Scent

Turnabout is fair play

Kongpob was sitting with his eyes cast down and his imaginary ears lowered.

In front of him, his P' was scarier than ever. With a stern look on his face, and with a loud, clear, steady voice, was reading his book and notes. And the more he read, the more Kongpob realized the mess he had gotten himself into.

"'Try narrowing your eyes at them as you would in a smile, then close your eyes for a couple of seconds. If they respond in the same way themselves, you'll be able to start a sort of conversation.' Really Kongpob? Really?"

"P'-"

"I haven't finished yet!"

"'Tasty treats once in a while are just what your companion needs to feel rewarded and loved. Foods and treats can help cement bonding between you and your cat.' You even write a note. 'Don't overdo it. Too many Pink Milks may cause an upset stomach.'" Arthit looked up at him. Kongpob froze. "Is this why you filled me with food?"

"In reality, the salads are because you ate too many sweets."

The senior gave him a dirty look before looking back down at his book. He started reading again and the wolf braced himself for more words that he really didn't want to hear.

"'If you can't avoid looking at your cat, blink repeatedly so that they don't perceive you as a threat'. And again 'All cats have a favorite petting spot'. You gotta be fucking kidding me." Arthit snapped, exasperated. "You even write a note with 'Not his hears'. What the hell would you know about my ears?"

"Do you remember when-"

"It was a rhetorical question!"

"Oh. Yeah. Obviously." The boy muttered, looking down and seeming guilty and ashamed.

As he should have.

-

And that was how he lost the chance for their date. Apparently Arthit hadn't appreciated the cat care book Kongpob jealously kept in his desk. Okay, maybe it wasn't the book per se but rather his notes that irritated him. Oh, and then there was the fact that his notes coincided with what his P' defined his "strange psychopathic behavior".

Kongpob spent the next few days pining over his senior's picture. Obviously, he hadn't taken secret photos of him; that would have been creepy -May words-. Hence, he had taken a picture of his badge -May hadn't commented about that, but she didn't seem to approve-.

He had even tried to reach him over the weekend, but each call and message had been ignored. Then Oak took his phone and sent him some kitten stickers. A lot of stickers. At that point, Arthit blocked his number.

With this background he was not particularly surprised when on Monday Arthit just greeted him politely and then ignored him. His grumpy -but still cute- senior ignored even all the Pink Milks Kongpob had left on his desk. He simply moved them to P'Earth's place.

After the fifth ignored Pink Milk, and the umpteenth dirty look, Kongpob decided to give the lynx his space.

Or at least he had tried. But after almost a week, he had reached his limit. It was eating at him day in and day out being close to his mate, but not even being able to talk to him.

Therefore, on the fourth day, taking advantage of the absence of his other colleagues, he approached his still sulking senior.

"P', I'm really sorry about the cat book." He added under his breath. "In my defense, there were no books on lynxes."

Arthit finally took his eyes off the computer and looked up at him.

"I'm sorry." He corrected himself immediately, twisting uneasily under his piercing gaze.