Characters: Laurence the first Vicar/Ludwig the Holy Blade, Laurence' secretary Florence

Word Count: 5.325

Summary: Time passed in Yharnam and a lot happened for the Healing Church, some things good, a lot things bad. During this harsh times Laurence embraces the presence of Ludwig, the Holy Blade. There is even a cat that reminds him of his new boyfriend. Even though he swore to himself, that six cats are enough, he brings the cat to the church, but he certainly won't keep him. No, he won't.

(Author's note: Like I said, the canon Bloodborne timeline is happening in the background of that fic, so these chapters get a bit more depressing, buuuut, there are cat shenanigans in there and also it is time for sappy romances because HolyVicar is now canon for this fic!)

A lot had happened in a rather short time. Laurence pretended to be fine on the outside, but in the inside, he was in a turmoil.

Everything had started fine even, they had found a Great One in the tombs. A real, living one, not a dead one. The church had been overjoyed and it got even better when the choir managed to communicate with her. They took the Great One with them to the church and gave her the name Ebrietas. Though, while Ebrietas happily provided them with the holy blood, it became quickly clear that she actually didn't knew anything. She had been left behind by her kin. As much as the choir tried to get information out of her, she couldn't give them anything she herself did not knew.

So Laurence had took matters in his own hands and summoned a Great One that had ascended to the heavens, only for Gehrman to step forward and saying something to the Great One that came from the moon.

Laurence still hadn't reconciled with Gehrman at this point. He had tried, but Gehrman barely had listened to him, silent in his workshop alongside a life sized doll that wore Maria's face. Gehrman always had liked to make dolls, but that was the only one that got so huge. Laurence had asked himself if she was supposed to be a gift for Maria.

Whatever the reason was, Gehrman had interjected the summoning. The Great One had embraced him and then... both of them had vanished without a trace and Yharnam had seen a blood red moon and the worst outbreak of the beastly scourge ever.

Laurence didn't knew how long he had hidden in his office, it felt like days, but when he came out once the blood red moon vanished, apparently it only had been a single night.

In his grief and fear, he had ordered to burn Old Yharnam, the main outbreak of the beastly scourge, down to the ground. The church had fall under heavy criticism because of the act, the beastly scourge had become known to the public and Laurence had his hands full sorting the chaos.

With the independent workshop having falling more and more into chaos with Gehrman's withdrawal, Laurence had decided to employ the leftover hunters directly in the church, giving them a workshop of their own to use, just above Oedon Chapel. He also decided to put Ludwig, the hunter that had shown the best performance in the Old Yharnam incident and who had hold the old workshop together, into the rank of captain.

It was exactly Ludwig and his strong arms in which Laurence fled when everything overwhelmed it. In his embrace, he felt safe and secure and if he could get rid of his worries, for just a little while.

Ashamedly he had to admit, that it took him far too long to notice that he had fallen in love with Ludwig. It had started with Ludwig coming into his office to report and see him eating a sandwich while being buried by paperwork and said sandwich had only been half eaten despite having been acquired an hour ago.

Ludwig then had invited Laurence to eat with him and while Laurence had refused at first, too caught up in his work, the moment he had first fainted from hunger, he knew that he couldn't go on like that. Since then, Laurence and Ludwig had always spent the meal times together and grew more and more close up until that Ludwig learned the names of all of Laurence's cats and their quirks.

Ludwig was one of the only lights left in Laurence' life, especially because shortly after the incident of the blood moon, Laurence had went to find Micolash and had to see that his friend had left the church without even saying good bye. While a part of Laurence, the vicar part, feared that Micolash could be into some research that was damaging for the church, the part that still cherished Micolash as a friend felt hurt and betrayed. It had been so worse that for a week he could barely look at Mick, the cat that reminded him so much of Micolash.

At the moment, Laurence was outside, feeding the cats at the docks, thinking about Ludwig again. He truly was the light of his life, or, like Ludwig would say, Laurence' guiding moon light, referencing that special sword of his. Laurence hated and loved it equally when Ludwig said corny stuff like this. It was just one of his many charms.

