Tao woke up well before dawn the next morning sporting a mildly upset stomach and slightly darker eye circles than normal. It wasn't a completely sleepless night, but he had slept uneasy and part of that was due to a brand new sort of dream about hybrid kittens in what he only assumed was some sort of agency building. He wouldn't technically call it a nightmare, and truthfully that was because he had no real idea of what these agencies must have been like for the children who were raised in them. The dreams were rather hazy, but just enough to be unsettling. He wondered, not for the first time since leaving Yixing's home last night, if this endeavor was really something he should take on or not. Perhaps Yixing was right and Jongdae was best suited for the situation, and since Tao didn't think he was anywhere near as nice and awesome as his roommate, maybe Tao shouldn't do it.

Clumsily he made his way downstairs in the darkened house. The lit clock in the entryway read off the time as being just before six. Plenty of hours ahead in the day to think about these things, Tao reasoned. In the meantime, his stomach groaned. He had more pressing matters to deal with first, and that was to make himself something to drink to calm his tummy. He felt his way through the living room and entered the kitchen. He didn't expect there to be a night light already on above the stove, or to see Baekhyun sitting up at the breakfast table staring wistfully through the window into the backyard.

“Tao?” Baekhyun asked, when Tao paused in the doorway. The smaller cat peered into the darkness, eyes squinted, and when Tao greeted him in return, he smiled. “What has you up so early today?”

For answer Tao sat down across from him and rubbed his stomach, frowning a little. “Don't know. Stomach hurts. Didn't sleep well anyways.. Got up,” he mumbled. Whole sentences never came well to him before at least eight in the morning.

“Want me to make you something? Tea?”

“Sure... thanks. You drink tea?”

Baekhyun cupped the mug sitting before him. “I have an herb garden. Of course I drink tea. Make my own brews too, but don't tell Kyungsoo. He's a little suspicious of my concoctions.” He winked and stood up. Tao watched him puttering around in the pantry as he filtered through some glass jars of dried herbs. 

“Do you always wake up this early?” Tao asked after a few moments.

“Yes. Usually. I like the quiet time before dawn.”

“Oh. I'm sorry... for bothering you then.”

“Oh don't be sorry. I don't mind the company. It's just become a habit these days. And anyways, Kai snores, so I usually escape as early as I can. Sit around... and then I go outside.” He chuckled.

“I see...” Tao pouted, because he really didn't have else to do and being awake so early in the morning wasn't really his thing. Nor could he really understand other people who woke up so early. People like Baekhyun who were chatty even at this hour. Tao's own verbal spigot didn't turn until at least eight. Nine to be safe. Ten to be safer. 

Baekhyun sat back down while the water brewed. “So, let me guess. You had your dinner at Yixing's last night? Did Jessica cook?” Tao nodded, and Baekhyun laughed. “Ah, that woman. Not all that bad, but her meals don't usually blend well with a cat's digestion.”

“I think it was the tiramisu,” Tao complained, laughing as well.

“And for me it was the peach cobbler!” He shook his head and yawned. Then he scratched his head with particular vigor around his ear, saying, “How on earth she can mess up a peach cobbler, I just don't understand...” 

Ten minutes later Tao had his tea, and half of it was already gone. Baekhyun was on his second cup, and he looked like he didn't want to pry, but as Tao's face kept twisting up in a manner that had nothing to do with his stomach ache, he finally had to ask. “Anything else on your mind, Tao?”

Tao had plenty of things on his mind, even if most of didn't really make sense. Like what he was supposed to think of Yixing and his work, or how it turned out that Yixing had a son who purportedly doesn't like cats. And seriously, that was a mystery he'd rather much like solved, for... reasons. At the very least though he was curious about Baekhyun, why Baekhyun was here, and what did he think about this kind of half-life. When had he taken to gardening as a hobby, and who was this great love he always mentioned with great sighs, and why did he think all birds were evil. Instead he just asked, “What was it like? The agencies?”

