Thanks to Avalain Nightshade for beta reading!
Nothing foretold it.
The only thing that could warn Sebastian was the lock. The door was locked, that's why he could enter. Jim usually used a catch that couldn't be opened from the outside. Well, it didn't matter… but what was that?
On his bed was a young black cat, curled up and sleeping in peace.
Sebastian hardly ever believed in anything mystical but couldn't help it now.
If Jim wasn't at home, and there was a black cat instead, whose pushy muzzle strongly reminded Jim's one, so… It means that…
"Puss," Sebastian said, not much confidence in his voice.
The cat jerked its ear, opened its eyes and stretched. Then it looked at Sebastian, appraising him. Smelled the air. And… lay back down.
Its haughty manners reminded Jim really strongly.
Sebastian suddenly felt very tired and leaned against the door jamb. Thousands of questions flashed in his mind but only one really worried him: "How?!"
The cat blinked, looked at Sebastian again, then jumped lightly from the bed and approached to rub against his legs and, besides, to shed some hair. Sebastian was actually wearing white, so he had to pick this bloody being up in his arms. It purred merrily and reached to give him a kiss, leaving hair in the man's beard and moustache. Sebastian didn't appreciate it and began sneezing. The cat supposed it to be an attack and hissed. Sebastian hissed in reply, so lifelike that the cat got obviously shocked. Despite that, it calmed down, lay in Moran's arms and closed its eyes. Sebastian scratched it behind its ears; it replied with low happy rattling. The sides seemed to have reached an armistice, so now the one was dreaming calmly and the other was trying to come to his nerves and to understand what was that or, at least, what to do.
After about a half-hour Sebastian found himself in the kitchen, sitting on a little coach. The cat was warming his knees, blinking with its wonderful amber eyes and trying to catch Sebastian's quite long tailed hair with a paw.
"You shameless creature, tell me, did you really need to… well… exactly when we ran out of meat food? Today we have only pasta to eat. I don't have a cent on my card and it's clear that you won't give me the code of yours."
The cat stared, silent. Sebastian gave up.
"Okay. I'll look for something."
The cat yawned and turned away. Its Majesty seemed to have expressed its agreement. But Moran decided to wait until the idea of having to let him go reached this beautiful but pretty small head.
…He woke up because of a shout.
"Anybody alive?"
He sneezed in consent and lifted his eyes on Jim. His neck was struck with pain from sleeping in an inconvenient pose, and there wasn't any clear thought in his head but even in such a condition he couldn't help noticing that Jim was a human that time.
"Why have you decided to sleep here? The bed isn't enough? Well, I don't mind but when the kitchen gets mixed up with the bedroom, it usually has other sense. I wouldn't mind it, too-"
Sebastian ignored the hint.
"A couple of words about the bedroom, by the way. Where is the cat? And why it was here at all?"
"Peter? I borrowed him from a friend. I wondered what it was like to have a pet. He looked just like me and seemed really cute, but I won't bear another center of the universe in this flat."
"If you ask me…"
"You wouldn't say no, would you? I mean, I don't remember your clothes to be so heated…"
Sebastian just snorted and left to change.
There was some hair on his clothes, over his pillow and in his beard. But Jim didn't wear any on himself. And, what's more… Damn all that resemblance… What friends could Jim have had after just one week spent in here?
The evening was silent. Sebastian was looking at the back of Jim, who was stuck in a computer game, and muttering.
"If you turn one more time, I won't believe you, I just won't-"
"What?" Jim pulled one of his headphones off his ear.
"Nah, nothing."
Sebastian waited until the headphones were on their place again.
"Damn pussy," he added.