Other charms about him were his good looks, his warm brown eyes, how easily he could scoop Laurence up, the way his calloused hands softly stroked over Laurence' hair, the way he played the violin which Laurence could listen to for hours, his cooking skills, that he took Laurence with him on his horse named Midnight, that Amelia had already latched on him, how he listened to Laurence' poetry even though he didn't seem to understand it, how he always kindly smiled at everyone and would go to help anyone in need, that...

Laurence' train of dreamy thoughts got interrupted when his eyes fell on a particular cat. It fur was a solid grey, with green eyes that almost looked turquoise, almost the same colour as Ludwig's sword, but what got Laurence' attention more was the fact, that this cat was huge.

"Look at you, you must be around 15 pounds.", Laurence murmured and tossed the newcomer a fish treat. It came towards the goodie, sniffed it and then pretty much swallowed it whole. Laurence smiled as he observed this, Ludwig also had a big appetite and sometimes took bites of food where Laurence choked when he just watched him ate.

The other cats quickly surrounded him and asked loudly for more treats, so Laurence stopped observing the grey giant and tossed the cats around him some treats. "Calm down, everyone gets some.", he murmured, offering some of the treats on his outstretched hands, waiting for the more brave ones to get them, chuckling when their rough tongues tickled the skin on his fingers.

To his surprise, the grey newcomer came as well to get some treats from his hand, even knocking down another, smaller cat. Instead of ignoring the cat in favour of the treats however, the grey cat stopped, looked at the cat it knocked over and then gave its fur a good lick, as if to say sorry or comfort the other cat.

"You not only look like him, you are also kind like him...", Laurence said, offering the grey cat a few more treats which it took and then licked his fingers for the lingering smell. "Hey, that tickles.", Laurence chuckled and then tossed the rest of the bag on the ground, watching as the cats broke out into a little fight over them.

Laurence waited until every last treat was eaten and the cats surrounded him again. He stood up and turned the empty bag around, showing them it was empty. "That was it for today, nothing left.", he said. "Time for me to go back to the church."

Laurence gave a few of the cats a stroke over their fur and then turned around to walk into the direction of the church. After around ten minutes he heard a deep meow behind him.

Surprised, Laurence turned around to see that the grey cat had followed him.

"I, uh, don't have anymore treats.", Laurence said. "Go back to your friends, I will come back soon with more."

The grey cat cocked its head, meowed again and then came running towards Laurence, snuggling against his legs, leaving a myriad of grey fur on his black trousers. "And I thought Mary was bad.", Laurence sighed as he kneeled down and gave the grey cat a pet, despite its bulky build the fur was silky smooth.

The cat meowed at him again and Laurence frowned about two things. First, that the cat clearly tried to get more treats out of him and second, how tame this cat already was. That wasn't a wild cat, somebody probably had abandoned it. Or it had ran away from its home. Laurence wondered who in the world would abandon a cat as gorgeous as this one.

"I already have six cats, I can't bring it a seventh, Florence will kill me...", Laurence said, knowing that technically he could do what he wanted, but Florence already had had this glare in her eyes when he had kept Amy... despite having promised to find another home for the kitten.

"I am sorry, I can't. Please go back to the docks.", Laurence said, straightening himself up and walking with brisk steps to the church, though he couldn't restrain himself and when he looked back, he saw that the cat had indeed followed him all the way through.

"Alright alright, I'll take you in and we see if we can find your owner.", Laurence said, defeated, picking the cat up, grunting because it was heavy. "I wonder what your name is?", Laurence said as the cat seemed to relax and got even more heavy in his grasp. "I should give you one as placeholder, I need to call you something.", Laurence said and lifted the tail of the cat, to see that the cat was a male. Figured, with how large and heavy he was. "Hmm... I think I am going to call you Lutz. Only until we found your owner of course.", Laurence said and carried Lutz over the threshold of the cathedral.

On the way to his office, Laurence crossed paths with Florence. "Ah, Vicar, you are back, can we go over your appoint-?", Florence interrupted herself with a gasp and then tapped her foot with crossed arms as her gaze rested on Lutz.

"Florence, it's not like it looks like.", he defended himself.

"Oh, then what is it like? Because for me, it looks like you just brought a seventh cat into the church.", Florence frowned, deep wrinkles appearing on her forehead.

