Author: firetestsgold

Rating: K+/T

Summary: When Nico saw the cat for the first time, he was understandably shocked. Anyone would be though, if they had walked in on a black cat eating their food. He wondered where the cat had come from, then decided he didn't care. ["That's my cat Nico." "What?"]

When Nico saw the cat for the first time, he was understandably shocked. Anyone would be though, if they had walked in on a black cat with a white bib and one ear missing sat on his counter eating his salmon. Salmon he had set out for his own dinner. Unfortunately, Nico had no idea what to do with cats. He shooed it away. Nothing happened. He tried to move it, pushing it off the counter, but the cat had looked at him with its eyes wide open and frightened and Nico... Well, Nico, for lack of a better word, melted. This was immediately followed by him trying to move the cat again and the hell-beast clawed at his fingers, hissing and scratching. Nico melted even further.

He had a soft spot for small, black creatures of death, sue him.

But the fact remained that this cat had just eaten his dinner, so with a sigh, he ignored the protests of the cat and shifted it (with some difficulty) onto the floor. It mewled pitifully. Sighing, he wondered what to do.

"Why are you here, hell-creature? Why me?"

The cat gave no answer. Nico didn't know why he had expected one.

Putting the ruined salmon on a saucer from the cupboard, Nico made a decision and crouched, placing the saucer on the floor. The kitten pounced.

Stroking its ears tentatively, Nico smiled. At least he was liked by animals.

It was the start of a friendship.

:::::

Nico was now used to when the cat (which he had nicknamed Nigel) would to appear. Every Saturday, without fail, the cat appeared at his window, scratching at it and begging to be let in (this was, of course, after he found the faulty lock on his window that Nigel had used to get in the first time). Nico would let him in, and then he would stay in Nico's apartment until the morning, when he would wake Nico up scratching to get out of the window again. This happened every Saturday, but the cat also wandered over to Nico's on the Monday through to Thursday. That was more random though - occasionally, Nigel didn't scratch at his window, something Nico would never admit to being disappointed by.

He learned to expect the cat, and started stocking up on fish. It was the only thing that he knew cats liked after all, and he didn't think that cat food looked very appetising at all. If he was eating well, (and he was - Nico worked for his father in an obnoxiously rich conglomerate), then the cat could eat well too. God knows he was grateful for the company.

The only problem was, Nico was sure that Nigel wasn't a street-cat. He was far too clean for that, and he had expensive tastes for sure (but that might just be Nico not wanting to buy those dry biscuit things which frankly, looked disgusting). He was almost certain that Nigel was someone's pet, which begged the question: who did Nigel belong to?

:::::

Nothing happened for a while after - Nigel continued to come and go and Nico continued feeding him.

In fact, his life was so uneventful that his friend, Percy, started to worry. Nico didn't really mind his fretting - that was what Percy did - but he did get annoyed once Percy started throwing random parties and gatherings, and insisting that Nico come along. He knew it was all a ruse though - ever since he'd found out Nico was gay, he'd decided he needed to find Nico a boyfriend. This was just another way to do it. Things reached a peak when Nico could no longer escape with the excuse that he had work to do. His father had forced him to take some time off work, trying to make him more social (Nico would be touched if he didn't know that his father was sick of him being grumpy and antisocial at company events) and so he no longer had anything that he could offer up to get himself out of it.

When they day of the party arrived, he realised that it was a Saturday, and that meant that Nigel would be at his window at some point in the evening. He considered cancelling, but then realised that Percy would definitely not believe that he had to stay home because a mysterious cat named Nigel had decided that Nico was going to feed it three times a week, minimum. As if on cue, Nigel appeared at his window, meowing and clawing at Nico's poor window. Nico let him in, and got some tuna out of the fridge, putting it in what had become Nigel's saucer before heading to his room to change.

Grumbling, he dressed in his casual clothes, and, with one last stroke of Nigel, made his way upstairs to apartment 52b (not 52a - he'd learnt from the time when an angry blonde had answered the door only to slam it in his face when he'd said he was looking for Percy after he'd first moved in). He could hear the laughter before he'd even got to the door and felt a brief pang of pity for said angry blonde, before knocking apprehensively on the door.

Immediately, Percy opened the door. Rolling his eyes, Nico asked,

"Have you been waiting for me?"

"Would you believe me if I said no?"

"Nope."

"Then I choose not to answer. Come on!"

