A Cat For The Flat: Christmas Special

[emmasi]

Topic Title: A CAT FOR THE FLAT: CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

Topic Description: Sequal to "A Cat For The Flat." Robbie & Kim. Rated: T (SC)

Type of story: Oneshot

Rating: T

Main Characters: Robbie, Kim

Genre: Comedy?

Warnings: SC, Slash

Is Story being proof read: Yes

Summary: Robbie and Kim buy their daughter a kitten for Christmas.

A note on this: this is a oneshot "Christmas Special" sequel to my old fic, "A Cat for the Flat," but you don't have to read that to read this (I hope). IF you did want to read that though, you might want to read it here first cause this sequel is riddled with spoilers. You have been warned.

And another warning, this does have some sexual references, bordering on content

Enjoy

A CAT FOR THE FLAT: CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

“More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

‘Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! On Cupid! On, Donner and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall!

Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!’”

Robbie halted his slow and steady recital of The Night Before Christmas, suspicious at the lack of interruption. It seemed his audience was no longer with him.

Her tiny fingers curled limply against his shoulder as he lay beside her. Long hair floated softly over her pale skin, spilling out onto the pillow beneath her head.

Robbie smiled and put the picture book down on his daughter’s bedside table. He stayed beside her for a moment, stroking the golden waves that framed her sleep-filled features.

“You look just like your daddy,” he whispered proudly.

A peaceful, purring snore was the response.

Robbie smirked. “You sound like him too.”

He shuffled away from her and alighted from the bed, careful not to wake his princess as he made his escape.

Robbie crossed the room and switched on the nightlight, which had a silhouette of Santa’s reindeer in flight amongst a backdrop of twinkling black stars. They had bought it for her the year she was born and brought it out to celebrate every Christmas since.

Six years on and the light, like their family, was still going strong.

Robbie turned out the bedroom light and took one last look at her, snuggled up to the pink boomerang pillow, in the dim glow that remained.

He walked out into the hallway with a contented smile, closing her door behind him. Spelled out across the top of it in rounded mauve letters was the name Kelly – a combination of her grandmothers’ names, Kerry and Elizabeth.

Kelly’s middle name was Angela – the name of her biological grandmother. Robbie and his husband, Kim, were ill equipped to conceive the child they wanted for themselves, so they employed the help of their best friend, Tasha. While Tasha had once been married to Robbie herself, their break-up had been mutual and the best thing for both of them, particularly since Robbie had realised that he was gay soon after.

Tasha had left town to live with her brother Dylan in the city. She let Robbie keep the apartment they had shared, which legally belonged to her, until Kim bought it from her with the money he had saved as the manager of the Summer Bay Gym; a position that he may never have enjoyed if Tasha hadn’t bought a share of the establishment for him in the first place.

Tasha helped Kim and Robbie more than either of them could have hoped for by agreeing to give birth to their first child. Tasha knew that she didn’t have to worry about being cut out of child’s life. The boys had told Kelly from the start that Tasha was as much her parent as they were, even if she wasn’t around.

Tasha had stayed with Robbie and Kim for a few months either side of the pregnancy, just so they could all be a part of it, but then she went back to her life in the city. Robbie had taught Kelly how to make video calls on his mobile so that she could stay in touch with her mummy, and so that Tasha could see her little girl grow up.

Robbie had barely taken two steps down the hallway when Kim burst in through the front door opposite him.

Kim fumbled with his keys, trying to keep the door ajar while balancing a large, unmarked box on his knee.

Robbie hurried forward to help him, stifling a laugh. “Hang on,” he instructed Kim in a whisper, lifting the box from his husband’s arms.

The package was a lot lighter than it looked, but it was awkward. Particularly since it’s contents kept shifting from side to side, corner to corner.

Robbie held the box as steady as he could and waited for Kim, who was much stronger and therefore better at handling these things, to take it back from him.

Kim closed the front door of the flat as gently as he could, cringing as the lock snapped loudly into place. He glanced at Kelly’s door, half-expecting her to come running out to see what was going on. It was Christmas Eve, and she would interpret any noise she heard as evidence of Santa Clause’s arrival.

“Is she asleep?” Kim asked.

Robbie nodded. “Didn’t even make it through the whole poem.” One day Kelly would find out how The Night Before Christmas ended.

“Ah,” Kim relaxed, “I knew I could count on you to bore her into unconsciousness.”

Robbie narrowed his eyes. He thrust the wriggling box at Kim. Kim grinned and took it off Robbie’s hands, leaning in to kiss him at the same time. A likely apology, thought Robbie.

