watching the jays get shut out by the yankees two games in a row must be exactly how sonic felt watching his friends get washed by eggman during forces
[HEY! Shoutout to @essayofthoughts - both for helping me sort out exactly why Vilya was missing for years without getting into amnesia stuff, and for helping figure out a good chunk of the kittens’ names. Go check out their content if you haven’t already, it’s really top notch <3 ]
It’s day nine, meaning it’s… good gods, Tuesday. He knows it’s Tuesday only because Vex leaves for work later than usual. Well. Not only - the kittens, at nine (nine!) days old, are considering opening their eyes. It’s left many of them in a frankly very funny in-between state, and they’ve all just about doubled their birth weight.
The betting on which kitten would be the first to open its eyes has reached a fever pitch. Mostly over text, with half of them run ragged by work and two days’ drive away, with some video calls featuring the contestants. There’s actually a fair pot to win, courtesy of Scanlan actually putting his money where his mouth is for once and Vex jumping on the opportunity.
She champions the black tabby female - insists she’ll get so excited at the prospect of food she’ll blink them right open. Grog and Vax agree on the solid blue kitten, being the biggest and likely firstborn (“he just has that big brother feel to him in the pics, you know? I would know.”). Pike matched Vex’s bet but on the kitten that’s not eating well, suggesting he’ll need the edge and joking she’ll put a word in with Sarenrae to make it so. The wobbly kitten is Scanlan’s favorite to win, if only because he thinks it’d make a good cute narrative and because the white fur stands out.
Keyleth also put money down on her, but for a different reason.
“I don’t know,” she says, the call cutting out between vowels - Zephrah’s reception is atrocious. “I really don’t have a reason? She’s cute, it’s all really cute.”
“You can’t just go off of feelings,” Percy grumbles, nodding firmly enough for her to pick up on it. He half suspects she’s only been making time to see him over the phone to peek at the kittens.
Of course that could not be further from the truth - they’re both busy, and the rapid development of this curious twist to Percy’s life is the push needed to find time when they can.
It turns out the cult had been busted by a group of wannabe-vigilantes - some reports said seven individuals, some insisted nine. Given how high profile Vilya’s case had been, it was apparently never-ending press statements and dodging questions and defeating a legal hell. All while juggling how to be a family again, after so much had changed.
Suffice to say, Percy would probably be her first choice to reach out to even if he wasn’t her best friend. So he can’t rib her as much as he’d like for turning her brain off and enjoying something simple.
She’s smiling, now, laugh lines forming as easily as they should, when she huffs back at him.
“Fine! Okay, smart guy - who is your bet to open their peepers first?” He assumes she taps at her hand from the vague hint he sees through the screen. “I need all the facts!”
He shrugs, gently enough not to move the litter sleeping on his lap. The physical contact does them good, he’s convinced of it.
The distance between him and Keyleth permits subtle, steadying breaths she can’t pick up on. “I don’t have any idea which will open their eyes first.”
If she were with him, he would absolutely be receiving pokes in the arm. “C’mon, Percy - you’re the one raising them. Give me the insider details! Who is gonna hit the milestone first?”
There’s an impulse to count them, to ward off the beasts the numbers and milestones manifest.
One (he was engaged, never got to marry him), two (she was in the last year of her PhD, posthumous honors), three-four (they were looking for apartments - separately, to live without eachother for the first time), five (he hadn’t even graduated sixth grade).
(They never got to see any of them wed, never got to hold grandchildren, never got to see those open their eyes.)
“I don’t know. The race could completely shift hour by hour.”
“Come on, things can’t change that fast-”
“Keyleth! I wasn’t even sure we’d get them this far!”
He narrowly misses biting his tongue. Oh, no, not a miss, he tastes it.
Hadn’t meant to snap, truly. Especially with all Keyleth’s going through. Percy slumps enough to make the kittens stir - buries his shaking hands into the warm bundle. One, two maybe, nuzzle against one palm like they might their shaky sister.
Percy doesn’t realize how stifling the silence becomes until Keyleth’s sigh stutters over the terrible connection. “I’m sorry - I’m really sorry, I hadn’t-”
“It’s fine, Kiki,” he says. “Probably not healthy that I’m this invested.”
Half a smile - one quarter bitter, one amused. “They’re super cute and totally dependent on you - it would be pretty impossible not to get attached.”
“Kittens are fragile. Kittens die. Often.” It’s unclear if the microphone picks up on it - he says it so quickly, quietly, just in case. Just - just in case.
He’d read all the numbers - all the things to look out for, how even if you did everything right - everything - a perfect creature could whittle away before your eyes, in days. Hours, even.
