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Troy was sitting in the passenger seat in Harris' truck, listening to whatever playlist Harris had chosen this time (he was pretty sure it was a Disney 90s playlist, but he couldn’t be too sure). His boyfriend had been introducing him to different genres of music so he wouldn’t only listen to EDM. Chiron was in the back sleeping. They were almost at the Drover’s family house for Sunday dinner.
“By the way, there’s a new cat in the house,” Harris interrupted his humming of what Troy was sure was a song in Mulan to say, “arrived on her own, she didn’t look too rough, so she was probably not abandoned, but she also didn’t have a collar with a tag on her so we’re not sure if she escaped from her previous owners.”
“Oh okay, is she getting along with Ursula and the dogs?”
“Yep, she’s super attached to Ursula, my parents already posted her trying to find her previous owners or a new home for her, so they’re worried it’s going to be difficult to separate them. Linda guessed she’s around 1 year old.”
“Aw, poor thing, at least she found her way to the best family.”
He chuckled, but Troy noticed a small blush appearing on his cheeks.
Harris parked in his family’s driveway. Troy got out of the car with the carrot cake they had baked, while Harris let Chiron out of the car so he could play with Mac, Shannon, and Bowser.
“Hello boys, welcome!” Marlene, Harris’ mom, said from the porch, “ooooh, carrot cake, did you bake this yourselves?”
“It was mostly Harris, I only passed him the ingredients,” said Troy.
“Not true, we baked it together,” insisted Harris walking into the house, followed by 4 dogs.
Troy greeted the rest of the family and went into the kitchen to leave the cake there. When he walked out, he was greeted with 2 black cats looking at him from the bottom of the stairs.
“Well, hello there Ursula,” he crouched down to pet her a few times, causing Ursula to purr, “and I hear you have a new friend.”
He slowly touched the smaller cat beside her, in case the cat was spooked by him. To his surprise the kitten leaned into his touch and let Troy pet her.
“Ugh, of course they only come down to greet you,” Margot said. It was common knowledge in the family that Ursula would only come down from her hiding spots on the second floor when Troy was in the house.
Troy laughed, “sorry, your cats love me more than you.”
Margot rolled her eyes and walked to the dining room. Everyone followed her, ready for dinner.
Dinner was loud as always, Troy and Josh, Margot’s husband, being the only quiet ones at dinner. Although Troy was roped into talking about the Centaurs’ win against Edmonton last night.
After dinner, they moved to the living room to watch the Admirals vs Bears game. As soon as Troy sat down, the new kitten followed him and started meowing, scratching his leg with its small paw.
“I think she wants to be picked up,” Harris said with a smile.
Troy leaned down to carry the kitten and place it in his lap. The kitten did a couple of spins around his lap before settling down and closing her eyes. Troy smiled and stroked her back, at the same time that he felt Harris press a kiss to his cheek.
“What is it with you and my cats?” Harris whispered in his ear.
“They are as obsessed with me as you are,” Troy whispered back.
Harris rolled his eyes before turning back to the screen.
By the end of the game, Harris’s head was laying on Troy’s shoulder, and the kitten was deep asleep in Troy’s lap. Marlene tried to sneakily take a picture of them, but Troy saw her and smiled at her camera. He knew she would send them to him later.
“Well, time to go home,” Harris stood up, stretching his arms.
Troy tried to move the kitten from his lap without waking her up but failed miserably, the kitten was hissing at him the entire time it took Troy to place her down on the floor. Troy stood up and followed Harris while they said their goodbyes.
The small cat was following him the entire time, never straying far from his feet. As they were walking out of the house the cat was still following him. Sam, Harris’ dad, bent down to stop her, “hold up buddy, you’re staying right here.”
When Harris and Troy, with Chiron in tow, started walking to the truck, the kitten started meowing, sounding almost like a shriek. Harris' parents looked worriedly at the cat, trying to stop her from crying.
“Uh, Troy, can you walk back to the cat,” Harris said looking from the crying kitten to his boyfriend.
