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Matt’s mouth is hanging open, not seeming to get the notice that he should shut it before he starts to catch flies; or worse, blurts out the bullshit running through his head.
“You literally asked me out every day for a year and now you’re breaking up with me after a month?” Well at least that wasn’t the worst thought he could have spewed. Harry frowns and takes his hand gently, the toes of his right foot stupidly pointed toward his other heel.
“Babe, it’s not you, it’s me.”
Matt rolls his eyes at the endearment and pulls his hand away to cross his arms over his chest. Trust harry to try and turn this into a romantic comedy. He pushes away the stab of fondness and waves his hands in wide swooping motions.
“Let your true form be revealed until you find true love,” he grunts, eyes widening when he hears what he’s just said before he squeezes them shut. “Shit, fuck no that’s not what I-”
“Meow,” Matt hears the small mewl from around where his feet are, looking down to see a small brown kitten rolling on it’s back confusedly and batting at it’s flicking tail.
“A kitten? Your true form is a motherfucking kitten?” He picks up the Harry-kitten and holds it in front of his face, watching the wide green eyes blink back slowly before it’s sneezing right in his face.
***
Harry stares out the thin bars of the cubicle he’s stuck in, sighing and pressing his nose into the fur on his paw sadly. He’s been there since Matt had carried him over to the pound only a few blocks over from Harry’s flat, apparently not wanting him to ‘get hurt or lost’. Harry doesn’t know why leaving him at the pound was the ‘safest option’ and not y’know, keeping him at Matt’s place and figuring out how to get him back to normal. He’s about to get up to play another rousing game of ‘catch the tail’ to pass the time when he hears the loud clang of the main door opening, soft voices following as the people make their way down the row of cages. He perks up, tripping over his front paws, trying to get closer to the bars, winding up on his back trying to kick his hind legs with the right momentum to get him onto his side.
“Oh isn’t this one too cute!” Harry jerks at the loud coo, looking over to see a young man looking at him with his fingers curled around the bars. Harry mews at him plaintively, catching and biting at his tail when it comes to whip him in the face. “I want this one, they’re perfect.”
***
Louis puts the small carrier that he brought to pick up the cat down in the middle of the living room. Tossing his coat onto the couch he bends down to open the front of the hard carrier, kneeling to wait for the kitten to wander out. He peeks his little head around to survey his surroundings, tripping lightly over his tiny claws catching on the thick rug. He looks down, trying to pull his paw up and looks pleadingly at Louis when it stays stuck. Louis gently untangles him and pulls him into his lap, stroking a little behind one of his tiny brown ears. He smiles when the kitten starts purring loud and seemingly startles himself before curling up over Louis’ thighs.
“I need to give you a name little one, what should I call you hmm?” He scratches a bit lower, watching the kitten lean into it and close his eyes. “How about ‘Cutie Boots’?”
The kitten stops purring and looks up at him with a condescending stare. Or as condescending as a little ball of fluff can look. Louis picks him up to cradle in his arms and bring him into the kitchen.
“It’s settled then Boots, let’s get you some food, yeah?” He puts the kitten down by the bowls he had set up before leaving; small and round and yellow, one filled with water and the other with a portion of the organic cat food he had lying around from when he was catsitting for Zayn the month before. Boots tentatively licks at one of the niblets, stumbling back with his tongue stuck out and eyes wide, looking at Louis in distress and stamping his paws.
“What’s wrong, kitty? D’you not like your food?” He tilts his head, trying to reach out, but the kitten skitters back, hiding behind the kitchen chair. Louis sighs, standing up to grab himself a banana from the fruit bowl. Boots peeks out, trotting over to look at Louis with wide pleading eyes. “What, do you want a banana or something?”
The kitten walks his upper paws over Louis’ legs until he’s propped up with his claws digging into the clinging jeans over one of his shins, meowing with great delight. Louis squishes off a little chunk and holds his finger down, the kitten licking it off happily before settling back on his hind legs and poking his tongue out to lick at his nose. Louis sighs as he grabs the food bowl, emptying the dry food back into its bag and mushing half of his banana into it. When he puts the bowl back the kitten munches and licks at the banana with a contented purr, tail swishing behind him.
“Strange cat, you are,” Louis laughs, heading toward his bedroom to change.
***
Louis rushes up the stairs of his complex, digging his keys out of his back pocket as his bag of groceries knocks against his hip. He’s only had the kitten for a few days and this is the first time he’s left him alone, and he’s a complete mess over it. He was only gone for an hour at most, but he still sees flashes of tufts of brown fur flying out of the garbage disposal, despite the cat still being too small to jump that high up. He still has to make sure not to accidentally leave him on the bed, or he gets stuck and meows loudly until Louis comes back with apology cuddles and small bits of banana.
