Chapter Text
The bubbling in the pot makes a weird, wet splattering sound as Cloud looks in, disgruntled on why the alfredo sauce was still liquidly. He’s trying to figure out if he should add more flour or wait until the sauce cooks out a bit more in hopes of it thickening, when he hears noise from the living room.
“Cloud! There’s a cat in the backyard!”
Cloud grunts in acknowledgement, trying to reach across the stove for the recipe book. Maybe he shouldn’t have used garlic powder and just minced garlic instead.
“Cloud! It’s a red cat!”
“You mean it’s ginger?” Cloud corrects, before he finally decides to dump in the flour before all the milk evaporates.
“It’s eating the cat food we left out!” Denzel ignores, and Cloud hears him on the kitchen tiles shuffling closer to the glass door to get a better view. “Cloud! There’s another cat! It’s a white one! Come see, come!”
Cloud dunks the noodles and chicken in. He’s starving and he’s got twenty things to do before the day ends, surely Denzel can wait just a bit more. “I’m coming! It’s about time for us to eat as well.”
“Cloud! Hurry!” Denzel desperately calls again, urgent and almost whiny.
Sighing, Cloud breathes out from his nose and tries to temper his impatience and frustration. He turns the stove off and walks open to the backdoor from the other end of the kitchen. Denzel watches him eagerly where he’s sitting in front of the closed glass door leading to the backyard, putting a finger up to his lips as Cloud approaches.
“Huh, would you look at that?” Cloud says, finding that there’s actual cats outside instead of rats and raccoons.
Two cats are languishly grooming themselves near the stairs of the small patio. Both look well cleaned and cared for, and by the looks of how shiny and lustrous their coats are, and the pretty collars around their necks, they definitely belong to people who probably don’t live in their part of town.
“The white cat looks really pretty,” Denzel says in a hushed tone, sounding in awe of the sight of cats in their backyard. “I saw its eyes earlier. It was yellow-green.”
“They both look well cared for. The white one is kind of fat though.”
“It’s not fat! It’s just a little chunky.” Denzel protests, and Cloud rolls his eyes as he leaves to plate the food.
“Wedges has been talking to you too much. Now come on, let’s go eat lunch already.” Cloud says as he loads up a plate and some napkins before returning to the door and taking a seat next to Denzel.
Denzel enthusiastically takes the plate and digs in, and to Cloud’s relief, he makes no complaints. It isn’t much, and there’s so much more progress that needs to be made in this journey, but it’s better than nothing.
“The white one looks so fluffy.” Denzel says wistfully, mooning over the fatass cat rolling onto its side and lazily swatting with one of the cat toys in the yard.
“Remember we agreed we can’t pet someone else’s cat nor any stray cat that comes.” Cloud reminds of instinct, before biting his lip and cursing himself as Denzel’s joy shuts away.
‘Shit,’ Cloud thinks to himself. Every step forwards he goes two steps back.
“I can always ask Zack if he can drop off Buster for a day if you want to pet.” Cloud tries to backpedal, but the sour look on Denzel’s face still persists.
“You don’t need to coddle me, Cloud.” Denzel petulantly says, and Cloud’s heart drops. “It’s not the same anyway.”
The pasta suddenly tastes cold as he eats in silence, with Denzel quietly picking at his own share. The uneasy feeling that Cloud is getting watching Denzel makes Cloud wonder if Denzel is missing Tifa, her cooking, her kindness, and her understanding.
It makes Cloud miss her too, or maybe it’s that terrible part missing more of how useful she was in mediating his shitty communication, his crap cooking, and all of his behaviors he never grew out of. Missing how she was always easing him like a wild animal, always angry and looking for the insult that was never there. Made him feel justified.
She was even nice about dropping him too, telling him it was a her problem, and not a him problem.
He’s not a genius, but when you hear the words “It’s not you, it’s me,” it is definitely you.
In the weeks they’ve separated, with Denzel coming with him permanently, it sinks in like an ugly splinter, piercing layer through layer and then getting sealed in with skin. Especially with Denzel’s discontent with the new changes and Cloud’s own lack of ability besides providing the bare necessities, Cloud always feels a discomfort lurch back and forth like he’s seasick.
Zack suggested getting a pet for Denzel in their new home to fill the silence and all the extra space would be a good idea. But no way should Cloud be responsible for another life under his household. He can’t even take care of his own and Denzel’s. Pets can be expensive as well, and Cloud exchanged his previous job for a lower paying position, just to be home more frequently for Denzel.
If anything, being a private trucker is what caused the rift in his relationship between Tifa and Denzel.
And Zack saying that suggestion out loud in front of Denzel was the worst part. He could see the excited hope in Denzel’s face the second the words came out of Zack’s mouth, and Cloud couldn’t stop the grimace on his face- because he knew he would have to crush Denzel’s dream.
The backyard makeshift cat house and playground was his own way to compromise. It was hell scrolling through the internet to find out what safe and healthy treats that are generally safe for all cats, and how to make shelters for stray cats. Gaia forbid, if he put something out there and a cat with whatever allergy pulls up and eats it and dies on his property-
Cloud might not have a great moral compass, but if that happened he could never forgive himself. And the trauma it would put on Denzel might end Cloud himself.
He shakes his head, trying to get the dark thoughts out and sets his eyes on the cats again.
Fatass finally gets up to get the last crumbs of the fish they put out earlier, lumbering near the skinny red tabby cat that has taken a seat next to the bowl, still licking its asshole.