And Nico was dragged inside. Immediately, he knew he didn't want to be there. It was full of people he didn't know, people who he didn't want to know and people... Well, people that he unfortunately already knew.

"NICO!" A wave of perfume hit him moments before the person did from behind. Groaning at the arms attached to his middle, he turned around awkwardly in their grip and greeted his sister and Piper who was standing behind her,

"Hey Hazel - been experimenting with Piper's perfume again?" She grinned up at him, and nodded. Piper raised her hand, smiling.

"Guilty."

"D'ya like it?" Hazel asked, excited.

"It's... Strong?"

She laughed, and then startled as Piper poked her and indicated with a tilt of her head towards the kitchen. Evidently Hazel had forgotten something important. Nico braced himself, worried which turned to confusion when she started to drag him towards the food table.

"Wait wait where are we going Hazel wait Hazel -"

Shouting over him, she yelled, "There's someone I want you to meet!" And promptly dragged him the rest of the way to the food table, despite his struggles.

When she (finally) let go of his arm, he was staring up at an incongruously baby-faced hulking Chinese guy. Confused, Nico looked to Hazel. She fidgeted, evidently nervous. Nico narrowed his eyes, opening his mouth to speak before his sister interrupted.

"No, you're not allowed to say anything. Or get cross. Or hit Frank." 'Frank' gulped. "Okay, definitely not allowed to hit Frank. Agreed?"

Nico nodded slowly, virtually squinting at the muscular guy in front of him. Hazel took a deep breath.

"This is, um, Frank. And he's, y'know, my... boyfriend?"

Nico didn't react for a moment, and Hazel held her breath. Then without a word, he lunged in Frank's face, making him jump back, scared. Nico chuckled lowly but in a way that made Frank feel vaguely threatened, and turning on his heel, stalked off. She let out a sigh of relief, turning to Frank.

"Well, that went better than expected!"

Meanwhile, Nico had found a nice corner to stand in, leaning against the wall, brooding and watching his sister laugh and hold hands with a BOY. Then someone slid up next to him.

"Hey!" Nico looked up and saw a boy who could only be described as bright standing over him. Us scowl deepened.

"Go away."

"Nah, don't think I will. You know, frowning that much is gonna give you wrinkles by the time your thirty and then how will you ever convince anyone that you're younger than you actually are? It's also been proven that people who frown more tend to be more unhappy in life, so you shouldn't frown that much. Why are you even frowning anyway?"

"Wait, what?"

The blonde stranger had the decency to look sheepish. "Sorry, I tend to... ramble. I'm training to be a doctor and -"

Interrupting, Nico cut in with an "okay" and went back to glaring at his sister's... boyfriend.

Blondie followed his gaze. "Woah, what did they ever do to you? You look like you want to hurt them. Badly."

"That's none of your business," Nico snapped, and made to walk away when the blonde guy grabbed him by the arm.

"I'm Will. What's your name?"

Nico squinted at him, before slowly enunciating his own name. "Nico..."

"Nice to meet you Nico."

"I guess?"

"I'll see you around, I expect." With a smile that was far too knowing for Nico's liking, he walked away into the crowd of people, leaving Nico wondering what had just happened. He had just held a conversation with someone, and been a little, dare he say it, disappointed when it had finished.

He looked around to see Percy walking towards him.

"What do you think?" Percy whisper-yelled at him, grinning widely. "He's cute, right? He lives opposite me in 55a, so he's perfect!"

Nico narrowed his eyes. "Percy. Did you invite Will over with the intent to set us up?"

"Um... no?" Percy gulped, and began to back away. Nico smiled a smile that was all teeth and menace.

"Percy. Do you remember what happened to you the last time you did something like this?"

Percy's face drained of blood and he turned on his heel, running towards the hallway. Nico grinned, then sighed. He needed alcohol for this.

:::::

Unfortunately, Nico could not hold his drink. As a result, it reached one in the morning and Nico was being escorted downstairs by Will Solace due to a suspicious lack of anyone else volunteering to do it. Or rather, it would have been suspicious if not for the fact that he was... well, he was VERY drunk.

Nico slumped against the boy supporting him as they reached his door, shushing Will softly despite the fact he wasn't making any noise anyway. "You have to be quiet," he slurred, "Nigel should be here."

"Nigel? Is he a boyfriend?"

