Chapter Text
Friday night was sacred. No matter what either Brienne or Jaime had going on at work, no matter if they were dating other people or too tired to think about going out, Friday night was their night.
This week they were gathered at Brienne’s one-bedroom condo with cartons of cheap Chinese takeout, ready to watch Kingsguard Live, where members of the Royal Police streamed their most interesting traffic stops. Tonight’s show started with a very drunk man in Khalasar cosplay insisting he be allowed to ride his pony across six lanes of King’s Landing traffic, before becoming hopelessly trapped in a roundabout.
“His costume’s all wrong anyway,” said Jaime, stuffing a dumpling in his mouth. “He’s not even wearing a braid.”
Brienne nodded, her mouth full of sesame chicken and noodles. “Cheap Party City rubbish. They can arrest him for that alone.”
“He’d be laughed out of any serious Khal Drogo convention. Bet he can’t even sew.”
The show shifted to commercials and Jaime headed toward the fridge, where he’d stashed two bottles of wine; sweet red for himself and something a little drier for Brienne. He knew where everything was, quickly finding two glasses and the corkscrew, but then stopping as he faced the kitchen window. A tiny orange kitten was casually hopping through the open, unscreened window and down into the kitchen sink.
“Brienne, do you have a cat?”
“No?”
“Are you sure you don’t have a cat?”
“You’re here all the time, I think even you would notice if I had a cat.”
“Well, then someone else’s cat is making a little nest on your kitchen sponges.”
“What the?” She started to jump up and run toward the window, then thought better of it, not wanting to spook the tiny thing. Creeping slowly, she could see a kitten that would easily fit in the palm of her hand. “It’s so small. We’ll need to find its Mum.”
“We can’t leave it in the sink, can we?”
“No, we need to make a little bed. He looks cold.” She reached out to stroke the tiny head and was rewarded with the smallest of purrs. “Go find some towels or something.”
Jaime went to the bedroom at the back of the condo. He’d been through Brienne’s bedroom plenty of times, as the only bathroom was inside. It reminded him of a hotel with no clutter to be found whatsoever, and barely a sign that anyone lived there. The bed was always made, no matter how early or late he showed up. There’d be clean towels in the cupboard, all blue, all neatly folded in tight stacks.
He had a second thought and decided to go for the closet rather than the bathroom. Brienne kept her shirts arranged neatly by colors, rows of black, grey, blue and purples. He reached for a faded blue shirt he knew well: Tarth High Volleyball across the front in blocky letters. It was soft and worn, becoming a bit shiny and see-through to be honest, not that he would ever, ever mention to Brienne that he could see the lace of her bras quite clearly when she wore it. And even though it was freshly washed, it still smelled of her deep in the fabric. He looked around to be sure she hadn’t followed him and gave the shirt a quick but deep sniff.
When he came back to the living room Brienne had the cat in her lap.
Jaime held out the t-shirt. Brienne frowned.
“That’s my favorite shirt.”
“I bet it’s the softest thing you have in this house.”
“I know, but it’s….my favorite.” Brienne hesitated with her hands still covering most of the kitten.
“He’s still shivering, we need to get him in something warm.”
“I don’t see you giving up your favorite shirt to a cat.”
“Fine.” He unbuttoned his own plaid shirt. Underneath he had on a tight grey t-shirt that accentuated every muscle he’d been carefully curating at the gym. Brienne attempted to focus her gaze more intently on the cat. She failed.
The worn and still warm flannel shirt made a very serviceable cat bed.
“Do any of your neighbors have cats?”
“I don’t know a lot of them well. I suppose we’ll go out tomorrow and make the rounds.”
“What if he doesn’t belong to anyone?”
“I guess I could take him to the Humane Society.”
“You could always keep him.”
“I mean, I could. I don’t have a single thing for a cat though. What if he’s hungry? I can’t feed it sesame noodles and a fortune cookie.”
“Don’t forget we also have wine.”
“Not helpful.”
“Ok, we’ll need kitten chow, and a bed, and a litter box of course, and some toys or he’ll destroy the house while you’re at work…” We, he thought. I said, we…
“He’ll need a name. And is he even a he? I can’t tell what’s what on a cat.”
Jaime gently picked up the cat and peeked at its underside. “Definitely a he.”
“Then we need to get out to PetSmart or something before everything is closed for the night, so he can have somewhere to play. And to poo.”
“I can run out and grab a few things. Target’s still open.”
Brienne quietly crept back out to the kitchen to grab the almost-forgotten wine and settled in with the kitten and a terrible fantasy movie called Dracarys that would only be improved the deeper she was into the bottle. Her main enjoyment would come from seeing how many times the movie would roast the same extra alive and pretend it was a different person. She moved the cat, still tucked inside the shirt, onto her lap. She couldn’t resist pulling out a sleeve and giving it a quick sniff. It smelled so much like Jaime, fresh clean manly smell and some citrusy cologne. Brienne found herself being ever-so-slightly jealous of a cat. What would he do if he came back and I was wearing this shirt?
Thirty minutes had passed, right about the time the movie got incredibly tedious with burning an entire city and collapsing the same piles of rubble over and over while no one had any idea why the dragons were in such a mood to burn random people. The cat, like Brienne, was unimpressed and had fallen asleep.
