He sprinkled a couple food pellets into his beta’s tank, leaning down to look at the fish for a moment before he dropped onto the couch. Once he’d settled he felt little paws on the side of the sofa and after a moment Sumi was curled up on his chest. The kitten yawned before settling down again and he reached down to scratch lightly along Sumi’s back.

Bringing Sumi home, actually having to take care of a cat, had been terrifying for the first few days. Lucien hadn’t ever really been a pet person, aside from beta fish, and getting everything for a kitten and actually taking care of one was strange. But after the panic wore off and Sumi settled into his life it turned out it wasn’t that bad.

Cat fur everywhere aside.

Sumi was quiet and sweet and enjoyed a lot of the same things he did. Talking intelligent cat was still weird but he’d come across lot weirder things. Having someone to talk to about his favorite books was nice. Sumi had been going through his books and reading them while he was stuck inside and bored. And he had to admit just having the kitten curled up with him purring softly was nice too. He never liked to admit how lonely he got some times and would have never listened to someone telling him getting a pet would fix that before but they would have been right. His fish didn’t cut it in the same way even if he felt like talking to them helped out sometimes.

Sumi could at least talk back and always even in the short amount of time seemed to be able to tell when he was having an off day.

Like now. He wasn’t really having a bad day but his leg was still hurting from the run-in with the crab and Cordy had to work so he didn’t have anyone to patrol with. He couldn’t go back to the asteroid for a while yet and that meant he was stuck at home. It made him feel a bit twitchy and without Sumi around he probably would be pacing around his living room making things worse.

Instead they were both curled up comfortably and the tv was playing a documentary on ancient rome he enjoyed. For a little bit he could relax and wonder if this is what things would have been like if he’d just been normal.

This was what hipsters did right?

Netflix, a cat, a mug of tea he couldn’t quite reach. Yep that sounded like how normal people his age with useless history degrees, way too many cameras, and a cat spent their afternoons. He probably should have had an imac or something to be editing photos on while his cat got in the way but that was a little too much for him.

He closed his eyes as he played with Sumi’s tail, running his fingers through the fluff, and let himself relax. Maybe this was what he needed. He’d been running around like crazy lately and hadn’t really taken any time for himself. He knew that wasn’t healthy and it was making his temper short. So instead of worrying about what he should have been doing he took a deep break and relaxed down into his sofa. Sumi was purring gently on top of him and the tv was low enough that it was mostly just a quiet hum of sound. Neither thing was enough to distract him and after a few deep breaths he’d managed to settle himself into a nice calm state.

It had been too long since he’d properly meditated and with nothing else to do and a slightly frazzled mind that was what he needed to do. Senshi business be damned.

Keeping up the gentle stroking on Sumi’s soft fur he let his mind go.