After Ace was put down, it hadn't been long before the other had promptly laid down and taken a nap. Marco had blinked at it because he swore it looked like the little one wanted to jump off, but it looked like tiredness had taken over so Marco took the time to have some lunch for himself.

Afterwards he started cleaning the house and he had to chuckle at the pitter-patter that started following him not long after. Ace kept following him everywhere he went. Walking on all fours like a real cat would, surprising him by being able to jump straight onto the back of the couch and the table. He definitely needed to secure his furniture, Ace was heavier then a normal cat and he didn't want anything to fall over.

"You can stay on your pillow, Ace. It's okay."

Mrrr

"Here" he picked Ace up and brought him to the couch, putting him on his pillow, "stay here. Nice and cozy." He smiled and carefully went to pat the little filth of Ace's feet. Feeling there were cushions under the sole like a cat had, Marco had tried to take a look but got kicked in the face. Okay, he deserved that. He knew animals in general didn't like their feet being touched. He may need to see if Ace would need to wear shoes or not in the future. "Everything should arrive for you soon-yoi. Then you c-"

Ding-dong!

MREOW!

"ah shit- Ace- don't put your nails in my face- gosh- it's just the doorbell!" Marco held Ace around his waist as the small cat had jumped onto him in fear.

Ding-dong ding-dong

"Coming!" He walked to the door, still trying to pray Ace's nails out of him. Successfully he got Ace to let go and hold him around his neck instead. When he opened the door, the boy was hissing like hell at the person behind it. The other just raising a brow.

"Not well behaved."

Marco frowned at it, rubbing Ace's back as he hissed, trying to calm him and keep him clinging to him and not jump the guy, "he's still settling down-yoi."

The other just hummed and took out a paper, "sign this please and I'll bring up the stuff."

Nodding Marco did and everything was brought up soon. Waiting to the side with Ace until it was done. He thanked the man and looked to the boxes and the cat in his arms. He didn't know Ace for long, but knew he wouldn't let go soon now.

"Lets go through it together." He spoke maybe more to himself then anything else as Ace wouldn't react to him. So he opened the first box with one arm. Pulling stuff out and putting it aside in separate piles. "No food in this one, must be int he next." It was already long after noon, he maybe should taken another meat packet with him when he came back from the store. But nothing to do about that now.

He murmured to himself as he went to the next box when suddenly Ace started wurming in his hold, "you want out? Alright- here you go." Gently he let Ace's feet touch the ground and Ace instantly let himself fall down to all fours, sniffing the box and pawing at it, soon digging his nails in.

Not even 5 seconds later was the box from before flipped over and moving around the house. Happy meows echoing from it.

After all boxes were emptied and Marco found spots for most things, he took one of the small meat packs that was more of a treat then food. He should give Ace his kibble but… how could he not want to give his new cat some treats!

So without hesitation he crouched down and tore the top of the small tube like plastic and pressed until a small dollop of the liquidy meat came out. Nose scrunching at the smell. As long as Ace liked it…

"Ace psss psss." he made kissy noises to get the attention of the cat that was still in the box not far away. "Look over here, I got a treat"

To his amusement the box turned and he saw shining eyes looking through the opening of the handles before the box was running to him. A hand coming through the opening to grab the treat, distressed cried echoing as the attempts failed.

As the nice man he was, he saved Ace from the box and raised it so the boy was free.

Immediately the raven was blinking confused before the treat caught his eyes again and he took it. Albeit a bit clumsy and almost immediately dropped it.

"Whoops, careful, Ace. Don't want to get any hairs or anything in you meat now." Marco spoke as he took it again and held it out. This time Ace grasped it again, bringing his face closer and licking the opening.

The blond hadn't let go yet as he felt the cat didn't have a good grip and would drop it again if he let go. Not all patted fingers were gripping properly and it made Marco wonder and think back to the shop. The meat pack Ace had over there was bigger, so easier to hold, but even then, Ace had more so squeezed the life out of it to hold it between his palms then actually hold it with his fingers. Maybe Ace didn't learn to use his fingers properly or had difficulty with small dexterity? He knew hybrids with clear fingers were able to use their hands like humans.

He just smile softly at it, releasing one hand in favor of scratching Ace's left ear as he ate. They'll work on that too together.

After the treat was finished, he tried to wipe Ace's mouth, but like a small kid a ugly face was made and a warning his before the other jumped away. He merely chuckled at it and cleaned the wrapper and wiped up the few spills from the floor.

"Ace? Ace where are you-yoi?"

Panic surged through him when he see Ace anymore after cleaning up. A quick look to the door showed it was closed, good. Shit! Did he leave windows open?!

He hurried to check his house until small snores pulled his attention.

