Page 36 of Conflict Conclusion

Much to James’ delight, he found himself with a lap full of Leon as Trina pulled out their phone and lined it up with the couch.

“Everyone say ‘Welcome Home,’” Trina said, snapping several pictures of the group.

“Okay, now you turn the camera around and take a selfie with all of us,” Hailey instructed.

Trina easily did as they were told, turning the phone around, flipping the camera, and expanding the screen.

“How did you zoom out like that?” Howard asked, allowing her to take two more photos before rising from his seat to go inspect Trina’s phone. “My nephew just taught me how to pinch to zoom out, but you just pressed some sort of button?”

“I’ll get us all some plates,” Linda said, squeezing his mom’s arm before also getting up. “Does anyone want anything specific to drink?”

“I don’t think we have anything besides Sprite for Hailey and Trina and this orange hard cider James likes. If you let me know what you all want, I can make sure to keep it stocked,” Leon said, patting James’ thigh as if he was about to stand up, too.

The ball in James’ stomach bounced around, nearly buoyant with pure, unadulterated joy. James wrapped an arm tightly around Leon’s waist and squeezed his mom’s hand.

“I’m so, so happy,” James said again, kissing away Leon’s confused little smile.

Despite having a lot of helping hands, those hands were busy petting cats, eating pizza, and playing with camera settings. They got the final five bags inside, but they did very little unpacking before they had to leave for the concert.

That was how, Sunday afternoon, James found himself kneeling on the living room floor, armpit deep in a bag of pillows with Noah on one side and Charlie sitting on the couch on the other. Charlie was doing a good job keeping Purrsephone occupied; meanwhile, Yarmen was trying to climb inside Noah’s shirt.

“Do you want me to—” James tried to offer, extricating one arm from the pillow pile to try and grab Yarmen, but Leon swooped in and picked him up one handed.

“You are a menace to society. Hang out with our other resident menace,” Leon said, depositing the cat in an excited looking Aspen’s arms.

Whenever one of Aspen’s days off coincided with Leon working from home, they would do something called body doubling, which was where Aspen made sure Leon ate food and drank water in exchange for ample kitty cuddles. The last time Aspen came over, James was there too, working from the couch since his desk had still been on backorder.

Aspen had put on a brave face, but their voice had wavered when they asked if Leon didn’t want them to come over to body double anymore now that James was moving in.

“They’re a great cat distracter,” Leon had said, his fingers curling in the soft cotton of his joggers. “I know you don’t need them to body double for you, but I promise, they won’t get in your way.”

James had no intention of disrupting their routine or taking away that time they clearly valued. He’d insisted Aspen come in and make themself at home, which was how he’d learned that Aspen actually was a great cat distracter.

“Guys,” Aspen said, flipping Yarmen upside down in his arms and rocking him back and forth like a baby. Yarmen gave a happy yowl and curled his tail around Aspen’s upper arm. “I’ve been thinking.”

“Uh oh,” Leon grunted, ripping a piece of tape off the box he was deconstructing, making the muscles in his arms bulge.

They hadn’t had energy to do anything but sleep the last several nights, and James was really looking forward to finally having some downtime with Leon to christen “their” apartment.

Leon caught him staring and waggled his pierced eyebrow at him.

The room had gone unusually silent given how many people and cats were in it, and James glanced at Aspen to see them looking rather unimpressed.

“Sorry, Aspen,” James said, ducking his head. “You were saying?”

“I was say-ing,” Aspen said, punctuating the word by bouncing Yarmen up and down. “Should we get a cat?”

“No,” Charlie, Noah, and Leon all said together.

Aspen lifted Yarmen up by his armpits, holding him up next to their pouting face. “Why not?”

“I don’t think old Gordie has the energy to keep up with a cat, pumpkin,” Charlie said, his big hand running down Purrsephone’s back, eliciting one of her loudest motorboat purrs.

Aspen’s eyes rounded and their bottom lip stuck out even further. “But⁠—”

“Weren’t you just saying you want to do more traveling this year? Out to see Dani and maybe to Europe? The more pets we have, the harder that gets,” Noah said.

Aspen’s bottom lip trembled. “But…cats make Charlie so happy, and I want him to be happy at our place.”