Chapter Text
All in all, the first day of Saturnalia had gone over as smoothly as anyone had expected. No major accidents had happened and nobody set the house on fire. Everybody managed to get back into the house before dinner even - everybody except for Ven.
That alone was something that raised a few eyebrows. No sane slave would miss a meal, let alone a meal cooked on Saturnalia - unless of course your owners were exceptionally bad at cooking. In this case every sane slave would make sure to stay as far away as they could without being seen as rude.
Drusus wasn’t a bad cook, though and his slaves knew this. And since Publius managed to convince Aurelia to stay away from the stove (after a lengthy discussion she had accepted that it was perfectly fine if she only peeled the vegetables) there was no danger anyone would get food poisoning or something similar.
The tradition of electing a Saturnalicius princeps wasn’t followed in this household and so everybody, free and slave alike, gathered in the atrium for dinner without much fuss, as it was the biggest room in the domus.
"Where is Ven?" Talia whispered in Ufa’s direction who only shrugged, but looked around nonetheless, which of course was noticed.
For his part, Ven had spent the day with friends from his old master’s, fellow slaves who he’d grown up with, and had returned home in time for cena. Or at least, he had made his way back to the neighbourhood. It felt too strange to return to the main door, despite the time of year, and he took the back streets that were more familiar to him (even after several months of being his master’s concubīnus and accompanying his master everywhere). He was still a few minutes’ walk from the house when he heard a tiny plaintive sound that made him stop in his tracks and look round. A motion caught his eye and he bent to look closer, finding that a tiny kitten was curled up next to the wall of the house he was standing next to.
"Oh!" He crouched down. It really looked very young, though not quite as young as he’d first feared - maybe five or six weeks old rather than the four or five he’d initially taken it for. The eyes were open, and even as he watched, it opened its pink mouth in another plaintive mew.
There was no sign of a mother cat or any other kittens at all, and it was with some serious misgivings that he gently reached out to scoop the tiny thing up. It was shivering and he cupped it close, standing and looking around, stroking it with one finger.
He did not dare think what his master might say!
He could not leave the poor thing here, though, there was nothing around, no shelter, no water or food or anything else. Even his master wouldn’t be heartless enough to turn the poor thing out, surely.
He would be very lucky to be able to find his master on his own; everyone would be gathering for the meal about now.
This assumption turned out to be very accurate as Ven slipped into the domus through the side entrance and as he stepped into the atrium Talia spotted him immediately. She seemed relieved to see him but as her gaze settled on the little fur ball she blinked. And then squealed.
"A kitten!" she shouted, forgetting for a moment all manners but blushing furiously as suddenly everyone stared at her.
Two moments later everyone stared at Ven though and, upon realising that Talia had been correct, every single person gazed at Drusus.
Ven swallowed. He had not expected to be confronted like this, in front of the entire household and his master’s guests.
"I - found her outside, Domine," he said quietly. "I don’t know where the mother was, or anything. It looked like she had been there a while." The honorific had slipped out from sheer habit, and it took no more than a gesture from Drusus to make Ven cross the atrium to where his master was reclining and go to his knees to show him the tiny bundle of fur.
Publius, reclining nearby with a nearly perfect view of the kitten, mumbled: "Jupiter, it's tiny. It can't be more than six weeks old."
"A good reason to keep it, then - it seemed to be in need of a good home," Aurelia smiled, even if she hadn't gotten a good look at the kitten. "Do you think the kitten will survive, oh Medicus?"
"How would I know?" Publius asked, looking confused. "My specialization is mammals on two legs, with less fur. Commonly called humans."
Aurelia rolled her eyes, looking back at Drusus obviously curious about what he would decide.
"You would find a stray kitten today, of all days in the year," Drusus remarked dryly. "Go on. It seems to have adopted you, and the house is more than big enough."
Ven’s answering smile was small and a little shy, though he slipped into his own place, the kitten carefully cradled in front of him where he could offer it bits of some of the softer savoury food - while small, it seemed old enough to be able to handle more than milk now.