He throws the door open, toeing off his shoes and moving to go into the living room before falling onto his face. He looks back to see what he’s tripped over and finds the kitten padding up to touch their noses together.
“Were you waiting by the door for me little Boots?” Louis sits up, pulling Harry into his lap and bopping him on the nose lightly. The kitten scrunches his face, whiskers shivering lightly when he sneezes.
***
Harry’s spooned up behind Louis on the bed, barely covering the small of his back, but trying to curl as close around him as he can. Louis grumbles and rolls over, squishing Harry and making him let out a scared meow. Louis jerks awake, rolling away and looking back, pulling the distressed looking wad of fur into his bare chest and cooing softly.
“I’m sorry baby Boots, I didn’t mean to almost crush you,” he keeps his tone soothing, playing with Harry’s small ears while he cuddles into Louis’ warmth. They sit like that in the early morning quiet until Louis gently sets Harry back on his pillow and rolls out of bed to hop in for a quick shower.
***
Harry wakes up for the second time with a languid stretch and a big yawn, looking over to peek at the clock to see it’s around noon. Blinking at his surroundings, he notices that he’s stuck up on Louis’ bed for the first time since he’s been there. Trotting over to the edge he peeks over, cowering back when he sees how high up he is, looking around for another way down. He sees the laundry basket sitting only a few inches away from one of the bedside tables, deciding his best option is to jump in there and try and topple it over. He’s hoping for a softer landing than free falling three feet onto hardwood at the very least.
He picks his way over the rumpled sheets, hopping across the side table and giving himself enough time for a deep breath before taking a leap of faith into the half full laundry. Poking out of the pants he gets lodged in, he rams up against the side of the basket, putting his whole body weight into it. He barely rocks the heavy wicker. Sighing he plops down, looking up and meowing desperately.
***
Louis gets home from a day of work with a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach. Every day that week he’d been greeted by a small ball of brown fluff running and tripping up to him with a happy little purr, begging for attention and cuddles. Pulling off his coat and shoes, he steps further into his flat, looking around the living room for any signs of the kitten. He looks under every surface and in every nook and cranny, moving on to the kitchen then to the bathroom, starting to turn frantic when his search turns up empty.
He makes it to the bedroom, looking under the bed, rifling through the clothes covering the floor, generally making a ruckus, almost missing the soft, sleepy meow.
“Boots?” He calls, standing up and listening hard as he follows the now almost annoyed meows to his hamper. “There you are! Damn near gave me a heart attack you little menace.”
Harry looks up at him derisively, wriggling until he’s put down and loping down the hall toward the kitchen, Louis watching on in confusion and relief.
***
Harry lets out a soft whimper, nosing at the pretty man’s hand until it lifts up enough that he can hide his face, wide eyes peeking through the gaps between Louis’ slender fingers. He winces as the character on the screen starts yelling, turning around and trying to work his way up into Louis’ jumper until he’s snug against the man’s warm tummy.
“What are you doing kitty? Do you not like Game of Thrones?” Louis lifts the collar of his shirt and peers down Harry peeking up at him, meowing and kneading into the small indent of Louis' belly button. A loud banging starts up across the flat, causing Louis to sigh and hold onto where Harry is resting so he can stand up and answer the door. Harry starts drifting off, not paying attention to the quiet conversation until he’s being pulled from his little nest and up to the crook of Louis’ neck. He looks up inquisitively, blinking sleepily and resting back down to snuggle closer.
“Aw, isn’t he damn adorable,” he hears a pleasant voice remark, a long finger coming to scratch between his ears. He lets out an involuntary purr and wiggles happily, cracking an eye open to peek at the new company. They’ve got short brown hair and a sweet face, ridiculously tall from harry’s point of view on Louis’ shoulder, large gentle hand now petting down harry’s back.
“It’s the worst when he gets all clumsy. Fell right off the bed this morning, the little shit. He kept sniffling until I cuddled him and gave him little pets behind his ears. Whenever I try to refuse cuddles he just looks up at me with his big green eyes like I’m some horrible person,” Harry whines indignantly and look up, Louis making a pained little noise and looking over at Greg. “See! How am I supposed to refuse that face anything?”
Greg laughs and walks past Louis, into the living room to change the tv to put on a recording of Chopped.
