Milo - Pets (Patreon)

The tap at my window came early in the morning. When I was still groggy from a night's sleep, only just waking and fixing something to help me start my day and enter the world.  Pulling back the curtains, I jumped. Milo’s face was practically pressed to the glass as he bounced up and down, trying to keep the cold from creeping into his bones.  Flinging open the window, I tilted my head to the side in inquiry.

“Did I wake you?”  His cheeks were pink from the cold, freckles popping out against the bridge of his nose.

“I just got up. Is everything okay?”

“I need a favor.”

Milo didn’t really ask for favors.  In fact, Milo never really asked for anything.  Stepping aside, I motioned for him to climb into the room.  I still didn’t have a front door. Mainly because it delighted me to watch Milo try and clamber his way through the window.

When he was inside, he turned and closed the window himself, drawing the curtains to keep in the heat.  He stomped his feet on the ground, getting some feeling back in them.  I couldn’t help but notice the thick coat he wore, the zipper halfway up his chest.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Nothings wrong,” he assured me. “At least I don’t think. I do have to go away for a bit. Maybe about a week. There’s someone in the Outlands I need to go talk to.”

I frowned. “Should I be concerned?”

“I’ll let you know. Right now it’s just someone who has supposed information about lanterns and constructs and Gatekeeper stuff.  It’s kind of more a reconnaissance thing.  Just to try and get us better armed with what you are. Or what I am.”

I didn’t like these little missions he had been going on but I did understand the need for them. At the very least, it gave us something to go off of.  “Alright,” I said slowly.

“But here’s the thing.” He looked nervous. His eyes were shifting around the room and his movements were jerky.  “I need to ask a favor of you while I’m gone and I know it might be a bit of an inconvenience but I really don’t know what else to do.”

“Milo,” I started. “You can ask me anything. If there’s some way I can help, you know I’m going to do it.”

He nodded. “Right. Okay. Well.” He reached into his jacket, pulling something out. At first, I thought it was a discarded piece of old fur. A rag of some sort that he’d maybe used for cleaning.  But then I saw the tail.  “Can you watch Sherman?”

It was the rat. The damn rat that had nibbled at my feet when I had spent the night, was there. In his arms. Looking at me with its beady little black eyes.

“I would ask Malcolm but he would say no,” Milo started quickly. “And Hazel has Billows so there’s no way I would trust Sherman there. And Feebus would actually kill him. I’m not even joking. He would take one look at this little guy and throw him against the wall.  But I can’t just leave him for a week.”

“You said that you didn’t have a pet rat,” I accused him.  “When I asked you about it you assured me that he did not belong to you.”

“He doesn’t,” MIlo protested. “I have more respect for him than that. You can’t just own an animal. It’s immoral.”

“That’s what you choose to have a moral high ground about?”

“Someone has to! Sherman can’t speak and defend himself!” Sherman squeaked at that, protesting the sentiment.

“I am not having that rat run around my apartment for a week!”

Milo cuddled the little creature closer, covering its entire head with the palm of his hand. “Calling it a rat is incredibly offensive.”

“No it’s not. Because that’s what it is. A rat.  And you promised me that you were going to rid your place of rats.”

“I did. But Sherman and I have bonded. This little guy has got me through a lot.”

“Milo.”

He sighed, taking Sherman and placing him within a small box that I kept by the window to collect wet scarves and mittens. Sherman snuggled down, declaring that his new home.  When Milo approached me, it was with one of his patented Milo looks. The one where he gave me the puppy dog eyes. Pouted out his lip just slightly. And swayed towards me in that way that said his entire focus was on me alone.

“Darlin’,” he murmured. “Please?” He wrapped his arms around me, pulling his coat to envelope part of me as well.  Gently he swayed the two of us back and forth.  “Please please please? I have no one else to watch him. Who’s going to give him his morning cheese?”

“I knew you were feeding him.” I buried my head against his chest. I knew I was going to do it. Because it was Milo and he was cute when he asked for things. That, and the man didn’t really have much in his life he found important. For some reason, this rat had fallen into the very narrow category.  “Fine,” I muttered. “But after a week, if you are not home, I’ll throw the thing into the streets.”  I wouldn’t. But I needed to make some sort of threat. Just so Milo didn’t get distracted and spent another week out there on his little self proclaimed journeys.

“Have I told you lately what a caring and perfect cosmic being you are?” he asked. “How I admire you. How I look at you and go ‘gosh, I’m glad I’m not the Night Market because that’s way too much pressure but I’m super glad I get to see them naked’?”

I smacked his arm, half heartedly shoving him away. His laughter filled the room, trickling down my spine as he pulled me closer. We tussled for a minute before we both fell to the bed.  Milo rolled, bracing himself above me.

“Seriously,” he whispered. “Thank you. He’s getting too old to come with me.”

“Of course you’ve taken the rat with you on your trips.”

“He’s a great business partner.”  Leaning down, he brushed his lips against mine. “Can I ask another favor?”

“You’re pushing it,” I warned.

“You think you could give me a send off?” He dropped his hips down, rolling them against mine.

“Watch your rat and sleep with you?” I asked. “You get one or the other.”

“Sorry, Sherman,” he called over his shoulder as he grabbed me by the hips and rolled me. “You are on your own.”

I laughed as he flipped us so I sat astride him. His hair was messy and his eyes amber bright. And for the first time in a long while, Milo looked happy.  I couldn’t resist it, of course. At the very least, I needed to send him out with something to come back to.  Bending forward, I took his lips against my own, watching as his eyes fluttered shut.

“So sensitive,” I murmured to him.

“Only for you,” he said seriously.  “All I am is for you.”

I cupped his cheek, running a thumb along the path of his freckles.  “Stay for the morning,” I demanded.

Wrapping me up tight, he nodded. And in the small basket near the door, Sherman squeaked before settling down for a long nap.