so many animals into your heart, especially knowing that they’re all temporary. All the same, it’s strangely attractive, how Sylvain seems to have that much room in his heart.

He’s pulled from those thoughts by Sylvain returning. He hangs up the leash that Holly had been on, then turns to Felix with a bright smile.

“Hey. Thanks for stopping by.”

“You asked me to,” he says, shrugging.

“Yeah, and you didn’t have to take out of your day to come, and you did anyway,” he says. “I promise it’ll be worth it.”

Felix nods, and follows after him. They pass by the cat room that he’s been in, and he glances inside briefly, but where they end up going is an entirely different room, one that is labeled as being employees only.

It looks like it’s possibly a breakroom. There’s a microwave and a fridge, and a couple of chairs at a table, but more importantly, there’s a pen in the corner of the room. Inside, there are several kittens who are unreasonably small.

“So, I know that you said that you wanted a full-grown cat, and I totally hear you,” Sylvain starts as he crosses the room. “But I just thought, who doesn’t love kitten cuddle time?”

Honestly speaking, Felix isn’t sure what he had been expecting when he was invited to visit Sylvain. He supposes that he’d assumed that it would have to do with animals, but he hadn’t really been expecting kittens. But Sylvain is adjusting the pen to make room for the both of them, and he finds himself sitting down alongside him, careful not to upset any of the baby cats.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been around a kitten,” he says. He was a kid.

“Don’t worry, they won’t know any different,” he says, offering him a small smile. “So, these guys’ story is a sad one. As you can tell, they’re really young. But they were turned over to us without their mother - unfortunately, way too common.” He gingerly picks up one of the kittens, and pauses for a moment before offering it over to Felix. “So, we’ve been taking care of them. It’s honestly pretty fun. They’re working on graduating from bottle-feeding, but some of them are slower to check out the food we’re giving them, if you’d like to give it a whirl.”

“I might,” he says with a small nod. He lets the kitten settle in his lap. He feels appropriately honored as it curls up and lays its head down to go back to sleep, apparently deeming him worthy. “So, this is the secret I was meant to be keeping?”

“Yeah. Kittens and puppies are nightmares for adoption. I mean, don’t get me wrong - kittens are common enough that it’s not a big deal, but people go crazy over baby animals,” Sylvain says. "It's easier to have it just be one batshit week instead of several weeks where people are constantly asking about them when they're nowhere near ready.”

“Ah,” he says with a small nod, looking down at the kittens again. He's not great at estimating ages, but they're old enough to have the natural curiosity to wander over to them. One of them clumsily makes its way over the great mountain that is Sylvain's leg, and apparently this is all the effort it can exert, because when it reaches Felix, it simply lays down next to him. “I always thought working with animals would mean less dealing with people.”

“You'd think, right? Unfortunately, animals belong to people,” Sylvain responds with a quiet laugh, shaking his head. “But it's not all bad, don't worry.”

“I suppose spending your whole day with animals would have it's benefits.”

“Oh, it does. Animals are great - if you love them and are patient with them, they'll do the same for you,” he says. “But that's not quite what I mean. Occasionally you meet some really great people.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he says, and his gaze feels a bit too heavy as he looks at Felix. He looks down a moment later, letting out a soft breath; Felix think his cheeks look a little pink. “Looks like you're a natural kitten magnet.”

Looking down, Felix finds that he can't argue with that. There are two kittens curled up against him, one on his lap, and one investigating a loose thread on his sleeve. “Cats like things that are new.”

Sylvain chuckles, but nods. “They do. Or maybe you're just a natural cat wrangler,” he says. For a moment neither of them speaks, just watching the kitten that is trying to engage in battle with Felix’s sleeve. “Hey, since that one’s up and feisty, what do you say we give feeding him a shot?”

“Sure,” he says, nodding.

Sylvain gets up, returning a couple of minutes later with a bottle. He shows Felix the ropes, and from there it’s easy. It’s strange, looking at something so small and so seemingly helpless, and to do something for it. Felix idly wonders if it’s something that Sylvain ever thinks about.

“You know, if this is the sort of thing you might enjoy, we do have a volunteer program,” Sylvain tells him, leaning up against the wall and looking down at the tiny cat that is in his care. “We have people who come in just to snuggle with some cats for a while.”

“That doesn’t sound terrible,” he allows, nodding.

“Yeah,” he says. “And hey, as an added bonus, you’d get to see me once in a while.”

Felix glances up at him, but doesn’t admit that maybe yes, that would be a benefit. There’s just something about Sylvain, but he isn’t about to admit to it aloud. “I’ll think about it,” he says.

