Chapter Text
In the last couple of days, Li’l Petey couldn’t help but notice all the changes that have been happening around the house lately.
At first, he didn’t take much notice– he was just so happy that his Papa was done with his invention and back at home with him, Dogman, and 80-HD.
While he understood that his Papa was working hard, he couldn’t help but miss him. The nights he was gone, even with Dogman and 80-HD there for him, the house just didn’t feel the same. A certain hollowness when his Papa wasn’t around.
Shaking his head from the negative thoughts, Li’l Petey smiled widely as he watched his Papa prep their dinner, with Dogman sitting at the table watching them.
“I’m so glad you’re done with your invention, Papa!” Li’l Petey couldn’t help clinging to his Papa, wrapping his paws around his Papa's leg and looking up at the older cat. “Oh, I never asked! What was the invention you were working on anyway?”
His question caused his Papa to go still, only making Li’l Petey look up at the other cat curiously.
“O-Oh, it was, uh–” the kitten watched as Petey glanced over at Dogman before turning his attention back to the food, putting extra force as he stirred the bowl in his paws. “Sorry, I can’t say. It's a secret, signed an NDA, and everything.”
The kitten could hear Dogman snickering in the background, earning him a glare from the older cat. The exchange made Li’l Petey pout, but he bit his tongue.
He didn’t like feeling left out of the loop.
His distress was eased away, though, when Petey set down the bowl he was holding and leaned over to pick up Li'l Petey.
“But what not a secret–” The kitten was brought into a tight hug, inhaling the calming scent of his Papa. “–Is how much I love you.”
The warmth of the hug wiped away any troubling thoughts the kitten had, only looking up from his Papa's embrace when he heard a whine from the table. Both cats looked over to see Dogman looking at them with his signature sad puppy dog eyes. Earning a laugh from the kitten and a sigh from the older cat.
“Get over here, mutt.” Li’l Petey watched as his father held one arm out, inviting Dogman into their hug.
‘Interesting…’ Li'l Petey didn’t get too far in his thought process before Dogman quickly rushed over, throwing his arms around them. Licking both the cats several times before Petey spoke up, trying to shield his face from the affectionate dog.
“Not in the mouth! How many times do I have to tell you that?” His father scolded, lacking his usual heat in his tone.
Watching Papa, Li’l Petey couldn’t help but notice how different Papa was looking at Dogman. Staring intensely at his Papa, trying to figure out the difference, his eyes widened once he realized it.
Papa, who was usually so secretive with his emotions and preferred to wear his heart on his cheek rather than his sleeve, was suddenly looking at Dogman with open and honest expression. One that he recognized clear as day.
His Papa cared about Dogman.
It wasn’t a secret to him that his Papa cared about Dogman– but it was something else entirely to see his Papa not hide away or try to cover up how he was feeling.
He couldn’t help but feel a growing curiosity– he wanted to ask so many questions! What had changed when he wasn’t looking? Did Papa do something? Did Dogman do something?
Before he could open his mouth to ask, Li’l Petey could hear the softest of purrs vibrate from his Papa. He wasn’t the only one to notice, as he watched Dogman also stare down his Papa.
His Papa shuffled nervously, still being held in place by Dogman.
“Stop looking at me! I can’t help it.” His Papa looked away, embarrassed by the betrayal of his own body. It didn’t seem to deter Dogman, though, as the hybrid brought both cats in for another hug, squeezing them tight.
Whatever questions Li’l Petey wanted to ask died on his tongue. Listening to the purring and enjoying the warmth of the hug, he didn’t want to think about anything else.
All he wanted right now was to enjoy this moment with his family.
Several days passed, and more things continued to change, becoming increasingly obvious by the day.
“What do you mean, I’m getting my own room?” Li’l Petey questioned, looking back and forth between his Papa and Dogman as they all sat at the kitchen table. “Is that even possible?”
