Chapter Text
It's late and Caleb flops himself face first into bed, not even bothering with his evening routine. The bed dips slightly under furry paws padding their way across the sheets to join the human. Caleb turns his head toward the ginger cat. He reaches to scratch under his chin - one of Frumpkin's favorite spots.
"Ah, Katzchen. Was tue ich?"
Those feelings he'd had tonight, for Molly. Were they really just the alcohol? He's barely met this tiefling and yet Caleb seems to crave his presence.
He's changed though, since making friends with the others. It's been a bit easier to let people in. Maybe this is just part of the friend-making process? They are becoming...what was it? Fast-friends? This may just be how it is when you mesh well with another. But do they? They don't exactly have that much in common. Molly is an exciting and colorful person while Caleb is a drab homebody. He does not like to go out and socialize much. Hells, Caleb's idea of a good night is to relax with a book and Frumpkin in his lap.
Oh no. What if Molly doesn't like cats? Caleb's eyes shift to the little knickknacks lining his dresser and shelves. Most were of cats, some of which Caleb made himself. His phone background even was of Frumpkin.
What if Molly thinks Caleb is strange because he likes cats so much?
He's just a weird, awkward, shut-in magic nerd who likes books and cats. Molly wouldn't want to be friends with that, let alone...what? Have feelings for Caleb?
Caleb remembers though, of course he does. He remembers how it felt when those feeling started to bloom for Astrid...and later for Wulf.
When was the last time he'd allowed himself to feel that way? Jester? Well, look at how that turned out.
'You couldn't even allow yourself to say anything. You're an idiot. You're worthless, Bren. Worthless!'
"Nein!" he sobs, closing his fists around the hair in his grasp. Frumpkin yowls and butts his forehead against his human's. Caleb takes the cat into his arms and presses his face into Frumpkin's fur. He takes a deep breath...and another. Another. Until he's calm.
"Danke, Süßer." he mumbles into the purring cat's side. Frumpkin chirrups and begins to groom Caleb's messed-up hair.
"Ok so I maybe have a crush. That is not the end of the world, ja? He is nice and we are becoming friends. That is, that is good enough."
Caleb drags himself out of bed to change and brush his teeth. Frumpkin follows, tail aloft and swaying.
The two snuggle into bed for a decent night's sleep.
The group meets at the Blooming Grove the next morning. Most of them got away with a bit of a headache, nothing that brunch couldn't fix. Not surprisingly, Veth was nursing a hangover.
Caleb waves to Caduceus and Fjord in the kitchen and takes his place next to Beauregard. She's half hunched over the counter, scrolling aimlessly through her phone. Caleb scans the room to find the usual object of her attention missing.
"Guten Morgen. Where's Yasha?"
Beau lazily shrugs a shoulder.
"Left last night." He hears Molly's muffled voice emerge from the other side of Beau. The tiefling's head lies in his arms, revealing only about half of his face. He's in relatively plain clothes again, wearing torn blue jeans, red Converse trainers and a sweatshirt that looks to be about three times too big. He lifts his head groggily, hood falling back to reveal his disheveled curls. Caleb realizes that it's the first time he's seen Molly with a bare face and horns. In fact, the only accessory he's sporting is a pair of wireless earphones.
"Yasha goes off to do her own thing from time to time." Molly yawns, "She'll show back up eventually."
"She just leaves? To do what?" Caleb asks. He scarcely believes Yasha would go off without telling Molly something.
"I dunno. She doesn't say, never has. We just say she's out 'Yasha-ing.'" He sits up further, mirroring Beau with his chin in his hand. "She tends to show up at the strangest time and places too. This one time the carnival set up outside of this podunk town in the middle of fuckin' nowhere. We went to the bathhouse and there was Yasha, in there soaking like she'd been waiting for us. Had her damn sword in the bath and everything." Molly conveys this with a smirk, as if it's a perfectly normal occurrence.
Caleb and Beau trade incredulous looks. Beau looks like she is having an existential crisis and mouths "sword??" at Caleb.
"Ah, there she is now!" Molly proclaims when his phone buzzes loudly against the marble counter. While the tiefling has been pretty cheerful this morning, Caleb can't help but notice how Molly's tail and ears perk up upon receiving the message from Yasha.
Curiously though, he doesn't pick up the phone. Instead, Caleb observes Molly pulling back his sleeve to speak into a watch. At least, Caleb believes it is a watch. Their eyes meet and Molly has a peculiar look upon his face. A moment later it's gone and replaced with an inquiring smile.
"What is that?" Caleb asks sheepishly.
"It's a smart watch." He's met with a blank stare.
"You've never seen one before?" Molly smirks at the role reversal from the day with the typewriter. Caleb shakes his head.
