Ross' POV

My knees leaned against the cold smooth stone-tiled floor while my body was over the bathtub, placing a towel inside it on the bottom. Beside me was a small kitten, my kitten, Speckle. After Robert and Roy left, I and my mom took the other kittens to the shelter, where some very nice ladies said they would get them cleaned up and taken care of. After that, my mom took me to a pet store to get some things for Speckle, I took her into the store with me and looked around, she fits easily into my hand and didn't move around a lot so she wasn't any trouble.

Looking around was cool, there were all types of colorful fish within the fish area along with cool tanks, while in the gerbil area, there were hampsters and guinea pigs along with cages and food for them. It was cool, but it wasn't what I was looking for. Cat and dog area, Perfect! I wasn't exactly sure how old Speckle was, but by the looks of it, she wasn't ready to eat hard food. 

I grabbed cans of wet food, around maybe fifteen? I'm not sure, I wasn't keeping count at the time. I threw everything we needed into the cart, the wet food, cat shampoo and conditioner, some toys, a cat bed, cat bowls, and some flea remover just in case she had any, which she most likely does. We checked out and the lady who was scanning our items noticed Speckle and asked if she was okay. I was confused at first but then I remembered that Speckle still has dried leftover blood on her paws from when she was with her mother. 

I lied and told the lady she just had a unique paw pattern to avoid conflict, all I wanted to do was get this cat home and cleaned. Once we got home I took the bag of everything I needed to get her clean upstairs and put her in my room, as she wandered around I looked up videos on how to give kittens a bath. Some people suggested putting a towel at the bottom of the bathtub for the cat to hold onto, and also setting it to lukewarm water, along with having the cat out of the room because the loud sound the tap makes will scare the cat. 

Here I was, the lukewarm water slowly and quietly running into the bathtub, I made it so not much water was in there at all so Speckle could get used to it and not be scared. I turned off the tap and stood up making my way to my room and slowly swinging the door open to see Speckle on my room floor laying down. I picked her up with ease and brought her into the bathroom, slowly putting her into the bathtub with the water where she just stood there for a second, the dried blood on her paws slightly coming off and staining some of the water with a brownish-red color. 

I expected her to freak out but she just stood there looking around confused, I sighed in relief and picked up a cup, filling it with water from the tub. "Good girl Speckle," I said before pouring some water onto her back which ended up making her freak out. She tried getting out of the tub but she was too small to get out. "Speckle no!" I said, grabbing her and trying to put her back in the middle of the tub so I could wash her, but while my arm reached for her it gave her an opportunity to climb, she gripped onto my arm with her claws and tried climbing up my arm, scratch marks getting more visible by the second. "Ow! Fuck! Speckle no!" 

I grabbed her with my free hand to get her off my arm and put her back in the tub, okay, maybe she needs more time to get used to this. I don't wanna traumatize her, she seemed fine just having her paws in the water but got scared when I took the cup to pour water on her. Alright, we'll take this nice and slow. I put my hand in the water and slowly poured some more on her legs, maybe she was scared of the cup. She didn't seem to care much about this, she was fine with it, sitting down and getting more comfortable in the tub, which made it easier for me because now her lower torso was getting wet. She seemed to get more comfortable when I used my hands to splash her rather than using the cup, after she was wet enough I reached for the shampoo bottle.

Pouring the thick substance into my hand I started to scrub her back, she didn't pull a fuss or scratch me like she did last time, the soap starting to turn more into a brownish-grey color as the white shampoo studs started to turn more of a gross color from how dirty she was. Jesus, she really was dirty, maybe I shouldn't have held her so many times, I'm gonna need a shower after this. I worked my way to her paws, taking one into my hand and softly scrubbing it with my finger, the dried blood coming off easily, revealing the white paw that the blood was covering.

More progress was being made, almost her whole body was now covered with shampoo and I now had to rinse it off, splashing her once again but it wasn't doing the trick, so I cupped both of my hands and scooped up some of the water and poured it on her, which she seemed a little skittish at first but didn't do anything about it. I continued to do that method to get all the shampoo off and it worked well, so now I moved on to the conditioner. 

"Thank's for not scratching me again." I said while rubbing the conditioner on her fur, trying to get every crease and crevice. It was kinda stupid for me to say that cause she was a cat and clearly can't understand me, but I felt like talking to her would set us both in a good mood. Once again, cupping my hands to get water on her and get all the conditioner out, the water was now more of an opaque shade of light grey, from the shampoo but mostly because of the dirt on her.

After getting everything off, I figured it was time for her to get out, I stood up and reached for a towel before sitting back down and un-plugging the bathtub, Speckle turned around and watched as the water was draining from the tub, confused as to where all the water was going and trying to grab the water, which was insanely cute. I grabbed her and took her out of the tub putting her onto a towel and scrubbing her, she let out a small meow in the process and it made me let out a small laugh. 

