title Cat Hair Removal Tips
author Keren Ziv
spoilers ...last ep.
rating K
summary He'd always wanted a friend whose poop he didn't have to scoop. Cat Kirk, beware! Kyle's in town.

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Kirk's never had a best friend before, and Kyle tells him that he's been looking for one too.

"Dean's been acting moody lately," Kyle says, stirring his hot chocolate and turning the pages of Reader's Digest at the same time. "(Oh, the new vocabulary section ...) All he's done this week is complain about Lorelai and Rory. I didn't even know that he and Rory were talking again."

Kirk knows how he feels.

"I know how you feel. Mother was the same way."

"She complained about Lorelai and Rory to you all the time?"

"No, Mother complained more about Cat Kirk shedding on her dark shawls, but it's the same thing, trust me."

Kyle nods, because he understands. Roommates are a hassle sometimes -- he learned that in boot camp. When he told Kirk about that, Kirk had given his own version of a sage nod and had offered up an anecdote about sharing the one house bathroom as the youngest of twelve siblings.

"You want Cocoa Puffs?"

"I would but I'm on the twelve step program." Kirk pauses here, as if something has just occurred to him. When he continues speaking, it looks as if it were a great effort. "By the way, Kyle, I have something very serious to tell you."

Kyle puts his coffee down and places his hook on top of his Reader's Digest, mimicking Kirk's somber attitude about the subject at hand. The act is appreciated by Kirk, who files it away as something to do the next time he has a heart to heart with Luke.

"You can tell me."

"Kyle, I have a problem." Kirk takes a deep breath and clasps his hands in front of him. "A problem with chocolate. It's been going on my whole life, but it's only recently spun so out of control that I had to face it. I had to quit, for the sake of my dental health."

"I understand," Kyle says.

"It's been tough -- I've got the shakes, my sleep is all messed up, and the cravings are unbelievable. At my craving support group, the mommies-to-be tell me I'll make it, but I just don't think I can some days. I just don't think I can."

Abashed, Kirk looks down at his clasped hands; they are soon covered by Kyle's hand and hook in a gesture of comfort.

"I'm here for ya, buddy."

Kyle takes his hot chocolate to the sink and dumps it, because that's something nice to do, and he's a nice guy. Kirk smiles. He'd always wanted a best friend whose litter box he didn't have to change.

"Thanks," Kirk says, almost too choked up to speak.

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finis