Chapter Text
“What the hell?” Bern stands in the doorway and stares in confused amusement at the scene in front of him.
Aeik is sitting cross legged on the floor, grinning from ear to ear while holding a small pouch of something out of Lucan’s reach. Lucan, meanwhile, is leaning heavily against Aeik’s opposite side, wriggling and making small chirping noises, clumsily trying to bat the pouch out of Aeik’s hand.
That’s not the unusual part, though. The unusual part is Kostya, sprawled out in a limp heap across Aeik’s lap, pupils blown entirely round, and staring into the distance with the tip of his tongue sticking out of his mouth in an awfully endearing way.
“Oh, hey Bern!” Aeik greets cheerfully, easily deflecting Lucan’s hand from pawing at his hair bun.
“What the hell?” Bern repeats. Aeik’s grin grows, if possible, even wider and he raises the little pouch.
“Catnip!” he declares gleefully. Bern snorts.
“I see.”
“We wanted to see if it has the same effect on Cat witchers as on actual cats,” Aeik explains, deflecting Lucan’s hand from his hair again. “It does!” He doesn’t seem entirely unaffected himself, actually. His cheeks are a bit flushed and his eyes a little glassy.
“Clearly,” Bern nods solemnly. He can’t help but smile, too, though.
Lucan mashes his face into Aeik’s shoulder then, rubbing his cheek against Aeik’s neck, and tries to wriggle into his lap. His moving displaces Kostya, who startles up on all fours with an almost yowling noise. He looks around the room wildly, until his eyes fall on Bern. Then his face lights up with a dopey grin, and Bern finds himself with an armful of happily wiggling Cat witcher a second later.
“Any idea how long this will last?” Bern asks as Kostya wraps his arms and legs around him and begins gnawing affectionately on his shoulder. It really shouldn’t be so endearing!
“No idea!” Aeik says brightly, laid out flat on the floor with Lucan sprawled out on top of him, head tucked under Aeik’s chin.
“Wonderful! I guess I’ll just take my clingy kitty and put him to bed, and if I don’t see you at supper I’ll come pick you up.”