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You put on your best grumpy face. “Why not?”
Frederick barely looked up from his desk. “You can’t just bring in animals off the street, you have no idea if the thing’s got rabies or ticks or any other gross shit that it’s gonna leave all over the place. And if it’s not feral and homeless, then it belongs to somebody else, and we shouldn’t be stealing someone else’s damn cat.”
The mop of fluff in your arms certainly didn’t seem feral. It had simply meowed at the back door until you relented and let it in, to which it had made itself perfectly comfortable on your sofa. No aggression, no hissing, it didn’t even care in the slightest about being picked up.
“I didn’t see any ticks. But I didn’t see a collar, either.”
“Jeez. Give it here.” Frederick rolled his eyes, coaxing you to put the animal on the empty part of his desk. His fingers teased into the cat’s long, thick coat. “Could lose a pen in this mess. Probably got some kind of Maine Coon in it.”
“Aww, you know your cat breeds? Should have figured you were a cat guy.”
“Hold it, hold it.” The man half-chuckled. “Don’t try to come up with an excuse…aha, here it is. Found a collar.”
You resist the feeling of disappointment. It quickly goes elsewhere when you realized Frederick was staring at the little metal medallion for far too long.
“Uh, what’s wrong? No name?”
“There- there’s a name, and a phone number.”
“Oh, well that’s good, isn’t it?” You cock your head to the side. “It’s dark out right now, why don’t we wait until morning to call? Then we can tell them we found…what’s its name? You didn’t say.”
Frederick mumbled something under his breath.
“What did you say?”
“…Freddie Purrcury.”
You suddenly understand why he’d said it so quietly the first time. Almost immediately, you wheezed and bent over with laughter. “Are you serious??”
Of course he was, you knew him well. Frederick was not much of a pun guy. But what were the odds…
“So, Freddie and Freddie? Guess I should leave you two alone to get to know each other!”
“Hey, wait-”
It was meant to be a joke at first. The last you’d seen them, Frederick still had the cat on his desk. You had assumed he’d follow you, if only just to dump the cat on you and go back to whatever work he’d brought home with him. You really didn’t expect him to have the patience. So you went to your bedroom and started to laugh while lying in wait.
Frederick did not come. You waited a few minutes more. Then more. Somewhere down the line, you got distracted by a text conversation with a friend. By the time it was over, you were too tired to realize that you were still alone.
++++++
It was probably the fault of the day clothes you were still wearing that managed to wake you up at an ungodly hour of the morning. Something about it dug into your side, and once you’d been annoyed enough to yank the bunched-up fabric loose, you were awake enough that you couldn’t just roll back over and nod off again.
“Moron.” You mumbled to yourself. “Should’ve known better…”
Maybe a drink would help, or some water splashed on your face. You did feel kind of dry.
With half-squinting eyes, you shuffled out of your bedroom towards the bathroom across the hall. The living room lights had been turned off, but Frederick’s desk light had been left on, offering enough light so you didn’t stub your toe against the wall.
Though as you passed by, you noticed Frederick wasn’t at his desk. Fair enough, you’d rather he weren’t working so late, but he hadn’t come to bed, either. So where-
There was a lump on the couch. Your eyes squinted further, trying to comprehend the unfamiliar shape.
You scurried back into your room and swiped the phone from your bedside. Neither of them had moved since then, and you didn’t hesitate in getting to work snapping pictures.
++++++
You had never seen Frederick so pink-faced in his life.
”No.”
“Just one? Please? I think it’d look cute over the mantle.”
The man alternated between looking as far away from your phone as possible and trying to grab it out of your hands. He was failing at both. Freddie watched both of you, calmly grooming one of his back legs.
“You’re not printing any of those out!”
“Frederick, you are adorable, come on.”
Displayed on your phone screen, in a long, long chain of other pictures, was a snapshot of the messy couch. Frederick was sprawled across it, seemingly fast asleep- the ‘seemingly’ being the best descriptor, as Freddie the cat had fallen asleep right on his face and hid it from view.
“I don’t even know how you didn’t get smothered by his fur, but this is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Frederick remained thoroughly unamused. “If I had to babysit the thing, then you owe me for that.”
“Okay, okay.” You raise your hands in surrender. “I won’t print them.”
“Good.”
“But I’m still gonna send them to Asuka and Aria.”
”SONUVA-”