"I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul." - Jean Cocteau

"Emily..."

Mild panic. It was easy to pick out his tone just in the way he said her name. When he'd called her to confess he'd spilled coffee on her laptop she'd known he was feeling guilty just in the way he said her name.

"What's up, Spencer?" she asked, wondering what could have him panicking in the twenty minutes she'd been out picking up groceries. There was a long pause on the line, as if the man was gathering his thoughts and ordering them before he spoke.

"There is a pregnant cat giving birth in your kitchen."

"Oh." She said, looking through her wallet for money as the cashier looked annoyed at her taking a call when she was meant to be paying. "What?"

"That sentence had no subtext or double-meaning," He said earnestly, "there is a pregnant female cat giving birth in Sergio's bed in your kitchen."

By the time Emily got back to her apartment, there were two wet newborn kittens in the cat bed beside the big ginger tabby female, and she realised she recognised the cat as a stray from around the neighbourhood; she'd even fed her a few times. Sergio was sat on the tile floor next to Reid, looking with apparent mild interest at the birth happening. Spencer, of course, looked completely fascinated.

"How did she get in?" Emily asked as she put the groceries on the nearest counter and kicked her boots off into the hallway.

"Your bedroom window was open so Sergio could get in and out."

She sat herself down on the other side of Sergio, who didn't even look at her, but did purr when she stroked his head.

"Sergio can't be the father." She said, watching the mother cat licking one of her newborns, which looked like it was going to be ginger like her with white paws. "He's neutered."

"That's probably why he isn't bothered by this." Reid shrugged. "He doesn't feel the need to defend his territory like he would if he wasn't neutered. It's been documented that female cats will help other females to raise young, but it's not so well-documented happening in male cats."

"Oooh, maybe Serg is gay." Emily cooed.

"Actually felis catus, domestic cats, do display homosexual behaviours quite often, especially in domestic same-sex, neutered or spayed scenarios. But Sergio's behaviour being a-typical of male cat behaviour as an indication of homosexuality isn't really-"

"I was joking, Spencer."

"I know." He said, exaggerating his offence.

It took another hour and a half for three more kittens to be born, with Emily and Spencer using towels to rub them dry and keep them warm as the mother gave birth, then putting them back with her to feed as there were pauses in the labour. Between them they had enough trivial knowledge of cat birth that they only felt a little nervous intervening, helping the cat along. Sergio, vocal as usual, moved between sniffing interestedly at the newborn kittens and trying to clean the ginger cat's ears. With the spare cushion put in the cat basket and the soiled one put in the trash rather than deal washing it, Emily called the vet as Spencer moved the cat and her kittens into the lounge.

"The vet says I can take them for a check up in the morning." Emily said. "We'll have to keep her indoors... stop her trying to move the kittens outside."

"They'd really small." Spencer said, apparently not listening to her, instead sat cross-legged in front of the basket, Sergio on his back in Reid's lap with his legs up and purring as the genius tickled his belly. She grinned and bent down, fingers framing his jaw as she kissed the top of his head.

"We should take pictures. Garcia will kill us if we tell her about this and don't have proof."

Reid made an agreeable sound, as he reached out to run a long finger gently down the back of a small brown tabby kitten. There was also the ginger tabby one with white paws, two black kittens with just visible tabby stripes, and a completely white kitten with an orange patch on its chest.

"Cat litters can have multiple fathers." Reid informed, as Prentiss settled down beside him, leaning her head against his shoulder and watching the kittens suckle their mother, whose eyes were closed as she purred. Reid lifted his arm and slipped it around her waist; Sergio meowed his objection to the loss of contact, wriggling deliberately in Spencer's lap.

"You can't wait to play with them, can you?" she teased.

"They won't open their eyes for at least a week, and they won't start to explore for a month."

"I know that," she grinned to herself, "but you still can't wait, can you?"

"I never had a pet when I was younger." He said, stroking Sergio with the other hand instead. "Mom would never remember to look after it, and my dad didn't trust me to do it."

She shifted against him, reaching across into his lap to scratch Sergio under the chin.

"Stay over tonight?" she asked, turning her face upwards against his shoulder. "We can both take them to the vet tomorrow, as long as we don't get a call from the BAU."

"Okay." He said, turning his face down towards hers. He smiled, but hesitated a few seconds before he pressed a kiss to her lips, as if he still wasn't entirely sure how they'd ended up together.