Nico giggled quietly, and slurred out, "No, he's my... my cat."

Bemused, Will nodded and agreed to be quiet for Nigel, before asking Nico for his keys to unlock his door. Nico fumbled around in his pocket and withdrew the keys, producing them to Will with air of a magician revealing his card. "Here," he mumbled, placing them in the outstretched hand. Will laughed, unlocking the door and bundling Nico inside. However, to Nico's surprise, instead of leaving him to stumble around, he helped Nico inside and to the sofa.

"I'll make you a cup of tea or something before I go - help you get comfortable. I also don't think you're in any position to use a kettle."

Nico muttered something that Will couldn't quite make out as he was ,lying face down, his mouth against the material of the couch.

"What was that?"

Nico lifted his head a fraction, blinking blearily and murmured "I only have hot chocolate."

Will sighed. "I hope you're joking." Upon opening the cabinet above the kettle, the blonde saw that no, he wasn't joking and the sheer range of hot chocolate Nico had in his cupboard was staggering. Cadbury's instant stood beside Hershey's which was in front of Milka, which had some fancy Swiss concoction balanced on top... at that point, Will decided that it wasn't worth discovering exactly how many kinds of hot chocolate the small man had. Instead, he removed the Cadbury's and set to work.

:::::

By the next morning, Nico was very much regretting drinking as much as he had the previous night. He remembered everything though; a blessing and a curse, as whilst he knew he hadn't done anything too awful, he could remember in excruciating detail him being virtually carried to his apartment.

By Will... actually, what was his surname again?

Still trying to figure out how to keep his dignity intact if he saw Will again, and how best to murder his friends, he was so deep in his thoughts that the knocking on his door escaped his notice at first. However, once it had persisted for a while, it broke through Nico's reverie and he got out of bed, startled. His head spun as soon as he stood up properly, and he had to bend down to steady himself and the pounding in his skull. Stumbling to the door, he tripped over Nigel who was winding himself around his legs and crashed into the couch. Holding his head in his hands, Nico groaned and collapsed face first into the inviting cushions, but his moment of peace didn't last long. The incessant knocking on his door combined with Nigel jumping onto his back and kneading it with his claws, purring, meant that no chance of sleep was possible. Groaning, Nico rolled over, picked up Nigel and made his way to the door.

Opening it, Nico was shocked to see Will Solace stood there, holding a brown paper bag stained with grease.

"I brought donuts?" He said, waving the bag in front of Nico's face. Then he stopped. Frowned at the cat in Nico's arms. Looked back at Nico. Looked back at the cat. Then, tentatively, he asked,

"Nico, where did you get this cat?"

"Nigel? He's been hanging out at mine every few days for a while now."

"When does he come over?"

"Why?" Nico was very confused. He contemplated shutting the door in his face, just to avoid the interrogation that the conversation had become, before deciding that that would be rude and Hazel would definitely find out.

"Is it on Saturdays? Sometimes on Mondays up to Thursday but not always?"

Nico nodded slowly.

"That's my cat Nico."

"What?"

"That's MY cat. His name is Piglet." At this, Nigel jumped out of his arms. "I've been wondering where he's been going when I'm on shift at the hospital. Apparently, he's been hanging out at your apartment."

Nico was about to protest, but he couldn't really contest the point. He didn't know where the cat had come from, and Nigel (Piglet was a stupid name) was pawing at Will's ankles now, meowing loudly. He didn't like being ignored. He also usually didn't like other people, so his tolerance of Will certainly backed up the point. He sighed. Looked like he was going to be alone in his apartment again.

"Look," Nico said, "I'm really sorry for stealing your cat."

Will grinned. He was in too good a mood for this early in the morning. It was annoying. And attractive. "It's fine. He had to go somewhere, right? I'm glad it was you who he chose to look after him, and not someone else, like Percy - that would have been a disaster."

Nico still looked cautious. He had essentially stolen a stranger's cat, and whilst Will was okay with it, it could have been someone else's cat that he had stolen.

Realising that Nico wasn't happy still, Will interrupted his thoughts, saying, "Why don't you make it up to me? Buy me a coffee."

Nico smiled.

(And after a few months of Nigel/Piglet (nicknamed Niglet) taking himself off to Nico's apartment, Will suggested that Nico move in with him. For Niglet, of course. And rent.)

(And because Will loved him.)

(The funny thing was, Nico loved him too.)

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