Troy walked back to the porch of the house and the cat immediately stopped crying, he took a few tentative steps back and the cat started meowing again. He walked again until he was beside Harris’ parents.
The kitten moved its paws in Troy’s direction until Troy picked her up. He looked from Harris to his parents and back to the kitten trying to figure out what to do.
“Um, what do I do now?”
Harris had walked back to the porch as well, “I think she found the person she wants to adopt her.” Harris said with a small chuckle, but Troy could tell from his eyes that he was worried about suggesting that. They had just moved in together to the house Troy had bought, and they were just settling in with Chiron, adding another pet would be a whole new adjustment they hadn’t even thought about.
Troy turned back to Harris’ parents, “is it okay if we take her? I’m not sure how your search for its owners is going.”
Sam nodded, “oh sure, go ahead, no one has claimed her in weeks so I’m sure it will be fine.”
Troy looked at Harris, silently asking him, since he would be the one having to take care of the cat (and Chiron) on away games where Harris didn’t travel with Troy and the team.
“I wouldn’t mind having another fluffball in the house,” Harris said, petting the kitten. Since the kitten was so comfortable in Troy’s arms, she didn’t hiss at Harris for petting her.
Troy took a deep breath and looked at the black cat, “alright, I guess we are adopting her.”
They said their goodbyes again and settled in the truck with Chiron and the new kitten. Harris played his Disney playlist on the speakers where it left off. As they pulled away from the farm, Troy exhaled, “I’m sorry, I don’t know why this cat got so attached to me.”
Harris smiled and squeezed Troy’s thigh, “don’t worry baby, I think it’s cute that this kitten loves you so much.”
“Do we even have anything to take care of it? She can’t eat the same food as Chiron, right?” it was just hitting Troy the huge responsibility he’d just agreed to.
“We can go to the store first thing in the morning, but for breakfast…” Harris trailed off, thinking for a few seconds, then he smirked, “you’re gonna have to share your salmon with your new daughter."
Troy narrowed his eyes, even though Harris couldn’t see him, and said sarcastically “haha you’re so funny.”
Harris laughed. It had been a little more than a year since they had filmed Troy’s first Q&A video and his boyfriend still teased him constantly for genuinely considering salmon a snack.
“There’s one more pressing matter for the cat you should be focusing on,” Harris said after some time had passed.
“Huh?”
“Her name, what are you going to call her?”
“Oh,” Troy thought about it for a few seconds, “do I have to? Can you give me a few ideas?”
“I think it should come from you, since she’s so connected to you.”
Troy took some time to think about it. At some point he recognized that the song playing on the speakers was the villain song from the Little Mermaid.
“Hey, didn’t you say that Anna named Ursula after the octopus in that movie?”
“Oh yeah,” Harris continued singing along to the chorus.
“Didn’t she have a sister in the second movie? We could name it like the sister,” Troy vaguely remembered a green octopus when Harris had forced him to watch the sequels. His boyfriend had been outraged at his lack of knowledge of Disney movies, and even more outraged that Troy hadn’t seen any of the sequels.
“Oh yeah, Morgana.”
Troy picked up the kitten to place it in front of him at eye-level, “what do you think? Morgana? Do you like it?”
The cat meowed and stretched her paws to try and scratch Troy’s nose. He looked at the cat for a couple more seconds and decided, “yes, you look like a Morgana.”
When they got home, Troy checked his messages, seeing that Marlene had texted him the 2 photos she had taken of them on the couch with Morgana. He set one of them as his phone background and left it on his nightstand. He turned to Harris’ side of the bed where his boyfriend was getting into bed, wearing one of Troy’s old T-shirts and Christmas-themed pajama bottoms.
“You know baby,” Troy started, throwing an arm around Harris’ waist and placing a kiss on his shoulder, “the day is not over yet.” He continued, kissing a path from Harris’ shoulder, up his neck and finally his lips.
