Cute as Cats

Meet-cute in a cat cafe, but oh no! there's a storm and they're trapped together...

Zu has spent his life wishing he wasn’t so big and awkward and always making a mess of things. When he gets stood up by his date at a cat café on Christmas eve, it turns out to be the best thing that could have happened to him. He finds himself exchanging flirty glances with Kiitan, the café’s slender pudding chef. But when they start to talk, Kiitan tells Zu he’s deaf and Zu’s shyness get the better of him, and his worry about messing up makes him do just that.

Gathering courage, Zu vows to wait until the end of Kiittan’s shift to make it up to him. But as the streets around the café start to flood, the café closes early to make sure everyone can get home, and Zu thinks his chance is gone. Until he sees Kiitan is staying behind to protect the café’s cats. Ignoring all the ways things could go wrong, Zu does the only thing that feels right—he takes a chance and offers to help him.

This contemporary Christmas short story has gay, pansexual, disability rep and a HEA.

An earlier version of this story was available as part of the Rainbow Christmas Advent in 2022. This is an extended and updated version of that story.