Who: Addi + James What: Kittens When: Yes. Where: Their room Rating: Kittens
After class, James had met up with Addison so they could get an early dinner together. Normally James would've smoked first, since four to five was his prime smoking hour, but he had a massive project coming up that he was planning on bullying Addison into helping him with. Buttering him up with dinner and being all boyfriend-y was all a part of James' master plan.
James didn't hold Addison's hand as they walked, but he was close enough to Addison that they may as well have been with how many times their hands bumped into each other, fingers snagging and curling against one another. He wasn't quite ready to be that open yet. Hell, he was barely ready to say, yeah, he had a boyfriend.
At least to anyone else. He had no problem admitting it to himself.
"I hope there's tacos tonight," James mused as he and Addi walked into the cafeteria. "We can bring some back to Jamison."
Addison rolled his eyes at James' suggestion. "James, do I have to keep telling you this? We can't feed Jamison tacos. It'll make him sick, and he's been rather lazy and slow lately." He didn't mind the lack of hand holding, although it made it feel like they were still friends instead of boyfriends. Oh well, one step at a time.
"He's going into withdrawals!" James insisted, grabbing a tray for Addison and handing it over. For himself, he grabbed a thing of fries; when he wasn't high, James had a surprisingly low appetite. He figured it was so attuned to kicking in when he was high that it just didn't exist when he was sober. "Seriously, mate, I think this is all your fault. And he's trying to seek comfort by stealing all of my shirts -- speaking of which, I think I'm going to raid your closet later, because I'm running low."
"He is not going into withdrawals, all that Taco Bell probably made him sick," Addison retorted, getting a piece of pizza and a brownie for himself. "Yeah, he's been taking all of my towels too. It's hard to take a shower now, because I never know if I'll be able to dry myself off," he said with an annoyed sigh, but smiled at the thought of James wearing one of his shirts. "You'd look awesome in my shirts."
"You'd look awesome in one of my towels," James responded with a grin, the response feeling natural and right. But then he realized that and blushed a little, so of course it was obvious, and spoke up again. "He would've been sick a lot earlier if it was the Taco Bell. I'm telling you, this is him trying to convince you to let him have some wholesome Taco Bell."
Addison let out a laugh at James' response. "You just like seeing me in random states of undress," he teased, playfully sticking his tongue out at him. "And Taco Bell is NOT wholesome. It's banned in certain places!"
James only blushed harder, and Addi sticking his tongue out was not making the blush recede any. He would have to do as he always did and just pretend that he wasn't blushing at the moment.
"Certain unwholesome places," James said as he grabbed a carton of milk. "But it isn't banned here, so it's good enough for Jamison!"
"James, I wouldn't feed Taco Bell to my worst enemy," Addison said, scrunching his nose in disgust, though he noticed the blush on James' cheeks. It was cute. "And I definitely wouldn't feed it to a cat. I still don't get how you can enjoy that junk."
"Life's a lot better when you're influenced by drugs and alcohol," James said, nodding to himself. He grabbed a strawberry milk for Addison and held it up. Addi had to like sweet things. And pink. "You want this? My treat."
"You eat grosser stuff when you're influenced by drugs and alcohol," Addison replied, his face lighting up at the offer of strawberry milk. When did he NOT want strawberry milk was the real question. He licked his lips, nodding. "You're awesome, James."
"Yeah, I know," James beamed. "Glad you finally can concede that I'm right and that Jamison is pining for her cheesey quesidillas."
"I meant you're awesome for getting me strawberry millk, we're still not giving her that garbage," Addison said, poking James in the shoulder. "Nice try though."
"Damn," James laughed. And off they went to pay for the food and then sit down. James didn't pull the chair out for Addison or anything, but he did open the carton of strawberry milk and slide it on over after he sat.
Once they were seated, James knocked his chucks against Addi's shoes. "He has gotten pretty big though, hasn't he? You think there's anything wrong?"
"What a gentleman, thank you," Addison teased lightly, bringing the carton to his lips to take a drink before answering James' question. "He has, maybe all those calories you fed him are catching up with him finally." Addison brushed the toe of his shoe gently against James' ankle in response to the slight knock of shoes.
"Oh, piss off," James said without any heat, knocking against Addison's foot a bit harder. "I'm being serious here, mate. Cats can't get that fucked up from a little Taco Bell, can they?"
Because seriously, Jamison was getting huge.
