O'Knutzy Week Day 6: A Cluster of Kittens
Happy O’Knutzy Week 2026 Day 6 (again)! As always, thank you to @lumosinlove for writing these stories and triggering my current hyperfixation! And thank you to @oknutzy-week-2026 for making all of this possible!
A Cluster of Kittens: Stray Pets
For context: This takes place after Finn has retired (he’s a teacher).
Thanks for reading and let me know what you think! Enjoy!
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Leo felt Finn take his hand, pull it to his mouth, soft lips brushing over it.
“You look so lovely in the dusk, sunshine.” Leo smiled and Finn turned to his other side, swinging his hands in the process. “And you, Lo. Made for the sunset.”
“Flirty tonight, rouge,” Logan said, bumping Finn, causing him to bump into Leo.
They were walking home for once. It was a nice night, and it was a short walk from the bar back to their apartment.
“When is he not?” Leo asked, earning a kiss to the neck.
The conversation turned to hockey soon after, with Logan and Finn debating how the game could have gone even better. Even though Finn had retired the year before, he came to every home game and some away, when his teaching breaks allowed.
“No, Lo. I don’t think that it was possible to pass then…” And Leo sighed.
“No more, please!” They both looked at him with knowing looks, used to this conversation by now. “I just want a quiet night. No more hockey talk. Please.”
Finn gave him a mischievous look, eyes glinting in the streetlight.
“Oh, you want a quiet night, huh?”
“Well, it doesn’t have to be that…” But a sound cut him off. At first, he didn’t know what he was hearing. Some sort of cry. Coming from the alley.
He stopped abruptly.
Was that a baby crying?
“Peanut?”
“Buerre?”
But Leo shushed them as he crept closer to the alley, and he heard the rustle of his boys following close behind.
“Um, mon cœur, I don’t think it’s the safest…”
“Do you hear that, Lo?” He paused once again. The crying sound was now coming from his left. It sounded too faint and high pitched to be a baby. And now the sound was joined by multiple other cries.
Leo fumbled in his pocket, but Finn was one step ahead, holding out his phone flashlight.
“Oh.”
In front of them sat a thin-looking adult cat. And she wasn’t alone. Six kittens surrounded her, all crawling over each other and mewling up at them.
“Oh, hello.” Leo leaned down, and one of the cats, a light tan one, crawled immediately to the hand he had put out. He immediately picked it up, cradling it to his stomach. It snuggled up to him, Leo assumed he was probably warm, as it started purring.
And now he found himself sniffling. Because they all looked so small. And they had nowhere to go. And the mama cat was all alone. And it was just gonna get colder. And…
“Oh, peanut, it’s alright.” Finn said, leaning next to him. Logan followed.
He felt arms come around him and he leaned into Logan’s grip.
“W…we can’t just leave them here. Th…they need help.”
“Of course we’re not going to just leave them!” Finn said, as if the idea were ridiculous. And it was. None of them would just leave them here. “We’ll take them to a shelter.”
Leo felt himself sniffing again. All the shelters would be closed for the night. And then they’d be separated from their family.
“C’est bon, soleil. We’re gonna take care of them now.”
Logan stood up, and he and Finn glanced around, their eyes settling on a box near the recycling.
“Here,” Finn said, setting the box down. “We’ll put them in this. Get them home and warm, and in the morning, we can take ‘em to the shelter.”
Leo agreed, and not five minutes later, they were walking through the street, now with six cats in a box that Finn had insisted he would carry (“you two already worked hard tonight. My turn.”)
“Not sure Rory’s gonna love to have cats around. It’s probably best if we keep ‘em somewhere contained for the time being,” Leo said, trying to sort out the logistics. He still had one of the cats in his arms. The little tan one that had curled there and not wanted to leave.
“Of course, I can go in first and distract him while you two set them up somewhere,” Finn said.
When they got home, Finn did just that, keeping their over-excited dog out of the front hall as Leo and Logan went straight through to the guest bedroom.
The kittens mewled, unsure of where they were or what was going on. Leo slowly set the fast asleep tan kitten in with the rest, quickly running downstairs for a paper bowl for water and rustling through their closet, finding a can of tuna that would do. Back in the room, Logan was sitting by the box, having set a few old towels around in case they wanted to use them.
Unsure about how she’d like it, Leo tentatively let the mama cat smell him before reaching for her, taking her out of the box. She was luckily obliging, especially after he opened the can of tuna, letting him set her down on an old towel and give her the water and food. The kittens mewled some more, but were too little to climb out of the box.
“You’re okay, babies. Your mama’ll be right back,” Leo said, reaching into the box to pet at their little heads. The tan one came up, sniffing his hand, and nuzzled into it, purring. The two black ones sat next to each other in one corner, clearly frightened, while the black tuxedo, gray tuxedo, and fluffy orange ones all walked around, still mewling. Logan took his phone out, snapping a few pictures of them.
“What are we going to do with you guys?” He asked no one in particular.
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Twenty minutes later, after the mama had finished eating and the kittens had settled in next to her, now on an old blanket set inside the box, the boys decided to head to bed.