“Great.”

There’s another silence that falls over them, but unlike much of the time when he’s around other people - like the awkward lunches filled with terse conversation that his father still insists on - he doesn’t feel like he’s disappointing them or making things uncomfortable by remaining quiet. He can feel Sylvain’s eyes on him as he puts the bottle away and settles the kitten back in with its siblings, running his fingertips down along their backs.

“No rush, but whenever you’re ready, do you want to meet the bride and groom?”

He’s thrown off by the question for a moment, perhaps because he had been transported to a world comprised almost exclusively of baby cats. But then he remembers - of course, Sylvain is planning a wedding for cats, for reasons.

“Yeah, sure,” he says with a nod. He might as well indulge him.

It is with great reluctance that Felix gets up. He returns with Sylvain into the main cat room, a place which is starting to feel incredibly familiar to him.

“Here she is, the lovely Miss Mewsette,” Sylvain says as he walks up to a cage that holds a fluffy white cat with bright blue eyes. She looks up when he approaches her and seems to consider going over to him, but ultimately stays right where she is. Felix vaguely recalls seeing her before, but because she has white fur, and so very much of it, he had passed her by without much thought. “She’s one of our longer-term residents, she’s been here about seven months. She’s deaf, which I think scares people off.”

Felix follows him over, and does his best to entice her to come to him, wiggling his fingers inside the cage. She does not budge. “She seems sad.”

“She does. But!” he says, wheeling around and pointing to a cage directly across from hers. “There he is. One of our newest arrivals, Jaune Tom.”

Jaune Tom, an equally-fluffy tuxedo cat, is alert and looking over at them. “Wasn’t Jaune Tom orange?” he asked.

“Yes, well, I think that he embodies the spirit of Jaune Tom well enough,” he says. “He loves to sing to Mewsette.”

“Sing?” he echoes, raising an eyebrow.

Sylvain lets out a laugh then, shaking his head. “Yell,” he clarifies. “He loves to yell to her.”

“Lovely,” he says. He makes his way over to Jaune Tom anyway, though, surprised when he immediately starts to bat at Felix’s fingers with his paws.

“She loves it,” he says. “She’ll meow back at him. It’s a love story like none other.”

While he’s not sure about that, Felix isn’t going to call him out. “So, you’re planning a wedding for them.”

“Yeah. Assuming that they actually get along well when there aren’t cages and several feet of space between them. Me and Marianne are going to test that this week,” he explains.

“You’re planning a wedding and you don’t even know if they get along?”

“If this doesn’t work out, then we’ll give it another go with some other cats,” he says. “It’s a fun idea. But, I have a good feeling about this.”

“If you say so,” he says. He pauses for a second, then says, “Let me hold Jaune Tom.”

“Gladly.” Sylvain opens up the cage and pulls the cat out for Felix.

He doesn't know why he's bothering - he's got such long fur that there's bound to be hairballs to go with that, and if Jaune Tom is about to get married, he's not about to break up a relationship. But Jaune Tom leans into it when he pets him, and it does feel nice. “You've sent me cat dresses, are you also getting him a ridiculous outfit?”

“Of course,” he says. “I mean, he's already wearing a tuxedo, so I don't really need to, but I think we'd be missing out on an opportunity if we didn't get a cat tux.”

“Silly of me to even ask.”

“It really was,” Sylvain says, a laugh falling from his lips as he aimed a grin at him that caused him to feel far too much. “After all, what am I going to do, expect him to be joined in holy meowtrimony with his lovely bride dressed to the nines while he's wearing only his birthday suit?”

Felix just stares at him for a moment, replaying that statement in his mind. There's a lot to unpack, but ultimately he decides to tackle the biggest offender: “Holy meowtrimony?”

“Because they're cats,” he says, very deliberately choosing to miss the point.

“Yes, I know they're cats.”

“And cats? Cats meow.”

“Yes.” If Felix didn't have his arms full of cat, he would be burying his face in his hands or maybe smacking Sylvain; it would be what he deserves, after all. He wonders if he should tell him how grateful he should be to Jaune Tom. “Sylvain, I get the joke.”

Sylvain, the bastard, just laughs. “I know,” he says. “So, not a pun person, huh?”

“If anything I have said or done has given you the impression that I'd be a pun person, please let me know,” he says. “I don't want to mislead anyone.”

“Mm, no, I guess you’re right. But it’s okay if you secretly like it,” he says.

“I don’t.”

Sylvain hums, seemingly entirely undeterred by Felix’s lack of enthusiasm for his pun. “I’ve actually got some good props set for this, in addition to the outfits,” he says.

