Actually, scratch that. They're supposed to be soon-to-be-adopted-whatever-the-hell-the-new-owners-want-them-to-be cats. But Lew's been systematically flying in the face of both of those rules since the night he found them in the barn. Wherever he goes he's followed by four tiny kittens, a little squadron of sharp clawed menaces that attack his bootlaces and knock over his whiskey bottles and generally wreak havoc. And he's done absolutely nothing to stop them, even going as far as to leave the porch door open whenever they're around so they can move freely into the house. He's just lucky Dick hasn't caught him lifting the smallest one up the porch steps. He still seems surprised as to how she always manages to get in when she can't get back down and Lew does his best to look just as perplexed.
Today's no different. It's his day off from his shitty office job at the bank and while he has a hundred and one things he really should be doing, he's in the barn lazily dragging a straw of hay in front of the ginger tom, grinning a little as he bats it with his claws. The pitchfork ( he's finally allowed to use it again after a thousand promises that he knows to aim it at the ground and not his foot ) is lay abandoned but angled away so that tiny noses can't get hurt on the prongs. ] See this straw? [ Lew is speaking to the kittens at large, as if he's doing one of his old cultural lectures to the soldiers. The cats pay less attention and that's sayiing something. ] I want you to think of it as Mrs. Simmons' ankles, okay? [ The ginger one pounces and Lew nods at him. ] Exactly like that. So when she comes over today I want you to attack. Make sure she never wants a cat again in her life.
[ The white one ambles over and Lew scoops it up in his arms, looking at it mock sternly. ] Your brother's doing his best, you should be too. Do you really want to go and live with her? The whole house smells like turnips. You've never had that assault your nose but believe you me, it's not nice.
[ She meows lightly in his arms and then yawns and so he deposits her back to her siblings. ] Okay guys, I really need your head in the game for this. We have an hour.
(Lew thinks he's being so subtle in his mutiny of the cats against any potential owners. He's heard him on the phone, telling a few who had called that they had already been given away, or that something had happened to them. He's always gentle with putting them down, apologising profusely for them wasting their time. But they had agreed that they were just going to keep one, they didn't need more, and it would make other people happy to have them. They hadn't even planned to get one in the first place, it had been something of a running joke since Normandy and the can incident. So Dick had taken a few calls himself, inviting them over, the woman coming today was from his church and had two twin daughters who would be thrilled to have a kitten.
But the truth was, whatever Lew wanted, if he would come out and say that he wanted to keep them, Dick would agree. (Even if he would huff and puff like it was a huge burden, he would always do whatever he could to make his friend and lover happy.) It was why he had called Mrs.Simmons earlier to apologise to her, to tell her that unfortunately, someone else had come along and taken them all. Wanted to keep them together, he had explained, and it felt right since the kittens were thick as thieves. She had understood, thankfully, she hadn't mentioned anything to her girls so at least that wasn't going to cause any tears, and Dick had promised to let her know should another crop of kittens come into the barn, they would be first on the list.
Dick had been watching Lew for a good fifteen minutes after hanging up with her. There was something gentle about the way he was with the kittens, like they were his children. And they almost seemed like it, the way they followed him around. Of course, it probably didn't help that he babied them. He'd done so since the night he had found them crying, abandoned in the barn, and spent the night using a turkey baster to feed them drops of warmed milk. Ever since where Lew was, they followed, much to Dick's chagrin that more often than not meant the bedroom too. He pretended to not notice the way he would carry them up the stairs, or lift them on the couch or chair.
A smile cracks across his face at the mention of turnips, it had been once, and he was exaggerating, but the attempt is endearing nonetheless. He almost wants to turn and leave them to their little talk, but there's something irresistible about it that has him crossing the floor of the barn with gentle steps.)
[ He's getting far too used to civilian life considering just how easily Dick manages to sneak up on him. His voice startles Lew into something of a comical flinch, one of the kittens mewling slightly where she had narrowly avoided a knee in the face. He runs a hand over her head in apology and then twists from where he's sitting on an upturned bucket to stare up at his partner.
