Chapter Text
It still strikes Fourth as highly surreal to be at Gemini’s house alone.
Not that he had any particular regrets or worries, as it had been a fairly simple deal — to take care of Gemini’s cat while he had to travel for work.
The fact that he had invited Fourth to stay over instead of letting Fourth bring the cat to his own home had been a little odd, but he had said, “Jumu’s still getting used to the house and I don’t want to introduce him to a new environment yet, you know?”
And Fourth did know. He had read that cats are animals of habit that take a while to adjust to changes. Not that he had had a cat himself, as he had always been quite allergic growing up, and had only recently gotten the okay from the doctor to adopt a pet, but...
Maybe that had been Gemini’s reason. In one of their many conversations at the university campus, between eating a pastry and drinking something sweet, he did mention that he wanted to adopt a cat but hadn’t been able to convince his family yet. The conversation then derailed into cat pictures and videos on Gemini’s phone, teasing from all of their friends at the “Lord” in the cat’s name, at Gem’s refusal to be called the cat’s “dad”, and many other things that slipped Fourth’s mind. He didn’t think Gemini would remember the fact that he liked cats, nor that he would stand out in their friend group, considering that some of them knew Gem better or for longer than he did.
Regardless, he had agreed, and there he is, in the middle of Gemini’s living room, with a cat toy in his hand, jingling it back and forth to the joy of Lord Jumu.
“You’re so cute,” Fourth coos as Lord Jumu captures the fake butterfly Fourth keeps swinging at him and bites and kicks at it, before letting go and lying there, with his stomach up for a few seconds. Fourth does bend down to tickle Lord Jumu’s belly, and predictably, gets attacked himself. He lets out a little “Aw!” just for show, just so Lord Jumu can jump back and stare at him with his beautiful, round blue eyes and then Fourth is swinging the butterfly at him again and the game resumes.
“You better tire him out during the day so he’ll let you sleep at night,” Gemini had said, as if one could simply plan around a cat’s mood.
As soon as Jumu gets too lazy to play with the butterfly and lies down, his fluffy little chest moving up and down rapidly and eyes slowly blinking close, Fourth can’t bring himself to bother him for more jumps and playing. He pets Jumu’s head, runs his hand down the cat’s back, and squees giddily when he hears Jumu purr. He stills his hand to feel the vibrations coming from the cat, tilts his head, and films his hand gently caressing the cat’s face and booping his nose.
Leaning back against the couch, he opens his chat with Gemini and sends the video. Gemini hasn’t sent him any message ever since he boarded his flight to Japan hours ago, and it’ll be a while more until he’s in his hotel room, but Fourth has already sent him many updates. That he’s fed Jumu on time, that Jumu has drunk water from the new fountain Gemini had bought and had been worried Jumu would not like, and about half a dozen pictures. He didn’t want Gem to think he wasn’t paying attention to his cat.
He opens his social media and browses through, catching pictures of Gemini at the airport on his feed. To see him there, in luxury clothes meticulously picked apart by his fanbase, waving and smiling along with other artists from his company, brings back the feeling of displacement in Fourth.
Gemini is a rising star, shining brighter still than others newcomers. His songs are starting to be featured as themes for dramas, and his fanbase works hard every day to stream and raise the public awareness about their idol. His voice is soothing, stable and sweet like the breeze at dusk. He can play just about every instrument Fourth could think of when they talked about it, but insists that he can only play a couple of them really well. And here is Fourth, just a law student, sitting in his home with his cat, not really understanding how he got there. In principle, yes, Gem had asked and he had agreed, but what sort of instruments of the universe had worked together to make it so he would be the one to gain such trust?
He yelps when tiny, sharp claws dig into his foot. When did Jumu even move?? And why his foot, as if it had been the world’s most unsuspecting prey?
“You—” Fourth hisses instead of cursing, and for a few beats, he and Jumu, with his eyes big and blue and wide, stare at each other. Then he’s picking the cat off the floor, who tries to slip away as if he’s made of fucking liquid. By some miracle, he keeps his grip and brings the cat to his lap, where he lays his punishment — a dozen unwanted kisses.
He laughs and moves his face away when Jumu protests loudly, not looking any less cute as he glares at Fourth upside down, and Fourth lets him hop back on the floor, where he proceeds to groom himself to try and get rid of Fourth’s smell on his fur.
Fourth picks the toy with the butterfly back up and gently taps it on Jumu’s head to resume their earlier play, phone and airport pictures forgotten until the screen finally lights up with a reply from Gemini.