Chapter 16
"Daddy!" Is the first thing that Chris hears as soon as the front door to the house opens.
Looking up from his phone, he sees Taissa running over to him where he lay stretched out on the couch. He had just finished his work for the day, and had decided to just rest on the couch out in the living room watching TV while he waits for Sebastian and the girls to get home.
"Hey, sweetheart." He says, sitting up. "Did you and your sisters have fun?" He asks.
Taissa nods. "Mommy adopted a new little kitten!" She exclaims. "Her name's Nala, and she's like a tiny version of Muffy!"
It takes Chris a bit longer than it should have for him to realize what Taissa had said. But when it does, he's up off the couch and running outside.
"Sebastian!" Chris yells, standing outside the door, arms folded across his chest as he watches Sebastian jump away from the car in fright. "Just what have you gone and done?" He asks.
He doesn't mean to sound threatening in anyway, but he must've given Emma a fright, as she hides behind Sebastian's legs.
Sebastian shifts uncomfortably, looking anywhere but at Chris. "Uh, got a new family member?" He says, but it comes out more like a question.
Chris frowns, before walking over to him, and Emma runs off inside the house. He's going to have to apologize for scaring her like that. He didn't mean to scare her though. He really didn't.
"I hope you're going to apologize to Emma for scaring her like that." Sebastian says, watching as Emma runs into the house.
"Yeah, I will. Don't worry." Chris assures him. "Now... You got another fucking cat?" He questions.
Sebastian nods, scratching at the back of his neck. "I couldn't help it, Chris." He says. "She was the only kitten there! I couldn't just leave her!"
Chris supposes that he can understand why Sebastian couldn't just leave the little kitten there on her own. But why he didn't call him first, is what Chris fails to understand. Usually they consult each other first before doing things like this.
"Why didn't you tell me you were going to do this before you adopted her?" Chris asks. "And you and I both agreed that the next pet we get would be a dog, not another cat!"
"I uh...." Sebastian trails off. He's not entirely sure why he didn't call Chris about adopting a new kitten. Though, there was the fact that he didn't really want to disturb Chris while he was working. "I didn't want to disturb you while you were working."
Chris sighs shaking his head. He guesses that's a fair enough reason, but he really wishes that he had called him about it first, and not just go ahead and adopt the kitten.
"Alright." He sighs, shaking his head. "I'm not exactly happy about this, Seb." He starts. "But I'm not going to make you send the kitten back to the SPCA. I don't hate cats that much to make you send her back right after adopting her." He says. "Though, have you considered how Muffy will react to this?"
"Well, uh.... A little...." Sebastian trails off.
He has considered how Muffy may react to a new kitten in the house, and he's not completely sure how he'll react exactly. Though, he knows that Muffy won't try to kill the kitten. With any luck, he won't be that interested and just not give a damn about her.
Chris sighs at that. "Well, let's just hope he doesn't try to attack her." He says. "He's not exactly friendly with any of the neighborhood cats. Or dogs for that matter."
"Actually, there's this stray black-and-white cat that's been hanging round that Muffy seems to be okay with." Sebastian says, as he goes to get Sabrina - who had fallen asleep sometime on the drive back home - out of her car seat, and carefully handing her to Chris.
"Really?" Chris asks, carefully taking Sabrina from Sebastian, before something crosses his mind. "Please tell me you're not going to attempt to catch this stray...."
Sebastian doesn't exactly give him a straight answer to that, as he shuts the backseat door, before going to the passengers side door at the front of the car to grab the cat carrier. Which automatically gives Chris the feeling that Sebastian is going to attempt to do exactly that.
"Can you take Sabrina up to bed then come back out to the car to get the shopping?" Sebastian asks. "There's not much there, and I have to get Nala settled."
Chris nods. "Honestly, I can't say I'm surprised you named her after Nala from the Lion King." He says, casting a glance in the cat carrier to see a little ginger kitten curled up inside. "Wait, is it a female?"
Sebastian nods. "Female gingers aren't as rare as people think, Chris." He says. "It's just a lot more common to find male gingers."
Chris nods, guessing that that makes sense. He also supposes that just maybe having another cat in the house won't be so bad. They are a lot easier to look after than dogs after all, but that's not going to stop him from trying to get a dog soon since Sebastian got a new kitten.
Who knows? Maybe this cat will end up liking him, unlike Muffy who seems like he wants to kill him every time he sees him. Chris just hopes that this new kitten doesn't end up taking after Muffy.... He also hopes that Sebastian doesn't attempt to catch the stray black-and-white cat that's been roaming around. Two cats are more than enough.
Following Sebastian inside, Chris takes Sabrina upstairs into her room to get her down in bed for her nap. Once that's done, he grabs the baby monitor and takes it back with him downstairs, setting it down on the coffee table before going to get the shopping out of the car.