“Of course you do,” he says with a nod.

“Nothing over the top, but we’ve got a bunch of Valentine’s stuff laying around, plus I’ve got them a little arch for their altar,” he says. “It will be a classy affair.”

In spite of himself, Felix laughs. “Alright. I’ll be looking forward to it.”

About a week later, the post about Mewsette and Jaune Tom’s wedding goes live. He looks through the pictures that Sylvain has posted, and he has to admit that for as ridiculous and unnecessary a concept as this whole thing is, they’re actually pretty well done. He finds that his definition of ‘over the top’ might vary a bit from Sylvain’s, but overall the whole thing does look pretty nice.

Jaune Tom looks a little uncomfortable in his tuxedo, as cats forced into clothing tend to be, but Mewsette actually looks… pretty nice, which Felix is not about to admit to Sylvain. She's wearing a dress and there's a little veil on her head that she actually seems to be at peace with. In only a couple of shots are there helping human hands directing the cats, though there is a respectful distance between the cats in all of the pictures; even the most calm, docile cats need to get used to each other.

But then he reads through the caption; for the most part, it's the same sort of thing that he's grown to expect by now. He has found that he can almost read the posts on Sylvain's voice, and that's a frightening realization.

At the bottom, though, there is a line clarifying that Jaune Tom and Mewsette do not have to be adopted together. He has to read it three times to make sure that he read it correctly.

Before he can think any better of it, he heads for the animal shelter - he tells himself that he was meaning to go anyway.

“What the fuck,” is the first thing he says to Sylvain when he walks through the front door.

Sylvain looks up, tilting his head like he's a dog, but - also like a dog - gives him a big smile. “What?”

“I saw the post with Mewsette and Jaune Tom,” he starts. 

“Oh yeah. Fun, right?”

“Fun, yes, but…” he pauses, shaking his head. “Why would you go to the trouble of setting up a fake wedding photo shoot and pronouncing them married and then say they don't have to be adopted together?”

Sylvain sighs. “Because they don't. Will it be nice if they get adopted together? Absolutely. But they're not a bonded pair,” he points out. “It's hard to get pairs into homes sometimes, since a lot of people are only looking for one pet.”

“Then what, you get them a divorce when one of them gets adopted?”

Sylvain stares at him for a moment, then laughs. Realizing that he's on the receiving end of a fierce glare, he says, “I just didn't realize this would offend you that much.”

Rationally, he knows that Sylvain isn't exactly wrong. This whole thing is probably good publicity for both cats. Still, he crosses his arms and doesn't let up on the glare. “Well, it does,” he says. “I thought Mewsette was one of your favorites.”

“She is. And that's part of why I wanted to do this, it'll up her chances of getting adopted.” 

“Won't you miss her when she gets adopted?” he asks. 

“Sure, I guess. But mostly I'll be happy for her,” he says. “We all do it, we pick favorites and root for them to find nice homes.”

Again, all of this is reasonable. Felix doesn't know why he cares - he shouldn't. He absolutely shouldn't. And yet at the same time he is trying to figure out whether he has it in him to adopt two cats at once - for no good fucking reason. “Have you gotten in any applications for them?”

Sylvain hums, glancing back at the computer. “A couple have been sent in. One of them looked alright, but they already have other cats and they aren't up to date on their rabies.”

“Are people trying to adopt both of them?” he asks.

“Not really. One family did, but we don't want to place Mewsette with young kids since she startles so easily.”

“And if I were to want to adopt them,” Felix says, allowing the rest of the question to be implied.

“You do have an approved application, and I know you would be a good fit, no other pets, a steady income,” he says slowly. “I know you liked Jaune Tom. But didn't you not want a white cat?”

“No,” he admits, because yes, that is one big issue with Mewsette. “But it would be fine. They make lint rollers.”

“They do,” he says. His smile grows again, and he asks, “You're really serious about this, aren't you? You actually really want those lovebirds to stick together.”

Felix can feel his cheeks warming up, and he hopes that the blush isn't very visible (unlikely) or that at least Sylvain doesn't notice (only marginally more likely). “It's your fault,” he grumbles. “You shouldn't marry two cats and then separate them.”

Sylvain hums, watching him for a moment before leaning against the counter, moving a bit closer to him in the process. “Alright, how about this?” he says. “You take home Jaune Tom. You liked him, I could tell, you don't have to say it. And Mewsette? She can come home with me.”

He suddenly has a lot of questions. “Why would you go to all that trouble to advertise her and then just adopt her yourself?” he asks. “And how is that any better?”

