Chapter Text
Come Inside
prequel/sequel to Sex Kitten
It was a cold winter's night and Sephiroth was all alone, as usual. He hadn't gone to work that day because, like many other employees, he simply couldn't dig his car out of the snow. After spending an entire day in the cold, watching TV, playing solitaire on his laptop, and adding to the novel he was writing, he finally stood up and turned up his thermostat. He then sat down to a dinner made for one, but always had leftovers enough for another. He never saved the leftovers though. Throwing them out made it feel more like someone else had eaten with him. His only companions as he quietly ate his dinner were the TV and his own thoughts. The TV was predicting more snow. Glorious.
He dumped the leftovers in the garbage, as usual, and pulled on his trench coat and boots to head outside to the garbage can. The front door would only open about two feet, even after he shoved and kicked at the snow.
That's what I get for not shoveling, he thought.
He squeezed the garbage bag out the door with him and trudged through the deep snow, sorely regretting not spending at least a little of his day shoveling some of the snow, like some of his neighbors had.
As he neared the trash can, he noticed the locks he had put on it to keep out the raccoons had been tampered with and his garbage had been scattered across the ground. Again.
A month previous he noticed something had begun pulling out his garbage bags and digging through them, leaving trash dispersed all over the alley he left his bin in. He would then be forced to pick up all the trash and pile it messily into the bin, the torn bags having been rendered almost useless for holding all the garbage. At first he had believed the culprit to be raccoons, but as his preventive measures had grown more elaborate, yet were still bypassed, he had begun to suspect something with a more advanced intelligence was behind this. Either that or he had some very clever raccoons on his hands.
As he gathered all the trash back into the can, he began to scheme.
Maybe I should wait here and see what it is, he thought. Maybe I can scare it away and it won't come back! I'm sick of picking up all this junk! I could be inside, being warm!
He walked out of the alley and hid behind his fence. Peeking out from behind, he waited for what seemed like an hour, but was actually only about 15 minutes. Just as he was about to give up, he heard something. Looking out, he silently gasped. It was a cat. And not just any cat, the most beautiful cat he had ever seen. He was breathtaking. Pale, porcelain skin and gleaming red eyes. He had long, black hair, delicate black ears, and a fluffy black tail. At least this confirmed something more intelligent than a raccoon was digging through his garbage.
The cat, smelling fresh food, easily opened the locks and dug down to the still-warm food Sephiroth had had for dinner that evening.
Sephiroth stood up and cleared his throat. The cat jumped in alarm and turned wide-eyed to look at Sephiroth. He then proceeded to bound quickly out of the alleyway and into the night before Sephiroth could say a word.
But Sephiroth yelled out into the night anyway, “Please stop throwing my trash everywhere! It's really inconvenient!” Just in case the cat heard him.
And he had.
Curious red eyes watched the handsome silverette trudge back through the snow and into the house. They watched him wash his dishes, they even watched him watch TV. They watched him all the way until he climbed into bed and fell asleep.
Then they too began stepping carefully through the snow. They walked all the way to Sephiroth's shed, opened the door just a crack, and stepping over the shed's broken lock on the ground, slipped inside. Then they curled up, right next to the snow shovel, wrapped their tattered red cape tightly around them, and closed for the night.
The next day, two young men walked through the alley on their way to Sephiroth's home. They were both covered in slowly melting snow from a good natured snowball fight they had earlier, but now they walked together in silence, simply enjoying one another's company. They walked this way for about a block when suddenly a trash can was knocked over. They instinctively froze.
Down the alley, a beautiful cat emerged from behind the cans, searching the garbage desperately to find last night's forgotten meal. Zack and Cloud looked at each other, the same thoughts going through their minds. Clean this kitten up and he'd make an adorable house pet! At the very least they could get him off these cold, mean streets and into a loving home, right?
Zack and Cloud exchanged a knowing look, and as military training kicked in, Zack quietly directed Cloud to stay on the opposite side of the alley from him so they could descend upon the cat from two different angles, making it more difficult to escape. The two men ran in a crouch softly through the snow and quickly closed in on the feline. Before it had time to hiss, Zack pounced.
Zack held on for dear life as he and Cloud tried to pin the animal down and get it to relax, the cat scratching and hissing and seething with rage. Finally, with one well aimed kick to Cloud's face and a vicious bite to Zack's arm, the cat nimbly wrestled his way out of Zack's grasp, skirted around Cloud, and bolted out of the alley.
Sprawled out in the alley, Zack and Cloud began to laugh heartily.
“Well that definitely didn't go as planned!” laughed Zack, nursing his injured arm.
Cloud rubbed his face. “Heh heh, ow.”
Zack and Cloud continued on their way to Sephiroth's house, finally stumbling through the thigh-deep snow of his lawn and up to his front door.
Sephiroth answered the door. “You guys look terrible.”
“Well, we just had a run in with a cat rummaging through the garbage in the alley.” said Zack.
“We just wanted to take him home and love him!” whined Cloud.
Sephiroth chuckled. “Yeah, he's a little skittish isn't he?”
“That's an understatement. Look what he did to Cloud's pretty little face!” said Zack.
Sure enough, there was a dirty boot print on Cloud's face that looked like it was already beginning to bruise. Sephiroth only laughed, to Cloud's dismay. “Well come inside you two!”
“By the way,” added Zack as he stepped over the threshold, “You really need to shovel your snow. We were practically swimming through it!”
Later that afternoon, after Zack and Cloud had taken their leave, Sephiroth stepped out back to grab his snow shovel from the shed. He was barely out the door when sight of the cat made him freeze. The cat entered his shed. It was only then that Sephiroth noticed all the tracks in his backyard leading to and from his shed. The cat was living there!He quickly reentered his house opting not to fetch his snow shovel, lest he disturb the lovely creature.
He ate his dinner the way he usually did that evening, except instead of discarding the leftovers, he put them on a plate, which he carried outside and set outside his shed. He then waited inside his house beside the window to see the feline slide out of the shed and eat the leftovers. The next morning, he collected the plate to find it licked clean.
He continued this ritual for another week and a half, noticing that his garbage can was no longer getting knocked over and having its contents scattered all over the ground. He continued this way, until one night he could no longer deny his overwhelming desire to touch the creature.
After the cat came out to eat that night, Sephiroth silently slipped out of his house and moved like a ghost through the snow. The cat didn't seem to sense him coming closer. Sephiroth held his breath as he prepared to touch the cat eating on the ground in front of him.
Sephiroth slowly reached out a hand to touch the sleek creature before him, but as his fingertips brushed the soft sable hair, the cat looked up, his face moving quickly from shock to fury.
“Don't you touch me!” he said.
“Why not?” said Sephiroth. “I feed you, just let me pet you. I won't do you harm, I swear. I just want to pet you.”
“I don't need your help.” growled the cat.
“Yes you do.” replied Sephiroth. “Even when I don't feed you, you still eat out of MY garbage.”
The cat pondered this for a moment.
“Fine” he said. “Touch me. But only a little.”
Sephiroth reached out once more to touch the animal, this time with minimal resistance as the cat fought the urge to shrink away. Sephiroth's hand moved over the long, black locks and the cat couldn't help but lean into the tender touch, the soft petting of his hair, the gentle tickle of fingertips on his jawbone.
“What's your name?” Sephiroth whispered.
Entranced by the hand stroking his mane and cheek, the cat answered without thinking. “Vincent.”
“Would you like to come inside Vincent?”
Vincent thought about the food this man had given him and about how cold it was and he thought about the gentle hand petting him... and about the danger of being found outside.
Couldn't hurt, he thought.
“I suppose.” responded Vincent.