"You haven't taken her out of her carrier yet?" Chris asks, walking into the living room after putting the shopping in the kitchen, to find Sebastian sitting cross legged on the floor in front of the cat carrier, with Taissa and Emma sitting next to him.
He looks up over at Chris. "I will soon." He starts. "Just... I think it might be safer to keep her in here while Muffy sees her." He says. "But, I'm not sure where he is right now. Can you go find him?"
Chris's eyes widen at that. Sebastian wants him to go and find Muffy? That's not something that Chris even wants to do. Though, he does have an idea of where Muffy is right now. Unless the cat has since moved somewhere else.
"Why me?" Chris asks. "You know that cat hates me!" He exclaims.
Sebastian sighs, getting up off the floor. "Fine. Okay... I'll go find him." He sighs. "Keep an eye on them, will you?" He asks, referring to Taissa, Emma, and the kitten, before leaving the room to go find Muffy.
Walking over to the couch, Chris watches as Taissa and Emma try to get the kitten's attention. Though, it doesn't work too much. Chris guesses that it's because the kitten is in an unfamiliar environment, and is frightened of all these new sights and smells.
"Be careful." Chris says. "Let's get her settled first."
Sebastian comes back not long after carrying Muffy in his arms, before setting him down on the floor.
"You know, if I were to even attempt to pick him up, he'd claw my eyes out." Chris says, as he watches Sebastian sit down near the cat carrier once more.
Chris decides to stay up on the safety of the couch, as he watches Sebastian call Muffy over towards the cat carrier. He's not too sure what's going to happen, but he'd rather not be near Muffy's claws if he starts scratching, which may or may not happen. Hopefully it doesn't, but you can never tell with that cat.
Muffy walks over to the cat carrier slowly, sniffing around at it. He takes one look at the little ginger kitten sitting inside starting at him with wide, curious and frightened eyes, before hissing and stalking off out of the room, his tail thrashing from side to side.
Chris looks on after the cat, before turning to Sebastian. "Well... I think you may have pissed him off by bringing another cat into his home, Seb." He says.
"Well, no kidding, Chris." Sebastian replies, before turning his attention to the kitten. "I mean, I guess it didn't go too badly." He says. "No claws were involved."
"There might be later." Chris points out.
Sebastian sighs, shaking his head a little. "Yeah, well... hopefully there won't be." He says, before letting the kitten out of the cat carrier.
She stumbles out slowly, meowing up at Sebastian, before she slowly moves around the room, sniffing around at everything as she goes. She stops when she reaches the couch at Chris's feet, and stares up at him with wide eyes. She meows up at him, before scrambling to get up onto the couch, and when she's finally made it onto the couch, she climbs onto Chris's lap, staring up at him once more.
"I think she likes you." Sebastian says.
Chris looks down at the little kitten sitting on his lap. He has to admit, she is pretty cute, and he's going to take the fact that she seems to like him as a good thing. He's not a cat person, but he also doesn't hate cats, so he's rather glad that this one likes him already, unlike Muffy who never liked Chris from the moment he saw him.
"Well, good." He says, stroking a hand across the kitten's fur gently. "But she better not turn out being anything like Muffy when she's a lot older than she is now."
"I don't think she'll turn out as bad as you claim that Muffy is, Chris." Sebastian says, getting up off the floor, stretching a little as he does so. "We're going to have to order her some kitten toys and some other stuff. Where's my laptop so I can order her some stuff off Amazon?" He asks, looking around on the small table on one side of the living room.
"Might be in the office?" Chris suggests. "Though, you could always use the Amazon app on your phone." He reminds him.
Sebastian looks over at him, shaking his head a little. "I prefer using a laptop for that sort of thing." He says. "And my phone needs charging anyway." He adds, before going off into their office that also doubles as their little library.
Chris looks on after him, before turning back to the kitten who has now fallen asleep on his lap. Which means that he won't be able to get up anytime soon. Unless if course he manages to move the kitten without waking her up. He doesn't really want to risk it though.
Looking up as Taissa and Emma both make their way over to him, Chris frowns a little as he remembers that he needs to apologize to Emma for scaring her before. Though, by the looks of things, she seems to have gotten over it already.
"Hey, Emma." Chris says, as she strokes a hand across the kittens fur gently, being careful not to wake her. "Sorry for scaring you before." He apologizes. "I was just surprised that your mother adopted a new kitten without talking to me about it."
She nods, before she and Taissa are climbing up onto the couch next to him. The sudden movement makes the kitten jump awake, and meow at them, before making her way over to them both, sniffing them curiously.
Chris assumes that that means that she's going to stay over by Taissa and Emma now so he's able to get up. But not long after that, before Chris even gets the chance to get up, Nala is climbing straight back onto his lap, where she curls up once more.