They made out for a bit, hands exploring the path they knew very well. Harris started pulling Troy’s shirt until he got the hint and took it off. Troy bent down to kiss Harris’ stomach, pulling up his shirt as he kissed his way up his chest. He was kissing the scars around his heart when a loud meow stopped him.
They both looked to the side of their bed where Morgana was looking up at them, she was standing over Troy’s discarded T-shirt. She meowed again and stood up on 2 legs.
“Not now Morgana,” Troy groaned, hiding his face in Harris’ chest. He heard Harris chuckling above him.
“Sorry baby, I think we’re getting cockblocked by your new pet,” Harris said, playing with Troy’s hair.
“She’s going to cry more if I don’t pay attention to her right?” Troy mumbled.
“Yep,” Harris seemed to find this situation hilarious, despite the fact that he was also getting cockblocked by a cat.
Troy sighed and turned to the side, grabbing Morgana and placing her on the bed. She immediately made a beeline for Troy’s pillow and laid down to sleep on it.
Harris was trying, and failing, to stifle his laughter. Troy turned to frown at him, “this isn’t funny.”
“It is a little bit funny,” Harris was calming his laughter, mindful of not waking up Morgana.
“First thing we’re adding to the cart tomorrow is a bed for her,” Troy narrowed his eyes at Morgana.
He put on his T-shirt again and laid down beside Harris, sharing his pillow. One of the perks of being a millionaire athlete was being able to afford a king-size bed with huge pillows spanning the entire mattress. So even with a cat taking over Troy’s pillow, they weren’t crowded in their bed.
He heard Chiron’s steps getting closer to the bedroom, “not him too,” Troy muttered before he felt the mattress dip from Chiron’s weight. The dog settled in on Troy’s side of the bed. Harris was full on laughing now.
“He has his own bed,” Troy groaned, hiding in Harris' shoulder.
Still giggling Harris said, “he’s just jealous, let him sleep here tonight.”
“But only tonight,” Troy narrowed his eyes at Harris, “we’re not making this a thing, tomorrow they both sleep in their own beds.”
“We’ll see,” Harris placed a kiss on his forehead, “goodnight love.”
“Good night baby.”
Weeks later they had figured out the whole having-a-cat thing. Morgana still stuck pretty close to Troy when he was in the house, but she had learned to stop crying every time he left. They just needed to leave her in their bedroom on Troy’s side of the bed or put one of his hats or scarves in her bed and she would let him leave without making a fuss.
They had also used this trick to keep her out of their bedroom whenever they wanted some sexy alone time. Troy mourned how long it had been since they’d had sex in the kitchen, or on the sofa in the living room, but he figured he just needed to give Morgana more time to get her used to exploring their house on her own and allow Troy to give Harris a blowjob outside of their bedroom.
The team had quickly found out that they had adopted a new cat, and Ilya had teased Troy relentlessly for spoiling Morgana almost as much as he had spoiled Anya. Almost every room in Troy and Harris’ house now had 2 beds, for Morgana and Chiron, and they had learned to watch their steps in their house after constantly tripping over their toys, and other random objects Morgana decided looked better on the floor (she seemed to have learned Ursula’s habit of throwing things).
Troy was walking into his house that day. Him and Harris had driven separately to the arena that day since they already knew Harris would have a longer day than Troy’s practice, his new position as senior director having him work more hours than when he was the social media manager.
He took Chiron on his walk and got started on dinner, Morgana keeping an eye on him from her place on the breakfast bar. Gone were the days when she still asked to be picked up, she now jumped onto every piece of furniture like she owned the place (and Troy agreed, both of their pets owned the place as much as he and Harris did, maybe even more).
He heard Harris' truck pull up into the garage and then the front door being opened, “I’m home sweetheart!”
“In the kitchen baby!”
Troy was finishing placing their spaghetti into 2 plates when Harris walked in, followed by Chiron. He petted Morgana then gave Troy a kiss, “hi baby, how was practice?”
“Good, be ready to post about our win against Vancouver tomorrow,” Troy kissed Harris again, “how was your day?”
