When Levi got home he was in a good mood, his face slightly flushed with the whisky he'd drunk with Erwin. Rose met him at the door, winding around his ankles.

"What are you still doing up?"

Rose circled and purred, circled and purred. Levi crouched to pet her and she bumped up eagerly into his hand. "What in the world has gotten into you?" he asked. Then she opened her mouth and meowed. Levi was stunned. He'd never heard her make a sound before. What the hell?

Levi woke up at four am, tangled in the sheets, and looked around the room. Something was wrong. Something had woken him up. He was just climbing out of bed when a terrible noise started up. It wasn't loud but it was frantic. He whipped his head around trying to find the source of it. He finally located it.

Rose.

Erwin's phone buzzed urgently at 4:10. It took him a moment to come up out of sleep and when he did he stared at the clock.

What the heck?

His phone buzzed again, jittering on the bedside table. He snatched it up.

"Levi?"

"Oh my god, Erwin, I don't know what to do!"

"Calm down, what's happened?"

"It's Rose. She's making a terrible sound and writhing around!"

Erwin's head throbbed. "Rose?"

"My cat! I think she's having her kittens and I don't know what to do. I don't know if she's alright. There's not a vet anywhere close by and I don't have the money anyway. What do I do? She's making a helluva lot of noise!"

"Stay put. I'll come right away. Give me your address."

Erwin had to wait ten minutes for the bus and he was fraught with anxiety the whole way. Finally, he almost leaped off at Levi's stop and ran the two blocks to Levi's apartment. He sprinted up the stairs and Levi met him at the door.

"How is she?"

Levi backed into the room and gestured at a small basket by the door. "I don't know. She stopped the noise and now she just gets up and down and meows weirdly. Do you think the kittens are stuck? They feel really big for her being so small. Can they get stuck?"

Erwin crouched down over the basket. The small black and white cat, lying on her side, stretched and stiffened, trembling, as he watched. She held the pose for a moment then relaxed only to repeat it a few seconds later.

"Is she OK?" Levi asked. Erwin noticed that he was without his gloves. "Is she dying, you think? Fuck!"

At that moment Rose gave an odd, strangling cry and went rigid. A small slimy bundle appeared out from under her tail so quickly that Erwin recoiled.

"A kitten!" Erwin said, leaning back over. "She's had one!"

"Is it alive? Is it OK?"

Rose had relaxed visibly, though she sat up and panted like a dog. The slimy bundle suddenly jerked. It made a small sound and Rose immediately looked around to investigate. She nosed it for a moment and it began to squirm.

"I think it's OK!" Erwin said. He leaned sideways to give Levi a clear look.

"Oh, eww. Is it supposed to look like that? It's all slimy."

"So were you and I when we were just born, I'll bet."

Rose began enthusiastically cleaning the kitten, causing it to writhe like a dark grub. It kept up an insistent series of surprisingly lusty meows.

"Yuck! Don't eat that stuff. Rose!" Levi said, aghast.

Rose ignored him and kept cleaning her offspring.

The kitten was clean and was blindly groping around with its spindly legs when Rose went rigid again. The second kitten was born much more quickly and with a lot less fuss. Rose devotedly began cleaning it.

By the time the sky had started to faintly lighten there were three fluffy kittens, two black and whites, and a calico, in a row, eating raptly. Rose looked positively smug.

Levi crouched down by the basket and stroked her head and she purred deeply.

"Jesus, Rosie, you scared papa. I thought you were dying." He straightened back up and turned to Erwin. "Tea?"

"Please! I'm half asleep." He yawned as if in demonstration.

Levi bustled about the kitchen area making tea. He also sacrificed four pieces of his precious bread for toast.

"I don't have any butter but I have jam."

"Good enough," Erwin said cheerfully.

Levi set the teapot down on the table along with two cups and saucers. They and the plates for the toast almost didn't fit on the tiny table. The two men ate and drank in a tense silence. Levi kept glancing at Rose's basket.

"Thank you so much for coming. I was panicking."

"You did just fine. You know you can always count on me."

"I appreciate that. I felt helpless. I'm glad she's OK."

"Me too. I love cats."

Levi stilled, his teacup halfway to his mouth.

"Well, fuck."

"What?"

"What if … well … why don't you move in here?"

"In here? With you? Like a roommate?"

"Yeah. I need the money and you need a place to stay."

"But your OCD. I don't want to make it worse. What if I do something wrong and trigger you?"

"Erwin, my cat just squeezed three slimy, bloody cat-slugs out of her cat-vagina in my living room and I'm not doing too badly. How could you top that?"

Erwin laughed. "I've been accused of being messy but I don't think I can."

"I'm willing to try it. I'm desperate. Better you than a stranger."

Erwin admired him for a moment. It took a hell of a lot of strength on Levi's part to even suggest it.

"We could make it like a trial thing. Will you?"

Erwin put his cup back into the saucer decisively. "Yes! Yes, I will. If you promise to be patient with me."

"Same."

Erwin moved in on Friday and Krista brought his stuff over in her Honda.