"Caleb's not exactly technologically savvy." Jester appears, draping herself over Beau. Molly hears a slight chuckle from Fjord across the table. Caleb is accustomed to the teasing he receives about being...unacquainted with a great deal of devices.
"Ja, I was...what is the Common saying...'not on the grid?'"
"Off the grid" Fjord supplies
"Danke. I was 'off the grid' for most of my life. I am not used to much besides a computer. I've only just gotten used to my phone." Caleb blushes a little.
On the other side of Caleb, Veth emerges from her stupor to stage whisper
"He used a flip phone for forever!" before laying her head back down on the cool countertop.
Molly emits a loud, stifled laugh.
"A flip phone? Dude, you only see like, drug dealers using those." Caleb decides not bring up the fact that he is intimately familiar with burner phones.
"Ja, I am unfamiliar with many things." the wizard repeats. He's looking away but still seems curious with the piece of technology on Molly's wrist.
"C'mere to me, let me show you! Nothing like the present."
Jester pulls Beau out of her seat.
"C'mon Beau, you can come sulk over by me." she casts an exaggerated wink at Caleb. Molly hops up into the vacant stool and scoots it closer to the redhead. But like the night before, he maintains a friendly distance. Caleb makes the executive decision to scoot himself over before he can dissuade himself from the action.
"Ok. It connects to my phone so when I get a call or a text, it will show me without having to pull my phone out all the time. I can reply through it too."
"So you were replying with your voice to Yasha?"
"Yeah, see," Molly opens a new message to Caleb. "I just hit the reply button and instead of typing I just hold this button 'and talk like this'. He taps twice at the screen and Caleb's phone goes off just a moment later. He opens it to find a text from Molly.
"Oh! That is handy." In fact, Caleb thinks something like that could be useful on busy days at the university. He'd really have to look into this thing.
"Gods, it really is. I use it to set reminders for myself, my memory can be such shit sometimes."
"What else does it do?"
Molly runs him through all sorts of functions - finding his phone (one that Molly uses quite often), streaming music, alarms, calendars...it's all there on this small device and it honestly makes Caleb a little overwhelmed. So much has changed.
"Oh! You can put pictures on it too!" Molly proceeds to swipe through pictures of himself and the group. Including the one that he took with Caleb. The tiefling grins and nudges Caleb gently with his elbow.
"Molly...can you send that to me?" Caleb asks shyly. Molly's response is a composed 'yeah sure' but Caleb can feel the occasional tap of Molly's tail against his leg. He hazards a look to find it swinging in a wide arc. Caleb doesn't have substantial knowledge of tiefling mannerisms regarding their tails, but from the combined experience of watching Jester and Frumpkin, Mollymauk seems rather happy.
"Sent! Ok, so dumb question. You have any social media?" Molly's question is punctuated by Jester and Beau giggling.
"Hey now, don't ya think you've had enough of pestering them?" Fjord chastises. Caleb and Molly roll their eyes in unison before meeting each other's gaze.
"Well, I do actually have an Instagram," Caleb makes a show of glaring at Beauregard, "but I do not use it much. I believe it is more Frumpkin's than mine."
"Frumpkin?"
"He's my um...my cat."
Oh Sheiße. He completely forgot about his prior musings on that and now he went and blabbed about having an account basically dedicated to his cat?
Caleb hesitantly shows a picture of Frumpkin. The ginger cat is wide-eyed and crouched down in the grass, wearing a blue harness.
"Oh. My. Gods." Molly's eyes go wide.
"Holy shit, he's wearing a little harness! Does he actually like to go on walks?"
Caleb stares at the tiefling, flabbergasted. Molly's voice raises about an octave as he coos over the cat.
'J-ja, he does. I take him out a lot, I don't like having him cramped up in my apartment."
"Damn, you're a cat person too!" Molly buries his face in his arms again.
"Wa-?"
"Okay! Brunch is ready!" Fjord hollers. Cheers ensue.
"So what's the plan this week?" Beau asks the pair of tieflings through a mouthful of eggs. Jester is still stuffing her face with pastries, so Molly replies.
"Construction's pretty much finished. Rewiring is almost done, it was a fucking mess in there. Thank you for that Cad by the way. If you hadn't noticed, we'd have some big issues." he quickly adds. Caduceus always has a slew of seemingly random knowledge and occupations that comes in handy for everyone in their little group. Apparently "electrician" was now one of them.
"Then we're laying down the floors and cleaning everything...should take a couple of days, maybe the whole week. Then I guess we're painting and decorating? Hopefully it wont be too long till Yasha gets back. Don't wanna start much without her." Molly sighs and Caleb watches his tail droop and still.