Friends of cats

[Mikko Ashby]

"I..."

No. That was a hard no. He started getting lost at 'corrupted Allie' and now there were things about fairies and golems, and Mik had distinct mental images of both, but they didn't make sense in the context of this conversation. Fairies were sparkly flying little winged creatures about two or three inches tall, and they knew magic and were usually female. Golems were big tough things made from rocks or some other material, with rough-hewn faces, lurching around obeying their masters. That last one Mik took away from a video game he played one time, where he could make golems.

So how could a sparkly fairy be taken for a rocky golem?

"Ah! Yes—yes I see what you're saying Rip!" It was an analogy! Of course! The two were completely different and so if Jack was like a fairy and Rip was like a golem, well obviously they weren't comparable! Rip was trying to highlight the differences with an obscure comparison! That was okay though, Mik understood him in the end. He nodded, smiling at Rip. "I agree. You're completely different from Jack. A fairy and a golem, I mean—obviously they're not the same things! I totally get it, Rip." He lightly swung Rip's hand, that was still in his. It felt nice—sweet. Holding hands was kiddy stuff but sometimes... well sometimes kiddy stuff still felt pretty nice.

"Between you and me, I'd take a Rip golem over a Jack fairy any day!"

[Ripper Nightshade]

For a moment, he thought he didn't understand him and the dismay was written all over his eyes. But then after some thinking--why did it take thinking?--Mik seemed to understand. A slow smile appeared across his face and let out a low laugh of relief.

"Oh good! You understand..."

A fairy and a golem were nothing alike, even if they looked alike. Their inner workings were different. Killing Keith would help a fairy, because he could no longer be corrupted by him! But killing Keith would not help his golems because it would instantly kill the golems! And Jack the fairy didn't have to obey any orders but Rip the golem did. And they could be horrifying orders. Devastating orders.

The situation was delicate, that's what he wanted them to understand. Relieved that the understanding seemed to be there, he felt like a whole load was off his shoulders. He didn't know what kind of plan they could concoct armed with that information but... he hoped they could do something with it.

He looked at their linked hands swinging and he smiled, feeling strangely shy at that admission.

"Oh. Most people prefer the fairy. They're still people, after all."

[Mikko Ashby]

"Fairies get all the love but I think they're over-rated!" Mik laughed--he felt silly talking about fairies and golems... One was definitely not like the other! But why did Rip think he was a golem? He could be a fairy--he could be sparkly and shiny and the center of attention. He could be loved--even beloved. Mik thought... it was Keith. Keith was putting him down, telling him he wasn't worth it, that he was the golem and someone else was the fairy. His confidence was so low that he couldn't even see himself as a fairy anymore...

Well not on Mik's watch! Or Allie's! No way! Rip wasn't a golem. He was a fairy. Maybe he lost his sparkle and his shine in this moment, but that didn't mean it was gone forever. Confidence could be built up again; the bad things in his life could be thrown out with a few helping hands. Leaning in, he kissed Rip's cheek softly, because of that shy little smile on his lips and the way he looked down.

"Golems are special too, in their own way. Just because most people like fairies, doesn't mean there aren't golem-appreciating folks out there too! And I. Like. Golems."

[Ripper Nightshade]

Fairies got all the love? Did they? Were they over-rated...? Was that a thing a person could be? Rip didn't know what to make of that opinion. Rip didn't dislike fairies but maybe he made it sound that way. He liked them just fine. It was just that they weren't golems. They were different, fundamentally. But there were plenty of nice fairies. Raphael was the only one he knew personally but if he existed, others existed, too!

Oh. Rip blinked once, frozen. Did he just kiss his... cheek? It was so unbearably... cute that it melted his heart just like looking at the kitten did. Like for a second, his limbs felt weak and his heart felt full and skipped a beat. It took him a moment to even find the courage to look back up.

He searched Mik's gaze for some kind of mischief, some kind of jest, but he seemed awfully serious about it. He... he liked golems? It was such a strange thing to like. To even admit to liking. Keith liked them, of course. It was one of his best skills, one of the reasons the King liked him so much. But Keith was selfish; he wasn't just going to help the King when he could help himself, too.