“We’ll take ‘em to the vet tomorrow to make sure they're all healthy. Then we’ll decide what to do from there.”
They would decide if they were going to take them to a shelter or not. Leo still didn’t like the idea of the cats being separated. But, he knew realistically that no one was going to take in seven cats.
“Hey, Le, baby. No need to look so worried, we’ve got this,” Finn said, kissing the side of his head, his boys now leading him to bed.
An hour later, after his boys had gone to sleep, he was still awake/ Which wasn’t unusual. But he could swear he heard mewling. But maybe it was all in his head. He turned over, closing his eyes to try to drift off.
But ten minutes later, he sighed, not wanting to wake his boys with his tossing and turning. He would just get up, get water, maybe check on the cats, and then try to sleep once more.
But the sight of the cats, all tired and sleeping peacefully, except one, made his heart melt. It was the tan one that had nuzzled his hand. It was wandering around, clearly wanting to explore the small box. Maybe it had insomnia, too. At that thought, Leo quickly plucked it up in his hands, holding it to his chest.
“Can’t sleep, little one?” He asked in a hushed whisper, sitting down, back against the side of the guest bed. “Me neither. It’s okay, we can stay awake together.” The cat just sat on his shoulder, nuzzling into his neck, purring. Leo closed his eyes, relaxed by the soft purr coming from the kitten.
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“Baby baby, wake on up!” Finn’s voice drifted into his ear and Leo opened his eyes, moving, and groaning as his back creaked.
“Oh yeah, soleil, your back’s gonna hurt,” Logan said, wincing with him as he rubbed circles on it.
“Did I…” Leo yawned. “Oh. I fell asleep.”
“Ouais.”
Logan smiled at them as they pulled him to his feet. Then he panicked.
“The kitten!” What if it fell when he had gotten up. Where had it gone?”
But Finn pointed behind him at the guest bed where the tiny kitten was curled up. It must have climbed his body and gone on the bed. Thank goodness it hadn’t fallen down.
Leo gently took the cat, setting it back in with its siblings, all now mewling at their mama, hungry and wanting milk.
“Sorry we had to get you up so early on a day off, soleil. But, it’s vet time. Reg said if we come in before seven, he can have a look at them.” The advantages of having a friend who was training to be a vet.
“Alright.”
A twenty minute drive later, they were being ushered into a room by Regulus, who looked at the cats, face softening slightly. Leo, who had learned much about him since they had become friends a few years ago, knew that he had a soft spot for animals, especially baby animals.
“Wow, a whole cluster!” Reg said, taking each cat out one at a time, examining them. The kittens wriggled and squirmed, the mama cat perfectly calm. “Well, it seems like you’re lucky. All the little ones are healthy, and mama cat is, too. Makes me think that the previous owners might have dumped them, and quite recently.”
Leo stared in horror at the implication that anyone would just dump tiny kittens that they didn’t want.
“Do you know yet what you’re going to do with them? I know a good shelter.” But Finn shook his head.
“No, we’re going to reach out to the team, see if anyone’ll take ‘em first.” They had discussed on the way here, deciding that was the best course of action. “Until then, we’ll keep them with us. Can they be adopted at this age?”
“Theoretically, yes. I’d put their age at about eight weeks old. They should be transitioning to solid food. But once you’ve weaned them, they can be separated from the mother.”
Then Regulus told them the process of encouraging weaning before sending them on their way, requesting that they text if they need any help.
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For the next week, they worked on weaning the kittens, and worked on getting their families and friends to adopt them. Logan had insisted that they not mentioned anything about the cats to Pascal, and had requested the team not to let Pascal catch wind of it, clearly planning something. They received many varied responses.
In the week they had had the cats, Finn and Logan had already begun calling the two black cats Sirius Jr. and Regulus Jr., trying to get Sirius to take in the stray pets. Sirius seemed to be interested, but Remus had reminded them that “It’s not a good time to ask. We can’t take one right now. Not with the baby on the way.” Which was completely understandable. He told them he’d ask the rest of the Lupin family, though. They had an older cat, and he told them there was a high probability that they’d say yes.
The Potter family had a similar explanation of not needing anymore chaos in the house at the moment. With three young kids, they completely understood.
Coach Weasley, who clearly didn’t ascribe to the same sentiment after seven kids of his own, told them that he would be interested in taking one of them. After all, as he had told them, “what’s one more animal in this house?” His two youngest, Ron and Ginny, really wanted a kitten, and he told them he was also hoping to teach his twins some responsibility.
Logan, after a day spent with Celeste and Katie, told them not to offer the orange one to anyone else, as he had plans for it.
Kuny had agreed to take the mama cat, saying she would go nicely with the other calm cat he had at home.
And by then, they had run out of people on the team to ask. With three of the seven cats accounted for, they turned to their families. Finn told them that he couldn’t ask Alex and family, because Alex was allergic, which had started a conversation about the fact that Finn had also begun developing allergy symptoms to the cats. Itchy red eyes, a stuffy nose, lots of sneezing. Logan had insisted that Finn stop touching the kittens, but Finn had refused, stating that it “wasn’t that bad,” and “they’re too cute to resist!”
