#//omg 'oops' | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

helianyx · 1 month ago

Text

rescuing kittens -

pairing: sylus x mc word count: 2,509 summary: While attempting to rescue a poor cat stuck in a tree, MC… also gets herself stuck in the tree. Fortunately, a certain 'Good Samaritan' known for helping strays just happened to be passing by… tags/warnings: lighthearted, slice of life, flirty banter, developing relationship, silly sweet shenanigans in the style of some Tender Moments. a/n: This was my first little lads fic, technically a one-shot that could have a future follow-up but I don't have anything in mind for it atm. Mid-point in the slow burn, definitely before Grassland Romance & Wander in Wonder. P.S. I forbid any use of my writing in any form of generative or AI training.

(ao3 link)

“Sylus!” Against all odds and reason, she couldn’t stop herself from a thrill of excitement and relief seeing that familiar face just happening to pass beneath her on the sidewalk.

An eyebrow arched as he stopped, lifted his sunglasses, and looked up.

“I’ve heard of cats getting stuck in trees, but this seems a little ridiculous, kitten.” The pointed emphasis on the pet name was particularly heavy-handed this time around. She sighed. Yeah, even amidst her relief she’d expected his teasing.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up…” she grumbled, awkwardly crouched among the branches of a tree in a street-side park, a tiny tabby tucked in the crook of one arm.

“Care to explain?”

“I… miscalculated.” Her face scrunched up and she hung her head.

She had been sure she could extricate the little critter just fine on her own, but now that she was several feet in the air with the cat in her arms, she had to reconsider. It was behaving well enough, but by the look in its eye and the twitch in its tail, she couldn’t be sure it wouldn’t react unpredictably if she suddenly leapt or otherwise maneuvered down. She didn’t want it to hurt itself because of her.

“I’m not sure this little guy is going to cooperate if I make any sudden movements.”

“That sucks.” He drawled with faux sympathy, replacing his sunglasses and moving to leave. “Well, good luck with that.”

“Wait! Come on! I know you’re not that heartless! Can you really leave a-...” she pursed her lips, swallowed her pride, and then did her best to put the most pathetic pair of puppy eyes on she could muster. “-Two adorable kittens to their sad fate?”

Sylus choked out a single bark of laughter, looking insufferably smug as ever.

“All right, all right.” He shook his head in amusement, taking a few steps closer to position himself beneath her. “But I have one condition.”

“Don’t agree and then tack on favors!” She scolded, and then was painfully, keenly aware she did sound a bit like a hissing cat.

“If a kitten needs saving, shouldn’t it be making cute little sounds so someone will come help it?” He ignored her. And of course he went and said something ridiculous. She felt the corner of her mouth twitch.

Deep down, she was pretty sure he’d help her even if she refused. Or she could even propose a different deal, and in her experience he was typically pretty lenient with her… But in this situation, nothing was coming to mind.

“...Are you sure about that? That’s what you want?” When had she ever ‘meowed’ in her life?

He folded his arms and tilted his head. “What? Is the Kitty Queen incapable of mastering her own native language?”

She sighed and shook her head. “All right, you asked for it…” Clearing her throat, she took in a deep breath through the nose. A meow. A cute, small sound that tugged at the heartstrings.

“Me- meow~!” It started strong! But then her voice cracked and it sounded a bit like she had a hairball stuck in the back of her throat. Or a cat in heat. She clapped her free hand over her mouth in vehement, physical, knee-jerk denial such a sound had left her mouth.

Sylus just laughed, and even as her face burned with embarrassment, she could hear the warmth in it, rather than sounding particularly mean-spirited.

“Oh, that was very cute.” He lifted his arms up. “All right, I’m compelled. Hop down and I’ll catch you.”

She groaned quietly to herself, but took careful hold of the cat in both of her arms. This way she could focus on keeping the cat restrained instead of how best to land.

Funny, actually, the complete faith she had that Sylus wouldn’t let them get hurt. She’d suspected him many times in the past of trying to deceive or otherwise mislead her, but as he said: when he made a promise, he always followed through.

So while she did her best to angle herself towards him, she otherwise didn’t hesitate to take the leap. She was hardly surprised when, in an instant, dark energy wrapped its tendrils around her waist, significantly slowing her fall to almost nothing. Though once she was in reach they dissipated, replaced by his hands on her hips, effortlessly lowering her down to the ground.

