Work Text:
Jemma's running late. She hates being late.
She throws on a random blouse and gives herself a quick once-over in the mirror (good enough) before grabbing her lab coat and bag and slipping into her boots. If she's lucky, maybe the bus is running late as well. If she power-walks to the bus stop, there's still a chance she can make it.
She opens her door, wrestling to grab her keys out of her bag, and-
"MYAAAAAAAA!"
Jemma jumps about a foot in the air and lets out her own shriek, before looking down and seeing a tiny grey kitten staring up at her. A tiny grey kitten she has never seen before, who she's apparently stepped on. "Oh goodness!" She kneels down. "I'm terribly sorry, come here." She makes a clicking noise with her tongue, the way she's seen people do to cats, and offers her hand toward the little thing. It's old enough to be walking with only a bit of wobble, and looks more like a cat and less like a pathetic ball of fluff, so it can't be that young. It doesn't seem to have any hard feelings about being stepped on, either, padding confidently toward her hand and nipping at it. "Oh, excuse me!" She takes her hand back for a second, which makes it mew plaintively.
"Do you... where's your mother?" she asks, as if the kitten's going to answer her. She looks around, hoping the mother cat might appear by magic. When that doesn't work, she sighs and kneels down to scoop up the kitten. "Well, I can't leave you here by yourself, it's too cold out here. I suppose..." With a resigned sigh, she turns to go back inside and drops her purse on the counter, digging her phone out. Dr. Randolph is a stickler for being on time, but she knows he has cats, so hopefully he'll understand.
Once she's bought herself a couple of hours, she searches "animal shelter near me" on her phone. It's not that she doesn't like cats; she does, or at least she doesn't despise them. But she's never been one for animals (besides fish) and if there's one thing she knows about kittens, they can cause a great deal of damage if left alone. She glances around at her apartment and its stacks of books and papers, hardwood floors, and tall, climbable bookcases, and sighs. No, the kitten can't stay with her, it just can't.
Unfortunately, the first two shelters she calls are completely full, able only to offer a vet checkup for the kitten before they release it into her care. She makes an appointment for the upcoming Saturday morning at the second shelter, wanting to make sure the little thing isn't sick or malnourished, at least. The third place doesn't even answer their phone, so she leaves a half-hearted message but writes that one off as well. One of the places that comes up, Loving Paws Animal Sanctuary, doesn't have a number listed on Google, but it is on their website, which appears to have been designed in approximately 1998 and not updated since. Still, she dials the number. Might as well try.
"Hello?" Whoever it is sounds a little sleepy, but it's early, after all.
"Hello," she says, launching into her prepared script. "I've found a kitten outside my door and I can't take care of it, and I was hoping perhaps you had space for it?"
"Um." There's a long moment of silence. "Sorry, what was that?"
"I said," Jemma repeats, gritting her teeth, "I found a kitten and I can't keep it, and I was hoping that you'd be able to take it in. That's what you do, isn't it?"
"Uh, I'm not really sure what you're talking about. I don't do... cats."
"Well then what kind of animal shelter are you?" snaps Jemma. "Exotic parrots only?"
"Woah, lady, chill out. I'm not an animal shelter at all, I fix computers. I think you maybe have the wrong number?"
"Oh." Jemma's face heats up as she checks and realizes that, yes, she did indeed transpose the last two digits. "I'm terribly sorry, I- yes, I believe I do. My apologies for taking up your time."
There's a soft noise on the other end that might be a laugh. "Sure, whatever. Good luck with your cat, I guess." And that's that, they've hung up.
Jemma stares at her phone, a mix of embarrassment and anxiety coursing through her. She quickly googles "what to feed kitten if you don't have kitten food" and luckily she has some chicken breasts in the freezer, so finds a quick guide to boiling chicken meat for cats and gets that started. The kitten follows her into the kitchen, watching with enormous eyes and occasionally screaming at her. "I'm afraid I'll have to leave you here for a bit," she sighs. "And I guess I'll get some cat litter on the way home tonight..."
She leaves the kitten in the bathroom with the plate of chicken and a blanket to sleep on, figuring cleaning up whatever mess it leaves will at least be easier in a confined space, and ignoring the pitiful mews coming from behind the closed door.
---
Luckily, no one at the lab seems upset about her late arrival, and Callie Henderson in biometrics seems quite excited about her new house guest. (Jemma has a moment of near-relief when she quickly asks if Callie wants to take the kitten, only to have her hopes dashed when Callie says her roommate is allergic.) Fitz is the only one who fully understands how annoyed she is about it. "I would've just left it outside," he says with a shrug. "Seems like it was doing alright by itself."
Jemma sighs. "I couldn't. I don't know, it looked so sad, and I felt bad for stepping on it."
"Well, just don't become one of those cat-mad people," teases Fitz. "Pushing it round in a stroller and whatnot."
She scoffs in mock-outrage. "I'd never! I was trying to find a place that would take it but I couldn't, so I suppose I'll have to advertise online or the like. Maybe one of my neighbors is in the market for a new cat."
"You say that now, but I'll expect a Christmas card from Simmons and Socks this year," quips Fitz. He just laughs harder when she glares at him.