Talia was the first to change her position, sitting down as close as possible to Ven to get a very close look at the kitten.
"It looks like it needs a bath too," she mumbled, carefully stroking the head of the tabby coloured kitten. After another moment she looked at Ven. "Are you going to name it?"
"That would make only sense after its gender is known, Talia," Ufa answered before Ven could say anything. "And right now a name is the last thing the little one needs. Food and a warm place to sleep are far more important."
"She seems quite shy - and of course, she may be a boy," Ven said, seemingly more concerned with getting some food into the kitten than eating anything himself, although he was not too slow in helping himself to a boiled egg and some sausage. "A bath is a very good idea, the poor thing is very dirty."
"I wonder where the mother went," Dru said, helping herself to some chicken and dipping it into the garum.
"Possibly had a larger litter and the rest had a better chance of survival. This one seems very small."
"The eyes are still blue, though, so it’s less than seven weeks old," Ven said. "Is there any milk I can give it?"
"Goat-milk is fine for all mammals so young," Publius informed him and gave Ufa a small nod, who stood up and made his way to the kitchen, coming back only minutes later with a small bowl filled with milk, handing it to Ven.
"It's probably still too small to drink it straight from the bowl," Ufa commentend, eyeing the kitten.
It was Congrio who surprised everyone by slipping out of his place next to head out to the slave quarters. He returned a few minutes later with a small bottle.
"We use them for icing sometimes," he told Ven as he passed it over and resumed his place.
It wasn’t long before Ven found himself encouraging the kitten to nurse, a task that seemed to confuse the thing at first, though it soon worked out what was going on and latched on greedily.
"I grew up on a farm," he said when someone asked how he knew what to do.
"Which is a good thing right now," Aurelia smiled before she looked at Publius and smiled even wider. "When we’re married I want a cat too."
Publius only groaned as an answer while Talia looked absolutely delighted about the prospect of having an animal in the house one day in the not so distant future. For now though the girl seemed perfectly happy to watch how Ven took care of the kitten in his arms and she even asked if she could help him bathe the kitten later.
"Yes," he replied, taking his attention from the kitten long enough to smile at the girl. "I think it would be easier with another pair of hands."
Eventually the kitten seemed to have enough and he gently wiped the milk moustache from its face with the sleeve of his tunic. The kitten kneaded the cushion a little before curling up and falling asleep. Ven set the bottle down and reached for a meat skewer, wanting to enjoy his own food while he had the chance.
++
With the kitten asleep everyone seemed to concentrate on the food again, even Talia. She stayed close to Ven and the kitten though, glancing at the small animal from time and smiling.
"Did they have many animals on the farm you grew up on?" she asked after a while and looked at Ven with some curiosity.
"Some. Goats for milk and donkeys to help bring the olive and grapes in - they had pack saddles with baskets. I wasn’t outside on the farm though, not really, I was a house slave like Moss and Junio."
"I never left Rome. My mater was a house slave too, but in a much smaller household than this one," Talia admitted, frowning while she looked at the food before taking a sausage. "My first mistress was very old and didn't like animals at all."
"This is the biggest household I’ve ever been in, too," Ven told her and adjusted his position, careful not to disturb the sleeping kitten.
The rest of the evening was mostly relaxed, with at least the slaves taking the opportunity to talk freely over everything that came to their minds without having to worry they would disturb their owners. The kitten wasn’t disturbed either, sleeping through the noise surrounding it and only stretching its little legs a couple of hours later, yawning widely and showing everyone who looked in its direction some needle sharp baby teeth.
"I hope it doesn’t hate water," Talia muttered as she followed Ven, who stood up and walked into the slave quarters as soon as the kitten seemed fully awake.
"So do I," Ven admitted. "Do you know where our towels are kept? If you do, could you run and grab me a couple - they only need to be small, the poor little thing isn’t very big."
Talia nodded enthusiastically and was gone before Ven could say anything else, returning some minutes later with a stack of small towels.
