ok ok ok ok i got super super excited cuz this is my fav chapter so far i think!!!! PLS enjoy :)
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November, 2018
As she stepped off the elevator and into the foyer of her apartment on Franklin Street, Taylor blinked several times at the large plant in the corner as the sense of familiarity slowly started to settle in. For the first time in months, she felt like she could actually breathe. Like she could finally relax. She could actually unpack her bags now instead of just replace her dirty clothes.
When did they get a plant in the foyer?
She took in a deep breath, expecting to smell the fresh linen scented candles Kaia liked to keep in every corner of the house and light almost every evening, but instead she found herself wrinkling her nose at the faint smell of shit. She could still smell hints of soft musk and lavender but it barely even masked the smell of cat faeces.
"What the fuck, guys," Taylor groaned as she kicked off her shoes in the entryway and bent down to pick up Olivia who had started rubbing her back against her leg. "Which one of you has explosive diarrhoea, huh? Where's Kaia?"
It was just past six o'clock in the evening now and when she texted Kaia right before taking her nap on the plane ride from Tokyo, it didn't seem like she had any plans. Taylor checked her phone quickly, but the last message she had sent to Kaia, letting her know that she had landed safely was still the last one in their chat. She hadn't read it yet.
Olivia let out a loud meow and Taylor let her down and went in search of the litter boxes in the extra utility closet downstairs that she had converted for the cats' leisure. It was large enough to hold their three litter boxes but they always left the doors open to let the cats in at any time which meant that if you didn't immediately clean the litter, the smell tended to travel to the foyer and stink it up.
"Holy shit, what's going on, you guys?" Taylor exclaimed as the three cats just watched her with their innocent owl faces. They stood back like royalty, waiting for the peasant human to get her hands dirty and clean up their shit. They weren't her cats, no, she was their human. "For fuck's sake, I might just stop feeding y'all so much if you're going to keep dropping these foul turds. Three of them, twice a day... that's six too many turds, guys."
Taylor shook her head furiously, going to grab the pooper scooper and a plastic bag from one of the shelves but she couldn't find the scooper anywhere. Fucking hell. She put on two layers of gloves and wrapped a plastic bag around each hand before crouching down in front of Meredith's litter box first but as soon as she did, she was hit by an even stronger whiff of the smell of poop and Taylor had to stick her face inside her sweater to avoid puking everywhere. She still couldn't help the gag that made her convulse in horror.
"Oh, god..."
Taylor got up and ran to the linen closet in the hallway upstairs. She rummaged through the neatly placed beige storage boxes at the bottom of the closet but she couldn't find any pegs she was hoping to use to block her nose. Well, she's never had to use them considering she had a dryer. With a defeated sigh, she went to her room and rummaged through Kaia's hair accessories. She found a red paisley bandana which she thought would have to do just fine for now. She stuffed each nostril with a tissue and wrapped the bandana tightly around her face until she could just barely breathe through her mouth. It would have to do.
She steeled herself and walked back downstairs to the cat shitters. She could barely smell anything, but then again she could barely even breathe, which was fine for the next few minutes at least. But even as she looked at the pieces of turd in those litter boxes mixed with some pebbles thanks to her cats' poor attempt at covering up after themselves, she still felt like puking. She shuddered in disgust and went to grab a bigger garbage bag. She fit it around the entire litter box and emptied all of its contents into the bag. She did the same thing for the other two boxes and replaced the soil in them with the brand new, unopened bags. Finally, she pulled the makeshift mask down and took a deep breath. She could still smell some shit coming from the garbage bags but it was considerably better.
Taylor sighed with relief, turning to leave when Meredith jumped into her own litter box and started peeing.
"Jesus, Mer, are you serious?" Taylor cried out, on the brink of losing her patience. "I literally just cleaned that up!"
The cat just blinked up at her unapologetically.
Does it look like I care, you puny, insignificant pest? she seemed to say.
Taylor sprayed a good amount of Febreze around the closet, almost emptying the whole bottle, and proceeded to take her layers of gloves off and toss them in the giant poop bag before stepping outside to throw it down the garbage shoot. But as she stepped back into the foyer, she could still smell the shit, and it definitely wasn't coming from the bag in her hand. It was all around.
