The next time they saw each other, they didn't talk about it. None of it; not the sex, not anything before or after it, not Hunter's confused feelings for him.
Instead, Sebastian texted him and asked if he could come over, saying that he thought it was about time for Noelle to get a bit more socialization, as in, bringing Noelle to meet Tesla. And, after doing a bit of Googling on the best ways to introduce cats to each other – and subsequently making the decision to pretty much wing it, it wasn't like Hunter hadn't had cats before – he texted him back saying that he was on board.
Hunter ended up having to pick Sebastian and Noelle up in his car, Sebastian citing the fact that his only other options were to walk or to bring Noelle on the metro (taxis notwithstanding, seeing as plenty of drivers wouldn't want to have a cat in their car, even with the cat being in a carrier).
On the drive between Sebastian and Hunter's apartments, it was pretty clear to them how much progress Noelle had made in terms of her confidence. Instead of being curled up in Sebastian's lap, practically cowering in fear of all of the new things around her, she was on her feet, looking around. Her paws frequently ended up on the window, wide eyes staring at the world passing by (though this also often ended up with her not expecting stopping and consequently tumbling down into Sebastian's lap).
What had not changed was how adorable Sebastian was with the little cat. He kept cooing to her happily, laughing and doing his best to steady her when she moved around.
At one point, Noelle left her spot on Sebastian's lap, getting up and making slow steps onto the center console towards Hunter. "Yeah, go visit him," he said with a soft chuckle. "I'm sure he's missed you."
"Oh, I most certainly have," he said with a laugh, rolling his eyes fondly. "Being around Tesla makes me appreciate you all the much more."
"You talk about your cat as if you hate him," Sebastian said not for the first time, shaking his head.
"He's a little shit."
"Yeah, but you love him," he said, looking out ahead of them with a grin.
"Maybe," he said. "But don't tell him I said that."
Sebastian chuckled softly, shaking his head. "I'm gonna tell him," he said. "Unfortunately, he doesn't speak English."
"Don't meow it to him," he said.
"Damn, my best plans, ruined," he replied with a laugh, shaking his head.
Hunter chuckled, shaking his head. "How did I know? When did you become such a fucking dork?"
"When did you start cursing? I'm rubbing off on you." He looked back at Hunter, his gaze darting down, expecting to see Noelle making herself at home on his lap. "Where did…?"
Hunter laughed as he trailed off, gesturing with his head. While they had been talking, Noelle had apparently climbed up his front, settling now on his shoulders behind his neck, held up between him and the seat of the car.
"Oh my god, that is so fucking cute," Sebastian said with a grin, pulling out his phone. He held it up and took a picture of Hunter and Noelle, looking at his screen with a smile before putting the phone away.
A bit surprisingly, Noelle and Tesla got used to each other almost immediately. When they were first introduced to each other, there was some hesitation, of course. Well. There was hesitation on Noelle's end. Tesla, however, was very excited by the prospect of having a new friend to play with and so pretty much the first thing he did upon meeting her was pounce on her. That didn't help things much, but when she realized that he wasn't going to hurt her and was just trying to play, she got less defensive and instead started playing with him back.
"Told you they were going to be best friends," Sebastian said with a satisfied hum as he and Hunter sat on the couch side by side, watching the cats on the floor in front of them.
"I never disagreed with you," he said, chuckling softly.
"Still," he said with a grin. "I told you, and look at them now. Bestest buddies."
"By default, though," he said. "I'm not even sure when the last time Tesla ever saw another cat was."
"You keeping your cat a hermit is not my problem," Sebastian said, chuckling softly and shaking his head. "I mean, they could've hated each other. And we never would have been able to get them together again."
"I'm sure they would've gotten over it eventually," he said. "We would've convinced them to be friends one way or another."
"Hopefully," he said with a smile, kicking his feet up on the coffee table and falling silent as they watched the cats together.
Eventually Tesla got tired and hopped up onto the couch to retire by Sebastian's side. Noelle looked at him with a bit of confusion before she followed suit, getting onto the couch and curling up beside him. At that point, when the cats stopped being entertainment enough, they sat in silence for a little before Sebastian carefully got to his feet so as not to disturb them. He went and got Hunter's laptop, setting it up and starting something playing before sitting back down on the couch.