"Looks like you're going to be stuck there for awhile." Sebastian comments, as he makes his way back into the living room with his laptop.
Chris chuckles a little at that. There's definitely no way that he's going to be able to get up for awhile now. Though, he's rather glad it's not Muffy who is curled up asleep on his lap.
"Yeah, seems like it." He says. "Kind of glad it's not Muffy."
Sebastian huffs out a laugh at that, as he turns his laptop on so he can get onto Amazon to buy some supplies for the kitten. Quite possibly a few other things as well, but mainly kitten supplies. He already picked up some kitten food while in the SPCA, expensive as it is, but he didn't want to leave the girls in the car by themselves while he ran into the store to get some. He can always get more from the store tomorrow.
Though, they don't have any cat litter as far as he knows, but they do have a litter box that they never had a use for. Really they only got it in case of emergencies, and during winter when it's too cold for Muffy to go outside. But even then Muffy still usually opts for going outside most of the time. So, he's not sure if they've got any cat litter left. He can always get Chris to go outside and get some dirt or sand to use just for tonight though.
"Chris, where's that litter box that we bought, but Muffy never really used?" He asks, not looking over at Chris, as he adds stuff that they need to the cart.
"Basement, I think." Chris says. "I think there might just be enough cat litter." He adds. "I'll go see if I can find them soon."
"Good." Sebastian nods. "Is there anything that we need?" He asks. "If there is, I might as well just order it now along with all this."
Chris shrugs. "I think I need a new pack of sketch pencils, and some erasers, but I'm not sure." He says. "There's no hurry for them though. They're not exactly cheap."
Sebastian adds some to the cart anyway. It's probably better in the long run if Chris has quite a bit of them stored away anyway. He adds a few more things onto the cart, a couple he's not entirely sure they really need, but gets anyway. If there's something that they need that he hasn't added to the cart, he can always go out to the store later on, tomorrow or sometime over the next couple days.
Checking through everything first, and double checking that he's selected overnight delivery, he goes to check out the items in the cart. He's almost positive that there's nothing else they need, but he's not for sure.
"Alright. It's done." Sebastian states. "They should be here early in the morning, and you'll most likely be awake before me, so you'll have to be the one to answer the door to get the post." He says, looking over at Chris.
Chris nods. He just hopes the post doesn't take too long to arrive in the morning, as he's planning on going out to the gym with Anthony tomorrow before getting back to work later on in the day. He's sure the post won't take too long to arrive in the morning though, it never usually takes too long anyway.
"Sounds good." Chris says. "But just as long as it gets here before I head on out to meet Anthony at the gym in the morning."
"I'm sure it'll be here before then." Sebastian says. "Plus, it's over night delivery, so it usually does arrive before you're off to the gym to go work out with Anthony."
"Yeah, probably." Chris says, before looking down at the kitten asleep on his lap. "I need to get up, but I can't." He sighs. "I don't want to disturb her."
Sebastian looks over at him. "What is it you need to do right now?" He asks.
Chris shrugs. "Just get something to eat and drink I guess." He says.
"I can go fix you up something that should hopefully hold you over until dinner in a few hours." Sebastian says, getting up off the couch. "I got you a Redbull from the store, but it's not cold, and I know you don't like your energy drinks when they're not ice cold. Do you want me to put it in the freezer for awhile?" He asks.
Chris nods. "Yeah, that sounds good." He says.
Sebastian nods, before heading off into the kitchen to make Chris something quick to eat... and to figure out what he's going to cook for dinner, leaving Chris to watch Taissa, Emma, Nala, and keep a listen out on the baby monitor for when Sabrina wakes up from her nap.
Looking down as something bats at his legs, Sebastian finds Muffy sitting there staring up at him, before he starts meowing. Sebastian guesses that the old boy will more than likely be a little pissy for the next few days because of the new kitten in the house, but he hopes within time that Muffy will get used to Nala, even if it's only tolerating her... though that stray black-and-white cat that's been hanging round lately, Muffy seems completely fine with.
Bending down to pick him up in his arms, Sebastian holds Muffy close to him carefully, and he takes it as a good thing that Muffy isn't trying to get out of his hold. Though, Sebastian does get a paw to the cheek - luckily with claws sheathed - and dull green eyes glaring at him.
"You're pissed at me now aren't you, boy?" Sebastian asks, to which Muffy meows at him, before rubbing the top of his head against Sebastian's face, resulting in Sebastian getting ginger fur in his mouth.
Sebastian holds Muffy for a couple more minutes, assuring him that he's not being replaced - even though Muffy doesn't understand a word of it - before setting him back down on the floor as soon as Muffy makes it known that he wants to be back on the ground.
He watches as Muffy plods on out of the room, before getting straight into what he came into the kitchen for....