"Oh my god, did you guys poop in the house?" She cried as a deep fear she had never felt before gripped her tightly. "I swear to god, I will not hesitate to put y'all up for adoption. If I find shit on the carpets or behind the couch, you can go and find new moms."
Olivia just meowed in response, mocking her in cat language. She knew Taylor couldn't even make the threat sound serious. They had her right where they wanted her, wrapped around their tiny cat toes with no room for escape. They owned her.
Taylor left the bag by the door and wrapped the bandana around her nose and mouth again before hunting whatever crevice the smell of shit was still coming from. She was sure the smell was coming from one of the rooms downstairs. She checked every carpet, under every table and chair and every hideout she knew the cats like to frequent but she couldn't find any pieces of turd anywhere.
She found herself crouched on all fours, looking under the couch in the living room but it was too dark to even see anything down there. She went to reach for her phone which she had left on the coffee table to use the flashlight when she heard some shuffling behind her and a stifled laugh.
"Uh... babe, what are you doing?"
Taylor jumped in surprise, letting out a small curse under her breath as she fell back on her ass. She twirled around and looked up to meet Kaia's eyes, her lips caught between her teeth as she struggled to keep a straight face.
"Tell me I'm not totally insane and hallucinating and you can also smell the cat shit?"
"Yeah, I accidentally dropped the pooper scooper in Meredith's shit earlier and I was not going to grab it, so I just went to buy a new one instead which I know is wasteful but I almost vomited everywhere trying to pick it back up with all these turd bits stuck to the handle," Kaia explained, holding up a grocery bag. "Is it just me or have their turds become worse these days?"
"They definitely became worse," Taylor replied and then she let out a chuckle, dropping her head back against the couch. "God, I just cleaned their litter boxes. Where is this fucking smell coming from?"
"Oh, you did?" Kaia frowned, glancing down at the new pooper scooper she hand in the bag she was holding and back up at Taylor, worry lines appearing on her forehead as her mouth hung open. "Uh... how did you do that?"
"Oh, I just emptied the whole thing into those big garbage bags and replaced it with new litter," Taylor explained, pulling the bandana down again. Kaia snorted, shaking her head at Taylor.
"You've got tissues in your nostrils."
"I know," the blonde grumbled, rolling her eyes. "I was going to pass out in that crap closet. Can't you still smell it, though?"
"Yeah..." Kaia admitted, scrunching her nose. "Is it not coming from the crap closet?"
"No, like I said, I just cleaned it up," Taylor told her. "It's coming from somewhere else."
"Oh god, are you sure?" Kaia asked, her face bunching up in a grimace.
"I don't know, I've been looking for the source for like ten minutes now, but I can't find shit."
"Ha," Kaia managed to chuckle. "Literally."
Taylor rolled her eyes and went to grab her phone again. "You know, this could go a lot faster if you helped out," she said as she laid down on the carpet again to check under the couch with the use of her phone's flashlight this time.
"Are you sure it's the cats and not like the sewers or something?" Kaia asked, walking over to Taylor's side, though she didn't make a move to sit down and help out.
"I don't know, Kaia! It smells a lot like Olivia's shit!"
"Wait, so you can differentiate between the smells of their shits now?" Kaia asked through a laugh.
"Yeah, she has the worst smelling poops in the world," Taylor told her before sitting back up. There was nothing under the couches. "Somehow, they're worse than yours after eating spicy food. Or beans."
Kaia sent her a shit-eating grin in response, clearly enjoying this situation a lot more than she should have been.
"Babe, I don't think these guys would poop in the house. They're all too meticulously clean," Kaia said. "Well, not Dibbles. She's like a fratboy half the time, but she's never pooped anywhere besides the litter box, has she?"
"I don't know, maybe she's secretly a genius who has figured out how to hide the evidence until now?" Taylor shrugged, climbing up on the couch and laying back in defeat. "Maybe she's acting up now because we haven't spent enough time with her and she wants attention."
