12 drabbles about a kittykame for Cease
Taguchi takes two days to call with news, so it’s already late into Sunday’s night when Nakamaru’s phone rings. Kazuya is curled up half against and half on top of him, and they had been both dozing off to the TV, so Nakamaru’s voice is sleepy when he answers the call. Taguchi’s news wake him up fast enough, though. His hand freezes where it had been distractedly petting Kazuya’s hair, and Kazuya looks up as if sensing the conversation is about him.
Nakamaru listens with an increasing tightness in his chest as Taguchi tells him what they have found out about Kazuya’s previous owner, a business man sent overseas by his company. Taguchi thinks that’s why he abandoned Kazuya, though the microchip revealed the pet had a history of being underweight. Nakamaru has to clear his voice before he can speak.
“What will happen to him now?”
“Usually he’d be sent to a shelter, but you know how they are.” Nakamaru doesn’t, but Taguchi keeps talking. “They don’t get many funds and most of them have better intentions than equipment. It’s been the second time Kazuya’s been abandoned too, so I think it’d be better for him to stay with you until I can find him a home, if that’s okay with you.”
“I… Yeah, I can look after him for a while longer, I suppose. How are you going to find him a place?”
“I don’t know,” Taguchi sighs. “It’s not easy to market an adult pet as a family one, and with the kind of people who’d get a second-hand adult pet, he’d be in the streets again in less than six months.”
The thought alone makes Nakamaru sick to his stomach, but he swallows the anger back. “I’ll let him know what we know. You just… call me again if you get any news.”
Kazuya is looking up at him expectantly, and Nakamaru needs to take a deep breath to force the words out. He doesn’t know why the dropped ears and the silent tears affect him so much when he has only known the pet for three days, but Kazuya’s smile when he says Kazuya can stay for a while warms Nakamaru inside. He leaves Kazuya sleeping when he goes to work the following day, and spends most of the morning thinking about him.
Nakamaru had never before noticed the pet store between his office and the restaurant where he usually goes to have lunch, but when the leather collar on the window catches his attention, he buys it before he can help himself, and when he realizes he has already decided Kazuya’s new home, the first one surprised is himself.
Nakamaru doesn’t know if it’s Kazuya’s character or part of whatever cat nature is in him, or a mix of the two, but Kazuya is curious about everything and anything and he seems to love experimenting. Which wouldn’t be all that problematic in itself, Nakamaru figures, if not because the pet’s favorite research subject seems to be Nakamaru himself. When Kazuya approaches him with an inquisitive look and a distinct lack of clothes again, Nakamaru knows he’s in for a couple of interesting hours.
Kazuya whines loudly and tugs on Nakamaru’s sleeve repeatedly.
“Yucchi~!”
“Not now,” Nakamaru sighs. “I need to finish this for work, you know that. I’ll play with you later.” Nakamaru has to fight a blush at that, because Kazuya’s version of playing often develops into games not suited for all audiences.
Kazuya sits down on the couch with a pout, tail swaying slowly behind him. The constant clicking of the laptop’s keys annoys him because Nakamaru shouldn’t be typing anything; he should be paying Kazuya the due attention. Though maybe he could help his Master realize his mistake…
Nakamaru pokes his head around the laptop’s screen when he hears a telltale clinking of china, only to find Kazuya balancing the tea service Nakamaru’s mother gave him in his arms. Kazuya beams at him and Nakamaru sighs again.
“Alright, alright, I’ll play with you now.” Apparently one’s job comes second to one’s pet.
Kazuya’s life is quite a busy one. He wakes up a few minutes before Nakamaru’s alarm sets off, and takes care of waking his Master himself with playful nibbling across his cheeks. He prepares breakfast while Nakamaru showers and then food for his Master to take to work; he promises to make the bed and clean the kitchen when Nakamaru kisses him before leaving, and then goes back to bed. Kazuya’s day passes by between Korean soap operas, cooking programs, and preparing dinner, with carefully scheduled naps in between.
When Nakamaru arrives home late in the afternoon the bed is undone, the kitchen still a mess, and Kazuya requires some exercice before going to bed after napping all day.
Nakamaru learnt soon after taking Kazuya in that there were some rules to be set and kept if they were to live together peacefully, and the first one to come was the need for the pet to wear clothes at home. Kazuya seemed to accept it pretty fast, or at least when his Master was around, because the sight Nakamaru finds upon coming home from work more often than not is his pet napping naked on the couch.
Kazuya spends a week at Ueda’s when Nakamaru is sent by his company on a business trip, and it takes fifteen minutes to make him let go of his Master on the day Nakamaru is supposed to leave. Ueda reports to Nakamaru that the pet barely eats and sleeps fistfully and clinging to Jin desperately. By the time Nakamaru is back he’s worried sick about Kazuya, and it doesn’t help that Kazuya refuses to let go of him even as they settle down to sleep together in their own bed.
“Did you think I was going to leave you?” Nakamaru asks when Kazuya tries to snuggle closer to him, and Kazuya nuzzles his nose against the side of Nakamaru’s chest.
