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“Oh, hello,” Essek looks down between his leg to see a large, fluffy cat weaving in between his legs. Essek narrows his eyes, running the mental math on exactly how many cats Caleb allows in and out of his home and if he has seen this one before. Hesitantly he reaches down to scritch between its ears, earning himself a pleased purr and a head-bump against his knuckles.
It’s then that the cat opens large, bright blue eyes and blinks slowly at him.
“Ah, I see.” Essek smiles, scratching underneath the feline’s chin. “That’s where you’ve been.”
Caleb, who has apparently polymorphed into a cat, chirps at him and nudges his face intently against Essek’s hand to mark him forcefully.
“Yes, yes, I get it.” Essek runs his hand over Caleb’s back, feeling the long, soft fur under his fingers. Caleb purrs louder and arches into the touch before winding around his legs once more.
“And is there a particular reason for this change, Caleb?” Essek plays a little with his tail, just to watch the fur bush up comically. Caleb gives a playful swipe at his hand and meows. Strange, Essek thinks with a chuckle. Even his voice, though very much a cat’s, is just as husky as his human one. Low and soft, unassuming but grounding all the same.
Caleb leaps into his lap and mewls again, rather forcefully butting the top of his head into Essek’s chin before rubbing the side of his face against Essek’s jaw. Deep purring rumbles out loudly from him, relaxing Essek into sinking further into the couch. He brings his hands up to pet over Caleb’s side, assuming that’s what he’s after.
“You seem comfortable like that.” Essek hums, tilting his head to get a better look at Caleb’s face. Blue eyes blink back at him and he meows again.
“Yes?”
More meowing.
“Caleb, I cannot understand you, you know this.” Essek rubs under Caleb’s chin, wondering if he would respond the same if he tries this when Caleb is back in his human form.
Here, Caleb climbs off his lap, nudging at his hand again before sinking his teeth into it.
“Ah! Caleb!” Essek says sternly, yanking his hand away, “What was that for?”
Caleb only bumps into his hand again, his meows long and drawn out and a little insistent sounding. He leaps off the couch and trots over to where Essek’s work, and more importantly his spellbook, lay strewn across the low coffee table.
Essek cocks an eyebrow and peers over, “You want me to cast something?”
Caleb’s tail flicks back and forth with tempered excitement.
“Any special requests?” With a fondly put-out sigh, Essek abandons his book in favor of idly flipping through his spells, batting away Caleb who is stepping on the pages and pawing at them.
Finally, Essek comes to the more recent spells he has collected and when he flips to a certain page, Caleb settles his entire feline body on it and chirps. Essek has to gingerly slide the book out from under him (with a very displeased yowl from his cat-boyfriend) to take a look.
“You want me to polymorph?” Essek asks with surprise.
Caleb rolls into his back, paws up adorably. Essek hates how much of a sucker he is for him.
“Light help me,” Essek sighs and traces out the somatic gestures before his pride gets the best of him.
Caleb really does look so comfortable like that, and Essek thinks perhaps for an hour he’d like a little comfort too.
With a puff of purple smoke, Essek’s form disappears and becomes a thin black cat with a small locket patch of white on its chest. He sniffs at his paw, licks it carefully, and peers over to where Caleb is lounging across the coffee table, flicking his tail lazily. He blinks at Essek and rolls over, enticing Essek to play.
Instead, Essek leaps off the couch and scampers down the hall. Caleb’s invitation is tempting, but Essek finds himself much more concerned with the beetle crawling its way out of the library.
It is comfortable, Essek will remember later. He settles down on the floor, watching the iridescent colored bug meander across the doorway, watching its movements with more care than he had for the book he’d just been reading. One that now seems incredibly dull in comparison to watching this little life form make its way around the home. Distantly he is aware of the sound and feel of Caleb jumping off the table and padding over to join him. Less distantly, he feels Caleb's head butt him again and lick over his ear.
Essek flicks him with his tail, eyes still on the beetle.
