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When Jerrold’s assistant was told to assist a VIP customer that day, they weren’t really sure of who to expect. John Arcilla was still out of the country, Arron had shooting to do, so who else would be on the VIP list that they weren’t aware of?
There was a knock on the café door, and they jolted, before hurrying to answer it, José at their heels, curious as to who the new visitor was. They opened the door to see a grinning Alex Medina standing outside in a black Heneral Luna shirt, sunglasses pushed up like a headband on his face to push messy black hair up his forehead. He was alone, and Jerrold’s assistant looked at the corridors on each side of him before blinking back at him.
“You came alone?”
“I took the jeep, yeah,” Alex replied offhandedly. “Easier to move around that way.”
Yet, somehow, there were no fans stalking them. This guy was good.
“… Uh, alright?” they ventured, and José poked his head out from between their legs to look up curiously at the actor standing outside. “Oh, José,”
“Aw,” Alex’s face broke out into a wide grin, “Is that the cat named after me?” he asked, and picked up the cat to coo at it, laughing when José patted his paw against his beauty mark. “Aw, how’s kuya? You been good to him?”
“… You, sir?” Jerrold’s assistant was at a loss. Somehow it was hard to keep up with this man, and he was still standing at the door. Jerrold would probably be threatening a salary decrease right now. “Um,” they cleared their throat, and both cat and actor turned to look at them. “Can we... go inside?” they asked, and Alex nodded, shrugging, and, something interesting happened.
Well, as interesting as horrifying can get.
José shuffled awkwardly, and perched on Alex’s shoulder.
Were they seeing this right? Was José mirroring Alex?
Well. This was their life now, apparently.
Sighing, Jerrold’s assistant stood aside, and let Alex in, who made a beeline for the low tables, sitting down on the pillows and already making himself comfortable with José on his lap. Jerrold’s assistant watched him lazily lean back, practically lying down, to reach for José’s favourite toy—the fluffy tail-teaser, and how did he know José likes that toy.
“Oh, I didn’t know he liked this toy.” Alex cheerfully quipped, and, oh. Jerrold’s assistant must have thought out loud. “I just got the one that looked most interesting.”
José meowed happily, and Alex laughed, playing with him almost immediately, and Jerrold’s assistant finally understood what it must be like to find your animal soulmate.
Well. Okay. Alex would have fun that way.
They stood by the kitchenette, taking photos here and there for IG calmly, until they realised that the other cats had decided to come out and play.
Mainly, Rusca.
Oh, dear.
The orange tabby peered out from where he was hiding, and José saw him. The Russian Blue finally left Alex’s side to run to where Rusca was, and while he laughed good-naturedly, the two exchanged a brief conversation of meows. Alex went to reach for Manuel, who was calmly sitting by the two of them, keeping watch over his brother, and the cat let him arrange him on his lap calmly.
“Hello, kuya,” he cooed, scratching Manuel’s head, and the cat’s eyes slid shut slowly as he relaxed in Alex’s lap. “You’re so behaved, oh my god. I bet Sir Art would love to meet you.”
Oh, that was right, Jerrold’s assistant realised. Jerrold had told them Art Acuña would probably drop by soon. Well. That’d be a calmer affair, no doubt.
For now, Alex had dropped his attention from the half-asleep Manuel in his lap to see Rusca and José return to him, each with toys in their mouths and those excited looks on their faces. The actor looked delighted, and took the toys. “You must be Rusca.” He said, and Rusca meowed. Alex chuckled, “Aw, how cute.” He smiled, and Jerrold’s assistant hurried to take a photo.
Oh, that was so going on IG. Nice.
Soon, Alex was teasing both cats with their respective toys in each of his hand, laughing brightly, and Manuel was awake again in his lap to watch Rusca and José play with him. Well. This was going on better than he thought, but then…
Alex accidentally tossed the toy in the direction of three bundles of fur curled up together in a basket not big enough for three cats, and José, without hesitation, pounced.
Alex scrambled after him, panicked, and Manuel probably scratched up a storm on José’s back in mild panic at the sudden jostling and fear over his little brother, and Alex got his first taste of pain from Andoy’s claws.
He was still laughing, though, as Jerrold’s assistant pulled him away from the panicking cats. Oryang was desperately calming a crying EJ down, who was bunched up against Manuel’s side. The aforementioned Russian Blue had his ears down, looking every inch the apologetic older brother, and his paw was firmly on José’s tail, keeping him from running away, as Andoy stared the brothers down. Rusca was rolling around on the floor, kicking at José and Alex, most likely already skittish and anxious for resumption of play.
“Sorry, Sir Alex—”
“Just Alex is fine, jeez—”
“Andoy’s really overprotective of his family, and—”
Alex stopped them with a hand over theirs, and smiled at them kindly, still shaking from his snickers. “It’s fine. I threw the toy there, it was my fault.”
They stopped there. Oh, Alex wasn’t such a bad—
“It’s José’s, too. He should get stuffed into a hatedog to get rid of that skittishness.”
Excuse me?
“A… hatedog.”
“Yeah.” Alex showed them his phone, which was on his IG page, and it had photos of José in it, already with… meme-like captions. “I’ve been thinking about what to write for each caption for ages.”
He sounds so proud of himself.
Dear God.
They could only nod numbly, finishing off his bandages before letting him go back to the cats, Paco and Tunying finally approaching him to hold him down like Manuel held José down, and with a delighted laugh of amusement, Alex let the cats do as they pleased.
At the end of the day, they finished off his visit with a photo of Alex kissing José on the nose, Manuel perched on his head, and they didn’t bother to check the likely flood of likes and comments on IG when they posted it. Alex shook their hand with a huge smile as he stood at the door once more.
“Today was fun,” he said, “I’ll come back soon. Maybe I’ll drag Sir Art along.”
Dear God, please do.
“Sure thing,” Jerrold’s assistant nodded, and Alex gave them a thumbs-up.
“Say thanks to Direk, too, for me. The Russian Blu-rnals were pretty.”
(Tama na, please, Alex, tama na.)
“Y-yeah.”
He gave them a small wave goodbye, and headed out, and Jerrold’s assistant shut the door.
The next time Alex comes over, he has to come over with an adult. A real one.
Not one who liked memes. For their sanity. Please.