She arrives home with a few tins of kitten food, a box of cat litter (one of the smaller ones, though it's still so heavy she has to hold it in her arms like a baby), and a feather toy because, well, she knows how important play is to the development of human children, so it must be the same for kittens too. The bathroom isn't as big of a mess as she feared, though from the commotion the kitten causes when she opens the door, one would think it had been left alone for days instead of eight hours.
"Alright, alright," she says, scooping out a tin of food. "I'm sorry, there's no need to scream at me like that." The kitten practically pounces on the food, but at least it's mostly quiet watching her set up a makeshift litter box in the corner of the bathroom. "I suppose you don't have to stay in here while I'm at home," she muses. "But I have some work to do, so don't expect me to play with you just yet."
Unfortunately, the kitten seems utterly fascinated by her laptop. It isn't anywhere near good condition and, in fact, has a broken hinge that Jemma is determined to ignore for as long as she can, just the sort of laptop that isn't up to surviving repeated assaults from a cat. After the fourth attempt to remove the kitten from her keyboard causes some kind of malfunction that makes the machine utterly non-responsive, Jemma is about ready to scream just like the kitten. She looks up local repair places and is entering the final stage of despair because most of them are closed this late when, finally, she finds one that's open until 9 PM. She picks up the cat and sighs, "Back into the bathroom for you, little devil."
There aren't that many buses running late at night, but luckily this place is only a ten minute walk away. She's a little startled to find it's not in a proper office, but instead one of those apartments above a Chinese place that someone appears to be running their repair business out of. She hesitantly knocks on the door and hears "Just a second!" from inside. Then the door opens and a young woman wearing a ratty sweatshirt and jeans is standing there. "Hi," she says. "Can I help you?"
"I'm sorry to bother you so late," Jemma says, "but... well, my work laptop's not working, and I was hoping you could help."
"Yeah, c'mon in." The girl beckons her to follow her inside, and Jemma does, only feeling a little less wary.
Inside, the place is reasonably clean, though there are stacks of laptops and computer equipment everywhere. The girl gestures to a worn-looking couch. "Have a seat. I'm Daisy, by the way. So what's the issue with your laptop?"
Jemma explains as thoroughly as she can, though she's truly not even sure what button the kitten pressed (or maybe she pressed in her attempts to wrestle it away?). Daisy squints and gestures for Jemma to hand the computer over, and Jemma does, unable to keep herself from chattering nervously. "I didn't even really want this cat, I mean I don't have anything against cats I suppose, I just don't want one myself. It's more that I feel like I'm not equipped to care for a cat, if that makes sense? And this one seems very needy, when I got home from work it wouldn't stop meowing at me and if it would've just left me alone when I was trying to work I wouldn't be, well, here now, I suppose."
"You're nervous," says Daisy, barely glancing up from the laptop.
"What?"
"Oh, I mean, it's fine. You're just talking so much, it seems like you're pretty freaked out about this whole cat thing."
Jemma feels herself flush. "Well, it's just a lot of responsibility I wasn't prepared for!" she says defensively. "And now I have to feed it and make sure it doesn't get itself killed or break any of my things, which is already off to a wonderful start as you can see..."
Daisy laughs. "Hey, no arguments there. The little guy really did a number on this." She squints at the screen. "I can repair it, but it might take a couple days. Any chance you can call out sick tomorrow?"
"Oh lord." Jemma buries her head in her hands. "This is truly a nightmare."
"Sorry." Daisy really does sound sorry. "Um, can I offer you a drink? Soda, water, anything like that? It's the least I can do after delivering such shitty news."
"Water, I suppose." Jemma sighs. "Luckily my entire job doesn't revolve around a laptop, but my boss won't be happy if my lab reports aren't processed on time. He has very high expectations of me."
"Yikes," she hears Daisy call from the other room (presumably the kitchen?). "Y'know," she adds as she returns, handing a glass of water to Jemma, "it seems like random kittens showing up is going around. I had a call from someone this morning, just a wrong number, but whoever this lady was, she was pretty freaked out about this kitten she found on her doorstep. She yelled at me 'cause she thought I was an animal shelter, it was pretty crazy."
Daisy is grinning, but Jemma's heart sinks. "Oh," she says after a moment of silence. "Ah. Funny story, that. I think that was probably me."
"Wait, for real?"
"Yes?" Jemma winces. "I'm very sorry about the way I spoke to you this morning, I-"
Daisy starts giggling before she can continue. "This is so batshit! I can't believe you went from basically cussing me out this morning to coming to me for computer help now. Crazy coincidence. Anyway, sorry the cat's still causing you trouble. I can't really help you with that, but yeah, give me your number and I'll call you."
Jemma is so busy wallowing in embarrassment that she's a little taken aback. "Wh-why?" she asks. "I mean, not that I wouldn't want to hear from you, it's just..."
"Because I'll be working on your laptop?" Daisy tilts her head. "And I need to call you when it's ready for you to pick up?"
"Ah, right." Jemma coughs. "Yes, if you've... got a card or something?" Daisy hands her one and Jemma digs out a pen from her purse, scribbling down her number. "Thank you, by the way. And again, I'm so sorry about my, ah, outburst this morning."
