Author's note: Here's some pure fluff, courtesy of a cute GIF someone dropped in Discord.

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the canon, world, and characters portrayed below and you can tell I'm not J.K. Rowling because #transrights

Beta: Aya, many thanks!

Content Warnings: NA

A Furrier Little Problem

"Oh," Remus said with a wince when he saw Teddy appear in the kitchen doorway with the grey… thing in his hands. "Oh, Teddy, what… what's that?"

"A kitten," Teddy said, absolutely delighted, though he had the good sense to hold the cat an arm's length away from him. It was definitely a kitten, ash grey with black stripes on the top of his head and paws tipped with what must be white fur. But it was also filthy and matted and it smelled absolutely rancid.

"Right, Teddy… Teddy, where did you find that?" Remus asked, dreading the answer.

"You mean Juliet?" Teddy asked.

"Ju… you named the cat Juliet?" Remus said.

"If it's a girl, yes," Teddy said. "Because I found her and she's beautiful, like in the Muggle play they have. But Jonathan if it's a boy."

Remus stiffened because he did not like that. He did not like that there was a small unknown creature in the house that did not belong in his house but that was named like… well shit, like it belonged there.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, and Dora was at work until midnight so he was handling this situation solo. Which, come to think of it, might be for the best. He had visions of his wife sprinting down the street towards the pet store to buy a colour and three different brands of cat food—nevermind that pets were forbidden in their buildings.

"Where… where did you find that cat, Teddy?" Remus said calmly, drying his hands on the tea towel thrown over his shoulder.

"In the alley between Colin's building and the one with the corner store," he said.

"And what were you doing there, when you know very well that that shortcut is off limits?" Remus asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Rescuing her!" Teddy said. He lifted up the cat more and checked its underside. "Yes, her. I think."

"Yes, it's a her," Remus confirmed. He sighed. "Teddy, I don't know… I don't know about this. We're not supposed to have pets in the building."

"We're not supposed to have magic, either," Teddy said, bringing the kitten closer to his chest and wrapping his arms around it. It had the decency to mew happily, which only increased Remus's sense of complete and total dread. "And anyways, in three years when I come to Hogwarts I'll bring her so she won't even live here all the time. Just for a bit now."

"Yes, but… well, a cat is a big responsibility," Remus said.

"So is magic," Teddy pointed out. "That's what you said, isn't it? That keeping the secret is a big responsibility."

Remus had said that. Huh. That had been most unwise of him.

"That's true, but magic is something we inherited," Remus said. "This cat would be something we take in. Besides, she might belong to somebody. Somebody might be missing her very much."

"I don't know about that," Teddy said suspiciously.

"I think that would be a good idea," Remus said as relief washed over him. "We could go drop her off at the shelter—"

"No, not like that!" Teddy said, shrinking away from Remus and curling his arms around the kitten even more. "We can't bring her to a shelter! What if nobody ever comes for her?"

"Someone will come for her," Remus promised. "Either her real family or another nice one that's allowed to have kittens in their building. She's a very beautiful cat."

Albeit smelly at the moment.

"Exactly!" Teddy exclaimed. "That's why we should keep her."

"Teddy, we don't want to take her from a family that's her own…"

"She doesn't have a family, look at her," Teddy said, running a hand down the cat's head. "She's too small to be outside on her own and she's so dirty and small. Nobody's taking care of her."

Remus suspected that he was right and he also suspected that it was wrong to have bought Teddy a plastic Muggle doctor's kit for his fifth birthday, that way he could run a veterinary hospital for stuffed animals out of his bedroom.

"Teddy…" Remus said patiently, hoping that he would think of a way to dig him out of this particular hole by the time he finished saying his son's name. Thankfully, a very distraught Teddy interrupted him.

"But she'd be all alone at the shelter! Please, Dad, I know in my heart that she doesn't have a family!" Teddy said, somewhat dramatically although it did warm Remus's heart. "And that's the worst thing in the world. That's what you said, right? That it was the worst thing in the world to have no family before you had us."

Oh, wow. That one hit Remus right in the middle of his chest. Because yes, he had said that, too. But he hadn't expected Teddy to remember, and he especially didn't expect Teddy to look so sad and mournful as he recalled this story. But it was true, wasn't it? It had been the worst, before he'd had a family.

He took a deep breath and looked at the kitten in Teddy's arm some more. It starred right back at him, completely fearless but incredibly content—as if it would never leave his son's arms, which was, of course, the worst case scenario.

"You get used to the smell," Teddy said.

"She would be getting a bath almost immediately," Remus said.

"So she's staying?"

"I said 'would,' which is still hypothetical," Remus said, teasing his lip as he tried to find an escape route out of this situation. He was caught between a rock and an adorable child with big pebble grey eyes that reminded him of his wife's natural colour, a pleading look on his face, and a teal cowlick. What was he supposed to do?

"Pass her over to me, for a moment," Remus said with a sigh. Teddy smiled and rushed over, carefully transferring the cat into Remus's arms. The cat let itself be handled, seemingly just happy to be somewhere warm and snug.

He picked up the cat and gave it a once-over for any visible injuries that he could use to drop it off at a veterinary hospital and then looked at the cat. Remus didn't like cats. Cats didn't like him. James used to joke that it was because there was something canine about him they just couldn't put their finger on, to which Sirius answered that cats in any and all iterations were absolute hell beasts.

This one looked at Remus with clear blue eyes that seemed far too big given how small its cute pink little button nose was… Focus Remus, it's a cat. We're not doing this, it's a cat. Yes, they're cute when they're small, but then they shred things and pee on things and they're mean to you and they poo in sandboxes you have to keep in your house. You know this. And he did. This cat just looked at him so sweetly and softly that he got distracted for a second.

And then the kitten's little pink tongue shot out of its mouth and licked the very tip of Remus's nose, which just made his whole entire heart explode with affection just as Teddy exclaimed: "Awwww!"

Remus replayed those events quite a few times as he waited up for his wife to return home from work, which she did at an ungodly hour.

"There's leftovers in the fridge," Remus said as he helped her shrug her coat off. "I made that chicken with the avocado that you like."

"Because you're brilliant, you are," she said, spinning around to kiss his cheek before stomping off into the kitchen—unbuckling the holster at her waist and taking off the Auror badge from around her neck as she walked into the kitchen. Remus followed her into the kitchen, draping her coat over a chair.

"Can I talk to you about something while you eat?" Remus said.

"Sure," she said as she ate out of the tupperware directly, not even bothering to warm up her food. "Merlin, that's good. Is everything okay?"

"We have a furry little problem," Remus said.

"The werewolf thing? Yeah, what about it?" Tonks said as she took another bite.

"No, not the… we have a cat," Remus said with a sigh.

"We have a cat?" she asked, arching an eyebrow. "Why did that happen?"

"Because I'm in love with it," Remus blurted out before he could stop himself.

WC: 1409