Against the Algorithm

Chapter 37: The One Who Stays

Summary: What begins as a simple vet visit quietly unfolds into something far more revealing. In soft silences and small moments—between growls, laughter, and lines unspoken—certainty takes root. Not just in how they move together, but in how neither of them moves away.

Notes:

Author's Note: Furry Shenanigans

Chapter Thirty-Seven

It was early afternoon, the gentle light spilling through the high windows of the base casting warm shadows across the living space as Yao moved carefully down the stairs from her apartment above, her steps quiet and measured, a bit awkward from the way she was adjusting the soft travel carrier in her hands. Xiao Cong, tucked comfortably inside, gave a curious little chirp, the kind that always happened when he was unsure if he should nap or investigate the sounds of downstairs life.

Yao bit her lip as she reached the last step, one hand curled around the strap of the carrier, the other gently pressing down to keep the kitten from trying to peek out. She didn't notice anyone at first, too focused on making sure she didn't jostle the little ball of fur too much. But the moment she lifted her head. She blinked, her steps halting completely as she found herself face to face with Sicheng.

He stood near the entry, dressed in black jeans and that signature leather jacket, keys dangling from his fingers and expression already set with the kind of unyielding certainty that made her feel flustered before he even spoke. And then he did speak—voice calm, casual, and utterly final.

"Did you really think you were going alone?"

Yao froze, her mouth opening slightly, then closing again. Her fingers clenched a little tighter around the strap of the carrier as her cheeks turned the soft shade of rose that had become all too familiar around him. "I... I didn't want to be a bother," she muttered quietly, ducking her head, her eyes flickering to the floor as she shifted her weight, the very picture of someone who had expected him to be too busy, too tired, or simply not interested.

Sicheng exhaled, the sound short and a little sharp, not in irritation but in disbelief—because after everything, this was still what she thought? He reached out, fingers catching gently under her chin to lift her gaze up to his, his thumb brushing once across the softness of her skin as his voice dropped just slightly—quiet, sure, but threaded with the protective weight that always slipped through when it came to her. "You're not a bother, Yao. You never were." And then, letting go of her chin but not of her presence, he nodded toward the carrier with an amused quirk of his brow. "Let's go. I want to meet the vet who's going to be stuck with your tiny menace and the thirty-five-pound one next month."

Yao's lips twitched, a small smile breaking free even as her face remained flushed. She glanced down at the kitten, who was pawing at the mesh, then back up at the man who had already turned to open the door, waiting—like he always did—for her to catch up. And she did. She always would.

The vet's office was quiet, nestled off a quiet street not far from the ZGDX base—familiar and warm in a way most clinics weren't, with soft ambient music humming from the speakers and a delicate herbal scent lingering in the air that somehow managed to calm even the most irritable animals. The front desk was manned by a young tech Yao vaguely recognized, but she didn't even get a full greeting out before a familiar voice carried in from the back.

"I thought I recognized you, Yao-er."

The door behind the reception counter swung open with practiced ease, and Dr. Li Mei stepped through with a dry smile already forming on her lips, her hair pulled back in a tight twist and a stethoscope hanging around her neck like a constant accessory. She had aged gracefully since the first time Yao had met her—when she was a shy, freshly settled nineteen-year-old girl with a traumatized rescue kitten and no idea how to speak comfortably to strangers in Mandarin, even though she had been living in China, Shenzhen exactly for a year, since she was 18.