"The cat is clearly docile. I have met him the first time today and he was hand-tame. He either got abandoned or ran away from his home. I decided to take it him until we found his original owner.", Laurence cradled Lutz in his arms as he talked.

Florence let out a deep sigh. "Alright, I will see if I can find someone who is missing a large, grey cat." She came closer and offered to take the cat from Laurence, who put him into her arms.

"What a hunk.", Florence said as she adjusted her grip on the cat until he rested comfortably in her arms. "I am surprised that your arms aren't sore, Vicar."

"I never said they weren't.", Laurence said, massaging his left arm. "Now, you wanted to talk about my appointments today?"

"Yes yes, of course, let's go to your office...", Florence said and Laurence followed her until they had arrived at his office.

Several hours later Laurence sat in his office, his head resting in one of his hands, being done with the day. So many people came to complain to him nowadays, expecting the church to be able to solve each and every problem, even when they just had quarrels with their neighbours. Some of them were asking for the church hunters to come over personally, because their neighbour hundred percent had the scourge and others had nothing better to do than complain endlessly at him about their situation, because he didn't get the scourge under control.

It was a scary thing that this last statement was true. All these years of work and Laurence didn't had an answer for the scourge and with all that people wasting his time, it could take several more years until he had an answer. If only Micolash would still be there...

The thought of his former friend made Laurence' mood drop even more and he glanced to the couch where Lutz had settled in. Even though the cat had been very friendly so far, he had asked Florence to keep the other six out of his office for now, so that Lutz could settle in first. When everything went well, he would stay only for a few days anyway. At the thought of Lutz going back to his owners, the thought of him really having been abandoned flashed through Laurence' mind, then it would be alright... He shook his head at his thought, he already had six cats. He shouldn't add a seventh.

There was a knock on his door, Laurence recognized the strong, resolute knock anywhere. He raised his head, straightened himself up on the chair and smoothed out his clothes. "Ludwig, come in.", he said.

"Good evening, Vicar.", Ludwig said as he came in with a swift step, closing the door behind him, Laurence having a grin in his face.

"Stop this needless empty phrases and come here.", Laurence said with his arms spread out. Ludwig pretty much hurried in his embrace and soon enough the two of them were locked in a deep kiss.

"I needed that.", Laurence said with a sigh.

"Another bad day?", Ludwig asked, picking Laurence up and placing himself on the couch and Laurence on his lap.

"Another day full of idiots thinking I can solve all their problems.", Laurence balled his left hand into a fist. "Any reports on your front?"

"We probably need to call the hunt out soon.", Ludwig sighed. "Beast sightings became more and more frequent over the last week. We already have the curfew in place, but we think about putting it even earlier than sundown, the beasts don't seem to prefer only the night anymore."

"That's worrying.", Laurence said. They knew far too less about the beasts. Why did they change their behaviour so much over the years?

"But how about we get and get something to eat fi-?", Ludwig interrupted himself as he saw Lutz lying on the couch next to him. "Oh, Laurence, do you have a new cat? I don't remember having seen this one before."

"Who, Lutz?", Laurence said, putting both hands over his mouth because of his slip-up. "He... he is only here for a few days until we find his owner. He must have ran away from his home."

"Oh? But how did you know his name?", Ludwig asked and Laurence silently cursed and reprimanded himself.

"It, uh, was written on his collar.", Laurence lied and even though the cat wasn't wearing a collar, Ludwig just nodded as if it made total sense. For as much Laurence loved Ludwig, he could be quite dense at times.

Laurence climbed down from Ludwig's lap and went to the door. "You mentioned eating, that sounds nice, let's go.", he said, swinging the door open. Ludwig followed him and when they were walking down the corridor to Ludwig's room, where a fresh cooked meal would usually wait for Laurence, Ludwig said. "I like how the cat's name sounds kind of like mine."

"He also reminds me of you.", Laurence chuckled and told Ludwig all about how he had met Lutz this day during dinner, only having to fight Mick away who wanted to have a bite of his poultry soufflé. Apparently, the little black cat had spent the better part of the day in Ludwig's room.

After they had eaten, Laurence and Ludwig stayed together a while longer, talking about their day and playing with Mick. Mick was fitting perfectly in one of Ludwig's large hands and very much enjoyed being carried around like this. Even though the cat was starting to grow old, his playful nature had never diminished.

