[C] Surprise!

"You'll look fine in it," he assured, holding the bag containing their couples Halloween costumes up and away from the grabby hands of his worrysome boyfriend.

Dick wasn't convinced that their costumes would look great, and Fleck had spent the last twenty minutes of their bumbling around town trying to assure him that he would look fine in the costume.

Dick was having none of it, but he expected no less.

Dick was still less than convinced.

"I'm going to look ridiculous."

It has been a long day trying things on and turning things down. It had gotten to the point when he just flippantly agreed to the last couples costume they tried on. Now he was having second thoughts.

If Dick had his way, he would have pulled on a black t-shirt and called it a day.

"At least last year I still looked semi-decent... Do you still have those?"

Who Fleck was dressed up as he couldn't remember. The only thing he did remember was that the costume had flattered his boyfriend's body incredibly well. Incredibly well.

"It's not a superhero theme this year. It's a gaming theme. You're just going to have to be a hot Mario and like it."

He grinned at his boyfriend, more than happy with how ridiculous the costumes were. Honestly, as soon as he had seen those Mario and Luigi costumes, he had gotten straight to the family chat and claimed the characters before anyone else could claim them

It would be perfect.

Dick let out a huff.

"I don't even know who Mario is."

It was a lie. He did. He had played Mario Kart with Fleck and his family often enough to know who Mario was.

He was just using his lack of pop culture knowledge to try and wriggle his way out of this one.

"Bullshit," he crowed.

"You curse Mario's name every time Jay plays with you." Dick knew that much and there was no way Fleck was going to let Dick worm his way out of this one.

"If you can tolerate the part in the costume, I promise later you can have me just wearing the overalls." The low cut of the overalls would definitely show off the majority of his chest.

It'd be like a really shitty male stripper costume.

Magic Mike: Luigi style.

"Rather you out of them then in them," he muttered, a dark blush across his cheeks. The image that Fleck conjured up now on the forefront of his mind.

Along with that irritating noise that Luigi made everytime he bloody won.

"Nothing can save those overalls. Not even you."

But, in all honesty, he certainly wouldn't turn his boyfriend down if he sauntered over to him in the terrible overalls.

"Well, you'll just have to help me out of them, won't you?"

An old lady walked past them, tutting loudly and muttering 'fennels' disapprovingly, for them to hear.

Fleck took no mind.

"Ready to entertain Theresa all party? You're her favourite uncle at the moment." And by favourite, he meant favourite to torture.

Dick wasn't like Fleck.

He looked over his shoulder sharply and gave her a seething look. If it wasn't for his boyfriend tugging them along, he would have seriously debated starting an argument with a woman in the middle of the street.

"If by entertaining you mean floundering while resisting the urge to get too drunk too early in front of her then yes. I'm ready."

For a nine-year-old, she was intimidating. It was always a difficult balance of talking to a child and not treating her like a child. She was far too mature for her age.

"You are so not ready."

Not that he blamed him. Theresa was an... acquired taste. You either knew how to deal with her or you didn't. It took a while to get used to her and her way of thinking.

"C'mon, let's cut through here." He turned left into an alleyway. He didn't particularly want to elbow through the busiest part of town right now.

He opened his mouth to continue his conversation, when he heard the most pitiful little mewl ever, and he stopped dead in the middle of the alley, looking around for the source.

Dick heard the little sound himself. He only came to a halt since his boyfriend did.

"It's probably just a feral cat," he said, dismissively. It wasn't uncommon.

He heard the little mewl again. Now that he was listening out for it, his keen senses picked up where it was from; the large residential bin.

"In there. It might have gotten stuck?"

He pushed the lid up and glanced at his boyfriend expectingly.

"It sounds very young."

There was something high pitched and desperate about that meow that you didn't hear in adult feral cats.

When Dick flipped open the bin, he hoisted himself up over the edge, and pursed his lips, making a sound to try and get the cats attention.

From under a pizza box, a little whiskerless nose edged out.

Fleck flipped the pizza box up. "Oh, baby," he crooned.

It was only a kitten. It couldn't have been more than four or five weeks old, at the very oldest. It was absolutely tiny.

He crooned at it, and with plodding awkward steps, the wrinkled hairless kitten padded across the junk in the bin towards his hand. The first thing it did when it got close enough was bump its head against Fleck's hand, purring loud but squeaky purrs.

"Sweetheart, come here." He carefully lifted the kitten by its little pot belly, holding it against his chest as it curled around his large hand, nuzzling him.

