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Waking up next to Eddie Diaz is a wonderful thing. He runs warm. His body is perfect to snuggle into.
Waking up next to Evan Buckley is also a wonderful thing. He’s innately cuddly. His arms make an amazing weighted blanket.
Waking up next to them both? Well, that’s just perfect. And it’s what she gets to do almost every day.
Call her spoiled, but by night three at their apartment, Eddie had caved and rescinded his order that Copernicus Buckley-Diaz mustn’t sleep in the bed with them. How on earth could he do anything else when she’s just the cutest and fluffiest kitten of all time?
She’s technically not a kitten anymore, now at seven months old, but to Buck and Eddie she’ll always be the tiny little baby Eddie rescued from that tree half a year ago. Their princess.
When she wakes up, Copernicus just savours it for a moment. Yes, her own bed is very nice and she’s been working very hard to maintain her perfect nest over by the window, but the big bed is just so comforting. Something about the smell and the texture makes her want to roll around in the covers and paw at the pillows. When she looks at her sleeping dads, she feels peace. These are her people. Her sassy front disintegrates when she gets to cuddle with them.
Soon enough, though, her stomach is telling her it’s chicken time. And no matter how much she tries to convince her dads that she doesn’t need help with breakfast—that she can totally open the wet food on her own if they would just leave it out—they hide it away from her where she can’t reach it. They insist that it requires human hands. Which means she can’t have chicken time without someone accompanying her to the kitchen.
Thus, she does a biiiiig stretch when she decides it’s time to get out of bed, cuddled between her dads. There’s blond dad and brunet dad. Blond dad (brunet dad calls him Evan but she’s pretty sure his name is Buck) is the heavier sleeper of the two, he usually snoozes the alarm a couple times. But brunet dad (blond dad calls him Eddie) almost always wakes up whenever she decides it’s time to wake up. Usually before the alarm goes off.
What’s wrong with getting an early start on the day? Really, Eddie should be thanking her.
When she finishes her stretch, Eddie is groaning and rubbing the sleep from his eyes, woken up by the brush of her claws as she stretched this way and that. Copernicus sits right beside his head and licks his face until he starts to form some words.
“Buenos dias, michita,” he says, petting her gently and then turning to kiss her forehead.
He seems to be in a good mood today. Sometimes, she wakes him up and he is not having it. He’ll grumble and cover his face with a pillow and poke Buck until he wakes up to feed her instead.
But, today, he’s smiling.
Eddie scratches behind her ears and ohhh, that feels nice. Copernicus purrs and closes her eyes. She loves her Eddie so much.
If she’s not mistaken, though, they’re about to be interrupted by the alarm clock. It would normally be going off right about now. She waits and waits for her purring time to be cut short. Except. It never is.
What’s that about? It’s not the weekend. Sometimes the alarm sounds later on the weekend. But it’s a Friday.
Honestly, she doesn’t pay too much mind to it. As long as she gets her morning pets and her morning chicken.
Speaking of chicken, it’s time to get up, she decides. She jumps onto Eddie’s chest and takes hold of the blanket in her little mouth, trying to pull it off of him. And Eddie has the gall to chuckle at her. Does he not believe in her strength? She could totally pull all the sheets off the bed with her mouth if she tried.
Copernicus drops the blanket to meow loudly at him, telling him off.
“Shh, shh, princesita.” Okay, well, she can’t be mad anymore when he calls her that. “You’re going to wake Dada.”
Copernicus watches on as Eddie sits up and leans over Buck, giving him a soft kiss on the cheek before getting out of bed. She can admit they’re very cute. But please let it be known that she got a good morning kiss first, thank you.
While Eddie pulls on some sweatpants, Copernicus scampers over to the kitchen. She hops up onto the counter and swishes her tail back and forth expectantly as she waits for him. Ten seconds later, Eddie emerges from the bedroom and makes his way down the hall to her.
Copernicus meows again and again until her chicken is where it should be. In her little kitty bowl. She scarfs it down and then the chicken is truly where it’s meant to be. In her little kitty tummy. Yum. She knows it’s the same chicken she has every day, but it somehow tastes better when Eddie gives it to her.
She has a unique relationship to each Buckley-Diaz.
She acts more like siblings with Buck, they can cuddle and love and miss each other dearly, but also play rough and be sassy and mischievous together.
She acts more like a mother to Chris, she loves to spend time with him and nurture him but she also puts up with a lot of things (mostly grabby little toddler hands and many, many too-tight hugs) just because she loves him so much.
But, Eddie. Well, Eddie is like her guardian angel. No matter what she does, everything always comes back to Eddie. Her little kitty heart is full of so so so much love for him.
With her tummy full of yummy chicken breakfast, Copernicus is ready to play.
Eddie seems to be busy in the kitchen. Which is okay. She can entertain herself for hours on end. She goes to the living room to wrestle around with her toys, gnawing at her collection of stuffed mice for a while before she starts to smell what Eddie is up to.
Whatever it is, it smells amazing. Bacon… and pancakes? Sometimes Buck sneaks her little nibbles of bacon as a treat when they have family brunch, and Eddie made teeny tiny pancakes for her once. She would know those smells anywhere. Maybe she’s getting second breakfast? Elevensies? Luncheon? Afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper?
Right away, Copernicus runs over to the kitchen and jumps up on the counter. She stays a safe distance away from the stove and peers into the frying pan, catching a glimpse of what Eddie’s working on. And her hope dwindles as soon as she spots it.
There are no miniature kitten pancakes. Just one big one. One big, wonky, heart-shaped pancake filled with chocolate chips. There’s a similarly misshapen heart-like pancake already on the plate, too, along with some bacon folded into little hearts. All of this points to the fact that the food is not for her. She’s not allowed to have big pancakes or lots of bacon. Not to mention the chocolate, which is completely off-limits. It’s cruel.
