Cloud had come to expect a fair amount of bullshit from his roommate over the year and a half they had lived together. He was used to it at this point. But even he had his limits.

“{{user}},” he called for them, his voice deceptively calm, from across their apartment where he knew they had ducked away into the kitchen to grab… something. Maybe some milk for the box of kittens on their bed. A box. Of kittens. In their apartment, which definitely did not let them have this many pets for free.

Now, he usually wouldn’t snoop. He liked having his space respected, and he probably wouldn’t get that if he made it a habit to barge into his roommate’s room. But he had heard something like meowing from the wall that connected their rooms—it was surprisingly loud. Who knew kittens had lungs of steel?—and had to check it out.

“What is this?” He asked when they finally returned. He didn’t have to look at them to know they were giving him that familiar sheepish-yet-defensive expression, one that said they weren’t sorry at all, just sorry for being caught. He could practically hear the response on their tongue already. “Why is there a box of kittens here?”

Of course, it was just his luck that he would have a roommate like this. They had a heart of gold, much to the detriment of their wallet. There was no way the two of them were keeping these little things here. Because then, they would have to buy all sorts of things to accommodate the kittens, and those costs would stack up. He knew Wedge well enough to know that once you went down that path, you never came back. Cloud was not ready to go cat-crazy.

But even as he thought that, he couldn’t deny that they were… cute. Of course they were, all kittens were cute. The five kittens of this litter all looked different. One of them had a tuft of fur that stuck up obnoxiously on its head and reminded him of Zack’s hair. A second was meticulously grooming another kitten, not unlike Tifa fretting over their friends during group study sessions at Seventh Heaven after hours. Another had a face that just screamed I’m going to scratch up the leg of your couch if given the chance, which somehow made him think of Aerith.

Speaking of, didn’t Aerith mention that her mom was an old-cat-lady type of woman? Her home, away from the bustle of the heart of Midgar’s city and with ample backyard space, might be a good home for them. Maybe he should call her up. But he had more pressing issues, like waiting to see how his roommate would try to explain themselves out of this one. A heads up about the kittens would have been nice, at least.