Well, quite simply, Nagi and Vandham get a pet. Also, people are a bit ooc here.
Also, also, Kiba is my Cross. I decided to include him.
So, please review and let me know what you think.
A pet
The day had started relatively normally, yet surprisingly peacefully, giving Nagi a chance to stop by the BLADE barracks for a cup of tea. Of course he could have gone to a café' or made his own, but nothing could quite beat food or drinks made by Lin.
As he arrived at the barracks, he could hear some quiet mumbling sounding like Elma, Lin and Kiba, as well as Tatsu's not so quiet voice.
"Tatsu know what Linly planning!" the Nopon was yelling "Linly want to replace Tatsu with cute fluffy thing!"
"Tatsu, we're not replacing you" came a voice that belonges to Elma, who sounded somewhat exaggerated, as if she had gone over the same thing several times. Considering this was Tatsu, it was very possible.
"Yeah" that was Kiba's voice. "We're just looking after them for Mathias, since he's much too busy."
Now Nagi was starting to get curious to what was going on. As he stepped further in, he saw Kiba sitting on one of the couches with a cup of coffee, Tatsu next to the couch looking somewhat upset and finally, Elma and Lin sitting on the floor cooing over a box of… kittens? Yes, a closer look revealed the box contained five young kittens, all meowing and crawling all over each other.
"Good morning Elma, Kiba, Ms Koo" Nagi decided to make his presence known, managing to surprise both Elma and Lin, whose attention was entirely taken by the kittens.
"Good morning" greeted Kiba, the only one who had seen him coming, calmly sipping his coffee. Nagi nodded to him in greeting before turning to Elma and Lin, who had just recovered from the surprise.
"Good morning, Sir" they chorused at the same time. "Would you like some tea?" Lin offered, almost like she already knew why he was there. Cody, who was sitting on the table, immediately walked over to him, demanding to be petted.
"That would be appreciated, Ms Koo" he answered while scratching the tabby around the ears. She saluted quickly before getting to the tea. He then turned to Elma and Kiba "Meanwhile you can explain this" he pointed at the kittens "situation".
"Not much to explain, Sir" Elma started talking "You see-"
"Cody is a dad!" Lin interrupted from the kitchen.
"Yes, these are Cody and Aisha's kittens" Elma continued. "Mathias couldn't take care of them, because he just got some extra work to do, so he gave them to us"
Nagi walked over to the box just as the kittens managed to tip it over and spill on the floor. Cody seemed to take offence in this, turning around and walking away somewhere. Luckily the kittens were more interested in looking around and continuing to play with each other, rather than running of somewhere or following Cody.
One of the kittens, a small golden-coloured one with dark grey stripes, wobbled over to Nagi, who lifted it up. It easily fit on the palm of his hand where it stared at him with large, blue eyes for a moment before curling up and falling asleep.
"We just managed to convince Elma we can't keep all of them" Kiba continued Elma's story when Nagi looked up from the kitten.
"But we couldn't stop her from naming them all" Lin chirped in, returning from the kitchen with a large cup of tea she handed to Nagi. He took it with his left hand, glad he could use both of his hands equally well. Being strictly right-handed might have been a problem in this situation.
"They needed names" Elma defended herself, before pointing at a cream-colored kitten with black paws. "That's Cora" She then pointed at a silver tabby that looked a lot like Cody that was biting Cora's ears "that's Ace" she lifted a black kitten with white on the paws and face and a golden turf on the forehead "this is Willy" After putting Willy down she pointed at the largest one that had fallen asleep in the box. It had dark grey fur with some lighter grey markings. "That one is Toby" she then straightened and looked at him. "And the one you're holding is Leia."
"Tatsu no like cats" Tatsu complained. "Cats try to eat Tatsu"
"Well, they probably just think you're a big, fat chicken or something" Lin informed the Nopon. "They might be hungry, since we haven't fed them yet"
"Tatsu not chicken and Tatsu not cat food!" Tatsu protested. "Linly and friends feed cats now, so cats no eat Tatsu!"
Nagi inspected the kitten, Leia, in his hand while taking a sip of his tea. He couldn't help closing his eyes while enjoying it. Lin's tea truly was the best one could get on Mira.
"You could take her, Sir" Lin suddenly exclaimed without warning.
"Excuse me?" he wasn't sure he had heard the girl correctly.
