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For the most part, having a hybrid isn’t really that different from having a roommate. Kei would know; she’s had a few throughout her whole life. Roommates, that is.
In fact, her last roommate Fuma had actually been the one to suggest adopting a hybrid after he left Kei to move in with his boyfriend and his boyfriend’s cat hybrid. Kei hadn’t been too keen on the idea at first; having to get used to someone new in her space was a herculean task in this day and age. And considering how busy she got at work, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to put in the time for a hybrid.
Or for anyone, really. The only reason her setup with Fuma had even worked is because they’ve been best friends since college. He knew her best, which was a good thing when they still lived together, but now…
“If I needed ‘companionship,’” Kei quoted with her fingers, “I’d go to the club. Or get on a dating app. Not adopt a hybrid.”
The face Fuma made would’ve been funny if it hadn’t been so… omniscient. Unnaturally wide-eyed, oddly piercing. Straight through Kei’s soul.
“I just don’t think it’s for me,” she continued, feeling weirdly defensive, as she tended to whenever Fuma looked at her like that. Like he knew something about her that she didn’t, which was a ridiculous notion when Kei was the bastion of self-awareness.
“I know you hate taking my advice, but seriously,” Fuma said, mildly exasperated. “I’m not telling you to adopt if you really don’t want to— I know it’s not for everyone. But go to the club, then. Get on the apps. Take Euijoo up on his offer to introduce you to his friends. I can’t listen to you complain about being alone forever when you never do anything about it.”
“I don’t complain,” Kei grumbled as she took a swig of her beer. “And I don’t actually care if I’m alone forever. I don’t need anyone.”
“Of course not.” Fuma nodded placatingly. “That’s why you’ve been hanging out here every single day since I moved out. Not,” he cut Kei off just as she opened her mouth to protest, “that there’s anything wrong with that— Euijoo and Yuma love when you come over. But there’s also nothing wrong with admitting you like having someone around just for the sake of it, not because you ‘need’ it.”
Kei had stared at him then, pursing her lips.
“Right,” she said slowly, a little miffed.
The childish contrarian in her wanted to argue, but Fuma wasn’t wrong; Kei was a people person through and through, and maybe it had been weird coming home to a quiet apartment after years of living with Fuma. No more shoes scattered by the entryway, no more takeout containers waiting for Kei on the counter. No more muffled video game sounds coming from the living room in the wee hours of the morning. Too many beers left in the fridge. Too empty to call home.
No, Kei didn’t need anyone, but it was definitely nice having someone to share her life with.
Instead of acknowledging it, she said, “Are you saying you hate it when I come over?”
And that had been the end of that conversation.
Unfortunately, Kei would be a liar if she said it didn’t continue to plague her afterwards. But she wasn’t Fuma.
𑄝
She thought about what he’d said— about adopting a hybrid.
She mulled it over so hard, in fact, that she ended up at her local hybrid shelter one day. Just to stay informed, she tried telling herself. Sure, she had a few hybrid colleagues at work, but hybrid adoption wasn’t exactly something you could discuss in a professional environment. Kei wouldn’t even know what to ask, really.
But before she knew it, meeting the hybrids at the shelter turned one visit into two, into three, into every two weeks. Up until that point, the only hybrid she’d ever really been close with was Fuma’s boyfriend’s cat, Yuma. But the more she visited, the more she got to know everyone there.
She ended up befriending the volunteers and the hybrids as she learned about their lives; there were a few kids at the shelter, but most of the hybrids there were adults or older teens who no longer had human bonds.
“Not that grown hybrids need a human bond the way the younger ones do,” Minjeong, one of the volunteers, had explained to Kei on her first visit. They were standing by the entrance of the recreation room, where a group of hybrids were playing ping pong. “But some of them miss the company and seek it out even in adulthood.”
Guess they’re not the only ones, Kei thought distantly.
“They all have their own reasons, of course, but— you see over there, with the pink hair?” Minjeong nodded over at the ping pong table, towards one of the cat hybrids who were playing. Her ears were stark black against the soft strawberry pink of her hair, and her eyes were sharp when they met Kei’s for a brief moment, as if she could hear Minjeong talking about her. Maybe she could.