Caleb looks over, leans down to sniff at it, and eats the beetle.
If he were a person, Essek would have been properly insulted— would have probably told Caleb off, saying something about interrupting his research or tampering with subjects, but he is not. So instead, he bats at Caleb’s face twice with a very cross meowl to which Caleb responds by tackling him.
Perhaps there is something to rolling around on the floor that is good for mental health. Essek feels his heart race with delight as he and Caleb tussle playfully and dart around the library after each other. How long has it been since Essek moved this fast that didn’t have something to do with running for his life? He gives chase to Caleb, lets Caleb give chase to him and, again if he were a person, he’s sure he would even be laughing.
Their surroundings are a blur, moving up through the tunnels of Caleb’s tower, past the kitchen and the room of endless closets until Essek slips out into his own room, using the color of his coat and darkness to his advantage in hiding from the other wizard.
Caleb comes running after him, eyes wide and ears flicking in fevered search. When his clear blue eyes meet amethyst, Essek raises his paw, ready to strike. Caleb responds by relaxing his stance and stepping over to him so he could nuzzle into him and groom over Essek’s face.
Essek basks in the attention and raises to meet Caleb. Together, sides pressed flush, tails twined, and both uttering satisfied purrs, Caleb and Essek hop up into the bed to settle against each other. Wrapped up in each other as much as they would in their original forms when laid out in bed.
Essek tries to match Caleb’s grooming, but finds Caleb’s long hair incredibly distasteful and resigns himself to being the recipient of Caleb’s vigorous preening affection.
A memory of a voice filters through his mind as his eyes drop and he ducks his head into Caleb.
He doesn’t think so good when he’s an animal.
That’s not exactly true, Essek comes to realize. Rather, it’s that thinking is no longer the priority. No need to calculate risk, plan for the future, analyze his surroundings when he’s like this. He’s sure that if he put his mind to it, he could complete a reasonable list of tasks that would benefit an adventuring party immensely if he had the motive to. But why would he when he’s tucked between a warm duvet and an even warmer body, letting Caleb’s purring ferry him off to sleep? Essek can’t think of a single reason why.
He feels Caleb rest his head over him, coming to rest nestled against Essek just as sleep finally pulls him into its grasp.
Later, he’s not sure by how much, Essek’s eyes blink slowly open. He’s a little hot. Heavier. His limbs are much longer than he remembers and are tangled in sheets and other limbs. Bleary he pulls away from the arms wrapped around him to see a freckled collar bone and red chest hair peeking out from a linen shirt.
“Guten morgen.” Caleb murmurs, kissing between his eyebrows.
“Good morning,” Essek rasps back in Undercommon. “Is it morning?”
“Technically. It’s one thirty-seven.”
“Oh,” Essek mumbles and absently brings a hand up to touch over Caleb’s stubble, surprised as he can be in his sleepy state at how bristly it is compared to how Caleb had felt before.
Before.
“We were cats,” Essek states dumbly.
“Ja, we were. Did you enjoy yourself?” Caleb responds with a chuckle.
The instinctual part of his brain, the one that still has claws sunken into the memory of a life long past, one of political status and rigid society standards wants to feel embarrassed. Ashamed at being caught using magic so frivolously for an act suited for someone far below his station. That part is loud at first but quiets with a single hopeful look from Caleb.
“I did. I can see why it brings you calm.” Essek hums, returning to his spot where his face was pressed against Caleb’s neck. Absently he reaches up to scratch under Caleb’s chin, laughing to himself when Caleb closes his eyes and raises his chin just as he had done in his cat form.
“You were cute,” Caleb notes, stroking over Essek’s back. “Kätzchen.”
“You shouldn’t discount yourself, Widogast.” Essek gently bites his pulse. “You make a fine cat. Very handsome.”
“We’re well suited for each other then.” More fluttering kisses to Essek’s brow persuading the drow to lean up and catch one on his lips, savoring the taste.
“A good match indeed.” He says as he curls himself tighter around the man and closes his eyes again.