Chapter Text
It was no secret that while Emery loved cats, Amari was allergic to them.
Stray cats were a relatively common appearance on the streets by the campus dormitories Emery and Amari shared a room in, so they were well-taken care of in the sense that people left out food for them every day. Emery was one of those people, and as a result of the habit, one day he came home to their shared dorm after petting a cat, consequently causing Amari to sneeze along with gaining red, itchy eyes. He learned real quick that it meant Amari was allergic to the second most common household pet.
However, despite knowing this, it didn’t stop him in the slightest from taking a stray cat into their dorm on a 5-degree Fahrenheit night.
❅
It was mid-December and Emery was outside, walking back from the convenience store he had gone to earlier to purchase his and Amari’s favorite ice cream. Tonight was their weekly movie night, and after a long day of studying, they decided that they should reward themselves with the frozen yogurt lookalike. (Even if it was freezing cold outside and ice cream wouldn’t do the slightest thing to warm them up; that’s why heaters exist after all.)
He had on his white-blue scarf, alongside his faint blue earmuffs, and a long white coat over a white shirt to finish it off. His brown snow boots with a white fluffy ring at the top worked well on traversing through the inches of snow that wasn’t shoveled.
Just as he was about to walk past an alleyway, he heard a small meow from inside it.
Now, he knows he probably shouldn’t be walking into every alleyway that meows, but hearing a tiny meow on a cold, winter night like this is like putting flowers next to a beehive. You can’t expect him not to investigate further, especially considering his kind heart.
So, he slowly walked inside the alley, not wanting to startle the feline or miss it if it was under any snow. He came to a stop around 5 feet in, right behind a lone dumpster. There he saw a small, tuxedo cat underneath some cardboard propped up. Emery could make out what looked like an empty cat food can slightly buried underneath the snow.
The cat, a female cat he could tell and looked only months old, was slightly shivering from the snow with her eyes closing every few seconds. It was concerning that she didn’t care for his presence the slightest bit. She was curling in herself, trying to conserve body heat.
His first reaction was to pick her up and carry her into the dormitories, and he was thinking step-by-step how he’d hide her until she let out another weak meow.
With his logical side now thrown out the window, he didn’t think twice before shoving the two ice creams into his pockets, picking the kitten up with two hands, and tucking her inside his coat where it split open after steadying her. This way, no one will bat an eye and report him to staff for sneaking an animal into a no-pet policy area.
“Shh, shh, you’ll be okay. I got you now,” She didn’t even attempt to get out of his arms, too weak to fight it. He petted the small feline soothingly with the hand that wasn’t primarily being used to stabilize her, then slowly walked out of the alleyway, heading his way to the dorm.
Anyone looking at him now wouldn’t be able to see the young cat, just a small lump on the inside of his coat and nothing else.
❆
Emery awkwardly opened the door to the dorm with one hand, instantly being greeted with warm air and the scent of vanilla, likely from the candle Amari lit a few hours ago.
“Hey, Em,” Amari says from his place at the desk on his side of the room, his back facing Emery as he scribbles down something.
“Hey- uh, a little help here?” ‘Em’ steps inside, closes the door with his legs, and starts carefully walking to his bed.
“What…?”
“Wait, no, don’t help,” It’d probably be a bad idea for someone with a cat allergy to be touching cats, right?
Nevertheless, the aspiring magician heard the sound of footsteps swiftly coming to him before joining him by his side. He gently set the now slightly shivering cat on his bed and gathered some blankets to lightly cover her with. He then put them on her, all while still petting her. Then, he takes a seat next to her, lightly squeezing her in various places to check for injuries.
“Oh,” Amari softly mutters. He walks back to his desk, opens a drawer, and pulls out something plastic, in a red thin-rectangular shape; Emery recognizes it as a cat treat. He goes back to the only other person in the room, “Give them this,” With a quiet sneeze, he saunters to the closet and gets out a black coat.
“Thanks, yeah, she’s probably hungry, and apologies for bringing a whole cat in with your allergy situation- uh, are you- are you going somewhere?” He adds the last part when he sees Amari putting the coat on, and buttoning it up. The coat’s almost identical to Emery’s, except it's on the opposite side of the color wheel. They bought it together at a mall when they saw that it was matching pairs, they also got matching scarfs and earmuffs- which Amari is also throwing on.
“I’m going out to get her some canned cat food,” He says, now sitting on his bed to slip on his snow boots, he had to stop midway as he was tying them so he could once again sneeze.
