love me, feed me, never leave me

Three weeks before Christmas, James awoke in the night to the sound of Regulus's frantic screaming. He staggered out of bed so fast that he tripped over his feet and almost fell flat on his face on the carpet.

"Regulus?" he called into the dark flat. He stumbled across the bedroom to the hallway, slapping the wall as he searched aimlessly for the lightswitch. After a few moments, he managed to switch on the light. "Where are you?"

"Boiler room!" Regulus shrieked. "Quickly!"

James ran across the hallway. The door to the boiler cupboard was half open, and Regulus was on his hands and knees on the floor, only his bottom half sticking out. "Are you okay? Where's the fire?"

"It's Shadow!" Regulus hissed. "She's had her babies!"

James advanced on the cupboard and pulled the door back slightly. Regulus's sleek black cat, Shadow, was stretched out on her side, her still-bloated belly exposed, and three tiny black balls of fluff were suckling. James opened his mouth, ready to give Regulus hell for causing him to panic, but then Regulus turned around to look at James, wearing the biggest smile that James had ever seen. His grey eyes were swimming with tears, and James's heart swelled a bit.

"They're so beautiful!" he whispered, reaching for James's hand to pull him closer. "Look how small they are!"

James didn't care that much for cats. Regulus had adopted Shadow from a rescue centre shortly after they moved in together, much to James's distaste. He didn't care that much for Shadow, and Shadow never cared that much for him—she was Regulus's cat through and through—but he tolerated the cat because of how much Regulus loved her.

Also, it helped that Sirius positively hated cats. His spontaneous visits to James and Regulus's flat decreased considerably after Shadow moved in, which was a great help to their budding relationship.

James didn't really care to go and look at Shadow and her sprogs, especially seeing as it was the middle of the night and he'd been extremely comfortable in bed. But the look on Regulus's face was enough to convince James to move nearer to the cupboard to get a closer look at the kittens.

He had to admit, they were pretty cute.

…

On Christmas Eve, James was starting to worry that Regulus was getting a little too attached to Shadow's kittens.

At three weeks old, the tiny black balls of fluff had evolved into podgy little kittens with bright blue eyes and pointy black ears. They walked aimlessly around the litter box that Regulus had crafted—a large cardboard box filled with blankets and at least one of Regulus's t-shirts ("so they get used to my smell!"). They staggered around after each other and tried to bite at Regulus's fingers with their tiny, pointy little teeth.

Regulus hadn't stopped smiling since the kittens were born. As soon as they started crawling away from Shadow, he was fussing them and stroking them and playing with them. All three kittens now had a small loop of metallic ribbon around their necks to tell them apart, one gold, one silver, one copper.

"You're smitten with those cats," James commented as he walked into the lounge with two cups of cinnamon tea. He put Regulus's drink on the mantelpiece, as Regulus was laid on his back on the rug with all three kittens perched on his chest. He was grinning at James, entirely pleased with himself, and Shadow was stretched out contentedly alongside him, eyeballing James. "Where's the disposable camera? I need you to see what you look like right now." He walked over to the bookshelf and rooted around, until he pulled out a small camera and wound back the reel. "The great and fearless Regulus Black, conquered by a litter of kittens."

Regulus tried to scowl as James snapped a picture, but he was unable to stop grinning, especially when the flash shocked one of the kittens and it wobbled on its stumpy little legs, then toppled down to land clumsily on top of Shadow.

"James…" Regulus picked up one of the kittens and turned it to face James, holding up its little paws. It gazed at James with it's doleful blue eyes, and James shook his head as he sat down heavily on the couch.

"No, Reg," James replied.

"You don't even know what I was going to say."

"Yes I do. I heard you thinking it. I've heard you thinking about it all week."

"You don't know what I'm thinking."

"Of course I do. Those cats have made you predictable."

Regulus rolled his eyes. "Please, James?"

James huffed. "When we found out Shadow was expecting kittens, you agreed that you wouldn't get attached to them and we'd rehome them once they were old enough to leave Shadow."

"But look," Regulus wiggled the kitten's little paws in James's direction. "Love me, feed me, never ever leave me!" He grinned at James. "That was the baby, not me."

James groaned. "Regulus."

"Please?"

James stared at Regulus, and Regulus stared at James. His grey eyes were as large and hopeful as the kitten's bright blue ones, and James caved. "Oh, Merlin. Fine."

Regulus placed the kittens down on the rug with Shadow, and jumped to his feet, before skipping the length of the room and taking a running jump onto James's lap. He kissed every spot of James's face that he could reach until James tried to cover his head with his arms, though he was laughing. "I love you, I love you," Regulus gushed. "I didn't expect you to be so accepting—at least not so quickly, anyway."

James grinned. "You are cleaning the litter tray," he said. "Every time. I already clean Shadow's more than I originally intended to."

"You're better at it than me."

"Oh, great," James scoffed. "One of my many talents—scooping up cat shit."

Regulus snorted and leaned forward, burying his face in James's neck. "I can't believe we're doing this," he murmured.

"What?"

"Becoming cat dads to tiny baby kittens," Regulus said happily. "This is the best Christmas present ever."

James sniggered and wrapped his arms around Regulus, and looked at the kittens on the rug, which were now nuzzling into Shadow. "Who knew it would take a bunch of baby cats to turn you into such a wet blanket?"

Written For:

- Winter Funfair/Decorating the Christmas Tree: House Decorations 12. (dialogue) "I can't believe we're actually doing this."

- Winter Funfair/Postal Panic: Character 8. Regulus Black / Wish 3. Write about a bond between a pet and their owner

- Winter Funfair/12 Days of Shipmas: 6. (plot point) a pet having babies

- Winter Funfair/Magical Mistletoe: 20. (drink) cinnamon tea

- Writing Club/Film Festival: 14. (word) smitten

- Writing Club/Elizabeth's Empire: 14. (emotion) content

- Writing Club/Throwback: 20. (trait) accepting

- Writing Club/Buttons: Actions 4. Taking a picture

- Autumn Seasonal/Days of the Year: 1st October - World Smile Day: Write about someone who can't stop smiling

- Autumn Seasonal/Jewellery Month: 2. (animal) Cat

- Autumn Seasonal/Comic Book Day: 7. (dialogue) "Love me, feed me, never leave me."

- Christmas Fight Club/Heal: 2. (character) James Potter

- Moony's Neon Cafe/Food: 13. (emotion) True love

Word Count: 1,057