"She's not a toddler, Tay, I don't think she really cares," Kaia chuckled, flopping down next to Taylor. She pulled the pieces of Kleenex out of Taylor's nose and grinned even wider at her as the blonde wrinkled her nose in that cute way she always did.
"She does act up and use Katara's litter box sometimes," Taylor mentioned, rubbing her face with her hands.
"Hm, well, she is a menace. She knows Katara's too nice to get revenge."
As though she had sensed that they were talking about her, Olivia materialised into the room and hopped up on the couch, curling up in Taylor's lap. She immediately started purring which made Taylor groan loudly.
"How the shit am I going to be mad at you when you're so shitting cute?"
"You've got to stop saying shit," Kaia laughed, scratching the cat's head gently.
"I can't get the smell of shit out my nose and all I can think about now is shit," she muttered just as Olivia got up and ran away, as though she had realised what Taylor was accusing her of. "Okay, well, now she certainly looks guilty."
Kaia couldn't help but laugh, scooting closer to Taylor's side until their faces were only inches apart. "Let's try and forget about shit and Olivia's mischief for a moment and let me say hi to you properly? I kinda missed you, you know."
Taylor smiled at Kaia, but it looked more apologetic than affectionate. "Honey, I really can't think of anything that romantic with this smell in the house. God, we're going to have to burn this whole place down, aren't we?"
Kaia rolled her eyes in exasperation, sitting back with a heavy sigh. She rubbed her chin while looking straight ahead at the black television screen when she saw Olivia's reflection jumping behind one of the potted plants in the back corner of the room.
"Oh my god, you little shit," Kaia exclaimed, getting up really fast.
"What?"
Kaia pointed at the parlour palm tree just as Olivia squatted and started peeing. "What the fuck?"
"Oh my fucking god, Dibbles!" Taylor shouted, up on her feet just as fast as Kaia. "What is she doing?"
"I have no idea, but I think we know where to look for the shit now..."
"Fucking hell, where did she learn that?" Taylor exclaimed, walking over to Olivia who blinked up at her unashamedly. Taylor picked her up, looking at her in disbelief, but she had no idea what to do. "Dude, you can't fucking pee in the plants!"
"Yeah, I think that's gonna teach her not to do it again," Kaia muttered, crossing her arms over her chest. But now that the shock had worn off, it was hard not to laugh. "Well, shit, how long has she been peeing in plants for?"
"I don't know!" Taylor exclaimed, finally letting Olivia go. "This is insane!"
When their eyes met, they both burst out laughing at how ridiculous the situation was.
"Okay, well, we've got at least a hundred plants in this house. So, let's start looking for the one that we'll be burning," Kaia started, taking a quick look around the plant that Olivia had just peed in just to make sure there weren't any turds in it. Thankfully, that one was poop-free, but it only meant they had to keep searching.
They went around the room, checking every single potted plant they had, big or small, but they were all clean. Taylor was about to walk back into the living room in defeat when she stopped near the entryway and raised an eyebrow at the large plant in the corner with thick leaves.
"Hey, hon, when did we get a banana tree?"
"Huh?" Kaia appeared in the foyer a second later with her eyebrows furrowed. She looked at Taylor and then the plant, her mouth turning into an O in realisation. "Right, I thought the entrance needed a bit of green to liven it up. I got it last week. It's called a, ah... Birds of Paradise, I believe."
"Right, well," Taylor cleared her throat as she peered under the leaves. "Apparently, it's turned into Olivia's litter box."
"Oh, shit..."
"Oh, shit, indeed," Taylor laughed, standing back up straight, holding her hands by her waist.
Kaia grimaced, scratching the back of her neck, her gaze jumping between the plant and Taylor. "Right, aren't you going to clean it?"
"Nu-uh."
"Well, she is your daughter."
"Nu-uh, I'm disowning her. She's all yours."
Kaia gasped dramatically, pointing an accusing finger in her face. "How dare you?"
"God, can't you smell it? It's so—" Taylor didn't even finish her sentence, interrupted by an involuntary gag.
"Right, well, I'm not cleaning your child's shit."
