Work Text:
Sollux/Nepeta
A few years ago, on a cold, rainy day, a tiny grey kitten with green eyes sat under a bench, fur soaked and heavy. All she wanted was warmth, food, and family, but she was all alone in this world. A few days before, she had family and food, and everyone could huddle together for warmth, but one of those giant metal things that usually just whooshed on past them took that family away. The only thing she could do now was meow, completely helpless in this world.
On that very day, a young man named Sollux forgot his umbrella, having rushed out of home, so distracted that he almost forgot he had work that day, just like every other weekday. He was at a point in his life where everything needed a reminder and an alarm, otherwise he’d get caught up in everything but what he needed to do. Right now, he needed to get home, get changed, take a warm shower and feed himself. But a tiny mewling sound caught his attention, and after finding that wet, pathetic looking kitten, he didn’t hesitate to pick it up, unzip his jacket a little and zip her inside. Nevermind that he didn’t know what to do with a cat, didn’t have anything to feed one or a litter box, he just did it without thinking. Later, he’d decide that it was one of the few good impulsive decisions he ever made.
For a moment, when she was picked up, the kitten instinctively wanted to jump, but as soon as she felt warmth, she felt safe, and her high pitched meowing turned into soft purrs. Warmth could even mean food, and shortly after she was zipped up, she started curling her paws, kneading this giant, but there was nowhere for milk to even come from. Even her empty tummy couldn’t distress her that much. Her energy was so low and her stress was melting away, and in a few minutes, she finally slept for the first time in days.
It wasn’t until Sollux got home did he realize he’d made a bit of a mistake. Was he even allowed to have a cat in the apartment? How would he feed it? What even do cats do? What if it belonged to someone else? How would his roommate react? Whatever, he’d already started this, might as well just go with it. Plenty of blankets were already on the couch, so he carefully unzipped his jacket and placed the slightly less wet kitten in the pile. For a moment, he just stared and she started to open her eyes and immediately started meowing again.
“Shit you’re hungry. Fuck, what do you even eat?” It wasn’t like there was much in his fridge to even feed himself. After rummaging through his cabinets though, he did find a can of tuna that he’d probably never eat, so he popped that open, mashed it up on a plate and brought it back.
“Probably not the best choice, but at least it’s something.” It was definitely something wonderful to her. The little kitten nearly pounced on the dish and gobbled down mouthfuls of tuna in no time flat.
It took a while for him to get everything settled for her. His roommate, Karkat, wasn’t too happy when he came home, but he was almost always pissed about something, so Sollux didn’t care. It didn’t take much to convince him to drive him to the pet store, where he might have spent a little too much on not only food and litter, but unnecessarily complicated toys, a cat tower, even a drink fountain. When he started to look at other cats that were sheltered there, Karkat pulled him away and shoved him toward the register.
“NO! WE ARE FUCKING DONE HERE! IT’S BEEN OVER AN HOUR!”
After he was all rung up, Sollux didn’t even bat an eye at the total, and he did his best to ignore the many complaints from Karkat. So what if it was a lot of money? It was his life and he was going to do what he wanted when he wanted.
The first few weeks with the kitten seemed to go by fast. She finally had a name, Nepeta, only because Sollux couldn’t stop clicking around Wikipedia and found out Nepeta is the genus for catnip. Nepeta was growing at a surprising rate, and that tiny mewling kitten soon turned into a rambunctious kitty cat. Karkat was surprised how much Sollux played with her and cared for her, lately he hadn’t been able to concentrate on anything for long. Maybe this furball would be good for him.
It wasn’t long before Nepeta craved being outdoors again, so she was let out on the balcony of their second floor apartment. A few days went by, and this was enough, but she realized this wasn’t high at all, and lept from the balcony. When Sollux looked outside, he was completely distraught. Where was his dear, poor, sweet, precious, sweet, sweet, sweet Nepeta? He ran outside in a frantic search for his tiny sweet little kitten (who was actually pretty gigantic by now). After what Sollux felt like hours of searching and calling for Nepeta, he heard meowing coming from above. As fast as he could, he raced to his apartment, intending to scoop up Nepeta and never let her go again, but as soon as he reached the balcony, there was a terrible, awful surprise waiting for him.
At first, he thought she was injured badly, but soon he realized she was 100% perfectly fine and looked so fucking proud of herself. The other thing though, whatever that creature was, was 100% dead.
“What the fuck is that?!” His shouting looked like it made her upset.
“I mean, good job, NP. And, thanks I guess.”
