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“I can see why you thought they hate each other, but it seems to me like she's just really shy around him,” the behaviourist said, standing up and dusting her trousers.
“'Her?'” Stephen asked, glancing at Gray—his partner shrugged. “They're both males.”
The woman blinked a couple of times.
“Really?” She went around the orange tabby, trying (and failing a couple of times) to look under his tail. She chuckled. “That explains it somewhat. Gerard seems to be 'courting' Teddy.”
“But they're both neutered.” Gray frowned.
“It's strange, but cats act in peculiar ways sometimes. What matters is that Teddy doesn't seem to really mind. He's hissing at Gerard, but his body language suggests he likes the attention.”
“We have gay cats.” Stephen said later, throwing himself into Gray's lap as the man sat on the sofa.
“Like owners, like cats,” Gray replied, not even lifting his eyes from the book he was reading.
Stephen groaned into his thigh.
Stephen opened the carrier door, letting Gerard out into the room, quickly catching him and snapping the leash to Gerard's harness. He let the cat wander around the room, and sniff the chairs, before extending the leash to finish taking out the supplies for the day: some paper and crayons, as well as put Gerard's litter tray out.
Today was the first session of the new group of kids, so he was extra careful to let Gerard get used to the room before starting—he didn't want the cat to feel unsafe.
When he let the kids in, he made sure to keep his eyes on the cat—Gerard tended to be a bit shy with new people. Stephen needed him to get used to the new smells first.
“Hi everyone, I'm Stephen, I will be conducting your cat therapy sessions. This is Gerard, he will be our feline assistant. He has a burn scar above his eye, so he might look a bit mean, but he's a very gentle young man.”
He was met with silence. The kids seemed to be all around ten, but he couldn't say he was surprised that even older kids would be quiet. Talking to their parents prior, he gathered that all three were somewhat “antisocial”. All of them struggled with communication, one of them barely spoke at all.
Well. It was his job to get them comfortable anyway.
“Before we start, though, let's go over the basic rules, alright?”
Stephen and Gray got both of their cats around the same time. It started with Gerard, who Stephen adopted for the purpose of felinotherapy. His long, blue, ashy coat miraculously survived his past experiences as well as the conditions at the pet shelter (though it still took a lot of care to bring it to perfect condition), and his friendly nature made him an amazing therapy cat. Stephen was told during adoption that he was given up by his previous owner, along with his pedigree registration certificate, after he was set on fire by their kid. They apparently didn't want him now that he wasn't a pretty house decoration any more.
Teddy came along a few months later. Their first meeting was when they saw Teddy stare at Gerard eating through the window. Their second meeting was when he snuck in through the balcony while they were airing the house. They live on the fourth floor. They still don't know how he did it.
They didn't have the heart to throw him out, so they took him to the vet for a checkup, cured his itch mite, and neutered him, and… he never left the house again. Not after they let him out to the balcony, not when they forgot to close the door one time (Gerard almost ran out that day, Teddy hissed that idea out of his head), not even for walks on the leash or for a potential felinotherapy evaluation (they didn't even try, with how antisocial he was with strangers).
And now? They had two cats, a moggie that stared at the birds outside like they were spouting profanities at him, and a Norwegian Forest with a burn scar on his eye, who was, apparently, trying to mate with him.
Gay cats.
Truly a wondrous family.
“Hah! Look at this!” Stephen shouted, unzipping the guitar case. They were at his parent's house, visiting for holidays, and looking through Stephen's old belongings. They had already found a stash of sketchbooks and scribbled-in notebooks, his crutches from after his accident, a pen covered in grey Play-Doh, and a gold mine of mouldy sandwiches he had the brilliant idea of “growing mushrooms on” at six years old. His old guitar was a reasonable next find.
“It's off-pitch after all this time, but I think it should still work somewhat,” he added when his partner entered the room, accompanied by Gerard right before him. The cat tilted his head at the object, before walking up and sniffing it curiously. Stephen tugged at one of the strings. It was completely out of tune, but it pitched Gerard's interest regardless.
Now, Gerard didn't often meow. Usually when it happened, it was because he was asking for something.
And yet, in that exact moment, Gerard let out a yell so loud it stunned both his owners and summoned his companion. An excited yell. He began rubbing his head against the object, pulling on the strings with his paw, and meowing even more.
It got to the point where Stephen's parents came to ask if they're torturing the cat.
Gerard liked to sleep a lot. And by a lot, Stephen means a lot. To a point where it would be a sign of an illness for any other cat.
Not Gerard. He simply liked sleeping.
And Teddy? Teddy liked to use that to his advantage.
Around a month into living together, Teddy began to busy Gerard's cat bed, despite having his own, identical bed. He liked it especially when Gerard was already there, which made the situation all the more interesting to watch. Teddy would cuddle up to the cat twice his size, wrap his paws around his head, and begin cleaning his head, paying extra attention to the scar on his face. It reminded Stephen of the time when he was still recuperating after his accident, and Gray would visit him and help with his exercises.
Gerard clearly liked the attention, as, more often than not, he would begin purring almost instantly after his (boy?)friend climbed into his bed, and wrapping his tail around him. He would even sometimes lick Teddy back, but the smaller cat seemed to be showing dominance too much to allow it.
Strange, Gerard didn't seem to feel inferior to him.
Gerard had a natural love for music, it seemed. It went against practically everything Stephen knew about cats, but honestly? Gerard was already strange enough, what's one more weirdness going to do?
So they began working on it.
Stephen tuned the guitar, then bought a new one when more issues came up and the cost of fixing it became larger than simply replacing it. They began working on Gerard's attunement (the cat gained a good kilo from all the treats, and that was with all the additional exercise Stephen made sure to give him), and somehow, one day, they managed to play their first song together.
Stephen had pondered for a long time which song it should be. Something he can play at the sessions? Something silly? Something meaningful?
He pondered for a couple of weeks, while he tried to harness Gerard's ability to meow in different pitches at different notes. Truly, if reincarnation was real, Gerard must have been a musical genius in his previous life.
What he settled on, in the end, was a song Gray would recognise immediately, probably on its first note, even. Which was why he made sure to practise it only when the man was at work, saving people's bodily autonomy as a physiotherapist.
He barely made it in time for their anniversary, but when the day came, he threw together a romantic dinner (Gray always insisted the heart-shaped candles and red lighting were unnecessary, but Stephen wouldn't leave them out if he could help it), and hid the guitar and freeze-dried chicken for Gerard behind the counter.
They ate like they did on normal dates of this sort (they happened relatively often, not because Stephen didn't like taking Gray out, but because he just did these that frequently), and when they were finished, he pulled the guitar out and shook the cat snack bag, calling Gerard over.
Gray seemed to know immediately what was about to happen, as he raised his eyebrow at his partner, trying to force his smile down. Stephen didn't hide his own as he sat Gerard on the chair next to him, and plucked the first string.
The thing was, this was the song Stephen proposed to Gray to. Back then, it simply played in the background as he pulled the box with the promise ring out of his pocket and kneeled before his beloved in their kitchenette. They were a couple of years younger back then, still attending university, sharing a studio flat funded by Gray's parents (who never even cared enough to find out he was living there with another man) and much less sure in either of their lives.
They had come a long way since, as evident by the fact that they now owned a flat large enough to comfortably fit two cats in, with three litter trays. They couldn't legally get married yet (Stephen will mourn the stupid Korean law until it changes), but their unofficial wedding photos hung on their walls, accompanied by their family and friends.
They wanted, deserved more, but as things were: they were happy.