Chapter Text
Harry had been walking down the main street to his apartment one evening when the rain began. It started slow, the first drop landing onto Harry's nose, and then steadily onto his head beginning to drench his hair. Before it really started pouring, Harry took the shortcut behind the diner that led to an alley taking him straight to his apartment. Walking down the alley he spotted the familiar yellow dandelion patch that had grown between two old cracked bricks.
What he didn't recognize was the soft mewling that was distinctly different from the sound of rain against the brick pavement. He had stopped walking now, trying to find the source of the soft noise, and as he continued looking he found that the noise was coming from a small box barely visible under the yellow light that flickered occasionally in the alleyway. Harry crouched down to where the box sat and lifted it apprehensively. Underneath were three or four tiny, wrinkly kittens, laying on top of a torn, dirty dish towel, with no mother in sight.
"Awe, are you all alone?" Harry cooed at them, softly rubbing the tan one's head.
Harry found that this little fluffball seemed to be the source of the soft meowing, which only became louder after Harry made his presence known. He needed to get them somewhere safe, he realized as the rain began to pick up and create puddles on the alley floor. He collected the small kittens and placed them into the box, gently putting the dirty dishtowel on top to protect them from the rain. Harry ran, or walked as fast as he could in his boots to his apartment building, stopping when he remembered Nick, his landlord, and his strict "No pets and definitely no cats" rule. Nick had had a bad run-in with a cat as a child and refused to elaborate any further when Harry asked him about it.
Groaning to himself Harry realized saving three abandoned kittens was not part of the agenda when walking home from work, and he most definitely not infatuated with the three kittens in his possession, and he was in no way obligated to save these babies. But of course, as he thought this, tan fluffball let out another cry of impatience, and Harry was frantically searching for a place to put them, not too far from his apartment building.
He finally settled on placing their box under a shrub that grew close to the building, that had a little space between the actual shrubbery and brick that easily fit the box.
Harry then went into the building, taking two steps at a time to get to his third-floor apartment, pouring some milk in a bowl because he didn't need kittens going hungry under his care. Back outside he placed the bowl on the side that the kittens were not cuddling on. Unsure if they could even drink on their own, he placed one of the cats near the milk watching it intently to see if it could eat. While this was happening he double-checked the box, making sure no rain was getting in, and finally left after tan fluffball began drinking the milk.
That night in bed, Harry decided to name his tan kitten Dusty and fell asleep thinking of names for the other two.
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This went on for a couple of days; Harry would wake up and bring a fresh bowl of milk to the box, talk to dusty for a bit before walking to work. Harry worked at the publishing company on the main street of the city, although he was really only a secretary at the moment. His days consist of filing, printing, faxing, and most importantly, going for the coffee run every morning. After work, Harry stopped by the little pet shop on the corner, grabbing kitten-appropriate snacks that the clerk recommended.
Each day Harry would try to feed the kittens their snacks, and each day they openly rejected them, heading for their usual milk instead. This went on for about a week and Harry noticed that they began moving around a lot more, opening their eyes and being awake when Harry first greeted them in the morning. Although they were too small and immobile right now to climb out of their original box, Harry changed it for a much bigger box with a much comfier blanket for good measure.
The following Monday, Harry woke up 45 minutes late for work. He woke up thinking it was early, as today he didn't have the alarm blasting in his ear as he usually did. But with one glance at the clock, he realized he had slept straight through it, and he quickly got dressed, only grabbing his keys and a banana on the way out, completely forgetting about his kittens.
Only at lunchtime did Harry remember about the kittens, feeling guilty about not giving them anything to eat that morning. Desperate to get home, Harry printed and filed extra quickly and clocked out at exactly 6:00 instead of his usual 7:00 pm. He walked home, holding his scarf close face due to the chilly winds, making him feel even more guilty about leaving the kittens outside.
Turning the corner he walked up the walkway to the little shrub, where he was met by someone else. Crouching over the box was a small man... or boy; Harry really couldn't tell as the guy was facing away from him, holding none other than Dusty in his small hands, making Dusty seemed much larger than he actually was.
"Erhm..."
The boy jumped placing Dusty back in his box, turned around and looked up at the tall man behind him.
