Work Text:
Aelwyn needs to get out of here, stat. There’s only one person to call.
Adaine picks up on the first ring. “What did you do now?”
“Always straight to business. What happened to hello, sister?” She shifts the crate in her hand upwards to rest on the edge of the back seat while she tries to find a place to wedge it.
“Is that meowing?” Fuck.
“Whatever do you mean, Adaine, really, you know I was hired at that shelter the other week. I’m allowed to call you from my job, they’re not barbaric.”
“I can hear the street noise,” her sister deadpans. Fuck. “I’ll ask again: what did you do?”
She finds a place to stack the crate on top of a couple of others, shushing the inhabitants as she settles it into place and swings the door shut.
“I may have decided that a few occupants deserved to be… liberated,” she fakes nonchalance, looking at her nails. “Nobody deserves to be locked up like that.”
The silence stretches on the other end of the line. The ruffling of papers, a sigh. Aelwyn smiles. Hook, line, sinker.
“And I don’t suppose you thought about where they would go before conducting this… liberation attempt?”
“It wasn’t an attempt, sister, really. It’s been quite successful.” Of course it has been. Everything Aelwyn O’Shaughnessey does is quite successful.
Another sigh. Aelwyn transfers the crystal to her other ear, keeping it wedged there with her shoulder as she climbs into the car and starts up the engine. “Although they may be onto me now,” she admits, as the noise of the engine clearly sparks some movement inside. “I do think I might actually be fired.”
An impressively loud sigh. This one, Aelwyn begrudgingly understands. She did actually like parts of this job, although the cages were clearly a point of disagreement.
“We cannot fit an entire store’s worth of cats into our apartment, Aelwyn, really,” Adaine reprimands.
“I don’t see why we shouldn’t upsize; we’ve been talking about it for ages and it’s not like you’re not loaded. Ask your little rockstar friend for a loan if you need it.” Rooming with the Elven Oracle - sorry, Everyone’s Oracle - one whose party members have nearly all matched her level of fame - has its perks.
“I’m not just going to ask Fig for money, Aelwyn! There’s no chance we can home all of these cats while we look for a new place, either.” The phone is clearly pulled away from Adaine’s face at this point, but Aelwyn can hear the telltale muttering of a spell being cast. Her little sister is the best. “They won’t be able to track you now. You’re lucky you have me.”
“Yes, yes, you’re the best. Can’t you just, you know, use one of your little future visions to find out where we put all of them? Or where we’ll move to, at the least?” She knows intimately how Adaine’s visions work, and very well that this is not remotely close, but she does so like getting under people’s skin.
“You’re unbelievable. How many cats are there?” Dang. She was hoping for more of a reaction.
“There are only thirty-two or so.”
“Thirty- you are only still alive because I can’t hex you from here.” Untrue. Aelwyn’s shudder is unrelated.
“We’ll manage. I’ve picked up plenty of supplies.”
“We will not! You’re in luck; I’ve already messaged and most of the Bad Kids are willing to foster until you can find more suitable homes. And Gorgug messaged Zelda, who messaged the rest of the maidens, who are also willing to take a few off our hands.” Aelwyn has no control over what her face may or may not do at the mention of the maidens.
Like she can sense it, her sister adds, “Sam was particularly interested, I heard.”
Aelwyn sniffs. “That’s no business of mine.” A new, horrible thought occurs. “They won’t take all of them, will they?”
“Wyn, none of them are stupid enough to ask for more than three at a time. We’re still going to have… I don’t know, too many,” she sighs. “You’re going to have to drive all the way back to Elmville, you know. And right now Fabian is out in Bastion City.”
“I don’t want to be some - stupid elven cat delivery girl,” she moans, sinking down into her seat.
“You should’ve thought about that before stealing all the cats and quitting your job then,” her sister says smugly.
“Ugh, whatever. Love-you-bye.” She hangs up, almost throwing the crystal over her shoulder into the backseat before remembering her precious cargo.
“Whatever. They can have some of you, but they’ll never get you, Hector, will they.” A meow from somewhere far behind her that she takes as agreement. “We’ll consider it settled.”
---
The three-story townhouse they end up in loses most of its walls to a cat playground that she installs herself. Still out of a job, Aelwyn turns her dedicated attention to learning the alchemy of baking. A cat café can’t be that difficult to manage, really, and it’s not as though they’re using the first floor for anything else right now. Adaine just seems content that she’s putting her energy into something, and doubly so that Sam comes over all the time to help Aelwyn plan it out.
They never do get rid of the cats, though some get adopted by their foster families - Gorgug, Zelda, and Ragh end up with four siblings (take that, Adaine!). Maybe it’s for the best.
When they finally get the sign installed months later (Cat Bastard had, much to her displeasure, been vetoed by all other members of the house) she looks at what she’s built and has to admit, even if only to herself, that she is lucky indeed to have Adaine O’Shaughnessey as a sister.