Emery lightly protested, “I’m already ready, I can just go out again,” Despite him saying this, he stopped petting the cat in order to open the cat treat, squeezed it a bit, and started feeding it to the cat little by little. The cat immediately started licking it, and he took it as a sign to resume the pets.
Amari stands up and looks at the scene, with a smile ghosting his face. “It’s fine, Em. It’s my turn to go out, anyway.” He pauses, causing Emery to look over at him, “And, there’s a no-pet policy; we won’t be able to keep her here. We can go to the shelter tomorrow morning?”
Emery nodded thoughtfully and went back to coddling the cat. “Can I try calling people to see if they’d want her, first?”
He hears an audible breath emit, followed by words spoken a bit faster than what is considered normal, “Yeah, of course you can.” Amari stands up, making his way to the door with a small sneeze.
“Hey, uh…” Emery starts hesitantly, “You’re being strangely nonchalant about this.” By now the kitten had finished eating her treat and began to knead the blanket closest to her paw.
“That bad?” A cold tone emerges, leading the magician to quietly curse his word choice. He couldn’t take him seriously, though, since he was rubbing his eyes.
“No- it’s just,” Emery tried to go about defending himself, but ended up stumped. Rather than dwell on his failed defense, he tried to change the subject. ”Don’t do that, it’ll only make it worse,”
“Just? Listen, I’ve seen your attempts at the ‘sawing a person in half’ magic trick. Nothing’ll surprise me at this point,” The once-cold tone blended with a playful one. Emery was starting to get a headache because of how complex Amari’s expressions were. Especially since he didn’t address his sad, weak attempt at a topic change verbally and instead acted on it and stopped irritating his eye further.
“Ah…” He nods, faking sorrow in hopes of pity points.
It seemed to work in his favor, as Amari quickly attempted to retract his previous statement as best as Amari can, “Er- No offense, Em.” He looks around stiffly, not knowing what to do, “You’re getting good at it, though.”
This rare compliment causes Emery to look up and gloat. “Really? Ahah! Y’know, it is actual magic.” Smiley Emery says.
“You…” Amari shakes his head, nevertheless relieved and willing to play along. “Yeah, sure,” He picks up the key at the table next to the door, along with his wallet. “I’ll be back soon,”
The magician waves happily at him, “Okay! Be safe, ‘Mari!”
“You too,” Amari, with a smile that can be akin to shyness, lets out a small wave before opening the door, leaving, and gently shutting it.
The moment the door closes, Emery slumps back on the bed, startling the cat with the consequent plop of his laziness. “…Why are guys so difficult.” meow “Thanks, kitty.”
He goes to pull his phone out of his pocket, before stopping in realization. He left the ice cream in his pocket. It only just started melting, he could tell due to the clear wrapper, so he didn’t worry too much about it. He pulled out the ice cream and put it on his nightstand, then pulled out his now ice-cold phone.
Unlocking it, he goes to his contacts on the lookout for inspiration. He can’t ask someone who’s also staying in the dormitories because of the policy, so he instead thinks of who lives in apartments or houses.
His eyes come across one name that makes him think. Yeona? She mentioned staying in an apartment once, He clicked the contact, then pressed the ‘call’ option.
It rings twice before picking up with a familiar happy voice, “Emery!”
“Hey, Yeona, how’ve you been?” He sits back down on his bed and crosses his legs. One hand holding the phone to his ear, and the other gently scratching the now purring cat's ear.
“I’ve been goood,” Her joyful tone stretches out, “Why’d ya call?”
“Well, you see,” Emery tilts his head, thinking about how to put his predicament into words.
“Hmm?”
“I found a cat outside -months old at best- and brought her in, but our dorms have a no-pet policy,” A soft ohhh can be heard, “So, can you take her in? Or, do you know anyone who’d want a cat?”
There’s a short pause, and then, “Aw… Sorry, Emery, but I won’t be able to. I’m going back to Korea after this school year and my parents wouldn’t like a cat hanging around, sorry…” Her voice strained at the end. Emery catches onto this and goes to reassure her,
“No, it’s fine, do you know someone who would?”
“Uh… My other friend wouldn’t, he’s a dog lover through and through,” The cat stretches her paws out, yawning. “I can ask around, though?”
“It’s fine! Sorry for bothering you, then,”
He smiled at the playful gasp that followed, “You did no such thing! Oh, and remember to message me the date for your next magic show, the last one was cool!”