"Ow!" Addison pouted, even though the knock didn't really hurt. He just wanted to make James feel a little bad. Just a little. "Yes, James, they can. It's not cat food, and it's like a million calories, so the poor thing is probably getting fat from that."
"I haven't gotten fat from it though! And I've ate way more than he has!" James exclaimed. And, okay, so maybe the pout did make him feel a little bad, because James reached out to snag Addison's hand with his own.
"You're also a human and not the size of a cat," Addison pointed out, smiling triumphantly at the way James' took his hand. Okay, so he wasn't expecting that reaction, but he definitely didn't mind it. "So, you just have a really high metabolism or something, and a cat couldn't have something like that, at least, not as much as a human."
"Maybe he's just hoarding," James mused. "You know, like he thinks we may toss him back out, so he's trying to store up as much fat as he can before that happens." He paused, squeezing Addi's hand a bit tighter. "Do you think he needs a vet?"
Because, okay, he was more than a little attached.
Addison's lips turned into a sad frown at the thought of Jamison thinking they'd just throw him out into the cold. "I hope he's not thinking like that," he said softly, running the pad of his thumb over the skin on James' hand.
"I don't think so, but if he really does, I'm sure we could manage to take him," Addison said, biting his bottom lip. He didn't want to have another cat die on him this year.
"Yeah mate," James said. He bit on his lip too and then released Addison's hand so he could shove the plate of food closer. "Let's eat, yeah? And then we'll go back to the room and give him a bunch of kisses."
Because James was completely unabashed when it came to loving that cat.
"Well, you can give him kisses. He doesn't like me enough to allow me to kiss him," Addison said, the pout returning to his face as he started to eat his food.
"You er, could give them to me and I'll pass them on?" James offered, blushing once again. Christ, he always seemed to speak without thinking, and he always sounded so stupid.
Addison smiled wryly as he swallowed a bite of the pizza. "I think I could manage that," he said. "At least then he'll know that they were from me, but you'll give them to him, so he won't get all mad."
"See?" James boasted. "I'm brilliant."
And he dug into his fries, biting off an end and scraping out the insides with his teeth as he always did until he was left with just the shell of the fry.
"Yes, you are," Addison laughed in agreement, not-so-sneakily stealing a fry from the top of the pile and biting into it. "Hmm, not bad," he decided, popping the rest of the fry into his mouth.
"They are good today," James agreed. "Good enough for the cat, you think?"
"No, will you stop trying to feed human food to our poor cat?" Addison scolded gently. "We don't want him to get any sicker than he already is."
"Just one fry?" James tried. "One fry won't hurt. We'll even get him the smallest one. We'll bring him a crumb! How about that?"
"If you give him a crumb, he'll want more. Haven't you read those 'If You Give a Mouse a Cookie' books?" Addison shook his head. He was not going to budge on the matter.
"I don't read," James said, deadpanning. Because, well, he just didn't. He may read music, maybe, if he wanted to learn a song and couldn't figure out the notes for himself, but never would he read just for shits and giggles. There were so many better things to do. Like smoke. Besides, reading was impossible to do when he was high. Words, man. They just became squiggles.
"Good thing he's no mouse then, yeah?"
"Yes, but that's besides the point," Addison said, rolling his eyes. "It just means that if you give him one thing, he'll want more and more and more," he explained. "Why not just give him cat treats?"
James looked at Addi in a way that could only be described as disbelief mixed with confusion.
Then: "they make those?"
Addison gave him a look that said 'are you serious?'. "Of course they do!" he exclaimed. "They sell them like everywhere."
"Then why haven't you gotten him any?" James asked. "You think they got fish jerkey for him or something? I bet he'd love that stuff."
Then again, James loved jerkey too, and he may eat some of Jamison's treats when he was high.
"Hey, you're the one who usually goes out to get Taco Bell, you could've gotten him some too," Addison said with a tiny pout. "But I'm sure they have something like that. Fish flavored and whatnot."
"You think we could take him with?" James asked. It wouldn't be too easy to sneak a cat out. Just shove him into one of their backpacks and problem solved. Jamison was a chill little cat, he wouldn't fuss.
"Well, they usually let pets into Pet Smart," Addison said, nodding. "Is there one around here?" He wasn't too keen on the surroundings, since he didn't leave school much.
"No idea," James shrugged. "You wanna take the food back to the room and look it up?"
Just so they didn't waste it, of course. Not because he wanted to try to sneak some fries to Jamison.
