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It was a cold autumn evening, one where the chill nipped at skin and warm breath was seen dancing in the air on the exhale. A breeze kicked up every now and then, blowing loose leaves on the ground, strong enough to make one shudder and slink further into their coat. The perfect kind of evening to stay inside and lazily loaf around, swaddled up in layers of blankets with a warm cup of tea and an even warmer body to curl up beside while some movie was thrown on the tv. A comfortable, relaxing solace away from the crisp cold air outside.
That was the exact evening Nam-gyu and Thanos planned to have. Nothing but a figuratively chill time away from the literal chill, cuddled up on the couch together under more blankets than they could count while they ate double their body weight in junk food and watched as many cheesy, corny movies as they could before one of them inevitably fell asleep on the other and needed to be dragged to bed. Or at least, it was the evening they planned to have before they realized they neglected to go grocery shopping one week too long and they made the infuriating discovery that they didn't have any snacks for their movie night in.
So despite the bitter chill outside and Nam-gyu's initial stubborn refusal against leaving the cozy heat of their apartment, Nam-gyu opted to go along with Thanos to the convenience store just a couple blocks away when Thanos suggested it. It was one they frequented often for their late night snack hauls, and after Nam-gyu snatched one of Thanos' hoodies to layer under his jacket for extra warmth, he was ready to set off for yet another snack run. He still would've preferred to stay indoors, but he also enjoyed tagging along whenever Thanos went to go do quite literally anything. Braving the cold weather was a small price to pay for more time spent with his boyfriend even if the time spent apart would've been minimal — even a simple half hour was too much time away from Thanos than what Nam-gyu's clingy ass was comfortable with.
The walk to the store wasn't too terrible. The air was chilled, yes, and with Nam-gyu always running more on the cold side he was close to shivering the whole time, but he had the warmth of Thanos' hand in his to make it more bearable. The temperature inside the convenience store was significantly more tolerable, and Nam-gyu may or may not have pretended to be extra indecisive with his food choices so he could stay where it was warmer just a little longer, procrastinating going back out in the cold as much as he could before Thanos got too restless and impatiently tried to hurry him up so they could head back. Once they left the store, Nam-gyu made sure to stay as close to Thanos as he possibly could to sap up his body heat, their hands that were unoccupied with holding bags of junk food clasped together once more.
They got closer to the end of a long street, around the halfway point home, when Nam-gyu heard a faint noise coming from the dark alleyway they were about to pass.
"Did you hear that?" Nam-gyu asked Thanos, slowly coming to a halt right before the alley and indirectly making Thanos stop beside him.
"Hear what?"
"I don't know, it sounded… weird."
"You're the one always paranoid about someone hiding in this alley and popping out to jump us whenever we walk by," Thanos lightly teased, taking a small step forward and lightly tugging Nam-gyu's hand. "Maybe we should go before we get robbed of these bangin' snacks and have to be out in the cold even longer to walk back to the store and get more."
"Why would a human make a noise if they were trying to sneak attack someone to rob them?" Nam-gyu let go of Thanos' hand and cautiously stepped towards the opening of the alleyway. "It didn't sound like a person."
"So you're… gonna walk towards the strange sound you heard in a dark alley at night?" Thanos questioned, sounding bewildered as fuck by Nam-gyu's choices. "You do realize that's how people die in horror movies, right?"
Nam-gyu turned to shoot Thanos a look. "We're not in a horror movie, Thanos. And I'm not walking towards it, I'm just kinda, y'know, looking."
Thanos opened his mouth to speak, but before any words came out, the noise happened again. Loud enough that Thanos definitely heard it now too if the way his face scrunched in confusion was anything to go by. Nam-gyu didn't have that same look of confusion, but one of worry instead. He recognized the noise this time.
"Okay, now I'm walking towards it."
Before Thanos could argue against it, Nam-gyu had dropped the bag he was holding by his feet and set off down the alley.
"I still think this is a bad idea, dude. A really bad one." Thanos called out down the alley Nam-gyu had started to carefully search.
"I think it's a cat," Nam-gyu's panicked voice rang back out to him, "and I think it might be hurt."
"What? Are you sure?"
"I don't know, that's why I'm checking it out."
As Nam-gyu approached an opened cardboard box that looked like it was carelessly dumped on the ground, he heard the soft rustle of plastic down the alley followed by quick footsteps, and when he crouched down to peer inside of the box to take a closer look, Thanos was standing at his side with both of their bags from the store.
"Fuck, you poor little thing," Nam-gyu practically whispered when he caught sight of what was inside.
His suspicions were right, there was a cat curled up and trembling in the soggy cardboard box. A small black one, big enough that it didn't seem like a kitten that lost its mom, but small enough that it still looked fairly young. Most likely left behind by some heartless jackass who couldn't be bothered to take care of it anymore judging by the dirt on its fur and how scrawny it looked. It could've been outside in the alley for days, scared and alone, and the thought made Nam-gyu's heart wrench. He couldn't see any immediate signs of injury, so at least there was that.