"Oh, it's fine. It didn't exactly scar me, I'm used to seeing stressed-out people. It was kinda nice being yelled at for a fun new reason." Daisy winks at her. "But yeah, I'll get to work on this ASAP and get you an update tomorrow about where we're at. I'll try to get it back to you by tomorrow evening but no promises."
"I appreciate that. Good night?" Jemma blinks. "I suppose maybe you're not going to bed after this."
Daisy chuckles. "Nah, I'll hang out here for a bit in case I get any other late-night customers, and I usually spend some time tinkering with either customer jobs or my own stuff before I pass out for the night. I'm way more nocturnal than not. But I appreciate the thought anyway. Sleep well yourself, okay Jemma? And enjoy your furry houseguest."
Jemma sighs. "I'll try."
When she returns home, the kitten appears not to have done any horrific damage to the bathroom in her absence, and she decides to try and tire it out with the toy in hopes that it will sleep through the night. Damn her, it's sort of fun watching it pounce after the feather, often tripping over its own feet in the process. She catches herself smiling and laughing at it. Finally, she says, "Alright, I suppose I can't just keep calling you 'kitten', can I? What shall I call you?" Most of the names coming to mind are truly abysmal cliches, like Socks (dammit Fitz), Felix, Patches, Tigger... She searches her mind for space names and essentially at random one comes to her: Antares. "What about Antares?" she asks the cat, which just stares at her with its big blue eyes. "It's red, and you're grey, but I suppose that doesn't really matter, does it?" she says idly, scratching it under the chin. "Just something to call you until I find somewhere better for you to live. I suppose cats don't really know their names anyway."
She plays with Antares until the kitten abruptly stops and curls up, closing its eyes. "Alright, then, time for bed," she says, picking it up. It lets out a truly pathetic little mew. "Hush, I'm just putting you somewhere more comfortable." She takes it into the bathroom and sets it down on the blanket, but the second she turns away it staggers up and starts to follow her. "Oh, no," she sighs, shooing it back onto the blanket. When she shuts the door, it lets out another sad little cry.
"Alright, alright ," she growls, opening the door and picking up Antares again. "You'd better not make a mess of my bed," she scolds the kitten, who just blinks sleepily at her.
Antares seems perfectly content to sleep on the provided blanket, as long as it's within sight of Jemma. Against her better judgment, she does take a couple of pictures of the kitten curled up and snoozing, because it does look very sweet. After showering, she settles into bed, pulling out the book on the history of cloning she's been chipping away at and reading for awhile before turning in. The soft kitten snores from the end of the bed are oddly comforting.
The next day, she locks Antares in the bathroom again, much to its dismay. "I'm sorry, but the rest of the apartment isn't safe for you," she says, as if it can understand her. She doesn't try to leave the apartment until Antares is deep into breakfast, so her escape will go unnoticed for a moment.
At work, Fitz grins at her knowingly. "How's your adventures in cat parenting?"
She sighs. "The little bugger somehow ruined my work laptop and I won't get it back until at least tonight. Can I borrow yours to submit my reports?"
"Oh damn." Fitz's face falls. "Yes, of course. What happened?"
"I don't know what happened exactly, but it stepped on something and then the laptop died. Luckily I found someone to look at it; she said she'll call me with an update this afternoon." Jemma busies herself with checking the latest samples for any changes, her daily task and one of the ones she genuinely loves doing.
"Well, I'm sure you've guessed but I'm not taking it off your hands," teases Fitz. "If your place is unsuitable for a cat, mine is a feline death trap."
Jemma sighs. "I'll figure out something. I have an appointment at a shelter on Saturday to get it checked out, and I'm hoping they'll have suggestions on rehoming it. Right now it's shut in my bathroom, which I don't think it likes very much."
The morning goes quickly enough, and before she knows it she feels her phone buzzing in her pocket and picks it up. Daisy's name is flashing onscreen, which makes her smile. "Hello?"
"Hey," says Daisy on the other end of the line. "So, good news and bad news, the damage isn't as bad as I thought, and I should be able to fix it by end of day today. But some of the files are basically unrecoverable. Do you have a backup?"
"They have us do a mandatory backup once a month, but the last one I did was... hell, maybe three weeks ago?" sighs Jemma. "It's not a total disaster though. Should I plan to stop by on the way home from work?"
"Yeah, that'd be great. Sorry for all the trouble. Is your little furry demon behaving itself?"
"It had better be. I have to lock it in my bathroom while I'm out, but it knows how to use the litter box at least."
"Do you just call it 'it' or have you at least given it a placeholder name?"
"I've been calling it Antares. It's the name of a supergiant star in the constellation Scorpius, one of the largest we've discovered. Fun fact, if it were placed at the center of our solar system, it would reach all the way to Mars. It's really a marvelous-"
She stops, hearing a strange gasping noise on the other end of the phone. "Sorry, are you alright?"
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine." Daisy coughs and Jemma realizes the odd noise was Daisy trying not to laugh at her. "I just wasn't expecting you to name it something so nerdy . It's really cute."
Jemma feels her cheeks heat up in embarrassment. "I find astronomy fascinating," she says, as if this is an explanation. "I would've gone into it as a career in a heartbeat, but it turns out most the actual available jobs in the field require a great deal more firsthand experience than I was able to acquire in university, and my current position at my lab does sometimes offer me opportunities to- Oh, I've done it again," she sighs, biting her lip. "You should tell me to stop when I get going."