Its skin felt oily almost to the point of being slimy, and that oil began soaking into his shirt right away.

Dick peaked over the edge. His brows furrowed when the pizza box was flipped.

What was that thing?

The answer was a purr. It was a cat. No, not a cat, a kitten. A very ugly, very hairless, kitten.

"And you call me a gremlin," he said, bluntly, as oil stains began to show on Fleck's shirt. Grim.

She's been in the bin, too. God knows what diseases she was carrying at the moment.

"You are a gremlin. This one just looks more like one than you do."

Fleck rocked and crooned at the little kitten, completely enamoured by it. How adorable was it?

"We should head to a pet store on the way home. Pick up some substitution milk and kitten kibble." He had decided on the spot to adopt this adorable little gremlin.

"Clean him up, get him fed, get him settled, and in a couple days we'll take him to the vets."

Apart from a bit of grime, this little one didn't look too unhealthy. Just hungry. Fleck would sort him out.

"Can you pass me my scarf?" He had taken it off earlier in the day when the heat had picked up again, and just shoved it into one of the bags they'd been carrying around. It'd be perfect to wrap the kitten in while they were headed home.

"Shouldn't we just take him straight to the vets?"

It was only after he said it, he realised what a dumb question it was. Especially with the way Fleck was cooing over the kitten like a newborn child.

He really didn't share the same sentiments.

"You're keeping him, aren't you?" There was a deadpan tone to his voice as he passed the scarf over.

"Take a cat like this to the vets and say you found a stray and it'll be put down quicker than you can blink." Strays weren't much appreciated.

If he built a bond with the little thing first for a couple days, he could then say he owned the little thing and it'd get much better treatment.

He wound the scarf gently around the kitten, holding him against his chest again when he was more of a kitten burrito.

"Yupp," he confirmed.

"Let's get to the pet store."

Dick hummed. True. As ugly as it was, he wasn't about to advocate it being put down.

Slightly shaking his head, he followed his boyfriend.

It really wasn't that much of a surprise. His boyfriend always had a huge amount of humanity and compassion. It was one of the things he loved about him. The whole family, in fact.

"Where are you thinking of keeping him? Our- your room?"

The Masin family compassion was an incredible thing. They loved more than most and though it got them into trouble and difficult situations sometimes, they would never stop. Not for as long as there was brwath in thwir lungs.

"Yupp," he agreed. Where else would he stay? He'd find a home in Sollew's fur most likely.

"He can sleep on your pillow."

The kitten mewled as if he liked the idea.

Dick's eyes dipped down to the oil stain on Fleck' shirt. His nose wrinkled.

"Absolutely not. Not unless you want me to sleep at the mansion every night."

"You can just sleep on me," Fleck suggested. "You do most nights, anyway."

Dick almost always found his way to laying on Fleck's chest, not that Fleck minded in the slightest. He loved cuddling with Dick. Even when Dick drooled on his chest.

"You can't tell me you wouldn't give up your pillow of this angel." He held up the wrinkly little kitten for Dick to stare into its enormous blue eyes.

Dick stared back into the big blue eyes.

He turned his own up to Fleck and raised a brow

"Nope," he popped the p.

He didn't find the kitten cute. At all. It looked weird, stage and resembled something unmentionable.

"If you find the angel so cute, why don't you give up your space?"

Fleck's big shoulders rose and dropped in an easy shrug.

"If he likes my spot better, I'll give it up to him, and steal your spot. Either way, you'll be sleeping on my chest."

Fleck didn't mind to which end that means came, as long as the kitten was comfortable.

Dick let out a small huff and nudged Fleck's ribs with his elbow.

"Making assumptions. You can't just steal my space, either."

But Fleck was right. Even now he inevitably ended up on his boyfriend one way or another. Laying so close to Fleck during the night was a source of comfort.

"I'm bigger than you. Yes, I can."

He knew that wasn't the case. Dick was a lot stronger than him and if he really wanted to sleep in his spot, he would.

But Dick did have a constant need to sleep on him, so it'd work out.

Dick's lips curled up, playfully.

"I would like to see you try."

Unless Fleck tried something sneaky, he had a guaranteed win. It would still be amusing to watch.

Plus, he didn't mind some playfighting and a tussle. It often led to other things.

"Maybe I will."

He leaned over to press a kiss to the side of Dick's head, then led them down a road, towards the pet shop.

He adjusted the kitten in his grasp and headed inside.

It didn't take long to find the large cat section, and he perused it for kitten foods.