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It was early morning. Unreasonably early to be awake, thought Sigma as he was sitting at the table in the barely used kitchen, sipping on his coffee.
Suddenly he heard the rhythmic sound of someone skipping and he found it even more unreasonable. ‘Why was he awake at the ungodly hour of 5 am?’
The next moment one Nikolai Gogol was peeking in through the kitchen door, dressed in his usual clown outfit, except hat.
“Good morning, Sigma-kuuun~” Nikolai greeted him in his sing-song voice.
“Morning.” Sigma mumbled over the rim of his mug. “Why are you up so early?”
“Oi oi, don’t you know? Early bird catches the worm.” Nikolai stated, wagging his index finger between them.
Sigma just rolled his eyes. “What worm do you want to catch?” he asked. “As far as I know, we should be hiding and keeping low.” He added, mostly to himself.
“Dos-kun went out last night, and I want to wake him up. You know, just so he wouldn’t oversleep.” Nikolai answered with an innocent smile. ‘ So he just wants to bother him’ Sigma translated it in his head.
Not waiting for any reaction, Nikolai started skipping off towards Fyodor’s room at the end of the corridor of the abandoned house they were using as a hideout.
“ DOS-KUUNNN~” Nikolai sang as he burst the door wide open, the loud bang of it hitting the wall made it oblivious to Sigma who was still fighting against sleep. His battle didn’t last long though, as in the next moment a hair curling scream tore the peace apart.
Terrified of what could’ve happened that made such an eccentric, joyful person like Gogol scream like a little girl, Sigma sprang to his feet, coffee spilling all the while and ran to Fyodor’s room.
He barely reached his destination, when Nikolai jumped behind him, hiding behind his back. He couldn’t even stutter out a word as the clown pushed him forward, into the room. An empty room.
“What happened?” he asked dumbfounded.
“O-on the bed,” stuttered Nikolai. Sigma turned his head to the bed. It was neatly done, an open book lying on the pillow. And next to the book was... “a rat!” Sure enough, there sat a rat on the cover, observing the two of them, surprisingly calm. A lot calmer than the grown-up man, burying his face into Sigma’s shoulder.
“Really?” The day barely even started, and Sigma was already so done.
“Kill it!” Nikolai demanded like a child. “Or at least throw it out!”
Sigma just rolled his eyes again. “Fyodor-san likes rats. It may be his pet.” He retorted but slowly approached the rodent.
“It’s not!” Nikolai all but whined. “He would’ve introduced it to me.” He stayed at the doorstep, watching the events from a safe distance. “He should be back by now.” He pouted to himself, but the other still caught it.
Sigma held out his palm on the bed and the rat climbed into it obediently, like it knew what was happening. As the man lifted his hand, he could finally observe the rat a bit closer.
The rat’s fur was mostly black. Only a small patch on the top of its head and around its collar was white. Also, it was clean, something you wouldn’t expect from a rat that suddenly appeared in an abandoned house. Studying its features a bit more, Sigma found the intruder somewhat familiar.
“Hey,” he started as he approached the other who was still hiding. “Don’t you think it resembles a bit of Fyodor-san?” Nikolai peaked over the doorframe, his gaze on the rodent in question.
At the statement, the rat let out a little squeak which made Nikolai yelp and jump back. Slowly he inched closer to Sigma and the rat.
“Now, you’re right. It even has a little white fur cap like Dos-kun’s ushanka.” Nikolai said, now a lot less scared. “Hey, can we keep it?”
“What?” Sigma thought he misheard it. “Not even a moment ago, you wanted it dead.”
“I know but I’m sure Fyodor would love it. And it’s kinda cute.” Sigma let out an exhausted sigh and it seemed like even the rat was shaking its head in disappointment. “It even acts like him.” Nikolai added with a smile. Then suddenly his face turned into surprise and then realisation. He snatched the rat out from the other’s hand and raised it to eye level. “Wait! Are you Fyodor?”
“What?”
The rat nodded again, his answer emphasized with another squeak. At this point, Sigma decided, he really wasn’t ready for this day and went back to the kitchen for another coffee, leaving the two Russians alone.
“Hey, Dos-kun! Can you answer this quiz? How did you get turned into a rat?” Nikolai popped up the question. As an answer, the rat just glared him, non-verbally sending him the message that he’s stupid.
Nikolai chuckled and sat down on the bed, placing Fyodor next to him, back to his book. However, instead of the book, Fyodor kept his gaze on the human, notedly on his messy braid. Nikolai noticed it and started playing with its end.
“I was hoping you would help me with it.” he explained with a smirk. Half truth. Nikolai really hoped they would do something that makes a neat hairdo unnecessary because it would only get ruined, be it a prank which ends up with Fyodor chasing him through the building with the threat of ending him, cuddling or something else.
Fyodor just squeaked. He saw right through the other.
“But now I have to do it myself.” Nikolai pouted, like he never done his own hair before.
“Pop up quiz!” he announced, back to his usual loud self. “Would Dos-kun mind if I used his stuff?” Fyodor squeaked. Nikolai let out a short laugh. “The answer is: he wouldn’t mind!” And with that, he grabbed the other’s hairbrush with his special ability and started undoing his long braid.