Did... Mik make golems, too? Or did he just... was he really just a... golem appreciating... folk?

"Why?" he asked, because the curiosity got the better of him. It was so strange that he couldn't wrap his head around it. Not just a fairies versus golem thing. Just appreciating golems in general.

[Mikko Ashby]

Whaaaaa? Did he go too far? Rip wasn't even looking at him after Mik kissed him, and... maybe he didn't like the cheesy thing Mik said? Did he take that analogy too far? (Or... not far enough?!) Mik's confidence was a little shaken and he was about to apologize when Rip looked up. And oddly as their eyes met, Mik knew--somehow--that his actions hadn't offended Rip.

Rip was just surprised by the kiss. He might not have expected it. Maybe... he didn't think somebody of Mik's age would be interested in him? That was nothing on him, and Mik didn't think he was old-old... But Mik did tend to date within his age range. People expected that. However, he couldn't help how he felt and he felt...

His stomach kept swooping when they made eye-contact. He couldn't get Rip out of his mind and he was never more than a thought away. The few times Rip smiled, the sound of his shy laugh, they kept replaying in his mind. Damn if he didn't get giddy the second he saw Rip and he kept looking for excuses to touch him and be near him, even when he thought that he didn't have a chance in hell to get somebody like Rip to look seriously at him.

He felt a couple of things, yeah.

"Why do I like golems? Or why do I like... you?" His turn to look down now, smiling at their feet, abashed. Gah spilling his guts to someone holding a cute kitten was murder! "I don't know. I just do. It's just a feeling I get when I think of you."

[Ripper Nightshade]

Oh.
Well.
Rip didn't think of it like that. Whether Mik liked golems in particular or just... Rip, who happened to be a golem. Aha... he was using clever wording. Flirting. Rip smiled, that childish but sly smile, like a kid who knew they got away with taking a cookie from the cookie jar. Now he got it. Not golems. Just Rip. It didn't matter that he was a golem because somehow, Mik saw past that... to... a person.

That must have been what he meant about the fairies, too. They weren't overrated. They just weren't... him. With the baby kitten curled up, warm and snuggled in his palm, he stepped in closer and with his free hand, he touched Mik's face. Stroked his cheek, stopped at his chin. With his little magic stone heart beating what felt like miles and miles a second, he broke the distance between them and kissed Mik. Mouth to mouth, a gentle, questing kiss, hesitantly parting lips to deepen the kiss after another several heartbeats.

[Mikko Ashby]

Yeah...

He said those things with his own mouth.

Was that not the most cliched thing ever though? Like something cheesy somebody would post in instagram with roses and hearts just so they could look cool and get a couple of likes? It totally sounded cheesy but he meant it! If he never meant anything ever again, he meant what he said in that moment--whatever Rip was, Mik didn't care. Golem, troll, fairy godmother, he just liked the guy. The guy who wore his too-tight kitten t-shirt with a coat over it, and somehow still managed to look cute! The guy with the shy smile, and that--that--not-so-shy smile.

But most of all, Mik liked his heart. His soft heart which led to him rescuing two dozen goldfish, the one that made him hold the little kitten so tenderly and carefully that no one could claim he was anything but kind and good. Rip was a good guy, and Mik liked that about him. He looked up when he saw Rip's feet moving closer, brows lifting in surprise when Rip touched him with that meaningful smile...

Ah. Ooh. A kiss. It started slow and then progressed the way kisses usually did. Mik held his hand tighter, at first nervous but then easing into it and opening up to him. He hummed softly in the back of his throat, and then the little kitten woke up and mewed and startled him. It was all so quiet just now, so peaceful and nice... Mik laughed as the kitten tried to climb up Rip's vest to get to his... face? That handsome face though!

"Ahem. Maybe we should... feed them? I think it's close to feeding time." He leaned in to peck Rip on the lips though, grinning foolishly. "We can continue that later." Wink. Wink.

[Ripper Nightshade]

Mik's smile was big and silly and happy. It lifted Rip's heart. He smiled back, then realized that they weren't just standing there smiling at each other like dopes.

