flintfiction:

Something from the London days, wherein James is asked to come to Thomas’s house and finds an unexpected third guest. Rated G for Gross Fluff.

——

When James knocked on the Hamilton’s polished silver knocker
under the pouring rain he was greeted by the lord of the house himself, who
looked relieved that he’d arrived.

James had barely removed his hat and rain slick before Thomas
was whisking him inside the house. It had been raining cats and dogs all week
and James grateful to be indoors again.

“Your message sounded urgent,” he said. “Is it about our
ideas for the naval escort to Nassau?”

“No,” said Thomas, leading him not to his study where they
normally convened but instead into a downstairs guest bedchamber. He quickly
shut the door behind them.

“My lord,” James blushed, “Now is hardly the time for…extracurricular
activities.”

“Agreed,” said Thomas with a wry grin. “This isn’t about
that either. It’s been hiding under the bed all morning. I was hoping for some
advice.”

James raised an eyebrow.

“It, my lord?”

“Stop calling me that. And I don’t know if it’s a male or
female yet.”

Thomas dropped to one knee and lifted the bottom edge of the
bed covers, gesturing for James to look under them.

Intrigued, James did so. There, scrunched up against the
back wall under the bed James saw a small form and two eyes staring back at
him. His suspicions were confirmed when “it” made a pitiful meow.

“It’s a cat,” he said, completely befuddled at its presence
in the Hamilton household.

“How astute of you,” Thomas replied dryly.

“You called me here because of a cat?” asked James, still
not comprehending his role in this.

“Well, I don’t have any experience with them,” Thomas said. “And
I thought that perhaps you, having more experience with the less…proper areas
of the city, and since ships often have cats on them, I thought, well…”

“You thought that a ruffian like myself would be a cat
expert,” James finished with a smug grin.

Thomas lost all his bravado and flashed him a pair of apologetic
eyes.

“I’m sorry. It was a stupid assumption to make.”

“No,” James said quickly. “Actually, I do have experience
with cats. When I was a boy there was a particular cat amongst the strays that
lived around our house. I ended up befriending her, feeding her and playing
with her. Father and mother both approved because it was a good mouser.”

Thomas smiled. “Well then, that’s something. This one
Miranda first noticed weeks ago, hovering around the kitchen and the bushes.
And the past two days I’ve seen the poor thing trying to find shelter, soaked
and shivering in this blasted rain—oh look!”

James turned to where Thomas was staring excitedly just
behind him. There, peeping out from the sheets, was a whiskered gray face with
striking ocher eyes. It was looking at James as it let out a hesitant meow,
sniffing anxiously.

“Well hello there,” James said softly, letting it sniff his
hand before petting it. To their joint amazement the cat came out from under
the bed and rubbed its face on James’s leg. Its face was still damp from the
rain and it looked a bit lean, but otherwise unharmed and healthy.

“Fascinating,” said Thomas. “I had no inkling you were a
feline attractant, James.”

James was smiling ear to ear at the cat, who was getting
more comfortable by the minute. Eventually it allowed Thomas to pet it as well.
James took the opportunity to peek at its under-carriage.

“It’s a female,” he remarked.

“Hello there little girl,” said Thomas happily as she took a
lick of Thomas’s finger. His and James’s fingers touched over the cat. James looked
up and Thomas drew him into a slow kiss.

“I want her to be yours,” said Thomas immediately.

“Oh, I’m afraid I can’t,” said James, looking regretful. “I’m
scarcely at my flat as it is. She’d be unhappy cooped up there.”

“Then you can keep her here, let her come and go as she
pleases,” suggested Thomas.

James liked this idea. Then he brightened even more.

“No,” he said. “She’ll be ours, together.”

There was something more profound about his statement than
simple satisfaction over cat ownership that caused Thomas to feel warm all over
despite the cold rainy day.

“Yes,” he agreed. “I’d like that very much.”