Tao winced at his words, at first worrying that the other cat would find him impertinent, but Baekhyun smiled just like he'd expected to hear something like this all along. “The agencies? You mean growing up?”

Tao nodded.

“Why do you ask, kitten?” 

He shrugged. “Just... Yixing mentioned them last night. And I was curious.”

“Ahh, I see.”

“You don't have to tell me!” Tao cried, very apologetic and anxious to divert the subject. His master had always told him he asked too many questions of people, though oddly enough, he never criticized him for it. Perhaps that lack of discipline would get him into more trouble now? 

It apparently didn't phase Baekhyun either. “Nah, It's okay. How was living in the agency? For me, not bad. Not too bad at least. You hear stories about others who were brought up in much seedier places, but for the most part my agency did a halfway decent job raising the batch of cats they had. They try their best anyways, because they want to raise cats who are fit for adoption, and won't scare away any potential owners when they come around. Makes me wonder why I even got adopted in the first place. Too loud! They always told me I was too loud!”

The story Baekhyun gave Tao was pretty generic, he assured him. Baekhyun didn't remember much of anything about his earliest days. As a toddler he only knew his caretakers and the others who were with him, half-breed boy and girl cats, and a half dozen human workers who rotated on shifts. They changed every few months too, on purpose so that the cats wouldn't become attached. They were only taught basic skills, how to talk and then to read and write and maybe a little math, and the rest of their days were spent either sleeping or playing. They had no toys and almost nothing to do except to entertain each other, quietly, or else they were separated and put in seclusion. (“Good thing I could entertain myself pretty easily!”) Around age ten the hybrids were given lessons in humility (“Yeah that worked well for me”), how to be polite, and how to act grateful. Then was nothing else to learn really, until at seventeen they were given a crash course on some more adult matters... (“Huh!”) just in case. To prepare them for any eventuality, their caretakers assured them.

“And then at eighteen we can be adopted!” Baekhyun concluded happily, a wry smile attached. “It's kind of funny really. Suddenly we reach the age humans suspect we've attained maturity and it's a magical number.” Baekhyun fluttered his fingers for emphasis. “Some people think that by adopting an eighteen year old hybrid they are taking home a perfect pet for their children. Like we can be both a playmate and a babysitter for their precious angels.” He laughed. “But in truth we know absolutely nothing. And we can do absolutely nothing, because we were taught nothing useful, and that's just how it goes.” He puckered out his lower lip and stared wistfully out the window.

Tao watched him speak, eyes narrowed. “Is that what happened to you?”

“Hmm?” Baekhyun looked like he'd just snapped back from some far away place.

“When you were adopted...?”

“Oh. Yeah, kinda sorta. Nice family. Good kids. Youngest girl was around ten and the next was thirteen and then there was the older son...” Baekhyun's eyes retreated once again to that far away place, and his narrative came to a halt once more. Tao was a little too scared to ask, because prior to this morning he only knew two facts about Baekhyun's life before the cat moved into the shelter. One was this 'supposedly great love' that he'd cultivated somewhere along the way, and the second was that he'd been returned. 

And Tao had only heard a few things about 'returned cats'. Jongdae referred to them once: cats whose owners sent them back because they no longer wanted them, cats who behaved so badly, or who were seen as unfit. The other kind of returned cats were the ones fleeing physical abuse but even they had no rights or privileges, and were still viewed by society as unwanted or damaged chattel. So far as Tao knew, at least two such creatures had found refuge through Yixing in the shelter. Whether or not Baekhyun was one of them, Tao had yet to determine. He was also pretty sure he didn't want to know. He was starting to regret bringing up this whole conversation. When Baekhyun turned quiet, Tao felt uneasy.

The sun had yet to poke its head out from the horizon, but a few hints of light flittered in through the window. Upstairs a door opened and then closed, and Baekhyun snapped out of his reverie. “Anyways, I turned out okay.” He smiled so sweetly at Tao, that Tao knew the face could only be a mask for something else, but he knew better than to pry any further. 