“That’s Nico,” Minjeong said quietly. “The family that adopted her when she was a kid kicked her out as soon as she turned eighteen, so she’s been with the shelter ever since. It’s a pretty common case, unfortunately. People think you can just adopt a hybrid kid and show them off for a few years, then get rid of them when they’re older— they have no idea how rough it is for hybrids to form new bonds without the humans they grew up with. We do our best to help, but…” She trailed off with a sigh.
Kei’s eyes flitted back to the ping pong table, gaze meeting Nico’s once more. The cat hybrid quickly looked away, ears twitching.
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The first thing Kei did when she got home was send a donation to the shelter.
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Despite what she’d initially told Fuma about adopting, she found herself genuinely considering it as she visited more frequently. It had become something for her to look forward to, and it was in no small part thanks to the people she met there. In particular— Nico.
The cat hybrid had seemed a little aloof when they first met, often side-eyeing Kei from a distance until she brought snacks to the shelter one day and offered Nico a strawberry macaron. After that, she started hovering around Kei like a…
Well, like a stray cat.
Though Nico liked to keep her physical distance, she was kind and easy to talk to. Kei learned that she liked sweet treats and shiny things and was unexpectedly cute even though she liked to act tough. She was adopted from Taiwan when she was a kitten and hasn’t been back since. She graduated from community college recently and worked at the nearby hot pot place to keep herself afloat while applying for ”real jobs”.
“It’s rough out here,” Nico bemoaned dramatically, ears flattening against her head, but they perked back up a second later. “But what about you, unnie? What do you do?”
It was hard not to like Nico. She had a lot of stories to tell and even more questions to ask, endlessly curious about Kei’s life outside of her shelter visits.
“Nothing exciting, honestly. I’m a legal secretary, but work’s pretty quiet right now,” Kei replied with a shrug, feeling a little sheepish for some reason, “so this is the most exciting my life has been recently.”
“No boyfriend? Girlfriend? Hobbies?”
“Am I getting interviewed for something?” Kei laughed. “I’m a lesbian, but no, and… does working out count? I’ve been slacking since my roommate moved out, though. He was my gym buddy.”
Nico tilted her head. If Kei hadn’t been watching her, she would’ve missed the way Nico’s eyes flitted up and down, like she was trying to figure out what Kei’s arms looked like under her sweater.
“You looking for a new one?” Nico asked casually, half-joking, half not. Her ears twitched, and her tail swished behind her almost tentatively, like she was gauging Kei’s reaction.
An amused smile spread across Kei’s face. “A roommate, a gym buddy, or a girlfriend?”
Nico let out a surprised laugh. Her tail flicked over to her front as if attempting to hide the growing redness of her cheeks. “Just—” Her voice cracked, and she cleared her throat in embarrassment and quickly shook her head. “Just a roommate is fine. If— if you’re looking.”
“I’ve been thinking about it,” Kei said, lips quirking at the corners. “Do you know anyone who might be interested?”
𑄝
The paperwork had taken longer than anything else. Kei understood why, of course; legally, she was signing up for a lot more responsibility than just being someone’s roommate, even if sometimes it didn’t really feel that way.
Because after all had been said and done, Nico fell into step with Kei so seamlessly that it was almost like she’d been by her side the entire time.
She kept her shoes organised by the entrance, a small array of what Kei could only call stompers taking up most of the space on the shoe rack. She would bring home containers of hot pot ingredients and broth from work for her and Kei to share whenever she could get away with it, and she would drag Kei into watching shitty vertical dramas on the TV with her while they had dinner.
She brought life back into Kei’s apartment— their apartment, their home, now. Kei would’ve started to forget what her life had been like before Nico, if it weren’t for… a few things.
Really strange things.
Kei had done as much research as possible, but having never had a cat hybrid until then, she didn’t know how much of the information she’d found online was true. She had no way to really know how much of Nico’s strangeness could be chalked up to her being a hybrid, versus her just being Nico.
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Exhibit A:
“Nico,” Kei warned as she watched Nico’s tail brush dangerously close to Kei’s cup of coffee, almost dipping into it. Kei pushed the cup out of Nico’s reach, to the other end of the dining table.
In response, Nico swished her tail over where the cup had been, as if to knock over the imaginary version of it instead. “It’s just so tempting,” she groaned in dissatisfaction, slumping back into her seat beside Kei. Her tail slid off the table, dejectedly curling around the leg of Kei’s chair.