Kim carried the box into their room and set it down on the floor. Robbie followed him in, locking the door behind him, just in case Kelly did decide to come snooping.

Robbie knelt down beside Kim, watching the box with caution. “Did everything go alright?” he asked. “Did you get the right one?”

“No,” said Kim. “The pet store accidentally gave the one we wanted away. I had to pick up a stray on the way home.”

Robbie stared at him.

“I’m kidding, Rob.”

Kim lifted up the lid of the box, revealing the scrawny black kitten inside. It was cringing in a corner, which was lined with damp shredded newspaper.

Yes, that pungent smell did bring back memories.

Seven years ago, Robbie’s sister Mattie and her boyfriend Lucas had been living in the flat as well. One day, they came home to inform Robbie and Kim that they had purchased a fluffy white kitten (which they later named Belle). Robbie hadn’t minded one bit – he’d always wanted a cat. Kim on the other hand was furious. He hated cats and wanted nothing to do with them. Or so he said. He later confided in Robbie that the reason he hated cats so much was because he had owned one as a kid. Its name was Slater. It had lived for a matter of days before an older cat attacked and killed it in his own backyard, thereby robbing Kim of his faith in feline-kind.

Belle, with the ‘gentle’ persuasion of Robbie, Lucas, and Mattie, eventually restored Kim’s faith. So much so that he decided that Kelly should have a cat of her very own. (Mattie and Luke had moved out a few years ago, and taken Belle with them.)

“Cute, huh?” said Kim, grinning down at the new kitten.

“If by ‘cute’ you mean ‘filthy,’” said Robbie. There were bits of newspaper sticking to the kitten’s fur. “How long has he been in this box?”

“A couple of hours.”

“Kim!”

“What?”

“You can’t keep an animal trapped like that!” Robbie reached into the box, in spite of the unsanitary conditions, and picked up the kitten. “He was probably thinking he’d never get out of there.”

“He’s fine,” said Kim. “Cats like the dark. It makes them feel safe… or something.”

Robbie held the kitten at arm’s length, hesitating to put it on the carpet. “I think we better give him a bath before we give him to Kel.”

***

Robbie stood at the kitchen sink, dragging a light spray of soapy water up over the kitten as it clawed uneasily on the metal basin.

“Aren’t you supposed to put a towel down or something so they don’t slide all over the place?” said Kim, eating one of the cookies that Kelly had left out for Santa.

Robbie glared at him, trying to avoid being clawed himself.

“Yes,” he grudgingly admitted, “But I forgot. It’s been like four years since Belle was here you know.”

“Really?” Kim chewed up another cookie. “That long? Jeez, seems like only yesterday she was crapping in this very kitchen, doesn’t it?”

“I love how your memory works,” said Robbie, wondering why his charming husband couldn’t pick a more pleasant image. “Hey!” he warned Kim as he reached for another cookie. “Back off! That’s mine!”

Kim put the cookie down on the plate and threw up his hands. Then he grabbed the bottle of beer that was sitting on the bench beside it. (Robbie and Kim had informed their daughter, on good authority, that Santa preferred beer to milk.)

“Hey!” hissed Robbie, appalled that he was getting gypped out of another treat after he was the one making the kitten presentable. What did Kim think he was going to the trouble for? To see Kelly’s smiling face on Christmas morning? Hell no! He was doing it for the cookies and beer!

“Keep your pants on,” said Kim, bringing the beer over to the sink – not a suggestion he often made to Robbie. He opened the bottle and offered for his husband to take it, but Robbie showed him that he had soapy hands – not the best for handling glass. “Jeez,” said Kim, foreseeing more effort than he had counted on. He held the bottle to Robbie’s lips and tipped it up for him to drink.

“Mm…” hummed Robbie, trying to swallow the drink as fast as Kim was pouring. “Mm!”

Kim took the bottle away, grinning as Robbie coughed.

“Thanks!” said Robbie sarcastically. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand – the unfavourable flavour of wet cat and soap.

“No problem,” smirked Kim. He took a swig of the beer himself and set it down by the sink.

Kim walked over to the open window. There were two carrots balanced precariously on the sill.

“You can have those,” said Robbie over his shoulder, picking the drowned looking kitten up out of the sink and setting it on the bench. He moved the beer to the other side so the cat wouldn’t knock it over.

“Gee, thanks,” said Kim, taking up one of the vegetables. At least Robbie had peeled them for the ‘reindeer.’ He bit the end off one, crunching it up loudly.

Robbie grabbed the towel that he had lain out on the bench and began to dry the kitten. It squirmed horribly under his fingers. Robbie was worried that if he tried too hard to control it, he might crush the poor thing in his hands.

