#rhysquez

“Hugo?” Rhys called out, trying to zero in on his boyfriend’s location. A soft thump sounded from the direction of their bedroom, followed by a muffled voice. Both noises drew Rhys down the hallway, his curiosity piquing as Hugo’s voice grew louder and more distinct, though Rhys couldn’t yet decipher what he was saying.

Or who he was saying it to—his mind nastily supplied as he approached the ajar bedroom door. Rhys scowled, shoving the needling little voice aside. Hugo wouldn’t cheat on him.

But he confusion and suspicion only grew as he crept closer, standing right outside of the room with his ear nearly pressed against the doorframe. Hugo was speaking softly, making it still difficult to comprehend what exactly he was saying, but Rhys did pick up “easy” and “careful and “shhhh.”

His stomach fluttered anxiously as he took a deep breath, before pushing open the door and striding straight into the bedroom.

He saw Hugo hunched over the side of the bed for a brief moment before the man noticed him and whirled around, his palms out defensively.

“R-Rhys! Don’t…don’t scare me like that….” he nervously chuckled, lowering his hands slightly but keeping them at stomach level as Rhys walked closer, hands on his hips. He couldn’t see anything immediately—if Hugo had brought home another man, he’d be easy to find—but his boyfriend’s anxious behavior immediate validated his alarm bells.

“Hugo…what are you hiding?” Rhys raised his eyebrow, trying to look over the man’s shoulders, but even with his advantage in height it was hard to see beyond his bulk. Stupid muscular boyfriend. What kind of secret was he keeping?

“It’s nothing,” Hugo assured, a little too firmly. Rhys stuck out his lower lip in suspicion, fixing Hugo with his “I-know-you’re-lying” stare. Hugo was really pretty bad at fibbing—he had ticks that Rhys had leaned like the back of his hand by now. When he was lying and nervous about it, he would casually rub one pec with the opposite hand, as if he was trying to distract Rhys by drawing attention to the body he adored so much. But Rhys wasn’t fooled by that any longer.

“You know, if you don’t tell me what’s going on, there’s going to be….consequences…” Rhys put his hands on his hips to show he was being super serious. “Really unsexy consequences. I don’t think you want that.

Hugo faltered.

“Rhys…”

The younger man was about to open his mouth, when a sudden, tiny little noise cut him off. He froze, his hair suddenly standing on end.

“What was that?” He quickly brushed past Hugo, only for the older man to grab at his wrist, missing by an inch as Rhys danced around the foot of the bed. Before him sat a nest of fabric that Rhys quickly identified as Hugo’s Tuesday jacket—a dark, heathered blue with silver buttons—wrapped loosely around a litter of tiny, damp little kittens.

Almost instantly, Rhys’ suspicious melted.

“I…I found them while I was walking to my car…” Hugo stammered as he squeezed past Rhys, kneeling down next to the kittens. One mewled softly, raising its little head into Hugo’s broad palm. It looked huge compared to the tiny little creature, reminding Rhys of how perfectly his own fine hands fit in with Hugo’s.

“Sorry…I know you’ve been pretty adamant on the whole ‘no pets’ thing and I get it, you don’t want some little thing screwing around with our stuff but…” Hugo ran his other hand nervously through his hair—Rhys noticed it was still a little damp. “I couldn’t just leave them out there, you know? I didn’t know where their mother was, but if she left them while they were this young I…I just didn’t want to leave them to die…”

“Hey hey hey, Hugo, come on, don’t start crying on me.” Rhys calmly rested his hand against his boyfriend’s forearm, a small smile forming over his lips. He turned his attention to the kittens, chest warm at the site of the little creatures mewling and crawling all over each other as they nuzzled against Hugo’s fingers.

“I’m not heartless, you know,” Rhys murmured as he rested his head against his boyfriend’s shoulder, “I’m not gonna make you put a bunch of helpless kittens out in the rain.”

“I…I know, I just…” Hugo faltered as one of the kittens softly nibbled on the tip of his finger, “I wasn’t sure you’d be okay with it.”

“Well…we’ll have to talk about whether we can keep—“ Rhys quickly counted, “—nine kittens in a two bedroom house, but for now we can make sure they’re warm and fed until they’re ready to be on their own.”

Hugo’s smile brightened as he tilted his chin towards Rhys, capturing his lips in an affectionate kiss.

“Well…we were talking about maybe adopting some kids one day…”

Rhys chuckled as he sat down on the ground, reaching out and carefully stroking the folded ears of one tiny, orange kitten. It mewled softly at the touch, melting his heart further.