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It's kind of ironic, Mack thinks, that he’d gotten the kitten from the Toffoli’s.
A cat from cat, he had texted Will, with an attached picture of the little creature wreaking havoc on the leg of their couch. She's nothing more than a little orange blur of fur, barely distinguishable from the brightly stained oak floorboards until you zoom in and pay attention to the details enough to make out her crazed eyes poking out of the sea of orange.
It had all started last month when Mack was bumming around on the Toffoli’s couch, passing the time away from his own empty apartment while Will was off doing god-knows-what with god-knows-who.
Except that Mack knows who: Ryan Leonard, who for whatever inexplicable reason was apparently in town and wanted to pay Will a visit. As if the two of them don't talk on the phone enough. Last time he’d had the misfortune of witnessing Leonard’s pathetic heart eyes as Will walked through the living room while facetiming him, Mack had almost given into the urge to shout out Just suck his dick already, but he knew that asshole would've said something to the effect of Well why haven't you? Clearly you're fucking gagging for it.
In the end, he'd kept his mouth shut, grinding his teeth together the whole time Will had continued to dither around the kitchen with his phone in hand until he’d finally hung up and came over to slump heavily across Mack’s legs where they were sprawled out on the couch. He didn't manage to unclench his tight muscles until he could feel the steady rise and fall of Will’s chest as he drifted off into sleep.
So suffice it to say Mack wasn't exactly in the best mood knowing who Will had chosen to grab dinner with, and it certainly didn't help when the Toffoli’s walked in from the kitchen, so close together and in-sync with the other’s every move that they may as well be one person. They'd slumped down on the couch opposite Mack, a line of contact between them from their shoulders down to where their ankles were lazily hooked together.
It wasn't like Mack could reasonably be annoyed by it, not when he was the one who had invited himself over and was lying sprawled out across their sectional like he had any right to make the space his own. Still, he felt the hot burn of jealousy coiling tight in his stomach to see how happy they were together, how comfortably they leaned into one another’s space.
I wish I had someone like Cat, Mack thought, not realizing he’d given voice to the idea until he noticed them both looking at him, knowing grins mirroring one another.
Toff was the first to choke out a laugh. “You wish you had Will.”
Mack splutters and stupidly protests, “No, I wish I had a— a Cat.”
He knew it came out weak, basically nonsensical. It's not like he’s into Cat—she’s like an older sister who adores him but will always see him as a bumbling idiot. Not that he's making any progress disproving the idiot accusations currently.
But he wants someone that fits him like Cat fits Toff, someone he can spend all his time with until they practically become one entity. Not Cat and not Tyler, but The Toffoli’s. A single unit, a package deal.
Cat looked like she was two seconds away from bursting into laughter as she said, “Okay kiddo, then we’ll find you a Cat.”
He'd been hoping maybe she'd take pity on him and set him up with some girl his age, some relative of hers or one of her friends' younger sisters or something.
He had certainly not been hoping to leave their house after lunch a few days later with a kitten and a half-dozen bags of supplies.
But here he is, dangling some sort of toy on a string in front of this little orange monster until her eyes grow wide and she pounces with all of her might.
Mack is hooked, whether he likes it or not. Maybe becoming a lonely old cat lady is possible regardless of the fact that he’s a young hockey player and not a lady at all.
He's a little disappointed Cat isn't on board with his scheme to find his better half, but the kitten is admittedly a pretty great consolation prize.
He’s sequestered her into his bedroom for now, not sure how Will would react to an unexpected pet having free roam of their whole apartment. It's hard to imagine him being too mad, especially when he sees how cute she is, but Mack is just fine having her be in his room. It's big enough that he can keep the litter box tucked away in the bathroom behind the Jacuzzi he never uses, and it's not like it's a hardship for him to have a little ball of sunshine barrelling across the floor of his room.
The kitten has finally tired herself out, curled up in a ball on top of Mack’s chest with her sleepy eyes slitting open every few minutes to peer down at Mack like she's not quite sure what to think about him yet.
That’s how Will finds them, and he's quiet for once in his life as he tiptoes over to the side of Mack’s bed where he hovers over the two of them.
“That is the cutest thing I've ever seen,” Will coos, voice a fond whisper.
He pulls out his phone before Mack can stop him, and it's the loud shuttering sound of his phone snapping a photo that finally wakes the kitten up.
She opens her eyes fully, swiveling her head around all disoriented and sleepy until her little eyes lock in on where Will is still hovering above.
She lets out a cute little mewl and arches high into a stretch, the little claws on the tips of her toes pressing painlessly into the fabric of Mack’s shirt, before she jumps into action and propels herself forward towards Will’s shoulders.
She's too small to get all the way up by herself but Will reaches out in surprise at the last instant and catches her, settling her more securely on his shoulders and leaning his head to the side as she rubs against his cheek.
Will is beaming from ear to ear, face fully lit up. “I always wanted a cat.”
“Get your own cat, dude. She’s mine.”
Will scoffs, stepping back as if Mack is going to steal her away. “She lives in our apartment. Therefore she’s ours.”
“The Toff's gave her to me,” Mack protests.
“And yet they sent me detailed instructions on the care and keeping of the cat.” He holds his phone up to Mack’s face, group chat between him and the Toffoli’s scrolled back to where Tyler and Cat had sent a long list of details on the intricacies of cat care.