The sound of obnoxious chewing in his ear alerted Robbie to the fact that Kim was now standing over his shoulder, watching the drying process.

“We should give him a name,” said Kim, his mouth half full of carrot.

“Don’t you think we should let Kelly do that?”

“Yeah, but she’s six, and she’s a girl. She’ll give him a stupid name, like Fluffy or Mittens or…”

“Okay,” said Robbie, thinking that the kitten did kind of looked like a ‘Fluffy,’ now that he had rubbed the towel all over him. “What’s a good name then?”

“Slater The Second,” said Kim, as though he were announcing the name of a prince.

“Slater The Second?”

“In memoriam of Slater The First.”

Robbie considered the little black kitten, and remembered Kim telling him that Slater (The First) had been black. “I’m starting to think we didn’t get this cat for Kelly,” he said. “I’m also starting to wonder if you tricked me into naming our daughter after your favourite surfer…”

Kim took another bite of his carrot, looking completely innocent, and turned away.

Robbie threw Kim a suspicious look, and then wrapped ‘Slater The Second’ up in the towel, cradling him to his chest.

“Meow!” – the first sound the kitten had made since it got here.

“Sh,” said Robbie, “It’s okay.” He bounced the kitten in his arms, remembering when he had done this when Kelly was a baby. Kim smiled at him. He remembered it too.

“I guess we could let Kel name him,” Kim decided. “Slater could be his middle name. Aren’t cats supposed to have like six names anyway?”

Robbie rolled his eyes. “Of all the gay culture you could get into, you go for Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals.”

“It was one musical and it just happened to be on the ABC while I was waiting for the rugby to start!”

“Uh huh. Nothing to do with all those guys prancing around in skin-tight leotards…”

“We should go to bed,” said Kim, quickly changing the subject. Or so Robbie thought.

“It’s like eight o’clock,” said Robbie. “You can’t possibly want to go to sleep yet.”

Kim went back to the windowsill and put the stub of the first carrot down, so that Kelly would find that something had eaten it during the night. He picked the second carrot up and touched the end of it to his lips, leering at Robbie.

“Sleep wasn’t what I had in mind.” He licked the tip of long, hard vegetable, and then sucked it into his mouth.

Robbie swallowed in unison, glued to Kim’s display. “Right…” he said breathlessly. He remembered he was holding an underage cat, and covered its eyes.

Kim laughed – Robbie was so easy.

“Right,” said Robbie again, regaining his composure, “You finish doing that, and I’ll go put this little boy back in his box.”

Kim was sure that he could make a filthy euphemism in response to that, but decided that playing it out would be more fun.

***

They had purchased some food and kitty litter and a litter tray in advance. Robbie pulled them out of the cupboard, cleaned out the dirty pet shop box, and put the tray back in there, along with a towel, food, and water, so that Slater The Second would be clean and comfortable for the night.

Kim busied himself with putting the rest of Kelly’s presents under the tree, along with a couple that he had managed to keep hidden from his spouse. Kim was just lucky that Robbie wasn’t as nosey has he was. (He’d found that ipod-shaped looking package in Robbie’s bottom draw three weeks ago.)

When it was all done, Kim came back into the bedroom and shut the door behind him.

He sighed, exhausted. He crawled onto the bed and lay on his back.

Robbie pushed the closed-up kitten box into the bottom of Kim’s closet, out of the way. Kim was probably right about cats liking the dark.

He stood up from the floor and joined Kim on the bed.

“Aw,” he said, rubbing Kim’s chest sympathetically, “You look tired. Maybe you should just go straight to sleep.”

Kim wondered if Robbie was serious for a moment, but Robbie wasn’t able to keep a straight face. As soon as Robbie cracked, Kim grabbed him and rolled him over on the bed, pinning his back to the wrinkled quilt. Robbie laughed, pleasantly breathless as Kim’s superior weight lay on top of him.

Kisses in his mouth, on his neck, on his shoulders… down his chest, down his sides… his stomach… his…

“Oh!” Robbie sighed. Merry Christmas!

***

They awoke in their windowless room (one of the downsides to living in an apartment). There was a crack of light spilling in from underneath the closed door. Robbie could see Kim well enough by it.

A moment later, Kim awoke to see that Robbie had been watching him sleep.

“Hey,” said Kim.

“Morning,” smiled Robbie. “Merry Christmas.”

Kim felt Robbie’s hand resting in his. He held it and brought it up to his mouth, kissing the back of it tenderly. “Merry Christmas,” he said.

An explosion and a scream snapped their attention to the loungeroom. A second later, they realised that it was too soft a sound to have been real. Someone was watching TV.

