The first thing that Juliette noticed when they entered the building was that the animal shelter smelled vaguely of urine. The second, far more important thing that she noticed was the cats. Oh, so many cats.

The woman let out an ever-so-classy squeaking noise and rushed forward. She put her hands up to the glass and watched as an eager kitten jumped to tap the fingerprints on the glass. It was adorable. So adorable, in fact, that Juliette could not contain her excitement.

”Becca, look,” she enthused, gesturing to the place around her. She’d never had an actual pet before, and suddenly she was wondering why that was the case.

As she looked at her redheaded friend, she tried to compose herself. She was there for support, not for herself, after all. Rebecca’s cat had recently passed, and after a grieving period, she was ready to move on. Jules had offered to go with her for support, so there they found themselves, in an animal shelter just a little ways from the mansion, looking at the cutest creatures on the planet.

There were cats of every colour, age, and size. Fluffy ones, short-haired ones, striped ones, patchy ones. Juliette couldn’t help but want all of them.

“See any you want to meet?” A lady asked, standing just a little ways off from the two women. She had an eager look on her face as if she was very happy to see two potential new pet owners. It seemed that the humane society of New York City had too many pets and not enough people to take care of them.

It had been a rough patch lately for Rebecca. After the day at Agnes’s where… well, she remembered how it ended—she had been feeling aimless like the days when she had just returned to New York. Then it finally happened.

Domino was by no means a young cat. Rebecca had grown up with her pet through her formative years, and despite its age, it accompanied her to New York, then to London, then back to New York. Except for her first few months in the states, Rebecca had rarely remembered a time without her black-and-white companion.

But time was cruel, and cats did not live forever. Domino passed peacefully, which was the one good thing Rebecca could cling to for days of mourning. She had lost her oldest friend, and she was unsure of how to proceed. She could call Nessa, but Rebecca was already plagued by the guilty thought that she only went to Nessa when something was bad. She could call Agnes, and likely should, since she had spent considerable time with Domino as well once upon a time. Still, the redhead could not bring herself to do it; not yet. That still needed time.

It took three days before Becca reached out to Juliette, one of her best friends, to express her sorrow and whine about the emptiness of her apartment. When the idea of a new cat was proposed, Rebecca was almost combative toward the idea. The spots where Domino sat were still warm; how could she replace her old friend with a new cat and pretend it was the same?

Juliette was the one to remind Rebecca that Domino loved her and would not want her to suffer alone, especially not when there were so many cats in need. With some coaxing, she was lured to the shelter.

Rebecca was trying to keep her spirits up, and it was hard not to see Juliette’s excitement as infectious. She might still be conflicted about why they were there, but Juliette had it right: they were surrounded by adorable animals, and that was something to enjoy. Juliette, to her credit, recognized Rebecca’s hesitance and toned her energy down slightly.

As an act of compromise, Rebecca smiled and looked around at the kittens and cats vying for her attention. ”Sae mony puir wee things... it'll be th' reit hin' tae gie one a haem.” She did not want to be a buzzkill, but as nice as it was to be surrounded by cats, the fact of the matter was these were cats in need of homes. A part of Rebecca wished she could take them all back to her apartment. Cat lady stereotypes be damned!

One of the shelter’s employees asked if they were looking to meet any cat in particular. ”Nae yet.” Rebecca was not sure what kind of cat she would want to bring into her life. In her mind, she would just look around til one of the animals clicked with her. Looking at Jules with a sad smile, she gestured forward. ”Lead th’ way, luv.”

Juliette matched Becca’s sad smile and placed a comforting hand on her friend’s shoulder. As she listened to the redhead’s responses, it was clear to her that she’d acted far too excited for the situation. It was a difficult time for her friend, and she was getting excited when she should have been working on being supportive.

”Just take your time with things,” Juliette told her gently. “If you don’t want to take one home today, then that’s alright. There’s no one saying that you have to.”

The volunteer worker stood a little awkwardly off to the side, allowing the two women to look around at the cats. She looked as though she wanted to push them forward, but she was trying to remain impartial. “Just let me know if you want to meet any of them, yeah?” she finally said.