They sat like that for a while, just watching TV together with the cats sitting between them, both of them absolutely not thinking at all about what had happened between them the last time they were in this spot.
Which is to say, of course, it was quietly eating at the back of Hunter's mind and he was dying to say something about it but he couldn't find the right words. And even if he could have found the right words, at the same time, he felt fairly certain that he wouldn't want to bring it up. He didn't even know if Sebastian was thinking about it too. And if he wasn't, what if he got too intense about it and it was awkward? What if Sebastian was waiting for him to bring it up when he had answers, and Hunter definitely did not have answers to give him yet. So he tried to get himself to forget about it. Things were simple right now. This was just him and Sebastian, hanging out, as usual.
Which is what he kept telling himself when the afternoon began to turn into the evening and Sebastian got up again. "I think that it's about time I made us some dinner," he said.
"You don't have to do that," Hunter replied, looking up at him.
"I want to," he said with a shrug.
"You might have some trouble making anything, given the lack of ingredients in there," he replied, chuckling softly.
"Don't doubt me," Sebastian said, pointing a finger at him before turning and heading into the kitchen. "I'll be back when I'm done."
Hunter laughed and rolled his eyes, reaching his hand down and petting the cats as he waited for Sebastian to come back. He closed his eyes and laid his head back for a moment, letting himself relax more than he had in the time since he and Sebastian had hooked up. Sure, there was still the issue of what they were going to be in the future and everything, but actually being around Sebastian had reminded him that things didn't necessarily have to be awkward in the aftermath of their… hookup. He guessed that was the right word, even though it felt like it was something dirtier and more detached than what he had actually felt in the moment.
He shook his head slightly to clear his thoughts, making himself stop thinking about it. No good came from overthinking things, especially not when he had just calmed himself down again over this whole thing.
Hunter had practically fallen asleep by the time Sebastian returned to the living room, a fact that he was not aware of until he was jolted awake again by the feeling of someone sitting down beside him.
"You okay there, tiger?" Sebastian said with a laugh, the look he was giving him equal parts amused and fond.
"Yeah, sorry, just kinda dozed off," he said.
"I noticed," he said with a grin, holding out a bowl to him. "You were right, I couldn't get fancy. But you can't complain, because I was slaving over the stove while you were in here sleeping."
"Oh my god, shut up, you are not a housewife," he said and shook his head, laughing softly.
"Don't tell me what I can and can't be."
"If you were a housewife, you'd probably want us to be sitting at a table to eat this," he said. He looked down at the bowl then, seeing that what Sebastian had made was just penne pasta in tomato sauce, but even without being able to be "fancy" he had put some work into presentation, putting an aesthetically pleasing layer of parmesan cheese on top.
"We've got a table right here," Sebastian said with a grin, gesturing to the coffee table before putting his feet up.
"I don't think that that should count, but I'll let it slide," he said.
"Thank you," he said, humming as he leaned back, starting to eat.
Apparently the smell of the sauce had woken Tesla up, because he was sitting up now, looking between Hunter and Sebastian with big eyes. After sizing them both up, he seemed to decide that Sebastian was more likely to give him some (which was probably true; between the two of them, Sebastian was the way bigger softy when it came to the cats' begging), and went over to him, meowing and nudging his arm.
"What's up, pal?" Sebastian asked him, looking at him with a grin.
The only answer Tesla gave him was a headbutt and another meow.
"Okay," he said. "It sounds like you want something."
Another meow.
"But I don't know what you want," he said. "You have to tell me. In words. Tell me what you want, Tesla."
The cat just looked up at him, the look on his face seeming just about as helpless as a cat could get.
"Speaking on behalf of Tesla here, you're the worst," Hunter commented.
Sebastian just laughed and picked up his fork, holding out a piece of pasta to Tesla, who sniffed at it for a moment before pulling it away from him. "No, now I'm being the worst," he said. After doing the same thing again, he finally held it steady, letting the cat sniff and lick the pasta a couple of times before ultimately leaving it and settling back down on the couch cushion. "Ungrateful."
"That's cats for you," he said with a soft laugh.
"Noelle wouldn't do that," he said with a grin before bringing his fork to his mouth, taking the bite off of it.
