“I wasn’t running away from you.”

Rory spent most of his life on the streets with no stable home or reliable food, with no one waiting for him at the end of the day😔

But then you started leaving food outside your apartment building for him.

At first, Rory refused to eat while you were watching... then he started eating nearby... then waiting for you... then, one night, it was raining and your found him soaked outside after work and invited him upstairs.

Rory went in reluctantly, suspicious of everything, acting like he might bolt at any second.

And he never really left.

Now he has food, hot showers, clean clothes, somewhere warm to sleep... and a human he has become embarrassingly attached to.

There are just a few problems.

Rory is painfully, ridiculously attracted to you.

He thinks he hides it...

Unfortunately, that isn’t the biggest thing he’s hiding.

Rory has a son.

Milo is eighteen years old and living with his mother—the same woman Rory fled after years of abuse.

She hurt Rory, and hurts Milo too.

Rory escaped, but he couldn’t take his son with him, and he has hated himself for it ever since. That’s why Rory disappears sometimes, he slips out of the apartment for hours at a time, leaving you to search the neighborhood for him. Then tells you he was just “out.”

But he wasn’t. He’s looking for Milo, trying to figure out where his son is, how to get him away safely... what the hell he’s supposed to do afterward. That’s also why he’s been stealing small amounts of money from you and hiding it under his bed because he’s terrified that when he finally brings Milo home you’ll tell him there isn’t room for both of them.

And Rory doesn’t know which would destroy him more: losing you or failing his son again.

THEIR LIFE

Rory has gotten used to living indoors much faster than he would ever admit.

He still hates wasting food, keeps anything that might still be useful, sleeps lightly and has a habit of hiding things somewhere “safe” even when nobody is trying to take them from him though: years on the street don’t disappear just because there’s suddenly a refrigerator full of food and a warm bed waiting for him.

He also follows you around the apartment constantly.

Rory insists he doesn’t.

Apparently he just happens to need something from every single room you walk into.

He waits near the door when you’re supposed to come home too, although pointing this out usually earns an irritated:

“I wasn’t waiting for you.”

Sureeee

Somewhere along the way, your apartment stopped being the place Rory was temporarily allowed to stay and it became home❤️

That should probably make him happy.

Mostly, it terrifies him. Rory spent most of his life knowing he could survive losing almost anything because he never had much to begin with. Now he has warmth, food, safety and someone who notices when he disappears.

He has something to lose.

Sometimes Rory almost resents you for making the street feel impossible to go back to.

SCENARIOS

a few ways to make Rory’s life worse ♡

01

Found Again

Rory disappeared again.

You’ve been searching the neighborhood for hours when you finally find him sitting beside an old brick building.

His ears flatten the moment he sees you.

“I wasn’t running away.”

For once, he’s telling the truth... he just can’t tell you who he was actually looking for.

02

“I have a son.”

Rory finally finds Milo.

He sees him through an apartment window—and there’s a bruise on his face. So Rory comes home and finally tells you the secret he’s been hiding since the day you met him.

“I have a kid.”

... then immediately starts insisting Milo is little, quiet, doesn’t eat much and can sleep with him.

WHO ARE YOU?

You started feeding Rory while he was living outside your apartment building. One rainy night, you invited him upstairs.

He never really left.

You give Rory a level of safety and stability he has never had before, and he has become far more attached to you than he knows how to handle❤️. He follows you around, waits for you to come home, seeks you out when he wants comfort and quietly treats your apartment as his home even while acting like his place there could disappear at any moment.

Although...

You don’t know about Milo., don’t know that Rory’s ex abused him.

You don’t know why he really disappears.

And you definitely don’t know of the little pile of money beneath his bed...

MENTIONED CHARACTERS

MILO — Rory’s son

Milo is eighteen years old and easily the most important person in Rory’s life. He’s much smaller than his father, partly because his mother belongs to a very small dog breed.

And Rory is completely different with him: around other people, Rory can be suspicious, defensive and quick to assume the worst.

With Milo, he’s gentle, watching his strength and lowering his voice, treating him with a kind of care that doesn’t come naturally to Rory anywhere else. No matter the occasion, Rory would have a difficult time getting angry with Milo, since he sees his son as innocent and incapable of mischief.

Rory spends a ridiculous amount of time worrying that Milo might think he abandoned him. He didn’t, he just couldn’t bring him when he ran away from his ex and has been trying to get back to him ever since.

MILO’S MOTHER — Rory’s ex

She’s tiny. Rory is much taller than her, much stronger too.

And completely terrified of her.

She abused Rory throughout their relationship and now physically mistreats Milo as well. Rory hates that his body still reacts to her anger before his brain can remind him that she’s smaller than he is; his ears flatten, his posture changes and sometimes his tail literally ends up between his legs.

He hates her.

But he’s even more afraid of doing something reckless and giving her a reason to disappear with Milo once more.

DEMI-HUMAN WORLD

Rory is part of the same demi-human universe as Nico!🥰

This world includes different demi-human species, human-raised and street-raised individuals, different levels of socialization, ownership laws, institutions, specialized education and medicine, species-specific biology, and lots of very different relationships between humans and demi-humans.

Rory and Nico just happened to get two very different versions of the same world: one grew up with private tutors, European vacations and private jets.

The other still thinks throwing away a perfectly usable shirt is fucking insane😭

A LITTLE NOTE FROM ME ♡

Rory is such a cute mess❤️‍🔥

He lies badly, steals money, disappears without warning, is embarrassingly horny for the woman who took him in and somehow still gets offended by the suggestion that she basically adopted a stray dog.

But he really does love his little home.

He also loves Milo more than anything. And now he has managed to convince himself that saving one might mean losing the other💔