"Why would I do that?" She can hear the smile in Daisy's voice. "Like I said, I think it's cute."
"Oh." Jemma isn't sure what to say to that. "Um. Thank you?"
"Anyway," Daisy says, as if she hasn't just basically flirted with her, "yeah, swing by after you're done at work, I'll be here. Your laptop should be good to go by then."
"Thank you," says Jemma weakly, hanging up and then staring at her phone. It's not that she's never been hit on before, obviously, but... well, was this even being hit on? Maybe Daisy meant it in the way some women called other women cute but not in a gay way. Or some people are just naturally flirty, that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
She's managed to work herself up into a real lather about it by the end of the day, to the point that even Fitz notices. "What's gotten into you?" he asks. "You almost put two of the cold samples under a heat lamp! I thought you said your computer was fine."
"It is," Jemma says, gritting her teeth. "Everything is fine."
"No it isn't. You're making mistakes," Fitz points out, "which means you're preoccupied with something. And if it's not worrying about your computer, then what is it? You can't be that bothered about the cat."
"It's just... when I was talking to the woman fixing my computer, I accidentally blathered on a bit, and she said it was cute."
"Oh." Fitz scowls. "Is that all? I can't help with that sort of thing, you know that."
"You did ask," she points out. "Anyway, I don't know if she meant it or if it was just a thing to say, you know?"
Fitz sighs. "She probably didn't. Or she did, and she says it to a hundred girls a day. Just put it out of your mind so we can finish up, and please don't put anything away in the wrong spot."
Jemma does her best to not dwell on it while she's finishing her workday, or on the bus ride over to Daisy's place. By the time she's walking down the sidewalk, she's almost convinced herself it didn't even happen.
That is, until she knocks on the door and Daisy's standing there beaming at her. "Hey!" she says. "C'mon in, your laptop's all set."
Jemma is sure her face must be doing something humiliating as she steps inside Daisy's apartment. "Thank you for, ah, working so quickly on it. I appreciate that, even though I was so rude to you."
"Seriously, forget it," Daisy calls cheerfully over her shoulder. "You want anything to drink before you have to head out? Oh, but I guess you have Antares to get home to, huh? I shouldn't keep you."
Something in Jemma's brain screams that it's very unusual to remember someone's pet's name when you've barely spoken, and it's a name that no non-scientist would need to know or remember. But she just laughs awkwardly and says, "Yes, I'm afraid I'd better get home, but thank you. Ah, how much do I owe you?"
Daisy quotes her a number that seems absurdly low, and she blinks. "Are you... sure?" she asks after a moment of awkward silence.
"Yeah. I couldn't even recover all your files, so I gave you a discount." Daisy shrugs. "I can do that, it's my business."
"Well - alright, if you insist." She sends the money and Daisy's phone lights up with the notification. "Thank you, again. I'll definitely tell all of the many friends I have about you."
"That sounded like a joke," Daisy says, tilting her head. "You've gotta have nerd friends and shit, right?"
"Well, I have Fitz, we've been close since college, and I suppose I have other... acquaintances at work..." Jemma grimaces.
"Hey, I didn't mean to make you feel weird. I don't have a ton of close friends either. But you seem cool. Would you be up for getting drinks or dinner or something this week?"
Oh. So it was like that. "I'd like that, yes," Jemma says, nodding eagerly and then more slowly when she realizes it makes her look like a maniac. "Um, you have my number, so you can... text me the details? I can't tomorrow but I'm free most other days. Oh, but not Saturday morning, I have the vet appointment, although I suppose we wouldn't be getting dinner or drinks in the morning, would we?"
"Don't worry, I can absolutely do Thursday or Friday." Daisy smiles at her, and not in a way that means she's just humoring her, either. "Have a good night, Jemma."
"You too." Jemma quickly retreats out the door.
Antares is just as effusive as before when she arrives home, the kitten trying to climb up her trousers the second she lets it out of the bathroom. "Excuse you!" she yelps, extracting sharp little claws from where they've dug into her leg. "I'm happy to see you as well, but you will not use me as a climbing gym, thank you very much!"
She plays with Antares a little to tire the kitten out before even trying to tackle the work she knows is waiting for her. Only when the kitten has curled up in an exhausted little ball next to her on the couch does she crack open her laptop, surprised to see that Daisy appears to have fixed the broken hinge as well. Maybe she's that thorough for every customer, or just the ones she asks out; either way, Jemma will have to thank her when they meet for dinner.
Fitz is visibly relieved when she pulls out her working laptop the next day. "Oh, hey, you got the hinge fixed, even!"
"Daisy did," Jemma says, hoping her expression doesn't give her away. "She couldn't recover all the data so she charged me a discounted rate and fixed that while she was at it."
"Wow." Fitz raises an eyebrow. "Maybe she was actually hitting on you, then."
Jemma makes a face at him and doesn't tell him about the... date? If it is a date. He'd either make faces (he hates hearing about anyone's romantic escapades) or tease her about it nonstop.
