Who: TJ Jung & Noah Vausse Where: Lincoln Park Adoption Center When: August 15th, afternoon What: Kittens for the birthday boy Warnings:N/A
"No, I'm not letting our animals anywhere near some mutes," the volunteer says when they try to show their guest passes and all she registers are their badges. This isn't a strange occurrence in the grand scheme of things. The news and any other public forum on the internet has consistently made them aware of it, but they've been sequestered away with others for so long and could write this sort of thing off as another quirk of a particularly sour agent. Encountering this now is a little, well.
This reminder goes ignored but TJ falters before he picks up his smile again. "Uh, it's fine. I promise we're not dangerous." He gestures to the powers labeled under their names--Selective Memorization and Flight--they're low on the classification ladder. Only a Gamma and Delta. "We'd never hurt orphaned cats," he says, but she seems unconvinced so he looks over at Noah, eyes a little wide.
The moment the animal shelter lady calls them mutes, Noah wants to turn tail and leave the building. But ever since he and TJ had decided to get cats he’s been secretly getting more and more excited. Besides, it’s not as if the opinions of the shelter lady reflects the opinions of the cat. All he has to do is get through this, get their cats and then they could go look for the world’s most obnoxious cat tower to put in their suite’s living room.
Taking a deep breath, he relaxes his face, trying to look as unthreatening as he can, “Look, it’s my friend here’s birthday today and I promised him we could get cats. We really don’t mean any harm, and we promise to take very good care of them.” TJ nods along, but the volunteer’s frown only twists further until another barges into the conversation.
“I’ll show you to the cats!” she almost shouts, rushing to get the words out as she hurries into view, then glances between her coworker and them. “I’m Laura,” she looks embarrassed when she says this, head canted toward the floor, but at least she’s smiling. “Here, right this way.” Their eyes follow the line of her arm, gesturing down the hallway, and she ushers them through it.
“I’m so sorry about that. Melissa’s a good person and all, but she leans pretty right on these things,” she says, as though these two qualities are mutually exclusive. “I’m not. Uh, my brother is a big fan of Operatives, and I have a second cousin who’s a meta, and.”
For a moment TJ thinks he hears the other woman call after them, but he ignores it and nods. “It’s cool.” He nudges Noah. “We didn’t talk about what cat we were getting besides adopting one. Have you thought about it? Do you have any preferences? I hope it’s fat.”
Noah fidgets with the hem of his shirt, feeling nervous even as they’re led past the cages with the dogs. He always felt restless at the Lock, but on the outside he feels like he always has to watch their backs, especially when he’s with TJ. “Of course you’d want a fat one. I want a small one, so it’ll have more places to hide if Evariste goes into a murderous rampage.”
He looks up to see Laura glancing at them nervously, “Uh, just kidding?” She seems skeptical, but opens the door to where the cats are kept anyways. Noah turns back to TJ and whispers, “Whoops.”
TJ only laughs, reaching over to rub his hand over Noah's back and get rid of the tension probably settling in those shoulders. "Evariste just gets cranky sometimes, but who could look at a little cat and want to hurt them," he points, stopping to check out a group of kittens. "Look! These ones are babies. We can play with them, right?" he asks Laura, who scurries to his side and gently reminds him that she needs to handle them first.
When they enter the designated play area she shows them how to hold them properly then hands him a gray tabby and Noah a tuxedo cat. "Aww," TJ marvels at the bundle of cuteness in his arms and smiles up at Noah. "You wanted a kitten, right? These are so tiny and perfect."
Noah picks up one of the kittens and it immediately flops onto his chest searching for warmth. He can’t help but smile in the presence of something so adorable. He holds the kitten in front of his face so that their noses are touching, grin still plastered across his face, “But I thought you wanted a fat one?”
After another laugh TJ replies, "We can work on that." He watches Noah for a moment, his smile soft but warm, and says, "I think that one likes you." He’s not sure the same could be said for his. Right now the kitten is clawing up his shirt, but its little paws aren't doing much damage. "This one isn't a Forever 21 fan."
“I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to aspire to having a fat cat,” Noah laughs a little, scritching at the kitten’s neck. He can already predict that their cats were going to be fat. After all, how can he resist giving them treats? Then there’s TJ’s willpower against cute things, or lack thereof. “Well good, maybe you’ll stop shopping there then.”
"Hey, it's sells crap but the clothes do the job and keep me from streaking everywhere," TJ argues, handing back the kitten he's holding before it can do any real damage. These clothes really don't last long even without the extra wear and tear, but the cat seems determined to hold on and finish the job.
“You’re telling me that if you didn’t buy clothes from Forever 21, you wouldn’t wear clothes at all?” Noah raises an eyebrow skeptically, but keeps scritching at the kitten who is now purring in approval.
TJ shrugs, because he didn’t think that one through enough, and turns to Laura. "I think we'll go with that little guy there," he tells her, nodding over at Noah, but stops when she interrupts him.
"Um, actually, we're having a deal where the adoption fees get halved for the second cat you adopt..." she offers and looks up at him with a tentative smile, one that he returns in full and then some.
He directs it at Noah. "Can we?"
“Well, we did tell our roommates we might be getting more than one--so yeah, definitely. Let’s get that one too, it has good taste.” He stops scritching his cat to point at the one who’s still clinging to TJ’s shirt.
As soon as they enter their suite with their kittens in tow, Noah releases them into their new home to explore. While one pads off towards the couches, the other one stays close, looking timid and confused. He frowns and crouches down to study her from a lower vantage point, “Hey buddy, what’s wrong. Don’t you want to go explore like your brother?” He looks up at TJ imploringly when the cat just shuffles closer to him until TJ scoops her up in his arms.
“I think she’s just shy,” he answers for her, although she seems to echo his statement with a soft meow, somewhat more enthused now that she has his shirt to paw at again. “It took a while for us to get used to this place too.” His voice is a quiet murmur, directed more at Sapphire than at Noah, but eventually he looks up from petting her and says, “Uh, you should watch Steel. We didn’t kitten-proof the living room...or anything else out here…”
Noah felt a pang of guilt hit him in the gut and he looks pained for a second, as TJ coos at Sapphire. It’s not that he thinks TJ blames him for getting them locked up in here, but there’s reminders everywhere that that’s exactly what he did. When he looks up from the kitten, Noah schools his expression into something neutral.
“Uh yeah,” he clears his throat and turns to the living room, “Should we do that? Kitten proof, I mean.” He should have done more research, he had no idea what kinds of things were a danger to cats.
“It’s all good, I cleaned out my room,” TJ replies, giving Noah’s elbow a tug as he smiles. “Come on, grab Steel. We can hang out there.”