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[captainjack]

Seven cats and two dogs was too much for one snowed in house. When they could all be outside most of the time, Jack had no problem with it, but with them all inside, it was driving him crazy. Dulcita's litter was old enough now to leave their mother. He'd already promised to give a couple away, but that still left him with more kittens than he

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[scottysous]

For his part, Scotty can't wait to get his hands on one of those kittens. While he maybe would prefer to have a dog, he couldn't pass up the opportunity to take one of the kittens off Jack's hands, and anyway, they're just too adorable to turn down. He'd been meaning to drop by Jack's hut -- well, house now -- and ask if the kittens were almost ready to leave home, but he hadn't gotten around to it yet. Walking into the Compound, he sees he won't have to bother, since Jack and the kittens were already camped out on the floor.

Grinning, he joins Jack, settling himself down and glancing around at the little furry things crawling all over the place. "Your entourage keeps growing, Jack."

[captainjack]

Jack snorted and shook his head. "I'm hoping to shrink it by the end of the day. You want one? Tell me you want one," he said, holding up an adorable little ball of fluff and offering it to Scotty. "You know you want it."

[scottysous]

"I've been scheming to get my hands on one of these kittens for a while now," he tells Jack as he accepts the offered kitten. It's wriggly and warm and furry in his hands and Scotty feels like a four year old girl because of how giddy it makes him. "You mean you don't have enough animals living in your house? You want to give away these adorable little things?"

[captainjack]

"Oh, God," he groans. "I'm amazed that I can take care of myself, some days. Since it snowed, it seems like we're over run. I can't wait to have them adopted." And with the look on Scotty's face, he can tell that's one down.

[scottysous]

"Well, I'm happy to take one of them off your hands," he says, trying to play it cool though he's entirely distracted by the kitten currently exploring his lap. "Hey, ow," he laughs, reaching down to pry a claw out of his jeans. The kitten flicks her tail from side to side and butts her head against Scotty's hand whenever he tries to keep his thighs from getting pricked by her claws.

[captainjack]

"Just one? Come on...how about three," Jack teased. One was enough. One was obviously what had claimed Scotty as its own. Jack wasn't sure the kitten could be taken from the man with all the force in the universe.

Not unless Scotty decided to lose the pants. Which could be interesting.

"What are you going to call it?" he asked. "I'm not even sure if it's a boy or a girl."

[scottysous]

Scotty might be tempted to take on two, actually, but he's hesitant to be too confident in his abilities to keep another living creature alive. He's never had a pet since he's been out on his own, and he wants to focus all his attention on his new little kitten.

By that he of course means that he wants to spoil her to no end.

"This one is," he starts, catching hold of her and turning her over to check, "a girl. Which is good because I wanted a girl, and I already have a name. Vixen, in honor of the season." On her back in his hands, Vixen wriggles her paws and squirms, trying to get upright again. Scotty lets her go, and she climbs back up Scotty's thigh, settling down on his knee.

"Did you know all of Santa's reindeer are girls?" he asks, watching the kitten switch her tail. "Only girl reindeer have antlers in the winter."

[captainjack]

Jack blinked at Scotty a few times, trying to put girls, Christmas, and reindeer together into a sensible picture. He kept getting stuck on girls...but he finally managed.

"I did not, in fact, know that," he chuckled. "That's an interesting bit of trivia. How often do you get to tell people that?"

[scottysous]

"Exactly. It's my favorite piece of Christmas trivia. And that's why her name is Vixen," he says with a grin, running his finger down his kitten's back. His kitten.

This is probably one of the best Christmas gifts he's ever gotten in his life.

[captainjack]

"I'm missing something, I think," he replied, not at all ashamed that he didnt understand. There were a lot of twentieth century bits of trivia that were completely lost on him.

"What do reindeer have to do with why you named the kitten Vixen?"

[scottysous]

Scotty gapes for a second, a friendly surprise on his face. "You don't know the names of Santa's reindeer?"

[captainjack]

"...Apparently not," Jack replied. "They have names?"

[scottysous]

"...Jack," he says, laughing softly. "They do. Let's see... Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, and Blitzen. Have you ever read 'The Night Before Christmas?' If you haven't, you should. It's a holiday staple."

[captainjack]

Jack gave Scotty a blank look.

"Is it a book for kids?" he asked. He'd certainly never read it during the war, and it wasn't a staple of any sort on Boeshane or in the Time Agency. Of course, little things like that tended to slip throught the cracks of education. He had some slang, and yet was missing large gaps of things like...television. That simply hadn't been his assigned era.

[scottysous]

Jack is always charming, that's for sure, but somehow his blank expression and his cluelessness just makes him all the more ridiculously attractive. God, that's so unfair. Scotty smiles warmly and nods; he scoops his up kitten, who protests at being held, but Scotty keeps a hold of her as he goes over to the bookshelf on the odd chance that he'll find the book there.

"It is... It's a poem that they made into a story... I probably have parts of it memorized by now; you hear it everywhere during Christmas..." Vixen is squirming too much, so he leans down to set her on the floor; while he's down there, he spots the book he's looking for, sticking out between some copies of Rudolph and Frosty in book form. "Here it is," he grins, pulling the book free and joining Jack on the floor again.

[captainjack]

Jack wrangled a kitten into his lap and looked at the brightly illustrated book. Something sparked in his memory, but that was all there was. Just a spark...no actual thought to go along with it.

"Are you gonna read me a story, Scotty?" he asked, half teasing and half flirting, though he truly didn't mean to. He simply couldn't help it.