“She’s awake,” yawned Robbie, relaxing his head back into his pillow. He glanced at the clock – 6.13am.

“So’s he,” said Kim, turning to the rustling sound coming from the depths of his closet.

“Time to introduce them, you reckon?”

“Yep.”

***

“Daddy!” called Kelly excitedly. She leapt up from her spot in front of the TV and rushed into Kim’s arms.

“Hey, Princess,” he said sleepily.

Robbie slipped out from the bedroom behind him. (Kim hadn’t made it out of the doorway before being tackled.)

“Daddy! Santa came!” she told Kim excitedly. “Look!”

She rushed over to the tree, almost tripping Robbie over as he headed towards it himself.

“Dada!” she said to him. “Look!” She pointed at the presents that Santa had left for her. “Look!”

“Oh, wow!” said Robbie, kneeling down with her to get a closer look. He regretted it a second later when Kelly sprang up, demanding he do the same, as she tore into the kitchen.

“Dada, look!” she grabbed Robbie’s arm, dragging him off the floor to see what had happened. “He ate the cookies, and the beer, and the carrots! The reindeers ate the carrots!”

Kim snorted to himself.

“Wow, that’s pretty cool,” said Robbie, giving Kim a knowing look. Reindeer indeed…

“Dada, can I open my presents now?”

“Hm, I don’t know…” said Robbie. “What does Daddy think?”

“Daddy!” yelled Kelly, rushing back to Kim. “Can I open my presents now, pleeeeease? I’ve been waiting for ages and ages and ages and I was watching cartoons but they were boring but you wouldn’t wake up but then you did and – ”

“Yes!” said Kim suddenly, turning Kelly around and pointing her at the presents. “Go! Open!”

Kelly may have had Kim’s genes, but she was definitely Robbie’s daughter.

Kelly sat down in front of the tree, and her Daddy and Dada did the same. She ripped through her own presents, and one of Robbie’s as well. He told her that Santa had put too much stickytape on it and he needed help unwrapping it. Kelly was more than happy to oblige.

In minutes, the family was surrounded by torn and discarded paper, as well as toys, CDs, DVDs, and X-box games. There were a few clothes as well, but no one was really interested in them. Santa also brought Kim a new ipod, which Kim was very surprised and happy to receive.

Kelly looked around the base of the tree, wondering why there weren’t anymore presents.

“Daddy?” she asked, “Why didn’t I get anything from you and Dada?”

Kim and Robbie exchanged knowing glances.

“We didn’t have time to go shopping this year,” said Kim. “We just asked Santa to bring you some extra stuff instead.”

“Oh,” said Kelly. She didn’t feel like Santa had gotten her any more than he usually did… Maybe that toy horse that walked all by itself was more expensive than she thought.

“Why don’t we call Mum?” asked Robbie.

“Rob, it’s 6.40 in the morning…” Kim didn’t think Tasha would appreciate being woken up so early. She probably hadn’t gone to bed at eight.

“Ah it’s never too early for family,” said Robbie, standing up to go get his phone.

He returned a few seconds later. Kelly was playing with her horse, checking the quality of it. It did look expensive…

“Here we go,” said Robbie. He dialled Tasha’s mobile number and waited. “Tasha!” he said enthusiastically.

“Rob? What? Wha…” She rolled over in bed and looked at her alarm clock. “Rob, it’s 6.40 in the morning… Is something wrong? Has something happened?” She may not have been raising Kelly, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t a paranoid mother.

“No, no, no, nothing like that. I just have someone here that wants to wish you a Merry Christmas.”

Robbie pointed the camera lens of the phone at his daughter.

“MERRY CHRISTMAS MUM!” Kelly yelled. If the neighbours weren’t already awake, they were now.

“Merry Christmas,” answered Tash, with as much energy as she could find.

“Merry Christmas Tash,” said Kim, recognising the tiredness in her voice. He sympathised.

“Did Santa bring you platform shoes?” Tasha asked Kelly.

“No!” Kelly laughed.

“Oh, are you sure?” asked Tash, waking up more and more as she heard her baby talking. “You’re so much taller than the last time I saw you! It has to be platform shoes.”

Kelly giggled. “No it’s not!”

“Well you can’t have gotten that big all by yourself…”

Kelly giggled more. Her Mummy was funny.

Kim had slipped out of the room while Kelly was distracted. He had just come back in with a large box. It had a ribbon around it, and it looked heavy.

“Kel.” Kim got her attention away from the phone.