“Hehe, thanks, Yeona. I’ll be sure to,”
“And don’t forget about that Byung-ho fancam I sent you! I wanna know your thoughts on it.” Emery rolls his eyes in fake exasperation. She sent it to him before he left, so he wasn’t able to watch the video just yet.
“Yep, yep-”
“Also, say hi to your boyfriend for me!” Yeona sneakily interrupts. The next few play out in only a matter of 5 seconds.
“Yep- wait no-”
“On second thought, don’t do that; he scares me,”
“What–? How does he- uh, never mind, I’ll text you later tonight, Yeons. Farewell, thanks,”
“Byee!” Emery hangs up and dramatically drops the phone on the bed.
Wait a second…
He picks up the phone again and opens his messages,
⭐️Emery⭐️
AMARI IS NOT MY BOYFRIEND
Yeona instantly replied. However, she included two emojis that can translate to a… hidden meaning.
Yeona🐰
LOL
🏳️🌈🎊
How audacious. Emery reacts to the emojis with a thumbs down- not because he doesn’t agree with the flag or anything, he just doesn’t enjoy what circumstance it’s being used in. A circumstance that included him and his roommate, whom he’s only roomed with for a few months. (And a year if you count last semester.) (He should probably count last semester; they also roomed then for a little under a year.) Okay, they met a year and a few months ago. Roomed for almost a year last year, and had to stop because of summer break, but have been living consecutively for only 4 months, there. (He doesn’t know why he’s trying so hard to refute this in his head.)
⭐️Emery⭐️
no seriously im 99.9% sure he doesnt like me
PLATONICALLY, MY DEAR FRIEND
BC WHY WOULD I WORRY ABOUT HIM
LIKING ME ROMANTICALLY
i dont even like him like that, y’know?
Sent 9:30 PM
He waits for a moment or two before accepting that he’ll be left on sent. Rolling his eyes once again, he goes back to scrolling his mind for anyone else he knows that doesn’t live in the dorms. Hmm… Maybe… He searches for a name and then calls it. It picks up after 3 rings.
“Makoto!”
“Emery!”
He laughed lightly at the matched energy, “Hey, it’s been a while! Everything good with you and Seoung?”
“Yea! We actually just got done painting with -get this- Bob Ross!”
He let out a fake gasp, playing along, “No way…”
“Yeah! I’ll be a pro at this in no time. Though, Seoung’s a bit better than me,”
“Hah, oh- I called you because I wanted to know if you were interested in getting a cat? I found one from outside and she’s in my dorm right now, but I can’t keep her because of the policy, she’s about 4 months old?”
She paused, “Wait, let me talk with Seoung for a sec. This is great timing, actually; We were just talking about adopting a pet,” Emery could hear muffled movements on the other side.
“Us magicians have amazing foresight!”
“Yeah, you do,” Her voice sounded a bit farther away, “I’ll be back in a second!”
“Okaay!” Then, the phone went completely silent—the telltale sign of being placed on mute.
Emery put himself on mute and Makoto on speaker, before getting up and stepping over to his closet. There, he took off his coat, scarf, and earmuffs. He then sat back on his bed to untie and remove his shoes. When he was done, he started slowly petting the cute little cat. Soon enough, he hears Makotos's voice emitting from his phone.
“Heyo! I’m back!” He quickly unmutes himself but decides to leave the phone on speaker, too preoccupied with petting the cat to put the device up to his ear.
“Soo? What’s the verdict?”
Makoto made drum noises, leading up to, “She said yes!” Emery instantly began to mentally cheer. “We haven’t talked yet about what time we’re going to pick her up; I’ll message you as soon as I know the time, if that’s alright,”
“No yeah! You can text me it tomorrow morning,” He glances to the windows, “It’s pretty late out.”
“Okay, what we’ll probably do is go to the pet store tomorrow morning and then pick her up in the evening, do you have a preferred time?” She asked, curiously.
Emery thought for a moment, “Uh- no, not really, just text me when you have an idea and I’ll work around that. Let me know if you need help with thinking about what to get, especially since the cat’s just a kitten,”
“Will do! Thanks, Emery. Have a good night!”
“Night! Talk to you later!”
“Later!” Makoto hung up on him after saying that.
