Chapter Text
Avery groaned as harsh sunlight beat down on his face. He knew sleeping on the couch would be a bad idea, but he could have sworn he had at least thought to close the curtains. The teen cracked his eyes open and peered towards the source of the light. Of course. There stood Mochi, holding the curtain aside with his portly body to let the sunlight stream in. The persian glared at his owner and gave an angry 'murr'.
Said owner closed his soft purple eyes for a second before heaving himself up with a sigh and shambling to the kitchen. Maybe if he fed Mochi, the fat cat would finally start to like him. But no, the instant he set the cat dish on the floor the persian raced over and hissed at Avery before digging in.
With an offended huff, the teen headed back over to the couch and stared at his laptop. He had quickly given up on looking for jobs online. The only reason he had been looking in the first place was his parent's demands. They monitored his internet usage and his email, and had threatened him if he didn't apply for at least twelve jobs a day. Avery closed his laptop and pushed himself off the couch. He had been trapped in his aunt's appartment for days. Today he was going to go out and get some fresh air. Hopefully his parents didn't call to check up on him while he was gone. They would be furious at him if they did.
He left the apartment building and wandered aimlessly for a bit. He picked a random direction and just walked. He found a narrow alley that looked like a few drivers had mistaken it for a street. He followed it to it's end, where it opened to a little smattering of shops. He leisurely explored the new area, peeking into a couple of shop's windows to examine their wares. What really drew his attention was what looked like a restaurant settled in the middle in the center of the shops. A Cat's Paw. Sounds like a pretentious restaurant. Avery thought to himself. As he drew nearer he saw a black cat settled in the window. Weird, isn't that a health code violation or something? He then noticed the cat was laying beside a help wanted sign. Well at least if his parents bitched at him for leaving the house, he could tell them he was out applying for a job. Not that they would believe him. They never did.
Bells tinkeled cutely as Avery pushed the door open. and he had to suppress his instinct to gag. Ugh, this is one of those cutesy places. He was about to turn around and walk right back out, when a voice called out for him to wait a moment. He took the chance to glance around and take in the place. The decor was modern and welcoming, but not the cutesy he had excpeted when he walked in. And there were cats. Everywhere. He only had a couple of moments to take everything in before his eyes were drawn to two cats charging towards him.The cat in the lead, a fluffy brown cat, leaped at Avery the moment he was in range. The teen caught the cat in his arms instinctively, his bored expression changed to one of surprise. The cat chasing the brown furball leapt as well, turned in midair to slow himself down, and landed neatly on Avery's shoulder without missing a stride. Avery's newly aquired shoulder cat reached out a dainty white paw to swat the other cat firmly on it's forehead. The brown cat wailed pitifully, and Avery decided he was done being a cat tree. He dropped the cat in his arms and watched it speed away. He turned his head and found himself nose to nose with a pretty little peaches and cream bobtail.
"Get off. Now." Avery growled angrily at the kitten. It flattened it's ears in fear and cowered down on the human's shoulder. Apparently it didn't do well in the face of angry humans. Before he could reach out to remove the kitten, a voice interrupted.
"Ah, I'm sorry about that! Sometimes those two can get a bit excited! Um, how can i help you?" Avery turned to look at the speaker and found he had to tilt his head back a bit to make eye contact. He examined the tall brunett and quickly wrote him off as boring. He huffed in answer to the other man's words.
"S'fine. I like cats. I'm here about the job." He pointed to the sign in the window. The brunett looked a bit nervous at his words, and his eyes flicked to the bobtaill still crouched low on the silver haired teen's shoulder.
"O-oh, alright then. I'll go get the owner then. Let me just..." He reached out as if to take the kitten from Avery's shoulder. Avery flinched away from the reaching hands and hardened his gaze. Under the teen's strong purple gaze, he stuttered nervously and retreated to what seemed to be the kitchen. Avery sighed and his shoulders slumped a bit.