"Shit, it really is a cat," Thanos said softly, squatting down beside Nam-gyu and setting the bags down off to the side.
"It looks like it got tossed out here in this box and forgotten about," Nam-gyu uttered. He took a slow, careful breath to try and swallow down the panic that he could hear making his voice unsteady. "I think it was abandoned."
A concerned look broke out on Thanos' face as he wrapped an arm around Nam-gyu's shoulders. "Would someone actually do something like that?"
Nam-gyu glanced over at him solemnly, voice going low. "You know just as well as I do what kind of fucked up shit people are capable of doing."
Thanos whipped his head to the side with a heavy sigh at the unspoken memory. Nam-gyu didn't have to specifically say it, and he didn't want to say it, but they both knew what he meant. Neither of them liked talking about the games or ever wanted to dwell on what happened within them, the memories too painful to bear even when their minds were numbed on whatever drug they could get their hands on, so they silently and mutually agreed to never talk about it.
"So if it was abandoned, then what? What do we do?" Thanos gently asked.
"I don't wanna just leave it out here alone in the cold," Nam-gyu started, leaning into Thanos' touch and feeling him pull him in closer. "I wanna bring it home with us."
"Nam-gyu, baby, look…" Thanos' voice was slow and careful, like he knew Nam-gyu wouldn't like what he was about to say so he wanted to prematurely soften the blow as much as he possibly could. He was even rubbing Nam-gyu's shoulder now: another comforting tactic meant to neutralize Nam-gyu that he knew all too well. "I know you got a soft spot for cats, and I know you don't like seeing it out here, but we can't bring it home with us."
"Thanos—"
"Not because I don't want to," he was quick to establish, "but you know the landlord's dumbass policy on pets. Nothing bigger than a fish allowed."
"We don't have to tell him," Nam-gyu urged. "It's not like he ever stops by the apartment to check shit out, we just send him money for rent and that's it. He wouldn't even know."
"And if he does find out? Say the cat meows too loud, a neighbour calls in a complaint, and we get kicked out for breaking a policy or something. What would we do then?" Thanos kept his voice soft like he knew even the slightest tint of aggression coming through his speech would set off Nam-gyu. He was right for that though, even with a soft calming voice Nam-gyu was getting agitated by his constant refusal.
"You're just being a hardcore pessimist, that wouldn't fucking happen."
"I'm being a realist, man. It could happen."
"It won't," Nam-gyu insisted, leaning upright and away from Thanos and shooting him a serious look. "When the fuck have we ever been ones to follow rules, anyways? I'm not leaving this cat here."
Thanos studied Nam-gyu intently, saw the slight furrow of his brow, saw the fire behind his eyes. He knew there was no way Nam-gyu would back down from this. Not with how stubborn he was, and definitely not with how sentimental he got about cats. When Nam-gyu wanted something, he was very persuasive until he got what he wanted, and it was something Thanos had come to admire about him even if it had a tendency to lead them into sticky situations on the occasion.
A quick huff of air left Thanos' mouth as he looked back at the cat in the box. He was hesitantly contemplating it for Nam-gyu's sake, but it didn't seem practical or realistic for them to very suddenly be the proud owners of a brand new cat. "You know how much shit we'd need to take care of a cat with? We don't have anything for it, we wouldn't be able to take care of it properly."
"We could get stuff for it, Thanos, just—" Nam-gyu took a deep breath. He knew he was starting to sound desperate, but that's because he was desperate to get Thanos fully on his side. "Please. Look at it, it can't survive out here on its own. We can't leave it behind, Su-bong, please."
Thanos looked back at Nam-gyu in time to see him carefully reaching a hand inside the box. The cat sat up and flinched backwards at the intrusion, a quiet meow coming from its mouth as it raised a curious paw up.
"Shit, it must be so scared," Nam-gyu mumbled, keeping his hand still even when the cat bapped at it with its paw. "It's okay buddy, I won't hurt you."
The cat lowered its paw back down and tentatively leaned its head in towards his hand. Nam-gyu practically held his breath while the cat gently sniffed him and assessed for itself if he was to be trusted or not. After a moment of waiting for the cat to make its judgement, it seemed to have made a decision and expressed it in the form of rubbing its face across Nam-gyu's fingers: he was considered a friend.
"Look, hyung, look," Nam-gyu excitedly chanted, tapping Thanos' bicep with the hand that wasn't in the middle of gently scratching the cat's chin. "I think it likes me."
Nam-gyu gave his new buddy a few more scratches under the chin before he pulled his hand back, earning a meow of objection. He inched closer to the box, reaching into it with both hands ever so slowly so he wouldn't startle the cat. When the cat didn't back away from him, Nam-gyu carefully scooped it up and brought it close to his chest, cradling it in his arms. The cat once again rubbed its face contently against him, and when Nam-gyu noticed it started purring, he gasped softly and smiled down at the cat so damn sincerely.