For all of her concerns, the cat in her arms didn’t seem to so much as bat an eye. It mewled softly -and unquestionably adorable- as if saying thanks.

“And now the kittens are safely returned to terra firma.” His hands withdrew, but instead he lifted one to pet her hair like one would a cat. “Try not to repeat the same mistake, hm?”

“I don’t see the problem,” she said, brushing his hand off. “You could use all the help you can get stocking up on good deeds to balance your scales.”

He scoffed, and started to say something, but the real cat had expended all of its patience and began twisting and squirming around. Quickly she knelt down to release it, watching as the furry little critter bounded off and disappeared into some bushes.

“Aw… I wonder if it lives around here. It seemed pretty young.”

“Young and feisty. Smart, too.” Sylus mused, his eyes glinting with mirth as he looked at her. “Definitely sounds familiar.”

Denying him for the millionth time seemed pointless. At this juncture she was more or less resigning herself to her fate. There were worse things than being a cat, she supposed.

“Not sure how smart either of us were getting stuck in a tree,” she mumbled, brushing off the fur she’d accumulated on her shirt as she stood up.

“It was smart enough not to scratch the hand that helped it.” He shrugged. She narrowed her eyes at him - and then mimed a scratching gesture, hooking her fingers like claws.

“Just like I haven’t scratched you yet?” Was what he was getting at. He just chuckled, idly rubbing his thumb over the pads of his other fingers.

“I believe the emphasis there is on ‘yet’.”

She recalled that he had a habit of caring for stray cats, though. And a habit of getting scratched to ribbons for his trouble. As well as a habit of never holding a grudge against them…

“It’d be worth it regardless,” he went on to say, tucking his hand in his pocket as his gaze leveled on her. “I got to witness a truly fascinating new side of you.”

Of course he wasn’t going to drop that, was he? She huffed and folded her arms over her chest.

“Being cutesy isn’t exactly my forte. You should be more grateful for the rare opportunity.”

For a second he looked genuinely bewildered, and she didn’t think it was because of the second thing she’d said. But if she’d blinked she would have missed it, because it was quickly replaced by that subtle arch of his brow and less-subtle smirk.

“Oh, I don’t know about that. I find you cute plenty of the time.”

“You have a delightful way of making that sound uncomplimentary.” She could feel her glower deepen - along with the wrinkles between her brow.

“Another astonishing misunderstanding.”

Even if she accepted that he was being honest, she didn’t want to really reconsider what that meant at the moment. Instead she dropped her arms along with her bristly attitude and exhaled, letting ease overtake her. She was truly grateful for his help, after all.

“Anyway, thank you for the assist. It’s still a bit early for you, though, isn’t it?” She cast a brief glance at the sky; the sun would be going down before long, but it was still fairly bright for him to be strolling around Linkon. “I suppose you had business here?”

“I did, but it’s all wrapped up now.”

“I’m sure I’ll be hearing about it on the evening news,” she sighed. But how warped was she becoming by association with him, that there was a tell-tale bit of amusement in her tone she simply could not deny?

She might have still had plenty of reservations about him, but at least in her limited experience, most of his enemies were criminals of the worst caliber. There was no way she could quite define him as a ‘vigilante’, but there had yet to be an instance where she felt the people he dealt with were particularly deserving of pity.

“And what about you? You’re not in your hunters uniform. Are you such an altruist you spend your days off looking for more good deeds to hang on your scales?”

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “I was just heading out to get an early dinner, when I heard cute little sounds begging for help.”

He didn’t quite laugh, but gave a low, breathy exhale that came close.

“I was also just about to get a bite to eat,” he said, his tone shifting ever-so-slightly. A hint of gentleness crept in through the cracks, a subtle sweetness that never failed to entice her. “Would you care to join me?”

It was a little distressing to realize how quickly she felt inclined to accept his offer. Which felt directly correlative to how much she wanted to spend more time with him. Which was borderline humiliating. The more her heart sang, the more she wanted to shove a pillow over it and press down until it stopped.

She tried to make a show of giving an exasperated huff, but it trembled pathetically on the way out as if betraying her. Still she stuck to her very stubborn guns and said: “You could have used that as your bargaining chip to get me down instead of making me meow.”

“I’ll admit the thought did cross my mind… But that wouldn’t be much better than coercion, now, would it, kitten?”

Her lips tightened into a thin line. “I suppose. Maybe.”

