Brett looked at his partner from across the dining table.
"Eddy?"
"...what? Sorry, did you say something, Brett?"
Brett furrowed his brows.
"What's the matter? Food not good?"
Brett had made dinner tonight. Eddy was a better cook so Brett would get a bit anxious if Eddy slowed down eating whenever Brett cooked.
"Oh.. sorry. No, the food is great Brett. I'm just a bit distracted."
"Hard day at work?"
"Um.. yeah... Yeah.. just a bit.."
"Oh my god Eddy!?!?"
Brett sprung up from his chair and hurried over to Eddy who had started crying. He touched his cheeks which were already covered with tears.
"Hey.. what's the matter? Tell me. Please."
"Sorry, it never gets easier. I hate it when I have to give bad news about a client's pet."
Brett furrowed his brows.
"I'm sorry to hear that Eddy... it must be awful to be the bearer of bad news."
"Yeah.. I've known her for so many years.."
"Who?"
"Mindy"
"Is that the owner or the animal?"
"The animal. She's a 17 year old cat."
"Of course."
"It's almost always their kidneys Brett. Cats usually end up with renal failure. It's terrible."
"I remember you saying that.. I'm so sorry. It saddens me to see you so upset."
They usually chill together on the sofa after dinner but Brett excused himself and went into his study. It was somewhat unusual but not completely out of the ordinary. Brett was after all a journalist so Eddy assumed his partner had a pressing deadline.
Eddy was chilling on the couch with the company of his favourite cat Pag on his lap when he heard Brett call out from his office.
"..Eddy?"
"Yeah?"
"Can you come into my office for second?"
"Sure..wassup?"
"Here, take a seat."
Brett got out of his swivel chair and lead Eddy to sit down. He then placed his hands on Eddy's shoulders and spun him around towards his desktop computer.
"What's up? What have you been looking at?"
"Research papers about AIM."
"AIM protein? It's a protein discovered by a research team who believed it would prevent kidney failure in cats, wasn't it?"
Brett widened his eyes.
"You know about it?"
"Yeah.. it's been known for about.. 5 years? I must have read it in one of the Veterinarian magazines I subscribe to.."
"Yeah.. oh wow Eddy.. I should've known you would've already known about this."
Eddy smiled.
"Brett, it's sweet of you to try to find information about kidney failure in cats.. I appreciate it."
Eddy gave a peck on Brett's cheek, then he was about to get up from his chair.
"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, not yet."
Brett quickly wrapped his left arm around Eddy's neck, almost strangling him.
Eddy gasped.
"What the.. mate you almost choked me"
"Sorry, I had to be quick otherwise once you fully stand up I can't get a hold of you like this."
Brett was able to settle Eddy back down into the chair with his left arm still wrapped around his partner as he grabbed the computer mouse with his right hand.
"What is it?"
"Eddy, there's more."
"More? You mean about AIM proteins?"
"Yeah, it's such a coincidence, this just in from a few days ago."
Brett clicked on the adjacent browser tab.
"...Brett, it's not in English."
"Eddy, that's what a translator app is for."
Brett clicked a button on the top right corner of his screen and the whole page turned into English.
"Oh my god how'd you do that!?"
Brett shrugged.
"Eddy, I do a lot of research as a journo. It's an essential tool. It was worth investing in a good one."
"Ok, lemme have a look at this.."
Brett remained leaning onto the backrest of the chair Eddy was sitting in, resting his chin on Eddy's shoulder. He was expecting Eddy to say oh wow just about... now.
"Oh wow."
Brett smirked. He remained silent as he slowly rubbed his cheek against his partner's at his leisure. Next, he was expecting Eddy to say oh sh*t just about... now.
"Oh sh*t"
Brett sighed as he pecked Eddy on the cheek.
"I know. I'm sorry."
"A successful delivery of this treatment could result in doubling the life expectancy of cats by preventing feline renal failure. It may even have the potential to reverse it once occurred.. Oh my god. Brett, this is incredible...!"
"I know right"
"F*ck, then it says their research showed so much promise and attracted so much attention yet it had to be put on hold because of the pandemic?! This sucks."
"I know. I'm sorry."
"It says here that mass-production of cultivated AIM protein is very time consuming and costly.. and it says here their funding has been cut. Their sponsors have pulled out due to financial hardship caused by the pandemic... I wonder if I could make a donation..."
"We could, Eddy. I'll look up where. How much do you wanna donate?"
"Hmm. $100?"
"Okay, I'll match it. Lemme find the website of this university research team..."
Brett clicked around for a while, then paused and furrowed his brows.
"Eddy.. they don't have an option to donate to this particular research team."
"What? That's odd."
"Look. See? There's no option to choose these guys from this dropdown box. The news article did say they were a low profile research team.. I could send an email inquiry to say that I read about them in a news article and ask how to donate for their cause."
"What language are you gonna write it in?"
"In English. In case they use a web translator as we have, I gotta write it in simple sentences without any idioms so that the gist doesn't get lost in translation. I'll do it now."
Brett momentarily paused to see if Eddy would get up from the chair, but since he didn't Brett just sat on his lap and started writing up an email as if there was nothing to it. Eddy simply rested his ear against his partner's back, listening to his heartbeat and taking in his scent. After a few minutes, Brett turned around to face Eddy.
"Okay. Done. I've sent it to the university's general inquiries. It's a small but good start, Eddy. You never know, maybe something good could start from this."
To be continued....