The rest of the week passes in a blur, and before she knows it, it's Friday morning and Daisy is texting her hey sorry I forgot to send you any info. you still up for it? :) any food restrictions, allergies, or preferences? Normally this lack of preparation would annoy the hell out of Jemma and maybe make her reconsider the date altogether, but, well, Daisy's charming enough to make up for it.
No food restrictions or allergies. What's your favorite place?
oh... my fave place is actually the Chinese place I live above. bias I guess but their food kicks ass even though it's not a super fancy place. their pork-fried rice and ginger chicken is fucking phenomenal.
I don't need anything fancy. :)
She doesn't make a habit of using emojis, but for Daisy she can make an exception.
So after work, she changes into the outfit she's picked for the occasion (green button-up shirt, her favorite dark blue cardigan, and a nice but not too dressy pair of slacks) and heads over to Daisy's place. The barely-legible neon sign reading Jacky's beckons her from down the street. Once inside, she sees what Daisy meant - the dining room is fairly small, only a few tables, the decor is a bit outdated, and the overall effect of the place is not exactly impressive. But Daisy waves at her from a corner table and she's so clearly excited to see her that Jemma can't help but be charmed.
"You made it," says Daisy as Jemma sits down. "I mean, I guess you've been here before, technically, but still."
"I did," agrees Jemma. She grabs one of the laminated menus that's sitting on the table and scans it. "You said the pork-fried rice is good, yes?"
"And the ginger chicken," agrees Daisy, "and I love their hot and sour soup too, I always get it as a starter. But we can get something else too if you want? Like I said, everything here is great, you kinda can't choose wrong."
"Oh, I trust your recommendations," Jemma says with a smile.
While they're waiting for their food, conversation comes surprisingly easy. Daisy demands kitten pictures and coos over Antares. "She's so cute," she says, then frowns. "She? He?"
"I don't actually know," Jemma says, suddenly a little embarrassed. "I suppose I'll ask the vet tomorrow. I suspect she's female as I haven't seen a penis, but I'm not terribly familiar with how cat genitalia looks at a glance. Didn't exactly grow up with animals about."
"Me neither." Daisy takes a long sip of her soup. "So you work in a lab, yeah?"
"Yes. Medical research. I can't really speak too much about the details of what we do, I'm afraid, but in a nutshell it has to do with antibiotics and their effectiveness."
Daisy's eyes widen. "Woah, so you're like, smart-smart."
That makes Jemma preen a little. "At the moment I'm a lower-level lab tech, but I'd like to work more directly with the team that develops the antibiotics one day. Right now I'm one of the people who monitors samples for deviations or poor reactions and records that data. It's quite specific, but I do like it." She takes a sip of water, not wanting to completely dominate the conversation. "And how long have you had your computer repair business?"
"Eh, couple years? Doesn't feel that long. I spent a few years working at a different repair place but the owner was a real asshole, and also he kept coming onto me, so finally I said fuck you and left and took half of his customers with me." Daisy beams, clearly proud of herself. "Turns out being a sleazeball to every woman you come into contact with bites you in the ass, who knew."
Jemma winces. "Well, good for you for striking out on your own. I certainly have no complaints about your quality of service. Oh, and thank you for fixing the hinge on my laptop too. I didn't even think to ask about it; I'd just gotten used to it."
"What? Oh, yeah, that wasn't hard at all, I had a spare part lying around so I just replaced it."
"Still. It was unexpected and very nice of you."
The food arrives, and soon Jemma is too focused on the excellent food to try to think of new conversation topics. "You weren't joking," she says when she comes up for air at one point. "This is fantastic."
Daisy nods, her own mouth too full to agree.
Finally they both slow down a little and Jemma asks, "So did you grow up here?"
Daisy stops chewing for a second and her eyes dart around. Jemma's stomach drops. "Oh- you don't have to answer," she says quickly. "I was just wondering- I mean, clearly I'm not from here originally, I was born in Devon."
"No, it's okay." Daisy quickly swallows her food and takes a deep breath. "It's just kind of hard to explain. I, uh, grew up in the foster system and moved out here as soon as I could."
"Oh! I'm sorry, you really don't have to-"
"Nah, I don't mind telling you," Daisy interrupts. "At least the basic stuff. Raised by nuns in a Catholic orphanage, bounced around to a bunch of foster homes, finally got sick of it and ran away at sixteen. I did a DNA test awhile ago and found out I have an older sister in San Francisco - I haven't met her in person yet but we've talked on the phone some. I like where I'm at now but it's taken a long time to get to that point."
Jemma nods. "That makes sense. I'm..." She pauses. "Is 'I'm sorry' too flippant?"
Daisy shrugs, grinning. "That's usually what people say when I tell them about my fucked-up childhood."
"Well, it sounds horrible. But I'm glad you were able to get away and make a life for yourself."
"Thanks. Me too." Daisy takes another bite of food, then once she's finished it, adds, "So how about you? Devon, that's in England, I'm guessing? How'd you end up here?"
"Yes, I grew up in Devon, not a terribly interesting childhood, and then went to Princeton for university. That's where I met my best friend Fitz. We actually work together too, because he and I both applied for lab assistant jobs and they were so impressed with our work in university, they hired both of us."
"What did you guys do, like, invent a cure for cancer?"