Jongdae was the next one awake. They heard him shuffling around the ground floor, and after a few minutes he half stumbled, half slunk into the kitchen with a yawn. “Morning. Is there coffee?”

“Nope. We had tea,” Baekhyun chirped.

Jongdae grunted but didn't budge. “Anyone know why Joonmyun is sleeping in the computer room?” 

“He is? Again?” Baekhyun laughed. “Oh well. Time for me to hit the dirt!” 

Tao and Jongdae watched him go, and a few seconds later there was the typical morning howl as Baekhyun chased away a flock of early morning birds and all seemed right with the world.

“So how come you're up so early?” Jongdae asked, and Tao repeated the same story he'd told Baekhyun, receiving the same sort of sympathy about Jessica's cooking. Tao didn't ask him anything else though, namely because he wasn't sure Yixing or Joonmyun had had a chance to discuss their plans with Jongdae yet, and Tao didn't think he was the best person to introduce the topic. It's not like he had any idea what they'd be doing there, really. 

He yawned and stretched out across the table as Jongdae stood behind him watching Baekhyun's morning battle through the window. Tao even purred when Jongdae started absentmindedly scratching around his ears. Sometimes cats were the best company because they just knew all the best spots. Tao writhed and stretched along the table as Jongdae's scratching turned into a full on back massage.

“Can you do this every morning?” Tao begged, all nightmares and stories put aside from his head for the moment.

Jongdae chuckled. “Nope. You gotta earn this kind of affection if you want it every day!”

“Uggh. Then what do I have to do?”

“You have to cook breakfast today. Now get to it.”

Jongdae walked away and Tao scowled, suddenly alone in the kitchen in a panic because he still hadn't mastered how to cook anything that wasn't microwaveable. He was halfway to deciding to ask Kyungsoo for help when he heard the other cat saunter down the stairs and Jongdae intercept him in the living room. Tao's ears perked up so he could gauge Kyungsoo's mood. Some days he was super sweet, and other days he was moody as hell, and it all depended on... well, Tao hadn't yet figured out what were the deciding factors to Kyungsoo's mood swings. 

“Morning, Soo,” Jongdae said. 

“Don't call me that. Good morning.”

“Is it though? Hey, Joonmyun's in the computer room.”

“And?”

Maybe this wasn’t one of Kyungsoo's better days, Tao thought quietly, his tail dropping in defeat.

Jongdae kept on trying to cheerful though. “Maybe you should go wake him up? And/or send him home?”

“And why would I do that?”

Yep, this was definitely not one of Kyungsoo's happy days.

“Well, I don't think he slept over to see me first thing in the morning, so...”

“I have no idea what you're implying, but I can happily kick him out.”

“That's not what I...” Jongdae's voice trailed off and Kyungsoo's footsteps echoed down the hallway. “Oh well,” Jongdae said. 

Tao yawned. Maybe they'd be cool with just toast and cereal today?

Luhan came down the stairs then bearing the requests of His Highness upstairs. “Minseok wants eggs benedict today. Who's cooking because it's definitely not me. I cooked two days ago.” 

Jongdae must have pointed him towards the kitchen and Tao whined when Luhan stuck his head in to see the designated chef of the morning, still splayed out across the breakfast table with a miserable look on his face. 

“Oh... damnit.” Luhan said. “Well, I guess I'm cooking today.” 

It was well into the afternoon when Jongdae retreated into his shared bedroom, now devoid of his roommates since Tao had passed out outside under a tree and Kyungsoo was on the computer. He made a mental note to urge those two to go and do something athletic sometime; otherwise they'd fall out of shape pretty soon. He still wasn't really sure what Tao did, or at least what he liked to do other than sleep or doze or follow around one cat after another looking for something to do. Did he have any hobbies or any other skills? It seemed a gross oversight that Jongdae had never really asked him. He pictured the cat, no the kitten, growing up on some gorgeous stretch of land or just prancing about all day chasing dust bunnies or sleeping in trees. Funny how the image never changed, or how Jongdae couldn't really picture him doing anything else. What did a single cat do by himself all day anyways?

