Work Text:
Felix was dripping wet when he pushed open the door to the apartment. Locus winced a little, he should have paid more attention to the weather and offered to pick Felix up. It took a moment for Locus to realise that Felix was curled up slightly, cradling his hands to his chest.
“What’s wrong?” Locus pushed up out of computer chair and moved to greet Felix, and froze at the high pitched squeak that seemed to come from him. “Felix?”
“He was like… drowning in a dumpster.” Felix shifted from foot to foot and Locus realised he wasn’t just wet but filthy. “I could hear him screaming or whatever?”
Crying out in Felix’s cupped hands was a tiny, scrawny, sickly looking kitten. “So you crawled into the dumpster to get it.”
“Well… with the rain and the dumpster and everything else… I mean look at him, we’re twins I couldn’t just leave.” Felix grinned sheepishly and Locus shook his head. Technically they were more like a mirror image, the poor kitten’s right eye had a very nasty looking cut across it.
Briefly Locus wondered what Felix’s scar had looked like fresh, then he sighed and shook his head. “I’ll… try and find a vet.”
“I love you.” Felix said, still sheepish as he stroked the kitten gently.
While Locus looked up veterinarians in the area Felix stripped out of his filthy clothes and threw them immediately into the wash. Then he looked up what to do for the kitten, ultimately ending up giving it a bath in their sink and bundling it in a towel.
“Okay I found a vet we can take it to, that does emergency drop-ins.” Locus ran a hand over his hair and watched Felix try to warm and dry the kitten in his hands.
“Cool, can we go?” Felix smiled a little.
“Mm. I’ll get the keys.”
---
The vet took the kitten to be examined and treated, he poked and prodded the squeaky little thing and hmm’d a lot. It made Felix feel a little nervous.
“She’s a bit too young to be separated from the mother.” He commented idly.
“He-- uh. She was all alone, and in a dumpster, and seriously hurt looking.” Felix shrugged a little.
“Yes we’ll see what we can do for her eye, but I think she’s going to lose it.” The vet clicked his tongue and stroked the kitten’s back gently. “I’ll be honest if it’s badly infected she might not survive. She’s malnourished and dehydrated, she’s got fleas and probably worms. I’ll do what I can but this small and this sick they don’t always make it on their own.”
Felix chewed his lip and nodded, rocking on his feet and watched the kitten cry out and look generally miserable on the metal counter. “So what do we do?”
“I’ll write out a list of things you’ll need for her, I’ll fix her up as best I can, then it’s just a waiting game to see if the medication takes, if she eats if the injury is too infected.”
“Mmkay.”
The vet let them out of the room so he could work on the kitten’s eye, and whatever other issues he could handle. Locus looked through the list of things they would need if they wanted to take care of the kitten themselves.
“We could take her to a shelter.” Locus offered gently.
Felix shook his head and sighed. “Maybe but… they got so many animals to look out for? Like she might die if she doesn’t get enough attention.”
“She might die anyway, Felix.” Locus put a hand on Felix’s shoulder and he nodded numbly.
“But she might not?” Felix shrugged a little and smiled weakly.
---
The kitten was conveniently old enough to eat watered down cat food, and use a litterbox, though it had needed to be taught. It needed special baths and to be fed medication with a little dropper and all manner of handling.
It was convenient that Felix had weekends off, so he could keep an eye on feeding her and everything else. Locus wasn’t completely sure what he thought of the kitten. Their apartment allowed pets, but he’d never considered one. As it was they’d had to dig into their savings to pay for the vet appointment, medicine, food, litter box, flea shampoo, and food dish. If the kitten didn’t survive the weekend it was going to be hard to justify all of it, but if it did survive it seemed that they would have a cat.
Locus had not been asked if he wanted a cat, but Felix seemed too attached for Locus to tell him no. He watched Felix pick the tiny thing up and stroke its fur gently and tried to settle with the idea that he could very well own a cat now. He still wasn’t sure he actually wanted a cat. Especially a sick one-eyed cat. Felix had taken on the responsibility for now, but Felix worked full time and Locus went to school. He didn’t think it was going to work.
“I think she’s getting stronger?” Felix chewed his lip thoughtfully and the kitten gave its squeaky cry.
“It’s certainly getting louder?” Locus raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah… yeah I think that’s a good sign.”
“It’s not healthy yet. It still might not make it.” Locus pointed out with a sigh, then sat down to join Felix on the floor.
“Maybe we should give her a name…” Felix mumbled as the kitten seemed to fall asleep in his arms. It was still breathing, it was easy to see as much with how thin the cat was.
“No.” Locus shook his head. “It might still die, don’t name it, don’t get so attached.”
Felix blew out a heavy sigh and watched the kitten quietly. “Someone threw her in the garbage. She’s so small right? She couldn’t’ve gotten in a dumpster by herself. Someone put her there.”
“That seems likely…” Locus reached out to squeeze Felix’s knee gently.
