Everything snapped back into focus like a rubber band when she let out a pained mew. He wasn’t sure how long it had taken, but when he looked at her, she was clearly pushing.
“That’s it, baby girl,” he murmured. His instinct was to pet her, but he didn’t want her out of whatever zone she needed to be in to get the babies out. “You’re a brave little Mouse, aren’t you?”
He spoke to her in a low, soothing tone, and eventually a dark blob covered in slime emerged from beneath her tail. It was weird, watching someone being born and someone giving birth, but he had to. She’d chosen him, and he had the responsibility now to be worthy of her trust and love.
Somehow she seemed to know what to do, and soon the first kitten was making the tiniest sounds known to man. Makai choked up a bit. Even the disgusting aspects like Mouse gnawing through the umbilical cord to set the baby free didn’t really shake that wonder he’d never felt before.
She cleaned the first one that looked light in color as soon as she got it dry.
“Gingery,” Makai murmured and grinned. Yeah, there wasn’t much question on the dad, especially if they had longer than average hair, but that wasn’t something Makai could tell from a newborn.
The next two kittens arrived in good, surprisingly fast pace, and ended up being darker in color than the first one, even after Mouse was done with them.
Although they didn’t seem to need much nudging in the first place, she nudged them toward the milk bar, and Makai reached to pet her. She headbutted him as much as she could and looked at him with what he could only think of as her proud “look at what I made” expression.
“They are lovely, Mouse. So pretty. Are there more?” he asked and carefully ran his index finger across each of the kittens’ back, feeling the silky fur and tiny, trembly bodies.
She concentrated on the kittens and rested, and Makai almost thought she was done. He went to make another sandwich and more coffee and came back to find her pushing again.
“Oh, some more?”
The last kitten was darker red than the first one, and Makai laughed. He sent a text to Doc Donovan, telling him the good news. It surprised Makai that it had all taken less than two hours, but when he looked out of the window, he saw it was morning now.
He did need a nap, though, and to change the bedding under Mouse and her babies.
He got up and went to find the large cardboard box he’d used for the stuff his mom had kept for him. It was clean enough, at least on the inside, so he cut a hole into one side, high enough for the kittens not to be able to crawl through anytime soon.
Then he went and found another towel—thank deity he hadn’t tossed them out, because they’d come with the house—and folded it neatly on the bottom of the box. He then raided his T-shirt stash, sighed, and resolved to get himself some more things to wear next time he was in Mercer. Or he could just buy a laptop and order it online, he guessed.
He took the box to Mouse and showed it to her.
“Okay, little mama, we need you in the bedroom, not in the corner here. Besides, can’t be comfy on the big wet spot.” He took the kittens, two at a time, and placed them into the box.
Mouse looked at him doubtfully, but he shook his head. “No, not getting them back. You need to follow me if you want them.”
He got to his feet and carefully carried the box with the mewling babies to the bedroom. He chose the corner where Mouse could see the doorway if she peeked through the hole in the box, and placed it down.
Meowing loudly, she came after him as if cussing him out for taking her babies.
“I know. But this is better. Trust me.” He petted her, made sure she could settle down without squishing the babies, and then went to clear out the corner.
He pushed the chair back in its place and took the soiled towels and things to the tiny laundry room. He’d had to buy a washer, too, but a drier he’d skipped altogether. He had space a plenty to put up lines for the little laundry he had. His list of things to get or fix kept growing, and he knew that realistically, he couldn’t really expect to be “done” in any way with all that in months, if not more.
Deciding that he could nap the morning away, Makai went back to the bedroom and settled down. He listened to the sounds from the corner. The happy purring of one accomplished mama-cat, and the occasional tiny mew, he guessed when one of the kittens lost a nipple and expressed outrage.
He fell asleep thinking that he wished he had Emil’s phone number to let him know the kittens had been born.
HE WOKEup around midday and felt surprisingly rested.
“How’s things, Mousey?” he asked without moving from the bed or looking at the box in the corner.
She meowed at him, and Makai chuckled. He got up and went to check on her and the kittens. Since there were still only four, he decided she really was done with the labor and petted her.
“I’ma go shower and make coffee. You must be hungry too,” he said to her, and she blinked at him slowly. Kitty kisses, he remembered someone calling the behavior. “Love you too, lady.”
He woke up fully while doing the morning stuff, and ended up in the kitchen, putting wet food on a plate for Mouse while the percolator gurgled. He was about to go and take the food to Mouse, but when he turned around, she was there, waiting for her food by an old placemat he’d put down in an out-of-the-way spot on the kitchen floor.
“Oh,” he breathed. “Well, suppose you can eat here if you want to.”