"I thought you said you loved my children like they're your own." Oh, she was going to play that card!
"Well, you clearly don't even love them that much since you're so willing to disown them for shitting in a plant," Kaia shot back.
"Oh my god, fine, I'll clean it!"
Taylor huffed loudly, smacking her thighs with her hands as she walked past Kaia to grab a bag and the brand new pooper scooper. She crouched in front of the plant, breathing only through her mouth but it was so hard not to get a whiff of the worst smelling poop she had ever come across in all twenty-eight years she had been on this planet. She picked the soft turd and dropped it in the bag which she immediately tied and held an arm's length away from herself.
"The shit is still warm so at least we know that this was probably her first time doing this," Taylor explained, standing up and finally letting herself take a proper breath.
"Wow, I really wanted to know how warm her poo was, thank you for that information, Taylor!" Kaia replied sarcastically, looking at the black baggie in Taylor's hand with a grimace, and Taylor had the audacity to hold the bag out for Kaia to take. "Fuck off with that!" Kaia smacked Taylor's hand away, almost making her drop the bag.
"Careful!" Taylor's whole buddy shuddered as she tossed the bag into the bigger one waiting by the door. "God, I feel like my whole body is crawling! I need to shower with scalding hot water."
"Let's get you in the shower then," Kaia chuckled. "I'll throw that away."
"God, thank you!" Taylor breathed out, turning to walk up the stairs when she stopped in front of the crap closet and let out a scream. "NO! NO MORE POOPS!"
"What?" Kaia walked back over to her, peering over her shoulder to find Katara pooping in her litter box. She stifled her laughter for Taylor's sake but she was already pushing past her and walking straight for the elevators. "Babe," Kaia chuckled. "Where are you going?"
"The pet store," Taylor announced, stepping into the first pair of slippers she found on the shoe rack by the entrance. "I'm getting those fancy, super expensive, self-cleaning litter boxes. No more smelly crap closet. No more scooping turds. I'm done with this shit."
"All right, I'll drive," Kaia said, pulling the car keys out of her pocket. They made it down to the garage and got into the car and the entire time Kaia was laughing quietly under her breath while Taylor was practically boiling from the inside out. "You gotta admit, there's nothing not funny about this situation."
"It would be funnier if I could stop smelling poop," Taylor grumbled, sticking her face out the window. "It's like there's poop particles stuck in my nose!"
Kaia crinkled her nose, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. "Stop, that's disgusting."
"You didn't have to deal with seven million turds today!"
"Well, I dealt with most of their turds this year, so."
"It's not a competition," Taylor scoffed. "Who wins, really? Whoever scooped up more poop? I don't think that really counts as winning."
"Oh my god, babe," Kaia exclaimed, bursting into laughter. "You have to see how funny this all is!"
Taylor looked at Kaia, trying to keep a straight face but she broke down eventually and started laughing along. "It's crazy. Fucking insane. We need to do something about the plants. She's gonna keep on pissing in them."
"I'm sure we can find a solution on google."
She came to a stop at a red light and turned to smile at Taylor.
"What?" The blonde demanded in a grumble but Kaia's grin only widened as she shook her head.
"Nothing!"
It was quiet between them for another minute and Taylor reached for Kaia's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "Kaia?"
"Hm?" She said quietly, focusing on the next turn.
"Are we okay?"
Kaia glanced at Taylor for a second before returning her gaze to the road ahead. "Yeah, 'course. I— I mean, I know the past few months haven't been easy, especially after..." she shrugged. "But, of course we're okay. Aren't we?"
"Yeah," Taylor smiled softly at her, meeting her eyes in the rearview mirror for a split second. "I'm just checking. I missed you so much."
"I've missed you too, darling," Kaia murmured, brushing her thumb over the back of Taylor's hand. "But it's okay, now. Neither one of us is going anywhere for a while."
"You're right," Taylor replied and exhaled in relief.
Kaia parked across the street from the nearest pet store ten minutes later and followed Taylor inside as she walked with determination. She didn't really butt in, only stood aside and watched as Taylor looked through the store for about thirty seconds before giving up and going up to the first store clerk she found.