For a moment his expression merely screams busted. ]
H-hey Dick. [ He turns up the energy though, smiling his most winning and charming smile. ] What's that?
[ Mutiny? He knows of no mutiny? What would he ever have to be mutinous about ... The ginger tom - which he really wants to name Ricky for kicks - bounds over to Dick with enthusiasm, tangling a claw in his boot. ] I was just getting the kittens ready for Mrs. Simmons and her two girls. When are they coming again?
(It's hard for Dick to keep the smile off his face when Nix flinches, because that was something he never did on the field. Dick could rarely sneak up on him, it was almost as if he was on the edge of paranoia, (they all were, honestly) and it amuses him greatly that he's become this trusting now. Does he take advantage of it? Maybe a little, sometimes. But how can he not?
He is busted. So busted.)
Hey yourself.
(The smile really just makes him look more guilty, but Dick keeps his expression calm and neutral as he first just bends down, but then decides to sit on the ground, letting one of the kittens clamber up his thigh and settle into his lap. It's the ginger one, it's always the ginger one, and he can't help but wonder if Nix is setting him up somehow, it all seems like a joke.)
Oh, just hot air.
(His lips flicker a moment when the kitten nips at his fingertips, keeping his eyes on it for a moment before they flick up to his friends.) Ah, about that. (His expression is still blank.) How do you really feel about getting rid of them? She was talking about taking them all, you see.
[ He watches as Ricky, yeah it's so going to be Ricky, scales Dick's pant leg like it's Everest before settling down to play. The sight alone makes a fond glow start deep in his chest, the kind that spreads up and out until it's in his fingertips. He really doesn't want to get rid of them, they feel like the next step in settling, just like the big double bed and the farm and the vegetable plot. ]
All of them? [ His expression doesn't change, almost frozen on his smile. The three that aren't currently occupied with biting Dick start tumbling about in the dust and the hay and Nix turns to watch them. ] Are you sure she can handle all of them? I mean, they're kind of a handful. [ Even he has to admit that. ] And she has the two girls, right? I'm not sure I like the look of the oldest one.
[ Completely conversational. ] Jane at the post-office told me she caught her throwing stones at a bird once. I mean do we really want a kid like that looking after four young cats?
(Dick, of course, has a soft spot for the kittens, too. It's why he doesn't do anything when he sees Nix babying them. He might tut gently when he walks in to see him with them all on his lap in the sofa, or huff about letting them into their bedroom, but he never actually takes any measures against it. Because it does something to him, to see Nix caring so deeply about something, even as simple as their barnyard cats.)
She's going to have another baby, she told me. Thought it would be nice. (He lifts his gaze from where it had been on the ginger kitten to look at th eother at his next words, and gives him a deadpan sort of stare.) She has twin four year olds who won't even talk to me in church because they're so shy. Sweet girls, though, I think, I have to say, I doubt they're going around throwing stones at birds.
(He lets that hang there a moment, giving the ginger one a tickle, and smiling slightly at the mew that follow.)
[ Nix never expected his animal affection to transfer on to cats. He knew he was a dog kind of man, everyone in Easy Company knew, especially after his meltdown. But it had just taken their pathetic mewling to win him over and now he's basically their grunt. They want something, Nix will sort it out. ]
Another baby? Jeez. [ Thankfully he does not love babies. Too many women often shove their kids at him because he's a hero and he never knows what to do. If he's with Dick he hands the child over. If he's alone he just freezes in panic.
That stare though, that's something else he does not love. He can feel himself go hot under the collar like a disobedient schoolboy. ] So you know about the sabotage, huh? [ B u s t e d. ] Look, in my defence I think Ricky's imprinted on you already. [ Nodding to the ginger. ] And it seems mean splitting them up.
(It wasn't that Dick liked animals, he did, they were sweet, cats especially, and dogs too, but he had also had a rural relationship with them, and he had laughed (gently), when Nix had said how long he believed that pets did go off to live on a farm when they got old.)
What? (An eyebrow raises, and Dick can't help but laugh at the look on the other man's face. He, on the other hand, happily takes the babies, bouncing them on his hip and cooing over them. He'll let them grab at his fingers, and sometimes winds up with one on each arm. He reckons it's because he had a sister he took care of a lot when he was a boy, so he's used to children, unlike it seems Nix is.)
