River nodded. “I need some fresh air. You three go set the kitties up in Rey’s room.”
The situation hit me then, and I blurted out, “They’re really for me?”
“Theo’s friend Jules had their hands full and needed us to take some animals. We decided that you might want to foster the kittens,” Lake replied as we walked up the stairs.
“Oh, I definitely want to!”
I could hear Seb’s smile in his voice. “Good to know that you have the needed enthusiasm for this job.”
I might’ve blushed. I guess I needed to add praise kink to my list of things to research.
They followed me into my room, and I looked around.
“The only spot where there’s room for them is by the window,” I murmured, gathering some books off my desk into a pile to make room for the carrier.
“I think Theo will bring in the pen they have for kittens and that would go really well against the corner by the windows for sure.” Seb put the carrier on the desk and flicked the desk lamp on. He then just reached into the carrier and picked up one of the kittens.
I gasped. “They’re so little!”
Seb turned the kitten in his big hands and examined it with the kind of efficiency only a professional would have.
“This one is a boy, and he’s in need of a lot of food and a bath, and not necessarily in that order.” Seb handed the black ball of fur to me, and I took it, feeling wide-eyed. “Be careful, he spits and hisses.”
As if on cue, the kitten spat at me and made the tiniest, angriest hissing sound. I startled, then laughed.
“The calico is a girl and she’s pretty much the same,” Sebastian announced and handed her over.
The final one was a boy, too, and just as grimy and hissy as his siblings.
“There’s no discharge from the nose or eyes, but keep an eye on that.”
I made a mental note of that. Shit, I needed to write stuff down.
The door opened and River came in with a giant bucket of stuff. Theo followed him with the playpen Seb had mentioned, and a bag of litter.
“We can wash them in the bathroom,” Seb added, taking a bottle of dish soap from the bucket.
“Is that dish soap?” Lake looked confused.
“Yeah, it should get off most of the grime and we only do it once anyway. Any future cleaning and we’ll use something milder,” Theo explained as he made sure the playpen was correctly set up in the corner where I pointed.
I didn’t like the corner, not with the big windows right above it, but that couldn’t be helped. I couldn’t rearrange the room in any other way. I wasn’t going to move my bed under the window, no sir.
“I’ll go get the blankets,” River said and vanished again.
The others and I formed this weird line where Theo handed over a kitten, I took it and washed in the bathroom sink with the dish soap, then gave it to Lake who gently dried it with the towel, and then Seb gave it another look to make sure it was okay and cleaned properly.
River had put the blankets into the pen and then gone to make pizza downstairs.
Once the kittens were dry and in their blanket nest, the others started to leave the room. I stayed by the pen, just looking at the tiny balls of fluff.
“Rey, wash your hands and change your shirt before you come downstairs to eat,” Lake instructed.
“Yeah,” I said absently.
“Within the next ten minutes, please,” he added in his big brother tone.
I did as told; after all, he’d brought me kittens.