"Well, we're looking for homes for them, since we can't keep them all" Lin explained quickly, picking up Cora who was trying to wander of somewhere. "And since she clearly likes you already, you could keep her," she finished, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Nagi wasn't really sure what to say to that. What was one supposed to say when a thirteen year old offered them a kitten out of nowhere? He looked at Elma, as if asking for advice.
"You can have her if you like" she told him calmly. "I just want to make sure they get good homes, and -"
"And they couldn't find a better home than with you, Sir!" Lin once again interrupted, smiling brightly. Cora was in the box next to Toby, suddenly fast asleep. Willy and Ace were now play-fighting on the floor.
"I don't know," he mumbled. He was rather tempted to accept Leia. Seeing her sleeping reminded him of his old cat back on earth. But… "I'll have to talk with Jack first" He didn't know what the other man would think. They'd never talked about getting a pet of any kind. He quickly chugged down the cooling tea and put down the cup so he could stroke the small cat's soft fur. She started purring quietly, stretching slightly.
"Don't worry, he won't say no" Lin sounded very optimistic and sure of her own statement. "Especially after he sees her."
"All right, then. I'll take her" he finally gave up. "But if Jack doesn't want to keep her, I'll have to bring her back" he warned before Lin had time to start celebrating.
"No problem, then" she happily told him. "Why don't you head to the store to get food and stuff for her?" Lin was practically shoving him out the door at this point. He decided to just go along with it, because she actually had a point.
"The tree of you better get some work done today, and don't just sit staring at cats all day" he informed the BLADEs on his way out.
"Yes, Sir. Don't worry, Sir." He was assured by all three of them, after which he finally left, holding the still sleeping kitten in both hands now.
"I guess I'll need to visit a pet store before we head home" he mused to himself before heading off to the Commercial District.
****** Many hours later *****
Jack Vandham had had a very long day and was very much looking forward to just going to sleep. When he got back to the apartment he shared with Nagi, he didn't even bother to look around as he walked to the bathroom where he cleaned up and changed to his sleeping clothes. Well, sleeping pants more like, since he didn't wear a shirt to bed.
When he finally got to the bedroom, he wasn't the slightest bit surprised to see Nagi still awake, leaning against the headboard while reading some book. A single lamp was lit beside the bed, casting a warm light over him. He smiled slightly when he saw Jack in the doorway.
"Hello, Jack" He welcomed him home, before putting a bookmark in and setting the book aside. He was also in his sleeping clothes, a black t-shirt and sweatpants, as expected. This was all the invitation he needed, climbing into the bed and pulling Nagi into a slow, gentle kiss, which was quickly answered. Jack moved his body so it was covering Nagi's, in order to get a better angle in the kiss, but when he reached his other hand to Nagi's other side to steady himself on the mattress, he felt it brush against what felt like…fur?
The kiss was quickly broken as he tried to locate the distraction. Right there, at Nagi's side, a small fluffy something was curled up. A closer look revealed it to be a small tiger-looking cat.
"What's that" he asked Nagi, who was averting his eyes and avoiding looking directly at Jack. He recognized this as Nagi being unsure of the topic, not quite knowing what to say.
"That's Leia" he finally answered quietly. Jack raised an eyebrow, wordlessly telling Nagi he wanted more of an explanation than that. "Elma's cat apparently became a dad, and they had to do something with the kittens" came the rest of the explanation.
"So you decided to take one home?" Jack pretty much had already figured that out, but confirmation was always nice.
"Yes" came that very confirmation, Nagi still not looking at him, like he was afraid Jack would demand they get rid of the cat or something. He pulled Nagi into a quick kiss, letting the man know he was not upset.
"You could have called me to let me know" he whispered against the man's lips. He felt Nagi's hand sneak into his hair, as if to keep him in place, or maybe to ground himself. Jack pulled back slightly to see Nagi's head slightly tilted down, deep brown eyes meeting his under the long, dark eyelashes. At moments like this, Jack easily forgot Nagi was almost ten years older than him.
"I know" came the quiet answer. "I wasn't sure how you'd react, or if you even were interested in getting a cat"
"You know I could never say no to you" he told Nagi. "Not about something like this" He cut of anything Nagi might want to say by kissing him again. "You're damn lucky I love you so much" he whispered once he broke the kiss.