"Hey, how may I help you?"
"Yeah, do you have those automatic litter boxes?" Taylor asked the man who nodded and was already turning around to go show her.
"Sure, we've got several models, depending on your budget—"
"Great, we'll just take three of your most effective one!"
Kaia found it incredibly hard not to laugh when she saw the look of genuine surprise on the employee's face.
"Uh, three? Well, this one, actually, is large enough to accommodate several cats—" he started explaining but Taylor shook her head.
"No, Meredith would rather die than share a litter box with anyone else."
"Yeah, the marshmallow wars will turn into turd marshmallow wars," Kaia butted in, completely unhelpful. Taylor turned around with narrowed eyes, her lips twitching as she fought back a smile. "But Dibbles is already shitting everywhere else. So, we only really need two, right?"
"Oh my god, it's literally not funny, Kaia! I still can't stop smelling her shit!" Taylor exclaimed as the actress grinned cheekily.
She pinched her thumb and index finger together, tilting her head coyly. "It's a little funny."
"Three self-cleaning litter boxes," Taylor repeated to the store clerk, much calmer this time. "Thank you."
"Great, I'll get those ready for you!" He replied with an overly enthusiastic and fake smile. "Will that be all?"
"Oh, actually, I forgot, Kibbles and Tibbles junior need food," Kaia mentioned, referring to the two goldfish Taylor had bought last year that had surprisingly survived this long. "It slipped my mind when I went to get the scooper. Fish food?"
"It's right down that aisle over there," he said, pointing them down the very last aisle to their right. "The litter boxes will be at the checkout counter whenever you're ready."
"Thanks, mate!" Kaia smiled politely at him and moved to grab Taylor's hand, leading her toward the fish food.
Taylor accepted it, letting Kaia drag her around the place while she shuffled after her with a brooding expression.
"Are you tired, babe?" Kaia asked, grabbing a container of the fish food and moving further down the aisle out of curiosity.
"Exhausted, actually," she sighed, leaning her whole weight on Kaia.
"Hungry?"
"Kinda, yeah."
"How about I make us some dinner when we get home?" Kaia suggested, glancing over at Taylor who had her cheek squished against Kaia's shoulder now. "You can go on up and shower and then we'll sit and watch something on the telly and forget about this whole shit show?"
"It's quite literally a shit show, isn't it?" Taylor laughed dryly. "Yeah, that sounds great, actually. Can you make that thing you did once, the spicy potatoes? I've been thinking about them for like a whole week now."
"Yeah, 'course!" Kaia smiled down at her and pressed a kiss on the top of her head. "Babe, are you seeing what I'm seeing?"
"The reindeer antlers?" Taylor said, reaching out to grab the tiny reindeer cat costume. "Katara would look so cute in those."
"And look at the Santa costume! That's Dibbles's, for sure," Kaia exclaimed, cooing at how cute the costume was.
"Oh, yeah, we're definitely buying these Christmas outfits and using them for our Christmas cards this year," Taylor said decidedly, grabbing a Christmas tree costume as well for Meredith.
"That's the rest of our evening planned," Kaia laughed, turning them back around so they could head to the checkout counter.
They paid for their things and were back home just a quarter of an hour later. Taylor headed upstairs to shower as soon as they walked in, leaving Kaia to wander to the kitchen and start with dinner. While the meal was cooking, she went around the house lighting up the scented candles and opening windows to let some air into the rooms. She filled the cat bowls with some kibble and started unboxing the new litter boxes, trying to figure out how they worked. By the time she had their dinner plated and the cats all set up, Taylor was just walking down the stairs in her pyjamas and a towel wrapped around her hair.
"Oh my god, yes!" she almost moaned as she stepped into the kitchen. "It smells so good!"
"Better than Olivia's shit?' Kaia teased but Taylor just looked at her unamusedly.
"You know, I was finally going to come and kiss you but I think I've changed my mind."