"Oh!" He looked down at the poor baby kitten, who was now clambering up his chest, letting out little mews that grew louder and more intense. He laughed as he peeled her off his shoulder before she ended up climbing right off him.

"I think so, too... She sounds hangry!"

And she was, too, insistently mewing at them and putting her claws out as if she could battle them for a morsel of food. Or milk. Kittens this little were still on milk, were they not? He looked up at Mik.

"Is the... mom cat back yet?" He hadn't even been paying attention to the world around them. Then he saw past Mik and saw Shelby, whose lips were poised in a little line, like she wasn't very happy.

"Isn't that your aunt...?"

[Mikko Ashby]

"She does sound hangry! Aww poor little baby!" Mik couldn't stop grinning. Rip was grinning too, though, and the two of them were just silly and goofy and it felt so nice to... to have somebody who liked him that way again. Mik wasn't really desperately lacking in the romance department but he was kinda young, and the dates he went on were just silly things that didn't really go anywhere, because everyone else his age was experimenting too. Nobody wanted to be tied down that much, which was fine and normal.

But he wanted somebody to like him the way he liked Rip. He wanted a relationship, just to see what it was like to have a boyfriend. (Nineteen and he'd never had a boyfriend!) Rip was mature and... and interested. The age difference didn't bother Mik because he was more about the feelings and less about the logistics or the appearances. Besides, Rip was dead gorgeous and who wouldn't want to be the one that caught his eye?!

"I think mom's going to be out for a few days post-surgery, but we have kitten milk. Just have to warm it up a little, so it's not that harsh on their... tummies..." He turned to see Aunt Shelby looking as stern as he'd ever seen her. Mik's eyes widened. Oh crap! Did she see them kissing? Aunt Shelby knew Mik liked guys and she accepted that, so... it wasn't that he kissed a guy.

"Mik honey, can I speak with you for a moment?"

"Uhh... but we were going to feed the kittens..." He smiled like he'd gotten his hand caught in the cookie jar. "After? Aunt Shel?"

"...all right. I'll be in the dog kennels." She turned to leave and after the door closed, Mik let out a loud, long sigh.

"Oh boy! She did not look happy did she?"

[Ripper Nightshade]

Kitten milk! Rip knew what that meant! They were feeding kittens! Rip had never done it and neither had Jack in his set of memories but it was something he wanted to do. Feed a hangry kitten! Especially his little girl. (He really had quite taken with her...) He lifted her up and booped her nose with his own nose and she swung a paw at him. He laughed aloud.

"Don't worry, baby girl, we'll feed you~"

It was easier to focus on her than on the angry face of Mik's aunt. But when she left, Rip's gaze followed her out and his heart jumped guiltily. She was nice before Rip met Mik, so he had a gut feeling it was him she didn't like for some reason. Lowering the kitten and holding her close--to the crook of his neck--he watched Mik deflate.

"No," he admitted. She definitely didn't look happy. "Should I... should I leave, Mik?"

[Mikko Ashby]

"What? Leave? No way!"

Never! Rip had as much of a right to stay as anybody—except that Keith guy—and Mik wasn't letting him go now! In fact he hung on to Rip as he pulled him over to a little table and shelf full of supplies. "She's just... a little protective, that's all. I think once she gets to know you, she'll like you just as much as I do." But not more, because Mik liked Rip a whole heck of a lot!

Putting the uncomfortable situation aside for the moment, he pulled a carton of kitten milk off the shelf. There was a microwave nearby that he used to warm it (after pouring it into a clean glass first) and then he drew out two blunt-end syringes. Filling both with warmed milk, he handed one to Rip. "Put it to her mouth and gently squeeze out a few drops. Once she gets the idea, you can give her a little more, Rip. Here I'll show you."

Mik walked back to scoop up another mewling kitten, an orange one. Holding it against his chest, he lightly guided its head to the mouth of the syringe and once it scented and tasted the milk, it was greedily lapping it up.

[Ripper Nightshade]

Well, leaving seemed like the thing to do, what with Mik's aunt looking at him like she really regretted ever talking to him. He wondered what he'd done wrong in between the time he'd met her and when he met Mik. Sigh. Well, maybe she didn't like golems. He didn't know how she knew but some people just did. Keith told him to be wary of those people. (He also told him to silence them but...)