Emery, now relieved and happy that he found a solution, checked the time. 9:38? Amari should be back in around 6 minutes. Emery sent a quick message to Amari, saying that he got it all taken care of, and instantly got an ‘ok’ as a response. Emery responded to that lackluster message with a cute cat gif, depicting a gray cat walking up all cute-like, followed by them being pet. It had a caption reading, ‘My man’. It sounds gay in writing, but it’s not.
He then scooted back on his bed to where his back was against the wall, legs on the bed, and started playing a game on his phone. The game he loaded up -and he would never admit this to anyone, even in his grave- was a princess dress-up game on some block app. He started researching it after seeing Yeona play it and thought that the outfits were pretty. He proceeded to pet the cat intermittently while playing the game.
The game he was playing even had dormitories too, and he had a goal of his of which to recreate his and Amari’s dorm room. For nostalgia reasons, of course.
A little over midway of doing his dailies the dorm door opened, making way for the heavily layered Amari.
“Back,” Amari softly shut the door as soon as he was inside, not wanting to startle the cat.
“Hey!” The newly acquired grocery bag made its way to Emery’s side, while Amari opted to stand at the side of the bed, stiffly looking at the precious sleeping creature. Emery logs out of his game and sets his phone down on his lap. “Amazing news,”
“You found a hidden trapdoor that we can hide the cat in?” Followed by a sneeze.
“Au contraire- Wait, what?! No! Makoto and Seoung said they’ll take her in,” He spoke a little too loudly and caused the cat to stir, so he hushed her back to sleep with a quiet apology.
Then he realized that it’d be best for the cat to wake up so he could properly feed her, and started petting the cat a tad harder to coax her out of sleepy land.
Amari furrowed a brow, “The people in our psychology class?”
“Yep!” Emery confirmed, along with nodding to affirm it even further.
By now the cat was awake and confused, so Emery made his way into the grocery bag, pulling out a can of cat food.
Amari walked over to his desk, sorting his papers and whatnot. “Cool.”
“Chouette.” Emery smiled at his mischievous action. He was very obviously hoping for a follow-up in French so they could turn this into a little game. He took French in High School and attempted to teach it to Amari a few months ago. ‘Teach’ as in talking in French and hoping he’d pick it up, somehow.
Amari stopped his shuffling, causing the other to pause and subtly lean in, waiting in anticipation. “...Muy bien–? I don’t know.” Then, he resumed it.
Emery slumped back and started opening the can. “Uh, close enough, I suppose,”
It didn’t take long for the cat to start eating once she was presented with the food. He held it in his lap for her– in case she was a messy eater, he didn’t want cat food on his bed. He also didn’t want to set her on the floor, either. He settled for petting her while she ate.
After a few more moments of nothing but the sound of Amari organizing, the organizer spoke again in a much softer voice, “How was she when I was gone?”
He looked over at him and tried to keep his voice low so he wouldn’t disturb the eating cat, “She was good. As you can see, she even dozed off,” A thought abruptly entered Emery’s mind, Wait, aren’t we supposed to… “Uhm, hey, shouldn’t we check if she’s had vaccines or a chip?”
Amari didn’t miss a beat, responding, “Leave the lovebirds to do it. That’s a tomorrow problem,” It was almost as if he knew Emery would ask that and practiced the response.
Even if he did practice it, it didn’t do much to relieve his concern “I feel as though it’s very much a today problem-”
“It’s almost ten, Em.” He was oh so rudely interrupted, “It’ll be fine, we can even go with them to the vet if you’re still worried.” Amari grabbed his laptop that was on his desk and turned to face Emery.
“Yeah… Can we? If you don’t mind?”
He was answered with a nod, along with, “We can,” Then, Amari looked around, as if unsure, “is it still movie night?
Emery’s eyes widened at the hidden reminder, “Oh, I completely forgot! It is,” He patted the space next to him, and Amari walked over and situated himself right next to Emery, though not exactly shoulders-touching close, and set the laptop between them on top of a folded blanket.
The cat finished her food so he set the can aside, leaving it to be cleaned up for later. She started to go into a tight curl, readying herself for more sleep.
Emery started moving blankets and pillows on his side in between them, making a little shield to protect Amari from the cat allergies. He’s not sure if it’ll help, but he’d at least try.
Amari nodded in appreciation and opened the laptop logging into Netflix, immediately going to his ‘My list’ section.
“Garfield?” Emery nodded enthusiastically at the suggestion, and Amari clicked on it before leaning back.
