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Ken was scared.
It happened too much, recently.
Fine, maybe she hadn’t been sleeping enough, and maybe he’d been working too hard, and maybe there was something inside her yowling for a break, or something, but that was nothing. That meant nothing.
He had more work to do.
Wifies was out, because he was always out, these days, and that was fine. Ken didn’t need Wifies. She didn’t need Wato, either. He was a lone cat, he didn’t need companionship.
Even if he kept their friendship bracelets hanging off her monitor. Ken would reach out, sometimes, and bat at them. She’d been at it for a few minutes, now, feeling talons glance off plastic beads and computer screens. Felt nice.
The light was beginning to burn his eyes, though. Ken had considered batting at the wires, too, until the whole thing shorted out, but that would be irresponsible. Very bad of her. He wouldn’t do something like that.
It was late. One of them should be home, any second now. Wato had needed to do recording, today, and that meant he was out, somewhere in a studio. Which Ken hardly cared about. They were probably with Wifies, and that was nice.
Another swipe, and Ken felt itchy. Twitchy. Fidgety. Like he wanted to tunnel under a blanket and vibrate until every sensation left his bones.
Just a little more work. Ken would see Wato soon. She never knew when, or even if Wifies would be home. It didn’t bother her.
The taping of his foot reached his ears, after a few more minutes of stilted work. It was hard to concentrate, when Ken wanted to move. To use his claws.
He reached up, to scratch at the back of his neck. It was almost something. She was just itchy, it was helping the discomfort. He could go stim, soon. Soon.
It had been soon for a few hours. The yowling was getting louder, getting distracting, but Ken was working hard. She couldn’t miss work now. Then it would look like he was slacking off, and he wouldn’t look so independent anymore.
One of her friends might notice. They’d make him stop, stop doing something, and Ken wasn’t sure if it would be working or his little routine of crawling around their apartment and scratching himself on things. It just calmed something, in the back of his head.
More tapping. Ken couldn’t bear to sit still much longer. She wasn’t built to not do whatever she wanted. It was boring, and he was a creature of movement and hedonism.
Plus, the words were blurring. It felt like Ken’s head didn’t want him to be reading anymore. Even if this was an important script, that needed editing. Words were big things, human things, and Ken was-
Feeling perfectly human, thank you.
Just a bit fidgety. When Wato came home, Ken was going to annoy her for hours. And Wifies. Just because he was bored. And he hadn’t been given enrichment in… ages.
Well, he hadn’t given himself enrichment. It was his responsibility.
Ken was wallowing, in the misery of that realisation, when she heard the door open. She flinched, ears twitching up, trying to work out who she had available to annoy.
“-they’re all like that? Seriously?”
“Hm… most of them. Blame Parrot.”
“I hate them.”
“Oh, I hate some of them too. Sometimes.”
Both of them.
Ken squeaked, a little, then pressed his hands over his mouth. She was shaking. Excitement, maybe, or something else. Something scratching at her throat.
“Was that- Ken?” Wato’s voice rose, ringing through, and Ken was still muffling his own noises. “You home?”
Ken was physically home. Mentally, far less present. It had been so much, and Wato’s voice was doing something to her. She wanted to crawl, and purr, and cuddle, and other things, embarrassing things.
“She’s home.” Wifies sounded more than a little amused, and Ken was turning red just sitting at her desk. “Are you hiding, Ken?”
How did he know? Ken hated him. Him and Wato, very evil, for making her exist in their presence as her brain was melting out of her ears.
“N- no…”
Ken trailed off, something close to a hiss edging in around his shaking voice. It made her feel small. And scared. Wato would tell her there was nothing to be scared of, it was just the three of them, and they’d protect each other.
But Ken was a little scared of the other two, right now. Not really. A fun sort of scared, that felt like buzzing and a headspace not very suited to script editing.
She didn’t hear Wifies coming up being her.
He just felt Wifies’s hand on her shoulder, soft voice close to his ear.
“Hi, Ken.”
Ken whined. It was more of a purr, really, arching backwards into Wifies, hoping for some contact against the back of his neck. It would feel so good.
But Wifies was mean, and moving past her, shutting down his computers without a blink. Which was rude. He got hissed at, for it, and it took his complete nonreaction for Ken to realise it had been her hissing.
Wato, she heard. He whipped around, too, glaring at them like she’d put Wifies up to something.
