Chapter Text
In all, each member of TWRP had seen and encountered Meouch's odd habits, like the curled up sleeping, the 'kneading', and the desire to eat specifically earth brand plastic, amongst other things. For the most part however, they ignored it. Meouch had insisted more than once that the traits were not from him being a lenonian, so they just wrote it off as strange habits their friend had.
That didn’t stop Sung from thinking about it. It stuck in his mind more than once, wanting a reason behind the seemingly connected things Meouch did.
He'd never quite found a sure answer.
One earthen day, however, Sung came home from an outing with none other than Arin Hanson, acting like his usually unusual and unexplainable self. After he came through the front door, he called out his arrival- which wasn’t needed, all three of the others were sitting on the couch together.
Everything seemed fine, until Sung zeroed in on Meouch with a thoughtful frown, staring for a second before looking away to take off his shoes and helmet. He dropped both by the door.
Meouch noticed his targeting immediately, tearing his eyes away from the tv to watch Sung approach. It was a little surprising that Sung didn’t immediately confront Meouch, instead sitting on the armchair next to Phobos. He continued to study Meouch out of the corner of his eye, and Meocuh could still tell.
What happened with Arin to make him think this hard?
It seemed that Sung’s studying wasn’t as subtle as he’d likely hoped it to be, as barely a minute later, Havve paused the show and turned towards Sung.
‘YOUR THINKING IS DISTRACTING. I CAN NEARLY HEAR IT. EITHER LEAVE OR EXPLAIN WHAT EXACTLY IS MAKING YOU THINK SO HARD.’
Sung huffed and put his chin in his hand, brows furrowing. “So, Arin brought something interesting up, that he’d noticed.”
The other three nodded, almost in sync, a silent urge for Sung to continue.
“And...hmm.” He contemplated something for a second, looking at the coffee table, then looked back at Meouch as he had been before. “Can I try something?”
Unsure of how to respond to that, Meouch looked between Phobos and Havve, receiving a head tilt and a shrug in return. He eyed Sung suspiciously. “Well, what are ya gonna do?”
“Uh…” Sung giggled nervously. “I dunno, pet your head or scratch it or something. Like a head massage.
“And, why, exactly? What does this have to do with Arin?”
“It's to test a theory he had.” Sung might have sounded apprehensive (because this was a very strange request, even for him), but his face was showing off the excitement he got anytime he was on the verge of discovering something new.
Meouch let out a long, slow sigh, shaking his head a little. “Gods, why not? Knock yourself out.”
Sung wasted no time, jumping up out of his seat and crossing the few feet that separated him from Meouch. He was barely containing the smile on his face, holding his hands above Meouch’s head while he figured out how to go about his little test.
When he figured it out, Sung put his hand right over Meouch’s ear, sifting his hand through the thick fur and putting his fingers right at the base of the ear, scratching as forcefully as he dared. Meouch froze, so he slowed his movements even more, waiting for Meouch to tell him to stop or to move away.
Instead, Meouch slowly relaxed into the touch, eyes closing. This prompted Sung to scratch a little harder, a delighted grin forming on his face. Havve and Phobos were stunned that Meouch was allowing this.
Sung added his other hand, scratching and massaging the top of Meouch’s head with both hands. To everyone's surprise, Meouch started to purr . They’d only heard him do it a few times, and never when he wasn’t either drunk, nearly asleep, or sleeping.
Havve was already recording this, and Phobos desperately wanted to try for himself.
Sung couldn’t help himself, he stepped back and cackled. The loud noise jarred Meouch out of his trance, making it clear to him what he’d just been doing.
“ Oh my gods! He was right!” Sung laughed even more.
Meouch leaned back and smacked Sung’s hands away, feeling his face heat up with embarrassment at being caught purring. He had to smack Phobos’ hand away as well when Phobos tried to reach up and copy what Sung had been doing. “The fuck does that mean?”
“Arin! He- he said- Meouch, you’re a house cat ! You seriously are, I didn’t believe him until now!”
‘ A what?’ Phobos found the right time to contribute, letting up on his attempts to pet Meouch.
Sung drew out his phone, fingers moving fast to try and look up examples of what a house cat was to explain, but Havve beat him to the punch, shoulders shaking in laughter.
“A HOUSE CAT IS A DOMESTICATED FELINE SPECIES ON THIS PLANET.”
Meouch began shouting to deaf ears. “What!? I am not -”
Sung finally found an image he was happy with, showing off his phone to the others. It was an image of a curled up cat laying in a sunbeam. Phobos began wheezing and shaking from his laughs, further mortifying Meouch.
“I am nothing like that- that- that little creature! It doesn’t even look sentient!” Meouch sank back into the couch as if it would obey his demands to swallow him up, crossing his arms tightly.
“Oh but you totally are- at least from what Arin told me about his cats!”
“WHAT DID HE SAY?” Havve’s eye lights glinted when he moved forwards, a sign of him enjoying this.
“His house cats hate water! And they knead and purr and chase laser dots! He even said they eat plastic too!”
Meouch jumped up, startling Sung to step back and trip on the coffee table. He managed to catch himself so he wouldn’t fall on it and break it, but it was hard to keep his balance with Meouch up in his face.
“That was one fuckin’ time!” Meouch’s tone was steadily losing its growl and instead entering hysterical territory.
Phobos began counting on his fingers. ‘ I dunno, I’ve caught you more than once chewing on the lego bags while you built them.’
“Coming from the guy who ate candle wax!”
‘ Thats different.’
“How is it-!?” Meouch huffed crossing his arms once again. “Aren’t there other feline creatures on this stupid rock? Like the lions we found out about! I’m way more like them!”
“FROM WHAT I CAN TELL, THEY ARE NOT AFRAID OF THE WATER, AND DO NOT PURR. THEY ARE INCAPABLE OF IT.”
“Domesticated cats don’t have manes!”
Sung giggled more. “Commander House Cat?”
That was the final straw for Meouch. Amidst his mortification, he grabbed Sung by the shoulders and shoved him to the side, freeing his path to stomp off to his room, ignoring the way everyone laughed behind him.
Sung landed on the couch and remained there with the others, laughing until he was breathless.
Eventually, Meouch would get over his pride and grow used to the names. Even fond of them, though he’d never admit it.