"No, it's really quite boring and technical to anyone outside the field," Jemma says sheepishly. "But essentially we were both involved in a study that proposed a new potential treatment for freshwater fish diseases. Fish are my favorite animal," she adds at the look of mild confusion on Daisy's face, "and I wanted to work them into my final project somehow. So, fish diseases."
Daisy still looks a little taken aback, but she nods. "Kind of funny you ended up with a cat, then," she chuckles.
"Oh, I haven't- I mean, I'm not- well, I don't know if I'm the best person to keep Antares," stammers Jemma. "I thought I might ask the vet about whether he has any ideas. There are people who foster animals, aren't they?" A second later her brain catches up with her mouth, particularly concerning what Daisy said about her upbringing earlier, and she gasps and slaps a hand over her own mouth. "Not that- I mean, it isn't-"
But Daisy's laughing. "No, I totally get what you mean, don't worry. Again, I'd offer to take her, but I feel like a kitten in my apartment full of tasty cables and electronics is just asking for disaster. She should be with someone who wants her."
"Yes," Jemma says, sighing with relief. "I think she'll be a really nice lap cat once she's grown a bit and doesn't have the kitten energy anymore. She loves to sleep next to me. She's constantly purring and chirping at me, very vocal. If she's not attacking my laptop, I don't mind having her there."
"She sounds adorable. Um, not to weirdly invite myself over to your place, but can I come meet her before she leaves to wherever she's going next? I mean, I'm guessing you won't find a foster home for her literally tomorrow."
Jemma's a little taken aback by the question, but then she thinks about it. She likes Daisy, likes her a lot actually, and Daisy seems to like her too, but she also doesn't seem like she's just trying to take advantage of Jemma. And, after all, while her home isn't quite kitten-proof, it's not messy in the way that would be terribly off-putting to a guest, especially one who won't be over for that long. How long does it take to introduce someone to a kitten, anyhow? "Why don't you come over on Sunday afternoon?" she asks. "I haven't got any plans and maybe we could order in and watch a movie or something like that."
"That sounds really nice." Daisy smiles, then looks a little uncertain. "Uh, just so you're aware, I am totally not asking to come over in a creepy way, but I also want to be clear this is supposed to be a date. Like, I asked you out to dinner in a non-platonic gay way."
That makes Jemma giggle. "Oh, I assumed, don't worry. I did try to dress up for this." She glances down at her outfit, now a bit uncertain. "Well, I suppose I wear this sort of outfit a lot, but this is my favorite cardigan."
"Wow, this reveals new depths of your nerdiness," teases Daisy. "It does look comfy though. But yeah, I got halfway through what I thought was pretty clearly a dinner date awhile back and then at the end the girl said 'you are so cool, I think we could be best friends.' So, y'know, now I ask just in case."
"Ouch." Jemma winces sympathetically. "Don't worry, I definitely got date vibes from this. You said it's your favorite restaurant, after all."
"Oh, it is, but it's also..." Daisy waves her hand in the air, gesturing to their surroundings. "People tend to be judgey when they see it, y'know."
"Well, I've had a wonderful time." Jemma reaches over to squeeze her hand. "Thank you for bringing me here, Daisy."
--
After a mostly uneventful vet visit (where her suspicions were confirmed that Antares is, in fact, a girl), she leaves with a list of potential foster parents' contact information, feeling optimistic.
That optimism dwindles over the next few hours, when all the contacts on the list prove to be unavailable or unreachable.
"Well, I suppose you're stuck with me for now," she sighs, reaching down to disentangle the kitten from where she's gotten her little claws stuck in a crocheted blanket. "Suppose I'll have to make more permanent changes around here for you."
The weekend turns into her attempting to rearrange and reorganize what she can of her apartment by herself in order to make sure Antares can wander about without encountering any immediate dangers. Antares seems to love having the whole apartment to roam, quickly establishing her favorite places to nap (besides Jemma's bed) as the couch cushions and in the little wicker basket Jemma has on the counter for mail. (Obviously, Jemma goes out and gets a second mail basket. After all, Antares looks so sweet curled up in there.)
By the time Sunday afternoon rolls around, Jemma feels like she's done an entire week's worth of cleaning and rearranging. It's sort of nice, to be honest, having less clutter around (it's a bad habit she picked up in university and hasn't been able to kick, at least until now). She's moved a few things into boxes, taken some books to the thrift store, and put anything dangerous out of the reach of kittens. She sets up little bowls for Antares' food and water in the kitchen on a rubber mat (for easy cleaning) and installs a combination cat tower and scratching post in the corner of the living room.
Daisy is supposed to show up at three, but at three fifteen she texts fuck, sorry, just leaving, got caught up in something. be there asap!!!! eta 15 min. Normally Jemma would be put off by lateness, but it isn't as if they have firm plans anyhow. No worries, see you soon! "You see, I'm being flexible," she says to Antares, who just blinks sleepily at her.
Daisy shows up only a few minutes later than she said, breathing hard. "Sorry," she pants, leaning against the wall for a second. "I ran... all the way here... knew I was late..."
"Daisy, come sit down!" Jemma beckons her inside. "You didn't have to run, it's alright. Water?"
Daisy nods, still gasping as she goes over to flop down on the couch. "I just felt bad for being late," she says, once she's caught her breath. "Anyway. Hey, how're you?"