“Is that,” Keyleth murmurs, “why you haven’t named them?”
“Yes.”
“Wow. Okay - okay. I’m - I’m not sure either of us is in a good place to unpack all this.” She fusses with her hair, mumbling the rest of her words: “I mean - even if - yeah. Even if, you’ll have done everything you possibly could. Their life - their entire lives! - will have been warm and cozy because of you.
“But” - One of the kittens stirs and squeaks. They’re not in frame - Keyleth grins regardless - “They’re doing pretty good, and names wouldn’t jinx anything. Or make you any more attached than you already are? I don’t think some optimism would be counting your chickens before they hatch. Counting… your… eyeballs… before they… open?”
He’ll concede a weak smirk. “Could use a little more workshopping. But thank you.”
“Oh shut up-”
--
He swears he mishears it, at first.
Trinket’s walk had been a nice change of pace - a little guy time that really put into perspective how young the kittens were. Mature, confident and well-trained, Trinket only briefly abused Percy’s inexperience to tug at the lead when they rounded the bend back to the twins’ apartment complex. Percy had been more than happy to jog with him - rain threatens and his shoes squelch with the remains of an overnight storm.
Beyond the cacophony of Trinket dragging his leash through the kitchen, Percy calling him back, and the hustle as he removes his coat and boots, he swears he hears Vex say bobble. Which would be perfectly reasonable - the kittens are becoming more ambulatory, and their little heads do sort of bobble as they decide which way to go.
Percy pads to the bathroom, carefully opening the door so Trinket can’t barge in. Vex is holding up the dark kitten, stripes more clear day by day, pressing kisses into the downy fur. “I think that suits you just perfectly,” she’s gushing, turning to beam at Percy.
“Percy - look!” Her cupped hands turn to present the kitten. Two tiny, tiny eyes - so dark they almost look black, unfocused and wide - peer back at him. “Bauble’s got her eyes open!”
“Goodness - look at you!” Given Vex is sitting on the rim of the bath, she has to stretch to hand him the tiny molly. For a second he considers parading her around the apartment, held Lion King style. Everything the light touches is her kingdom, he decides - except when he lifts her the kitten mewls in distress so he settles for tucking her against his chest.
“Hi, dear,” Percy murmurs. The kitten squeaks back, appeased for now. He finds Vex watching them, two more kittens in her lap, smiling in such a way he almost doesn’t want to speak, to ruin whatever moment she’s found herself in.
“I suppose you were right after all. So…” He quirks a brow. “Bauble?”
Vex looks a little sheepish, ducking her head. “Well. It was starting to feel silly, just calling them by their colors? And I’ve had the name in mind for a while. Trinkets and baubles, you know.” She finds her footing again when he only shakes his head. “Anyways. Bauble is a great name, and if you aren’t going to name them… not like I can’t.”
Percy - and Bauble, apparently - sits on the floor of the bathroom, leaning against Vex’s legs. The basket of kittens is plush before them.
Hesitation creeps back into her voice. “If you didn’t want me to-”
Percy tries to wring the affection from his sigh. No avail. He really can’t pull off disappointment or irritation with her easily. “Vex’ahlia,” he says, “you know damn well I can’t deny you anything.”
Bauble blinks at him. It’s slow and unpracticed. His heart swells - he gets to watch them learn everything.
“I was going to name her Vice.” Vex snickers above him as whinges more dramatically than he needs to. “And you just had to go and beat me to the punch! Well, that just won’t stand.”
With Bauble still clutched to his chest, Percy points to the biggest kitten. “This is Velcro.”
“Oh?”
“And this” - he points to the larger of the twin grey tabbies - “is Ratchet. The other is Sprocket. She” - he scritches under the ever so tiny chin of the white kitten, her ears already a dusty brown - “is Screwdriver. So help me, this is one I will be firm about.”
Vex laughs. “You were going to - you had a whole theme planned?”
“Yes! They were born in my workshop - it was perfect! And you just ruined it!” He can’t help but smile as he says it - in the dingy light of the bathroom, Vex’s open-mouthed cackling is too good to be true. Bauble follows the movement of his head.
“Maybe-” Vex has to catch her breath. “Oh - maybe you should call the twins Nuts and Bolts.”
Fuck, that’s good.
“Absolutely not - the poor boy will not be named after - after the fact he’s a boy.”
“But you love it,” she accuses with affection.
“It’s awful. You’re terrible. How could you want to do this to him?”
Bauble chimes in. Percy and Vex each take it as her agreeing with them.