“Wato.” Ken was delighted to sound halfway human, and an irritated human. “Get him away from me?”
“Um… what’s he doing?”
“Making Ken log off. Which he should have hours ago.”
Ken pouted. Just a bit, sinking down in her chair under their eyes. She felt hot, in the wrong places, and like she might go for their eyes, if given the chance.
“Oh… yeah, Ken, you asked for this one.”
“Not fair.”
“Life’s not fair. Suck it up.”
Wifies grinned, at his own not-joke, and Ken had enough time to glare at him like the asshole he was before there were cool hands under his arms, lifting her out of the chair like she was nothing.
Impressively, Wifies held her for a good few counts, even as Ken writhed, and kept his claws firmly tucked in. She was complaining. But he’d take it. Pretty willingly. But not without a fight.
“Wato-“
“Got him.”
Ken was treated, briefly, to the dizzying sensation of being passed over thin air, and was a little too caught off guard by the fact she could tell the difference between Wato and Wifies’s heartbeats to squirm, for a few moments.
It was enough time for Wato to get a good grip on him. Which Ken didn’t like. Way too easy. She was harder than that, she was Kenadian, she didn’t go down easy.
But he did like Wato’s heartbeat. And Wato was wearing a suit, which felt nice to rub his head against. Ken heard herself purring, as his ears pressed against thick fabric.
“Aw. Love you too, Ken.” Wato nuzzled her, at what felt like an awkward angle, and purred softly right back. “Cat time?”
“Cat time.” Wifies sounded like he was grinning. He was cute, when he was smiling. In a scary way. “Bedroom?”
“…good idea.”
Ken didn’t get a say, apparently. He would object, really, if he wasn’t a little caught off guard with the normality. Had this happened before? Wifies picked her up sometimes, pretty often, just to watch a film when he wanted a cat hybrid on his lap.
It wouldn’t be so bad, for this to be normal. Ken could curl up in Wato’s arms—a little more confident she wouldn’t be dropped than if it were Wifies—and let waves of sleepy comfort wash over his mind.
God, he was going to fall asleep. Ken wanted to do things. She wanted to bite something, and crawl somewhere, and paw at someone until they reacted.
He yowled, softly, twisting in Wato’s arms. His back and neck pressed against their chest, and Ken trailed into a satisfied hiss, still no less eager to be back on the ground. But it felt good to rub against something.
Wato set him down gently. Ken sat back, hitting her tail, and staring up at the two of them for a moment. They looked so much taller than her. His tail curled around his waist, as her eyes met Wifies’s.
“Come on, Ken. You want to hang out with us, right?”
Well, Ken didn’t care, really. Independent, and all that. Just independent with friends, friends she had under her fucking thumb, because they’d let her be carried and bite them whenever he wanted.
Wifies got a glare, and Ken sighed, swapping forward onto his hands and knees as her tail twitched again. It was curled in the air, threatening either of them to say a thing.
Wato cooed, and reached down to pet her ears, and Ken hissed, even as he leaned into it. It felt nice. Not really demeaning, because he was down here asking for it, and they were his friends. Anything was okay, with them.
It was shockingly easy, to crawl across their apartment. Ken could feel Wato right beside her, but didn’t really care. She was just enjoying the feeling of being so close to the ground.
Then- that wasn’t an option, anymore, apparently, as Wato lifted him up again at her hips, and dropped Ken on a bed. Someone’s bed. Ken leapt off immediately, arcing elegantly through the air, and hitting Wifies’s shins. He’d gotten in the way. Which was rude of him.
Wifies tried picking her up, this time. Ken liked Wifies. He smelled of paper and clean laundry, where Wato smelled of grass and ironing.
He let Wifies get her on the bed, then turned, and tried to slink off the other side. Ken was having fun, playing this little game of cat and mouse. Even if she was technically the mouse, by that reckoning.
“Ken…” Wato sounded close to laughter, and Ken paused, pawing at the edge of the mattress idly. “Can you come back over here?”
Narrowing his eyes, Ken scanned Wato, searching for any good reason to listen to him. He didn’t have to obey anyone. Least of all cute, fellow cat hybrids, wearing a rumpled suit that Ken could absolutely get hair all over, if given the chance to nuzzle against.
Slowly, he leaned backwards, his weight on his heels, ready to turn and leap off and try to climb the kitchen counter on all fours. Wato was cute, but not that cute. And Ken liked being a little annoying.