“I brought something for your new monster,” Greg laughs, pulling out a small mouse toy from his pocket. Harry perks up from his place on Louis’ lap, reaching over to bat at the mouse until it falls to the floor, leaping after it and rolling around. He bites it and runs it around the living room, so excited he keeps running into the legs of the coffee table and faceplanting into the carpet.
“Please tell me that’s not full of catnip,” Louis groans as Harry starts hopping around and trying to catch his tail and stick it in his ear.
***
Louis pulls the drenched kitten out of the bathtub, putting him on the fluffy towel and watching in amusement as Harry looks up at him like his trust has been irreparably betrayed. He looks scrawny with his fur plastered down, paws shaking out excess water as he tries to leave the room. Louis watches him get more and more disgruntled, slipping and sliding on the wet tiles. He grabs for his phone on the counter, flipping on the camera and pointing it at the cat just as he falls flat on his tummy. Harry lays there defeated, rolling onto his side to curl up, promptly falling asleep. Louis coos quietly, stopping the video and shoving his phone in his pocket, carefully picking Harry back up to cuddle into the fluffy towel and carry him back to his bedroom.
***
Louis wakes up slowly, senses starting to come back to him enough to register the rough tongue licking over the scruff on his chin and cheeks. Cracking his eyes open he rubs tiredly at Harry’s back, smiling when his chainsaw purrs start up.
“I love you a lot Boots, did you know? You’re just what I’ve needed recently, s’almost like fate,” he giggles to himself, stretching his arms up to crack his back before relaxing back into his soft pillows and closing his eyes. “My one true love, you are.”
There’s suddenly a heavy warm weight settled over him, and his eyes fly open to find a skinny boy with soft brown hair in place of where his kitten was supposed to be.
“Are you my cat? You’re not a cat,” Louis blinks, confused. The boy currently straddling his chest is very much naked and very much blushing, and Louis is very much not sure how to feel.
“Uhm- yeah I am, and no not really. I’m just harry,” the boy flushes deeper, scrambling to get off of Louis’ chest, smacking him right across the face with his dick in the process. Louis might be in shock.
“How were you my cat? Why were you a cat? Am i having a mental break?” Louis tries to get his senses under control, enough to at least get off the bed and find a t-shirt and joggers to toss at the boy on his bed.
“My ex-boyfriend, that’s apparently my true form, and you might be,” Harry rattles off, looking exceptionally flushed as he pulls on Louis’ clothes. “Though I really was a cat, you weren’t imagining that one. By the way, did you really have to film me after I got out of the bath? Do you know how hard it is to walk when your fur is weighed down by all that water?”
Louis blinked at him.
“I’ve never been a cat, so like,” he sits on the edge of his bed, getting a better look at the other boy. “Is it weird that i’m kind of attracted to my cat?”
Harry makes a pleased noise, almost a garbled attempt at a purr, looking a bit put out when it comes out wrong.
“I think we’ve established that i’m not actually a cat. And I think my constant grooming of your beard shows that the feeling is mutual,” he tries to get up off the bed, tripping over his feet and nearly faceplanting into Louis’ crotch.
“Is licking someones facial hair a common show of affection?” Louis cocks his head, amused. Harry pushes his hair off his face, scratching lightly behind his ear for a moment.
“For me it is,” he remarks, moving to lick the back of his hand before letting it drop to his lap. “You have a very nice beard. I wouldn’t mind licking it sometime. Y’know, as like. A human this time.”
Louis raises an eyebrow as Harry blushes deeper, fiddling with the hem of his shirt.
“Are you asking me out?” He smiles delightedly as Harry looks up from under his fringe, nodding with a small grin. “You had me at ‘meow’.”
***
1 year later
"Boots!" Louis calls from where he’s sprawled in the middle of their bed.
"What Lou," Harry grumbles, tossing the dirty clothes littering the floor into the hamper. He finds a pair of his favourite nice briefs tangled with a pair of Louis’ joggers, his snowflake socks under the small pile.
"Can you bring me some peanut butter?" Louis rolls over onto his tummy, wiggling his bare ass and kicking his feet up. Harry has the sudden urge to lick every inch of his body, though he’s not sure if it’s for sexual or sanitary reasons. He shakes his head and reaches over to tickle the back of Louis’ neck softly.
"On anything in particular, or just the whole jar?" He pulls back to grab the water glasses off their respective bedside tables.
"On your dick,” Harry nearly drops the glasses, watching Louis arch his back and push his tongue into his cheek with a delicious smirk.
"... yeah alright I can do that," he says smoothly, when he can speak again. Suave as hell he is. Totally irresistible. With the way Louis’ looking at him, he almost believes it.