"I know" came the answer. This time it was Nagi's turn to pull him down for a kiss. "I love you, too."
"So, what did you do today, other than get the cat?" Jack asked after ending the kiss.
"Well, I bought some supplies for her. Food and such" Nagi replied before smiling slightly, as if remembering something amusing. "The shopkeeper seemed rather surprised when I came through the door holding a cat and asked for supplies for her."
The image was indeed somewhat amusing. Jack would have loved to see the shopkeeper's face when the always serious Secretary of Defence walked into the shop, holding a small fluffy kitten, and asked for cat food and supplies.
"Sounds like I missed an entertaining afternoon" he instead settled for commenting, while carefully stroking the small kitten that stretched out under his touch and started purring happily. She was so small he could cover her with just one hand.
"Is she going to always be that calm?" Jack asked Nagi, who looked down at Leia as well.
"No" Nagi answered immediately. "She is going to sleep a lot, but she wasn't nearly so calm a few hours ago, when she was trying to shred my paperwork" he was smiling slightly at the memory. "It seems she likes paperwork about as much as you do"
"Well, you don't even have to do paperwork to know it's awful" Jack shrugged. "Or maybe she's just a smart cat. She can shred my paperwork whenever she wants." Or maybe not, he could already imagine Chausson's face if he came in with the excuse "the cat ate my paperwork." It wouldn't be pretty.
Nagi just hummed slightly at his answer, shifting slightly to make himself more comfortable. He looked so happy and peaceful, Jack couldn't help pulling him into another slow kiss, taking his time with the man. Until-
"Ouch!" Jack suddenly yelped, more from surprise than actual pain, when something sharp stuck his hand. A quick look revealed Leia had decided she didn't like that Jack had stopped petting her before she was ready, and taken her revenge by sinking her small fangs into his hand. "You sure that's a cat, and not a tiger?" he asked Nagi somewhat jokingly, while extracting his hand from the cat's clutches.
"Yes, I'm sure" Nagi answered, still smiling like he was trying not to laugh at him. Jack tried to glare at him for finding it funny, but found himself unable to do so after Nagi pulled him into another deep kiss. When they parted a minute or so later, they simply lay there with their foreheads pressed together, lightly caressing each other's hair and faces and whatever they could reach without moving, with some occasional small kisses in-between, both too tired for anything else.
The quiet moment was soon interrupted by some meowing, which caused the two to break apart, smiling at the small kitten.
"I guess having a cat is going to be quite interesting, isn't it?" Jack inquired, reaching over to turn of the lamp, before shifting so he was laying on Nagi's side, arm thrown over the man's waist, tucking him close. Before he did anything else he made absolutely sure both his hands were out of Leia's reach.
"Yes, it is" Nagi answered calmly, stroking the suddenly sleeping cat softly before curling his fingers around Jack's. They both fell asleep shortly after.
A/N: So, there's that story. I was originally just going to have the first part, with Nagi getting the kitten, but ended up with the second part as well. Somehow.
Elma liking cats is canon. Nagi liking cats and having had a cat back on earth is a head-canon of mine. I don't know, but he seems like a cat person. As for Jack, if he can admit Nopon kids are cute, he would totally find a kitten cute, right? I mean, who doesn't think kittens are cute? Also, cats! Finally I'm writing about something I actually know something about!
Mathias is an NPC who is part of an affinity mission, and so is his cat Aisha. I'm pretty sure they mentioned at some point that the animals you keep in the barracks are also Mims, and therefor probably unable to reproduce, but I guess I kinda changed that. HA!
The names and appearances of the kittens are just made up on the spot, and are not meant to be references to anything. I'm wondering if I can fit them in somewhere in future stories, but I guess I'll have to wait and see. Leia is at least going to be in a story or two, and I'm thinking about letting some people from the game adopt the rest of them. Who do you think needs a kitten?
Nagi liking tea is also canon, and I shouldn't even have to point it out, but I will. For example, in a heart-to-heart he says he is looking for a teacup to keep at the barracks. This tells not only that he drinks tea, but that he drinks tea at the barracks so often he feels the need to have his own teacup there.
Yeah, I know Nagi and Vandham got really fluffy and mushy there, and it's really ooc for them. But maybe they act differently when they are alone than they do at work? Right? Right? No…? Whatever.