Hunter watched him, raising his eyebrows. "Please tell me I did not just witness you eat something that the cat was just licking."
"I don't see what the big deal is," he said with a soft laugh, rolling his eyes.
"It's disgusting, is what the point is," he said.
"I'm not just going to throw it away," he said, shaking his head.
"Do you know how dirty cats' mouths are? The sheer amount of germs?"
Sebastian laughed, shrugging. "If I die, sharing pasta with a cat wouldn't be the worst way to go."
"Such an ass," he said, shaking his head.
"You keep coming back, though," he said with a grin, humming.
"You don't give me any choice," he said.
"Actually, historically, I have," he pointed out, and an awkward silence followed for a moment before he added, "But yeah, I get it. I'm just so charming and handsome, I can't blame you for wanting to hang around all the time."
It struck Hunter then just how very easy this was. If there were moments that were a little bit awkward, they would quickly turn it around, always had. They could say things like that and make fun of each other and tease and poke fun at their past and it didn't have to be the end of the world.
And that was the long and short of it, he guessed. This thing they had, whatever it was, it was good. It was good and easy and made both of them happy, and he figured there wasn't a whole lot more he could ask.
They sat like that for a while, chatting and hanging out and just generally enjoying each other's company, occasionally having the thought to put something up on the TV but for the most part not bothering with it.
But the evening wore on and then came the reminder that they were not quite back to the point where they could spend the night together again. And that wasn't super surprising, but it was also a little bit disappointing. There was an awkward moment between them as Sebastian came to the conclusion that he should probably head home, but he also needed Hunter to bring him home since he had Noelle with him.
"I mean, I could just leave her here overnight if you're not feeling up to driving across town…" he said, frowning at the wall. "So I could just take the metro, you know."
"No, no," Hunter said, shaking his head and getting to his feet. "It's fine, I'll take you home. It's late anyways, the metro gets super fucking sketchy."
"Nah, when I see people masturbating on the train, I'm super flattered," he said with a laugh.
"Jackass," he said, rolling his eyes at him. "Come on, you."
Sebastian rolled his eyes and got to his feet, looking down at Noelle. "Say goodbye to Tesla, we're leaving, you'll see him later," he said, waiting for a moment before gathering the cat in his arms before heading out of the apartment with Hunter. She looked up at him, mewing in protest at being moved. "I know, I know."
"I really didn't expect you to turn into this person when you got a cat."
"Can't help who I truly am," he said with a laugh, shaking his head.
"A crazy cat lady?" he asked, grinning at him.
"You're the one who had a cat before me," he said with a shrug.
Hunter chuckled, shaking his head. "I don't talk to him like he's a person."
"Maybe that's why he loves me more," he said.
"You feed him human food and you pet him, that's really all it takes," he said, shaking his head as they reached his car and he unlocked it.
"You make it sound like you don't pet him," he said. He laughed after a second, asking, "Are you secretly the guy from Pushing Daisies, but instead of a not dead dog, you have a not dead cat?"
"If Tesla died, I certainly wouldn't resurrect him."
Sebastian shook his head. "You're the worst."
"Yet you keep on coming back," he said.
"Pretty sure I've used that one on you before," Sebastian said with a laugh, shaking his head.
Hunter drove Sebastian and Noelle back to his apartment, and when he stopped the car in the parking garage, something happened. He felt a twinge somewhere inside of him, a wish to please, please don't leave filling him as he watched Sebastian pulling Noelle up from where she had settled down on the floor by his feet.
"Thanks for the ride, this was much better than the night train," he said with a laugh, and maybe any other time, Hunter would have made some comment about it being the "drunk train."
But instead what he did as he saw Sebastian's free hand reaching for the door handle was this: he reached out and pulled him closer, leaning in and kissing him. There was a moment of surprise before Sebastian kissed him back and god, it was perfect.
It wasn't much. It wasn't a deep kiss and it didn't last long, just a gentle press of lips on lips, but it said enough. It promised that they were okay and they would continue to be okay, more than okay.
Sebastian pulled back and smiled at him, and neither of them said anything for a second. Then he opened the door and slowly got out, saying, "Goodnight, Chasseur."
"Goodnight, Sebastian," he said with a wide smile as he watched Sebastian walk away and go inside.
