#all cat behaviors in this shortfic are based on a very real cat

[parvuls]

a cat shows up on jack's balcony one day, and then refuses to leave. at first jack is afraid that maybe it's stuck there (he lives on the sixth floor, it's a legitimate fear), except no, because one morning on his way to the rink jack sees the cat sunbathing down in the alley behind his building and that afternoon the cat is back on the balcony. so apparently the cat is able to come and go from a sixth floor balcony and just... decides to hang around anyway.

they co-exist pretty well for a while. sometimes jack feeds the cat leftovers and in return sometimes the cat rubs against his ankles when jack sits on the balcony reading a book.

but then winter comes. it starts getting colder and colder and jack has a hard time sticking to their status quo, because on really cold nights he's wide awake thinking of how the cat is faring instead of getting his much needed seven hours of sleep. he even leaves the balcony door open while he goes on a roadie (reasoning that burglars, unlike cats, probably can't climb six floors to break in), but when he comes back it doesn't seem like the cat took the unspoken invitation.

the first day it snows, jack crouches down in the balcony's doorway and tries everything. he glares, he pleads, he even tries enticing the cat in with some chicken, but the cat stays stubbornly huddled under the wooden chair jack sometimes reads on -- fur matted with freezing water and very clearly shivering -- and refuses to come in.

jack doesn't know anyone with pets and he's got no clue what to do about the situation, so in a fit of desperation he googles the nearest vet office and drives there on his day off.

dr. oluransi is busy with a patient when jack gets there. the patient is a canary with a sprained wing, the receptionist informs him cheerfully, and then asks if jack made an appointment.

the receptionist is... unfortunately attractive. it's a real problem, because jack doesn't do too well with people he finds genuinely attractive. it doesn't help that he hasn't, actually, made an appointment, because apparently it's not possible to make a vet appointment without a pet.

he does his best to explain his problem to the receptionist (it goes... as well as can be expected when jack is left to interact with attractive, outgoing people, which means he says all the wrong things and probably comes off as a giant dickbag, in shitty's words). at least the guy seems more amused than offended. he promises to check with dr. oluransi whether he can fit jack in, but returns with an apologetic expression to say that they're completely booked and technically, there's no admission without a pet, so dr. oluransi really can't help him anyway.

fuck. well, jack tried. he's just about to give up, maybe give glaring at the cat until it comes in another go, but just as he turns to the door he's surprised by a quick "wait!". when he turns back around, the receptionist is stepping away from his desk, looking up at jack.

he asks if jack tried to catch and wrap the cat in towels so it can't escape. jack considers it before he asks, "...is that safe?", because that sounds like it could go so wrong, but the receptionist smiles and says, "yeah, that's the only way to bring cats in if they won't take bribery! those sweet furballs do not enjoy carriers, lemme tell you". jack panics over potentially hurting the cat and asks the receptionist if he's got any experience with it, and the receptionist kind of blinks at him and says, "well, I, uh, helped ransom -- um, dr. oluransi once or twice, yeah! it's no big deal, really!". they then stare at each other for an awkward moment while jack tries to decide if he's going to sound like a probable murderer if he invites a stranger to his home, but the guy beats him to it by hesitantly offering, "would you... like my help?"

so. okay. either jack doesn't look like a probable murderer or the receptionist ("bitty! or -- eric? sorry, all my friends are from college and I sometimes forget how to adult") has very poor self-preservation skills. either way jack won't look a gift horse in the mouth.

bitty meets him at the building's lobby after his shift ends, carrying soft towels and cat treats and a -- pie? which jack assumes isn't meant for the cat, but then again he doesn't know anything about cat diets, so maybe it is. he chatters at jack while they ride up the elevator (the canary's name is meg, her wing is just fine, bitty took a picture of her sitting on dr. olurnasi's head, does jack want to see?), and his smile is really nice and he doesn't seem offended by jack's everything and he's still really unfortunately attractive. jack focuses on the cat problem instead, because even stubborn cats are easier than people.

it takes bitty approximately fifteen seconds to gain the cat's temporary trust -- jack thinks the cat treats must've helped, and feels a little cheated because the dry chicken he offered couldn't have been that bad, jack eats it five times a week -- and one minute to trap the cat in a big, fluffy towel and lift it into his arms. the cat is fast, but bitty is faster, and jack is impressed. the cat -- not so much. jack has never heard anything yowl like the cat is yowling in bitty's arms, as if it's being carried towards a torture chamber rather than to a warm safe space with an actual roof.

the cat, miraculously, stops yowling once bitty sets it down on jack's living room floor. it hisses at bitty, glares at jack, and then promptly gets distracted by all the fascinating new smells. apparently the space underneath jack's couch is a prime hiding location. it's warm, and there's no snow, and the cat isn't trying to destroy any of jack's furniture, so overall jack considers the whole thing a raging success.

"does it have a name?" bitty asks, after he's done cooing at the cat and trying to take pictures of its flashing eyes in the dark space under the couch. "apparently y'all are going to be roommates, so it should have a name, right?"

bitty is smiling up at jack again, and his cheeks are flushed and there are gray-white cat hairs all over his sweater, and jack doesn't trust himself with naming a cat and also wants to ask bitty to stay, maybe forever, because jack can be intense like that -- except that's probably an insane thought to have. his next one isn't great, but it's definitely better than inviting bitty to move in. "you should name it."

bitty, it seems, doesn't think that's too weird. in fact, he beams like that's the greatest thing he ever heard. he doesn't think it's weird when jack invites him to stay for dinner, either, and doesn't think it's weird when the cat finally comes out of its hiding place and jack feeds it bits of meat from his plate. he does think it's weird when jack asks if the pie was meant for the cat, but in a good way, probably, because he laughs and laughs and feeds jack the best pie he's ever eaten and also gives jack his phone number before he leaves.

the cat warms up to bitty again, eventually, and even curls up on bitty's neck while bitty is curled up in jack's arms. jack thinks it's definitely all the cat treats.

tl;dr: a cat adopts jack, as cats do. the cat is stubborn, as cats are. the cat brings jack bitty and sometimes even allows jack to pet it, because cats are smarter than people and that's just a fact.