”Thanks,” Juliette nodded toward her gratefully. She’d managed to get her excitement levels down to something reasonable, so all she had to do was keep them there.

She stepped forward and looked into the pens that the cats were kept in. They were multi-leveled, and each held about three cats each. There were so many that it almost seemed impossible to pick one to take a closer look at.

It almost seemed impossible until she saw him.

He was a tiny little creature - a brown tabby with bright green eyes that followed her every movement. Juliette couldn’t keep her eyes off of him. Even in the sea of cats, she knew that she’d find him to be the cutest each and every time.

The little tag on the wall next to his pen told her that his name was Bijou and he was just under a year old. It was an odd name for a cat, but she figured that there was some sort of story behind it. Perhaps, she decided, she would ask the volunteer if she knew anything about it. If they looked closer into that cat, anyway.

”What about this one, Becca?” Juliette asked her friend, pointing to the little tabby. She had to keep reminding herself that she was there for her friend, not for herself.

Rebecca felt bad or bringing Juliette’s mood down, but she was still struggling to get excited to fill the shoes of one of her oldest friends. Jules was a great friend though, and picked up her vibe, reminding her that there was no rush in getting a new cat. The poor volunteer woman also recognized it might be best to give Rebecca space and let the two women look around on their own.

It was hard to know what she was looking for in a new cat. She was sure she wanted to avoid adopting a new cat that had a white and black color scheme. She felt bad for some of the cuties behind the glass, but if this new friend was going to help her move on from Domino, it could not look like the cat she once knew.

The cats were all sweet and in need of homes, and if she was going to take one back with her, she was unsure how she could be expected to make that choice. Why did she not live in a giant house that could accommodate several dozen cats in need?

Jules had her eye on a sweet brown tabby and called Rebecca over to ask her opinion. The cat was undeniably precious with those beautiful green eyes, but was this “Bijou” the cat for her? There was only one way to find out. ”Um, excuse me?” she timidly called to the volunteer she had so recently pushed away with her awkwardness. ”Can we meet this wee one?” she asked, gesturing to the kitten behind the glass.

“Of course,” she replied warmly, opening a door to lead the girls into where Bijou and another kitten were waiting.

Rebecca, still feeling hesitant, gestured forward for Jules to take the lead. ”After you.” This was her idea, after all.

The two girls were led to a little back room where there was a bench, a cat tree, and a little space in the centre filled with cat toys. It was the perfect place to be introduced to a creature that could live with you for years to come.

Juliette took a seat on the bench and waited for the woman to return with the cat that they (mostly Juliette) had wanted to see. She slipped her hands under legs, trying to keep her excitement from manifesting itself in her fingers.

”How’re you doing, hun?” she asked Rebecca, still trying to be a supportive friend. She moved to one side of the bench so that she had room to sit as well.

A few seconds later, the door to the room swung open and the same volunteer woman walked in, Bijou in hand. She set him down with a grin and put her hands on her hips, watching as he inspected the new space. “I thought someone might very well snatch him up quickly. He’s a cutie.”

Juliette couldn’t help but agree as she watched him get closer and closer to her and Rebecca, swerving away from the path occasionally to sniff something or act aloof. His green eyes were absolutely captivating.

Another small thing moving in a different part of the room caught her eye. Bijou was over by them, which meant that he should have been the only thing that size moving around the room. However, there was another thing - what looked to be a small cat, moving around behind the bench. She figured that it must’ve snuck in when the woman entered. She didn’t say anything, though, afraid of spooking both it and the tabby cat.

While she had been distracted, the tabby had made its way onto her lap. She made a noise of surprise and then turned back around to find him purring and twisting in her lap, tapping her recently freed hand with his head. It was absolutely adorable.

She felt her face flush, and she looked to Becca apologetically. ”I can move him over if you’d like?”

Rebecca followed Juliette and the volunteer into the backroom where they could wait on a bench for Bijou to be brought out to meet them. Juliette had mentioned in the past that she had no pets of her own, which was surprising since it seemed like the lightmancer was ready to burst with excitement being surrounded by kittens in need.

