Work Text:
Tony had closed his gym for that day and decided to have a little jog before heading home. It was a late-autumn night and the chilly breeze seeped through his hoodie, making him shiver.
The day had been long and tiring and the only thing he could think about was the warm dinner he would have before burying himself under the thick blankets and hope for a dreamless night.
A little over a month had passed since Sandi left, vanishing just as fast as she had appeared into his life. He moved out of his place as soon as he could, for it only brought back memories too painful for him to bear. The only thing he had kept of her, even as he tried in vain to forget it, were the words she said to him at the club that night. He was a broken man, incapable of feeling love towards others. An Alpha unworthy of a mate to call his own. “You are your father's son, after all,” a voice in the back of his head snorted. “ All you are good for is hurting others. You may just target the strong instead of the weak, but that doesn’t make you any less of a mons-”
The smallest of whimpers interrupted his thoughts and he paused his jog in front of a dark alley. Tony waited and, when he heard that sound again, he cautiously walked inside the smelly, narrow alley, using his cellphone to illuminate the place. Inside a muddy, broken box in a corner, was the tiniest kitten Tony had ever seen, lying abandoned, frail. He looked around first, trying to find any trace of the mom and siblings, but the alley was completely empty.
So, ever so carefully, Tony picked the little kitten up and placed it in his hoodie pocket and left his hand inside, as a source of warmth for the small animal. He then used his phone to look for the nearest vet and calling them, asking for a late night check and hurried over there, making sure his movements would not be too rough for the kitten. Fortunately, the clinic was just four blocks away.
An Omega dressed in a green veterinarian uniform opened the door for him and, after Tony introduced himself, she guided him to one of the cubicles, where Tony carefully placed the gray kitten on the big, metal table. There, he took a good look at the little fella. Its eyes were closed and its ears folded shut. Its paws were a soft pink and its soft fur was the colour of smoke.
“She’s only a few hours old, by the looks of it,” the vet explained as she gently checked the kitten’s vital signs and her weight. “Sometimes, the mothers will reject their litter as soon as they are born due to different circumstances. Her mother may have abandoned her because of her low weight. You found her just in time, Mr. Masters. Otherwise, she would have frozen to death.” The vet nodded at him and continued her explanation. “She will require you to hand feed her with kitten milk replacement formula and to keep her warm. Young kittens under 3 weeks old can't regulate their own body temperature, so you'll need to place her in a heated kitty bed. I’ll show you how to properly nurse the kitten and give you some recommendations for her care.”
Tony nodded and, picking the kitten up, he followed the vet to the pet shop, where she grabbed cans of kitten milk formula, a feeding bottle and a three-millimetre syringe, a heating pad, a kitty bed and a thermometer from the aquarium section. She explained to him how to prepare the formula and how to properly hold the kitten as he fed her. For the first two weeks, with the syringe, every two hours, and after the third week with the bottle, every four or six hours, at this point, he can start mixing it with solid food. Also, Tony would have to make her burp to release any trapped air.
The vet wrote it down too after Tony asked her to and she also suggested him to get a food scale to measure the kitten’s weight and to come back every week for the next month so she could keep up with the kitten’s evolution. She then took out a health card and asked Tony to fill it in with his details and the kitten ones while she checked out the items. When he got to the kitten’s name, he pondered for a minute and, with a neat handwriting, he wrote “Princess Fluffypaws Masters” before returning the card to the vet, who gave an amused snort at the name. Tony payed in cash and, with the big bag full of his purchases, he placed his kitten inside his pocket again and shielded from the cold with his hand and headed home.
****
If there was a word to describe Tony, it would be “perfectionist”.
For the first two weeks after having found Princess Fluffypaws, he had an alarm ready to set off every two hours to feed the small kitten and for him to make sure that the kitty bed temperature -which he had bought the following day alongside a carrier and a travelling bag-, was still on the lowest setting. He also made her burp and helped her do her necessities.
The morning after he had found her, Tony decided to take her to the gym with him everyday so he could continue her feeding routine. When people started arriving, they were taken back at the sight of Tony, the tall, bulky and broad-shouldered Alpha feeding a ridiculously small grey kitten with a bottle.
Tony ignored the stares from the staff as he gently burped the kitten before putting her inside his sweater’s hoodie for warmth. He clapped his hands and everyone left to their respective machines to start their different workout routines. He walked around the place, giving out different instructions, the small lump inside his hood weighing his sweater down and always stopping every two hours to feed her.
“So, Tony,” Inez, the receptionist, called out to him, “What’s the deal with that fur ball?” She pointed her head at the little cat on Tony’s hand as he fed her.
“Found her abandoned last night in an alley.” Tony shrugged his shoulders. “I couldn’t leave her.”
Inez cooed and gently petted the kitten’s head. “Does she have a name, then? Please tell me it’s not ‘Silver’ or ‘Smoke’ or something stupid like that.”
“Princess Fluffypaws,” Tony deadpanned without looking up, focusing solely on feeding her.
“Oh, Gods, Tony. You… You can’t be serious,” Next to him, Inez snorted and roared a laughter, holding her sides, but one look at the man had her laughing even more, “You are serious. You actually named her that . What are you, four?” The Alpha wiped a tear off her face. “Y-You are the dorkiest Alpha I’ve ever met.”
“Are you done? Then go back to work,” Tony grumbled as he helped the kitten burp and let her sleep inside his hood. Continuing back with his work, he went to the top floor, which had been reformed into a shake bar area and the staff room, to make sure everything was in order there and no one was slacking off.
Tony repeated this routine until the kitten was big and strong enough to eat both solid food and the milk formula, but Tony kept on bringing her to work. First, out of routine, but when she was ready to stay at home, Princess Fluffypaws started crying and meowing loudly when Tony closed the door behind him and he could not bear to hear her like that, so he brought her once again.
Four months later, Princess Fluffypaws was sleeping on the bed Inez had bought for her and had put on the counter, where she could watch over everyone when she was awake and not following Tony around or perfectly still on his shoulder as he walked.
She had truly become the Princess of the gym. And of Tony’s heart.