Page 53 of Tell No Tales
"I'll make sure Hannah has plenty of time with Captain Whiskermeow."
"Oh?" Vadim arched his eyebrows. "You've changed his name already?"
"I'm thinking of dropping the Captain," Klaus admitted. "Whiskermeow is cute."
Vadim knelt beside him and placed the kitten on Klaus's chest. He still had both gloves on.
"What did I tell you about your gloves when we're alone?"
"We're not alone." Vadim stroked his gloved hand down Whiskermeow's back.
"Unfair."
"I don't make the rules. Captain Whiskermeow is far too young and impressionable to watch two grown men carry on like teenagers."
Klaus caught Vadim's hand and tugged him off-balance, pulling him down for a kiss. "Thank you."
"I didn't do anything. This was all little Captain Whiskermeow's choice. First, he chose to die. Then, he chose to live."
"You helped him reverse his decision." Klaus kissed him again. "This wouldn't have been possible without you, so thank you."
"You would have gotten Niall to do it."
Klaus hadn't seen Niall since he'd returned to the ship. That meant he and the captain had already eaten and were probably already up to whatever they did when alone in the captain's cabin. "Doubt it."
"Well. It worked out, anyway." Vadim gave the kitten a final pat on the head, and then he expertly tumbled into his sail bed, barely making it rock above Klaus's head.
Captain Whiskermeow curled up on Klaus's chest. Soon, Klaus drifted off to exhausted but contented sleep.
Chapter 13
Vadim
Vadim woke to a plaintive mew from Captain Whiskers, or Whiskermeow, or whatever name Klaus had decided after that. Klaus had already changed his name two or three times in the short while they'd had him.
Vadim didn't wait for another sound. The kitten was so small, his bladder wouldn't hold more than a thimbleful. He slipped off the sail in the opposite direction of the mew and hoped the kitten hadn't silently moved underfoot in the meantime.
Satisfied he wouldn't step on him, Vadim tiptoed to the door and opened it a crack. The kitten was exactly where he'd left him the night before, solidly on Klaus's chest. The little guy was growing, too, as much as he was growing on Vadim. He really was an intelligent cat. He hadn't peed on Klaus, choosing instead to wake Vadim for another trip to the head.
"Come on then."
The kitten mewed again, and Klaus stirred.
Vadim leaned over Klaus and snatched the kitten up into his arms. "Shh. You'll wake him."
"Mew."
Gods, his plaintive cry was the most adorable sound in the whole world. "Mewskers. That's what your name should be."
He and the kitten did their business in the head. Afterward, they stopped in the galley. Thankfully, Tim was still asleep in his sail, and Vadim allowed Mewskers to sniff out whatever he wanted to eat. Together, they found more fish scraps in a bucket, and Vadim let the kitten eat to his heart's content until he trundled over to a corner, tried to wash his paw, and instead fell asleep.
"You're up early," Tim said as Vadim scooped Mewskers off the floor. "An' that one looks much better today than last night."
"Aye, he is."
"He ate? He's not dead?" Tim glanced at the kitten again. "He's already grown since yesterday," he said, answering his own question. "He'll make a fine mouser, if he keeps this up."
Vadim couldn't wait for Mewskers to drop a mouse on Klaus's mattress as a gift. "I'm looking forward to it."