"Oh hi, do you live here?" The man asked, standing to his full height, which, to Harry's amusement, was only up to about Harry's shoulder.
All he did was nod before the man placed his hand out, "I'm Louis, I work at that coffee shop down by the lake and I was walking home when I heard some meowing from behind this bush and I looked and uh, well there were kittens, did you know that?"
Louis didn't wait for an answer before he began again, "Well they were just whining here really loudly, especially this little tan guy. I named him fluf-"
"Dusty." Harry interrupted.
"Sorry?"
"His name is Dusty," Harry said, not too pleased that this stranger had suddenly taken authority over his kittens.
Looking at Harry's displeasure Louis blushed, looking down and his worn down vans, that were supposed to be blue but were fading to a dirty gray.
"I'm sorry I didn't know they were yours... Although you should really bring them inside especially now that the weather's getting cold..." And right like that Louis was back as himself, rambling off to Harry who could barely keep up.
After a few more rambled suggestions on how Harry should take care of his kittens, Harry ended things with a brief cough.
"Uh, it was nice meeting you Louis, oh I'm Harry by the way, but I should really get going and get these guys some milk or summat," Harry interjected, now getting a proper look at Louis. Have his eyes been that blue the entire time?
Shaking his head at the thought, Harry briskly shook Louis' hand before picking up his box of kittens, fully ready to be yelled at by Nick for the "No Cat" rule. But Harry wanted his kittens are far away from strangers, this time he only got lucky to have someone like Louis to look after them, but another time someone might not be too friendly.
His plan was cut short, just his luck that Nick would be walking out his first-floor apartment as Harry was walking in.
"What's that mate?"
Sighing, Harry knew he wouldn't get the kittens anytime soon, Harry showed him the kittens to Nick's horror.
"Harry no, do not bring those in here, I swear to God if-"
"I know Nick, I'm sorry, but I want them to stay behind that shrub in the front. Is that alright?" Harry asked.
With quick contemplation Nick nodded his head in approval, "As long I don't see them Harry, or else-"
But that was all Harry heard before he was whisking the box away outside, happy enough that he got to keep the kittens nearby.
All was good, and Louis and the day's events were quickly forgotten before Harry woke up for work again.
That was until Harry was walking back from work to find none other than Louis, in the same dirty pair of vans, crouching over his kittens.
"Hello Louis, what seems to bring you here today?"
Louis only turned to grin up at the boy, holding Dusty in his hands up to Harry's face.
"Harry look he's got green eyes, just like you! I couldn't see them well yesterday since they were sleeping mostly but now that they're growing they stay awake long enough to let me look at their eyes. The other two have blue eyes, well as far as I could tell..."
Harry watched the boy go off, a smile appearing on his lips so wide his dimples appeared, making Louis stop talking and stare intently at Harry.
"I didn't know you had dimples!"
"We've only met yesterday Louis," Harry replied in light amusement.
"Oh," Louis blushed, "Yeah I know, I just... Have you named the other two yet?"
Harry shook his head, knowing that he wouldn't think of names for them anytime soon.
"You can name them if you like."
With these words Harry was met with wide blue eyes and the biggest smile on Louis' face.
"Can i really?" Louis said excitedly.
Harry nodded, infatuated with the boy's child-like manner, he asked, "Louis how old are you?"
"I'm twenty. Almost twenty-one." Louis stated matter-of-factly.
"How old are you, then?"
"Twenty-three,"
Louis nodded at this, looking down at Dusty petting his head gently.
"I don't know what to name them..." He said after a comfortable silence.
Harry took this into consideration before saying, "Give me your phone."
"What?"
"Give me your phone." He demanded again. "When you think of a name you call me right away, alright? So then I can start calling them by their names."
Seeing no problem with that Louis handed Harry his mobile, quickly getting it back with a new contact. Louis put Dusty into the box again, picking up a black shoulder bag that was resting against the bricks.
"Alright, I better get home, nice chatting with you Harry!" Louis said, shaking Harry's hand and walking past him.
"See you tomorrow!" Louis shouted not turning back, continuing on his way.
Harry smiled to himself, taking out his keys to the building.
"Yeah, i guess i will..."