“Well, we’ve got four of the cats accounted for,” Logan said after another sneezing fit from Finn.
“Four?” Leo asked, petting the tan cat that was once again in his lap, sure that he had counted correctly. He plucked the kitten up, setting her against his neck, where she nuzzled in, purring. “Only three. Kuny, Arthur, secret Dumais cat.”
Leo finally looked up to see his boys both smiling at him.
“What if we kept one?” Finn said.
“What?” Leo was taken aback. Especially coming from Finn, who wiped at his nose. “But you’re allergic!”
Finn waved him away.
“That one’s so attached to you. It’s only fair that she gets to stay,” Logan said. “Finn and I have discussed it. You agreed to get a dog with us. We want to get a cat for you.”
It had been a debate when they first decided to get a pet. They had eventually decided on a dog, Finn having just retired and needed a new outlet. Rory was a rescue dog, and had been a good amount of work for them. But it had been the right time to get a dog with Finn’s more flexible schedule, and Leo had been happy about the decision. But he had also wanted a cat, so his boys had promised him that, eventually, they’d also get a cat, once things settled.
Leo’s eyes filled with tears and he moved to kiss his boys, but the little cat got unsettled by his movement, so he sat back, petting her once more. At the silence coming from his boys, he looked up.
“Being a dad looks really good on you,” Finn said, a mushy look in his eyes. “Love you in dad-mode.”
“They’re cats, Fish,” Leo reminded, rolling his eyes and feeling himself blush.
“Still.”
“Best cat dad, then,” Logan piped up. “Seeing you being so…parental, buerre, it does things to me.”
“Not you, too. I’ve told you before that we’re not ready for kids.”
“Oui, je sais. But we can still enjoy you being a cat dad, non?”
“You’re really okay with keeping her?” He looked into both their eyes, making sure they were sure before he let himself get excited.
“Of course!” Logan said, coming over to give his cheek a kiss.
“She was ours the moment she climbed into your arms and refused to leave, Le,” Finn said, coming up to his other side.
Leo smiled, tears in his eyes once again.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” He peppered kisses on their cheeks and his boys chuckled.
“We’ll love her, too. Even if you’re clearly her favorite.” Finn said, then turned to sneeze.
“And I’ve got a name suggestion, but I can’t take credit for it. You’ll have to thank Katie for this one.”
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Eventually, discussions moved to what they wanted to do with the three remaining cats. Neither of Leo’s, Logan’s, or Finn’s family felt able to take in a cat at that time.
“I…know I said we don’t want to split them up. I want them to be with family, but…” Leo reasoned with himself. He knew realistically that the cats weren’t going to be together anymore, but having them adopted by people that he thought of as family helped.
“Let’s not give up quite yet. Remus still has to talk to his mom. And I’ve got one more person we can ask,” Finn said. “But maybe you should text him, because after all these years, I think he still likes you the best,” he told Leo.
Two minutes later, he sent a text.
Leo
Hey, we have three more cats to be adopted
are you interested in taking in “Sirius Jr.” and
or “Regulus Jr.”?
He received a reply a few minutes later.
Regulus
I’ll consider it if you convince your boys to
stop calling them that right now.
Leo laughed, relaying the information to said boys.
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It was a week later, the week they were finally sending the kittens to live with their new families, when Logan finally let them in on the plan with the Dumais cat.
“So Celeste and I are surprising him for his birthday with an orange kitten that looks like one he had from his childhood. He still keeps a picture of him in his wallet.”
At the party, they got to watch Logan and the Dumais kids, who had somehow successfully kept it a secret, present the cat to their dad, whose eyes had widened, filling with rare tears. An instant later, he was up and hugging Logan to him.
“A good surprise, mon fils.”
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Two days later, the Lupins had come to pick up their kitten, the little black tuxedo.
A day later, Kuny and Arthur got theirs, followed by Regulus, who picked up the cats formerly known as Sirius Jr. and Regulus Jr.
Which just left them with their new kitten, a perfect end to their little kitten adventure.
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One month later
Group Chat: Kitten Cluster
Leo
The boys request kitten pictures!
Kuny
Princess Leia, not so happy in costume. But brother Luke will save her.
Arthur
Scabbers causing trouble, as usual. Very happy with himself.
Hope
Socks, who was getting alone with her older brother for once.
Regulus
Nova and Astra, Sirius and Remus's two favorite nieces (maybe besides Socks).
Pascal
Simba, very proud of himself.
Leo
Love all the pictures! Here’s Nala, our sweet girl!
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Thanks for reading!
I just had to add kitten pictures at the end! These were all just pulled off the internet, if you were wondering where they were from (all credit to...Google I guess). I love cats so much, hence my profile picture! I hope you enjoyed!
The idea of Regulus being a vet is completely based off of rxgulus's work over on ao3! Go check them out!