“First, it was worth the effort because it was just fun . And it is better because,” he says, “if we date, then they'll get to have visits with each other.”

Felix opens his mouth and then closes it again, caught off guard by the statement. To be fair, it isn't like the thought of them dating hasn't occurred to him - hell, he's not even entirely sure what you would classify their current relationship as, but he feels like Sylvain has been genuinely flirting with him. “I… don't think people take their cats on dates.”

“Well, no, most people don't,” he says. “But we could make something happen.” There's a brief pause where he seems to consider his next words, then says, “And who knows? Maybe someday they'd live together.” 

It's definitely getting ahead of themselves. They haven't even been on a date yet, and even though Felix is generally against guys who come on too strong, his heart starts to pound.

It isn't as though Sylvain is actually asking him to move in with him. He's just saying that it's a possibility; and really, if you're serious about dating, isn't eventually living together and potentially spending your life together generally the goal from day one? Technically speaking, there's no risk - worst case scenario, they date, they go their separate ways, and two cats who barely know each other never meet again. Not a big deal.

“That… could work,” he says eventually, his words slow and measured.

“Yeah? It's something I've been thinking about,” he says. “Of course, you don't have to adopt Jaune Tom if you don't want to. I'm not here to force you into a cat that you don't want just to ask you out.”

A laugh escapes him before he can think better of it, and he shakes his head. “Let's… Let's go see Jaune Tom again,” he says, because perhaps it will be easier to think when he's holding a cat.

“Sure thing,” Sylvain says with a nod, disappearing for a moment to grab another employee to keep an eye on the desk before he heads with him to the cat room.

Jaune Tom is in a different cage now, one next to Mewsette's. They're both curled up against the cage wall that separates them, and while Felix is absolutely sure that it's just a coincidence, there's something about it that still makes his heart ache.

“Hey big man,” Sylvain says as he gets Jaune Tom out of his cage, then hands him over to Felix.

Taking the cat in his arms, he looks down at him. “If I bring you home, you're going to leave hairballs all over my apartment, aren't you,” he says. The cat just stares back at him. “And I'll have to get better about sweeping.”

“Sounds like he'll be helping you improve your tidiness,” Sylvain points out.

Felix glances back at him, shaking his head. “That's one way of looking at it.”

“Just trying to help. I like sending animals home,” he says. He doesn't say much beyond that, though, simply allowing Felix whatever time he needs to make his decisions.

Frankly speaking, Jaune Tom is a beautiful cat. Hopefully he will be patient with being brushed, but that's a problem that he'll have to deal with later. Maybe Sylvain has some tips for taking care of cats - it's a huge part of his job, after all. 

Eventually, Sylvain asks, “So, what are we thinking?”

“Are you actually going to adopt Mewsette?”

“I think so,” he says. “Admittedly, I've gotten more attached to her in this whole wedding thing.”

“You're an idiot,” he says, but he's aware that it sounds terribly fond. “And you're not just adopting her out of some ridiculous scheme to get to see me more?”

“You said it yourself, it'd be a ridiculous scheme. No, I was planning on asking you out whenever you adopted a cat anyway,” he admits.

“You were?”

“Yeah. If you'd said no, then you at least wouldn't feel like you had to avoid coming here to avoid me.”

Felix hums. “Alright, I suppose you thought this through.”

“I did,” he says, sounding just a bit too pleased with himself for it.

Jaune Tom wiggles in Felix's arms, and he decides that it means it's about time. “Alright, is there any more paperwork I have to do in order to bring him home?”

Sylvain lights up, and nods. “Just a little. C'mon,” he says, gesturing for him to follow as he heads back out to the front. He retrieves another of the cardboard carriers along the way, folding it up and helping Felix to put Jaune Tom into it. Immediately, the cat starts meowing in complaint, the box wiggling on the counter as Sylvain retrieves Jaune Tom and Felix's respective files.

After a few minutes, a couple of signatures and one swipe of his debit card, Felix is a cat owner. It feels almost anticlimactic.

“Oh! One more thing,” Sylvain says before he can step away from the counter.

“What?”

“When are you free?” 

Felix pauses, and he realizes that part of him still hadn't quite taken Sylvain seriously when he mentioned asking him out; he's not used to this happening. Most of the time he is either entirely unaware that someone is flirting with him, or utterly uninterested. “Friday evening,” he says. He's free that night (most evenings, really), but he isn't going to be that overeager.

“Great. Six o'clock? I can pick you up?”

He nods. “That works. I'll text you my address.”

“Perfect. Any dietary restrictions or preferences I should know about?”

