Pᴀɪɴᴇ (demisword) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-09-23 12:07:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, billy kaplan (wiccan), paine |
WHO: Paine & Billy Kaplan
WHERE: Paine's home
WHEN: {backdated} August
WHAT: Billy pops over for a kitty play date.
WARNINGS: PG
STATUS: Complete
Having a studio apartment filled with cats wasn’t really a great idea when it came to working from home. But she had a nice space where a dining table would usually go where she put her work gear. It wasn’t like it was hard to clean, and for the most part the fabrics were kept away from the cats and when she did need to work on pinning and hemming, the noise tended to keep the girls from swarming her.
Sometimes they just wanted a lot of attention, but Paine had things she needed to get done. This tended to be where Billy was exceptionally helpful. So while she put some coffee on for herself, making sure there was something around for Billy to eat too, she was powering up her tablet to draw after feeding the cats.
The window was allowing a lot of light into the apartment, Moogle and Moomba already curled up together on the bed with a slice of sunlight basking on them, while Cait and Space trailed around the floor following dust and Mog sat on the table to watch with Cactuar sniffing around in the kitchen.
Billy was glad, at least, that Paine had thought to unlock the door because when he let himself in he had to use his hip to knock the handle down and closed it quickly before any of Paine’s furry little friends could escape. His hands, after all, were full. He hadn’t gotten more than five toys - he did have some sense of self-preservation believe it or not - but the toys he had gotten were a little bigger than catnip mice.
She was still going to murder him. At least he’d die happy, surrounded by cats.
“Paine?” he called, “Hellooooo?”
Obviously, Paine knew when Billy arrived, because the second he approached the door Moomba’s head was up to see what the new noise was, and Cactuar had trotted out of the kitchen towards the door with a bounce in her step.
“Hey Billy,” hitting save, because Paine learned the hard way not to leave her work unsaved and unattended around a bunch of cats. The moment Paine got up, the rest of the cat army went running to catch up with their sisters, Moomba already rubbing around Billy’s ankles while Cait sniffed around.
“What’ve you bought now?” Those were not just little balls or tiny mice after all, she was pretty sure there as a little feather in there, but a bunch more. At least Moogle was right in there to see who this new human was.
Billy grinned, “Only five things!” He put the rather bulky things down and sat cross-legged on the floor to greet the cats that were starting to appear from all over. He held his fingers out for Moogle to come closer, clicking his tongue softly and letting the cat sniff his hand before it rubbed its head against his fingers.
“So, okay, one of these might be one thing with lots of little things in. You said soft toys! But then there are things that’ll help keep them entertained when you need to work and stuff and I can’t come and be a human pillow for them.”
He looked up at her with an innocent, wide-eyed expression. “And there’s a few treats too, but that’s okay, right? I mean, they last for ages.”
Only five things. She’d need to specify on size next time it seemed. Paine just sighed, shaking her head a little as Cait was already trying to get into the things Billy had brought in. Moogle took a grand total of thirty seconds sniffing around Billy’s fingers and hand before she was nudging her head against his palm for contact, the purring already commencing. “You’re going to go broke buying shit for my cats.”
And it wasn’t like Paine wasn’t aware of how much this stuff cost, from treats to beds to trees to toys, it wasn’t inexpensive, and sure, having six cats was probably way more than she should have. But she wasn’t currently hurting for money, thanks largely to inheritance and having a rate controlled apartment.
There wasn’t really arguing with Billy either, might as well let it go and just make sure she had enough around to feed him when he needed some food and ran out of money that week. “Once they’ve finished greeting you, come to the kitchen and I’ll make you something to drink or whatever.”
She’d need to put out some food for the cats anyway.
Knowing that, at least this time, he’d gotten away with it, Billy grinned and sat himself on the floor properly, one hand running down Moogle’s back as the other rubbed under Cait’s chin, enjoying the vibrations of her purr along his fingers and the way she arched into him.
“Will do,” he reassured with a little smile, unpacking at least the soft toys and putting them out for inspection, hoping that they’d pass muster. Some of them had catnip in, others were just soft little mice with fluffy feather tails. He also unpacked the circuit toy so they could entertain themselves with that, if they wanted. He was pretty sure, though, someone would climb into the box.
Once Moogle had been adequately fussed, too, Billy got to his feet, scooping Cait into his arms and letting her gently headbutt his face and followed Paine through to the kitchen.
“Hey- so I figured since I don’t have classes for a while if you need someone to come sit for you a bit more regularly so you can get work done, I don’t mind? Dorms are boring and I’m putting off finding somewhere to live next semester and- y’know, I like the company here.”
The kitchen was fairly small, given that so much space was taken up with six bowls for the cats, Moogle’s just a little away from the others just now, since she was still a little food aggressive if the others got food before her. It allowed Paine to move around fairly easily without having to cross the whole space, making tea for herself while she got the food for the cats ready.