He knew the possibility should make him excited– but Li’l Petey couldn’t help the twinge of sadness. He liked sleeping in Dogman's loft area. Even though the hybrid usually went to bed hours after him, it was nice to know that if he woke up in the middle of the night, there was someone there to comfort him.
“Of course it is!” His Papa flashed a smile at him, looking a bit smug. He watched as the older cat proudly brought up some blueprints with bright, bold lettering at the top reading ‘LP NEW ROOM.’
“TA-DA!” His Papa proclaims, smiling widely at the kitten.
Li’l Petey scanned the plans, his eyes growing wider the more he looked–
“I get to have a big boy bed?!” He yelled, causing both adults to flinch from the volume. The kitten smiled apologetically. “Sorry.”
Placing the plans along the table, he watched as the older cat reached over to pet him along his head. Li’l Petey couldn’t help but lean into the affectionate touch.
“Of course you can,” His Papa smiled down at him. “I’m sorry it took so long, kid. You deserve your own space, too.”
“My own space…” Li’l Petey began to envision his own room – a bed just for him, a dresser full of different clothes for him to wear, a box of toys, a shelf full of books for him to read, and a place to store his comics–
A thought comes to mind. He leans away from his Papa’s touch to look the adult cat in the eye.
“Hey Papa?”
“Yeah, what's up, kiddo?”
“Does this mean…” He knows he needs to be careful how he asks this. His Papa has changed a lot in the last few months, but he knows more than anyone how skittish his Papa can be if things are rushed or asked in the wrong way.“We’re living here?” He swallows. “For good?”
He waits with baited breath, worried that this room he was being promised was temporary– or worse – what if his Papa is planning on leaving him here and going back to the lab on his own?
His fears are quieted, though, as he watches a small comforting smile go across his Papa’s face.
“Yeah.” Li'l Petey leans into his Papa pets again, taking comfort in the touch. “We’re gonna stay here…” He watches as his Papa looks almost flustered-like at Dogman, giving a somewhat shaky smile. “As long as Gre- I mean, as long as Dogman is okay with us staying here?”
Li’l Petey watches as Dogman smiles back at his Papa, which wasn’t out of the ordinary. However, Li’l Petey couldn’t help but notice the look seemed a little different than all those other times.
Almost softer.
Li’l Petey shook his head. He must be seeing things. Dogman was always soft, especially towards them.
“ Of course it's okay, ” Dogsman smiles widely at them. “ I love my family! I always want to keep you both close. ” He tilts his head slightly to the side. “ I couldn’t imagine a life without either of you in it .”
Unsurprisingly, Dogman's words warm Li’l Petey's heart. He has always considered Dogman his family– from the very start. The dog has always looked out for him, mentored him, and loved him since the day they met.
However, despite the changes in the last few days, he still wasn’t entirely sure how his Papa would respond to Dogman calling them a family.
Subtly as he could, he looked over to his Papa's face from the corner of his eye. The sight almost makes his jaw drop in shock as he witnesses his Papa blink slowly at Dogman as his tail raises straight up with noticeable twitching.
He’s never seen his Papa like that before.
His eyes dart back to Dogman, wondering if the other adult in the room is understanding what his Papa is indirectly saying.
A single look at the dog tells Li’l Petey all he needs to know. Clearly, Dogman didn’t understand feline body language and was not picking up on what his Papa was saying.
His green eyes dart back and forth between the adults.
He knows he’s missed something.
He just doesn’t know what.
Another question pops into his head.
“Oh, Papa!” Li'l Petey could hear his Papa clear his throat as he turned his attention to him.
“Hm? What's up?”
“If I’m getting my own room, does that mean you are too?” He watches as his Papa seems to choke for a moment before gathering himself. Dogman suddenly looking anywhere else, but at them.
“Y-Yeah, something like that..”
Soon after that discussion, his new room was built a few days later. Another door being added to the living room area, a large “LP” plastered onto the surface.