Kei was working from home that day for the first time since Nico moved in. “Is this what you get up to when you’re home alone?” she asked, concern dissipating into amusement as Nico’s tail turned its attention to Kei’s leg. “Knock things over with your tail?”
Nico looked almost offended for a second. “No— well. Nothing fragile, anyway. I would never break your things.”
“Right.” Kei nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe we need to get you some enrichment materials.”
Nico barked out a laugh. Her tail was in Kei’s lap now. “You can say toys, you know.”
Kei made a face at that. “You’re a grown woman,” she teased, before promptly receiving a mouthful of tail.
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Exhibit B:
One of the things Kei liked about Nico was her impeccable style and her knack for self-care.
Kei came to the realisation that there was truly a whole nother world out there after they went shopping together for the first time; she’d never even heard of half the skincare and hair care products that Nico used until that day. Kei made sure to make a mental (and digital) note for future reference.
But even though she was eager to learn more about Nico’s styling tips, she did not need to know that 150 thousand won hairbrushes existed.
“I swear it’s worth the price,” Nico had insisted, shoving her tail and the brush into Kei’s hands so she could try it out. “It’s the only brush that helps with my shedding.”
Kei suddenly remembered the black fur she’d seen down the shower drain, and the concerning amount of pink hair strands that Nico had stuck to the shower wall, and she sighed deeply.
The bougie brush had better be worth it.
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Exhibit C:
When she first moved in, Nico brought all of her belongings in a single huge cardboard box. Kei had offered to throw it away for her once she’d finished unpacking everything, but all she said was, “I might need it again.”
Kei didn’t think she meant—
“Did you make a pillow fort in there?” Kei asked incredulously, clutching her chest. She was still recovering from the heart attack she’d received when she saw the box right outside her room and peeked into it in confusion, only to find Nico curled up in there.
“…What do you think?” Nico asked, voice slightly muffled as she sank further into the pillows. She blinked up at Kei, her usually-sharp eyes looking unusually soft and round.
Like boba balls, Kei’s mind supplied helpfully.
Her heart had barely just calmed down when a wave of cuteness aggression suddenly washed over her. “You’re so cute, Nico-chan,” she squealed, reaching into the box to… pinch her cheeks? Pet her between the ears? Kei didn’t really think about it.
But she didn’t even get the chance to try, because at the next second, Nico’s tail was swatting her hand away before she could even get close.
Kei pulled away immediately. “Sorry,” she said, a little taken aback by Nico’s reaction, though the cat hybrid seemed almost as surprised as her. “I should’ve asked first.”
Nico quickly shook her head, tail curling up to hide her face in embarrassment. “No! No, it’s okay. I just— you can—” Nico struggled with her words for a moment, before settling on, “You can.”
She reached for Kei, their fingers tangling together for a brief moment as she guided her hand towards the top of her head.
Kei only hesitated for a second before carding her fingers through Nico’s hair, blunt nails gently digging into her scalp. Her hair was soft despite all the pink box dye, most likely thanks to her (also ridiculously expensive) hair mask. The product’s strawberry scent lingered like Nico had just recently come out of the shower, or maybe she just smelled sweet all the time.
Then Kei moved to scritch behind Nico’s ears, soft and warm, and the box started… vibrating.
Kei paused. Nico’s eyes had fluttered shut, seemingly uncaring of the strange vibrations, until Kei realised—
“Are you… purring?”
Nico stopped almost immediately, as she pulled away from Kei once more, ears drooping for reasons unbeknownst to her.
“Hey, wait—” Kei tried to say, but Nico just burrowed herself deeper into the pillow fort.
𑄝
Fuma was visiting Kei for a change, and he was sprawled out on the couch like he still owned the place when Kei finally asked him one of her burning questions.
“Is Yuma ever… weird about skinship?”
Fuma snorted, not even sparing her a glance as he swerved in real life to avoid a banana peel in Mario Kart. “Yuma’s weird about a lot of things, skinship included. Why do you ask?”
“Nico,” Kei lamented. “She’s been— I don’t know. One second everything’s going great; she’s adjusting well, I’m adjusting well, then the next she’s hiding in cardboard boxes and pushing me away even though she wanted me to pet her. I mean— it’s okay, she can change her mind, but I don’t know what I did for her to suddenly switch up like that and now she’s avoiding me and I don’t know why.”
Fuma took a moment to overtake Kei as Princess Peach before responding.