I do. You're not very subtle anymore. (He keeps his face impassive, opening his mouth to say more before all else falls away:) Ricky?
[ He was so sure that somewhere there was just a farm full of old, retired pets. It had practically ruined his childhood.
Still, he watches Dick and feels as though he's digging himself further into a hole. He wants to argue and say he is, in fact, very subtle but Nix hasn't tried to hide a lot since they moved out here, not even the drinking. Part of him just didn't care to when he knew he'd feel worse later.
The cats were a special occurrence though. ]
Well, I can't call him Dick, that would be weird. And Richard's a dumb name for a cat. [ He grins a little, hopeful like he thinks he's being charming.
He's so busted. He never intended to give any of them up. ]
(Slowly, in the corners of his lips, and around his eyes, the cracks of amusement begin to shine through the stoic expression he'd been wearing. It never took much for Nix to be able to get him cracking through the edges. And it helps that the kitten, Ricky, it seems, is currently trying to climb his way up Dick's shirt, and he's making no move to stop him.)
Do you even know it's a boy?
(The question is absent as the kitten rubs itself against his cheek, and then he refocuses his attention back to the other man. A fond smile finds its way to his face.) I suppose it's a good thing I just got off the phone and told her that we couldn't give her the cats after all then.
(Ricky bites down on his ear and Dick gives a gentle wince, peeling the kitten off his shoulder, but only back into his lap.)
Just because I grew up in the city doesn't mean I can't tell when a cat is a boy or a girl. [ Please Dick, please.
Nix watches him for a moment, a small and sweet smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He can't help the absolute and utter pleased cast of his expression, the way he watches Dick with the cat like he's proud of them both. ]
Wait, you did what? [ He'd expected some kind of argument at least, a little coaxing maybe.
Now his grin widens and he ducks his head a little. ] I don't know yet. I was thinking Doris and Vera for the girls? Ricky's the only one that really came to me, I haven't thought about his brother. [ Nothing struck him quite as much as a name for the ginger one. ]
Hey, I can't even tell when they're this young. But if you can, more power to you. (But then again, he's never really looked closely, either. He trusts Nix, however, he's been in charge of the kitten control, for better and worse, in the weeks they've had them.
The kitten now is happily mewing as Dick plays with it in his lap, giving it gentle knocks so it starts to tumble, but it's quick to right itself and attack his hand again. He looked up and shrugged.) Told her that we'd given them to someone else. Apologised a lot, promised that if we get any others, she'd be first on our list. Fortunately she hadn't told the girls anything, since they were going to be a present.
(One of the other kittens has wandered over to him now, and he lifts it too into his lap, now both his hands busy playing with them.) Doris and Vera? (He laughs, shaking his head.) Aren't those two of the ladies on your route? (He won't argue, though. Whatever Nix wants, he'll get.) What if we call him Currahee? He's always trying to climb up my pant leg.
[ Ricky seems to be having the time of his life being pushed around by Dick. Nix can't really blame him, he has the same attitude. ] Oh. [ His smile doesn't soften, in fact he seems to be showing it with his whole body, hands scooping up the two girls so they can sit beside him. ] I'm sure she'll find them a cat.
[ He's just glad it's not these ones. ] They are. But I was thinking more Day and Lynn. [ He shakes his head fondly, his eyes crinkling at the corner. ] You want me to have flashbacks every time I look at the kitten, don't you? It's my punishment for sabotaging everyone who turned up.
[ But as soon as he's done ranting he reaches over to rub his fingers over the top of the cat's head. ] What do you think, Cura?
I'm sure she will. I'll recommend someone her way. (Because well, he likes the cats, too, even if it's not quite as much as Nix does. Though he doubts anyone does as much as him. He'll continue to push Ricky, gosh, around, though when he almost falls off his thigh, he's quick to catch him.)
Day? (That one he's not sure where's from, but he laughs at the second.) For the blonde one? We'll have to send Buck a snapshot and say he has a namesake in cat form. (A grin is slow to spread across his face, and he nods.) I do. It's only fair, all things considered.