❊
Somewhere along the way (five minutes in) they did end up shoulders-touching close. (And Amari’s-head-resting-on-Emery’s-shoulder close ten minutes later.) (Not that Emery was keeping track because he was internally freaking out, or anything.)
❊
They ended up pausing the movie a little over an hour into it because of how Emery yawned five times in the span of two minutes.
In Emery’s defense, it wasn’t his fault that he was studying conversational skills at midnight last night.
Well, on second thought, maybe it is.
He didn’t have much time to dwell on it, anyway, with how Amari told him to go brush his teeth before going to sleep and dramatically acting like he was going to faint if he breathed.
Emery has superb hygiene! Amari’s just dramatic behind closed doors. Yeah.
…He may have spent an extra minute or two than usual brushing his teeth for some odd reason that escapes him at this very moment.
Coming out of their dorm bathroom, Emery took note of Amari sitting on his bed, now in his pajamas, scrolling his phone. His laptop which was previously on Emery’s bed was back on Amari’s desk.
“Welcome back,” Amari greeted him as he looked up at Emery’s return, “Yeona messaged you.”
“Oh, did she?” He went over to his phone, still lying face-up on his bed next to the kitty. He unlocked it and went to his messages app, seeing 12 notifications—which were all from Yeona.
Yeona🐰
SORRY
STARSTRUCKS NEW SONG CAME OUT LIKE THE SECOND YOU TEXTED ME, I HAD TO LIKE BREATH AND THEN THEY WENT ON MNET AND DID THEIR COMEBACK STAGE 10 MINUTES AFTER THE SONGS RELEASE I I I I I I OMG
BYUNGHO PINK HAIR IS REAL AND IN HD QUALITY??? HE TWEETED A PICTURE OF HIM WEARING A CAP A WEEK AGO BUT BUT BUT HE FORGOT TO INCLUDE A STRAND INSIDE THE CAP AND IT WAS PINK BUT I DIDNT THINK MUCH OF IT AND WOW!!!
okok anyway
emery you guys literally do movie nights and you think he doesnt even like u platonically??
YOU HAVE MATCHING OUTFITS
HE PAT UR HEAD ONCE AND YOU TEXTED ME FREAKING OUT!!!
omg the second he takes you to a cat cafe its over for u
if its not already over
LOL
OSHOOTGOTTA GO STAJRSTRUCK WENT LIVE ON YOUTUEB
Uhm… I can just ignore that middle part, maybe Amari was onto something about these ‘tomorrow’ problems. He sent her a little ‘have fun!’ cat gif before turning his phone back off, now busying himself with throwing away the empty can of cat food into the trash bin at the side of Amari’s desk, and getting situated in his bed without awakening the cat.
Miraculously, he managed to tuck himself in, lay himself on his side facing Amari, and bring the cat closer to his arms so he could pet her. It's one of many (aspiring) magicians’ secrets that he won’t be telling.
“Psst, Amari,” He whispered loudly over to him, the person in question also lying facing him, except he was still scrolling through his phone.
“What?” Amari’s eyes shifted over to him.
“Shh!” He gestured over to the peacefully sleeping cat, “It’s time,”
Amari held up his pointer finger, signaling ‘one second, and tapped his phone a few times before setting it down and giving Emery his full attention. “Emery’s movie critiques?”
“Yea!” He grinned as he spoke, “At long last, it’s time to say my critiques on Garfield the Movie! Well- about how it is halfway in, but you already know,” His grin turned into sheepishness at his faux pas.
A subtle smile made its way onto Amari’s face. “Go on ahead,”
“Well, firstly, I think it's highly unrealistic for Garfield to be bipedal. It just- I was so taken aback! And don’t even get me started with. . .”
❉
“. . . Also, they could’ve at least made the lasagna look somewhat appetizing. I can’t even imagine what the lasagna-lover audience is feeling about this-” Emery stopped himself, finally looking at Amari and how his eyes were closed, paired with his steady, quiet breathing. He fell asleep…?
After waiting for a few moments and realizing that he wasn’t going to be told by Amari to keep going on, he concluded that yes, Amari did fall asleep.
He wasn’t sure how to go about this situation. Usually when he’d finish Amari would say something along the lines of ‘Huh, never thought of that. Goodnight.’ and they both went to sleep at practically the same time.
He turned over onto his back, magically not awakening the cat again, and looked up at the ceiling. He did seem more tired than usual today.