Jongdae yawned and determined he'd ask him soon enough. Until then though he needed a nap himself, and sadly his own bed wasn't looking all that appealing. He walked over to close the window, thinking perhaps a little darkness would shroud him better. It didn't.

He didn't even bother trying to nap there, and instead he got up and knocked on the door next to his. 

“Kai?” He whispered. Jongdae knew the cat was in there. It was Kai's day off, and even though the cat hadn't talked much about his new job, Jongdae knew from Kai's expression every day that it must have been stressful somehow. Today he hadn't come down except to eat food and then return to his room. Trust Kai to not even want to talk about things. Jongdae knocked again, then said his name a little louder. From inside the room he heard the sound of a chair leg moving, but no response. He sighed and went to the next door. 

This time he didn't bother knocking, but helped himself into Minseok and Luhan's room. Both cats were on their bed and but still awake. They looked towards him when Jongdae entered, but didn't say anything. Luhan laid on his stomach with his arms propping him up so he could gaze out the window, and Minseok was curled up next to him. The older one smiled a bit. “Hello,” he called merrily, lazily, and closed his eyes. 

Jongdae didn't ask permission before crawling up on the bed beside Minseok and laying down. Luhan frowned at him for a moment but then he returned his gaze to the outside. 

“Sleepy?” Minseok asked, eyes still closed.

“Mmmm,” Jongdae moaned. 

“Me too. Can't sleep by yourself?”

“Not the same by myself,” he whispered. He rolled sideways putting his back to Minseok's chest and let the other cat cradle one arm over him. He heard Luhan give a warning hiss but refused to be bothered by it. 

“Why don't you go sleep with Tao?” Luhan whined. 

“Too hot outside...”

The other cat snorted but Minseok hushed him. Jongdae was almost asleep when he heard the oldest one ask, “Is Baekhyun still out there?” 

Luhan pushed himself up to peer again out the window. “Yes.”

“Still sitting there?”

“Yes.”

Minseok sighed and Jongdae forced himself to stay awake for a least a little bit longer. “What's wrong with Baekhyun?” he asked.

“Don't know, but he's grown quiet again. Luhan and I have been watching him since noon. He's just been sitting there not doing much of anything...”

“Again?” Jongdae said, his voice nearly a whisper.

“Yes. Maybe he needs a new project to distract him,” Minseok declared. “I'll call Chanyeol later and see if he can come out tomorrow. There's that patch near the side fencing that Baekhyun's been wanting to transform into a raised garden. That might make him happy.” 

Jongdae grunted his assent and closed his eyes again, feeling the sleepiness drag him away, and Minseok's arm cuddled him closer. He lost track of time after that and barely registered Luhan rolling Minseok away before he crawled in between them. Jongdae sighed at the loss, but quickly snuggled into Luhan's back since that was the only thing left available to them. He also heard the door open and close but he didn't bother looking to see who it was. On the other side of the room the bed springs of the unused bed creaked as a weight was added to it. Kai, most likely, looking silently for some company.

The four of them slept. 

3,028 words

Well, I apologize for the lack of ACTION in this chapter (for the last couple chapters actually), but I'm still trying to get a bearing on each of the cats and their characters, and I promise Sehun will be in the next chapter! So will Chanyeol. And Tao actually doing something. Maybe Minseok will even get up and leave the house--oh, well now I shouldn't go too crazy. Scratch that last part :P

Readers I need your help, and this is very important! What do you think of the story? Where do you see it going? What are you most curious about? Who are your favorite characters (and if you like the main ones like Tao or Sehun, who are your favorites after that?) I ask, because I want to know what people like so I can focus more on those aspects/characters. So. Feedback. Give me give me. 

I repeat. Feedback is important! For.... my mental health :P

<3 Rosie

P.S. I'm planning a new story so keep an eye out for this: Write Me Into Your Fiction, Hyung