Before she could move, though, someone grabbed her, hugging him to their chest and climbing onto the bed to join Wato.
Ken hissed fiercely, batting at Wifies’s arms and wrists and every part of him she could reach. This was rude. Even ruder that he wasn’t letting go, just running a finger through her hair, circling around the base of his ears, and further down, and…
Ken felt his thoughts melt out of his mouth, instead of the protest on the tip of his tongue, and went limp. Wifies rubbed his thumb against her scent gland, his hand fitting carefully against the back of her neck. It felt right, like it was meant to be there, and Ken was happy to go to sleep like this. His eyes were so heavy, like his body, pinning Wifies down so she could feel like this forever.
“See?” Wifies covered Ken’s eyes, with his other hand, audibly laughing now. “Easy. You know, Ken, maybe this wouldn’t work if you actually relaxed now and again.”
No, Ken was convinced this would work on absolutely anyone. How could anyone not be weak for this? The easy waves of calm washing over her, exhaustion carried like silt along with the tide, the warmth of safety, blossoming down her throat and filling her heart.
“Does that… work on anything?”
Wato sounded a little too interested. Ken would have mocked him for it, if her thoughts hadn’t been otherwise occupied, and when he opened his mouth, all he heard was a soft, needy purring. There was no way that was her.
“Cats. You want a turn?”
“…maybe later.”
Ken hissed playfully over at Wato, a little of the edge taken off by her sudden sleepiness. Blindly, he reached out, swiping at thin air with clumsy motions.
“I think she wants down.” Wifies chuckled, and moved Ken off his lap, removing his hand from his neck. “Go on, Ken. Don’t go running off.”
Ken blinked, rolling onto her back, staring at the glow of the ambient lights and the permanently off main light. His head was clearing, eerily quickly, but he was still sleepy. A little out of it, and inclined to go back to harassing Wato.
She rolled over a little more, and found Wato’s trouser cuff, where their legs were crossed on the mattress. Ken pawed at it, for a moment, before leaning forward, and biting down, sinking sharp canines through pressed fabric.
Wato yelped, like Ken had actually bit her, and placed a hand on his face in some attempt to push the cat hybrid off. it didn’t work. Firstly, because when Ken bit something, that thing stayed bitten. And also because Wato did it so half-heartedly there might as well have been no effort at all.
Wifies stepped in, instead, detaching Ken carefully by virtue of pulling her back upright, holding something brightly coloured just outside of where she could make her vision focus.
When he didn’t go for it like he’d gone for Wato’s leg, Wifies pressed it closer, until Ken worked out it was some kind of stiff rope. It might be Wato’s, to be honest. It had the right fraying at the edges, the kind of thing he’d chew while working.
Ken didn’t mind. He let Wifies pull it gently into her mouth, then dropped out of his hands, lying happily on his side and pinning the rope of the mattress with one paw as she chewed.
“How are your trousers?”
“Fine. She hasn’t got that sharp teeth.”
Ken paused, and glared up at Wato. They looked suitably chastened, and there was a slight redness in her ears, as he tried valiantly to maintain conversation with Wifies.
“Um- that’s mine, isn’t it?”
“Sure is. You two are basically the same anyway.”
“…Hey.”
“Tell me I’m wrong.”
“Ken’s cuter.”
Wato’s fingers found Ken’s chin, moving as he chewed on the rope. She shifted, angling her head up, presenting his neck perfectly willingly for Wato to scratch.
She got it, too. Cat talons were nice. Even nicer when they weren’t his.
Wifies made a noise eerily like an incorrect buzzer, and the only thing Ken missed the ability to speak for was his inability to mock his friends viciously. Wifies sounded like he’d practised that.
“You’re both adorable. Equally.”
Ken was busy biting, and biting, but even she spared a moment to nod happily. Wato was adorable. And Wifies was pretty. And hot, when he got pushy like this.
Sighing, Wato moved their hand, rubbing gently at one of Ken’s scent glands. It made the rope fall out of his mouth, and she whined, soft and high and needy, trying to shift so Wato could get at the other one.
“Fine. Whatever, sure, we- we’re adorable.”
Ken would have agreed further, if Wato hadn’t been torturing him. A good kind of torture. It felt nice.
It made her thoughts shut off, at least.
That would be more than good enough, for now.