Felix shakes his head. “I'm fine with whatever,” he says. Squinting at him, he asks, “Do you like seafood?”

“Love it,” he says, nodding. “Sushi?”

“Sushi is good.”

“Alright, I know just the place,” he says with a wink. “See you then. Until then, have fun with your new little friend.”

Jaune Tom settles in nicely in Felix's apartment, though of course he spends most of his first few days there hiding under various pieces of furniture. This is just part of the process, he thinks.

Over time, he seems to grow acclimated with his surroundings, and Felix quickly realizes that he'll have to invest in a cat tree - as soon as Jaune Tom stops hiding under things, he overcorrects by instead climbing on top of everything .

He thinks about giving the cat a new name, since Jaune Tom certainly isn't anything he ever would have picked out himself, but somehow he decides to keep it. It's charming in its own way.

A couple days in, something occurs to him. 

[me] Did you end up adopting Mewsette?

[Sylvain] Oh hold on just a sec

Several minutes pass, and Felix almost forgets to be expecting a response when his phone buzzes again.

It’s another message from Sylvain, this time a picture: there is Mewsette, curled up on a hoodie that he assumes belongs to Sylvain; it’s uncanny, he thinks, how quickly cats can take ownership of whatever place they occupy.

[Sylvain] I took her home the same day you got Jaune Tom. It only seemed right.

Admittedly, there is something strangely sweet about the idea of both of the cats coming home to them on the same day. He wants to have them meet again. He doesn’t know when he turned into someone so damned sentimental.

(He always was, is the answer he doesn’t want to admit to.)

[me] Is she settling in well?

[Sylvain] Like a champ! She’s a clinger

[me] Is the clinginess a good or bad thing?

[Sylvain] It’s great.Makes my bed a little less lonely. Aside from having to leave her behind every day, but that’s life, right?

[me] That’s life.

Sylvain shows up at his door at six o’clock on the dot on Friday, and it’s actually pretty impressive - he actually wouldn’t have pegged him for the type to be particularly punctual.

When Felix goes to open the door, he is surprised to find that what greets him first is the bouquet of flowers in Sylvain's hand. They most likely came from the grocery store down the street, but it isn't as though Felix knows much of anything about flowers anyway and they're still pretty.

“Might want to watch out, if Jaune Tom's like any of the other cats I know, you might want to be careful about those,” Sylvain says. “He'll probably want to munch them.”

Felix nods. “I had to keep all my herb plants hidden from my roommate in college,” he says, gesturing for Sylvain to follow him inside so that he can attend to the flowers. “I know all about hiding things.”

“You - roommate?” he asks. “You're not the type to use that as a cutesy way to refer to a pet.”

“Right you are,” he says. “No, he was human. Is human, I suppose. If left to his own devices, he would leave my basil plant in ruins.”

“He stole your basil?”

“Pretty much. He would be waiting for the toaster or something and he'd eat a couple of leaves.”

“Huh. I mean, I like basil as much as the next guy, but...”

“Yeah. We don't talk anymore; for other reasons, not because of the herb thing. Really, though, it was probably for the best. It turns out I wasn't that good at keeping it alive,” he says with a shrug as he ducks down to look in a cabinet where he thinks he might have a vase. Sure enough, he does. It's dusty as hell, but a quick since will take care of that.

As he's working on that, he hears Sylvain gasp next to him, and he turns to see what has caught his attention. To no real surprise to him, he's looking at Jaune Tom. 

“Did you get him a bow tie?” he asks, looking back at Felix with a look on his face that feels a little too smug.

Felix sighs, looking back at the cat for a moment. “He needed a collar,” he says. And then, quieter, “He's wearing a tux, isn't he?”

Sylvain looks delighted. It's almost worth the embarrassment, watching him throw his head back and laugh.

He busies himself with filling the vase with water and getting the flowers put into it. He closes them in the bathroom for now, safely out of Jaune Tom's way and decides that he'll actually figure out a real solution for it later.

“So, are we going?” he asks when he comes back down the hall to find that Sylvain has settled on the floor and is petting the cat. He would have assumed that being around animals all day might take a bit of the intrigue out of it, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

Sylvain goes from sitting cross-legged on the floor to standing in one fluid movement, and he nods. “Yeah, of course,” he says. Together they leave the apartment and go down to the car that Sylvain had left running outside. 

The date is nice. Felix doesn't really have that much to compare it with, but he enjoys himself.

The food is good, and the restaurant itself is clean and pleasant and the waitstaff are good. More important than that, he and Sylvain are occupying the same space together and it has nothing to do with animals. It's a change.

