st_x5_494 | We have this now

Alec had gotten back to the room about an hour or so before the other world closed up. It felt a little weird to be going back to a place with far less freedom and far less things to do. It was almost like choosing to go back to prison.

He pushed any of those thoughts aside. There was no time to dwell.

He was currently taking a shower, but there was a peculiar addition to the room. On Peter's bed was a little kitten that was currently pouncing at the small hills made from the bedding and bounding up and down the bed itself as if chasing some imaginary assailant.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

st_x5_494

"Can't he just..." Alec gestured vaguely toward's the window. "Go outside and do his business?"

The only cats Alec ever saw where alley cats. He supposed Ace was not like those kind.

"What kind of toys? I thought dogs had toys."

From:

st_arkintern

"I mean, you can try taking him out on a leash," Peter begins. He had seen it before. "But I don't know if he'll like it." Cats seemed to like litter boxes well enough.

"Stuff like, a little fishpole with a bit of feather attached to the end of a string."

From:

st_x5_494

There was clearly more to cat ownership than Alec realized.

"Okay... Well, you tell me what he needs and I'll try to find stuff." He could probably kill a bird for some feathers.

"I don't want to put it on a leash." Alec was anti-leash... Unless maybe if it was in the bedroom.

From:

st_arkintern

Peter turns to face Alec. "Him," Peter corrects. "Not it."

He looks back down at the kitten. "I'll take care of finding something that'll work as a litter box," he says. "I don't know what we'll do about litter, but I might be able to ask someone what we can use as a substitute."

From:

st_x5_494

"Him" He looked at Peter, but the stare wasn't as curmudgeon as it normally was.

"How about sand. Are litter boxes basically big sandboxes?"

From:

st_arkintern

Peter snaps his fingers together in realization. "That should work," he says, flashing Alec a smile. "It doesn't clump very well, so we probably need to be pretty diligent about changing it, though."

From:

st_x5_494

There was, apparently, a lot of work.

"Are you sure we can't just teach him to use the toilet?"

Ace let out a loud mmeeeeoowww and then suddenly seemed to run toward some sort of prey... And promptly off the bed.

A look of worry crossed Alec's expression. "Is he okay?" Which came out sounding a little more worried than maybe he normally did.

From:

st_arkintern

"I've never heard of anyone being able to teach a cat how to use a toilet, but... maybe?" Peter sounds skeptical that this is something that can be done.

But before they can discuss this further, Alec meows and leaps off the bed. Peter watches Ace with interest.

"Yeah, he's fine," Peter says. "Sometimes cats just do this kind of stuff. Mr. Delmar's cat mostly lays around all day, but whenever he sees anything small run around outside, he's on it in an instant."

From:

st_x5_494

He watched the kitten for a moment and then seemed to un-tense when it looked like Ace was okay.

"Thank God I don't have that urge." He'd be who knows where. "Max and the other female X5s got the short end of the DNA deal with that."

From:

st_arkintern

Ace is still pawing at something in the corner of the room.

"What, did the women pounce on things?"

From:

st_x5_494

"They would probably have preferred that." He thought about some of the questionable choices Max had made, including trying to sleep with him. "They go through heat about twice a year."

From:

st_arkintern

"What?"

Peter blinks.

"They couldn't just... edit that out?"

From:

st_x5_494

He shrugged a little. "It only showed up by the time they hit puberty. By then it was too late. They fixed it in the X-6es. Probably wasn't worth it if they could. We used to get this other disease - progeria. Was killing us off until they fixed that."

From:

st_arkintern

Peter's glad that Alec doesn't have progeria.

"You know, it's really nice of you to bring Ace home with you," he says. "You could have left him there."

From:

st_x5_494

"like I said, he followed me home." He made an effort to look serious and grumpy about it.

From:

st_arkintern

Peter doubts that the events went down exactly as Alec describes, but...

"You could have sent him back home," he says. "But you didn't."

From:

st_x5_494

He shrugged. "I thought you could use a friend." A change in tactics now. It waa definitely not because Alec felt for the abandoned kitten.

From:

st_arkintern

"But you're my friend."

From:

st_x5_494

"Am I?" For a moment he kept his expression neutral, then sighed and gave in. "Fine, I'm your friend. But this one... Has a tail." And is adorable and fuzzy, but those words couldn't seem to leave his mouth.