"Noooo," Kaia whined, sliding over to Taylor's side and wrapping her arms around her waist. "I made you dinner, set up your fancy new litter boxes, and made sure the house smells nice! The least you could do is reward me with a kiss after spending the last two weeks across the planet!"
"Well, now you've gone and made me sound ungrateful!" Taylor huffed, but she was now smiling as she leaned into Kaia's embrace.
"Hi," Kaia giggled, nuzzling Taylor's cheek softly.
"Hi, baby," Taylor murmured back, snaking one arm around Kaia's waist and holding her face with her other hand. She leaned in until their lips were just barely touching.
"Can you kiss me like you mean it?" Kaia grumbled, making Taylor breathe out a laugh and kiss her harder, brushing her thumb over her cheekbone.
Kaia let out a contented sigh, smiling into the kiss. She deepened it, pushing Taylor until her back hit the counter. Kaia was just parting her lips as Taylor's tongue asked for entrance when a mischievous cat jumped up next to them, hunting down the smell of their dinner.
Taylor pulled away immediately, grabbing Olivia before she could get her paws into the plates.
"Nope! Not today, satan. Not today," she scolded her, dropping her back on the floor. "You've caused enough damage to last me a life time today, Dibbles. You definitely don't get to eat my food!"
Kaia snickered under her breath, reaching around Taylor to grab the plates and take them to living room. They ate with an old episode of Friends playing in the background but neither one of them was really focused on it.
"How was the last show in Tokyo?" Kaia asked, stabbing a piece of potato with her fork and taking small nibbles all around it.
"It was great!" Taylor replied, sitting up in her seat excitedly. "The funniest thing happened! You know how there was this one fan at one of the shows who like yelled 'One, two, three, let's go bitch' during Delicate? And then somehow it caught on and people started doing it during the whole American leg of the tour?"
"Uh-huh..." Kaia responded, stuffing her mouth with the whole potato this time and chewing very slowly.
"Well, apparently it went super viral," Taylor continued. "I find it really funny. I just didn't expect the fans in Japan to do it, but they did? It was surreal."
"Did they, now?"
"Yeah!" Taylor laughed, taking a bite of her food. though she continued to talk. "I think the original video that went viral got taken down 'cause I tried to look for it but I couldn't find it. Although, I did find a compilation on YouTube and it's actually just so funny. Whoever that fan was, honestly, kudos to them for having the balls to do it, post it on Twitter, and have it go viral. It's like a thing now. Every time I sing Delicate, my mind just goes, one, two, three, let's go bitch!"
Taylor was still laughing when Kaia slowly dropped her fork onto the side of plate and shifted awkwardly in her seat. "Babe?"
"Mhm?"
"Uhm... I think I know why it went viral."
"Cause it's actually hilarious."
"Yea, but also," Kaia cleared her throat, pushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Remember your show in London, I think..?"
Taylor shrugged lightly. "I don't know, they're mostly all kind of a blur, but yeah, I remember that you were there with your friends?"
"Yes, and uh..." Kaia cleared her throat again and smiled tightly at Taylor. "I kinda... well, you know how we went drinking before the show? And I was kinda tipsy during the whole thing and it's all kind of a blur, but I remember shouting really loudly during the show with Mica, and he was definitely filming it and... yeah, he and I might have started it?"
Taylor blinked at her, leaning back as she slowly let that information sink in. "You... what?"
"Yeah, euh, I was cheering you on, and I kind of yelled that— that 'one, two, three, let's go b-bitch' thing, uh... and Mica posted it on Twitter. He was filming you so you can't see anyone else but you can definitely hear it and... yeah, it kind of went viral. He deleted it when he realised the next day but, I guess it had already caught on."
"Oh my god," Taylor murmured, placing her plate on the coffee table.
"Are you mad?" Kaia cringed, putting her plate next to Taylor's. "Please don't be mad. It's really stupid and I mean, the way you describe it, it sounds like the fans kinda enjoy it? It was stupid, and obviously I didn't mean anything by calling you a b— why are you laughing?"
Taylor had fallen into a silent fit of laughter. Her whole body was shaking but no sound was coming out until she couldn't breathe anymore and she wheezed.
