Like, this cat has never growled a day in her damn life. Hissed only once. She shouldn’t know what it is.
She kicks her feet and did some kinda weird wiggle, I could only wake her up by yelling her name and petting. To which, I am greeted with extremely loud purrs and not allowed to leave because I need Kisses, apparently.
Fluffy had a nightmare.
I held her until I knew she was okay, and now she’s back to sleeping--weirdest experience this week.
The thing is, Val feels bad for being jealous of Tyler. It just seems like a really insensitive thing to feel - sure, Tyler gets cuddles all the time in his stress form, but that’s because he’s little and nervous and used to get scared by his teammates all the time. That’s why Jamie’s always carrying him around, and snuggling him, and carefully settling him in teammates’ hands for supervised petting.
But - but sometimes Val wants that too. His stress form is a puppy, too, if a much bigger one, and the only people he’s ever around is Gonch’s family, and his kids are pretty young so Val shies away from them, not a huge fan of kids. He’s had too many instances of accidentally knocking things over at the teammates’ houses, so he tries his best not to turn into his stress form in front of them.
Except - Val gets homesick. He gets homesick, lonely, and confused by English to the point of frustration. That’s always what does it for him; he’s great at resisting his stress form, keeping his stress levels down, except when it comes to this. Sometimes it’s just too much, too many things are unfamiliar, there’s too much he’s unable to express in English, he wants to go home.
He’s trying to handle it on his own. He lets himself have extra stress form time, asks Jordie for dog toy recommendations. It’s not helping, especially around the other guys’ stress forms; the more he watches Jamie cuddle Tyler, watches Brenden lie all over Jordie, watches Alex carry Antoine around in his arms, Val wants that. He can’t cuddle on his own. Pillows don’t hug back.
Inevitably - God, but he hates that it feels so inevitable - the stress gets to him. He has a post-game interview where he just feels stupid, he’s too fucking tired for such a long flight home, his family at home is celebrating Christmas since it’s January and he talked to them this morning and is so homesick and it’s an all-around frustrating day. He couldn’t even order lunch coherently, and these things don’t usually bother him, but it’s so many things at once. And then on the bus, he sees that Alex gets to be snuggled, and the frustrated, needy jealousy is the last straw for Val. One minute, he’s fine, and the next, he’s a puppy. He’s a too-gangly, awkward puppy, already falling off the seat because it’s too small.
“Oh, hey, buddy,” Gonch says from beside him, yawning and reaching over to pat him on the head. Val whines, scrambles over for more petting; he falls off the seat, ducks under it in embarrassment.
He’s really not in the mood to drag through the airport as a stupid dog. Alex gets to be carried, but Val just tags along after the guys in a group, tail between his legs. He really, really doesn’t want to be a nuisance; naturally, he knocks over a folding chair in the lounge, and also Brenden’s suitcase from where it’s propped up, both onto Brenden. Brenden huffs in pain when his just-injured knee is hit fairly hard, and Val knows he must be so frustrated, but Val’s so sorry, whimpers and slinks under the row of seats to hide. He’s not crying. They can’t hear him if they can’t see him.
“Is that -Tyler?” he hears Jamie asking.
“What?” Jordie asks.
“That sound?”
“Tyler went to Starbucks,” Jordie says, “see, there he is.”
“So who’s-” Jamie kneels down by the seats. “Oh, Val,” he says softly. Val hangs his head; is Jamie going to tell him to be more careful? “Can I - do something?” Jamie asks. He always tries, sort of offers, but - Val doesn’t want to be a burden. “I thnk we gotta board, so…”
“What’s on the floor?” Tyler asks, coming over and looking under too. “Hey, Val. I got this. Hold this?” he says to Jamie, hands over a coffee cup, and then he’s leaning in and scooping Val out from under the seat. Val squirms around, tries not to fall out of Tyler’s arms as he wiggles around upright, nearly does anyways. “Hey, ‘s okay,” Tyler says, hoists him up a little. “We’re gonna get on the plane, c’mon.” He’s going to put Val down - or, maybe he’s not, he’s really not, he’s holding Val still, telling Jordie to grab the bags for them and still holding Val.
“I’m not your chauffeur,” Jordie grumbles. “B, get Val’s for me.”
“I’m not yours,” Brenden says, but he’s laughing, shoulders Val’s bag. Tyler carries Val onto the plane, and still doesn’t put him down, Val’s so excited he’s wagging his tail and wiggling around, but - he’s not supposed to do that, he’ll fall-
“Here we go,” Tyler says, scoots into an aisle. Val whimpers; he knows what this means, he’s too big to cuddle on an airplane seat. Except, Jamie’s sitting across the aisle from them, so maybe Val’s supposed to sit next to Tyler? Which - that’s good too, but - he was really looking forward to cuddles. Tyler puts him down, and Val tries to curl up as small as he can in the other seat, as Tyler messes with the armrest. “There,” he says, and then he picks Val up again, so Tyler can sit with his legs up across the two seats, Val in his lap. “All good?” Tyler asks, pets Val’s ears gently. Val tries not to get too wiggly, but he’s so excited, he’s getting cuddled, he licks Tyler’s chin and wiggles around to lie down and push his nose into Tyler’s palm so Tyler will pet him more.
He falls asleep like that, and it’s so much better than usual - usually, he sleeps by himself, curled up under a blanket or something. When he wakes up, he’s still being pet, Tyler’s flipping through a magazine on the traytable, other hand gently petting Val. “Hey,” Tyler says softly, rubs Val’s ears, “you never get pet, huh?” Val whimpers, licks Tyler’s wrist. “I know how that feels,” Tyer says gently, “that’s how I felt in Boston.” He sighs a little, looks so sad, did Val do something wrong? “I don’t want Dallas to be like that for anyone,” he says, “it sucks, and I just - I’m not gonna let anyone here feel like that. So whenever you want, you can come to me or any of the guys, cos we’re all gonna be better about this, I promise.” Val wags his tail, snuggles in closer; he’s so happy, this is the best news, it doesn’t matter if he’s bad at sitting still or not the right size for snuggling, it’s going to be better now. “I think people forget that you don’t just suddenly change into your stress form,” Tyler says, “it’s because you were stressed about something, so, you gotta feel better.”
When Val’s nearly asleep again, Jamie comes over to lean into the row, pet Val’s ears gently. “You,” he says to Tyler, all gentle, “are a really good guy.” Tyler beams at that, and Val scoots up to lick Tyler’s jaw in agreement because he is good, he’s making Val feel okay again, and Val just really, really needed that.