"Great first impression..." He mumbled to himself. The cat on his shoulder seemed to perk up a bit at his less aggressive posture and tone of voice. It tentatively raised it's head and tapped it's nose against Avery's neck. He reached over and stroked it's head gently and moved to take a seat. Before he reached it, the brunett returned with another man in tow.
"I ah, forgot to introduce myself. My name is Landry, and this is Graves, the owner." The brunett- Landry, still seemed a bit nervous, but when he spotted the bobtail settled a bit more comfortably on Avery's shoulder he relaxed. The man behind him caught Avery's attention for a minute with his goth appearance and his mismatched eyes, but lost it a second later when the bobtail poked his neck again. Avery reached up to pet it again and nodded to the two men.
"Avery." He answered simply. Both Graves and Landry seemed very interested in watching Avery pet the little bobtail. There was a long silence, before he stopped petting the kitten and cleared his throat loudly. The two men jumped and Landry at least had the decency to look embarassed. Graves just grinned. Avery shifted and frowned. He turned to go before Graves spoke up.
"I do apologize Avery, we didn't mean to be rude. We were just a bit startled. Our dearest little bobtail is usually quite reserved. He seems to have taken a liking to you though." Avery shrugged and glanced at the kitten. It didn't look very impressed with the other two men. Graves quickly led Avery upstairs for an interview, only starting after being brought coffee by a quiet blond man he intoduced as Hayes. Then the interview started. There were some unusual questions. What's your favourite breed of cat? Avery thought for a moment before pointing to the stumpy tailed cat still perched on his shoulder. Do you know any other languages? How about ciphers? No... He shook his head. What marine animal would you say best represents you? He shrugged and answered shark. What genre of music would you use to describe your work ethic? Classical?... ly hard working? He deadpanned. The bobtail huffed at him in what seemed like amusement, but he was probably just projecting. On a scale of 1-10 rate me as an interviewer. Avery went for a neutral 7.5. Draculas or werewolves? He just stared at Graves for a long moment before answering draculas in a flat voice.
Graves smirked at Avery and told him he was interesting. The teen didn't think he was very interesting. But when Graves told him he got the job, he didn't really care. As the goth left to get the paperwork, Avery was left with the bobtail poking his neck and meowing for attention. He pet the kitten absently as he waited for his soon-to-be boss to return. When he did return, he was trailed by a calico cat. The new cat eagerly hopped onto the table to beg for attention from the silver haired human. He reached out to pet her, but the bobtail kitten flew at her and whacked her on the forehead like he had done with the other cat. He meowed angrily at her before he hopped back on Avery's shoulder and demanded pets. He obliged and watched as the wide-eyed calico retreated down the stairs.
"That wasn't kind of you, she was just curious. She is going to hate you if you keep that up." Graves scolded the bobtail, but it ignored him in favor of demanding more pets from Avery. The goth shook his head and handed some papers to the teen, who signed them all quickly without so much as skimming them. He only hesitated while filling out the personal information section. He stared at the emergency contact space for a long moment before leaving it blank and moving on. He finished it and handed it back to his new boss. "Excellent. You start tomorrow morning. Be here for 7am for morning prep." Avery nodded at Graves and stood up. He spotted Landry as he walked down the stairs and headed towards him when he beckoned. Landry smiled at him and the cat that seemed to be permanently attached to his shoulder. "So how did it go?Did you get the job? Avery nodded and scratched the bobtail under the chin when it started to grumble at him. Landry watched the exchange and grinned harder. "I'm glad you two are getting along, he's usually pretty difficult!" The kitten pinned his poited ears back and hissed, surprising Landry. Avery just picked the orange and white cat up gently from his shoulder. It grumbled and tried to hold on, but Avery kept a firm grip. He handed it to Landry and nodded. Then he took his leave. He was out the door too quickly for Landry or the bobtail to react, and he diidn't look back once.