The first text Will sent back, visible at the bottom of the screen below the huge bubbles of text from the Toff’s, is just a string of question marks. “Yeah, looks like you're real confident in following those instructions there.”
Will scoffs, tucking the phone back in his pocket and returning his hand back to cradle the kitten where she’s still balancing on his shoulders. “Not my fault I had no clue what the hell they were talking about. But then you sent that photo of our little baby and now I'm ready to take on the responsibility of fatherhood.”
Mack shakes his head as if it will expel the words our little baby from where it landed deep inside his brain. “You'd definitely be the mom,” he says, unable to hold in the easy chirp. “And anyways, the cat is mine. Like, I'll be the one to keep her whenever you move out.”
Will waves his pointer finger obnoxiously in Mack’s face. “First of all, it's 2025 and cats can have two Dads.” He holds up another finger, a mockery of a peace sign that doesn't make Mack feel peaceful at all, especially not when Will makes a quick motion to bop them against Mack’s nose, leaving him crosseyed and a confusing mix of pissed off and endeared. “Second of all, who said I'm moving out any time soon?”
“Cats live, like, twenty years,” Mack points out, except he actually isn't totally sure what the lifespan of a cat is. At least he hopes she lives at least twenty years. "I'm just being realistic, I don't want you to get attached or whatever.”
“Twenty years is nothing, I'm already attached.”
God knows Mack already is as well, to both the cat and the boy whose shoulder she’s sleeping on. “C'mon dude, I'm not splitting custody with you over a cat.”
Will seems unconcerned about it, distracted with how the kitten is grabbing at his hair. “Guess we’d better not get divorced then.”
Mack honestly wants to scream at Will to take this seriously, but clearly he’s not getting through his thick skull right now. He sighs and flops back onto the pillows, allows himself a quick moment to think of him and Will actually being together before banishing the idea from his mind altogether.
After a second, he feels the mattress dip next to him, Will leaning awkwardly onto the small sliver of space left on Mack’s side of the bed.
Mack’s chest feels cold where it had earlier been warmed by the heat of a little furry body. He sighs. “At least let me have her during my nap.”
Will cradles her small body closer like Mack might rip her from his arms. “No way, how am I meant to nap without a kitten to keep me company.”
“Same way you've always taken every other nap in your life.”
Will hums. “Well yeah, but now that I know how much better it could be I don't think I can go back to sleeping alone.”
Mack lets out an unsympathetic grunt. “Sucks. But I had her first, which means I've got dibs.”
“What, has nobody taught you how to share before?”
“Well we can't exactly cut the kitten in half so one of us is shit outta luck and it isn't me.” Just the passing thought of cutting the kitten is enough to make him queasy, but he’s distracted when Will’s weight lays more heavily across the mattress, the dip rolling them closer until they're pressed together all along their bodies except for by their chests where Will deposited the kitten between them. She’s completely oblivious to the fact that two hockey players are surrounding her—not that she has anything to worry about with the way they're both careful not to make any movements that could squish her.
“Scoot over, my ass is hanging over the edge,” Will says, shoving gently at Mack’s hips to get him to move.
Mack wants to move alright, but not exactly the kind of movements that would shift him farther away from Will. Not the kind of movements that should be made when there’s a fragile kitten squished between them.
“Fat ass,” Mack chirps weakly, voice cracking, but he does find the strength within himself to move backwards instead of bucking up into where Will’s palm is pushing against the jut of his hip.
Will shuffles closer even as Mack stops moving further away, leaving their faces less than a foot apart, legs tangled together, and the kitten curled tightly in a ball between their chests.
It feels like the first time Mack went to a movie theater date with a girl and their hands met in the bowl of popcorn. Except this time it's a thousand times more intense, because it's Will whose hand he meets when he reaches out to run his fingers through the kitten’s fur.
It's his best friend, the other half that he’d been desperately searching for even though he knew deep down that he had already found him, and now their hands are clasped together, curled around each other and pressed close to the kitten so their fingers shift every time she inhales.
Will meets his eyes, takes a deep breath that Mack can feel in all the places they are connected. “I meant it, you know.”
Mack makes a small sound, can't even hear it himself over the pounding of his heart in his ears.
Will squeezes his hand, smiles in that dopey way that makes Mack’s heartbeat speed impossibly faster. “Twenty years is nothing. I want this for a lifetime.”
Mack doesn't let himself hesitate, leans forward those scant few inches to press his lips tenderly at the corner of Will’s mouth.
When Will shifts to meet Mack’s lips properly, the kiss is cut off after a few moments by the matching grins spreading across their faces, impossible to ignore.
Even as Will’s breaths turn to the telltale long huffs he lets out while he’s deep asleep, the grin is still there—softened as his face relaxes but still undeniable. Mack doesn't know how long he spends just staring, cataloguing every detail of Will’s restful face before he drifts off to sleep himself.
The last thing Mack can remember thinking is yeah, twenty years is nothing.
+
The next morning, there’s two texts on Mack’s home screen that catch his eye as he’s fighting to shut off the alarm.
Told you we’d find you your Cat.
And we were generous enough to throw in a free kitten too.
Mack groans, considers sending off a quick fuck you, but it's hard to hang onto any annoyance when he’s got Will cradled in his arms and a kitten purring softly near his head.
Will sighs and settles back against him, and Mack will do anything it takes to get a lifetime full of mornings like this.