Thinking about old cats, old Will was still alive, what made his name sake all the more fitting. Maybe it was because he mostly was sleeping, Laurence pretty much only saw Will awake when he fed the cats or Will used the litter box. A very cozy cat indeed. Though, thinking about Will and his older teacher made Laurence feel a deep ache in his chest, so he stopped thinking about it in favour to see how Ludwig played with Mick.

Eventually Laurence had to leave to feed the cats. He took Mick with him and fed his usual six in an extra room and then went to his office where he fed Lutz. Once Laurence had the cat food can in his hands, Lutz pretty much started to scream and snuggle up against his legs, only stopping when Laurence put the portion down in front of him. Lutz dug right in and the food seemed to vanish in mere seconds.

Once the food bowl was cleaned all out, Lutz looked back at Laurence and gave him a demanding meow.

"What, you are still hungry?", Laurence chuckled. "I gave you a whole can. That should be more than enough for a cat of your size." His other cats usually only got half a can. Maybe it was because Lutz didn't had a lot of food lately.

"How about this instead?", Laurence opened a drawer and snatched a new bag with treats, tossing Lutz a few, which he seemed to inhale. After around ten treats, Laurence closed the bag and put it back into the drawer. Lutz jumped on the desk and stared down at the drawer, pawing at it, but not making any progress actually opening it.

"You have the same bottomless stomach as him...", Laurence said as he watched Lutz' fruitless attempts. "And you are kind of dense, like him... Are you sure you aren't Ludwig in cat form?", Laurence gave Lutz a good stroke over his fur and then chuckled when the cat went overboard with his attempts to open the drawer and landed on the floor.

"Tomorrow I will introduce you to my other cats.", Laurence said, completely forgetting that he wasn't planning to keep Lutz, leaving his office and going into his own room, only to get a pair of pajamas. He would go take a shower and then crawl in Ludwig's bed. He slept much much better alongside his boyfriend. Lutz would probably be fine on his own for the night.

Laurence awoke the next day before Ludwig. It had become the norm for him when they slept together, when Ludwig wasn't with him, he often only slept a few hours or not at all, so it was rare for him to sleep for longer than four hours anyway. It pretty much only happened when he stayed awake for too many nights in a row, sleeping up to twelve hours.

That wasn't the only reason he awoke though, Mick had slept with them and was pawing Laurence for food, regardless how early it was. Laurence wrestled himself free from his boyfriend's hug, gave him a little peck on the cheek and then left the room, Mick following him, screaming more loud than he needed, being clearly upset when Laurence' first stop was the bathroom and not him getting food.

"By the blood, you can wait a few more minutes.", Laurence said as he stepped out of the bathroom, now walking to the room where the cats would get fed. The rest of them already waited and once he had the feeding dishes and the canned food on the table, there was a concert of meows. Laurence was used to it. Every morning the same routine. These cats had been with him for years now and they still would scream as if he had let them starve for a week each morning.

Once Laurence had filled six dishes and put them onto the ground, he remembered that Lutz was in his office. He quickly counted his cats to make sure that all six were present and then left with another can for his office. Once he opened the door, Lutz, who had been chilling on the couch, raised his head and stared at him with that turquoise eyes.

"Hey Lutz, have you slept well?", Laurence asked and sat next to the cat, giving him a few gentle pats. Lutz responded with snuggling his head into Laurence' palm, with a lot of force actually. "Woah, easy there.", Laurence grinned and got up once Lutz had finished snuggling with his hand. He prepared Lutz' food and like the other day, the cat pretty much inhaled the food and then asked for more.

"Why are you so hungry?", Laurence asked. "Is it because you are a big boy? Or are you just one of those cats that has an endless stomach?"

Still, Laurence didn't plan to overfeed Lutz, he did had plenty of food and would only risk to puke. He would stop asking for more food soon, when he realized that Laurence wouldn't give him more food.

Now that he was in his office, Laurence could get dressed and start with his work until Ludwig would wake up and get him for breakfast, then the morning mass and his morning appointments and then during lunch break he could introduce his other cats to Lutz. They already were agitated because his office was off limits for the time being.