"Are these alright? I didn’t find any smaller ones, but I can go looking again."
Ven couldn’t help laughing a little. "No, no, those are fine, thank you."
Talia gave him a relieved smile as answer, before frowning. "How do you bathe such a small creature? We aren’t really putting it in a bathtub full of water, are we?"
"Not a bathtub - but a sink will be as big as a bathtub for him, and a better height for us. And warm water, they’re very susceptible to the cold."
"Alright," Talia nodded, turning to one of the sinks as soon as they were in one of the bathrooms. After putting the towels down somewhere where they could easily reach them she turned on the tap and held her hand under the warm water. "My mistress likes her bath to be around forty degrees. Should the water for the kitten be cooler?"
"Yes, I should think so. We don't want to scald the poor little thing, do we? Comfortably warm, I should think, not too hot."
"No, we don't," Talia agreed and adjusted the temperature of the water, glancing at the kitten more than once while doing so.
Ven nodded. "That should be about right. He might scratch, cats don’t generally like getting wet." He paused for a moment. "I don’t think we’ve got anything suitable for cats, but a tiny bit of shampoo won’t hurt him - there should be some on the window-sill in our showers."
"Alright, I'm back in a minute," she said and left the slaves toilet block to go to the showers next door. She was back quickly and looked questingly from the kitten to Ven, holding the shampoo bottle in her hands.
"That was quick," Ven said as she reappeared. He cupped the kitten in his hands, dipping them into the water and making sure that the kitten couldn’t crawl up his arm or jump free. He was also very careful to hold the kitten so that it would not slip under the water, although he had no doubt at all that it could swim. He didn’t want to drown it, but nor did he want it to wriggle free before he had cleaned the dust and grime from its fur.
It was not happy about the process.
"I don't think it likes being bathed," Talia observed as she rubbed a little bit of shampoo into the dirty, wet fur while the kitten meowed pitifully.
"I know, I know, we’re so mean, aren’t we?" Ven told it in a quiet, soothing voice, gently scrubbing at it with a gentle finger to ensure the lather got everywhere before carefully washing it off again. "Poor thing looks like a drowned rat," he said to Talia. "Let’s have a towel, then, I think it’s as clean as we’re going to get it."
Talia gave the kitten a compassionate glance before she handed Ven one of the towels. "At least all of the dust and other things are washed out now. She - or he - probably understands that we are only trying to help."
Ven wrapped the now clean kitten in the towel and passed it to Talia. "There, you can dry her off. Or him - I really don’t know which it is yet."
Talia took the kitten with so much care that one could think she held a very expensive (and breakable) old Etruscan vase in her arms, rubbing the small animal carefully dry.
"Well, its young, so you have enough time to figure that out, right?" she shrugged. "And I’m glad Master Drusus will allow you to keep it. It seems to have a very sweet character and isn’t really afraid of humans. Just a little bit shy."
"You think he’s shy?" Ven had drained the sink and given it a wipe round; it wouldn’t be fair to the next person to use it if it was left dirty. "I mean the kitten; Master Drusus definitely isn’t shy!"
Talia snickered, obviously amused by Ven's last words. "I meant the kitten. Maybe shy isn't the best word. Bashful, perhaps? She seems… to be careful around humans. But not really afraid."
"Cautious," Ven said. "And I can understand that - she’s been kicked out of wherever, she’s lost her mother, the streets are no fun and now she’s been soaked. It’s no surprise if she feels a bit cautious around us - we’re a lot bigger than she is, as well."
He gathered the other towels up. "She seems to like you, though. And I think she’s purring."
"She is," Talia confirmed with a laugh. "I can hear it. It means it's comfortable, right? Despite being in a new place and all."
"Purring doesn’t always mean that a cat’s happy, but I think it does right now. She’s full and clean and warm - why don’t we go and find somewhere where we can be comfortable, too?"
The younger slave nodded in agreement and followed Ven, cradling the kitten in her arms and making soothing sounds.