(The kitten bats gently at his hand, though then he's doing his namesake, and attempting to climb its way up Dick's chest.) They're menaces.
[ He grins in response. ] Sure. At least he knows about your habit of picking up strays, it won't surprise him.
[ He starts laughing a little, shaking his head. ] Nothing you haven't handled before. [ One of them mewls softly and then curls up in a ball to sleep, the second does her best to bound over to Dick. Now he's stopped he'll have all of them vying for his attention. ]
By the sound of that, we're going to end up with a whole company of cats. I don't think there's enough room on the farm for that. And even less in our bed. (BEcause he's seen him. That when he goes to take a nap, suddenly it's too quiet, because all the cats are in bed with him.)
I'm sure I can manage if I have to. (He always does, though somehow he thinks that the kittens would be even harder to keep in order than Easy could ever have been, even at the worst.
Dick huffs lightly at the sight, but he will take the kitten and let it join the party on his lap. He leans back on his hands and just lets the cats clamber all over him, essentially giving into them, in a way.)
Nothing to thank me for. You're terrible to deal with when you sulk, I'm just doing this for myself.
I think four will do. [ He's still holding out for when a stray dog comes trampling over the property line or something. ] It's cold out, they're tiny, and we have more blankets than we should. [ Clearly that is how he justifies letting them all up. He knows he should worry about things like fleas but he's pretty sure they're okay. It's just the barn, wherever their mother went he doubts she was ridden. ]
I wasn't going to sulk. I was just formulating a plan. It takes concentration. [ The battlefield logistics of winning over Dick Winters. ] But I appreciate it, I do.
I'm going to hold you to that. Maybe you sign a contract. If another batch crops up, we're definitely giving them away. (They could just go and get a puppy. There are farms with dogs all over, surely one of them has to have puppies? But he'll leave that to Nix, too. They're his babies, after all.) If you think this is cold, I'm going to have to take you in to see a doctor. It's spring. (And he's sat in a flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up an he's still warm. But it does dip at night. It was just that pets shouldn't be in the bedroom, but...he never said anything.)
Including accusing a pair of four year olds of throwing stones at birds. Not your best, I have to say. (Always. Because he's grinning, and there's a cat trying to climb ontop of his head.) But nice try.
[ He snorts out a laugh. ] Sure. If another batch turns up. [ He doubts it would be any time soon considering the kittens are all tiny and related. He's yet to see a stray cat around their way either, he's actually surprised that the mother found her way into the barn and then apparently left. But it's desperate times, apparently even for cats. ]
It's cold. [ Don't make him fight you. ] We're not all hearty specimens of American manhood, Winters. Some of us don't have blood boiling through our veins from sheer goodness like you do. [ Nix is always something of a cold blooded thing. He never used to be, but since the war he finds it hard to get warm at the best of times. ] Just roll on summer, that's all I want.
[ He ducks his head, a guilty little smile playing on his mouth. ] Look, the next time I see them out I'll buy them a maltshake or something.
(Do cats know not to do that kind of thing with its family members? Dick isn't sure, but he hopes they won't. For their own sake, more than anything. If there were more kittens, he doubts that Nix would be able to give them up either. He takes the kitten down from his shoulder again, mostly because it was trying to get on his head again, which includes pawing at his face, and while their claws are tiny, they're still claws.
They're gathered in his lap now, pawing aorund before they settle in, one of them yawning even before they tuck into a nap.) You just need to keep working the way you've been. Get a proper amount of meat on your bones, and muscle over those, and you'll be all good. You could start coming to swim with me in the morning. It'll get you used to the cold. (Because he goes now, and even late into the fall, until the lake begins to have the thinnest sheet of ice. Then he turns in for the season until it all melts away again.
It's mostly hot air what he's saying, though. He gets cold, and fast, too. Part of why he tucks himself so close to Nix during the nights.) Maybe we can figure out a way for you to hibernate like a bear.
I'm sure they'd like that a lot. They might talk to you then.
[ Nix would kind of hope they would, if only for the kittens sake. He knows that kind of thing means problems with the baby's health eventually. But then he's not a vet, he doesn't really understand animals.
