ODDS OF SURVIVAL - TAEKOOK

CHAPTERSEVENTEEN

Having never actually owned any pet other than a fish, Taehyung had never experienced the pleasures of being woken up by a small, furry creature demanding to be fed.

Even if he had, he probably wouldn't have been prepared to endure a tiny, cold nose nudging itself up his left nostril and purring directly into his nasal passage.

The unexpected sensation ripped him from sleep with a shocked yelp and he jerked his head backward to collide with something hard which started spewing a string of curses.

While he cringed, holding the back of his head with one hand and furiously rubbing his nose with the other, his brain slowly caught up with the waking world and a realization dawned on him. "Coco?"

After blinking a few times, he spied the cat in question crouched only a few feet away, eyes wide and tail puffed out to twice its normal size.

Behind him Jungkook sat up in bed, and Taehyung glanced back to see him wincing and holding the bridge of his nose, still cursing. "Fucking what the fuck!?"

Taehyung rolled his eyes and leaned over the edge of the mattress, reaching out to the startled cat and making little kissing noises. "

Come on, Coco. It's okay. How the hell did you get up here?"

Coco sniffed cautiously before approaching again, her purr resuming full-force as she bunted her head into Taehyung's palm.

Taehyung smiled and sat up, gently gathering her onto his blanket-covered lap where she turned and purred and rubbed herself against every part of him she could reach.

Her tiny claws still pricked his skin a bit everywhere she stepped despite the blanket, but she seemed so happy that he didn't have the heart to push her off, so instead he did his best just to hold her still.

"I'm sorry I scared you, darling. I guess you forgive me, though."

Beside him, Jungkook let out a groan and slumped back onto the bed again, stretching and yanking on the blanket to curl up under it.

"Cats can climb ladders. I saw it on YouTube," he mumbled. "She's probably hungry, but I dunno what the fuck we're gonna' feed her. I think there's maybe one can of tuna left on the shelf."

Taehyung was only half-listening to Jungkook, but the bits he caught made him worry a bit. Their food stores were getting low in items with animal protein, which hadn't bothered him too much before.

They'd gathered plenty of canned and dry beans, peanut butter, and a few other things high in plant-based proteins, but a cat couldn't survive on that. "Do you think she'll hunt?"

"Maybe. Some domestic cats don't bother, but I assume she had to in order to survive for however long by herself," Jungkook said.

Coco slipped loose of Taehyung's hands and stepped cautiously over toward Jungkook, sniffing curiously until she hesitantly put her front paws on his chest and leaned close to sniff his face.

For a moment Taehyung thought Jungkook would swat her away, but he just heaved a sighed and stroked her back, then gave her chin a little scratch that ratcheted up the volume of her purring.

"She must not have been very good at it, though, with how skinny she is."

Taehyung's nose wrinkled in irritation and he gathered Coco back onto his lap, huddling her away from Jungkook. "You don't have to insult her. I'm sure she was doing her best."

"I'm just making a point. She obviously needs more than what she can find for herself, so if you want to keep her alive she'll need to be fed."

Jungkook rolled away and reached for a fresh set of clothes from the neat stack of clean laundry he kept by the bed, then stood up and stretched, gloriously naked and shivering a bit as the cool air hit his skin.