Looking nervously away from where Shelby was standing, Rip concentrated on the milk. He watched how Mik did it with an orange cat, then nodded to himself. He could do that. Slowly, he took a seat on one of the cheap little rockers in the room, probably meant for this exact task. Still holding the kitten on its belly like Mik showed him, he held the syringe carefully toward the kitten's mouth.

She knew exactly what it was immediately. As soon as the milk touched her lips the first time, she was drinking greedily. Rip smiled and laughed, looking up at Mik.

"She's doing it! She's a really hungry one, isn't she?" Well, they probably all were. That was how babies worked, right? They were always hungry?

[Mikko Ashby]

"They're always hungry!" Mik laughed as he finished feeding the first one, and then plopped it back into the pen so that he could pick up another little hungry kitten to feed. "She trusts you though! She'll grow up big and strong if she keeps eating like that!"

With a second kitten in hand, he went to sit beside Rip. Mik leaned against him as he fed the eager kitten, making sure that it swallowed each mouthful before giving it more, so as not to accidentally cause it to choke. "Hey Rip. Don't feel bad about Aunt Shelby." The outside of his knee tapped the outside of Rip's lightly; he smiled over at Rip. "I know she doesn't hate you or anything. I'll talk to her later, and everything's going to be fine."

He couldn't exactly regret the kiss. Rip's partner was a jerk and he didn't deserve him anyway, so it wasn't even like he was being cheated on. He plain shouldn't treat people that way! Mik paused to nuzzle against Rip affectionately, not unlike the way the kitten was nuzzling into his hand, trying to urge him to continue feeding it. "Let's go see your fish after this!"

[Ripper Nightshade]

The little kitten would probably eat until she busted if they gave her half a chance. But she seemed happy, to be warm and well fed. It made Rip happy to see her happy. And peaceful, too. Like if this was his sole purpose in his life, he could rest easy.

He looked over at Mik as he joined him. The rocker being quite small for two men, they were sitting together very... closely. Rip didn't mind. Like the kitten, he liked the feeling of being touched, of being warmed by another person's body heat. It was maybe the one thing he didn't hate about his life when Keith was home, when he was asleep and he just... held him. Even if Rip's mind wandered elsewhere, the creature comforts were still there. Sometimes.

Briefly, he half smiled, then looked back down at the kitten as she finished off her syringe. The nuzzle was cute. Mik was cute. There was no denying that but...

"Don't throw away your relationship with her over me, though," he said softly. "Okay?"

He wiggled the empty syringe at the kitten as she shoved her head into his palm. "It's empty, see? Nothing left. You don't want to eat too much or you'll get sick..." He glanced over at Mik. "Are they all doing well? ...I hope some of them found homes already. Good homes."

[Mikko Ashby]

That was... very, very nice of Rip to say that. It was incredibly thoughtful. Mik focused on the kitten in his hand and feeding it for a long moment, thinking about what Rip was saying—the message, the intent. Rip... wanted to pursue this too, didn't he? That was what he meant, in a roundabout way. Not to throw away his relationship with his aunt over him...

"You're worth fighting for," Mik said eventually, not looking up at him. But he was smiling, just down at the kitten. "But Aunt Shelby wouldn't disown me or anything. She'll disapprove for a couple of weeks, but I think once she gets to really know you, she'll see that you're actually a good guy, and... not out to take advantage of me."

Besides, Mik was old enough to make his own decisions! He wasn't getting big-headed thinking that he was all that, and soooo mature, but he also knew that he had to make his own decisions in love and life, and to learn from mistakes that happened. He wasn't being hard-headed; he gave it a lot of thought on his own already. But anyone who talked to Rip for half a minute could see that he wasn't a scumbag. He was vulnerable, being taken advantage of himself; he wouldn't turn around and do that to Mik.

"Ah—actually a friend of mine said he'd take three or four! His little brother wants a few too, so they're coming by to pick some out. But Queenie, I'm still looking for a good home for her. I've asked all my friends, just waiting to hear back from them!"