Harris launched onto a monologue of a sponsorship deal that was being very picky about the kind of content they posted for them on Instagram. And then the meeting he’d had with the 2 interns that were covering his previous job as social media manager. Troy pouted when Harris explained the content they wanted to make for Christmas, but alas, dating the director of communications didn’t get Troy out of photoshoots and videos, if anything, it meant he had to appear even more in them.
After dinner they washed the dishes and settled down in front of the TV to watch Strangers Things, or as Harris put it, his “masterplan to get Troy acquainted with pop culture.” Chiron curled up on the couch on Harris’ left, to his right Troy was laying down with his head on Harris’ lap, Morgana laying down on Troy’s chest. Harris couldn’t resist and took a picture of Troy and Morgana.
“Can I post it?” Harris showed Troy the picture.
Troy nodded, “to your account, right? Not the Centaurs’?”
“Of course, baby.” A good number of Centaurs’ fans had also followed Harris on his personal account when Troy had come out, so he knew the picture would be screenshotted and shared to other fans, but this wasn’t the kind of pictures he wanted (or had permission) to post in the team’s account.
He uploaded the picture to his story and blocked his phone, focusing back on the show.
Troy was just supposed to pick up Chiron from the pet spa, but he couldn’t help glancing at the section where they had sweaters and costumes for dogs and cats, and the Christmas section grabbed his attention.
Now he was driving back home with Chiron and a bag full of different outfits for Chiron and Morgana, and Christmas themed toys. Troy was aware that it was too much, even if his boyfriend loved the holiday this felt like too much. But he started picturing Morgana in the Grinch costume, or the Santa hat, and he had just added everything to his cart.
“I’m home baby!” he dropped his keys in the bowl as Chiron ran to Harris’ office. Morgana jumped beside the bowl to receive her welcome head pat. Troy left the bag at the table and followed Chiron to the office.
“Hello you, you look so handsome,” he heard Harris say, playing with Chiron’s hair.
Troy leaned on the doorframe to the office, “do I look handsome too?”
Harris chuckled, “you look so handsome as well,” he put his hand around Troy’s neck to pull him down for a kiss.
“So how would you feel about dressing up Chiron and Morgana for the season?” Troy said once they broke the kiss.
“It could be fun, why? Do you want to do a photoshoot like last year with Ilya? We could involve the whole team now, maybe involve everyone's pets.”
“I was thinking just our pets right now, I might have bought a few extra things at the store,” Troy tried to play it off as if it wasn’t a big deal.
His boyfriend narrowed his eyes, “how many things?”
Troy just gave him an awkward grin and walked back to the entrance, Harris following him. Troy just gave the bag to Harris to let him look through its contents. His boyfriend sat down on the couch and started pulling out each item of clothing and toy.
Morgana jumped on the armrest and seemed to be judging each item she saw.
“What do you think Morgana? I think this one will look pretty on you!” Harris grabbed the Grinch costume and held it up to show it to the cat. Morgana jumped down to start chewing on one of the candy cane toys.
“Mhm, not a fan then,” he left the costume on the pile of clothes and turned to Troy.
“It’s not too much right?”
Harris laughed, “no baby, it’s perfect, but I don’t think it’s going to be easy to get Morgana into one of these,” he pointed to the cat outfits.
Troy just waved it off, “don’t worry, just leave it to me, you take care of Chiron and I’ll deal with Morgie.”
Later, once they had cut off all the tags in the clothes, Harris grabbed the Chiron-sized Santa sweater and went to put it on him. Troy grabbed the Grinch outfit and looked at Morgana, who was looking at him with her head tilted from the coffee table.
“C'mon M, you're going to look so cute with it.”
Morgana allowed Troy to dress her without complaint, but once he was finished, she kept turning her head to try to take off the hat.
“Awww, you look so cute,” he took a picture to send it to his mom, who was currently somewhere in Europe. Since moving in with Harris and adopting Morgana, his mom had been requesting updates on her grand-pets, a nickname Harris and his mom had come up with.
He grabbed Morgana to cuddle her in the couch, she really looked adorable with a frown that matched the Grinch's face in the hat.