She sauntered into the house, with that pitiful thing in her mouth, with Sollux completely failing to find any way to stop her.
“I guess that’s what “Look at what the cat dragged in,” means. Seriously though you’re gonna make me lose my deposit.”
At least she dropped it in the kitchen, like she expected him to eat this fantastic dinner she caught him. But, he just grabbed a bunch of grocery bags, sealed it up, and chucked it down the trash chute in the hall.
Several years passed, and he couldn’t bear to keep her locked up inside, and his teeny tiny baby regretfully grew into a ferocious 20 pound hunter. At least he got her to leave the “presents” on the balcony where he could just sorta shove it off with a broom.
For a few months, Sollux felt like this long manic episode finally subsided, and he hoped to God or the Flying Spaghetti Monster or even Tron that he wouldn’t slip back into it, or fall into depression. Nepeta was really great to play with to get rid of some hyperactivity, and she was always there to focus on and care for, even when Sollux wasn’t caring for himself. Although he was getting medical treatment, Sollux slowly found himself drifting into that low place in his life. While he dreaded and hated this, he also hated the highs as well, because it wasn’t all about great moods. He got caught up in everything, never really thought about what he was doing, and his bank account was suffering for a long time. But now, it was hard to pry himself out of bed, he over thought his actions and had the sense that everything he did was going to end miserably. But he couldn’t stay in bed all the time, or else he’d get a face full of claws and a bed full of piss if he didn’t feed Nepeta at the right time or clean her litter box regularly. It was incredibly helpful to have her in his routine, because waking up usually felt like the hardest part of the day, and if he could do that, he could drag himself to work, he could pay his bills, and force himself to live his life.
Nepeta seemed to get that he wasn’t feeling great, and while she still demanded on playing every day, she became more affectionate and cuddly. Sollux tried to make a bed on his desk for her, but gave up when she never used anything but his arms while he was typing, and he let her until his hands went numb. When he was feeling his worst, she’d forcefully cuddle him, lick his face, and nudge him until he pet her. It seemed to work a bit. It made him feel loved and important, even if it was just a cat.
One day at work, while everyone was updating on required training, he paused when he was reading a section about the disabilities act and service animals. He always assumed it was just dogs, but snakes, ponies, birds, even cats could be considered service or therapy animals. For a brief moment, he thought of bringing Nepeta everywhere, and decided it wasn’t worth it to risk her running away or eating some squirrel in front of random people. But he did think of a way he could see her, even play with her whenever he wanted.
When he got home, he dumped out a box of electronic parts he’d gathered, and half finished projects he forgot about. He rifled through the mess and found a Raspberry Pi, a webcam, some motors, switches, wires, everything he needed to make his kludged together thing work. Nepeta batted at some wire, and he grabbed it before she could put it in her mouth. “Don’t eat that.”
He couldn’t remember if he even ate that night, and he definitely didn’t sleep much at all. Thankfully it was the weekend, so he didn’t have to worry about work. Nepeta meowed at him until he fed her in the morning though, which reminded him to eat himself, before he cracked down on the project again.
It took a lot of swearing at his rubber duck and chucking it across the room (which Nepeta dutifully brought back to him), some burns on his fingers from soldering, tears, and a lot of trial and error, but by Sunday he’d finished the first version of his invention.
“Alright NP, let’s see if this shit works at all.” He closed himself in the bathroom, left the rest of the apartment to her, and took a deep sigh and he started up the app that he coded on his phone. “Success!” he whispered out in a continuous lisp.
His screen showed the living room, and he could see Nepeta on the couch. With the tap of a button, a bell rang, and Nepeta perked up and looked towards it. Sollux wiggled his finger on the screen, and his kitty pounced toward the camera and started attacking the waving strip of fabric attached to a motorized stick. It brought the biggest grin to his face, which nearly hurt because he didn’t even remember the last time he smiled.
With another tap of a button, a treat shot out across the room and Nepeta bounded towards it and gobbled it up. “Purrfection.” Sollux wasn’t usually one for puns like that, but it couldn’t be helped. It worked, exactly like he wanted, and he stopped the motors and turned off the camera. There wasn’t really a point in playing with her via phone when he could cuddle with her in real life.
All that work exhausted him, so he went to the bedroom, called Nepeta over, and she curled up against him, purring a bit louder than usual. As he drifted off to sleep, he heard Karkat come home and shout “JESUS FUCKING CHRIST WHAT IS THIS SHIT?” Eh. He’d get some flack for being a crazy cat guy, but whatever, he was happy.