The real question was: Would she have minded? But the fact he cared enough not to use such ‘underhanded’ methods only made her singing heart that much more exuberant.

“What were you thinking? That sandwich shop nearby?” He offered his arm to her not unlike he had at the auction. For a split second she was bewildered by the fact he had psychically divined her destination - then she remembered this was Sylus, and rounded back on the fact he was just cruising ahead again.

“I didn’t even agree to anything.” It sounded like such a pathetically empty resistance. Because it was, and it had been from the moment he asked.

“Maybe not out loud, but… Didn’t you already make up your mind?”

“Aughh…” She hooked her arm around his. She really didn’t have to do that either, did she? And yet he seemed so finely tuned to knowing exactly what she really wanted, deep down.

“Okay, but how did you know about Benny’s?”

“It was just a guess. You like sandwiches,” he said as matter-of-factly as if it were common knowledge, “and when I looked earlier, the ratings I saw would suggest it’s the only place in this area that would make it worth coming this far from your apartment.”

Yeah, that level of calculation sounded like him. Well, she knew a thing or two about him, too!

“Sounds like you’ve never been there, then. Their slow-cooker French dip is one of my go-to’s, I think it’d be right up your alley.” She said with no lack of confidence, enthusiasm beginning to bubble over. “But they’ve got their seasonal apple cider pulled pork right now I’m dying to check out.”

“Hmm, those do sound good,” he nodded, shooting her a grin. “Should we go splitsies?”

She snorted and laughed, hearing him say things like that always caught her off-guard in the best way, and he seemed to know it.

“I thought you didn’t like to share. I seem to remember a greedy crow who complained whenever I tried his food before.”

“There’s a key difference between sharing and stealing.”

She couldn’t stop herself from a mischievous little giggle remembering the look on his face when he’d gone for his last dumpling and found it mysteriously vanished.

He leaned towards her a little, lowering his voice, his breath brushing her ear. “But I suppose… we don’t need to worry about such distinctions between us anymore.”

Rather than bend away, she turned her face towards him, drinking in his closeness. “How benevolent of you.”

He laughed and straightened up, and she tried not to be too disappointed.

“You’re the only one who would say that about me.”

“I’m just calling it like I see it.” She shrugged one shoulder. “But I’m fine being the primary recipient of your benevolence, too.” Grinning up at him, she lifted her free hand to poke his cheek. “Especially if that means I can rope you into a few good deeds here and there.”

He gave her a brief glare for the poke, but it was almost hilariously short lived and as paper thin as her resistance earlier had been. How was she supposed to just ignore that?

“So that’s your angle? Course correcting me onto the straight and narrow?”

“Hmm…” Considering it briefly, she probably would have said yes before. But now? It was less about that than she found herself worrying for his safety. “I think I’d be happier if you maybe had fewer people trying to kill you at any given time.”

“That would be quite the list… And who was it that once sat at the top of it, I wonder?” He flashed a ruthless grin. Her expression immediately soured as she nudged her shoulder into him.

“Are you ever going to drop that?”

“Well, I still haven’t heard a sincere apology, sweetie.”

“And now definitely isn’t the time for it, either.” She mumbled, feeling the heat of embarrassment along her cheeks and the tops of her ears. Still she gave her all in shifting the subject by making a sweeping gesture of her free hand to the building in front of them, cheering enthusiastically. “Because we have arrived! Time to eat!”

“Haha, how convenient for you. All right, then.”

Benevolent once again, he did indeed drop it as they made their way into the restaurant. But he wasn’t wrong, and she knew it. For something like that though, all of the rage, hatred, and vengeance she’d pinned on him… A simple apology wouldn’t do.

She was going to have to think of something, some way she could truly show how sincere she was, and paying for sandwiches wasn’t going to cut it. In truth, she didn’t think he cared much about whether she went to extreme lengths, but the real guilt she felt over it wouldn’t be assuaged by half-hearted measures. She needed to really think of how she could make it up to him, even if he didn’t truly seem to hold any grudge against her - like all the strays that had lashed out at him before.

#love and deepspace #sylus #sylus x mc #lads sylus #l&ds sylus #sylus fic #lads mc #love and deepspace fic #lads fic #omg there are so many possible tags for this wowza #oops posting my self-indulgent fic on 'main' besties don't look at me #still debating if i wanna make a dedicated lads sideblog #for now i'll make a writing tag tho i guess!#crow's writing.

287 notes · View notes