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When Will was younger, he found a tabby cat in the woods near camp while following Connor Stoll to find flowers for their older sisters. The cat was missing half of her tail, but was surprisingly affectionate towards them. Will fell in love immediately, and while he wasn't a vet, his vitalkinesis told him that more than just her tail was injured. She was malnourished and dehydrated with a sprain in her front paw.
"Do you think your siblings will let you keep her? Do you even plan on keeping her?" Connor asked with his arms full of flowers.
"It really depends on what she wants. Poor angel. I would like her, but I wanna make sure she's okay first." Will's small arms held the cat and he pet the underside of her jaw, grinning when she started to purr.
"I didn't even know you liked cats. How could you hide this from me?"
"Ma used to take me to the pet shelters before she would play her concerts at night when touring. And I didn't hide anything. You're just a bad friend for never asking. Hmph."
"Wha? Hey!" The two boys laughed as they approached the Big House. Will's face grew determined seeing as his biggest challenge would be inside.
"Good luck, soldier. If they don't let you keep her, I'll sneak her into Hermes for you. Luke wants us family to be happy, so I can figure something out." Connor did his best to move the flowers around so he could give a salute.
"I lied earlier. You're a great friend...when you aren't playing the pranks of the century." Will nodded his head, took a deep breath, and walked inside the chamber.
Will was happy to note that the infirmary was mostly empty save for, surprisingly, Luke and Lee. What was even stranger though was Luke wasn't in a cot. He was sitting on top of Lee's desk, something that Will had be reprimanded for several times.
"Why doesn't Luke get scolded for sitting on your desk?" Will pouted walking towards his big brother and the Hermes counselor. Both of the older boys jumped, but Lee just looked over at Will and smiled kindly. "He already was. You know how Hermes kids are."
Luke turned his body around to face Will as well with a mischievous grin. "Lee has tried to kick me off of the desk several times, but I outsmarted him."
Lee's face flushed, but Will completely missed the interaction between them, looking at Luke with amazement. "You managed to outsmart Lee!? But he's so smart, but also a little dumb-"
"Hey!"
"-so I can also understand."
"William. Why is there a cat in your arms?" Lee asked, out of curiosity and to redirect the conversation away from his dating life. Will was, perhaps, his only sibling who remained mostly spared from growing up too fast, and Lee was determined to keep it that was for just a little longer. Romance just went over his head, which was the innocence a child should have.
"Oh yeah! I found her when Connor and I were...-" Will pursed his lips and thought about how to say they snuck into the woods without getting into trouble. He had never met their dad, Apollo, so Lee was really the closest to one he felt like he had. And Lee had perfected the disappointed parent look- Will blamed Michael for that. "...taking a stroll through some trees to look for flowers and I found her! She's injured and I wanna help her."
Will was determined to at least be able to nurse the cat back to health, even if Lee wouldn't let him keep her. His arms were wrapped protectively around the cat and she relaxed onto Will's shoulder.
"A stroll through some trees?" Lee raised his eyebrow as if he was questioning whether or not to let the deceit go. Apparently, Will was very lucky, because his big brother just sighed. "You know we aren't vets. How can you be sure you can help her? How do you know its a her?"
"I'm a healer." Will said it with so much pride that Lee couldn't help but smile just a little bit. "And vitalkinesis, dummy."
"Michael is such a bad influence on you. He's got you insulting me in my own infirmary."
"Isn't he also the only one of your siblings, other than this one - but he's gotta only be a fourth of a person -("Hey! You fucking bitch! I will shorten your life!") who can get your stubborn ass to take a break?" Luke spoke up with an amused smirk.
"Language. There is a small and impressionable child here."
"Mikey says bad words all the time," Will spoke up, looking between the two counselors extremely confused.
"I'll have a talk with him about it. If you want to try to help the cat.." Lee noticed Will's puppy dog eyes and let out a swear of his own in Ancient Greek. "You can try to help her, but we don't have any cat food so you'll have to see if she'll eat tuna. And we aren't keeping her." Will nodded along with a small pout.
Instead of giving confirmation, Will walked to a cot and set the cat down before humming a soft healing hymn.
"We're gonna end up with a cat, aren't we?"
"You guys most definitely are. That kid has you wrapped around his fingers."
"It's the eyes! You'd think he was an Aphrodite kid, but he just pulls the puppy dog eyes and I give in."
"Lee, that's just you being a sucker."
"I'm just a better brother than you. All of the poor, sweet children that have their ears tainted by the horrors spoken of in the Hermes cabin tell me so."
"I'm going to go tell Castor and Pollux to start awful rumors about you. Overdramatic, absolute pushover, workaho-ouch!"
"Don't be mean. I'm going to go help Will. If you would be so kind, could you possibly sneak Cabin 7 some stuff for our new cat? I really don't think I'm getting out of this one."
"Yeah, sure. Good luck with being 'Cabin Mom'. I have my own rats to gather up soon; Connor and Travis should probably be first."
Will had healed the sprain and gotten the cat water and a can of tuna which she was currently happily drinking and eating away at. He sat in a chair by the bed watching her with a wide grin. Seeing her eating made him really happy and when she would look up, he reassured her with a "It's fine. There is plenty." before she went back to eating.
Lee ruffled Will's hair when he made it over. "Things going good, Sunshine?"
"Mmmmhm! She likes tuna, I think. Or maybe just really hungry."
"We can try a few things coming up to see what she likes. Overeating can also make her sick. Sometimes cats, and people, do it when they're malnourished for so long and have, for instance, they're favorite food for the first time."
"Really?"
"Yeah. It's why when you say you're not hungry, I always say eat two bites and you don't have to eat anymore if you still don't want any."
"That makes sense! Its much nicer than back in Texas when I would stay with my Granma and Gramps. They had dumb rules." His nose scrunched up as he recalled the nights he just really didn't feel good, the very few times he got sick, and was forced to sit at the table for hours.
"Those rules are the worst." Lee agreed and pulled his little brother in for a hug. "There are some rules that are good though."
"Like what?"
"Rules you have to follow for us to take in your new friend."
Will's eyes sparkled with excitement as he listened to the rules carefully, curls bouncing as he nodded along. The small lecture ended in a sacred oath, even more sacred than a promise on the Styx, a pinkie promise.
Bear, as Will had named her - though no one knew why since she didn't look much like one, grew healthier each week. She gained more weight, especially when she realized she could get extra treats by going to multiple Apollo cabin, and some Hermes, kids. Her fur grew fluffier (giving her a bath had been Michael's job - the punishment for swearing around children.) which Will absolutely loved, because she cuddled with him at night. She had almost gotten herself caught multiple times because she tried to follow Will out of the cabin. (Lee was going to get gray hairs by the time he turned 20, though he'd be ancient then if he made it that long - after all, he was a demigod. He was sure of it.) By the time Chiron did find out about Bear, Lee had gotten the other head counselors on his side if this came to a debate. Luckily, most of them liked Will and seeing him being a kid with a cat probably helped sway the tides, or maybe one of the Gods was actually looking out for them. Either way, Chiron agreed to let her stay since they had clearly taken care of her this long. Will went to sleep that night holding Bear a little closer, while she simply curled up to the boy. In a few years, he would lose so much, and she would stay through some of the hardest moments in his life, but right now he was just a boy with his big siblings and their cat.