Yarmen meowed softly before licking his chops and settling back down. Oh, speaking of which, wasn’t he supposed to be drinking water? He grabbed the water bottle and reopened his project.
There was just so much to figure out before he could dig into the project. His boss needed to buy a test license for Leon to take the draft code he’d found on the internet and upload it into the system, then he needed to tweak it to fit their backend, before he could–
Yarmen let out a low snore, and Leon clicked back over to the pet page. There had to be a good bandana somewhere. He didn’t want to go to any of the chain pet stores, but maybe there was somewhere local he could go to after work?
His email pinged, but he ignored it as he began searching for pet stores within walking distance. There weren’t any in the neighborhood, but hadn’t James gone to one that was semi-local? It was in the city, for sure.
He looked around the desk for his phone but couldn’t find it. He did see his new water bottle, so he snatched that up and took a drink, which was when he remembered Aspen had his phone. Yarmen seemed to be out like a light, so Leon placed him gently on his chair before walking into the living room, still clutching his water .
“Hey, could I have my phone so I can text James to ask where he got Yarmen’s toys from?”
Aspen, who had been staring intently at their laptop, blinked up at him a few times. “You’re not drinking enough,” they said as they grabbed their own water bottle, which was almost half empty.
Leon wanted to glare at them, but they were doing him a favor, and for some reason, the act of scrunching up all the muscles around his eyes felt like too much work. Instead, he just gave them a flat look. “If I drink more, will you give me my phone?”
Aspen seemed to have no qualms glaring or at least narrowing their eyes. “Are you hungry?”
Leon shook his head because, no, hunger was about the farthest thing from his mind right now. He wanted to ask James about the pet store, see if they had any good bandanas, and then he could get back to work before the meds had too much time to kick in.
“Okay,” Aspen said slowly. “How about you drink and also have something to eat?”
They grabbed the bag of chips and hopped off the couch, sauntering over to Leon as they opened the bag and popped one in their mouth.
“I don’t–”
“Eat one,” Aspen said, shoving the bag at Leon.
Well, both AspenandCaden had told him he should try to eat. It would probably be easier if he just did what he was told, so he took a chip and shoved it in his mouth.
He crunched down on it with his molars, but something about the action didn’t feel right. He moved the chip around, seeing if maybe it would be better on the other side of his mouth, but that felt even worse.
What was wrong with this chip?
He must have been making some kind of face, because Aspen turned back to the coffee table and grabbed the bag of gummy bears. They opened it and popped one into their mouth, but then grimaced and handed the bag to Leon.
“Yeah, I don’t really like gummy candy either,” Leon said, trying to decline the bag, but Aspen pouted and pushed it into his hand. Leon sighed and put one of the artificially sweet bears in his mouth.
The flavor exploded on his tongue, but again the texture was off–or something. “Where did you get these snacks?” he asked around a mouthful of half-chewed gummy. “‘Cause I think they might both be stale.”
“Maybe. Might as well try the last one,” Aspen said before handing him the bag of marshmallows.
Leon hadn’t eaten marshmallows straight out of the bag since he’d gone camping with one of his buddies in high school. Knowing there was no point in refusing, he reached into the bag and pulled out one of the squishy cylinders.
Just like with the gummy, it seemed way sweeter than he remembered. “Wow,” he said as his teeth easily tore through the pillowy treat. “I forgot how good these are.”
Aspen smirked at him and handed him the bag before grabbing the two cups of soup and walking around Leon into the kitchen. “Have at ‘em then. I’m going to make us lunch. Finish drinking that water down to the noon line.”
Noon? That felt a little preemptive given the fact that it was only–
Leon gasped when he saw the time on his microwave read 11:58. “Holy shit.”
“I know, hon,” Aspen said, suddenly appearing in front of Leon. They placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a sheepish smile. “I think you just spent three hours researching cat toys.”
“Fuck,” Leon said, running a hand down his face and then, because it couldn’t hurt at this point, he shoved another marshmallow into his mouth.
“Did you feel focused, though?” Aspen asked.
“Clearly, since I somehow lost the entire fucking morning.”
