The choice to officially move in together was made, as were all of their largest decisions, over coffee, half asleep, and with cats walking across their notes.
It was Sunday morning, three weeks after their beach trip. The sunlight filtered through the balcony door in lazy golden puddles. Luffy had woken at his usual ungodly hour and gone to work on dough for cinnamon rolls. He had brought two steaming mugs back to bed where Catherine was still under a pile of blankets, only the top of her head visible.
He put the mugs on the nightstand and crawled under the blankets fully clothed, wrapping himself around her from behind, like a human version of a weighted blanket.
"Wifey," he whispered into her hair, "wake up. Important life planning cuddles require participation."
She rolled over toward him anyway, her face burrowing into the warm space between his throat and shoulder. "Five more minutes."
"Already had ten," he said. "And the cats are plotting against us over breakfast."
As if waiting for a cue, Mochi jumped up onto the bed and settled himself squarely in the middle of Luffy's chest, glaring accusingly at him with big, green eyes. Matcha followed more gracefully, nestling into the curve of Catherine's hip.
Catherine opened one eye lazily. "Traitors. Both of you."
Luffy scratched Mochi behind the ears, and the little ball of fluff began to purr like a motorboat. "They just want us to make an honest apartment out of this place. No more pretending my studio ever really existed."
Catherine let out a happy, defeated sigh and rolled onto one elbow.
"Alright. Lay it out for me, Hubby. What's the dream?"
Luffy reached for the notepad he'd left on the nightstand, covered in their messy handwriting from previous nights' conversations.
"Option one: stay here. Pros – you're already home, great light for your sketches, within walking distance of the café. Cons – small bedroom, one bathroom, no yard for future kittens."
"Option two?"
"Find something bigger. Two bedrooms minimum. Balcony or small patio. Closer to the park so we can take the cats on harness walks like weird people. Maybe a little extra space for when we start… you know." He waggled his eyebrows. "Tiny humans."
Catherine's cheeks flushed. "You really want that soon?"
"I want everything with you as soon as you're ready. But no pressure. We could wait five years. Ten. Or…" He shrugged, looking a little shy. "Nine months from now, if the universe decides we're ready before we are."
She smiled and touched her lips to his jaw. "I like that you dream big."
"Realistic," he corrected. "I dream realistic. I dream us."
They spent the morning making pros and cons lists, browsing apartment listings on Catherine's computer as they munched cinnamon rolls in bed. Crumbs spilled all over the sheets, and neither of them cared. The kittens swiped at the screen every time a new picture loaded.
By noon, they had whittled it down to three apartments. By two, they had appointments to view them the next day. By evening, they were walking hand-in-hand to the café so Luffy could close up, talking about paint colors and where they'd put the litter boxes and whether they should get a bigger couch so all four of them, and future cats, could fit during movie nights.
The café was quiet when they arrived, late afternoon lull. Luffy flipped the sign to Closed, locked the door, and dimmed the lights to just the fairy lights and the glow above the pastry case.
Catherine sat on her usual stool as he went through his closing routines, wiping the counters, counting the till, and restocking beans for tomorrow.
She observed him with the fluidity of someone who loved what they were doing. The way his shoulders relaxed when he was alone with his machines. The little smile he had as he polished his espresso portafilter as if it were precious.
"Hey," she said softly.
He looked up. "Yeah?"
"Come here a second."
He set the cloth down and came over to her, putting his hands flat on the counter so his face was close to hers.
"What's up, wifey?"
She reached over and grabbed the front of his apron and pulled him into a slow kiss. She let him go and his eyes were dazed and half-closed.
"I just needed to remind myself," she said softly. "That this is real. That you're mine. That we're doing all of this. Moving and cats and maybe babies and all of it."
Luffy came around the counter in two steps and grabbed her face with his hands and kissed her like his life depended on it. Like he was trying to get all of his hidden promises into her mouth.
When he let her go and she was breathing heavily, his face was against hers. "You're mine too," he said roughly. "Every messy beautiful piece of you. And yeah. We're doing all of this. Together."
They stood like that for a long minute, wrapped in each other in the scent of cooling pastries and freshly ground coffee.
And then Catherine pulled back slightly. "One more thing."
"Hmm?"
She hopped off the stool and went to the back hallway where the storage shelves were. She came back with a small cardboard box she had noticed weeks ago but had never asked Luffy about.
She set it on the counter between them.
There were a dozen or so Polaroids of Luffy when he was a teenager with his parents at the beach. Luffy opening his first day of business, standing proudly in front of his sign with paint on his cheek. There was even one of the stray black cat with the white sock sitting regally on top of the dumpster outside his place.
And one more: Luffy, when he was maybe twenty years old, sitting on a park bench feeding pigeons and looking lonely in a way that made Catherine's chest hurt.
She lifted that last one gently.
"You never talk about the years after they died."
Luffy's throat worked. He took the photo from her fingers, looked at it.
"I didn't know how to be alive without them," he said quietly. "The café saved me. Gave me something to wake up for. But I was… empty. Until you messaged me about that stupid cat."
Catherine put her arms around his waist, her cheek against his chest.
"You weren't empty. You were waiting."
He pulled her tight, his face in her hair.
"I was waiting for you."
They stood there until the last of the daylight went out of the windows.
Later, after closing was finished, they walked home in the cool evening air, went into the corner store and bought mango ice cream because Catherine suddenly had a craving.
They stood on the balcony, legs dangling over the edge, eating it straight from the container, sharing one spoon, laughing as it dripped on their shirts.
Mochi and Matcha had somehow appeared and were trying to bat at the spoon.
Catherine nestled her head against Luffy's shoulder.
"Tomorrow we look at apartments," she whispered.
"Tomorrow we start picking our forever place," Luffy corrected her.
She smiled into the darkness.
"Our forever place."
He kissed the top of her head.
"And every stray that shows up at the door gets a home too. No exceptions."
Catherine chuckled. "We're going to have thirty cats."
"Thirty-two," Luffy said seriously. "We need even numbers for harmony."
She elbowed him playfully. "I love you, ridiculous man."
"I love you more, impossible woman."
They remained there until the city fell asleep and stars twinkled one by one.
Inside, two kittens slept curled up together on the couch.
Out there, two hearts beat steadily in unison, already reaching into a future they could almost touch.
And in some unknown corner of the night, a black stray with one white sock on watched from a nearby rooftop, silent, patient, waiting for the day fate would call him home again.