The room was bigger than he expected– a large window with plenty of sun to shine in, freshly painted walls were already covered with dozens and dozens of his drawings, a big kid bed just for him, his original cardboard bed with the ‘Sleepy Kitty’ written on the side now holding a few stuff animals in his place, a box filled with toys and costumes, a that shelf full of his favorite books and comics, and last but not least– on the side of his bed table was a picture of his family – a picture of his Papa and Dogman on both sides of him, each holding one of his paws as the sun was setting in the background, with the stars visible at the top of the photo.
It was his favorite.
Glancing around the room, Li’l Petey nodded proudly to himself. He was more than satisfied with how everything looked, and now he had his own space to do what he wanted.
The possibilities were endless!
Excitedly, he ran out to the living room wanting his Papa and Dogman to come look at his newly finished room.
As soon as he opened his door, he saw his Papa, with 80-AD in tow, working against one of the outlets on the wall.
“Papa?” He peered over curiously, “Whatcha doing?”
“Li’l Petey!” His Papa looked over to him, with wires scattered over the floor and in his paws. “Gimme one second, I just need to finish this.”
“Finish what?” Li'l Petey takes a step closer.
“Just moving 80-HD’s charging port to the living room,” He watches as his Papa takes out wire cutters, splitting open the colorful casing and twisting copper wires together. “Figured it would be good if he had his own space too, ya know? I thought about giving him his own room, but he didn’t–”
“Own space?” He tilted his head curiously, “But Papa, I thought you slept in the living room?”
He could hear his Papa gulp loudly before turning around to face him.
“I was! But I’m, um..” He watched as his Papa’s face went through multiple expressions, along with his tail swishing anxiously. His Papa took a deep breath and exhaled before continuing. “Kid…I need to talk to you about something.”
“...Did something bad happen?” Li’l Petey asks hesitantly. The last time his Papa said they had to talk about something, his Papa was less around.
Was his Papa being taken away from him again?
“No! Not bad at all, at least I don’t think it's bad, it's just–” His Papa runs his paws across his face before looking back at him. “It's just different.”
“How is it different?” Li’l Petey gets closer to his Papa.
“It's different in the way…” He watches the older cat take another deep breath. “...In the way, you don’t know if everything will work out. It's unpredictable, and you’re not sure what's gonna happen next. It's the kind where if it goes wrong, you wonder if–” A loud gulp could be heard before his Papa continues in a quiet voice. “You wonder, if it fails, will everything be okay? If it's ruined– does that mean you risked it all for nothing?”
They sit in silence before Li’l Petey speaks up again.
“Are you scared, Papa?”
“Me? Scared? HA!” Papa scoffs before he looks away, his voice quiet. “...Maybe a little.”
“So, what is it then?”
“It's, uh, hm…” The older cat puts down the wires and then covers his face with his paws, “How do I say this…”
Before his Papa could continue, the sound of the doorbell ringing gained their attention.
“Saved by the bell!” Papa said, jumping to his feet as he hurried towards the door. “We can talk about it later.”
Opening the front door reveals a man dressed in a brown shirt and brown pants, holding a clipboard.
“Good afternoon! I have a delivery for…” The man squints down at the clipboard in his hand.”...Gregory Knight?”
“Delivery?” Papa looked taken aback. “He’s not home at the moment. Can I sign for it?”
“Sure! As long as I get this thing off my truck, I don’t care who signs for it.” Throwing the clipboard into his Papa's paws, he watches as his Papa sighs before scribbling his signature at the dotted line of the page. Handing back the clipboard, the older cat crosses his arms, looking expectedly at the man.
“So where is this ‘delivery’?”
“It's in the truck! I’ll be right back.” The cats watched from the front door as the man went back to his truck, lifting the cargo bed door and pulling out a large mattress.
The mattress invokes a response from his Papa, who chokes at the sight.
“Dumb mutt, I told you we could get the mattress later…” Papa says under his breath, so quiet that Li’l Petey almost didn’t hear him.