( Here he is, already thinking about the kittens' kittens. He's fucked. )
The majority of the cats are now being held by Dick, except the one who has gone to sleep right beside his thigh. Nix looks at them with fondness in his eyes. His mouth twitches slightly, his gaze settling. ] Maybe. [ He doesn't like the idea of leaving his warm bed to go swim around the lake. But maybe if Dick manages to convince him. ]
You know that might not be so bad. Maybe I could gather up enough supplies. Make a nest for myself in the bedroom. [ A snort. ] I don't know how to talk to babies, you know that.
(He is fucked, but Dick knew that he was fucked the moment he found them all in the barn, and saw the way Nix was trying to cradle and feed all four at the same time. He had mostly been trying to get Nix to admit that he wanted to keep them when he had originally asked if they should get rid of three of them, or all. Just to test what he would say.
It's funny, because while they've been together for as long as they have, there are some things that Nix does, some ways he looks at him, that still make his cheeks heat up and take on a rich, pink colour.) Maybe.
(He'd like it, though, if only so that they could spend more time together.
He laughs, and nods.) We'll give it a go next winter. The real question is, do I sleep with you still? SInce you're not supposed to poke a sleeping bear, and I'd hate to wake you up...
(Dick trails off gently, lazily reaching up to scritch one of the kittens.) Yet they like you so much.
[ He still struggles with telling Dick that he wants something. A kiss, a home, a cluster of kittens. Part of him thinks he'll always be a shady bastard because something inside of him is fundamentally broken. And it worries him too, because if he can't be honest with the literal embodiment of kindness that Dick presents, then who can he be?
But maybe it doesn't matter, not when he can make Dick flush like that, not when they spend their nights wrapped around each other with the world still and silent. ]
Why is that? [ Babies liking him. ] I don't even talk to them and they're all clamouring for my attention. It's like I'm a magnet.
(It's sad that he does, though, because there is nothing more Dick wants than to give Nix everything he does. It was why he had never said a word about what he hid in his footlocker, it was why he had never gone to any great measure of lengths to point out that he might have a problem with drinking, it was why he had given him first run on Göering's basement. It was also why he had never acted upset when they had briefly lost touch, because if it made Nix happy, then he was happy. He worries for him, he loves him, if he asked for the moon, Dick would try his best to get it for him.)
It's probably because you ignore them. Maybe they can sense it, like they say dog can sense fear. (His lips quirk.) Or maybe they like your eyebrows.
My eyebrows. [ So deadpan. Dick he was going to give you such a good night because of the cats, now he's not so sure. ]
You're the one who's the human climbing frame. If they had any sense they'd realise that. [ A huff of a sigh and then he's picking up the sleeping cat beside him. She mewls slightly in protest but starts purring when Nix beings petting her. ]
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Actually, scratch that. They're supposed to be soon-to-be-adopted-whatever-the-hell-the-new-owners-want-them-to-be cats. But Lew's been systematically flying in the face of both of those rules since the night he found them in the barn. Wherever he goes he's followed by four tiny kittens, a little squadron of sharp clawed menaces that attack his bootlaces and knock over his whiskey bottles and generally wreak havoc. And he's done absolutely nothing to stop them, even going as far as to leave the porch door open whenever they're around so they can move freely into the house. He's just lucky Dick hasn't caught him lifting the smallest one up the porch steps. He still seems surprised as to how she always manages to get in when she can't get back down and Lew does his best to look just as perplexed.
Today's no different. It's his day off from his shitty office job at the bank and while he has a hundred and one things he really should be doing, he's in the barn lazily dragging a straw of hay in front of the ginger tom, grinning a little as he bats it with his claws. The pitchfork ( he's finally allowed to use it again after a thousand promises that he knows to aim it at the ground and not his foot ) is lay abandoned but angled away so that tiny noses can't get hurt on the prongs. ] See this straw? [ Lew is speaking to the kittens at large, as if he's doing one of his old cultural lectures to the soldiers. The cats pay less attention and that's sayiing something. ] I want you to think of it as Mrs. Simmons' ankles, okay? [ The ginger one pounces and Lew nods at him. ] Exactly like that. So when she comes over today I want you to attack. Make sure she never wants a cat again in her life.