Still, Jules was a good friend and made sure to ask if she was handling things okay. ”Ah think Ah’m fine, bit thenk ye, Jules. Really.” She was still unsure if she would really be ready to bring a cat home with her today, but she was open to meeting Bijou, at least.

The volunteer woman returned to the room, as happy to present Bijou as Jules was to see him. All eyes were on the precious brown tabby, and no one caught a quick blur enter the room behind the woman.

There was no denying it; Bijou was adorable. He took his time making his way over to the girls, interested in the space around him. She wondered if this was the first time anyone asked to meet Bijou. The idea that they were the first did hit her heart, but she was still unsure if she felt the young cat was the right choice for her. She was not ready to rush herself unless a cat truly called out to her.

Mew?

Rebecca felt a tug on the sleeve of her jacket, like someone was trying to get her attention. Turning to the offender, she found a small Bengal kitten with a tan and black coat marked with a collection of stripes and spots. The tugging was actually the little creature’s attempt to get a firm hold of her so his hind legs could struggle up to the bench. Once he made it to his goal, he was ready to climb more, and he found a perfectly good arm. Rebecca watched wordlessly, ignoring the tiny claws pricking through her sleeve as the kitten crawled up her arm, finally finding a perch on her shoulder.

The kitten purred happily, meowing loudly and finally getting the attention of the volunteer. “Oh, I’m so sorry! That’s Gavin; he can be a troublemaker sometimes—he must have slipped out… I can take him if you—”

”Nae!” she replied, a little too defensively. She corrected her tone. ”Ah mean, nah, tha’s fine.” Clearly the woman did not speak cat, because that loud meow clearly translated to, “I have selected my human. She can start on the required paperwork now.” Gavin was not Domino, and there was no replacing the cat she essentially grew up with. They had been friends, but Domino was always more her mother’s baby. Maybe Gavin could be Becca’s baby.

Rebecca turned her attention to her friend, trying to control the excited wibbling of her lip. ”Jules… Ah hae a shoulder kitty…”

Bijou had been busy as well, finding a spot on Juliette’s lap, where he seemed quite content. Rebecca felt bad, because she came to the room to possibly give the tabby a new home, only to find a different cat that was trying to claim her heart. She scratched behind the tabby’s ear and frowned. ”Ah’m… Ah’m sorry, boy. Ah dornt think Ah can brin’ tois kitties haem…” Was she really going to let those beautiful green eyes stay unloved, though?

Almost simultaneously, Rebecca and Bijou looked to Juliette with pleading eyes.

The kitty had been spotted. Or, rather, it made its presence known. It jumped up and made itself comfortable on Rebecca’s shoulder, much to the chagrin of the volunteer in the doorway.

”You have a shoulder kitty,” Juliette echoed, cocking her head and softening her features to show her appreciation for the adorable little cat that had found a new perch. It seemed to have claimed Becca as its own. She couldn’t help but smile at the realisation that her friend had found a cat that clicked with her, and their trip hadn’t been for nought.

But her heart sank at the same time. If Rebecca had clicked with Gavin, that would mean that there would be no one to take Bijou home. No one except...

“We’re not supposed to have more than one cat in here, but I suppose if they’re both going to be adopted…” the volunteer trailed off.

Becca seemed to have the same idea as the volunteer. She looked at Juliette with wide, mismatched eyes at the same time as the tiny cat in her lap did. There was no way that any living human being could win against that. No matter how unfeeling they were.

Luckily, Juliette wasn’t planning on holding out. From the moment she saw Bijou, she knew that it was meant to be. She wasn’t leaving without him. The only thing that had been holding her back had been her respect for Becca, but it definitely didn’t seem as though she was encouraging her to leave him there.

Gingerly, she scratched the little tabby under the jaw and listened to him purr enthusiastically. Yep, it was a done deal.

Juliette looked at her friend, the volunteer, and the cats with a grin. ”Well then, I think we’re set.”

The shelter had just found two deserving cats homes.