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When Yoongi hears the door open, he’s met with the familiar smell of his humans. His nose twitches as a new smell enters his senses. He opens his eyes slowly, wondering if maybe they’d left the window open and some scent from outside was blowing into the screen. But no, the window is closed. The smell is coming from inside the apartment.
“Yoongi,” he hears the female human call for him in her sing-song voice. He’s still focused on the scent. He stretches as he stands, before jumping down and walking towards the front hallway.
The female human is holding something wrapped in blankets. He sniffs the air again, and that’s definitely where the smell is coming from. But it doesn’t smell like food…
He meows gently as he walks over and begins rubbing on her feet to welcome her home, wanting his pets as is normal when his humans return home. The male human leans down, scratching him behind the ears quickly before they both begin walking into the living room.
Yoongi follows, unsure as to why he wasn’t getting the attention he is used to receiving when they return home. He suspects it has to do with whatever brought the new smell into his house.
The smell wasn’t bad, it was quite pleasant, really. But it was new, it was foreign, so it made Yoongi a bit on edge trying to decide if it was a threat. He meows at them as they sit on the couch, both looking at the bundle of blankets lovingly.
He jumps up beside the female, wanting to take a closer smell of whatever it is she’s holding. She doesn’t seem to mind, not pushing Yoongi away. Yoongi puts his front paws on her shoulder, trying to get a better look. It makes her laugh, so Yoongi rubs his face on her cheek.
“Do you want to meet your brother?” She turns to look at Yoongi, and Yoongi…what does she mean brother?
She takes her hand and moves the blanket until a tiny little human face is visible. A baby. They had a baby. That was the new smell. And well, Yoongi wasn’t sure about this.
He backs up and hisses, showing his confusion at what is in front of him.
“No need to hiss,” the woman tells him with a smile. “He won’t hurt you.”
But Yoongi isn’t so sure. Sure, this human is tiny but it’s new. It’s not something Yoongi has ever seen or been around. So how can he know this tiny thing isn’t a threat?
He jumps down off the couch and goes across the room to his cat tower, getting up as high as he can to monitor the situation. He lays down and stares at the blankets as his tail thrashes back and forth, daring it to move and do something dangerous.
He isn’t sure when, but he definitely fell asleep. And he is jolted awake by a sound so loud it makes his hair stand up on end. He lays his ears back, eyes settling on the source of the noise. And of course, it’s the tiny human in the female’s arms.
“Shhh, it’s okay,” he hears the female trying to soothe the tiny human. She begins singing to it and rocking it back and forth. Yoongi always liked her singing, it was a calming sound for him. It seems to work on the tiny one too, the cries lessening until you can only hear it breathing.
Yoongi wasn’t sure about this new resident in his house. Not if being startled awake is going to become a common thing. But maybe it won’t be.
Wrong.
For a week, Yoongi is constantly woken up by screams from the tiny human. Even if it’s in another room, which Yoongi does not dare enter, it still can be heard from all rooms.
He watches from his tower as the male human trudges into the kitchen, making a drink in a bottle for the little one. Yoongi jumps down and goes into the kitchen, attempting to ignore the loud noise still coming from the room he avoids.
He rubs up against the male’s leg, meowing at him.
“Hey Yoongi,” he reaches down and gives him a couple pets. “Did Jeongguk wake you up?”
He keeps hearing that name, Jeongguk. It must be what they call the tiny human. Yoongi meows again, pawing at his leg for more affection.
“Sorry buddy, gotta give Jeongguk his bottle.” He sounds exhausted as he says it. Why does this tiny human require so much attention?
Yoongi follows him towards the room, sitting just outside of the open door as he watches the male pick up the tiny human from behind some bars and walk him over to a chair where he sits and holds the bottle up towards the tiny human’s mouth.
The tiny human stops making noise immediately, the male smiling big as he watches. Once the bottle is empty, the male carefully puts Jeongguk back behind the bars, watching him for a little bit. It must be asleep.
Yoongi decides to use this quiet time to get another nap, having been so rudely woken up by this tiny human’s screams.
It doesn’t take much longer though, for him to be woken up again. Only this time he doesn’t hear his humans moving to go help, just the tiny human’s wails. He yet again jumps down and goes to investigate, hearing the humans say something like “he’ll cry it out.”
Well, that is not acceptable to Yoongi, this crying it out thing. He can’t wait. He needs to sleep. He ventures into the room, slowly and low to the ground, getting closer to the screams.
He gets up on his back feet to look inside. The tiny human is wearing clothes that cover its hands and feet and his face is red. He doesn’t smell any differently, the same as he did when he first came home.
The tiny human does seem to be in distress though, and it makes Yoongi begin to worry. Why weren’t his humans coming to help?
He lowers his front legs back to the floor and jumps up on top of the bars that keep the tiny human safe. Jeongguk looks at him, his eyes gigantic as his bottom lip juts out. He’s whining but not as loud, as if Yoongi’s sudden appearance startled him into silence.
