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“Jason, what,” Jordie can't believe his eyes when he opens the door for a dripping wet Jason who is holding a brown and white ball of fur.
“I was walking over and I thought it's close enough to get here before the rain but then it started pouring and I found this fluffball on the sidewalk, all miserable and wet and I couldn't not,” Jason speaks in a hurry and Jordie has to physically maneuvre him into the living room. He leaves Jason standing there to get him a towel. And another one for the fluffball?
When he gets back, Jason has unwrapped his arms from around the fluffball and is now holding a tiny kitten in his big hands. Jordie's mind goes blank at that sight, he stops and stares for a second.
He clears his throat and tries to focus his mind again.
When he holds out the towel for Jason, the other one hands him the kitten. Jordie carefully takes it, worrying that he might break it. He quickly rubs over its fur with the second towel he brought and soon enough it's purring.
“See, it likes you,” Jason smiles at him.
“Huh,” Jordie says when the kitten in fact cuddles up to his hand.
The two hockey players settle on the couch and the kitten starts padding over their laps, more than once losing its balance, but one of them always catches it.
“We should give it a name,” Jason decides.
“Jason, I hate to be that person but it might belong to someone,” Jordie can't bring himself to look up.
“I know,” Jason's voice is cheerful. “Still, it might be here for a while, we can't keep calling it fluffball.”
“How do you-”
“You grumbled it into your beard when you were drying it. 'Hold still, fluffball!'”
“Oh.”
“Anyway, we don't know if it's a girl or a boy, so we should give it a name that works for both.”
They sit there, pondering about it, getting distracted by the kitten playing with their fingers every now and then.
Finally, Jordie sighs, “Why can't we call it Fluffball, though.”
“Hmmm,” Jason hums. “We could also call it Jay? Because both our names start with a J and it's our kitten now, so.” Jordie looks at him with mixed feelings. Is there a “them” there? He's been wondering that for a while.
He doesn't say anything though, except for “Jay? That's not really genderneutral.”
“It's just a letter!”
“I know, but-”
“How about Jamie then? That's a girls name, too.”
“That'd just be confusing.”
“Why, we can always call your brother Jameson.”
Jordie just frowns to let Jason know that this is a horrible and ridiculous idea.
They drop the topic for a while, playing with the kitten until it gets tired.
Later, Jason has just gotten himself something to drink, he returns to the living room to find the kitten asleep on an equally gone to the world Jordie. His hand is protectively placed around the small cat. Jason can't fight the smile that spreads on his face, and truth is, he doesn't want to anyway. He knows better than anyone (well, except for Jamie maybe) that Jordie is a really gentle guy who's incredibly protective of those close to him. There's also a reason one of his nicknames is “papa bear”. Jason's heart clenches at that thought.
He walks over to the couch and shortly considers getting them a blanket, but it's Dallas, they don't really need it. He hovers around, wondering if he should leave again or if Jordie wants him to take the cat with him. The decision is made for him by Jordie, who, still half asleep, grabs his wrist and looks at him with sleepy eyes.
“Stay,” is all he says.
Jordie quickly puts his head on Jason's shoulder, so Jason doesn't really have a choice, not that he would have wanted it any other way. So Jason stays. He stays with the kitten and he stays with Jordie, and he hasn't felt this at home in a long time.
The next couple of days rush by them, the kitten and hockey taking up their time. It stays at Jordie's, though they've never talked about it, but Jordie is more than fine with Jason being around so much, so it's not like he's complaining. When neither of them is looking after it, Jordie just silently prays that it doesn't break anything while they're away but he trusts the little guy. In fact, the kitten has only broken one ugly vase that Jordie didn't like anyway.
Then, one day, Jason nearly runs in the door.
“I have news!” he booms and Jordie quickly covers the kitten's ears.
“Geez, quiet, cats hear everything four times louder than humans!” Jordie hisses.
Jason looks at him suprised, “How on earth do you know that?”
Jordie shrugs, “I like Animal Planet.”
He tries to ignore the fond but also slightly mocking smile on Jason's face.
“Anyway, I have news,” Jason makes a dramatic pause before continuing. “I heard that there's a guy who has around 10 cats and he has no control over them breeding so he sometimes abandoms them. At least that's what my neighbor from two blocks away told me? She was holding one that looked similar to our Little One here.”
Jordie is quiet at that, trying to decide on an emotion: He goes from shocked to angry and in the end to happy. Because “this means we can keep it?”
Jason nods before letting out a incredulous laugh. Jordie gets up from where he was crouching, scoops up the little guy and walks over to Jason. His eyes are locked with the other one's and he steps close to him before whispering, “Just fyi, this is not a patchwork-family.”
“Well, of course it's not, we're both its dads!” Jason waves his arms around explanatorily.
“Jason. Hey, Jason. Shush.” Jordie grabs Jason by the front of his tshirt and pulls him in. Their kiss is sloppy and they have to break it off soon because the kitten moews and tries to climb from Jordie's hand to Jason's shoulder, but their smiles say it all.
“Welcome to the family, Fluffball Demers-Benn.”