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Andrew's opinions of the cats

What is Andrew's relationship with the cats does he feel anything towards them?

At the start they are just these things that are occasionally underfoot, as interesting as houseplants. But Sir Fat Cat McCatterson was destined to be a lapcat and he is not at all deterred by Andrew's apathy in him. They do the whole "I'm in your lap!" "I'm putting you back on the ground." "Back up!" "Back down." routine for a while, and Sir is not at all deterred by Andrew's observation that Sir would be more cooperative if he was tossed out with the trash.

It's made more complicated by the fact that the cats love sleeping in bed with Neil & Andrew. Andrew is used to Neil's weight by the time they bring the cats home, but a sudden weight on the bed in the middle of the night will wake him up every time. So for a while Andrew & Sir have this fuck-you fight at night, too, until Sir Fat Cat figures out he needs to get up on Neil's side if he wants to spend the night curled up next to a human. ((Once Andrew's fallen asleep again, he's free to sneak between their bodies for the extra heat if he so desires))

The cats grow on Andrew so slowly that Neil's half-convinced it'll never happen and Andrew doesn't see it coming, but it's the little things that slowly wear him down– the fact that the cats are generally so low-maintenance that they don't take a lot of energy to keep around, how excited the cats get when Andrew & Neil get home from Away games, the way Neil looks when he's absorbed in their furry roommates, the rumbling purr and quiet ball of heat when it's cold outside ((because cold is definitely on the never-ending list of things Andrew is not fond of)), the now-familiar twine of a tail around his calf when Andrew is cutting up meat in the kitchen, and the scratchy rasp of a cat tongue on the back of his hands. These things slowly become normal, until one day Andrew actually moves what he's working on out of the way so Sir Fat Cat can jump up into his lap. (("but if you even look at my plate I will skin you and put you out the window"))

((Neil is smart enough to never comment on this, because drawing attention to Andrew's tolerance is the fast way to get rid of it.))

Andrew still wakes up when the cats get into bed, but in the winter he'll let them under the covers and call it a self-serving bid for extra warmth.