Work Text:
“Yeah, that’ll be twenty-eight ninety… five…” The pimply-faced teenager balancing two pizzas and a container of salad in their hands trailed off as their gaze rose to Elesa’s face, half-lidded eyes suddenly becoming no-lidded eyes.
Elesa gave them an award-winning smile, taking the food and replacing it with two twenty dollar bills. “Thanks so much! Keep the change, have a good night!”
“Y… you too,” the kid mumbled, clearly still a little shell-shocked as Elesa closed the door in their face. She wondered if they were going to blog about it. It wouldn’t be the first time she saw a “y’all are NOT going to believe who I just delivered food to” post about herself online.
At least they hadn’t tried taking a picture this time. Her nose wrinkled at the memory. Ugh. It had only ever happened the one time, but it was enough to usually prompt her to ask Ingo or Emmet to answer the door when they ordered dinner.
Tonight, however… she couldn’t ask that of them.
Elesa turned away from the door, and sighed, bracing herself.
“Food’s h–”
Two bodies and two needling voices were immediately at her left and right sides.
“Food food food’s here at last please food–”
“Please Elesa we are so hungry I am so hungry—”
“It took literal hours I can not believe how long it took I am literally starving—”
“I might perish I am literally wasting away– ”
“Okay okay, yes, I get it!” Elesa managed to strongarm her way past her boyfriends. “The sooner you two get the plates and napkins the sooner you can eat!”
At the sound of the word eat Ingo and Emmet’s ears perked up, and they dashed to the kitchen. Elesa sighed, following behind them. Cat boys.
Meowth Syndrome.
An unusual but mild infection that occurred, very, very rarely, when a Meowth came into contact with a human that didn’t commonly interact with the species– for example, two subway workers sharing a car with a Kantoian tourist. Duration: usually a bit longer than a week. Symptoms: the manifestation of Meowth ears, a Meowth tail, and Meowth-like behaviors.
…no, it didn’t make a lick of sense to Elesa either. But living with Pokemon, you needed to learn that very little about them made sense. Sometimes something like this would happen, and everyone would just have to be adults and deal with it. Because it didn’t matter how ludicrous the situation was: the fact of the matter was, Ingo and Emmet were temporarily cat boys.
It wasn’t even the ears and tails that were the problem. It was the fact that the “manifestations of Meowth-like behaviors” were… well… it was making them kind of ditzy, to put it bluntly. The two of them had been mostly loafing about these past few days, but they could hold a proper conversation if Elesa prompted them… for a few minutes, at least, before becoming bored or distracted by something moving. Emmet had been more lazy, while Ingo had tried a bit harder to act normally– which, of course, made it even more obvious when he suddenly lost his train of thought mid-sentence or had his “instincts” set off. Elesa had had to keep her Emolga in their Pokeballs after she had noticed Ingo looking at them with a little more interest than he usually did.
Elesa hummed thoughtfully as she speared a bite of her salad on her fork, watching the twins scarf down their food. That was another change: their appetites. On nights they ordered pizza, Ingo and Emmet would always get their own pies simply because their tastes were so different (Ingo preferred meat lovers, Emmet always got spinach and mushroom), but they usually had plenty left over. Elesa could already tell that, at the speed they were eating, that wasn’t going to happen tonight. She chuckled as she nibbled at her food. Usually the twins would also try to get her to try some pizza (“you can’t just eat that Buneary food,” Emmet liked to say, either oblivious to the irony or trying to ignore it), but she had a feeling they weren’t going to offer any this time.
Sure enough, when they were finished, not a crumb was left in their pizza boxes. Elesa followed the two of them to bed where they settled heavily on either side of her. They had calmed down quite a bit now that they had a big meal, she noticed. They were acting less like Meowths and more like a couple of well-fed Persians.
”Mmm…” To Elesa’s left, Emmet stretched. “That was so good…” He sighed, ears twitching as he rubbed his belly happily.
Elesa turned to him. “You doing okay?” She asked softly, reaching to gently scratch him behind one of his ears, causing him to let out a pleased murmur. “You two are still technically sick, you know. How are you feeling?”
“Mm, ‘m fine. Just… sleepy.” Emmet tilted the side of his head into Elesa’s hand, letting his eyes fall shut and humming. “And full. Verrry full.”
