Hercules was working in some pattern in one of the dresses the Schuylers asked him to do. The girls have a masquerade ball in a couple of weeks, but they wanted to have the most original and beautiful dresses, and no one better for that kind of job that their friend Hercules Mulligan to do them.

Angelica asked for a kinda complex pink one that matches her rose gold and white mask. Peggy asked for one yellow dress, like Belle's, but the skirt will look like a sunflower if you saw it from above. Eliza asked something in baby blue, matching her butterfly mask. He took a moment to rest. He spent most part of the afternoon and it was almost time to water his plants. 

If you asked anyone about him, they'll probably say that man worked as a police officer, or maybe a personal trainer. Maybe that man would have a big and strong dog and a beautiful wife. But, they couldn't be more wrong. 

Hercules actually lived alone in his small apartment, no wife, not even a girlfriend. He owned a small tailoring business that passed to him after his father passed out a couple of years ago.  With the money that he wins, he used it to pay the bills and keep himself. He didn't have a lot of furniture, he liked the minimalistic aura of his apartment mixed with the number of plants he also had. 

That maybe was his mother's fault. She liked to fill her home with plants and she showed her son the different kind of plants and how to take care of them.

Once he moved from his parents' house to his apartment and started to feel homesick, he decided to adopt a couple of flowers and eventually added more and more.

Alexander, one of Hercules' friends, likes to say that the phrase "you can't judge a book by its cover" perfectly fits with him.

Returning to the present, Hercules decided to stand up and water his plants before he forgets that important task. 

He filled the watering can and started to move around the house. He checked the leaves and talked to them. His mother believed that the flowers could hear them, so she always said nice things to them and, sometimes, she sang to them. 

Once the inside plants were watered, he walks to his balcony. There he had a bunch of a different kind of plants, including his favorite: a forget-me-not that he named "Amnesia" or "Amy" for short. 

But something was different this time. He couldn't tell exactly what, but he felt something was off. 

After a couple of seconds, he noticed that Amy's pot wasn't in its place. It was on the corner. 

"That's odd..." Hercules watered the other plants before taking the pot and put it in its spot. He heard a meow coming from the spot where the plant was and looked at it. Behind Amy was a black cat with frizzy hair. It had a couple of the flowers on his paw, like trying to hide something. 

Hercules kneeled and approached the cat. He seemed scared, but he didn't move or try to run away, he just stood there waiting.

"Hey, little friend..." Hercules mumbled moving his hand to take the creature, but the cat was shaking and his eyes met Hercules'. It was at that moment Hercules noticed something was special with that cat. Its eyes weren't yellow nor green, like most part of the black cats he saw on the Internet, they were gray-brownish. 

Hercules walked back to his apartment and grabbed a tuna can. He returned, opened the can and put it in front of the cat. "There... you seem hungry. Uhm... I-I've never had a cat so I'm not sure if you'll like this..." He sat on the floor after watering Amy and crossed his legs.

The cat slowly moved from his spot. That was in that moment that Hercules noticed the injury in the paw that was covered with the flowers. It didn't look like a bite but it looked bad. He struggled to move from his spot to the can and started to sniffed it. Slowly and taking his time, the cat started to eat the tuna.

A couple of minutes passed and the cat stopped eating to look at Hercules with those beautiful and mysterious eyes. He slowly moved to Hercules. Hercules put his hand in front of the cat again and this time, instead to walk back, he leaned his head so Hercules was petting him.

Hercules smiled as he heard the purrs coming from the cat. "Hey... I noticed that you're hurt... you want me to try to heal you? I'm not an expert but I know first aid and maybe that'll be enough" 

The cat mewled to him. "Is that a yes?" the cat mewled again and nodded. "Okay then, let's go. Do you want me to lift you?" Hercules asked again and the cat mewled. Hercules slowly stood up and grabbed the cat carefully so he won't hurt him. 

He took the first-aid kit from the kitchen and disinfected the wound. The cat whined loudly "It's okay, it's okay... you'll be fine..." He puts a gauze over the wound and wrapped it with a bandage. 

The cat licked Hercules' hand again as the human yawned. "Hey, I haven't slept well in like two days, and it's pretty late. Do you have a place to stay?" the kitty shook his head. "Do you want to spend the night here? I have free space on my bed in case you want to sleep with me..."

Hercules lifted the cat and turned the lights off walking to his room. He'll finish the pattern in the morning. Once in his room, he put the cat over the bed and took his clothes off and crawled into the bed wrapping himself and the cat with the warm blankets. "Maybe tomorrow I'll found your owner, you don't seem like the kind of cat that spends a lot of time outside... And found your name"

And with that, Hercules fall asleep.

