The Kitten

"Uh, Gabs?"

Gabriella looked up, blinking at Tony innocently. "Yes Tony?"

Tony pointed directly at the little ball of fur in her arms. "That is not living here, you know that, right?"

Gabriella looked down to it, her lips jutting out in a pout. "But he's so cute."

"It's a cat, Gabs."

She held it up to present it to him. "It's a kitten!" she corrected. "Can't we adopt it?"

"No," Tony said quickly, holding up both hands in defense. "No, no, no, absolutely not!"

The kitten made a sort of pathetic mewling sound, wide eyes blinking slowly at Tony. Gabriella's pout deepened.

"Why not?"

"Because! Gabriella!"

"What, Anthony?" She was putting on her stubborn face now, changing tactic. Tony glared at her angrily before changing tactic himself.

"Where in the world did you get it, anyway?"

She'd pulled it close to her again, petting it comfortingly like Tony was some scary monster she needed to protect it from. The kitten, however, just kept staring at Tony like it was somehow going to win him over with its big sad eyes. Tony gave it a glare for good measure.

"He followed me home," Gabriella answered, her voice going back to sickeningly sweet as she scritched the kitten behind the ears. Tony scoffed.

"You do realize how old that trick is, Gabs?"

She looked up to him, a hard gleam in her eyes. "He did!"

Tony rolled his eyes. "Sure, fine, whatever. Give it to a shelter then!"

"First off, Anthony," Gabriella said, glaring at him stonily. "He is a 'he' not an 'it'-"

"How do you know that?"

"I had cats growing up! Second off, they'd put him to sleep in a few days if no one came to adopt him!"

Tony shook his head. "Not my problem."

Gabriella gaped for a moment. The kitten continued to blink at Tony.

"I'm not letting him die," she said finally, "when I could just as easily give him a place to live, food to eat and water to drink!"

"What about a litter box, Gabs?" Tony pointed out. "You going to take care of that, too? Because if it starts to stink up the house-"

"I'll take care of it!" Gabriella promised. "Less maintenance than a dog!"

Tony glared at her, fishing for some logical argument he could present. Gabriella lowered her head so it was at the same level as the kitten's and mimicked the big sad eyes.

"Please, Tony?"

Tony scowled at her darkly. The kitten gave a loud mewl as if he knew he'd won.

"Fine," Tony said shortly. Gabriella smiled triumphantly, pulling the kitten in close and giving him a gentle squeeze.

"But, Gabs?" Tony continued. "This means you're not allowed to bug me about having kids anymore."

Gabriella only grinned.

Just a fun little short story, originally written as a fan fiction, but has been changed to use for several other different occasions.