Cat Got Your Tongue

May 07, 2012 19:38

Title: Cat Got Your Tongue
Fandom(s): Infinite
Pairing: SungKyu/SungJong
Rating: G
Summary: SungKyu has lost his pet. He is not happy about this.
Warnings: none
Disclaimer: Not mine, not true
W/N: Written for kpoplikecrack's exchange. She gave me cat in a tree, SungKyu/SungJong (among many others; half of the names I didn't even recognize).
Recipient: starandnight


"We can't find SungJong."

SungKyu looked up and blinked at SungYeol and MyungSu, who were supposed to be watching SungJong, not quite sure he'd heard right. "What?"

"We can't find SungJong," SungYeol repeated.

SungKyu lifted an eyebrow, then stood up from behind the desk. "How do you just... lose SungJong? Did he slip his leash again?"

MyungSu shook his head. "We were finding him to take him on a walk when we realized he was gone."

Oh, lovely. The most expensive pet he owned, lost because someone probably left a window open somewhere. "His rooms?"

"Closed," SungYeol said. He still held the leash they were going to use to take him on the walk.

"Locked?" SungKyu asked.

"The windows were, yes," MyungSu said.

SungKyu glanced down at his paperwork, and abandoned it. It could wait. He did not want SungJong shot, or worse, taken in by animal control. "Go put that away and make yourselves scarce a while," he snapped, and strode out of the room, flanked by his ever-present body guards.

Knowing his pet's inclination for heights (genetically created that way), he headed outside to the courtyard in the middle of the manor. He had a couple of towering trees there, and if nothing else, he could start there. If not... maybe the roof.

"He's not out here," the gardener said, straightening from his crouch by one of the trees.

So the news had already spread. SungKyu didn't know if he were glad or upset, but decided on glad. The more eyes out, the better. He turned to DongWoo.

"Get WooHyun, see if he can figure out where he went."

DongWoo nodded and strode off as SungKyu made his way to the back door of the manor, Hoya following loyally behind him. DongWoo and WooHyun met him at the back door. SungKyu stopped and gestured for WooHyun to precede him. He didn't want to mess up any tracks SungJong might have left.

Movement across the lawn caught his attention, and he stopped WooHyun. "I found him," he said. "You stay here."

"But...." Hoya protested.

SungKyu sighed. "Fine. You. You two stay here." He strode across the lawn to the copse of trees, where he could see a long tail dangling from the lowest branches. As he grew closer, that tail vanished higher up the tree. When he reached the tree and looked up, he could barely make out brown eyes and perked ears among the leaves. "Would you please come down?"

Eyes and ears (and tail) vanished.

Goody. Silent treatment. SungKyu shrugged out of his suit coat and slipped his shoes off, leaving them in a pile at the bottom of the tree.

"Need a hand up?" Hoya asked, offering his cupped hands.

"Thank you," SungKyu said, set a foot in them, and began to climb.

It had been a while (like since high school or before) since he'd climbed these trees, but he still remembered how to get up. Mostly. And he knew he'd have cuts to tend when he got back down, but that really didn't matter right now. Finally he reached the branch SungJong crouched on, further out than he dared to go, his ears pinned back, his tail curled around and the tip twitching in irritation.

SungKyu settled himself securely, an arm around the trunk of the tree, the nearest foot hooked around it as much as possible. It left his other foot dangling, but that didn't matter. He felt mostly steady. "So. What's wrong?"

SungJong's tail twitched faster, then he moved, shifting forward but still out of reach. SungKyu knew better than to try to reach him before his ears perked forward. Genetically engineered claws still hurt when he scratched with them.

"Do you know how long it's been since I've seen you?" SungJong asked, breaking the self-imposed silence.

SungKyu frowned. "Not that lo...."

"Three weeks," SungJong interrupted.

Surely not. SungKyu's frown deepened, thinking through his schedule.... He was surprised and more than a bit ashamed to realize that SungJong was right. "That has to change," he said.

SungJong's tail slowed and his ears eased, but he still had them back. Not safe yet. "How?"

Of all places to hold this conversation. On the other hand, where else? "I don't know. Your suggestions?"

SungJong hummed softly, a different hum than his purr, and scratched delicately at his ear. "You don't have to keep me on a leash," he said.

SungKyu opened his mouth to explain that he didn't have time to walk SungJong every day... and stopped. Why didn't he have time? He'd spent a lot of money to get this rare pet of his, and now he was ignoring him. "I'll add it to my calendar."

"Tomorrow?" A wealth of wistfulness in that word.

SungKyu regarded him seriously. "Today. We're out here now, aren't we?"

That did it: SungJong's ears perked forward and he stretched out along the branch to rest his head on SungKyu's knee. Relieved, SungKyu petted SungJong, feeling the delicate ears go back against his palm only to spring forward again as he stroked from the crown of his head to his nape.

"You need a haircut," he mused.

The ears shifted back again, but not too much. "Not the last one you had in. She clipped my ear."

"She cut it too short," SungKyu said. "I'll find someone else." Besides which, no matter what she'd said, he could see SungJong's ears just fine with his hair longer, and no one else mattered. He didn't know who, but... there had to be som¬eone else.

SungJong's ears perked forward again, and SungKyu continued to pet him. ¬After a while, though, he became aware of how uncomfortable he was, and sighed. "I think we should get down," he said.

SungJong sat up, scooting closer. "Good. How?"

SungKyu stared at him, and then laughed. Apparently the original boy had never climbed trees before, and the cat he was now hadn't either. "You could follow me down," he said, and started to go slowly down the tree again.

It took longer than it should have, both because he was so stiff (it'd been years since he'd climbed trees), and because he had to stop occasionally to coax SungJong down to the next branch. Eventually though, they made it down, SungJong bounding from the lower branch to the ground and reaching it before SungKyu did.

Hoya looked at them both, amused. "Welcome back to the ground," he said, and handed SungKyu his jacket.

SungKyu took it and threw it over his shoulder, slipped his shoes on, and then reached up to pet SungJong one more time. "So, I still have work to do," he said, watching the shadows on the lawn rather than the pet next to him.

The shadow ears went back.

"I thought you'd like to join me," he went on. "I can't avoid it, but I can make it so you're there when I am, if you'd like that."

The shadow ears edged forward, and SungKyu grinned.

He was going to have to remake his office. Well, he should have done that some time ago. Until then... maybe he'd do his work in SungJong's rooms.

fandom: infinite, fic: cat got your tongue

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