-

After a good hour and forty minutes, Speckle was finally clean and dried. I ended up bandaging up my arm from when she tried climbing up it and leaving a bunch of scratch marks, I never knew a kitten's claws could be so powerful, it was as if her nails were thousands of tiny papercuts. I opened up a can of wet food in my room and with a plastic knife I cut it, making it so she could eat half of one can, I mushed up her food and added a bit of water to it because I read that cats don't drink enough water so adding some in their food is recommended. 

I placed her food bowl on the ground and she started to eat quickly, I smiled and let out a tired sigh before laying on my bed, who knew taking care of a kitten was so much work? I looked at my phone and saw some messages from Robert from two hours ago, sitting up straight on my bed and opening our dms where I read "Hey! How's it going with Speckle?" and another one after that saying "I know you're probably busy, but give me a call when you can! <3" 

I smiled at the messages and started calling Robert on Facetime. I suspected them to be with Roy since they went home together, but when he picked up the call I was surprised to see them laying down in their bed smiling. "Hey, Ross!" They said with a smile on their face, "How's Specks?" I let out a small laugh at the nickname he's already given her. "Specks? You're already giving her nicknames?" I laughed light-heartedly, "Well yeah! Why wouldn't I?" 

"Pfft- Yeah, Well. She's good, I just gave her a bath and now she's eating." I said, rubbing my neck. "Oh yeah? How did that go?" "Ehhhhhh.." I slowly lifted up my arm revealing the bandages and Robert let out a small gasp, "Nooo! Are you alright?" "Yeah I'm fine, It Isn't much of a big deal. I'm just happy she's nice and clean now." "Can I see her?" Robert asked that caught my attention quickly

"Oh, yeah, for sure!" I said as I got up from my bed and made my way to my desk where speckle was eating next to it. I turned my camera around so Robert could see Speckle, I made a pspsps noise so she would turn around to look at me so Robert would get a better look. She turned around and Robert let out a squeal that kinda hurt my ears, I turned down my volume a bit.

"Dude she's so nice and clean now! I thought she had way more speckles on her, I guess that just must have been the dirt." I looked at Speckle, huh, Rob was right. When we first got her when she was dirty she had way more speckles, I guess those must have been dirt spots. "Wow Rob, I didn't notice that until now, you've got a good eye." Robert let out a soft giggle "I suppose I do." They said, flattering themself. 

Speckle walked over to my foot and sat on it, I looked down surprised and the way I was holding my phone made it so Robert could also get a quick view of this. "Aww! That's so cute!!" He exclaimed happily as I snapped back into reality and looked at my phone,  "Yeah, she is pretty cute." I said as I scooped her up with my hand and sat back on my bed, flipping my camera back to my face as I laid down on my bed and put Speckle on my chest.

I let out a small sigh and Robert slightly frowned, "Tired?" He asked, I turned to my phone again and smiled slightly. "Yeah, we did lots today, and giving this stinker a bath was pretty tiring," I said as I pet Speckle, she let out a small meow. 

"Aw, You should sleep then you moron! Get some rest!" "Well yeah but.." "But?" I went silent for a few seconds before my words slipped out. "I wanna talk to you more though." slightly mumbling the last bit out of embarrassment, I could hear Robert let out a small chuckle at the end of the line, he covered his face with his hand before looking back into the camera.  "We can sleep call if you want Ross, I'll still be able to see you tomorrow." 

Sleep call? We haven't done one of those in so long since we're normally always having sleepovers and such, I guess a sleep call won't be so bad. "That could work." I say as I sit up and grab a pillow from the floor and put it on the side of my bed and lean my phone against it while we're on facetime, I get up and quickly slip under my blanket with speckle still in my arms.

As soon as I get under the blanket Speckle makes her way under the blanket, leaning against the side of my waist while her head barely sticks out from the blanket, I chuckle to myself and lean my head down on my pillow and stare at my phone. "Comfy?" Robert asks, to which I reply with a yawn before speaking. "Yeah." "Get some sleep, you idiot!" Robert says before I reply with "Don't rush me, dude." 

- 

Robert's POV

Ross fell asleep within about 20 minutes, I was working on some homework but every now and then I'd look at my phone to see him sleeping, he was sleeping on his side facing his phone while Speckle was under the blanket with him, I could see her head poking out. Ross is a quiet sleeper unlike me and Roy, he doesn't snore or even talk in his sleep, sometimes I get scared when we have sleepovers and listen to his breathing to make sure he's alive.

I would be lying if I said this wasn't cute, he looked comfy, and with speckle beside him it looked even cuter, I could feel my face flush red before I laughed to myself and grabbed my phone, taking it into my hands. I quickly took a screenshot of Ross and Speckle, I'm definitely sending this to Roy later.