"It's so funny," Taylor giggled, falling forward so her face was buried in Kaia's lap. "Of course it was you!"
"I'm really sorry, Tay," Kaia told her, grabbing her hands to squeeze them gently.
"Are you kidding? This is amazing," Taylor continued to laugh. "I'm not mad. This is too good. I can't believe it was you!"
"I can't believe it caught on!"
Taylor only laughed harder, shaking in Kaia's lap. Kaia started laughing along, gently patting Taylor's back.
"This day has just been one revelation after the other," Taylor giggled, taking in a deep breath to calm down as she sat back up. "It's just perfect."
"Thanks for not getting mad," Kaia chuckled softly, leaning her head on Taylor's shoulder.
"Why would I be mad, baby?" Taylor laughed, kissing her forehead. "It's hilarious, I promise."
"Okay, good," Kaia sighed in relief.
They finished their dinner with Taylor telling Kaia some more funny stories from tour including one about a particular sign she saw a fan carrying that had Kaia's face on it.
"Your fans are weird," Kaia concluded and Taylor nodded in agreement.
"Right? But I love them," she giggled softly.
Eventually, they got up to stack their dirty dishes in the dishwasher. Taylor poured them each a glass of white wine and while they sat sipping on their drinks, Taylor decided she wanted to try to get the cats into the new outfits they had bought for them.
Olivia and Katara were relatively easygoing and they didn't throw a major fuss as the girls forced their paws into the costumes and placed the matching headbands over their ears.
Meredith though was a different story. Kaia refused to even try and while Taylor insisted on getting her into that Christmas Tree outfit, Meredith decided to fight back. She used her paws to slap Taylor's hands away only for Taylor to playfully slap her paws back and scold her for being aggressive.
It was actually hilarious and adorable watching them bicker. Any time Taylor said something, Meredith would shout back in meows and Kaia would burst out laughing, and Taylor would respond with a comment like "that's rude!" and send Kaia into another frenzy of laughter.
"Ouch, you sneaky little bitch!" Taylor exclaimed, hissing loudly and gripping her arm where Meredith had just scratched her.
This went on for another five minutes and all the while, Kaia watched with a grin that made her cheeks ache. Taylor tried to negotiate with the cat who obviously couldn't understand a word she was saying but it was so funny to watch Meredith slap Taylor's hands away every time.
Miraculously, Taylor managed to get her into that outfit and she set all three cats up on the piano. "Okay! Now, girls, don't forget to smile, okay?" Taylor said, holding her phone up to take their picture.
Of course, the cats absolutely refused to stay still so that also took another few minutes and all the while, Kaia watched Taylor work with their cats for models, calling them names like divas and stars and little shits and the only thought that kept running through Kaia's head was that this was the person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.
This was how she wanted to take Christmas card photos. This was how she wanted to spend her lazy evenings, who she wanted to spend these lazy evenings with. Taylor, fighting with her cats.
Their cats.
It didn't matter that things were often difficult between them. It didn't matter that for the past few months, the tension had only been threatening to cut a deep wedge between them and the distance only forcing them further apart, not to mention all the mistakes they've made and all the wrong words they've thrown at each other during mindless fights.
None of it mattered.
It didn't matter that it was so hard to imagine their future sometimes, because they couldn't know for sure what tomorrow held let alone forever.
But there was one thing Kaia knew for certain as she watched Taylor chase after Katara to put her back up on the piano top, and it was that this, this ridiculous, cat-obsessed human, this magnificent human being was her person, and she loved her unconditionally.
Kaia looked down at the promise ring she wore around her ring finger and smiled widely as her eyes slid up to Taylor's left hand. It was currently bare, but she suddenly found herself picturing it with a diamond ring around it and it made her heart murmur softly and her stomach flip.
She wanted nothing more than to see Taylor happy, and she knew that promising her forever with more than just words would be the key.
She knew that just showing up every day was enough to prove to her that she really did mean it whenever she said she was never going away, but perhaps a small party to celebrate the intention never hurt anyone, and she knew for certain that it would fulfil a dream of Taylor's, a dream she could definitely give her.
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:))