Someone knocked at the door.
Brienne held the cat to her chest and went to open the door, assuming Jaime was already back with too many cat toys for one person to carry.
But at the door was a very worried looking small boy and his father.
“DAD!!!! It’s him!” The boy’s face lit up as soon as he saw the orange fluff in Brienne’s hand.
“I’m sorry to bother you, but we live in #22, and our cat just had kittens a few weeks ago, and I think one of them has gotten out. “ He peered at the kitten. “Is that your cat?”
“No, actually this little one came right in through our kitchen window earlier tonight.” I said our, she thought.
“My goodness, I hope he’s been no trouble. We realized he was missing an hour ago and we tore the house apart, finally found the back door open. “
“Mostly he’s been asleep. He’s a good little fellow.” Brienne bent to hand the kitten back to his young owner.
“Her name is Chloe,” said the boy quite indignantly.
Brienne smiled at the boy’s father. As the boy sat down in the doorway to play with his kitten, his dad spoke again, slightly lower.
“We’ll sort all that out one day. And I’m Hyle, we just moved over here a few weeks ago.”
“Brienne. How do you like the neighborhood?”
“It’s been great so far. So many kids for little Tom to play with. He’s having the time of his life between that and these kittens. Don’t suppose you’re looking for a kitten of your own? We have five more at home.”
“I’ve thought about getting a cat or something. Could we come by and look at them tomorrow?”
“Of course. We should be back in after 2. Come over and we’ll see if there’s one you’d like. They should be ready to leave their mama in another week.”
“I’d love to. We’ll stop by.”
“I best get both these little boys back up to bed, assuming this one isn’t too excited to do any sleeping. We’ll see you sometime tomorrow then.”
Tom clung tightly to Chloe and only waved goodbye.
Jaime arrived just as they were walking away, carrying two large canvas shopping bags.
“Am I too late?”
“Yep. Our little pet just left with his real family.”
The two came back inside and settled on the couch, going through the goodies he’d brought home.
“I found these matching food and water dishes, blue with silver paw prints. A covered cat box that looks like an end table, so your living room can stay all minimalist-looking as you like it. I have both dry and wet kitten food, in chicken and salmon flavor, just in case he’s picky. A collar with a bell on and a collar without. Toys in the shape of fish. Toys that crinkle. This mouse is battery-operated and will run across the room at intervals that you control from an app.”
The stack of cat paraphernalia now covered most of the coffee table.
“Did you leave anything at the store? One or two other people in town might have bored cats too.”
“No, because I couldn’t decide and then I thought I’d better hurry and get back in case he was hungry or had to pee or whatever and so I just got one of almost everything. I guess I’ll have a big return tomorrow.”
“Or not. I’m thinking I should get a cat. It gets lonely here sometimes, when it’s just me.”
“I thought you were more of a dog person.”
“I was, but with work and everything, a cat would be much easier to manage.”
“I’m a little insulted though, how often do you think you’re actually here alone?”
“Every night?”
“Not remotely true.”
“It’s just me most of the time, and you when you’re over.”
“Friday night I’m here, every single week.”
“Yeah.”
“And then I usually come over on Sunday afternoon so we can go for a jog and watch some of your goofy historical dramas about the Iron Throne and whose butt sat on it in what year…”
“And then you find an excuse to come over on Wednesday night to do your laundry, as if you don’t have a better and more expensive washer and dryer at your own place. You use all my dryer sheets.”
“Thursdays we go out for drinks and karaoke with everyone and I don’t even drink because it would ruin my singing voice, but somehow I always have to sleep on your couch because it’s too far for me to drive home.”
Brienne stopped for a moment and gathered her courage.
“Jaime, why do we even have separate places?”
“I think you said something about how highly awkward it would be if you ever ran into one of my dates wandering naked through the house the morning after.”
“It would be equally awkward for you to overhear me with one of my dates.”
“Let’s be real, Bri—when was the last time either of us had a date?”
“I’ve been out with people.”
“But be honest, we never go out with anyone else. We’re always together, when would you have time for a relationship with someone else? Or even a fling? Can’t really bring someone else home if you must explain why there’s a shirtless man sleeping on your couch 5 nights a week.”
“Are you saying you’d like to be here less often?”
“No, the opposite. We should be together. I was thinking, while I was out shopping, how incredibly silly it was that I’m buying all this for a stray cat that we’d probably end up having to give back to some old lady or take to the Humane Society, and I realized, I didn’t care.”
“I was hoping we’d get to keep Chloe.”
“You do remember she’s a he, right?”
“Tell the little boy who was set on naming her that. I have good news. They have five other kittens that need good homes, and I promised we would come over tomorrow afternoon to have a look.”
“We’ll get our first cat together?”
“Actually, I was thinking we might each get one.”
“So I can have a cat at home who gets ignored constantly when I’m not there?”
“Maybe you could keep him over here. I’ll still be gone all day for work, and they’ll be good company for each other.”
“What about me then?”
Jaime leaned in and grazed her neck with his open mouth. Brienne smiled and moved in closer.
“I think I’ll have to keep you over here as well.”