“Hmm…”
Elesa reached with her other hand to gently run her fingernails under Emmet’s chin while still scratching his feline ear. The effect was instantaneous– Emmet moaned, and as Elesa let her hand trail down his neck, she could feel a rumble start vibrating through his skin. It only grew stronger as her hand went lower, to his chest, still gently scratching, and she could feel Emmet’s whole body straighten as his back arched. He was the picture of contentment.
*bonk*
Something gently bumped against the back of Elesa’s shoulder. Her lip quirked a bit, and she turned to look at the source of the sensation. “Hmm?”
Even when he wasn’t part cat, Ingo always did his best to act as proper, self-possessed and independent as he possibly could– it came from a lifetime of trying to act like a good big brother, Elesa thought. He had tried his very best to keep that up even with his Meowth Syndrome– and he had spent the past few days utterly failing. He had been adorably needy, maybe even moreso than Emmet. He was self-aware too, looking mortified at having stooped to bumping his forehead against Elesa, literally begging for attention– but his downcast eyes and drooping ears betrayed the fact that he literally couldn’t help it.
Unfortunately, Elesa couldn’t pass up an opportunity to tease him a little. “Hmm? Yes? Did you need something, Ingo?”
“...” His cheeks reddened.
“Oh? Guess you don’t.” She made to turn back to Emmet. “Well then…”
“Ah…”
The small, sad sound he made was such a deep contrast to his usual booming voice– and oddly close to a mournful meow– that a stab of guilt instantly pierced Elesa’s heart.
“Ahhh nooo,” Elesa cried, a mixture of playful and genuinely remorseful as she immediately flipped to him and started rubbing his cheeks. “I’m sorry, sweetie, I was just being mean.” Ingo’s face reddened as she began scratching behind both his ears concurrently. “Poor kitty, do you want some love?”
“A-ah,” he sputtered, looking into Elesa’s loving gaze before looking downwards again, seemingly overwhelmed to suddenly be getting the attention he craved. His perpetual frown was in stark contrast to his tail waving like a banner of celebration. “Ah…” He flushed even darker before nodding slightly. “…yes, please.”
Elesa turned fully towards him (and she definitely heard a sullen little whine from Emmet as she did) to gently kiss his forehead. “Yes, sweetie, you’ve been so good.” Ingo’s eyes went huge and dark as Elesa began to gently rub his belly. “So good, so patient…”
“Mmmmm…” Ingo’s mouth fell open as his eyes fell closed– although the expression wasn’t technically a smile, Elesa recognized it as a face of Ingo at his most blissed out. Soon she could feel his body begin to vibrate with a purr strong enough to throb through the entire bed.
…*bonk*
Elesa sighed with no real annoyance before turning to face Emmet. In a near perfect mirror to Ingo, the fact that Emmet was technically smiling did nothing to conceal the fact that he was pouting like he was trying to win a contest.
“Yes, Emmet dear? Did you want something?”
Emmet simply bonked his forehead against Elesa’s shoulder again. “Hmmph.”
“Please use your words, Emmet.”
One of Emmet's ears twitched. “I am not above biting, Elesa.”
“I know, Emmet. Trust me, I know.”
Emmet let his cheeks puff up for a moment as his ears flattened. Elesa could make out his tail wagging a little. She thought she was in for a bite (again) before he sighed, blushing.
“Please, Elesa?”
Oh hell. This wasn’t fair.
Emmet let out an actual meow of happiness as Elesa immediately began fluffing his sideburns, his eyes squeezing shut in glee as she began scritching behind his ears.
“I guess you’ve been good, you greedy thing…”
“I am greedy,” Emmet agreed with no shame. “And I have been good. I have been very good and deserve attention, and pats. So– ahhh…” He moaned, squirming lightly as she began running her hand against his side. Soon he was purring even harder than ever.
…*bonk*
Elesa sighed.
It went back and forth like that for a while, before the twins got tired of competing for Elesa’s attention (and tired in general). The three of them compromised, and they were left with Elesa on her back as Ingo and Emmet nuzzled their faces on either side of her chest while she gently dragged her fingernails against the backs of their scalps simultaneously. Her affection caused the both of them to purr against her breasts, a ticklish sensation that made her giggle and put extra effort into their head scritches, which of course made them purr harder, leaving the three of them in a warm little feedback loop of love.
Dealing with their Meowth Syndrome had been a hassle. Elesa knew she was going to miss it.