[ The white one ambles over and Lew scoops it up in his arms, looking at it mock sternly. ] Your brother's doing his best, you should be too. Do you really want to go and live with her? The whole house smells like turnips. You've never had that assault your nose but believe you me, it's not nice.
[ She meows lightly in his arms and then yawns and so he deposits her back to her siblings. ] Okay guys, I really need your head in the game for this. We have an hour.
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But the truth was, whatever Lew wanted, if he would come out and say that he wanted to keep them, Dick would agree. (Even if he would huff and puff like it was a huge burden, he would always do whatever he could to make his friend and lover happy.) It was why he had called Mrs.Simmons earlier to apologise to her, to tell her that unfortunately, someone else had come along and taken them all. Wanted to keep them together, he had explained, and it felt right since the kittens were thick as thieves. She had understood, thankfully, she hadn't mentioned anything to her girls so at least that wasn't going to cause any tears, and Dick had promised to let her know should another crop of kittens come into the barn, they would be first on the list.
Dick had been watching Lew for a good fifteen minutes after hanging up with her. There was something gentle about the way he was with the kittens, like they were his children. And they almost seemed like it, the way they followed him around. Of course, it probably didn't help that he babied them. He'd done so since the night he had found them crying, abandoned in the barn, and spent the night using a turkey baster to feed them drops of warmed milk. Ever since where Lew was, they followed, much to Dick's chagrin that more often than not meant the bedroom too. He pretended to not notice the way he would carry them up the stairs, or lift them on the couch or chair.
A smile cracks across his face at the mention of turnips, it had been once, and he was exaggerating, but the attempt is endearing nonetheless. He almost wants to turn and leave them to their little talk, but there's something irresistible about it that has him crossing the floor of the barn with gentle steps.)
Mutiny is punishable by death, you know, Nix.
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For a moment his expression merely screams busted. ]
H-hey Dick. [ He turns up the energy though, smiling his most winning and charming smile. ] What's that?
[ Mutiny? He knows of no mutiny? What would he ever have to be mutinous about ... The ginger tom - which he really wants to name Ricky for kicks - bounds over to Dick with enthusiasm, tangling a claw in his boot. ] I was just getting the kittens ready for Mrs. Simmons and her two girls. When are they coming again?
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He is busted. So busted.)
Hey yourself.
(The smile really just makes him look more guilty, but Dick keeps his expression calm and neutral as he first just bends down, but then decides to sit on the ground, letting one of the kittens clamber up his thigh and settle into his lap. It's the ginger one, it's always the ginger one, and he can't help but wonder if Nix is setting him up somehow, it all seems like a joke.)
Oh, just hot air.
(His lips flicker a moment when the kitten nips at his fingertips, keeping his eyes on it for a moment before they flick up to his friends.) Ah, about that. (His expression is still blank.) How do you really feel about getting rid of them? She was talking about taking them all, you see.
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All of them? [ His expression doesn't change, almost frozen on his smile. The three that aren't currently occupied with biting Dick start tumbling about in the dust and the hay and Nix turns to watch them. ] Are you sure she can handle all of them? I mean, they're kind of a handful. [ Even he has to admit that. ] And she has the two girls, right? I'm not sure I like the look of the oldest one.
[ Completely conversational. ] Jane at the post-office told me she caught her throwing stones at a bird once. I mean do we really want a kid like that looking after four young cats?
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She's going to have another baby, she told me. Thought it would be nice. (He lifts his gaze from where it had been on the ginger kitten to look at th eother at his next words, and gives him a deadpan sort of stare.) She has twin four year olds who won't even talk to me in church because they're so shy. Sweet girls, though, I think, I have to say, I doubt they're going around throwing stones at birds.
(He lets that hang there a moment, giving the ginger one a tickle, and smiling slightly at the mew that follow.)
Be honest with me, Nix. Do you want to keep them?