"I'm doing fine, thank you." Jemma hands her a glass of water, which Daisy downs half of immediately. "I promise it wasn't a problem that you were late."
"Okay." Daisy looks around curiously at the room. "So this is your place. It's nice, more minimalist than I expected."
"Well, someone is here to stay, at least for the time being," Jemma says with a laugh, "so I rearranged a little to make it less likely that she would completely destroy my apartment during the day. Hold on, she's napping in my bedroom, I'll get her."
"Oh, no luck finding foster parents?" Daisy calls after her.
Jemma goes to retrieve Antares (who lets out a sleepy noise upon being picked up) and, once she's back within earshot, says, "Yes, they were all either unreachable or unavailable, so it appears I'm all she's got for now. But she's settling in alright." She sets the still-drowsy kitten down on the couch cushion next to Daisy, giving her a fond scratch under the chin before sitting on Antares' other side.
Antares yawns, then turns to look at Daisy inquisitively. She ambles over and sniffs at the finger Daisy offers her, then tries to clamber into her lap. "Hey there," Daisy murmurs, carefully making a little fence for the kitten with her arms and hands. "God, she's so soft."
"Isn't she?" Jemma can't help but be charmed by how Daisy's entire attention is taken up by Antares. "I've bought her a little brush because the vet said it's good to get her used to it, but she thinks it's a toy and tries to attack it every time. She loves chin scritches though, and she doesn't seem to mind when I touch her tail either."
Daisy gently transfers the kitten to the floor and grabs one of the string toys that's sticking out of the box. "Hey, Antares, you want this?" She wiggles it enticingly and, once it's gotten her attention, Antares pounces on it. Daisy lets her chew on it for a second and then pulls it away again, luring the kitten across the floor and then back again.
"I think you were downplaying your familiarity with cats," Jemma teases, smiling as she watches them.
"Some of the families I stayed with had cats, but usually older ones. Once or twice there was a playful cat, though." As Daisy talks, she doesn't take her eyes off Antares, happily dangling the toy for her to focus on and chase. "Hey look, I can make her dance in a circle!" she adds, sending Antares hopping around with a wave of the stick.
"Well, I'm glad to give you some cat time now." Jemma hesitates and then moves over onto the couch next to Daisy. "You're helping me out as well, because if she gets tired she won't get into anything for a bit, at least."
"Oh, sure. She seems to be right at home here, though. So you're just gonna, what, hang onto her until you can find someone else to take her?"
"I suppose." Jemma watches Antares leap onto the toy again. "Or... well, I did rearrange the apartment to make it safer for her. It would be a shame for that to go to waste."
Daisy shrugs. "I feel like most people I know who have a cat just had them kinda wander in one day. But you don't have to keep her if you really don't want to."
"I..." Jemma swallows. "I'll see how it goes, I think. She is very sweet though." She takes the toy Daisy offers and sends it sneaking across Antares' tail. The kitten watches it wide-eyed before diving after it.
Eventually she gets tired and comes back over to curl up on the couch arm next to them. "See, she likes being close to me when she's sleeping," Jemma pets her little head for a second. "Which I read is a sign of trust in cats, so I suppose I'm flattered."
"Yeah, I don't think I've had an animal fall asleep this close to me. That's really sweet."
They end up chatting on the couch for a bit, because neither of them wants to risk disturbing Antares. Jemma learns that Daisy goes to hacker conventions in her free time, and occasionally designs websites for public service organizations. "Like if they're in need of somebody to update their ancient site or are just getting off the ground, that kind of thing. A lot of those kinda places are run by people who really want to make a difference but don't really know how to make sure their sites are actually helpful, or maybe they're an older organization that struggles with getting new volunteers in, that kind of thing. It never takes me that long, and then they can call me if they run into any issues or need updates. Or sometimes, it's that they need the site built and then a tech person on staff, so I can either rec someone I know or put out the call locally. Works out most of the time and then I feel like I really did something to help."
"That's incredible. Did you learn all of this yourself? Oh, I think you mentioned that you learned some from your old horrible boss, I'm sorry. You don't have to answer that."
"What? Oh, yeah, no, I didn't learn any of the hacking or coding from him. He is the one who taught me the basics of computer repair, but then I was better at it than him and figured out all sorts of tricks he never knew." Daisy looks smug. "I figured out how to code myself, from online courses and videos and shit. And then I made friends and learned stuff from them. He never got anywhere near any of this part of me."
For some reason, that reassures Jemma. "Well, I think that's amazing."
Daisy shrugs. "It's just kinda what I was good at. I didn't even go to college or anything, just figured my shit out as I went."
"Would you go back if you could? Sometimes I miss it, the structure and enforced learning and all that."
Making a face, Daisy shakes her head. "Way too much rigamarole for me. I didn't even love the coding classes I took, 'cause if I'm figuring something out I'd rather tinker with it. I guess that's why the shop works so well; I don't really have a daily schedule and I can kinda just fiddle with stuff until I know how to fix it."
Jemma's eyebrows raise. "We're so different," she says with a chuckle. "I love schedules and I love knowing what's expected of me."
"Yeah, I got that impression." Daisy grins. "Nothing wrong with that, just not my bag at all."
