Roommates & Soulmates

Ch196: Alec's Chats

The meow was coming from somewhere. It sounded so desperate, in need. Alec just knew he had to help the poor creature. He wove in and out of rooms, looking under beds and opening cupboard doors. He found a family of mice behind the blue door and a swarm of dust bunnies under the bed, but nothing that could make a meow. Turning a corner he looked behind a couch and inside a wardrobe. Meow, meow, meow. But where was it coming from? The sound seemed to be right beside him, but the cat was nowhere to be seen. Getting frantic, Alec kept searching, moving through the hall and entering the room at the end. There was the blue door again. This was no good. He'd looked here already. Just then Alec felt something soft rub up against him. Now Alec could hear the animal's purrs but still he couldn't see anything!

It was at that exact moment that Alec realized his eyes were closed. Opening them Alec saw his bedroom ceiling. He knew at once what had inspired his dream. Coming into view from the left was the source of the meow. Chairmen had decided it was time for Alec to get out of bed.

"Meoow," Chairmen Meow stated as he rubbed Alec's face, purring and doing his best to look adorable.

"Pfft," Alec said as he spit cat hair out of his mouth. There were days when he wished Chairmen was a shorthaired cat, like Catsby. Speaking of, Catsby was there too, meowing and rubbing up against Alec's arm.

From the way they were acting you'd think they were both starving, but they were so not starving. Alec knew despite the fact that Magnus always fed them breakfast first thing in the morning byt the time Alec got up, around ten or eleven, the cats believed they deserved snacks. Some days Alec was strong but most days he caved to the adorable meows and snuggles. Once the treats were given however both cats would promptly ditch him to go find a patch of sun to sleep in for the rest of the afternoon.

"Meow, meooow," Chairman said as he rubbed up against Alec's face again.

"Yes, yes, I know, you want treats," Alec told the cat.

"Meeeow," Casby chipped in. His meow's sounded different these days. The vet said it was because Catsby was going deaf in his old age. Thanks to Catsby's losing weight the vet had put him on high calorie food while Chairmen seemed to be getting chubbier by the day. This had resulted in each cat getting a different type of food which meant locking Chairmen up in the bedroom when Catsby ate. Chairman Meow loved Catsby's high calorie food more than anything he was ever served and would push and shove Catsby out of the way to get it.

"Don't look so excited Chairmen," Alec continued talking to the needy feline. "Just because you're getting a snack doesn't mean it's gonna be the one you want."

"Meooow," Chairmen disagreed.

To avoid having to separate them again in the afternoon for snack time, they usually only put out low calorie dental treats. It helped keep their teeth clean and prevented Alec from dealing with annoyed cats all afternoon.

Once Alec was out of bed, he went out to the kitchen in the boxers and t-shirt he'd slept in to feed the needy beasts; then he started the coffee.

Today was one of those lovely days where he didn't have an evening shift and thus could spend the entire day as he pleased. Tomorrow though he'd have to be at work by noon.

Alec decided to start today off with a light breakfast and his laptop. He'd been killing time on youtube binging his favourite let's play channel for a couple hours when his phone went off. It was Jace. He wanted to hang out. Alec texted back saying sure just come over whenever and then got back to his web browser.

Ever since he and Clary had become friends again Jace's mood had improved, but the improvement in Clary's mood was much more obvious. It was like she'd stopped hiding behind the mask of politeness and just started being herself again. Magnus was more than thrilled by this. He'd been quite worried about his oldest friend and Alec too had to admit he'd grown quite fond of Clary while she'd been staying with them these last few months. True, she was no Paige when it came to the kitchen, but there was more to friendship than baked goods.