Title: Kevin is not a cat person (until he suddenly is)
Author: Lilas
Paring: McPriceley is you squint and look sideways at it?
Note: Wow, I haven't written in a fic in a loooong time. This fandom has taken over my mind. I blame this on strengthsbasedmediocrity who is writing an amazing fic (go read it! Four States One Journey) and has been tolerant enough to let me share my own head canons about our favorite Mormon boys. Sorry if the ending a bit abrupt. I'm still a bit rusty
Kevin Price loved dogs. This was a surprise to absolutely no one who had had the (dis)pleasure to know him for any time longer than ten minutes. He loved snuggling with them, bathing them, walking them, feeding them, training them… For as long as he could remember, he had wanted nothing more than to have one of his own, but his parents had put their foot down right from the get-go. Five children made for a family too big to add a pet into the mix, so Kevin had had to find another way to satisfy his need to be a pet owner. As soon as he'd been old enough, he'd started volunteering at the local pet shelter. He figured since he had to dedicate part of his time to charity and volunteering anyway, it might as well be something he liked and had pleasure and satisfaction doing. After all, Heavenly Father couldn't possibly begrudge him charitable work that he enjoyed.
So three days a week for two hours, Kevin Price was the happiest kid alive. He got to play with the puppies in the play pen and help the trainers with their lessons. He learned the proper way to walk a dog and how to stop it from jumping all over strangers. He helped soothe the ones that had to see the vet and helped the nurses take care of the others that came in or became sick while they waited for their forever homes.
He was the happiest kid alive until one day the manager of the shelter asked him to help take care of some of the cats. That was the day Kevin Price discovered that he hated cats. Cats didn't particularly like to be hugged or snuggled. They didn't care when he tried to play with them and they didn't listen to him when he tried to train them. Some would swipe at him if he petted them too long, others would bite at him if he didn't pet them long enough. They would jump a foot into the air and run away if he took a step toward them, or they would speed after him and jump at him if he turned his back to them. He couldn't feel that unconditional love and inexplicable connection with them that he'd felt with every dog he had ever interacted with. And so he decided that since clearly cats and he just didn't mesh, he'd just stick with dogs for the rest of his life and just avoid cats at all costs.
And he was proud and happy to say that he'd managed to do that just fine until a few months after twenty-fourth birthday. Because, unfortunately for Kevin Price, he'd decided to live with Connor McKinley who, much to his regret and disgust, loved/adored/worshipped/could-not-live-without a cat. And Connor didn't mind dogs, in fact, he loved them just as much as cats, and was totally on board with Kevin adopting a mutt as soon as possible. It's just that he'd insisted that it was only fair that if Kevin got to have a dog, then he should be allowed to adopt a pet too. And really, it was no great secret to Kevin that if he agreed, Connor wouldn't be getting another dog.
It took him three months (and many hundreds of pictures of cute and irresistible dogs from that Connor sneakily printed and posted everywhere in the house) to finally relent. One summer day, he and Connor made their way to the nearest shelter in the hopes of finding their non-human companions. And despite his extensive experience at shelters, Kevin hadn't really had any idea how hard it was going to be to just pick one dog. He just wanted to adopt them all and take them all home to love and cherish forever. So he was only half listening to the volunteer worker as she lead him down a corridor with dogs of all breeds and ages. They were half way down the hall when he saw him. The dog was sitting quietly by the cage door, tail thumping softly on the ground, big brown eyes looking at him like they knew him. Without thinking, he'd stopped in front of the dog's cage and watched as the dog slowly walked to the door and leaned against the bars on his hind legs, trying to get up to his height. Kevin crouched down and put his hands through the bars to pet the dog behind the ears and as the dog leaned his whole weight against him, he knew. This was it.
And so Kevin adopted the black lab mix and, because there was just no way a part of him could ever leave Uganda behind, he called him Simba.
How Connor came to adopt his cat was a story that Kevin never asked and never wanted to know. All he knew was that, in a fit of blatant plagiarism, Connor decided to name his ginger domestic short hair cat Nala.
And of course, because Heavenly Father was really an asshole in disguise who loved to let bad things happen to Kevin, Simba and Nala hit it off from the start and were practically inseparable. Where one was, you knew the other wasn't far behind. And of course both animals loved Connor like he was their mama. And of course Kevin and Simba were a match made in heaven. But Nala and Kevin…
It wasn't that Nala hated Kevin. Quite the opposite: Nala loved Kevin. Or at least she faked it really well. Wherever he was, she wanted to be there too. He went to the bathroom to pee? She had to watch him do his business from the sink. He went to shower? She had to be there to bat at the shower curtain while he tried to wash the shampoo out of his eyes. He went to get coffee? She was on the counter, trying to smell it. He tried to do some work on his laptop? She was lying on top of it, biting his hands as he tried to dislodge her.