After Laurence dressed himself and combed his hair, he sat down on his desk and started to sort through the paperwork. Around two hours later, he had gotten a considerable amount of the stack done in the meantime, Ludwig appeared in his office.

"Now look who finally decided to get up.", Laurence grinned at him.

"And since when have you've been up? It's only 7 AM.", Ludwig scolded Laurence, arms crossed.

"Hmm.. around 4.30 AM then I guess.", Laurence said, not fazed by Ludwig's scolding at all. He wouldn't fall back to sleep even if he tried, so why waste precious awake time? "Mick woke me up anyway."

"Only because you get up at 4.30 AM to feed him.", Ludwig sighed. "Speaking of food, it's time to get yourself fed. Let's get some breakfast."

"Sure.", Laurence said. "Let me just finish this letter."

"Now.", Ludwig said and pretty much picked Laurence up, who let his pen fall down on the desk. "You can work later."

Luckily Ludwig only carried Laurence to the door of the office before he let him down and he walked alongside him to his room, where they enjoyed Ludwig's self cooked breakfast.

"How is the cat that you found yesterday?", Ludwig asked.

"He's fine so far.", Laurence answered between a mouthful of egg and juice. "I want to introduce him to the other cats later."

"Oh, can I come and watch?", Ludwig asked.

"Sure, if you don't have anything to do after lunch. Don't you have to instruct the church hunters?"

"They can train on their own for a little while.", Ludwig said. Laurence couldn't argue with that. As long as they made sure that the beasts died, he didn't had any reason to complain.

The both of them finished their breakfast alongside meaningless small talk and then arranged to meet up for their lunch break like usual. After they had eaten, Laurence would introduce Lutz to the other cats.

The morning crept along after the morning mass was done. Laurence sat in his office and took care of the never ending work. At least Lutz still seemed to be content and even came to lay in Laurence' lap, who feared that his legs would be absolutely numb when the large cat laid on them for longer than thirty minutes. Luckily Lutz got distracted by a fly flying into the office, so Laurence massaged his legs until he could feel them again, watching as Lutz pretty much caught the fly mid air.

"Awesome.", Laurence couldn't help but cheer on Lutz. It might have been coincidence, but it was impressive nonetheless. Lutz probably could compete with Gary for the position of the best mouser.

Observing Lutz was a good distraction, because Laurence had to admit to himself, that he couldn't concentrate on his work. He briefly thought about it that he only would house Lutz for a few days, only until his owner would be found, but a part of himself wished that nobody would be found. That Lutz really got abandoned, even though Laurence had no clue why someone would get rid of a cat like this. His eating habits maybe?

Around noon Ludwig knocked at his door and Laurence went to get food with him, after having fed the cats. Once the two of them had finished eating, Laurence went to the common room where several of the cats were lazing around.

He decided to pick up Mary, who gave him a small annoyed meow before cuddling into his embrace and letting herself be carried along.

"Why Mary?", Ludwig asked.

"Because she is a rather affable cat and because I want to introduce him to a female first. Male cats can get rather territorial...", Laurence said, running a hand through Mary's cloud like fur.

"So Julie and Amy aren't suitable?", Ludwig asked further.

"Julie is combative. I am sure Lutz could hold his own in a fight, but I don't want for his first experience with the other cats here to get beaten up. And Amy... she is too playful. She could annoy him. Mary is the best bet. All she does is puke on the carpet."

Laurence grinned as he said that and angled Mary in front of his face. "Isn't that right, Mary? Hey, now that I think about it, you haven't puked on the carpet in a while.. ah, but don't take this as clue do do it again!"

Laurence settled Mary beck in his arm, where the cat snuggled against him and purred. The duo was soon enough in front of Laurence' office, where Ludwig opened the door for him.

Laurence stepped inside and put Mary on the floor while Ludwig closed the door behind them.

"Alright, let's just observe and see what the cats do.", Laurence said, as Mary went to the couch, where Lutz wasn't present for a change and gave it a good sniff. She gave it such a thorough sniff that Laurence was under the impression that she would never stop, having to get every single scent into her nose.

After around five minutes or so, a deep meow was heard and Mary's head jerked around. Lutz had sat on the window board and just noticed the presence of Mary. He jumped down on the floor with a thud and walked towards Mary with his tail straight in the air. Mary's own tail was curved at the tip.