The sight of Nam-gyu holding a cat like a baby and looking at it so tenderly like it really was a baby that he himself just gave birth to was definitely tugging at Thanos' heartstrings. If he didn't know any better, Thanos could've even sworn that Nam-gyu was actually starting to tear up a little over it. This certainly wasn't the kind of persuasion Thanos expected to get from Nam-gyu — hell, Nam-gyu probably didn't even realize the effect this was having on Thanos — but it was proving to be the most effective and efficient form of persuasion yet, despite being completely unintentional.
Thanos tentatively held his hand out towards the cat in Nam-gyu's arms, stilling it right by its face so the cat could gauge him as well now. It slowly turned its head away from where it was more or less nuzzling into Nam-gyu to give Thanos' hand a few careful sniffs, and after it finished smelling him, it simply laid there and stared at his hand. For a moment, Thanos got worried the cat wouldn't take to him like it did to Nam-gyu, but that worry was instantly quelled when the cat gave his finger a lick. And then another one.
"Hey, look, I think it likes me too," Thanos mused, moving his hand to lightly scratch the cat behind the ears and laughing gently when the cat leaned up into it.
Nam-gyu giggled happily beside Thanos and looked over at him, and Thanos took a moment to really look at Nam-gyu, taking in his eyes glossy with sentimentality and his smile so huge and radiant that it made Thanos' heart skip a beat. When their eyes locked Nam-gyu somehow smiled even bigger at him before glancing back down at the cat with an intense fondness woven through every inch of his face. Nam-gyu had already fallen in love with this cat, and Thanos was absolutely done for seeing how happy this little friend in his boyfriend's arms was making him.
Thanos pushed himself off of the ground with a groan, stretching his back as soon as he was upright. "You can carry both these bags home, right?"
Nam-gyu turned his head quickly to shoot Thanos a confused look. "What? Why do I need to carry them both, where are you going?"
"Back to the store. They don't have much for a cat there, but I know they at least have cat food. We can go out and get the rest of what we need tomorrow."
The words took a moment to seep into Nam-gyu's brain, but when they did, a soft smile slowly broke out across his lips. He could cry right in that moment he felt so relieved and plain fucking ecstatic.
"You're serious?" Nam-gyu carefully asked, just in case Nam-gyu's attempt for reassurance on this would make Thanos change his mind suddenly. "You're okay with us bringing it home to keep?"
"Of course," Thanos assured with a smile of his own. "Look at you two. You're bonded for life now, can't separate you guys."
Nam-gyu's smile grew even wider as he gently stood up, leaning over to give Thanos a quick kiss as a thank you. Thanos gave him a kiss right back before giving the cat another scratch behind the ears.
"I hope you know I really appreciate you doing this," Nam-gyu said. He was absolutely beaming at Thanos, and Thanos found himself no longer giving a single shit about their apartment's no pet policy. Anything that filled Nam-gyu with this much joy was worth it to him.
"Anything for you, my boy." Thanos wrapped an arm around Nam-gyu's shoulders to pull him in so he could give him a kiss on the cheek. "We should get going now. Gotta get my baby and our new baby out of this cold."
Nam-gyu giggled to himself, giddy as all hell, and nodded in agreement. He carefully readjusted his hold on the cat, cradling it gently with one arm so he could grab their bags from the store with his free hand. Once everything was collected him and Thanos walked out of the alley and back to the sidewalk. As soon as they got to the sidewalk, Thanos gave Nam-gyu another quick peck on the cheek before pulling his arm back from around his shoulders.
"When I get back home, we should call a vet. Gotta make sure that little cutie doesn't have any problems and make sure it's fixed and all that shit," Thanos suggested with a vague wave of his hand.
"Good call," Nam-gyu agreed. "I also wanna know if it's a boy or a girl, that way I know what to name it."
Thanos raised his eyebrows at that one. "So you know what to name it, huh? I don't get a say in it?"
"No, you'd probably try to name it some Marvel shit like Gamora. Or Nebula, or whatever."
"I would not," Thanos insisted, putting a hand on his chest in mock-offence at being that predictable. All Nam-gyu had to do was look at him in silence with a blank face for a whopping three seconds before Thanos crumbled. "Okay, I would. But you gotta admit, those names would go hard as fuck if it's a girl."
"Absolutely not," Nam-gyu replied with a light-hearted laugh. "Now get going, we can talk about this at home when I'm out of the cold and you have food for our new child that you are definitely not naming."
Thanos shook his head with a small grin on his face. "Fine. I'm just happy I rubbed off on you enough that you even know their names in the first place."
"How about you go back to the store already, and I head home so you can hurry up and come rub off on me for real to warm me up after being in this cold for so long?"
"Oh, I like the sound of that."
With a quick wink and a playful smirk, Thanos was turning on his heel to head back off to the store, and with a small smile and quiet laugh to himself, Nam-gyu started walking back to their apartment. He was looking forward to showing his and Thanos' new pet around their place and introducing it to its new home.