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“What?”
“What?” If Adaine hadn’t recognised that Fig had done something by the subdued way she entered into their apartment, the overly innocent tone of her roommates voice definitely would’ve clued her in.
Putting down the book she’d been reading, Adaine propped herself up by her elbows into a sitting position on the ratty, oversized and faded sofa they’d somehow managed to fit into the limited living space of their almost as destitute apartment, and fixed her friend with her most skeptical glare.
“Ok, promise you won’t be mad?” Fig took a half step towards her, gingerly maneuvering around a pile of books and keeping a hand under her jacket.
“No,”
“Errgh, fine,” FIg rolled her eyes.
“So you know how-” whatever argument Fig had been about to make was cut off by a high pitched mewl from her jacket which made her visibly cringe.
“Fig?”
“...Yeah…?”
“Did you get a cat?”
“What, no I mea-”
This time she was interrupted by a shuffling followed by a light grey shape which fell from her jacket with a soft thump and immediately shot off to begin sniffing around the side of a cabinet.
“Clammy! We had a deal!” FIg cursed under her breath.
“Maybe a little?”
For a few seconds Adaine was silent, her mind whizzing as she tried to process everything, watching the small grey cat whizz around excitedly, worming around all their battered furniture, she had a million questions; mostly regarding the practicality of living with a cat given their budget and everything, but eventually she came out with:
“Clammy?”
“Yeah,” FIg was studying her combat boots intently.
“...why?”
“Named him after my pet clam.”
“Your pet clam?”
“Yeah, haven’t I told you about that?” Suddenly Fig’s mood flipped entirely and she was immediately her usual animated self, sitting down right next to Adaine’s legs despite the abundance of space on the couch.
“When I was a kid, after my parents split up, I kept badgering them both for a pet ‘cause we’d been talking about it for as long as I could remember, and everyone Iknew had one, so eventually, my Dad got me a pet clam, cause he couldn’t really afford anything else,”
“A pet clam?” Adaine’s brain was still playing catch up, a few minutes ago she’d been reading her book and now there was a cat rubbing itself up around Fig’s legs who was scratching it behind it’s ears as she gestured wildly with her other arm. And also, Fig was sitting very close to her and it was making her stomach twist slightly.
“Yeah!” Fig grinned brightly.
“Which you named: ‘Clammy’?”
“Shut up! I was a kid!” FIg laughed which sent the cat skittering away a few steps before coming back to receive more affection.
“Didn’t your parents split up when you were fourteen or something?”
“Thirteen!”
“Either way, you now want to give that name to … this cat?”
“I already have! Isn’t that right, Clammy?” She cooed the last part and Clammy responded with a small meow, now that he was sitting still, Adaine could make out markings in white against his light grey fur, and was probably about a year or so old.
“...Where did you even get it from?”
“Oh, just picked him up off the street.” Fig immediately began laughing at Adaine’s horrified expression.
“I’m just kidding, I’m sorry, no, he’s one of Kristen and Tracker’s foster animals, I was over there this morning and they were saying that they couldn’t find someone to take him because he doesn’t like other cats, and then I was like, hey! We don’t have any cats.”
“Yeah, cause we moved out of the dorms a month ago and you couldn’t find one faster.”
“Pretty much.”
“So, what was your plan for telling me? Just: ‘Hey Adaine, we have a cat now!’?”
“I… didn’t really think that far ahead… he was too cute! Look at him!”
“So I’m imagining you didn’t think to get any cat necessities? lIke food and stuff?”
“...maybe?”
Adaine sighed.
“I’ll pick some stuff up on my way back from work tomorrow, I guess for tonight we’ll have to look up what kind of things he can eat, raw chicken I suppose?”
“You mean…?” Fig looked up hopefully.
“You’re cleaning up after him, and you clean the dishes for a month!” Adaine tried to keep her voice stern but couldn’t stop a small smile growing on her face as Fig squealed excitedly and fell forwards onto the couch,knocking Adaine off her elbows and hugging her tight, sending a jolt of electricity through the other girl which she decidedly ignored.
“Thank you!! You won’t regret this at all I promise!” She shot up and headed towards her room, Clammy trotting alongside her happily.
“C’mon, I’ll show you my room,” She cooed as Adaine rolled her eyes affectionately.
Like he could actually see any of her room with the amount of mess in it.
“On a completely unrelated note,” Fig called through her door back to Adaine who had picked her book back up, “you want takeout? My treat?”
“You can’t just order food in every night for a month to avoid doing the dishes!”
“Excuse me? I was merely suggesting a romantic evening meal but apparently my efforts are unappreciated.” Fig affected a quivering, tearful voice, punctuated by a loud sob, it was stupid enough that Adaine could skip past the word ‘romantic’.
“Oh, I’m sorry baby!”
“Wow, even the cat’s scared of how bad your acting is.”
Fig poked her head around her door and fixed Adaine with a glare.
“Rude. Do you want food or not?”
“Hmm, what romantic establishment would you order from?”
“Only the most enchanting restaurant that we can afford! The kind of nice Chinese place near Gorgug’s,”
“And they say romance is dead,”
“Hey if you wanna cook,” Fig shrugged.
“As appetising as stale bread sounds, I’ll have to pass; get me something with duck?”
“Your wish is my command!”
A few hours, some crappy television, and not terrible food later, the evening found Fig playing with Clammy on one end of the sofa, running her fingers around the arm of the tattered piece of furniture and laughing as Clammy leapt up to try and catch them before darting away again, while Adaine was sat at the other end, stretched out so that her legs were entangled with Fig’s, with her battered laptop open displaying her sister’s bemused face and headphones perched on her head.
“So, you’re just going to let her keep it?”
“Yeah…” Adaine sighed.
“Adaine, you hate cats!”
“I do not!”
“Adaine.”
“Ok, so they’re not my favourite animals,”
“So then why?”
“I just…” Adaine could feel herself blushing, “I couldn’t say no,”
“Oh my God,” Aelwyn rolled her eyes hopelessly at her sister’s crush.
“You are so whipped,”
“I am n-” at that moment Adaine made the mistake of glancing up and accidently met Fig’s eyes; the other girl grinning madly as a grey blur appeared over the armrest for a second before vanishing again.
“Ok, maybe a bit…”
“You think?”
“Shut up!” Adaine hissed, burying her face in her hands.
It was a bit later again: after the call had ended, food containers had been cleared away and Clammy had passed out on the other end of the sofa, that Adaine and Fig lay, tangled up in a pile, watching the tv.
Adaine would not be able to say what was on, she was distracted by Fig’s head resting on her chest.
“Hey, Adaine?” murmured Fig, sleepily.
“Mmm hmm?”
“Thank you,”
“It’s fine,” And it really was, if getting a pet which took up space on the sofa got her this close to Fig, Adaine would gladly take in a grizzly bear.