"Ace?"

Following the noise his heart melted at the sight he found. Ace curled up in one of the empty boxes.

"I got you a basket and a pillow, you know that right, Ace." Marco lamented but smiled, already taking one of the soft pet blankets he bought and folded it to fit in the box. Draping it over the small being. "It's been a long day, hasn't it, lil one."

At the vet

Seeing the café had had Ace for a while, he already het a vet-clinic he went to for his check-ups. Seeing it wasn't one too far away, Marco didn't see a need to look for another one immediately. May as well see if this was a good one, and he was happy to quickly learn that it was indeed a good clinic. Having two specialists on hybrids in the team.

Right now Ace was sitting on a high table, licking the back of his hands without a care in the world.

"Ace." The vet called out, "Look what I have." Some kind of glove was held out and to Marco's confusion Ace meowed back loudly and happily, already holding out his hands.

"Lay on your back for me, Ace. Back."

Ace didn't immediately seem to listen, but as soon as the vet tapped Ace's back, the cat was down. Still holding out his hands to the man.

"Good boy." The compliment was given and the gloves were put on. Connecting the hands so they couldn't stray apart. The glove essentially just loss enough elastics to go around two fingers, that way making the hands the flat together.

Meeeooowww

"Yes yes, Ace." The vet laughed at the impatience and went into his shelf, picking out a stick of the sorts and sliding it between the hands. Ace instantly having it to his face and chewing on it.

Marco was so confused on the whole thing and soon saw the vet start to prod at Ace. Poking and feeling over his belly, his legs, the paws. Making the nails pop out and in.

"He isn't fighting-yoi?" He questioned. He had tried over the last few days to get a feel of the cute toe-beans, but to no luck. Or… he could see them, but would get swatted or a kick.

The vet chuckled as he went over the routine, even looking into Ace's ears. "He's learned that if he behaves, he can eat the whole treat."

"Oh that's smart."

"Yep. It doesn't go this well from day one, ofcourse. But Ace had been here a few times now, so he knows the deal."

Marco nodded and hummed, "Why are his hands strapped together though?"

"Two reasons." The other spoke while he finished up the check-up with looking into Ace's eyes and at his teeth, though Ace did try to pull away a bit for this, obviously trying to focus on eating his treat.

"The main one is for safety. Should I touch a spot that hurts or anything, he could lash out by instincts and hybrids are as strong, if not stronger, then humans, so they can really hurt you with one swing, especially with nails. The second is something you may have noticed already." The vet gently touched Ace's hand, easily moving the fingers that should be holding the treat. "He will drop it, especially in a position like this to hold the small stick upside down. Doing it like this, the treat is stuck and he can enjoy it easily. I can take it off now, I'm done checking him, but I'm letting him keep it so he can enjoy it until he's finished."

"Is it normal?"

"hmm?"

"That he can't hold stuff."

"It's not uncommon and for Ace who has been in the streets for a long time, it's not usual either. It's not an instinct to learn to use their fingers like ours. Ace can get by just fine without fine dexterity, so as long as he doesn't need it, he won't focus to learn it."

"Right right-yoi." Marco nodded, watching Ace start to struggle to eat the last bites. If he had better finger movement, he would be easily able to get the last part by himself. Instead Marco reached over and tugged at the stick to make stick out more. Ace giving a happy meow to be able to munch on it again. "So, I can still learn it to him?"

As the cat finished the last bite, the vet took the gloves off with a humm. "Yes, but- ah be carefull, he's going to jump you."

"What?" Marco blinked, Ace had only just turned back to his front and was still stretching, "Ah! Ace!" he hurried to catch the boy that jumped off the table and straight into his arms. He looked astonished to the vet, "How did you know-yoi?"

"You'll learn to read the signs. He likes you. He would never have jump into his previous caretakers' arms"

"... Really!?" Marco said softly, rubbing the boy's back even if nails dug into him for a hold-on.

"Never did it before. I'm surprised he's attached this quickly. You haven't had him for so long, it took us a while for him to be comfortable here. You must have made a good impression."

Marco thought back to his first encounter, "I just… petted him. And stopped the café from spraying him with water."

The vet sighed, a sign he knew they were doing that, "I told them to not… anyway. You protected him. He knows. He may not behave human, but he's smart. He understands you protected him, a stranger to him, so you're now safe."

"Oh…." The blond couldn't help but smile a bit, nuzzle the dark hairs. First here were some purrs before a warning hiss and he pulled away, knowing he came to close to his right ear. "Sorry, Ace-yoi. I didn't mean to get so close to your ear."

"… he got hit."

"Excuse me?" Marco looked to the vet who looked a bit sad.

