#( jsut a small intro eh? xD )

[tooxldtorememxer]

@ubcs wrote: [83﹕ sender  is  discovered  having  a  panic  attack  by  receiver. ]

Six days elapsed. Nikolai is scheduled to come back the following day, according to the calendar hung on Carlos' bedroom wall, and, paperclipped to it, that 90s-quality xerox copy of his flight information.

Loneliness took nibbles out of his rational mind. By the third day, he'd already driven nearly two hundred miles away to a dive bar where no one knew him. Somewhere that he didn't need to mention his pretend partnership. Anonymity allowed him to find human warmth and affection without the risk of a scandal.

By the fourth day, Carlos was spread out on the couch, struggling to continue reading a "How To Take Care Of Kittens For Dummies!" help book while eager paws hit at the corner of the pages.

On the sixth day, he restocked the fridge and made a Brazilian-Quechua fusion dish that Nikolai never refused (that was as close as a positive review as he could get from the guy). It was dark now, but Carlos was just outside in the modest backyard, patching up a crack in the foundation he had spotted in one of his many restless projects.

The landline bleated, but as fate would have it, he missed the calls that had failed to reach him all day to relay the message that Nikolai would be returning a half day earlier than expected, in order for his flight to avoid inclement weather later.

At the back door, he kicked the dirt off his boots, letting out a breath from the satisfaction of hard work. It struck him that, while he was ready to defend the exit from the escape attempts of a wily kitten, the creature was nowhere to be seen. Hypervigilance spread through him, a cold, tense feeling that followed him down to his bare feet. The door slid behind him silently, and he went further into the house on quiet pads.

A light bled out into the hallway. He froze, clutching the caulking gun in his thick gloved fingers, all the while knowing he hadn't left that light on. Twisted by memories not of here, deranged possibilities flooded his head. Intruders from another continent, having tracked him all this way, to take the life that escaped them. He heard footsteps and acted immediately, pressing back into the dark corner of the laundry nook, making himself as small as he could. He didn't have a gun in here, only the repair tool—readied, atremble, like his whole body, buzzing with fear and an adrenalin high.

Was it annoying that his one phone call had gone unnoticed? It sure was, especially when he knew Carlos was mostly glued to his phone. The rest of the calls had been made from the facility but Nikolai had no way of knowing that they would be making them. Someone had apparently put in a request. The tests had gone exactly how he’d thought they would, immaculate and showing no reason for him to be worried about it or the mission.

He’d returned ‘home’ and was a bit suspicious about the fact that the first person he greeted on the street was that dog’s owner that Carlos usually talked so much about and not the man himself coming bouncing down the street. That was the first thing that told him something was off, the second thing was the furry creature sitting in the hallway looking up at him as if it owned the place.

A cat? Really? Nikolai mentally rolled his eyes so hard he might have twisted his head backwards. He had suggested Carlos get a pet while he was gone, hadn’t he? It looked like he had taken that seriously unless it had just wandered in from the street itself which was… did it have flees? He hoped not.

“Carlos?” he asked the empty and quiet house without taking his eyes off of the little creature that had now flopped over laying on its side before it got up again and rushed off, tail in the air Ok? He shook his head and put away his coat before he ventured further into the house to put his dirty laundry away and grab himself a glass of water. and that when he found Carlos, hidden away in his corner with a kitten trying to get his attention to play. Great, now he had to deal with this as well.

“Get out of here, shoo,” he said and, surprisingly gently, pushed the kitten away with his foot. “Carlos?” he said as he got down into a squat in front of him. “Oliviera!” he said more sternly and grabbed his shoulder tightly. If he just got one ounce of recognition or a mild wobble to the spiral he was obviously caught in, it would be easier for him to get out of it.

#ubcs #nikolai | character #family life | verse #( jsut a small intro eh? xD )