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Another baby? Jeez. [ Thankfully he does not love babies. Too many women often shove their kids at him because he's a hero and he never knows what to do. If he's with Dick he hands the child over. If he's alone he just freezes in panic.
That stare though, that's something else he does not love. He can feel himself go hot under the collar like a disobedient schoolboy. ] So you know about the sabotage, huh? [ B u s t e d. ] Look, in my defence I think Ricky's imprinted on you already. [ Nodding to the ginger. ] And it seems mean splitting them up.
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What? (An eyebrow raises, and Dick can't help but laugh at the look on the other man's face. He, on the other hand, happily takes the babies, bouncing them on his hip and cooing over them. He'll let them grab at his fingers, and sometimes winds up with one on each arm. He reckons it's because he had a sister he took care of a lot when he was a boy, so he's used to children, unlike it seems Nix is.)
I do. You're not very subtle anymore. (He keeps his face impassive, opening his mouth to say more before all else falls away:) Ricky?
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Still, he watches Dick and feels as though he's digging himself further into a hole. He wants to argue and say he is, in fact, very subtle but Nix hasn't tried to hide a lot since they moved out here, not even the drinking. Part of him just didn't care to when he knew he'd feel worse later.
The cats were a special occurrence though. ]
Well, I can't call him Dick, that would be weird. And Richard's a dumb name for a cat. [ He grins a little, hopeful like he thinks he's being charming.
He's so busted. He never intended to give any of them up. ]
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Do you even know it's a boy?
(The question is absent as the kitten rubs itself against his cheek, and then he refocuses his attention back to the other man. A fond smile finds its way to his face.) I suppose it's a good thing I just got off the phone and told her that we couldn't give her the cats after all then.
(Ricky bites down on his ear and Dick gives a gentle wince, peeling the kitten off his shoulder, but only back into his lap.)
What have you named the others?
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Nix watches him for a moment, a small and sweet smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. He can't help the absolute and utter pleased cast of his expression, the way he watches Dick with the cat like he's proud of them both. ]
Wait, you did what? [ He'd expected some kind of argument at least, a little coaxing maybe.
Now his grin widens and he ducks his head a little. ] I don't know yet. I was thinking Doris and Vera for the girls? Ricky's the only one that really came to me, I haven't thought about his brother. [ Nothing struck him quite as much as a name for the ginger one. ]
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The kitten now is happily mewing as Dick plays with it in his lap, giving it gentle knocks so it starts to tumble, but it's quick to right itself and attack his hand again. He looked up and shrugged.) Told her that we'd given them to someone else. Apologised a lot, promised that if we get any others, she'd be first on our list. Fortunately she hadn't told the girls anything, since they were going to be a present.
(One of the other kittens has wandered over to him now, and he lifts it too into his lap, now both his hands busy playing with them.) Doris and Vera? (He laughs, shaking his head.) Aren't those two of the ladies on your route? (He won't argue, though. Whatever Nix wants, he'll get.) What if we call him Currahee? He's always trying to climb up my pant leg.
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[ He's just glad it's not these ones. ] They are. But I was thinking more Day and Lynn. [ He shakes his head fondly, his eyes crinkling at the corner. ] You want me to have flashbacks every time I look at the kitten, don't you? It's my punishment for sabotaging everyone who turned up.
[ But as soon as he's done ranting he reaches over to rub his fingers over the top of the cat's head. ] What do you think, Cura?
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Day? (That one he's not sure where's from, but he laughs at the second.) For the blonde one? We'll have to send Buck a snapshot and say he has a namesake in cat form. (A grin is slow to spread across his face, and he nods.) I do. It's only fair, all things considered.
(The kitten bats gently at his hand, though then he's doing his namesake, and attempting to climb its way up Dick's chest.) They're menaces.
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[ He starts laughing a little, shaking his head. ] Nothing you haven't handled before. [ One of them mewls softly and then curls up in a ball to sleep, the second does her best to bound over to Dick. Now he's stopped he'll have all of them vying for his attention. ]
Hey, Dick? Thanks.
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I'm sure I can manage if I have to. (He always does, though somehow he thinks that the kittens would be even harder to keep in order than Easy could ever have been, even at the worst.