Pulling the mattress off the truck, the man began dragging a mattress across the ground towards them, pulling up dirt and grass along with it.
“Wait, wait!” He watched his Papa approach the man, arms waving in the air. “You’re gonna get it dirty before you even get it to the house!”
“Hey, my job is to deliver it, not keeping it clean.”
“Ugh.” Papa rubs two fingers against his temples. “Just stop. I got it from here.” With that said, the delivery man stops in his tracks, letting go of the mattress.
“If you say so, bub, I gotta make other deliveries anyway.” The man then rushes back to his truck, leaving them and the mattress behind.
Li’l Petey observed from the front door as his Papa attempted to pick up the mattress on his own before immediately stopping and rubbing his lower back.
“Yeah, no. I am not picking that up by myself, I’ll throw my back out.” Papa looks over to 80-HD, who's been watching with Li’l Petey. “80-HD, you mind giving me a hand here?”
With a whirl sound of affirmation, 80-HD walks over, single-handedly picking up the mattress and lifting it into the air easily enough.
“Thanks for the assist,” Papa starts to walk back into the house, “Could you take that upstairs to Dogman's room? The mattress was the last thing missing from the bed set, so with that here, I can finish putting everything together before Dogman gets home.”
“Wait,” Li’l Petey follows closely behind his Papa, “Dogman got a new bed?”
Going up the stairs, with 80-HD behind them, Li’l Petey sees a bed frame he hasn’t seen before on the ground. Looking around the room, he sees Dogman’s old bed off to the side. He looks on as his Papa directs 80-HD to put the mattress down onto the frame. Once set down, he watched as Papa picked up some sheets from a nearby clean laundry basket and began to make the bed.
“Papa?”
“Oh! Sorry, I got distracted.” Papa smiles apologetically at him as he tucked in the corner sheets. “What did you say, kid?”
“Why did Dogman get a new bed?” He questioned, pointing to the old bed. “What's wrong with his old one?”
Papa's focus on making the bed intensified as he asked his questions.
“Well, his old bed is, uh, literally torn up? It’s missing stuffing and just doesn’t have enough support.” His Papa’s voice lowers, as if he’s telling a secret. “And there isn't enough room…”
“Not enough room?” Li’l Petey questions. “It fits him just fine, though!”
“I mean, yeah, when it's just him,” Papa looks nervously at him, as he flattens the duvet on top of the bed before sitting down on it, “But about what I was trying to tell you earlier–” He watches his Papa take a deep breath in and exhale.
“I’m going to be sleeping with Dogman from now on.” Suddenly looking more nervous and embarrassed, he waved his arms around frantically. “I mean, I’m sleeping in the same bed as him! We’re going to be sharing a bed! That's all!”
A lightbulb lit.
Oh.
OH.
The dots connected, and Li’l Petey understood what had changed.
Smiling widely at his Papa, he approached the newly made bed.
“You’re not sleeping on the couch anymore!” He places his paws on the new bed, pressing down on it experimentally. “So now you sleep up here with Dogman, 80-HD gets the living room, and I have my own room– like a family!”
“Hmm…” Papa hums, a relaxed smile on his face. “Yeah…We are a family.”
“Yay!” Li’l Petey jumps onto the bed, his claws catching on the fabric and pulling him up next to his Papa. “Is it okay if I sleep with you guys tonight?” Li’l Petey gives his best sad puppy dog eyes– of the first lessons Dogman taught him. “Pleaaaaseeeee?”
He hears his Papa huff out a laugh before bringing Li’l Petey into a hug.
“Sure thing, kid.” He hugs his Papa back. “Just don’t make it into a habit.”
“I won’t!” He promises, but Li’l Petey knows himself well enough that it likely won’t be the last time he asks.
With the bed made, 80-HD’s new charging port completed, and Dogman arriving home later that night, everything went on as usual.
