Harry Styles One Shots

Part 4 of: Harry and Y/N are rivals (nobody is sure if Harry knows that or not)

iv.

Cow, the overweight kitty with black spots, had been at the cafe for 4 months.

He certainly was a staple to the cafe already, and with how he trotted around you'd think he'd been there since it opened. The cafe typically picks kitties that get overlooked in centers where there is a lot of competition and only a little time for the cat to declare themselves as a suitable choice. They choose the older cats, who have trouble beating out the spry, sweet little things that don't have a bad past with children or dogs. They choose the introverted cats who linger near people they are comfortable with, slow to warm up when, at a different agency, they might get overlooked by the extroverted snugglebugs. They choose the kitties with health problems, special diets, and a long list of medications and costs that the average pet owner might avoid in favor of healthy cats who do not require as attentive care.

So, they chose Cow – a big, fat kitty with hypothyroidism. It slows his metabolism down, so even if he eats only a little it is still easy for him to gain weight. He is big, lugs himself around with the swish and swirl of his tail, flops down heavy with a thud, and is lazy as can be. He takes oral thyroid supplements to help regulate his metabolism and restore his out-of-whack hormones and visits the veterinarian more often than the other kitties (there's a vet that comes on-site, but they only visit once every two to three months). People want to adopt cats because they expect them to be easy pets, and able to look after themselves, so when they learn about Cow's health history they are less inclined to adopt him.

Harry, however, seems shocked that there isn't more he should be doing for him.

"I thought he'd need to go to the vet weekly or something," Harry had admitted, scrawling his signature across various pieces of paperwork. Y/N had been the one to see through the adoption process, instructing him (once she found out he wasn't joking about wanting a kitty) to come close to the end of her shift, so she could go home with him and help him and Cow settle. Now, was her presence really necessary? No, probably not, and she trusted that Harry could handle the transition with Cow well enough on his own. But it seems like lately she's looking for any excuse to get inside his flat and stuff her face into his pillows, and until Harry calls her out on it, she's going to keep doing it.

"He used to go more often," Y/N told him, scratching between the ears of wobbly little Seymour (who she swears has been whispering in her ear how much he wants to be best friends with Cobbler), "When he first came – they found him in an alley, so there's no telling how long his thyroid has been like this – so when he got here, there was a lot of adjusting his meds, and blood draws. He was a brave little man the whole time."

Harry smiled, the clipboard balanced on his knee while Cow lounged in the cradle of his lap. This made sense – Y/N thinks, from the moment Harry and Cow might have locked eyes, they were meant to be together. Like a witch choosing their familiar – or maybe the familiar choosing the witch. Cow was friendly, sure, but he never ambled up to anyone as routinely as he did Harry. And she swears, he has the saddest little meow when Harry grabs his keys to leave. Cats have a keen sense of smell too, and it seemed like any time Y/N came to work smelling like Harry, Cow was much more taken by her. The tip of his cold, wet little nose pressed into her neck while he balanced on his hind legs with his front paws to her chest to reach her – or maybe he had the top of his head pushed into her stomach. Things that he'd never done before.

The love was not unrequited, that's for sure. Y/N hadn't been able to focus on the fact that Harry had been drawing Cow on the airplane before when all of her focus was going on pretending (and failing) that she was not in the air. She'd forgotten all about the drawing until she'd come into his room after fussing over the party, and then again, a week or two after her heat, she saw he'd transferred it to canvas and painted it in his very - Harry style (dreamy and beautiful – it could probably be sold for top dollar in an exhibit and Y/N's left wondering why Harry wanted to pursue art history over just being an artist. Certainly, he could be commissioning paintings for a lot of money all around the globe). Anytime he saw her, Cow somehow was brought up, and she'd even taken to sending him photos when he wasn't around, of Cow in various positions – all of which he gushed and cooed over.