Sylvain demonstrates that, while also being plenty intelligent and insightful, he is also a goddamn idiot, deciding that the best way to impress Felix (who did not need to be impressed) would be to eat the entire ball of wasabi they've given him on the corner of his plate.

His face after accomplishing this feat isn't attractive, but he winks at Felix and gives him a thumbs up and somehow he's charmed anyway. Years ago in college, someone had introduced Felix to the term 'moronsexual' and he's suddenly afraid that it applies to him.

After dinner, Sylvain drives him back to his apartment. Even though a part of him had expected him to make some kind of joke or even hint about wanting to come up with him, he doesn't even look like he intends to get out of the car.

They’ve been sitting there in the dark of the parking lot outside of his building, just talking in the parked car when Felix takes it upon himself to lean over the console to kiss Sylvain, who actually seems a little bit caught off guard by it for a moment. While he knows that there are conventions about this sort of thing, that maybe this is some attempt on Sylvain’s part to be a gentleman about all of this or something, but the way he sees it, this isn’t just a first date. They’ve already done plenty of the first date stuff before now - minus the small talk, which Felix has always despised. Plus he’s never cared that much about convention.

But Felix is also above messing around in a car like they’re horny teenagers trying to avoid getting caught by their parents, so he fights the momentary temptation to climb over the console entirely and pulls himself away from Sylvain. “Do you want to come up?” he asks.

Sylvain blinks, looking at him for a moment before reaching for the buckle on his seatbelt. “Yeah. Yeah, actually, I really do.”

In the coming weeks, he does end up seeing more of Sylvain than before. Of course, they’re both helping cats adapt to their respective new homes so there are certain routines they need to keep to, but overall he suspects that they’re seeing each other more often than the average couple this early on in a relationship.

But it’s nice. Sylvain regularly sends him cute animal pictures and videos when he’s at work, along with the occasional selfie, and he might like the latter just as much as the former.

The first time he stays over at Sylvain's apartment for the night, he is struck with the feeling of being comfortable there. He's usually not particularly at ease in unfamiliar settings, but something about Sylvain just clicks .

The second time he stays over at Sylvain’s apartment for the night, it’s a Saturday night, which means that while Felix is off of work on Sunday, Sylvain has to go into work. He fully expects to just get up and head out when Sylvain does, even if that just means going back to his own apartment and getting back into his own bed.

But then when Sylvain’s alarm goes off in the morning, he leans over and kisses his shoulder and tells him that he can stay if he wants to. Felix hums and rolls over, not fully processing it as he rolls over to go back to sleep.

Sylvain returns a short while later, showered and dressed and ready to go. “I made coffee,” he tells him. “You're welcome to whatever here. And I left the spare key on the kitchen counter if you decide to head out. I’ll get you an actual copy of your own soon.”

It feels like it’s probably too soon for that kind of thing - they have only just barely had the 'yes, we are officially in a relationship and we are boyfriends now' talk - but he doesn’t say so. He leans up and gives him a quick kiss, ignoring how he can taste how awful his own morning breath is in comparison to Sylvain’s freshly-brushed teeth. “Thanks,” he says. “See you later.”

He does intend to just go home when he gets up, though. He isn't going to overstay his welcome, even if Sylvain hasn't done anything to suggest that he's nearing crossing that line.

Mewsette hops up onto the bed after Sylvain leaves, making herself at home curled up on his pillow. Felix reaches out to pet her and she trills at him. It doesn't take long for her to inch her way closer to him, and he ends up laying in bed far longer than he'd intended to, just looking at things on his phone and staying put so as not to disturb the cat.

He pauses in his scrolling through Facebook when the humane society pops up on his feed. Felix has the thought that he probably should just go ahead and unfollow the page - after all, it isn’t as though he’s in the market for another cat. But the fact is that seeing the page reminds him of Sylvain, and even though he would never admit to it out loud, it feels kind of… good, being reminded of his very existence.

A skinny black kitten with bright yellow eyes is featured in the pictures. She’s alert in all of them, ready to go on the hunt, and in one picture she’s got her paws wrapped around an arm Felix strongly suspects belongs to Sylvain, and is chewing on his sleeve.

The caption starts with ‘I’m all in my felines over Kiki’ and he can’t help himself but to groan audibly.

Before he can think any better of it, he switches to his messaging app and finds his conversation chain with Sylvain.

[me] I can’t fucking stand you.

[Sylvain] Aw. Thinking of you too.