In the morning, Hercules woke up with the sound of something in his kitchen. The cat wasn't in the place where the last saw the small animal. 

Worried that the cat may be doing some destruction in his kitchen (because, C A T S) he went downstairs in nothing but his underwear. 

As he got closer to the kitchen, the smell of eggs and bacon filled the air. I-Is someone in my home? But who? The only one who has an extra key is Alex and he's with Washington...

Hercules slammed the kitchen door, making the other man jump. 

He had cinnamon skin and his hair was pulled in a lazy bun. He was wearing the shirt Hercules had yesterday, but it was a way too big for him. The shirt was long enough to cover half way of his thighs, showing most part of his long legs

"Wha... who-who are you?" Hercules asked.

"I-I-I'm so sorry..." the other man mumbled playing with his hands. "I-I didn't know i-if you like that as breakfast and yo-you said you haven't slept well in the last couple of days, so I decided to let you sleep as I do something to eat for you as a repay for what you did last night..."

"Last night?" Hercules interrogated. 

"When you cured me", the other man answered showing his left led. His calf was covered with a bandage. "You gave me tuna, not my favorite, but I was starving and something is something..."

"YOU'RE THE CAT?" the Irish man yelled loudly and scaring the other.

"O-oui..." he replied looking down and trying to look small. 

"But... HOW?!" 

"I-I'm...comment vous dites... cursed? I change into a cat without warning a couple of times during the month... I-I don't have a job and I just walk around the city... S-sometimes my friend John let me stay at his house and he helps me when I-I turned into this... but yesterday I wasn't that lucky and I got lost... I got stuck in a branch and when I tried to jump down, I hurt my leg... I've been clumsy my whole life, so that didn't surprise me...Anyways, I tried my best to get in a safe place, that end up being your balcony..."

Hercules, who took sit on one of the chairs in his kitchen, listened closely to what the man said. He, on the other side, also took sit after finishing cooking and served the food on two plates.

"Okay, I get the part that you're a cat and you were trying to find a safe place, but, why did you cut so many of the flowers of "Amy"?"

"Amy?" the stranger raised his eyebrow. "Oh, you mean the plant? The myosotis?" 

"Yes, the forget me not. Why did you take them?"

"I-I didn't want to look at the injury because I'm afraid of blood... I took 'em to cover it and, that way, I won't pass out... I am really sorry..."

"It's okay..." Hercules said starting to eat and the stranger followed him. 

Even when Hercules finally understood what was happening, he looked at the stranger. He didn't look like a menace, and he made him breakfast. He also let him sleep a little more... What if...?

"Hey, you haven't told me your name?" Hercules asked with a shy smile.

"Uhm... my name is, kinda, long... But you can call me Lafayette", he responded in a low tone.

"So, Lafayette I have an offer for you..." Hercules began and Laf cocked his head. "Since you don't have a stable place to stay or a job, would you like to work here?"

Laf almost choked on his food. He started to cough and Hercules patted his back to help him. Once he pulls himself it together, he looked at Hercules with a concerned look.

"Q-Quoi?" 

"I've been really busy working on my own, and you seem to learn fast, so, if you're agreed, I'll hire you and you'll help me with the amount of job I have. I'll teach you everything you need to know and, since I have space, you can live in the free room I have in the apartment to make the things easy for both."

Laf looked down at his hands and started to think in the options he had. He just met the man, but he took care of him as he was a cat and didn't mind that he could turn into a cat. Besides, he seemed really busy, and he offered a place to stay and a job.

Still...

"Ho-how do I know that you're not going to use me or something worst?" Laf mumbled.

"You're scared that I...?" Hercules looked confused before finally understand what the Frenchman just asked. "Oh! Do you mean-? No! I would never do that. I don't feel attracted that way to people and I'm a man of honor, I would never do that to anyone."

Laf looked at him again. Hercules gave him a little smile that showed he wasn't a threat to him. 

Laf returned the smile. 

"Then, I'll accept your offer monsieur...?"

"Mulligan, Hercules Mulligan."

-----------------------

Ok, so this is crap...

I don't know why I even wrote this, tbh. I just looked at one of the drawings of the inktober challenge and then I created a story... and then I used a wheel to see which couple I'll use.

So yeah... 

God, this is so awkward to me, and I really wished that the girl who gave me the courage to continue with this and the one who encouraged me to start writting again was still on this site... I miss her (not romo tho...)

Anyways...

Bye!