Chapter 25
JOLAR
“Daddy?” came the soft timid voice.
“I’m here,” I replied softly, sitting up carefully so as to not disturb Mitch’s sleep.
“You cameded back,” Neal said, relief evident in his voice.
“Always,” I promised him.
“Cans I sleep with you and Papa?”
“Well, I think someone else might want to sleep with you.” I tapped my kunnarskyn to activate the low level night lighting.
I knew the moment Neal saw who was camped out on our bed, and I was ready for him to take them to his room.
For such small animals, they certainly took up a lot of bed space.
It felt as if the two cats and the small dog owned most of the bed space, in fact.
“Shhh,” I told Neal, scooping up the small calico cat and getting out of bed. As I’d hoped, Molly followed her best friend as I carried her over to Neal. “Come on, let’s take them to your room.”
“There’s two kitties! And a dog!” He bent down to pet Morris who’d followed us out of the bedroom, curious to see what we were doing.
“Yes. The orange striped one is Morris, and he’s a present for your Papa, though he’s ours to love too. Just like Molly and this kitty are yours mostly but for all of us to love.”
Neal nodded, his face serious as I opened the door to his room.
“What’s the kitty’s name?”
“She needs a new name.”
“Oh! She’s very pretty. She’s got lots of colors.”
“She does. The lady at the shelter said her coat pattern is called calico.”
“That’s funny, Daddy. She’s not wearing a coat. Kitties have fur so they don’t need to wear clothes! And it’s not cold anyways.”
I chuckled, too tired by today’s events to explain what that actually meant right now.
“Can you think of a good name for her?”
“Uh huh. Pretty.”
“Yes, she is very pretty.”
Neal giggled. “No, we can name her Pretty. Pretty Kitty.”
“How about you think about it for a couple of days,” I suggested. “To make sure it’s the perfect one. Remember, you need to be able to call it out loud easily.”
“Okay, Daddy,” he said as Molly rested her paws on the edge of his mattress, begging to be allowed up. I picked her up, and she began to snuffle along the bottom of the bed.
“She can sleep on your bed tonight, and in the morning, Papa can put a bed for her in here.”
“Okay!” Neal agreed, getting back under the covers. I kissed his forehead, thinking how perfect he looked with his cat curled up on his pillow beside him and the dog at his feet. Maybe we could get the dog some steps so she could sleep with him if she wanted to. “Night, night, Daddy!”
“Night night.”
I smiled as I turned to trudge back to our bedroom, eager to slide back into bed and snuggle up against my mate.
The day’s earlier events came to the front of my mind though.
Linda Takahashi had buried a body in her yard, thinking to hide it under a flower bed, and while we had a pretty good idea that it belonged to her husband, the fact that despite how nearly instantaneous the DNA identification should have been, Dr. Quincy had not yet sent us the promised the results.
I ran a hand down my face, suddenly too keyed up to sleep.
I decided to make myself a cup of lomarta the way my mother used to for me as a child when I needed help going to sleep.
I’d done the same for Neal when he first came to me, his anxiety through the roof.
The human mates likened it to having a cup of something called Ovaltine or Horlicks before bed, with the same gentle effects these milk based drinks had.
Not surprising really, as lomarta’s main ingredient was milk from the julita, a domesticated animal on Mylos.
“Xeranos,” my voice rumbled softly once I was in the kitchen, “Lomarta please, one serving.”
“Having trouble sleeping?” came the response as a large mug appeared in the replicator filled with the requested beverage, the steam gently wafting from its top.
“Yes. I find myself wanting verification of just who that was we found and I am concerned that Dr. Quincy hasn’t sent us the information yet.”
“Perhaps there is something keeping him from doing so. Should I send him a message?”
I knew it was late where he lived, so he was probably tucked up into bed just as I should be. Still, he would see it first thing in the morning.
“Yes, please ask him to contact me first thing.”
“Message sent. Enjoy your lomarta, Jolar.”
Morris came into the room, tail held high. He made a soft mewing sound which sounded plaintive.
“Are you hungry?” I asked the cat as I sat down at our breakfast bar. He jumped onto the counter, nosing towards my drink. “No, no. That’s not a drink for cats.”
He gave me an unimpressed look.
“He can probably scent the milk content. Cats are extremely fond of milks. I can provide some lactose free milk formulated as a cat treat for him.”
Morris was not giving up on trying to get into my mug, so I stood up, mug in one hand as I replied, “Yes, please.”
The requested treat appeared already in a small bowl and I walked over to get it.
Seeing the bowl in my hand, Morris began pacing about, twining through my legs and around my feet, purring and meowing louder.
I bent down, quickly placing the bowl on the floor.
He immediately zeroed in on it. The sound of galloping paws had me turning around.
Neal’s cat had heard Morris and came to find out what was happening.
Her head quickly butted Morris’, trying to move him away so she could have the treat.
“A second one of those, please, Xeranos.”
I chuckled softly to myself as I placed the quickly produced second bowl onto the floor and Morris abandoned his to come gorge on the fuller one.
The cats both quickly emptied their bowls, and I placed them into the dish cleaner, requesting Xeranos make up a labeled carafe of the treat for me to store in the chiller.
The bowls would come in handy for giving them the treat.
I stood, sipping my drink, watching the two cats sit and begin grooming themselves, each keeping half an eye on the other.
They weren’t being unfriendly to each other, but it was obvious they were still getting to know each other better in this strange new place they also needed to get used to.
I smiled, knowing that the portents looked good for them becoming good cat buddies and perhaps even playmates.
I chuckled to myself as I placed the cup into the replicator.
“Recycle, please.”
An opaque safety shield slid up over the opening and the cup vanished in a haze of lavender light.
The shield slid back down. It was a safety feature Darla had Xeranos put into place on all household replicators to prevent unwitting accidents in case of a quite unlikely malfunction that occurred while a hand or pet cat was still inside the receptacle area.
The replicator had safety protocols against disassembling living flesh, but Darla had insisted and Commander Gundar had agreed that the redundancy would harm no one.
I looked around our new living space. It was more spacious than our last, including an extra bedroom which perhaps Mitch might like to use as a private place to study.
I made a mental note to ask him in the morning, but as I wandered back to our bed, my mind was already imagining the space with a desk for him.
He could shut the door to study in peace and quiet while I kept an eye on Neal, or if I was at work, Xeranos could monitor him while he played or watched a program.
I slid into bed, turning to arrange Mitch so his face was on my pec as I cradled him against me.
“Mm, what?” he muttered sleepily.
I dropped a kiss onto his forehead. “Everything is fine,” I reassured him.
“Okay,” he said, snuggling deeper against my side, not even bothering to open his eyes.
He really was cute. In fact he was the most adorable adult human I’d ever met, I decided as my eyes slid shut.