“You know that procrastinating on somewhere to live will mean you need to live in a shitty little box apartment if you’re not careful.” Paine was lucky that she had some money to fall back on, things that her parents had left her that meant she could afford to buy an apartment outright and not worry about things like rent. She was aware that few others had the luxury she had there.
“But, if you’re looking for somewhere to hang out, you know you’re welcome.” It was far less stressful for her when the cats had someone to keep them entertained. She had different gadgets for keeping them engrossed, but her apartment was fairly open planned, which meant there wasn’t an office she worked in. “Just don’t bring a new toy every time you visit, yeah?”
It couldn’t exactly be all that serious, even Paine’s expression was soft watching the wait Cait nuzzled into Billy and demanded more pets.
“How about every other time I visit?” Billy asked with a soft laugh as Cait bumped his face with hers. He lifted his other hand and rubbed under her chin as he pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head. “That way I can space out my compulsive need to buy stuff for your pets and make sure you don’t have an excuse to get too mad at me?”
His grin was less roguish and more innocent than he might have wanted; Billy’s impression of himself as a loveable Han-Solo type was less accurate; he was more of a loveable, yet slightly incompetentand heavily depressedEwok.
“I still gotta find someone to live with who isn’t gonna wanna just quit being friends with me after three weeks or whatever.” He thought about Grizz, the guy that lived in the halls opposite him and cleared his throat. Nope. Not right now. He didn’t think he could handle Paine quizzing him about his friend.
He shrugged. “It’ll work out. As long as the crappy little box apartment has two bedrooms, at least so I don’t have to share a bed with someone...”
Paine had to smirk, “Every other time is still occasionally twice a week you’ll be bringing something over.” Because there were some weeks that Billy spent more time at her place with the cats than in his dorm. “No more than once a week can you bring a single gift for the cats, okay?” A lot of it was because they had so much, and Billy was spending so much money on her cats -and she had a lot for goodness sake.
She wished that she could’ve helped Billy find a place, and a roommate to share it with. But she knew that she might be close to overstepping if she did something like that. “You should start looking, Billy. You know you can use my tablet and run through some options there.” There was nothing wrong hunting around while also snuggling cats.
With all the food ready, Paine gave Cait a little scratch under her chin, “Pop her down and I’ll get them all fed, you want anything to eat?” She already had a fridge full of snacks, drinks and even something to make dinner for more than just herself in Billy wanted to hang around.
Billy huffed. “Fiiine, one thing once a week. You drive a hard bargain, Paine. I just wanna spoil your cats.” After all, he’d never had any pets of his own and until he was old enough to buy his own place - which might never actually happen - there was no way he was ever going to be able to actually have one. So he was living vicariously through a friend with impulse control issues and the remarkable ability to collect cats with awesome names.
He carefully put Cait down on the floor and then stretched his arms above his head, rubbing his hand through his hair before they flopped back down to his sides. “I could eat,” he said, wrinkling his nose, trying to remember the last time he’d actually eaten something. “I probably should eat. And look at apartments...”
Paine did appreciate Billy’s gifts, he knew that the girls all loved when he showed up with something new and interesting, a little something to chase and play with, or catnip to roll around with, in general they were all attached to Billy like they were to her.
It helped that he spent so much time with them, and that he was content to laze on the bed or sofa and let the cats crawl over him or curl into him to sleep, they relaxed around him which Paine thought was funny giving the energy Billy sometimes had. “I know, but you’ll need that money for food and bills, and buying stuff for class.”
As the cat food went out, all of the girls trotted in, Space and Moomba a little slower since they weren’t as fussed as the others about their meal times. And Paine turned back to the kitchen. “You want a pizza? I’ve got some frozen ones, we can microwave them?” It wasn’t like Paine was some culinary expert, a lot of her food was in the freezer and she just zapped it in the microwave when she got hungry. “Help yourself to juice from the fridge.”
“I’m probably gonna have to get a job anyway,” Billy pointed out, nodding at the suggestion of pizza because he’d never turn that down and deciding not to comment on Paine’s grown up juice in the fridge rather than the soda that he had in the communal kitchen back in the dorms. “If not just so my mom and dad stop asking me about school and my therapy appointments and we have another topic of conversation.”
He wandered over to the fridge and grabbed the juice, “you want one?” he asked, pouring himself a glass and holding the carton up as he wiggled it in Paine’s direction.
Work and school was a precarious balance, but Paine knew that sometimes those hours needed filling too. So she couldn’t fault the need for work, even if money wasn’t the only issue. “You know I can pay you when you watch my cats, right?” Even as she nodded to the offer of a drink and started getting plates out for some pizza.
“At least your parents are interested?” It sounded far more like a question than she intended it to be, but then Paine didn’t have nosy relatives getting into her business, so she couldn’t tell if it was a good thing or just overbearing. “C’mon we can sit for a bit and if you wanna complain a while you can, and then you can have a kitty play date while I work.” It did really work out well for Paine, when Billy came around, so it wasn’t like she was intending to deter that.
She had a thing for taking in strays after all.