He supposed it could have been cute if it weren't for the fact that Kevin wanted absolutely nothing to do with her. He'd tried though; Heavenly Father knew he'd tried. But it seemed that whenever he went to pet her, or play with her, or come near her for any reason, she hissed and growled and those sharp, sharp claws came out. And Connor would just laugh at it all and smile that dopy little smile of his; and Kevin would melt just a little and didn't even try to stop his own dopy grin.
Kevin groaned softly as he shifted slightly on the couch, his whole body aching and burning. He snuffled softly as he buried his nose into his pillow and leaned his head into the corner of the couch. He hated being sick. He'd never been a very good patient when he was young but it had only gotten worse as he'd gotten older. Kevin Price was never one to let something like a little bug get in the way of his greatness, even if that little bug was the hacking, coughing, pneumonia kind. He groaned again and tensed as he sensed the unmistakable tingling in his throat and constricting in his chest, and before he could even think about holding it in, he was coughing and coughing and couldn't breathe. He clenched his eyes shut tightly and, on instinct, he rolled over again and let his head hang over the couch even as he groped for the bucket Connor had left by his side. He kept on coughing and hacking until finally he managed to spit out the most disgusting green looking phlegm he'd ever seen.
"Urgh, gross," he murmured, dropping the bucket back to the floor and flopping back onto the couch.
He blinked blearily up at the ceiling and listened to the absolute silence of the apartment. He'd been sick for a week now and he felt just as shitty as when he'd first spiked his fever and Connor had rushed him to the E.R. in a fit of panic when the thermometer had read 103F. His body ached and his lips were chapped and he felt like an elephant was sitting on top of his chest. But the worst part was the constant migraine that made his eyes hurt and ears burn and his stomach roll. He'd only managed to keep down liquids, but his appetite had disappeared with the coming of his fever, and the lack of food wasn't helping him any.
And he missed Simba. All he wanted was to cuddle with his beautiful, loyal, absolutely hyper active puppy. Kevin sniffed softly and sluggishly hugged his pillow to his chest as the tears burned in his eyes. Connor and he had fallen into a pattern that worked for everyone – Kevin would get up early in the morning to walk the dog and feed the pets and Connor, assuming he didn't have an audition or early rehearsal, would care for them while he was at work during the day. And then, come evening, Kevin and he would switch over. But between the migraine, the body aches, and the fact that Kevin couldn't even sit up for longer than five minutes before he got dizzy, there was just no way to properly care for the puppy. So Connor had made the executive decision that until Kevin was well enough to stand, Simba would be spending most his time on vacation at Arnold and Naba's apartment.
And Kevin couldn't really argue with Connor's logic, but that didn't mean that he had to be happy about it. Or take it quietly like an adult. Which is why he was all alone in the apartment while Connor had stepped out to get away from his insistent whining. Kevin sighed. He just couldn't win lately.
A soft bump against his hand made him blink he eyes open. When had he closed them? He looked sideway toward the floor and saw a ball of ginger near the hand dangling over the couch.
"Hey Nala," he rasped. Another bump against his hand, this time raising it up a little. "Oh god, cat. Not now. I really can't deal with you," he mumbled as he pulled his hand back up and let it fall against his chest.
He groaned softly and let out a pathetic little cough, glad that for once it wasn't the body rattling kind. A soft mewl had him looking back down to watch through blurred vision as golden eyes slowly blinked at him. Without thought, he slowly blinked back. And then, without any warning, Nala gingerly jumped onto the couch by his legs. Slowly, gently, as if she were giving him time to protest her intentions, she put one paw on his leg, then another, and slowly made her way up his chest. He watched, confused, as she folded up her legs into her bread loaf position, tail curled up around her body.
He could feel her soft purrs vibrating against his chest as she slowly blinked her eyes open and close. Kevin lay there quietly, feeling the vibrations rocking his aching body. Even though he supposed her weight on him should have be uncomfortable, it was the exact opposite. The purrs were relaxing and he could feel muscles unwinding. Slowly, scared that she would jump away from him, he brought one hand up to her and ran it from the top of her head and down her back, feeling her soft fur run through his fingers. He watched as she closed her eyes and, if possible, her purrs got deeper.
He felt a small smile tug at the corner of his mouth. "Huh. I guess you're okay," he whispered, his fingers still petting her soft fur. She blinked one eye open. "Oh, shut up," he grumbled. "It's not like you made it easy for me to like you. This is the first time in four months you've let me pet you."
He took as deep a breath as he dared and smiled. He could clearly see a smile on her lips as she settled down further onto his chest. Without thought, he closed his eyes and fell sleep listening to her purrs.
Connor found them together on the couch an hour later, Nala sprawled over Kevin's chest, his hand in her fur, and both of them smiling and snuffling quietly in their sleep.