“Well, people say female cats are usually less affectionate… but if she was already showing signs of affection and suddenly stopped—”
The sound of the front door opening quickly shut Fuma up. He and Kei glanced at each other, before glancing at the entryway where Nico shortly appeared. She stopped in her tracks, brows furrowed, ears and tail standing alert.
Then she saw Fuma on the couch, and hissed.
“Why do you smell like that?” Nico demanded, and it dawned on Kei that she could probably smell Yuma on Fuma’s clothes. Nico hadn’t met either of them in person yet; though Kei talked about them often, she had failed to consider how Nico would react to randomly finding Fuma in their house, smelling like another cat, especially when she’d been in a bad enough mood as it was.
Kei felt terrible. “Nico-chan—”
“Whatever,” Nico huffed like she was about to storm off. But then she instantly backtracked, as if she’d suddenly returned to her senses, and her ears flattened against her head.
Her tail swished anxiously behind her, gaze flitting quickly between Kei and Fuma. “Sorry, I— I just… don’t feel too good,” she struggled to say. “I just need to rest.”
“Go lie down,” Kei fussed, getting off the couch to usher Nico into her room. “Unnie will be right there— Fuma, you can see yourself out, right?”
Fuma looked like he was torn between being offended at getting kicked out, and trying not to laugh. “Yes, ma’am.”
𑄝
Once Kei had successfully wrangled Nico into bed and swaddled her with blankets, she sat by her side to make sure she finished her cup noodles.
“Sorry I couldn’t find anything healthier,” Kei said apologetically. Then, “You should’ve told me you were getting sick.”
Nico stopped chewing, chopsticks halfway to her mouth, when tears suddenly welled in her eyes. Alarmed, Kei took the cup noodles from her hands and set it aside. “Oh, kitty, what’s wrong?” she asked, as Nico curled into a ball to make herself smaller. Her tail curled up around her, and Kei didn’t know what to do.
“I’m sorry for being so ridiculous,” Nico said, voice muffled into her hands, but she sounded so miserable it made Kei want to cry, too. (Sue her, she’s an empath). “I– I shouldn’t have snapped at Fuma like that— he probably hates me now and we barely just met— I know I’m really hard to deal with—”
“No you’re not,” Kei instantly shut down that train of thought. “You’re perfect, Nico-chan. You just need a little help, so let unnie help you, okay? But you need to help me out, starting with telling me when you don’t feel well.”
Nico fell quiet.
“It’s stupid, though,” she mumbled.
Kei’s brows furrowed together. “Of course it isn’t—”
“I’m only like this because I’m in pre-heat,” Nico wailed, tail finally unfurling so she could sit up and face Kei, eyes still watery. “I swear this isn’t me!”
Kei was stunned. How could she not have noticed the signs? The mood swings, the sensitivity… she had felt a little warm to the touch when Kei got to pet her that one time, but Kei hadn’t realised she was warmer than normal.
“You’re okay, Nico-chan,” she said gently, hovering her hand over Nico’s but not touching, in case it freaked her out even more. “Just let me take care of you, okay? It’s no big deal, seriously. It’s the bare minimum.”
It seemed to make Nico feel better, because she reached out to take Kei’s hand in hers, though she still couldn’t quite meet her eyes.
“…I wanted you to like me so bad, you know,” Nico said hesitantly, lightly pressing her thumb into the palm of Kei’s hand. “It’s rare for humans to care about older hybrids. I mean, really care, not just treat us like— you know. So when I heard you were asking around at the shelter, I– I hoped you’d end up choosing me.”
“And I did, and it’s probably the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” Kei rushed to say, because she needed Nico to know.
Nico nodded slowly, like she was still processing it. “And me,” she agreed, almost whispering, gaze flickering upwards to look at Kei through her lashes. “I was just scared you’d end up realising I wasn’t worth the trouble. Not everyone thinks like you.”
“You don’t have to worry about that anymore,” Kei said firmly, bringing their laced fingers to her lips to press a kiss against the back of Nico’s hand. A fresh wave of tears welled up in Nico’s eyes, but instead of sobbing, she laughed wetly and tugged Kei closer, pulling her into her unnaturally warm embrace.
“Thanks for not thinking I’m silly,” Nico sniffled into her ear.
“Well, you kind of are,” Kei said with a laugh, pulling away just enough to press a kiss to her cheek. Nico flicked her tail at Kei’s face in retaliation.