"While he lived on the streets. At some point something bashed into his head close to his right ear. His skull cracked. I've already taken pictures and it's all healed up, it shouldn't hurt anymore, it can be sensitive, but it shouldn't hurt. But I assume because of it, Ace will not accept any form of contact there as it must have hurt for a very long time without care."

The blond just frowned at, not being able to help himself and feathering his fingers over the area. Immediately Ace froze up, looking up with a watchful gaze to the other. Ready to strike.

"Which brings us back to the previous topic."

"huh?"

"The wound was already healed when he arrived here, but it was a big crack, so a very decent amount of force. It's possible he has some trauma from it and that could also be a reason as to why he can't use his fingers well. But we don't know for sure as we don't know how his situation was before."

"So… it could be that he can never use them?"

"hmmmmm, it's possible he will not be able to do as fine tasks as you can do yourself. But I'm sure with lots of practice, he will be able to get better and hold things himself without dropping them. He just may not be able to do things like peels stickers of a paper and things like that."

"Okay… that wouldn't be too bad. What about talking? Would the trauma influence that."

"Well." The vet leaned back on the counter behind him, "his vocal cords are fine, he meows plenty. Teaching him how to speak will be difficult already just by seeing that he is already 10 years old and doesn't speak a word."

Marco nodded at that, he knew the older you were, the more difficult learning new things was.

"It's really difficult to know how his brain was affected seeing as we didn't have any data on him when younger. But-" another soft smile was there, "Even if he may not get to an almost human state as other hybrids that have been taught from birth, he's a sweetie. And with lots of patience, there is still hope to get him speaking and using his fingers a lot more then he is now."

"Then, I'll do my best." He spoke whilst rubbing Ace's back as the cat fell asleep. It made him think of something. "Right. Now that I think if it. His medical report said something about… Extreme sleepiness, or bounds of sleep or something. What's that about? Don't cats always sleep a lot?"

"Right." The vet lightly hit his own head, "I already forgot to tell that as it's not brought up anymore with the café. Cats do sleep a lot. Around 12 hours a day. But it's possible that it is more or less too, it's just like one human needs 8 hours to function properly while the other needs only 7 or even 9. Adult hybrids often follow the schedule of their caretaker and can do with 8 hours of sleep perfectly fine. For Ace though, the sleepiness in his report refers to a condition he has." the doctor looked to Ace, "If I could use human terms to describe it, it would be a light case of narcolepsy."

"Narcolepsy?"

"Sleeping beauty syndrome. Essentially, no matter if he's well rested or not, he'll fall asleep at random times."

"So… He naps a lot-yoi. That's not bad right?"

The doctor hummed, "not bad until he falls asleep while drinking and will drown in his water. Or fall asleep while jumping off a table and then can't land well and could break something. Hurting himself seriously or worse."

Marco squeezed Ace closer at the words, "but… won't he wake up during any of that?"

"No, it's out if his control."

"... Can I- is he taking anything for It? It's serious if he can easily hurt himself." Marco's mind was already doing summersaults on how Ace could get hurt.

"He's not taking anything right now."

"Does nothing exist?" Marco asked, looking to Ace as he moved again, rubbing his eye while sitting up in Marco's arm. The blond looked worried to the being in his arm.

Mreow?

He couldn't help but squeeze him close. Loosing him to something like falling asleep in his drinking water would be….

"Oh pills exist to-,"

"Why is he not on them then? He can get hurt in so many ways."

"Because the cat cafe didn't want to spend the money on it."

"Wha- they're supposed to keep them healthy!" He really liked the cat café before, but how they have seemed to treat Ace really struck him wrong.

Nodding he spoke, "yes, and they could leave this hanging without consequences because the illness in itself doesn't hurt Ace in any way. It's the consequences of it, a wrong timing, that could hurt him."

"I want to start those pills as soon as possible-yoi."

"They're expensive-"

"Doesn't matter."

Smiling the doctor walked to his computer and started typing on it, "he found a good home with you. I'll order them in right now, they should arrive by tomorrow. They're a specialty medication so we don't keep them on hand. But if these work well for Ace, we'll keep them restocked for him as long as you're with this clinic."

"Thank you. Is there anything else I need to know about ?"

"There will be a period of drowsiness while getting used to it, maybe even more attacks, random naps." The vet clarified, "It will be good if you can sit down with him a lot until it's over. Ace is a curious one, if you walk around, he'll probably walk around."

Marco nodded and discussed a few more things about Ace's health. Also getting a few items with him to help with dexterity training for Ace's fingers. He was given the tip to not spend hours a day suddenly teaching everything new, it could overwhelm the hybrid.

It didn't matter to him. He had all the time in the world to focus on Ace.