"That's already looking good.", Laurence whispered to Ludwig, who had a bit of a blank look in his eyes. Lutz arrived first at Mary and then the both cats gave themselves a good sniff.

After she was content with Lutz's smell, Mary lost interest and went back to explore the office she hadn't been allowed in for a whole day. Lutz seemed to be interested more in Mary and followed her around, up until Mary had enough and warned him with a hiss and a strike to leave her be.

After it happened, Lutz just sat there and blinked, clearly confused. Laurence had to fight to suppress his laughter.

"He's well meaning, but he doesn't get boundaries yet.", Laurence murmured once he had calmed down. "He probably was kept as a single cat in his old home."

"How you get all this by simply watching them is amazing.", Ludwig said.

"Years of practice.", Laurence said. "Well, Lutz seems to be eager to get to know other cats, so let's see how he fares with the others."

One by one, Laurence introduced the other cats to Lutz. To his surprise, he bonded the most with Gary, the one legged mouser with an eternal grumpy face. Julie was surprisingly calm around him, probably not wanting to pick a fight with such a large cat and Amy only tried to play with his tail once.

After they had all made contact, Laurence felt pretty confident to let Lutz roam with them in the evening. There shouldn't be any trouble.

"I wonder if the cat is a good hunter?", Ludwig said as he left Laurence' office, having to go back to his hunters. Laurence, who had seen him catch a fly in mid air, only could answer with a: "Certainly."

A few days passed, but still no sign of any person that missed a great cat. Still, Laurence had to ready himself for the possibility that someone would come and claim him. Even when nobody would come, Florence would probably search for someone who would take him in.

Because of that, Laurence tried to not spend too much time with Lutz, to not get too attached, but that didn't do much, when instead Ludwig started to bond with the cat, always picking him up and snuggling him when Laurence had done his best to ignore the cat all day and in the end, Laurence himself couldn't help it and he stroked the cat in Ludwig's arms and made him purr. Laurence started to hope more and more, that nobody would want the cat.

So, when Florence came into his office a few days later, Laurence' heart sank and rose at the same time in his chest. He currently was busy reading the newspaper, with Lutz lying on his lap (Laurence's legs were already numb), Mary on the newspaper (he always moved her when he needed to flip pages) and Amy on his shoulders.

"I couldn't find an owner.", Florence said. That made Laurence heart leap in his chest. Maybe... just maybe he could keep Lutz after all. "However.", Florence said. "I have found someone who would take him in." Laurence' face fell under her statement. He shouldn't have gotten attached to the cat. He had known that and still bonded with him. He was the only one at fault here.

"Yes, I'll take him.", Ludwig said as he stepped into the office, smiling at both Laurence and Florence. Laurence felt how a stone fell from his heart and he smiled back at Ludwig.

"Congratulations on your seventh cat, Vicar.", Florence said with a roll of her eyes and turned around to leave the office.

"He's not my seventh, he is Ludwig's first.", Laurence called after her.

"You know that I am in the know.", Florence said, a hand on her forehead. "You had decided to keep this cat once you named him, right? It's always the same with you, Vicar." She shook her head and then definitely left the office.

"She could have found someone else.", Laurence said as Ludwig came closer to pick Lutz up and cradle him in his arms. "She knew that I would keep him if nobody would claim him. That is why she didn't say anything when you said that you would adopt him."

"And even if she would have said no, nobody can withstand my puppy eyes.", Ludwig chuckled.

"Yes, they are even more effective than Amelia's.", Laurence said and got up, completely forgetting about his numb legs from Lutz having laid on them for so long. Luckily Ludwig was able to catch him with one hand. Amy jumped from his shoulders with an annoyed meow and than curled up on the edge of the couch.

"Woah, easy there.", he said. "We might have the holy blood, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't prevent unnecessary injuries."

"Thanks, Ludwig.", Laurence said and sank his hand into Lutz' grey fur. "I am so glad that you came into my life."

(Author's note: I could write these two interacting the whole day. I love them so much.

Originally I was saying that it would be around ten cats in the church, but in the meantime I decided to let it be eight cats, so one to go, then every cat is introduced.

How do you like this story? Please tell me in the comments, that would make my whole day.)