They all ate dinner together, laughing and talking about their day. Watching TV afterwards for a few hours. When the clock struck nine, his Papa looked at him expectantly.
“It's about that time, kid. You ready to head to bed?”
Li’l Petey pouts, he’s not tired yet– even if he is resisting the urge to yawn.
“Noooo.” Try as he might, he can’t help the yawn that escapes him.
“Pfft. Nice try.” Li'l Petey feels his Papa's arms gather around him, picking him up carefully. “Time for bed.”
“But Papppaaa,” He whines. “You said we’d all sleep together tonight! You don’t go to bed this early.”
He watches as Dogman tilts his head in puzzlement at them.
“Oh, right! I forgot to tell you…” His Papa gives a sheepish chuckle, scratching the side of his face with a free paw, “Your delivery came today, so uh, the bed is here.”
“Arroo?”
“Yeah, I have it all set upstairs, and I, uh, may have promised the little man here that we could all, uh,” Li’l Petey can’t help but be amused by his Papa’s expressions, especially when he was embarrassed. “Share the bed? Just for the night?”
Li’l Petey decides to be merciful to his Papa.
“Yeah, Dogman!” He cheers, smiling widely. “We can all sleep together! Like a slumber party!”
He watches as Papa and Dogman exchange looks with one another before they both smile back at him.
“Aroo!” Dogman howls joyfully. “ A slumber party sounds great.” Dogman looks up at his Papa, smiling softly. “ Are you ready for bed? ”
He watches as Papa returns the smile, holding out a free paw for Dogman to grab.
“Yeah.” Dogman grabs onto his Papa's outstretched paw. “Let's call it a night.”
And so they went upstairs and began to make themselves comfortable in the freshly made bed.
With Papa on one side and Dogman on the other, Li’l Petey is nestled in the middle of them.
“Hey Dogman?” Li’l Petey asks, catching the hybrid's attention. “Can you read me a story?”
“Ruff!” Dogman barks in affirmation, pulling out a familiar book from his new bedside table.
Clearing his throat, Dogman begins to read to him.
“Ruff! Ruff, ruff, arf– RUFF!” As Dogman continued to read off the pages, Li'l Petey felt his eyes grow heavier and heavier.
As he closed his eyes and let himself drift into dreamland, he didn’t realize that his Papa was falling asleep alongside him.
When Li’l Petey opened his eyes, he was greeted with the darkness of the room. In the dark, he could see his Papa sleeping soundly, with an arm thrown loosely over him, and a blanket covering both of them.
The kitten studied his Papa’s face– the older cat looked much younger when he didn’t have a constant furrowed expression on his face. It wasn’t often he saw the older cat sleeping, much less so deeply. The soft snores coming from his Papa made him smile. It was good to see Papa getting some well-deserved sleep.
Glancing over to his other side, he sees Dogman lying on his side, facing away from them, with the unmistakable light from a cellphone casting shadows across his face.
Curious, Li’l Petey leans over, glancing over Dogman's shoulder to see what has the dog up so late at night.
Seeing what was on the device causes the kitten to giggle, alerting Dogman to his presence.
“Arf?” Dogman barks quietly, shoving this phone under his pillow as he turns back over to the cats.
“Sorry about that, Dogman, I didn’t mean to surprise you.” Li'l Petey pulls the covers up higher on his Papa before cuddling closer to the sleeping cat. “Although I think you should know…”
“Arroo?” Dogman inches closer to cats, looking at Li’l Petey curiously.
“That Papa prefers gold over silver.” Shutting his eyes, Li'l Petey leans into the warmth of his slumbering Papa. His little body shakes with unspoken laughter at the barely audible whine Dogman gives before the hybrid pulls the blanket up further on all of them, and then places a protective arm across the cats.
Li’l Petey soaks in the warmth and love that surrounds him. In his last moments of lucidness, he couldn’t help but think that this was how it was meant to be.
That their family was always meant for this.