Copernicus gives a sullen meow and looks up at Eddie with her softest, saddest kitty eyes.
“It’s not for you, Kissy, I’m sorry,” Eddie pouts back at her.
With another—perhaps more angry—meow, Copernicus loafs on the counter.
“I know, honey,” Eddie uses the back of his hand to pet her as he waits to flip over the pancake. “How about you go see Chris? Go wake up Chris for me, okay?” He points down the hall.
And Copernicus understands her task.
Yes, she can’t necessarily understand or speak the English language, but she can use context clues.
She can pick up most things just based on the tone of voice. She knows what her dads sound like when they’re being sweet to her, or when they’re asking her a question, or when they’re upset, or when they’re happy, or when they’re sad.
And she knows a few names—Buck, Eddie, and Chris, at the very least. She also knows her own, Copernicus, and she knows that she has a few others, too: Kissy, michita, princess, el gato, to name a few. She also gets called honey and baby and sweetheart and that’s where it can get a little confusing; her dads call each other (and even Chris) those names sometimes. But she’s a smart kitty, she can usually figure it out.
So, Eddie asking her a question and saying Chris’ name? Pointing to his room? He’s definitely entrusted her with the important task of waking the toddler of the house.
On a mission, she runs off to Chris’ room and hops up onto his bed. She nuzzles into him and head-butts his tummy a bit and softly meows until Chris starts stretching his little arms above his head. Something smells but that is not her business. She goes back out to the kitchen and smiles when Eddie turns around after hearing her little claws on the tile.
“Thank you, Kissy,” Eddie places the fruit he was cutting onto the plate and wipes his hands on his pants. He almost leaves the kitchen before he remembers something very important—he sneaks one heart-shaped (Jesus, Dad, we get it, you love him) strawberry off the plate and holds it out for Copernicus to jump up and chop on. He even lets her stand on her hind legs to lick his fingers of the sweet juice after. “Dada’s food has to cool down. Can you watch it for me while I give Chris a change?” He points to the plate this time.
Copernicus meows in agreement and springs up on the counter, flopping down next to the plate to keep it company. And totally not stealing a blueberry from it.
“Alright!” Eddie comes back to the kitchen a couple minutes later with Chris held on his hip. “Time to wake up Dada!”
Chris giggles and reaches out for Copernicus while Eddie picks up the plate. Copernicus, of course, lets Chris run his tiny hand through her fur before they depart for her dads’ room.
“Shh, shh, shh,” Eddie whispers as he sets the plate of food down on his bedside table. He sits Chris on the bed next to his sleeping Dada and Copernicus joins him, lying down on the covers.
Eddie goes over to the desk for a moment and pulls a collection of items out of the drawer. He returns and tries to place these oddly shaped cone hat things onto both her head and Chris’. It’s utterly embarrassing but she’ll tolerate it. For Eddie.
Eddie puts on his own weird hat and then shoves a blue stick into the perfectly good pancake! What on earth? But Copernicus doesn’t have too much time to glare at the weird swirly stick thing before Eddie lights it on fire!?
The next thing she knows, Eddie is kissing Buck softly, bouncing Chris on his own lap and singing.
“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…”
Buck slowly rises and blinks his eyes open.
“Happy birthday dear…”
Buck chuckles and smiles on as Eddie makes sure Chris is watching when he points at Buck.
“Who is that?” Eddie whispers.
“Dada!” Chris exclaims.
“Happy birthday dear Dada! Happy birthday to you.” Eddie holds Chris’ hands for him and slaps them together a few times while he cheers. Copernicus, feeling a little left out, meows along with them.
By now, Buck is fully awake and Chris is just itching to crawl into his lap. So is Copernicus, to be honest.
Eddie lets Chris go (in what Copernicus guesses is a distraction, giving him time to get Buck’s breakfast from the table) and Chris happily reaches out for Dada’s arms.
“Thank you, mijo!” Buck hugs Chris tight tight tight. Copernicus shakes off her cone hat thing and hops up onto his chest for her good-morning-happy-birthday hug too. “Oh, hello there, sweetie.”
“You’re gonna have to put our little ones down for a moment, babe,” Eddie scoots Copernicus over and takes Chris back before he hands Buck his plate. “Happy birthday, Evan.”
“Eddie,” Buck whispers, surprised, and sits up to hold the plate. “Baby, you didn’t have to–”
“I did, Ev. Now make a wish.”
Copernicus watches as Buck closes his eyes for a moment and then finally blows out the offending flame.
They all sit in bed together, cuddled around Buck. Chris gets little bits of pancake to eat with his grubby hands. Eddie gets gentle kisses to savour. And Copernicus gets lots and lots of pets (and a teeny tiny piece of bacon).
It feels like hours that they’re lying there, eating, laughing, kissing, snuggling. But there wouldn’t be a more perfect way to spend the morning, Copernicus thinks. She takes a snooze in the cradle of Buck’s arm as he finishes off his breakfast. Buck has Copernicus on one side, Chris on the other, and Eddie on the other side of Chris. They’re such a perfect, happy, little family.
Copernicus hopes Buck’s birthday wish was something special. Something about how she might be able to stay in bed with them all day.
(That is, until auntie Charlotte comes by later to take Chris to daycare.
Because as soon as the door is closed behind them, suddenly Buck and Eddie are stumbling back into their room where Copernicus is still snoozing on the bed and– woah, okay– her dads are kissing. Like a lot of kissing. Like the kind of kissing that precedes stuff she wants to be far away from.
As Buck’s gift, Copernicus vacates their bed so they can have their fun in their birthday suits. She better be paid back for this with plenty of heart-shaped snacks on her birthday.
Which, she totally will be. Her dads love her so very much.)