If he wasn’t so distracted by getting to know his new pet, Nigel might have been offended over her less than enthusiastic response to his generous gift. He liked to buy her things, yes, but he expected to be repaid in rapturous ovations of delight. Emma’s response was more dull than he was used to, like she wasn’t the least bit grateful that Nigel had provided her with a tiny pal to entertain her and keep her from being lonely while they were apart. Well, that was a lie. That was why he had gotten the kitten for himself. He was going to miss Emma while she was in school, and he needed to pretend that she would miss him, too. Things were better if he could deny things, like that she was way out of his league and had numerous opportunities to replace him at school. So, why was he insisting she go back to school? Because it was for her own good, and he shouldn’t be selfish, even though he really wanted to be.

So, he distracted himself with kittens and showering his favourite girl with sparkly presents. Both cheered him up considerably, especially the kittens. Well, his kitten, little Coco. Currently, Coco was tasting his hair, her whiskers tickling his ear, which made him laugh. He grabbed her around the middle and pulled her down to cradle against his chest, patting her soft belly for about four seconds before she squirmed away. It stalked down towards his feet, half falling off of his legs as she made her way toward those delightfully tempting prey that were moving around under the covers. Nigel wiggled his toes and grinned as Coco pounced them.

“What are you calling the other one?” 

“What?” asked Nigel, jerking his foot to the side to avoid a pounce. “I’m not calling him anything,” he told her, when her question registered. “He’s your cat, so you can name him.” He would suggest a dignified name as would befit a regal animal like a cat, and not something like Fluffy or Boots or Cuddles. Those were dog names, not cat names. It didn’t seem like she was listening to him, anyway, with the paper-ripping frenzy going on next to him. He spared a few glances to watch the spectacle, but he was more concerned about the fact that his kitten was trying to eat his toe.

“A camera! … I love it.”

“I thought you might,” replied Nigel, much more satisfied with this reaction. “I got myself one, too, so I can send you pictures of me, and you can send me pictures of you, and we can see each other even though we’re apart.” There was that old saying about a picture being worth a thousand words, and Nigel knew it would take Emma the entire school year to accumulate a thousand words in a letter to him. She could probably handle sending him a picture every once in a while. Hopefully. She gave him the feelings that he didn’t want to have or think about having or acknowledge having, so he tried to keep from thinking anything about being separated just now. He wanted their last night together to be nice and cheerful. If he started thinking too much about things, he was going to get maudlin and sulky.

“Say…Shag me.”

“Emma!” laughed Nigel, reaching forward to corral his kitten. “Not in front of the children!” He sat the baby kitten on the pillow behind him and grabbed Emma’s arm, pulling her against him. Though, he did have the presence of mind to roll her so that his Coco was not crushed. Nigel kissed her with enthusiasm, but he had to move to nuzzling her ear so that he could talk. “You know, I can enable a spell so that we can both be in the picture…” he whispered. Wrapping his arms around her, he pressed her as close to him as possible, wriggling around so that he was lying on top of her and squashing her into the bed. Dragging his teeth along her neck, he asked, “You like your presents?”