Out of the blue, as Fatass just passes by Skinny, Skinny suddenly starts hissing at Fatass. Fatass ignores it, the hunger in its eyes prominent as it focuses onto the bowl.
Skinny, almost seemingly mad at getting ignored or maybe because Fatass was getting closer to the food now, starts batting the absolute shit out of the back of Fatass’ head. Fatass yowls and turns around with speed that shouldn’t be possible for its size, returning fire.
“Cloud!” Denzel shouts, distressed lines forming between his brows as he puts the plate down. “They’re fighting!”
“I know!” Cloud says and scrambles for the broom and keys. He jams the keys haphazardly in the lock, fumbling while the screeching of cats gets louder. “I got it!”
Cloud slams open the door with the broom in his other hand, loud creaking startling the cats as they jump back. Skinny bee-lines it to the fence, bouncing up and over elegantly with ease. Fatass runs the opposite direction and also jumps, but misses its mark and skittles across the smooth surface pathetically. It tumbles down with a yowl, disgruntled, before it chooses to exit through the side of the house and out into the front yard.
Returning back to the door, he finds Denzel looking concerned, still peeking at the side entrance to see where Fatass went.
“Don’t worry about it.” Cloud reassures as he re-enters, ruffling Denzel’s hair. “I’m pretty sure Chubby is going to be fine. He might be fat, but he’s got decent reflexes. He landed on dirt and grass too, and was still able to run.”
Denzel’s frown slowly goes away. “Okay. I did read that cats have a lot of light bone structures and have air resistance. So that makes sense.”
“Chubby definetly looks like he’s got a lot of air resistance and fat to protect him. I think Skinny got mad at him for stealing all the food.”
A smile cracks onto Denzel’s face. “Maybe the chubby one needs a diet.”
“Yessir.” Cloud agrees, “Now finish up lunch, I’m pretty sure I promised I’ll bring you to the park later so you can meet up with your friends.”
Denzel beams and reaches for his plate again, and Cloud thanks his lucky stars that for once, it seems like he did something right, watching Denzel eat happily.
“Which one of you fucks is pooping so much?” Cloud mutters, using tongs to pick up pebbles of shit off his grass. He’s been trying to stop cursing so much, but with the sun beating down on him as he’s getting fumes of cat shit in his nostrils, stopping himself from relapsing into bad habits is hard. “There’s a whole ass fucking litterbox in the corner and none of you assholes are using it.”
Fatass blearily looks at him from the patio, basking in the warm afternoon rays of sun. It reminds Cloud of his supervisor at work- a fat balding guy who thinks Cloud should speak up more and go to the bar with his coworkers. He’s only there to teach how to get a license for trucking. Not to socialize. None of them seem to be realizing this.
And people say Cloud’s the dumb one.
He misses the privacy and freedom of working alone and driving endless miles of sights. Being a teacher to teach people how to drive a trunk sucks.
“You motherfuckers are getting too comfortable here.” Cloud points the tongs at Fatass threatenly, who yawns and returns back to his nap.
As soon as the cats realized that Cloud banging on the door or only chasing them without actually hurting them was just an empty threat, they became way too bold in doing whatever they want without fear.
Fatass comes very frequently, and so does Skinny. In fact, sometimes they come together. But they always leave fighting. It amazes Cloud that Fatass has almost always beaten Skinny in a fight, yet Skinny always instigates it. It almost makes Cloud feel bad.
But Skinny is a little shit head, and Cloud has watched Skinny make eye contact with him before taking a dump right in front of Cloud’s eyes.
There’s also a brown tabby cat that likes to linger around when the bigger cats aren’t here. A very quiet cat that likes to sniff around, especially the mint that Cloud’s been trying to eliminate but persists. Never ate anything from the bowls they set out though.
Denzel has dubbed her Lily, for the little lily on the cat’s collar.
Lily is probably Cloud’s favorite, but it doesn’t really matter since none of those cats are his. Really. He’s not getting attached to them at all.
Denzel and him have spotted several strays, but they don’t frequent the area as much as he expected. There’s the occasional racoon- and apparently a few foxes that have been spotted. Cloud suspects that Zack’s unpredictable dog walking schedule has deterred a lot of the wild animals and strays from their backyard. Probably the pets that have owners have a specific strat getting here that he isn’t aware of.
And just when he finishes cleaning up the new poop load in his backyard- the other contributing bastard shows up.
Skinny comes from the side entrance- which is a bit strange, because Cloud usually sees him coming from the opposite fence across the backyard door.
The ginger cat meows and walks straight past him to the treat bowl, as if they belonged there solely for him.
Fatass starts to growl, low and deep, as his eyes narrow and he gets up from his sunny spot.
Cloud is suddenly seized with sympathetic feelings for Skinny, and looks at Fatass. For once, there will be no fighting in this backyard. He seizes Fatass’ collar and holds the cat back, which angrily wiggles and lets out meows of fury, causing Cloud to let go in fear of hurting it, but not before taking a peek at the collar’s tag.
“Sephiroth, huh?” Cloud wonders, and watches Fatass skiddadle across the grass to the other side of the yard, giving Cloud a cautious look. “A regal name for a not very regal cat.”
He takes a seat next to Skinny, using his body as a meat shield as he watches Sephiroth sit from the other side, tail slowly swishing back and forth in angry arcs.
Curious, Cloud tilts his head to take a look at Skinny’s tag. Might as well actually learn their names now while he’s at it.
“Genesis.” Cloud says out loud. “Must be a rich people thing to name their pets after grand things.”
Genesis meows in agreement.