“My mother used to talk about throwing me in the garbage. Like… ‘you’re lucky I didn’t throw you away as soon as you were born’ or whatever… and I mean you see shit like that on TV. People leaving babies in dumpsters or bathrooms or wherever.” Felix shrugged a little.
“Felix…” Locus shook his head, Felix was taking everything about the cat too personally. If it died it would be extremely rough on him already.
“She meant it. If she could get away with it, she probably would have left me in the trash. Not adoption or whatever, she hated me too much to risk me being happy.” Felix wrinkled his nose. “I dunno, I was sick and malnourished when you found me.”
“I didn’t find you in the garbage, I found you in my bedroom.” Locus rolled his eyes.
“I guess.” Felix nodded his head side to side. “She might get better. I got better…”
“Felix you’re not this cat.” Locus scowled. “Don’t take this so personally. You need to be able to handle it if it dies.”
“I know, I know.” Felix ran his fingers over the kitten’s back lightly. “I’ll be okay.”
---
The kitten survived the weekend. Returning to work monday morning felt like torture, he was working in a warehouse and couldn’t afford to let his mind wander. He kept wanting to run home, or call Locus or both. Locus had two classes on Mondays, that meant he was out of the house for a few hours too and there would be no one looking after her.
Despite Locus’ instructions Felix couldn’t help but cycle through names in his head. She was a silver tabby so the name Minerva seemed obvious… though possibly too geeky. Kaylee would likely never let him live it down if he named his cat after a Harry Potter character. Rain? It was pouring when he’d found her it would be fitting… Ghost? Too morbid. Shade? Too stupid. Cloud? Ugh names were impossible.
He knew that Locus was right, that the kitten was delicate and sickly and weak and all sorts of other reasons that it might not last out the week. He knew animals didn’t survive things as easily as people. He knew everything might be for nothing in the end. But he wanted for it to turn out okay in the end. He related too much with being lost sick and dying.
As soon as he’d clocked out he started running for home. It was about a half hour’s walk from the warehouse to their apartment building. Locus was already going to be home, hopefully making sure the kitten was still breathing? He knew Locus wasn’t as fond… or really fond at all. Felix had taken the kitten home without asking and he was going to have to make that up. He’d gotten carried away. He’d heard her crying out and felt determined that he had to save her. Locus had been there to save him when he’d needed it. When he was dying, when he was sick, Locus had helped him get better. He knew what it felt like to be weak and defenseless…
Locus was right, Felix was taking it too personally. Fuck.
He got home out of breath, and opened the door carefully just in case. “Hello?”
“Welcome home.” Locus called from his desk, set up in the living room so their bedroom was free of homework stress and Felix could talk to Locus now and again.
“How was your day?” Felix couldn’t help but grin as the kitten walked across the living room to him.
“Fine, I’m nearly finished… well as much homework as I need to have finished for tomorrow.” Locus stretched in his chair and Felix snorted
“And our patient?” Felix crouched down and rubbed behind her ears lightly. He was so afraid of being too rough with her.
“Medicated and fed. Slept the rest of the time.” Locus shrugged a little.
“That’s good… good. She seems to be doing good.” Felix let himself relax, the kitten was small and weak but still alive. Still alive was good.
“How was your day?” Locus got up from his computer chair to walk over to Felix.
“Boring as piss.” Felix rolled his eyes. “But I won’t complain ‘cause it’s better than most options. I’m very lucky and very grateful.”
“I really did try to imagine you as a cashier or working at Starbucks for a while…” Locus shook his head. “I couldn’t really, but I tried.”
“I’m so glad the only public I have to interact with are my coworkers. Stupid as they can be sometimes.” Felix shrugged and let the kitten nuzzle his hand.
“We’re really, very much stuck with this thing, aren’t we?” Locus was smiling a little and leaning against the wall, watching Felix and the kitten.
“... Sorry?” Felix offered with a bit of a wince.
Locus shook his head and crouched down next to Felix. “Warn me next time you decide to dramatically alter our lives?”
“Yeah…” Felix hunched his shoulders a little but smiled as the kitten got distracted by Locus’ dangling braid. “Think we can name her now?”
“It… she’s not out of the woods yet.” Locus sighed and moved his braid around for her to follow.
“I know… but she’s doing a lot better. The vet said the big problem would be if she didn’t eat and she eats a bunch.”
“We’re going to have to factor cat food into our budget now…” Locus snorted.
“It’s not… that much.” Felix made a face. “But I think we can name her…”
“Mm… Trouble.” Locus tilted his head and the kitten bat tentatively at the end of his braid.
“Trouble?” Felix furrowed his brow and gave Locus a skeptical look.
“Trouble. You found her, brought her home and she follows you around. Aren’t you the one who always says you only ever bring trouble with you?” Locus smirked a little.
“You’ve been thinking about that like all day, haven’t you?” Felix rolled his eyes.
“She grew on me…” Locus admitted.
“Trouble works, though. I guess you get to name her if I get to bring her home?”
“Thank you for giving me that choice.” Locus said dryly and rubbed the kitten, Trouble’s head with his thumb. “She’s definitely Trouble.”