"Sounds like a plan," Addison said, picking up the fries before James could. He wasn't born yesterday, so he had a hunch James was going to try and feed the cat some fries. If he took them away now, maybe he could get him to forget about the fries all together.
In return, James picked up the rest of their trash and threw it away as they passed by the bin. He even grabbed Addi's bag and shouldered it along with his own.
"You think he'll like being able to leave the room?" James asked.
Addison smiled and mumbled a quick 'Thank you' when James took his bag. "I think he will. We just have to get him past security without him meowing. I'm pretty sure we're not allowed to keep cats in our room."
"Jamison is quiet anyway," James said dismissively. "Except when you bug him."
"Hey, I don't bug him," Addison said, playfully nudging James. "You just always cuddle and hug him and take up all the time I could be playing with him, so I have to do it when he's tired."
"It's not my fault you're slow!" James exclaimed. "And that he likes the smell of me."
Time flew when they were walking, and like magic they were already walking down their hall to their rooms.
"Yeah, cuz you smell like pot," Addison pointed out, grinning. Once they got to the door of their room, Addison grasped onto the doorknob and opened it, walking in. Then he saw it. Or them, rather. "James. JAMES!" Oh my god, where did all these kittens come from?! He was speechless.
James peered in over Addi's shoulder, his hand dropping to Addi's waist to hold himself steady as he rose himself up. "We locked the door, didn't we? I wonder how they got in here." But then, wait- some of those kittens were suckling at Jamison's stomach, and- "Bloody hell, Jamison was a girl?!"
"There are kittens in our room. Kittens. Oh my god, what are we going to do??" Addison had officially switched to freak-out mode. His old cat had been spayed and neutered, so he never had to worry about her having kittens. He had no experience with them at all.
James hesitated and then gave Addison a gentle push into the room so they could shut the door. This probably ruled out Addi's theory that the Taco Bell had gotten him sick. Dropping their bags on the floor, James sat down on the floor a small distance from Jamison and the kittens.
"There's four kittens," James noted. The smallest one was buried beneath two of its older siblings but suckling on.
Addison crouched down almost hesitantly near the kittens. He didn't want to do anything accidental that would harm or disturb the little ones. "Four," he echoed, biting his bottom lip. "He...She, rather, was pregnant...no wonder."
"I told you it wasn't the Taco Bell," James said, grinning widely as one of the kittens flopped over once he (she?) finished feeding. "You think they're boys or girls?"
"I don't know, but I think we should figure it out before they get big enough to have their own kittens," Addison said, gazing down at the floppy kitten. The poor thing.
"I bet they're all girls, just to fuck with us," James said. "I mean, that one-" he pointed to the one being squished. "-is obviously a girl."
"How can you tell?" Addison looked down at the little squished kitten. It wasn't like James had a clear look at what her parts consisted of.
"A boy wouldn't let himself get squished," James said. "You think they're cold? They look pretty tiny, mate."
Addison rolled his eyes. He almost wanted that one to be a boy to prove James wrong. "Well yeah, they're kittens, of course they're tiny...I'm sure they're okay, Dalton is pretty well heated."
"Yeah..." James mused. Still, he leaned back so he could grab a sweatshirt he had on the floor and added it to the nest that Jamison had so carefully built. She mewed at him and he gurgled back at her. The kitten that had flopped over had righted itself and was squirming back to its mum.
James pointed at it and announced, "That one's Killian. And those two-" the two on top of the little one. "-are Miller- Milly, and Guin- Ginny." Milly and Ginny. Those were cute names. He looked over at Addison for approval.
"Way to name the kittens after alcohol," Addison jokingly chastised, looking down at the little ones. "I get to name one though, and I name that one," he pointed at the smallest kitten, the runt of the litter. "Harris."
"They're good names!" James laughed. He adjusted the sweatshirt one last time under Jamison's watchful eyes and then stood so he could plop down next to Addison. "Why Harris?"
"Because he's my best friend and he deserves at least one namesake," Addison explained, smiling at the kittens. They WERE rather adorable... "But don't worry, I won't let it go to his head too much. Actually, he might be offended that we named the runt of the litter after him," he laughed.
We- yeah, that was good. Taking the blame off of James meant that he may get to live another day. Harris was terrifying when it came to Addison.
"It doesn't make sense to name the runt after beer," James shrugged. "We could get more kittens though, name them after all of your mates."
Addison gave James a look. "We barely know what to do with one cat, let alone now five," he said, shaking his head. "No more cats...at least, not until we figure out what the heck to do with all of them."