In spite of himself, he laughs, and that's enough for Mewsette to decide to release him. He gets out of bed then, and on impulse he takes a shower. He tells himself that it's just because he doesn't feel like crossing town still feeling like he's covered in a thin layer of sweat, but deep down he knows it's just as much about investigating why Sylvain smells as good as he does (not that Felix has been paying attention). The shelf is full of products that he doesn't quite know how to use, but he recognizes soap and shampoo when he sees it. When he gets out of the shower, smelling like Sylvain, he pads barefoot around the apartment, taking his time observing things he hasn't before, being too focused on Sylvain himself.

All of it feels so intimate, which feels strange given that Sylvain isn't even here. 

This entire apartment feels like Sylvain, while also being surprising. There are a lot of books around with titles that Felix doesn't know how to make heads or tails of, not just the literary greats that he had already known Sylvain enjoyed. They're all nearly sorted away, and that's another interesting thing - this place is neat. The only things that are out of their places are things that he suspects Mewsette has decided looked fun to play with. There are pictures on the walls, filled with people Felix doesn't recognize and some he can guess the identity of - there's a photo of a blond woman with her arm around Sylvain's shoulders, while there's another of what must be the Gautier family at Sylvain’s graduation. Behind him, his father looks proud, a hand placed on his shoulder, while standing beside him is a young man who looks similar to him aside from the glare he has aimed at the camera. Sylvain hasn't mentioned having a brother.

It's like a museum dedicated to a person that Felix is starting to think his own future is entwined with. He's never been in love before, but he thinks this might be how it starts.

He's startled enough by that thought that when his phone goes off in his hand, he jumps, almost guiltily though he knows he hasn't done anything wrong.

It's Sylvain, because of course it is.

[Sylvain] Hey, idk if you're planning on sticking around, but if you want I can make you dinner tonight.

So Felix stays.

Jaune Tom and Mewsette do end up living together, just like Sylvain had speculated they might.

It takes eight months and several Google searches of ‘how soon is too soon to move in together’ and ‘how long do most couples date before moving in together’ and ‘is it really theft if your boyfriend gave it to you to wear because you don’t have clothes at his apartment’ before they commit to it, but ultimately Felix’s landlord asks him whether or not he’s renewing his lease and he says no. Sylvain has made it more than clear by now that he wants to live together, and honestly the only thing that has kept him from just spending most of his time at Sylvain’s apartment is owning a cat.

He’s no longer worried about white fur on his clothes - he’s always covered in it anyway. Hell, Sylvain sheds an absurd amount, too - Felix has had to be far more careful of the fabrics he wears around Sylvain or else he’ll end up covered in red strands of hair just as much as Mewsette’s white fur.

Overall, it just seems right. Their relationship works, neither of them scared off by the nights they lay together and share the demons in their closets, and he wants it to keep working. He likes it when progress is solid and clear - moving in together is the right step.

Jaune Tom ends up moving over to Sylvain's apartment first, because they decide that it will be easier to have him out of the way while everything in Felix's apartment gets packed up. Sylvain takes point on getting the two cats used to each other and ready to cohabitate, apologizing for the fact that this means that Jaune Tom starts out his stay by being locked in the guest room.

Meanwhile, Felix spends much of his free time in the last few weeks he's still got his old apartment getting everything squared away. Most of his furniture is redundant and wouldn't look right in Sylvain's apartment anyway, which means he spends more time than he'd like shoving things off on friends or posting on Facebook marketplace.

Annette has come over with this goal in mind; Mercedes let her borrow her truck and she's taking Felix's couch, as well as just generally helping him get his things packed.

“You'll still get to visit it if you miss it,” she tells him brightly as she folds down the flaps on a cardboard box. “And it'll be a familiar place for you to crash if you ever have a fight with Sylvain.”

“We don't fight,” he says.

“You don't?” she asks, looking back at him. “You always sound annoyed when you talk about him. And you look grumpy whenever you're with him.” After a second, she bursts out into laughter. “Aw, Felix, you should see the look on your face.”

He doesn't think it's that funny.

“Felix, I want you to know something,” she says, turning away from the box entirely to face him. “It's incredibly obvious how much you feel for him. You look grumpy always , but you actually melt a little around him. It's really, really sweet, and honestly each time I learn more about your relationship I can feel a new cavity developing. I didn't think you were capable of being this gooey.

Felix shakes his head as he busies himself with wrapping his vase - the same vase from his first date with Sylvain - in newspaper. “I'm not gooey, I just - ” he struggles with his words for a moment. “I'm happy. What I have with Sylvain is good.”

“It is. And I'm happy for you, I really am,” she says, reaching out and taking hold of his hand to give it a squeeze. “You deserve that, you know.”

