after writing a headcannon about this and with my friend jogging my memory with a prompt… i give you established rabbot who are cat owners.
and jack may or may not be pissed that the three legged cat has taken a liking to robby more then him.
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“That cat is evil,” Jack argues as he watches the cat crawl away from him and right into Robby’s lap, purring and rubbing his head against Robby’s hand through it all. “I’ve decided.”
Two months after the two of them moved in together, Robby was on the way home from work and spotted a cat meowing loudly and clawing at the walls of the alley it was in. Naturally, Robby slowly walked up the cat, and immediately the cat melted up against Robby. The next thing Jack was aware of was Robby coming into their house with a cat tucked into his jacket.
Jack quickly lost the argument on whether or not to keep the cat due to Robby pulling out his puppy eyes as he held a sweet looking orange tabby cat in his arms.
Robby’s eyes were always his weakness, and he told him so, shaming him for using a move so low to win. Yet, two days later, they were taking their new roommate to the local vet.
Obviously, the most prominent thing brought up during the visit was the fact that Toby, the name Robby said he felt “drawn to,” was missing a leg. Luckily, the vet didn’t find any signs of an infection or any reason to be worried about the amputation. Jack also thanked a god he doesn’t fully believe in when Toby miraculously didn’t have any fleas or alarming diseases.
So, they took him home. Well, Robby took him home. The cat hadn’t exactly warmed up to Jack yet. At first, he was letting Toby come to him. Toby never came. He always climbed right over Jack, almost as if he is taunting him, and settles right up against Robby. All nice and cozy.
“You’re just mad he likes me more,” Robby replies with a snort, turning his head to look at a pouty Jack. “You just can’t rush it, you know?”
“It’s been four months, Mikey, I haven’t been rushing it,” Jack replies in an unamused voice.
“In the first month you literally took off your prosthetic and tried to force him to watch you,” Robby says back, trying to hid a giggle at the memory. “What was the goal? Tell him you are one of the same?”
With that, Robby barks out a laugh, and Toby doesn’t even startle on Robby’s chest. God, Jack thinks. What a manipulator. Won’t even acknowledge me.
“Well, you gotta bond somehow,” Robby says after his laughter has quieted down. “I’m going to that conference for a couple days tomorrow, and you’ll be all along with Toby, forced to bond with him.”
“Can’t you just bring him with you?” Jack asks with an overemphasized groan. All Robby does in response is a roll of his eyes.
Robby has been gone for two days, but the cat hadn’t been spotted since besides for breakfast and dinner. Jack truly doesn’t know what he did wrong. Toby adores Robby. Jack adores Robby. This is common ground, so what’s the deal?
He doesn’t tend to wait around and find out and opts for letting the cat wander around the house.
Robby is coming home tonight anyway. Maybe Jack can lie and say Toby and him bonded the entire time Robby was away.
He won’t fall for that, Jack thinks. And if he does, then he’s going to ask for photos…
He puts dinner out for the cat and hopes for the best. In reality, though, he’s preparing for the worst where Toby won’t even look his way.
He hears the familiar jingling sound of Toby’s bell as he walks across the kitchen to his food bowl. He hears faint eating sounds from the cat as he is sprawled out onto the couch.
He’s absentmindedly scrolling on the TV, looking for anything to keep him entertained for the next couple hours as he waits for Robby to get home. Currently, Jack is wearing one of Robby’s favorite hoodies that he didn’t pack. He missed him okay? The smell has always helped with brining Jack comfort, and the fact that the shoulders are a bit broader and the end of it hangs a bit lower on his waist is always a plus.
Eventually, Jack hears the small licks stop as paws make their way over to the family room. Toby finds his way over and sits right in Jacks eye-line as he is stretched out on the couch. Toby remains perched on the coffee table.
“Robby wanted us to bond,” Jack says, no matter how much Robby makes fun of him for talking to Toby in a straight voice. “And look at us. Not bonding.”
Obviously, the cat doesn’t reply. Yet, Jack doesn’t feel silly for it and instead continues to stare at the cat as it moves towards the couch.
The couch is low enough for Toby to jump on even with the missing leg, but most of the time Robby is here to pick him up. Jack is terrified to pick him up, scared that that will be the last starve and will break and truce the two of them have going on right now.
Toby makes it up, scrambling his way up against the back cushions. However, the cat quickly turns his head and starts stalking towards Jack.
Oh my god, is all that comes to Jacks mind.
Slowly but surely, Toby finds his way up Jacks shoulder, his head never straying far from its bowed position right above Jacks chest. Then, as if it was a miracle, Toby lays right on top of Jacks chest, a pressure Jack realizes quickly why Robby enjoy it’s so much.
Oh my god, it’s actually happening.
As Toby rubs his head against the hoodie and starts to knead his one front paw into Jacks chest, he realizes with a certain clarity that Toby isn’t doing this because he enjoys Jacks attention, but because the hoodie smells like Robby, a smell the cat is well accustomed to.
Hey, Jack thinks as his eyes start to droop close with the steady weight of the cat above him. I’ll take it.
Two hours later, Robby walks in with his suit aye in tow, ready to see Jack and Toby again.
Instead, the image that he first sees is his boyfriend in his hoodie. That sap, he thinks. And, against all odds, his cat laying perfectly on Jacks chest, periodically brushing Jack with his fur.
He snaps a photo without even realizing it, and it becomes his lock screen photo on his until he changes it out for a photo of Jack on their wedding day.
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