They talk for long enough that Jemma doesn't notice she's hungry until her stomach rumbles embarrassingly. "Oh, goodness," she says, glancing at her phone. "It's almost six, would you like dinner? I can order something. I'm a bit useless at making anything more than sandwiches, I'm afraid."
"Hey, don't knock a good sandwich," teases Daisy. "But yeah, what's good around here?"
After some discussion, she orders them some tacos and rummages through her DVD collection for something suitable to put on. They're mostly non-fiction documentaries or seasons of Doctor Who, which she is happy to learn Daisy watches. "I haven't seen that much of the older stuff," Daisy admits, looking interested when Jemma mentions how much she likes Four. "I kinda remember some of that scarf guy from reruns on PBS or whatever, but nothing specific."
"Oh! Well, you must see City of Death. " Jemma grins and grabs the DVD. "It's brilliant."
"Cheery title," Daisy jokes as she pops it in.
"Don't worry, it's a good time, I promise. Douglas Adams was one of the writers."
"Wait, the Hitchhiker's guy? Damn, that's cool."
Partway through the serial, Antares wakes up and demands dinner for herself, so Jemma hops up to feed her. "We had a little bit of peace there, anyway," she jokes to Daisy. "I'm afraid she might bother you to play again, now that you've shown her you'll do it."
Daisy snorts. "Oh, no, not that ." She does, in fact, end up wielding the string toy again for a while, which delights Antares.
By the end, Daisy and Jemma are sitting a little closer to each other, almost but not quite touching. Daisy's put her feet up underneath her (after checking to make sure Jemma didn't mind) and is sort of leaning her way, but clearly doesn't want to invade her space if it isn't welcome. Jemma appreciates that; she's only a cuddler under specific circumstances. When the serial ends, she turns expectantly to Daisy. "Well?"
"That was so fun!" agrees Daisy. "If I didn't have to get home and do shit I'd ask if we could watch another, but. I have to do laundry and other boring shit sometime tonight."
"Oh, that's alright, I should get ready for the week as well." Jemma pauses a bit awkwardly. "I... would you like to do this again sometime?"
"I really would." Daisy glances over at her and then somewhat pointedly looks down at her lips. "How do you feel about kissing on the second date?"
Jemma grins. "I'd like that, if you would."
As an answer, Daisy leans over to close the distance between them.
A few gentle kisses later, she pulls back and sighs. "Okay, I should really get going before I talk myself out of it."
Jemma nods, though part of her wishes Daisy could stay too. "This has been wonderful. Text me when you get home?"
"Yeah, I will. Goodnight, Jemma." Daisy leans over to give her one more kiss, so quick and light she almost doesn't process it, and then stands up. "And goodnight to you, Antares," Daisy coos, reaching down to give the kitten a few final pets. "I hope I'll see you both again really soon."
"I think you will," teases Jemma. "Goodnight."
--
One month later, Jemma caves and buys a little collar for Antares. Not that it really matters, since she's an indoor cat (Jemma knows better than to let her outside ever, even though occasionally the kitten will chitter at the birds outside wistfully), but it's the principle of the thing. She finds a blue one covered in night sky print, which seems fitting, and sends Daisy a picture once she's fastened it on. Adorable <3 Daisy texts back.
Fitz only gloats a little when he finds out she's keeping her. "I knew you wouldn't be able to give her up," he crows. "I remember how attached you were to Martin."
Martin was the mascot of their biology department, a little chinchilla that Jemma found herself caring for over winter holiday breaks because no one else was around. She sighs. "Yes, but at least I didn't make him a little bow tie."
"Excuse me, the bow tie was charming!" He grins. "She is cute, though. I bet Daisy was excited too." His tone is turning teasing again.
She tosses her head, pretending to ignore him, but it doesn't really work.
Daisy, in fact, is so excited she hands Jemma an envelope the next time she comes over to watch more Doctor Who . "What-?" Jemma's confusion turns to laughter as she reads the card, which says YOU ARE NO OFFICIALLY IN CHARGE OF ANOTHER HUMAN BEING CAT, GOOD LUCK! Daisy has obviously altered it herself, but it does make Jemma laugh. Inside is a PetSmart gift card and Daisy has written Can't imagine Antares having a better human mom. <3
"You didn't have to get me anything," Jemma protests weakly.
"I know, but you didn't have a... well, I guess it wouldn't be a kitten shower. Although the phrase 'kitten shower' sounds way better than a baby shower, but I might be biased. But anyway, I wanted to help and I thought the card was funny." Daisy leans in to give her a kiss hello. "Let's get this party started, huh?"
"Yes." Jemma goes to grab the DVD. When she turns to head back to the couch, Antares has somehow taken up an entire couch cushion by herself. Daisy is grinning and appears to have done nothing to prevent this. "Ex cuse you," Jemma says, glaring at the kitten, "that is my seat, thank you very much." She deposits Antares on Daisy's lap before the kitten can protest too much and settles herself in.
"Well, it's obviously her house," Daisy teases. "You're just the servant."
"Sounds about right." Jemma laughs and reaches over to scratch behind Antares' ears. "Now, it's time for Zygons."
She feels Daisy lean gently on her shoulder as she presses play.