Annette used to be the only person he would willingly talk to about things like Glenn and his general baggage, but now Sylvain shares that honor. She means a lot to Felix, and it feels good to have her seal of approval on his relationship.

“Anyway,” he says once the moment drags on a little too long, turning away from her. “We'll never finish at this rate.”

“Aw, Felix,” she coos, but she lets him let the conversation turn over.

Living with Sylvain is good. It's nice to not have to worry about going home to feed Jaune Tom, because he's right there.

He knows that for a lot of couples, moving in together brings up a lot of issues that lead to cracks in the relationship. And of course, Felix wouldn't give up that easily if they did have any issues, but it's still something he was a little bit nervous about. After all, he knows he can be abrasive and hard to get along with; maybe he only actually appeals to Sylvain in small doses. But as it turns out, it's really a non-issue. They'd already tackled Felix's habit of just throwing his clothes wherever when he took them off; he'd been trained into actually hanging them up or putting them in the proper receptacle. Besides that, it's mostly just a few small things as they're getting used to living together full time, like the fact that his sleep schedule is generally a nightmare (and frankly, Sylvain's isn't much better).

He likes the routines that they fall into. Sylvain likes to cook for them, and after they eat Felix takes care of the dishes for them.

When Sylvain has free time, he works on getting the cats to learn to walk on a leash. It's a whole production, and Felix doesn't really understand the point of it, but he enjoys watching it happen. At first the cats are seemingly immobilized by having harnesses put on them, but over time they get used to it and they're actually able to take them for little outings.

They paint the walls together, and over time it really feels like their apartment and, more than that, it feels like home.

After about a year and a half of living together, he feels pretty settled in. It feels good and comfortable, just comfortable enough that it's perfectly welcome that Sylvain is, in and of himself, a walking adventure. Felix will never be bored.

It's a day like most any other when Sylvain calls out to him from the bathroom. This is another of his quirks that Felix has had to get used to - something will occur to him and no matter what he's doing, he'll launch a conversation. By now it isn't unusual for Felix to end up sitting on the bathroom counter talking to Sylvain as he showers.

Sylvain returned from the gym a little while ago, and though Felix never heard the water come on, he assumes he's just gotten out of the shower. “Hey sweetheart, have you seen Jaune Tom?”

“No?” he says, already starting to rouse Mewsette up off of his lap; she is very indignant about this disrespect. “Did you let my cat out?”

“I don't think so,” he responds, and it doesn't sound particularly convincing. Jaune Tom is a runner and will gladly bolt if they leave the front door open too long, they know this by now.

“You did, didn't you,” he says. He raises his voice a little bit, calling out the cat's name.

To his surprise, seconds later he hears the excited pap pap pap pap of kitty paws hurrying down the hall towards him, probably in hopes of receiving treats.

“Found him, he was probably in the - ” his voice trails off when he catches sight of Jaune Tom. He's not wearing his usual collar: in its place is a blue ribbon. There's something hanging from it. Bending down to inspect it, he asks, “What did you do?”

He pets the cat, then reaches for the ribbon to turn it around to find what Sylvain had attached to him. It's a ring.

He hears the heavier footsteps that belong to his boyfriend following behind Jaune Tom, but for a moment Felix is too distracted, transfixed by the way the stone in the center of the ring seems to sparkle as it catches the light.

When he looks up, Sylvain is in front of him, practically at eye level where Felix is crouched because he's down on one knee.

“Felix Hugo Fraldarius,” Sylvain starts, and he's smiling so hard that it almost looks like it's interfering with his ability to speak. “The day you walked into the shelter, you changed my life for good.”

He can already feel himself tearing up. He keeps a hand on Jaune Tom, a little touch keeping him grounded in reality.

“Every day, I love you a little bit more. I would've thought that would have stopped by now, but you always find a way to surprise me. There's no one else I could ever imagine spending my life with, so, I thought maybe I should lock this down. So… What do you say? Will you marry me?”

“Obviously,” he says. “Yes.” 

Sylvain scoops Jaune Tom up off of the floor to untie the ribbon and retrieve the ring, but before he can get too far with that, Felix moves forward and kisses him. He cups his face in his hands, the cat between them as he pours every ounce of his affection into kissing him.

“I love you too,” he murmurs against Sylvain's lips before he pulls back.

Sylvain takes care of the ribbon then, then takes hold of Felix's hand and slides the ring onto his finger. “Perfect fit,” he says, bringing his hand up to his lips to kiss his knuckles.

Later, Sylvain asks Felix to entertain the notion of including the cats as part of the wedding ceremony, citing the fact that they've been part of every step in their relationship so far. He tells him he'll think about it.