Dick huffs lightly at the sight, but he will take the kitten and let it join the party on his lap. He leans back on his hands and just lets the cats clamber all over him, essentially giving into them, in a way.)
Nothing to thank me for. You're terrible to deal with when you sulk, I'm just doing this for myself.
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I wasn't going to sulk. I was just formulating a plan. It takes concentration. [ The battlefield logistics of winning over Dick Winters. ] But I appreciate it, I do.
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Including accusing a pair of four year olds of throwing stones at birds. Not your best, I have to say. (Always. Because he's grinning, and there's a cat trying to climb ontop of his head.) But nice try.
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It's cold. [ Don't make him fight you. ] We're not all hearty specimens of American manhood, Winters. Some of us don't have blood boiling through our veins from sheer goodness like you do. [ Nix is always something of a cold blooded thing. He never used to be, but since the war he finds it hard to get warm at the best of times. ] Just roll on summer, that's all I want.
[ He ducks his head, a guilty little smile playing on his mouth. ] Look, the next time I see them out I'll buy them a maltshake or something.
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They're gathered in his lap now, pawing aorund before they settle in, one of them yawning even before they tuck into a nap.) You just need to keep working the way you've been. Get a proper amount of meat on your bones, and muscle over those, and you'll be all good. You could start coming to swim with me in the morning. It'll get you used to the cold. (Because he goes now, and even late into the fall, until the lake begins to have the thinnest sheet of ice. Then he turns in for the season until it all melts away again.
It's mostly hot air what he's saying, though. He gets cold, and fast, too. Part of why he tucks himself so close to Nix during the nights.) Maybe we can figure out a way for you to hibernate like a bear.
I'm sure they'd like that a lot. They might talk to you then.
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( Here he is, already thinking about the kittens' kittens. He's fucked. )
The majority of the cats are now being held by Dick, except the one who has gone to sleep right beside his thigh. Nix looks at them with fondness in his eyes. His mouth twitches slightly, his gaze settling. ] Maybe. [ He doesn't like the idea of leaving his warm bed to go swim around the lake. But maybe if Dick manages to convince him. ]
You know that might not be so bad. Maybe I could gather up enough supplies. Make a nest for myself in the bedroom. [ A snort. ] I don't know how to talk to babies, you know that.
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It's funny, because while they've been together for as long as they have, there are some things that Nix does, some ways he looks at him, that still make his cheeks heat up and take on a rich, pink colour.) Maybe.
(He'd like it, though, if only so that they could spend more time together.
He laughs, and nods.) We'll give it a go next winter. The real question is, do I sleep with you still? SInce you're not supposed to poke a sleeping bear, and I'd hate to wake you up...
(Dick trails off gently, lazily reaching up to scritch one of the kittens.) Yet they like you so much.
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[ He still struggles with telling Dick that he wants something. A kiss, a home, a cluster of kittens. Part of him thinks he'll always be a shady bastard because something inside of him is fundamentally broken. And it worries him too, because if he can't be honest with the literal embodiment of kindness that Dick presents, then who can he be?
But maybe it doesn't matter, not when he can make Dick flush like that, not when they spend their nights wrapped around each other with the world still and silent. ]
Why is that? [ Babies liking him. ] I don't even talk to them and they're all clamouring for my attention. It's like I'm a magnet.
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(It's sad that he does, though, because there is nothing more Dick wants than to give Nix everything he does. It was why he had never said a word about what he hid in his footlocker, it was why he had never gone to any great measure of lengths to point out that he might have a problem with drinking, it was why he had given him first run on Göering's basement. It was also why he had never acted upset when they had briefly lost touch, because if it made Nix happy, then he was happy. He worries for him, he loves him, if he asked for the moon, Dick would try his best to get it for him.)
It's probably because you ignore them. Maybe they can sense it, like they say dog can sense fear. (His lips quirk.) Or maybe they like your eyebrows.
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You're the one who's the human climbing frame. If they had any sense they'd realise that. [ A huff of a sigh and then he's picking up the sleeping cat beside him. She mewls slightly in protest but starts purring when Nix beings petting her. ]
This is why I don't understand kids.
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