Yoongi jumps down into the bars, sniffing at where the fabric covers Jeongguk’s hands. Jeongguk begins to get louder again, so Yoongi does the only thing he can think of. He lays down beside the tiny human, purring as loud as he can in an attempt to calm him.
The cries slowly begin to subside, as Jeongguk settles down beside him. He can hear footsteps coming, but he dares not move.
“Yoongi? What are you doing in there? Are you keeping Jeongguk company?” she doesn’t sound upset that Yoongi has encroached on the tiny human’s face. Instead, he sees her hold up her phone and hears what sounds like a shutter sound as if she was taking a picture.
Yoongi actually finds laying next to the tiny human comforting, and he’s proud of himself for helping to calm him down. Maybe this tiny human isn’t so bad after all.
Yoongi spends a lot more of his time in Jeongguk’s room, watching as his humans care for him.
Eventually, other people come to visit. New scents and smells filling up his house. And every single one of them appears to be here for Jeongguk. Yoongi never leaves his side. He doesn’t know most of these people, therefore he must protect the tiny human.
And he does, hissing and swatting at anyone who dares to reach into his space.
His humans scold him, picking him up and putting him back on the floor, but don’t they understand he’s doing this for Jeongguk? These are strangers. He learns to keep his distance, learns not to hiss and swat, but he stays close. He keeps his eyes focused on Jeongguk, ready to pounce at the slight inkling that he is being harmed.
Anytime he whines, Yoongi is right there, sniffing at his head to make sure he’s okay.
“Your cat seems to love him a lot already,” one of the strangers says as Yoongi rubs his cheek on Jeongguk’s head. He had to make sure these people knew Jeongguk was his, that this tiny human was his tiny human.
Yoongi quickly learns what Jeongguk’s cries mean; knowing if it’s because he needs something or is just fussy. When it’s because he needs something, he is quick to go get his humans; waking them up if need be with his own meows and leading them back to Jeongguk’s room.
They always give him a quick pet as a way to say thank you, before tending to Jeongguk’s needs.
Yoongi has learned that when he’s just being fussy, he likes when Yoongi lays his head on his chest and purrs. So Yoongi does it as often as he can, mostly to preempt the screams that can still startle him.
Before he knows it, Jeongguk is crawling. He watches as Jeongguk crawls towards him. He stops in front of Yoongi and sits down, reaching out to grab his tail. Yoongi lets him, because Jeongguk is gentle. He never pulls, he just holds. He’ll even follow Yoongi around the house, pouting when Yoongi jumps up out of his reach.
Yoongi has come to adore Jeongguk, wanting to keep him close. Not only because he feels protective, but because he likes it. He enjoys cuddling up to Jeongguk’s small, warm body for a nap.
He watches as Jeongguk grows even more; the crawling turning into walking, the noises turning into words. When he falls, Yoongi is the first one to him, making sure he’s not hurt. If he’s crying, he licks his hand or his cheek, trying to calm him down. Trying to let him know he’ll be okay.
He develops a bond with Jeongguk he didn’t know was possible between cat and human. He loved his other humans a lot, they were good to him. But Jeongguk was his favorite, despite his inability to feed him. That was still up to the other humans, and Yoongi appreciated it.
“What’s that?” the female human says to Jeongguk, pointing at where Yoongi sits on the arm of the chair watching.
“Cat!” Jeongguk says with a giggle, reaching out for Yoongi.
“That’s right! His name is Yoongi. Can you say Yoongi?”
“Ooni!!” Jeongguk tries, but can’t quite say it like his other humans.
It sticks though, when the humans come back from outside with Jeongguk, the first thing they say is “There’s Ooni!” as Yoongi rushes to the front door to welcome them home.
It’s always followed by an excited “Ooni!” from Jeongguk as he attempts to reach for Yoongi.
One day, Yoongi is laying with Jeongguk, both sleeping soundly when he hears his name being called from other room. He dare not budge for fear of waking Jeongguk up.
But then his ears turn as he hears the shaking of a treat bag. He gets up carefully, jumping out and running towards the sound.
His female human is on the couch, treat bag in hand.
“There you are, were you with Jeongguk? Do you want a treat?”
Yoongi jumps on the couch beside her and paws at her leg as his eyes study the treat bag. She opens it and holds a few in the palm of her hand for him to eat. He takes them carefully, making sure he doesn’t bite her skin.
She places the bag to the side and begins petting him from his ears to his tail.
“I’m sorry if you haven’t gotten as much attention from us lately. Raising a baby is hard. I’m glad he has you, though.”
Yoongi walks into her lap and curls up as he lays down, purring.
“You and Jeongguk are best friends, huh?” she continues with the pets. “You’re such a good boy, yes you are.” She begins scratching him underneath his chin, Yoongi’s favorite spot.
“Look who’s awake?” his male human walks in with Jeongguk in his arms.
“Ooni!” Jeongguk squeals, pointing at Yoongi who is still curled up in her lap.
The male human walks towards them, sitting beside them on the couch as he puts Jeongguk into his lap.
Jeongguk immediately lays over, putting his head on Yoongi’s stomach and wrapping his little arms around him as best as he can.
This was home.