AN: Thank you all for your comments! This is the latest I wrote and from now on updates will be less frequent but I hope to keep up, especially now that Downton is returning :)
This one's on the funny fluffy side
Elsie & Charles retired a year when he was called back for a party. Afterwards Charles, anxious to return home, decided not to wait for a ride. Hiking in the storm, he found a large pond across the road. Half-way round, he heard splashing & yowling from a tiny ginger tabby swimming the other way. "Vermin, serves you right!" He was about to turn when the kitten disappeared. Pausing and waiting for the mewling to let him know the kitten had surfaced, the night air was silent.
Elsie opened the door to a drenched disheveled and grumpy butler with a weak looking ruffled kitten balancing on his shoulder trembling, equally dripping with water. "Whatever happened?"
Charles didn't answer right away, taking the time to free himself from his boots before stepping inside while she rushed to get him a towel and pour some tea.
He pointed angrily at the little ball of trembling fur now on the floor: "It followed me home, I couldn't get rid of it!" he finally offered as an explanation, cracking under his wife's glare. In his mind was still vivid the memory of Pebble, his childhood baby chick that never grew to be a rooster when he met Maddox, the neighbours cat. Or of Toothy, the little rat he adopted when he first moved to Ripon working as a coolie before leaving for the stages, who faced a similar fate by the paws of Hawk, a stray cat missing an eye… Vermins! that's what they were.
"This is all your fault," he cursed under his breath.
Although watching Elsie pet the small thing was soothing… in an unexpected way.
He sat down by the fire with tea after removing his wet clothes, Elsie dropping kisses on his head and back with the excuse of drying his hair with another towel.
"All your fault," he repeated satisfied when the kitten curled on his lap.