"What the hell is that?!" Rodney stared at the bed and almost dropped his laptop.

"I thought you wanted a cat," John said, leaning in the bathroom doorway.

"Yes, a cat," Rodney replied. He moved cautiously toward the bed and then poked at the mound of fur. "Not, you know, a hairy mop."

"His name is D'Artagnan." The cat rolled over, exposing a broad belly covered in fluffy white hair.

"Looks more like a Porthos to me," Rodney said absently. He poked at the cat again, not wanting to have his hand ripped off if this cat had belly issues. "When I said cat, I was kind of thinking of something more...well kittenish."

D'Artagnan chose that moment to mew, a tiny sound for so large an animal. Rodney patted his belly, which proved to be just as soft and silky as it looked.

"He's a Maine Coon," John said, smirking a little. "Look at his feet, there's fur on the bottom of them so he can walk on snow. Isn't that cool?"

"Will we see lots of snow here in Ventura?" Rodney asked. He continued stroking D'Artagnan's belly and the cat began purring loudly. "Don't mind John; he's not very bright."

"Hey, don't turn him against me!"

"I'm the smart one," Rodney said. "I'm the cat guy. I'm the one who'll end up feeding you and cleaning your box while that guy sits in his shop waxing boards." He ignored the outraged noises John was making. "I'll even brush you, if only to keep your fur out of my keyboard. And you know, while I'm on the subject of keyboards, you do realize that the laptop is out of bounds, right?"

D'Artagnan nudged him and Rodney scritched him under the chin. "You'll have to help me break John in. You're going to love his shirts." He tugged lightly, pulling up a mat of white and gray hair. "He wears a lot of black."

"I am so screwed," John said.

Strangely enough, Rodney thought, John sounded perfectly content. "So am I," he said, and smiled at John.

-end-

Notes: If anyone knows the area, their house is just off Seaward where it ends at the beach. This is the cat in question. This story was originally written for Trobadora.

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