Title: Living With A Cat
Author: Aeon Cole
Genre: Humor
Warning: Implied Slash
Fandom: CSI Miami
Disclaimer: Cloe is mine, the rest are not.
Summary: Just a little drabble about living with a cat.
Horatio wandered into the kitchen with the idea of finding himself a snack before he started the laundry. He was rummaging through one of the upper cabinets when he was startled by a sound down by his feet. He looked down and was met by a pair of green eyes staring up at him. He smirked.
"What do you want, Cloe?" he asked.
The cat meowed at him. He stared at her for a moment. Since they were in the kitchen, he figured she wanted food. He looked over at the food dish but it was full. He glanced back at the cat.
"You have food in your dish," he said.
She meowed again, staring up at him with the same expression. He checked the water dish. It was full. So he bent down and scooped her up, thinking that maybe she wanted to be held. But she quickly wiggled from his grip. She landed back on the floor and meowed.
Horatio sighed. He knew what the problem was. He didn't speak cat. Tim spoke cat and Cloe spoke Tim. He had no idea how they did it. To him all her calls sounded exactly the same. Even with context, like now, it was a guessing game for him. Cloe meowed and rubbed up against his leg.
Horatio shook his head. "I don't know what you want," he said.
He tried to think like Tim. The communication between Tim and the cat was interesting to watch. The other night they were sitting on the sofa watching a movie. Cloe came into the room and meowed at Tim. He looked down at her and said, "Okay," then he got up and walked out of the room. He came back with a brush. She hopped up in his lap and he started brushing her.
The problem was that, to Horatio, "brush me" sounded just like "feed me" which sounded just like "play with me." He'd never had a pet as a kid. He just didn't know how to interact with the little creature who now shared their home.
Horatio considered himself to be an intelligent person. Somehow Cloe made him feel stupid. His life was ordered and organized. The cat added a certain amount of randomness that he wasn't used to. He liked her, liked animals in general. He'd just never had to share his life with one before.
He vowed to get used to the situation for Tim's sake. His lover was very attached to the little orange tabby. And, to tell the truth, so was he. He just didn't speak cat. He signed again and decided to simply continue with what he was doing.
He opened the cabinet over the sink and took out a bowl then grabbed a box of cereal. Cloe meowed again. He ignored her this time. When he put the cereal box back on the shelf he spotted something. He looked down at the cat and she meowed again, this time more emphatically.
Horatio smiled and pulled down the bag of cat treats. He held it up and asked, "Is this what you want?" He shook the bag.
Cloe began rubbing against his leg with more force and purring. Pleased with himself, Horatio poured a few of the treats into his hand. Cloe watched him intently. He bent down and dumped the treats onto the floor in front of her. She gobbled them up greedily.
When she'd finished she looked up at Horatio and meowed.
"You're welcome," he replied.
FIN