"We have to keep them for awhile, mate," James said. "We can't just abandon Jamison and his babies." James would call Kelly if he had to. No way was he giving up the cats.
"I know, I just don't know what we're going to do with them right now," Addison said, a small frown on his lips."I mean, how are we going to keep an eye on five cats, four of them kittens, when we have class and a room that is filled with potential danger?"
"They don't seem like they can move much," James pointed out. "I suppose we could pick up a bit though."
Ugh. He'd have to find a new hiding spot for his weed now. Under the bed just wouldn't cut it anymore.
"I just worry about leaving the kittens alone for so long," Addison murmured. "I don't want something bad to happen to them because we were away for too long."
"We can check on 'em after each class?" James offered. "I can go after first, third, and fifth period, and you go at the other times?"
"Well..." Addison was still apprehensive about the whole idea, but what else could they do right now? "I guess we can do that, yeah," he said, mustering a smile.
"They'll be fine," James said. "We'll make them a little room of their own so they can't get into anything. Maybe Jamison'll let the family into the closet."
Addison nodded, scooting just a bit closer to the kittens and Jamison. "I hope so, it'd be weird if he...she, I mean, just left them out here while she chilled in the closet all alone."
"She doesn't look like she's going anywhere," James said. Jamison seemed pretty content to just lay and have her nipples sucked.
"Well, good," Addison smiled, fighting the urge to reach out and pet the kittens. "They're so cute," he marveled. "Cute enough that we have to go out and buy cat food when they get old enough."
"Yeah mate," James said. "I bet that Harris of yours is going to be a pain to wean."
"I'm sure he'll be a pain in the ass, just like who he was named after," he grinned, nudging James playfully. "Watch, when we introduce the kittens to him, he'll be the one to hate Harris. Just you watch."
James laughed and nudged Addison right back. "Or maybe Harris'll hate him instead."
"He better not," Addison replied, leaning over and resting his cheek on James' arm. James was pretty comfortable, he decided. "Or I'll kick his ass, because who could hate an adorable kitten?"
James shifted so he could wrap his arm around Addi and lean right back against him. "Maybe we should call the kitten Harry instead. It's too bloody confusing to keep up with which Harris we're talking about."
"Well, it would be keeping up with the whole -y thing," Addison agreed, his eyes zoning in on the kitten now known as Harry. Perfect name for the little cutie, no matter how annoyed its namesake would be about it.
"Exactly," James beamed. "Brilliant! Harris can't hate the little bugger then."
"Well yeah, even though he'll still know it's named after him," he laughed softly. "We should probably figure out what their genders are, just in case. I mean, we won't change the names, but we should probably find out which ones are girls." It was a ways away, but he didn't want more kittens from not knowing the cats' right genders.
"I don't think we can sex them just yet," James mused. He was no cat expert, but the kittens weren't even a day old yet.
"Well, when we can," Addison corrected himself. "We gotta make sure we won't have anymore accidental kittens popping up in the future."
"Ew, incest kittens," James made a face. "Let's clean up later though, yeah? I kind of want to nap."
Addison scrunched his nose in digust and flicked James' shoulder with two fingers. "I meant if we took them outside and they found another cat and fell in love with them or something." A nap did sound nice though. "I like how you think, James," he said, getting up from his spot on the floor.
"You uh." James glanced over at Addison and then away. "You wanna nap with me?"
"Only if you're okay with me accidently kicking you in my sleep," Addison retorted, smiling rather sweetly at James. "Don't worry though, I'll try not to move too much. Just don't be a blanket hog."
"I don't bother with blankets," James said. "I'm a heater all on my own."
As evident by the bright red of his face.
"Well, good then!" Addison chirped, hopping onto the bed and laying down on his side. He then opened up his arms, grinning at James. "If you're a heater, then I wanna stay warm."
James laughed and climbed into bed with Addison. It took James a moment before he managed to get over himself and snuggle on into Addi's arms.
"Bloody hell, mate," James said, transforming himself into the snuggler rather than the snugglee. "You are cold!"
"I know, it's terrible!" Addison said with a pout, keeping a loose hold on James. He never held onto anything too tightly. "But now I have you, and you're warm, so I'm happy," he smiled.
James grinned and snuggled Addison closer to warm him up. It would help if they were under the blanket too, but. That would mean getting up.
"Night," Addison mumbled into James' ear before resting his head on the pillow and closing his eyes.