Kelly saw the box, and the big black letters written on the side of it. She couldn’t really read properly yet, but she understood all these words and knew what they said: ‘To Kelly, from Dada, Daddy, and Mummy.’

Her eyes lit up – it was so big! And it was hers!

Kim set the box down beside her.

“You got me something!” she realised excitedly. “What is it?!”

“Open it!” said Kim.

Robbie kept the phone trained on her, making sure that Tasha could see everything.

Kim helped Kelly untie the ribbon, and then she pulled the lid off the box.

“Meow…?”

Slater The Second blinked into the sudden light source.

“Oh my gosh!” squealed Kelly. She reached into the box and dragged the little black kitten out. “Oh my gosh he’s so pretty!”

“Just what every guy likes to hear,” said Robbie sarcastically.

“Never heard you complain,” Kim retorted.

Tasha laughed.

“Hey, quiet you,” Robbie warned her. “Or I’ll hang up!”

“You would not,” said Tasha.

“Don’t tempt me, woman!”

“Okay, I’ll be good!” she promised. She knew that Robbie was only joking, but she didn’t want to risk missing this. “Kelly, come show me the kitten!”

Tasha watched the screen of her mobile as Kelly shuffled eagerly towards her. And then it went black. For a moment, she thought it had cut out, until Kelly pulled the kitten back a bit, and Tasha could see a wide green eye staring back at her, right next to a sniffling pink nostril.

“Oh, he’s beautiful, isn’t he?”

“Other masculine term,” Robbie muttered.

Kim snuck around behind him and kissed him on the cheek. “You’re beautiful,” he said.

Well, when Kim put it like that.

Robbie turned and kissed Kim properly. Kim could feel Robbie smiling against his lips, which made him do the same. Neither of them noticed that Kelly had taken the phone from Robbie’s hand and pointed the lens at them, causing Tasha to laugh again.

***

Another Christmas over.

Kim lay on his bed, eyes closed, contemplating the long day that had been.

They had gone for lunch at Robbie’s mum’s place. They’d all eaten too much, and some people had had a few too many drinks. Not Robbie and Kim – not with Kel to look after – but Grandma Beth and Grandpa Tony… well, it’s not like they had to drive home. It was quite funny to watch them, actually, laughing hysterically at the drop of a paper crown.

It worked out well that Rob’s mum had married Tony Holden, because that meant that Lucas Holden, their old flatmate and Robbie’s brother-in-law, could always spend Christmas with them. Kim liked Lucas. He was good value. Kim supposed that he couldn’t have lived with him for three years if he wasn’t. He still missed Luke, Mattie, and Belle living with them sometimes. He knew that Robbie did too. Kelly was more than enough company though.

Slater The Second – or Blitzen, as Kelly had renamed him – would keep them busy with all his kitty antics. Kim wasn’t particularly looking forward to housetraining another cat, but he figured it couldn’t take more than a couple of months. Kelly took years.

“Can I open them yet?” asked Kim, anxious to regain his vision. He could hear Robbie doing something in the closet, but he’d been told to keep his eyes closed.

“Just a second,” said Robbie, sounding like he was struggling.

“Do you need some help?”

“Nope… I’m… eh… fine…”

Kim wondered what that crash was.

“Ow…”

At this rate, Kelly would wake up and Kim would never get what Robbie had promised him.

“Okay,” said Robbie triumphantly, “Now you can open them.”

Kim opened his eyes. He looked in the direction of Robbie’s voice, and sat up.

“Ah…” Kim began in a nervous laugh.

Robbie was standing in his underwear, but Kim was quite sure he’d never seen that particular pair of briefs before. They were dark green with white fur trim around the legs. As Robbie strutted closer, Kim could read the words ‘Merry XXX mas’ written on the front of them in bright red letters.

“So,” Robbie asked, “Do you like your Christmas present?”

“Rob…where did you get those?”

“Internet.” He tugged at the fur trim – it seemed to be cutting of his circulation. “Not quite my size, but I figured I wouldn’t be wearing them for long.”

Kim shook his head, laughing. “Come here.”

Robbie didn’t need to be told twice. He crawled onto the bed and into Kim’s arms. Kim kissed him.

“Oh, one more thing,” said Robbie, turning his back on Kim. “Check it out.”

Kim read the back of the briefs. They now read ‘Merry XXX mas’… ‘and a happy new rear.’

“Pretty cool, huh?”

Kim shook his head, grinning. “Rob, I don’t think you could be more uncool if you tried.” Robbie frowned. Kim quickly ran his hand over his back, massaging the lean muscles. “But, you are still damn sexy.”

Robbie smiled again and shifted back into Kim’s arms. “Close enough.”

THE END

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