As Nikolai was combing through the top, Fyodor got buried in the end of the other’s wavy, silvery white hair. If anyone would ever ask him, Fyodor would deny it, but he didn’t mind it at all. The familiar scent of Nikolai’s shampoo, and the way he hummed a little melody made him relax and curl around a lock of silky hair.
Soon, the human also noticed it. He found it illegally cute. He wanted to capture the moment in photo but knew, his rat companion was awake and he would protest against the picture, or even worse, leave him.
So instead, Nikolai stayed as calm as he could and combed his hair carefully, leaving that lock out as long as possible. By the time he got to that lock, he noticed that Fyodor fell asleep, if the calm rising and falling of his tiny back was any indicator.
‘Now’s my chance’ Nikolai thought as he received his phone and took one photo. He almost squealed how adorable it was and set it as his wallpaper before throwing the phone back to his room.
Grooming so much hair was no easy task and by the time he finished he was tired. Looking at the clock on the wall, he was surprised that it was almost 11 am. Nikolai stretched his back, the joints popping loudly and put the brush back to Fyodor’s table.
Instead of braiding it back, Nikolai just tied his hair into a ponytail. To all the rustling, and – mostly – to the absence of Nikolai’s hair around him, Fyodor also woke up from his little nap.
“Good morning, Dos-kun.” Nikolai chirped cheerfully. Then his stomach rumbled. He let out an embarrassed little laugh. “Are you hungry?” Nikolai didn’t wait for an answer, he already ran to the kitchen, rummaging through the fridge for anything edible that didn’t require preparation.
A minute later he was back with a half-eaten bread roll and some cheese on a plate. He placed the plate on the bed in front of Fyodor while he sat down, munching on his bakery.
Nikolai knew that Fyodor liked cheese, but as a rat, he seemed particularly enthusiastic about it, gluttonously eating bite after bite. Nikolai couldn’t help himself and started petting the soft fur on Fyodor’s head and back with his free hand.
When finished, Nikolai simply put the plate on the bedside table then closed the book lying on the pillow, marking the page with the bookmark in it and placed it on the nightstand as well.
Nikolai may be a morning person but definitely not the 5 am kind of morning person, more like the 7 am type. He only woke himself up because he missed his friend the last night while he was out, apparently getting himself into trouble.
So now Nikolai felt a bit sleepy and what a better place to take a nap than your friend-turned-into-rat's bed. He laid down and took off his mask, placing it on top of the book. Pulling the blanket over himself was a bit troublesome since he was laying on it but he did it and covered himself up to his chin.
Before he got lulled into sleep by his dear Fedya’s scent surrounding him, Nikolai felt the light dip of the pillow and, opening his eyes a bit, he saw Fyodor curled up close to him, studying his face.
The sun was high in the sky and the hands of the clock already passed 1 pm when Nikolai woke up with a yawn. Instead of getting up, he just pulled the blanket over his head and hugged the pillow tightly. He almost fell back asleep, breathing in Fyodor’s scent when he suddenly shot up.
‘Where is Fyodor?’ Nikolai panicked as he looked at the spot where his rat friend had been. ‘Oh no! What if I accidentally laid on him and killed him?’ His mind was running a mile a minute, coming up with more and more horrible possibilities while he quiet literally turned the bed upside down, looking for any traces.
He didn’t find anything but it only made him panic more. His breath became uneven and ragged, tears stinging his eyes. Nikolai hugged himself as he sank to the floor, rocking back and forth.
Slowly the door creaked open and a shadow appeared. It was Fyodor, a man again, fresh out from the shower, wearing comfy clothes, drying his hair with a towel.
“Fedya!” Fyodor didn’t even open the door properly when something white crashed into him. The impact toppled him and both of them landed on the ground.
“Wha-? Kolya?” The dark haired man looked at the other, clinging onto his torso, face buried in his chest. “What happened?” Nikolai raised his eyes at him. His face was red and still glistening from the tears, but his lips were pulled into a wide grin.
“I was worried. I thought I killed you because you disappeared, you rat.” Nikolai pouted.
“I thought you want to kill me.” Fyodor said with a small smirk.
“But not like that.” the white haired man whined. “Not now.” ‘Maybe not ever.’ stayed unsaid but it lingered over them, still lying on the floor in the doorway, Nikolai hugging him for dear life. Without him even noticing, Fyodor’s hands also sneaked around the other’s waist.
They stayed like that for a few more minutes, before the doorstep digging into Fyodor’s spine started to be really uncomfortable. He tapped Nikolai’s back and whispered “Do you still want me to braid your hair?” accompanied with a calming forehead kiss.
Nikolai shot up, face gleaming. “YESS!”
“Then get off me and sit on the bed!” Nikolai sprang onto the bed and Fyodor also took his seat behind him, hairbrush in hand.
“Fedya,” Nikolai started. Fyodor hummed for him to continue as he combed his soft, silvery white hair. “You didn’t answer my quiz. How did you get turned into a rat?”