+o+

A lot happened in the six weeks after the ginger cat - who had been dubbed Rusty by Garcia and the name had stuck – gave birth to kittens. Most notable had been Reid's lease on his apartment coming up for renewal, and Prentiss asked him to move in with her, using their two year relationship and the five nights a week Reid usually spent sleeping over anyway as a convincer she hadn't really needed. There were boxes cluttering the living room and stacks of books waiting to be sorted, at the same time the five kittens were discovering the havoc they could wreck.

Sergio was proving to be the most patient cat in existence, as the two female black-tabby kittens used his tail as a teething device for the teeth that were breaking through, and the male brown-tabby was being carried back to the nest by his mother to be cleaned. The ginger kitten with white paws, a male, was curled up asleep in the pocket of Reid's cardigan as he sat on the floor with a new-edition large area map of Denver, Colorado spread out in front of him. He was studying it, tracing the lines of roads with his finger, while the white, orange-breasted female kitten chased his hand around, early manifestations of hunting stances as she batted at his finger as it moved it curly lines. With one arm resting by his pocket to keep him conscious of the kitten nestled in there he lifted his finger and booped the feline on the nose; she mewled and bit his fingertip with little sharp teeth, keeping hold as he made a token attempt to wiggle his finger free.

"You're trampling on Englewood." He informed the kitten, noting the placement of her front left paw. "Like a furry Gozilla terrorising Tokyo." She released his finger and purred when he stroked his thumb from the tip of her nose back over her snout and head. She went back to tracking his finger around the paper, while one of the black kittens had discovered a corner of the map and was attempting to pin it down with limited success.

The doorbell rang and Prentiss paced down the hall to check who it was and then buzz the food delivery through the main door. She was wearing a camisole and boxers with wonder woman on, which were marketed for men but she'd actually scoffed out loud when she saw them in the store and bought them for herself, and wondered if she ought to put in more clothing to answer the door. By the time she'd decided she couldn't be bothered there was a knock on the door anyway, and the man delivering their Indian food didn't even seem to notice she was essentially in her pyjamas.

"Food's here!" she called, grabbing plates and cutlery on her way through into the lounge.

She couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Reid, also in his pyjamas of plaid cotton trousers and a t-shirt, when she realised he'd put his cardigan on just to be able to have a kitten in the pocket of it. She put their dinner on the coffee table and bent to scoop up the two kittens on the map, holding one in each hand up to face level and giving them an exaggerated ponderous look.

"How are you guys so cute?" she asked them, feeling her insides wriggle as they both mewled. "Really it must be some kind of plot to have humans squee their guts out. You could take over the world and we'd let you, because you're so damn fluffy." She put them down by their nest and went to join Reid on the sofa, map folded away for now.

"You going to leave that kitten in your pocket?" she teased, gesturing at his midsection with a fork.

"He's asleep." He said a little defensively, which made Emily chuckle.

"You are such a softie." She said as she spooned rice onto their plates.

"Really it's just a joy for someone to appreciate me for my body heat." he shrugged.

"What body heat?" she quipped, noticing Sergio had gone from the floor with the kittens to sitting on the back of the sofa waiting to be fed scraps. No matter that they had a rule that they wouldn't give in to begging, Spencer always did, and Emily didn't try very hard pretending not to notice. "Maybe to a tiny kitty you're warm, but to people you're a reptile."

"The negative connotations of being likened to a reptile wound me, Emily." He said, tone only just managing to sound serious.

"I'll wound you if you take all the mango chutney again." she threatened, glancing over at the kittens. They had a capable feline mother, and their apartment wasn't particularly hazardous at floor-level, but she still felt protective of them. Reid clearly did too, pretending not to panic when one wandered off until it could be located. The constant mewling of their waking hours was reassuring, though they spent most of the time sleeping.

"Emily," Reid said, looking thoughtful, "do you think Rusty giving birth had anything to do with you asking me to move in with you?"

"I don't know." She shrugged her shoulders. "Did they influence you to agree to move in?"

"A little." He admitted.

"Should I feel used?" she asked, lip quirking at the corner, making it clear when he glanced at her she wasn't accusing him.

"No, I wanted to live with you, but the kittens really made me think about that. Considering we're caregivers to them, the idea of being joint caregivers filling a pseudo-parental role was... well, nice."

"Spencer..." she said warmly, pretty sure he was trying to elloquate sentiment she felt too.

"What I'm saying is that I'm glad I got to have kittens with you." He smiled sincerely. "I mean I actually never thought I'd get to have kittens with anyone. And I'm happy it's with you, since I love you."

She cocked her head and smiled, while beside her Sergio meowed as if in approval.

"I love you too, Spencer."

"When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime to her more than she is to me?" - Michel de Montaigne