Chiron ran back to the living room followed by his owner, “okay, we're done, do you need any help with Morg-”
His boyfriend stopped in his tracks when he saw them on the couch.
“What the fuck Troy, cats are notoriously difficult to get into anything,” he sat down beside him and looked at the cat like she was an alien, “Ursula would have my arms bleeding before I could even get close to her with a sweater.”
“Not Morgie, she's our well-behaved angel.”
Harris narrowed his eyes, “you mean your well-behaved angel. She'd hate me if I tried to dress her up.”
Troy laughed, “can you set up the camera? I want to send some pictures to my mom.”
They had an impromptu photoshoot in their living room, and later, before going to sleep, Troy posted one of his favorite pictures of Harris surrounded by Morgana and Chiron to Instagram and captioned it My family 🎄
Troy tried to keep his playoffs superstitions to a minimum.
He did the classic playoff beard, he wasn't stupid enough to swear off sex during the playoffs, he needed to have bacon with his breakfast, he called his mom to hear her say Good luck! on the morning of each game.
Toronto had only made it to the playoffs twice in his time with the team. And this was the second season in a row that Ottawa made it to the playoffs. Last year he had added eat a cake pop of Harris’ choosing to his list.
Today was the seventh and final game for the Stanley Cup, the Centaurs playing in their home arena. They could win Ottawa’s very first Stanley Cup at home. And Troy was faced with a new playoff superstition.
For the first game in the playoffs, he had kissed Chiron and Morgana on their foreheads before leaving for the arena, and Troy had scored 2 goals and assisted 3 more. Then that pattern continued, he scored at least 1 goal and assisted on at least another on each playoff game they had played at their home arena, where he could kiss his pets’ foreheads before leaving for the arena.
He had tried to keep the tradition up on away games by kissing their foreheads before leaving for the airport, since he couldn't travel with 2 pets and leave them in the hotel, their travel schedules were chaotic enough already. In away games he had mainly assisted on goals, barely managing to score 3 times throughout their entire playoff run.
Troy didn’t want to be superstitious, but it couldn’t hurt to show his pets a little bit more love (he was totally being superstitious).
Now they were about to leave for the final and he couldn't find Morgana anywhere.
He had already looked through the entire first floor of the house and his cat wasn't anywhere. He was looking for her in their master bedroom but no luck there either.
“Babe, we're going to be late!” Harris had been ready to go minutes ago and was just waiting for him at the front door.
“Just a few minutes!”
Troy walked into one of the guest bedrooms and looked into the closet, finally finding Morgana napping on one of the shelves.
“There you are,” he grabbed her to carry her down the stairs, muttering sorry when she hissed at being woken up.
He placed Morgana on the couch and kissed her forehead, then looked at Chiron napping on the rug and bent down to kiss him on the forehead as well.
He grabbed his bag and found Harris smirking at him, “finished with your playoffs tradition?”
Troy smiled awkwardly, “yes.”
He followed his boyfriend to his car. Another superstition he tried to pretend wasn’t a superstition yet. Driving together in Troy's car but with Harris in the driver’s seat.
“Don't be shy babe, I think it's cute,” Harris kissed Troy's cheek before starting the car.
Before getting to the arena, they made a quick stop at the Starbucks drive thru to buy his good luck cake pop, chocolate was today's choice, and a latte for Harris.
As they were parking in the arena, Harris brought up the topic again, “so hypothetically, if we were to adopt a few more pets, we would have to get ready to leave earlier because you would have to say goodbye to each one?”
Troy narrowed his eyes at his boyfriend, “we’re not adopting another one,” Harris frowned, “...at least for a couple of years. Let me win a few Cups and then we’ll see baby.”
“Alright, go win the first one, then we’ll talk about my 5-dog long term plan.”
Troy smiled, picturing his life years in the future, a few Cups with the Centaurs, 5 dogs and a cat living at their home, and a ring on Harris’ finger.
“Yep, let’s go win the Cup.”