“Home”, is all he says, and Nakamaru feels funny inside.
The hesitant steps break the peace of their small corner on the sun, and Kazuya looks up from where he had been dozing off against Nakamaru. He gasps in surprise and Nakamaru looks up from his book too. There’s a man looking at them with wide eyes and a confused expression.
“Kazuya?” The man’s voice sounds a little incredulous, a little chocked. “I… I never thought you’d make it…”
“Who are you?” Nakamaru asks with a frown; Kazuya is tense and alert by his side, eyes glued to the stranger and ears pushed back.
The man reaches out with a hesitant hand to pet Kazuya’s head, and Nakamaru’s shocked to see that his pet, usually untrusting around strangers, leans into the touch with a soft purr.
“I’m his Master,” the man says, and for a moment Nakamaru is sure his heart stops beating in his chest.
“No!” Kazuya’s sudden shout surprises the two men. “Yucchi-oppa is my Master now, not you.” The pet sounds a bit like a petulant kid, but Nakamaru feels strangely possessive as Kazuya cuddles closer to him as the stranger’s eyes shift between them a few times before he leaves.
Nakamaru doesn’t miss, however, how Kazuya’s fingers close around the tattoo on his ankle.
Kazuya sits with his back very straight and his tail tense behind him, ears pointing up and twitching only slightly as he pointedly avoids looking at Nakamaru. A stubborn pout has taken over his lips, and he sniffles from time to time. In Nakamaru’s defense, he lasts all of two hours before he gives in and agrees to buy Kazuya the new videogame he wants.
Nakamaru suspects Kazuya has been practicing this for years, because all it takes him to win over his Master’s friends is a smile and a bat of his eyelashes, and he looks so charming that even Nakamaru falls a little in love again.
When Kazuya steals the blankets at night and slowly pushes Nakamaru to the border of what Nakamaru is sure used to be his own bed, Nakamaru wonders how he ended up like this. When Kazuya cuddles closer to him and purrs softly in his dreams, Nakamaru thinks it just kind of happened, and he wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.
Kazuya brushes his fingers over the black kanji tattooed on his ankle and stares absently at the TV, and it breaks Nakamaru’s heart a little to see him so sad.
“Do you miss him?” He asks, and when his question is met with vague confusion, he waves his hand toward the pet’s ankles. “That man. Do you miss him? If you ever… If you ever want to, well, go back to him… You’re free to do that, if you want.”
Kazuya looks at him thoughtfully and finally gives Nakamaru a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “You’re my Master now.”
When Kazuya moves to rest against his side, Nakamaru wraps his arms around the pet and says nothing. He doesn’t miss how Kazuya’s hand is still wrapped around his tattooed ankle.
“Jin, sit down!” Jin obeys as soon as Nakamaru shouts at him, but Nakamaru thinks the perky ears and furiously wagging tail means he’s not very concerned. Jin’s not usually very concerned unless the one getting angry is Ueda, and Nakamaru doesn’t know why he keeps offering to look after his friend’s puppy. “I’ve told you before not to play rough with Kazuya, Jin.”
Jin cocks his head to one side as if considering this. “Why?”
“Because you’re bigger and you can hurt him. You know this already, Jin. Apologize to Kazuya.”
Jin turns towards where Kazuya sits on the other side of the couch, watching the scene with amusement, and grins. “Okay!”
Nakamaru wants to bash his head against the wall when Jin kneels in front of Kazuya to nuzzle his cheek against the other’s crotch.
“Of course you’d apologize like that.”
Nakamaru listens with an increasing tightness in his chest as Taguchi tells him what they have found out about Kazuya’s previous owner, a business man sent overseas by his company. Taguchi thinks that’s why he abandoned Kazuya, though the microchip revealed the pet had a history of being underweight. Nakamaru has to clear his voice before he can speak.
“What will happen to him now?”
“Usually he’d be sent to a shelter, but you know how they are.” Nakamaru doesn’t, but Taguchi keeps talking. “They don’t get many funds and most of them have better intentions than equipment. It’s been the second time Kazuya’s been abandoned too, so I think it’d be better for him to stay with you until I can find him a home, if that’s okay with you.”
“I… Yeah, I can look after him for a while longer, I suppose. How are you going to find him a place?”
“I don’t know,” Taguchi sighs. “It’s not easy to market an adult pet as a family one, and with the kind of people who’d get a second-hand adult pet, he’d be in the streets again in less than six months.”
The thought alone makes Nakamaru sick to his stomach, but he swallows the anger back. “I’ll let him know what we know. You just… call me again if you get any news.”
Kazuya is looking up at him expectantly, and Nakamaru needs to take a deep breath to force the words out. He doesn’t know why the dropped ears and the silent tears affect him so much when he has only known the pet for three days, but Kazuya’s smile when he says Kazuya can stay for a while warms Nakamaru inside. He leaves Kazuya sleeping when he goes to work the following day, and spends most of the morning thinking about him.
Nakamaru had never before noticed the pet store between his office and the restaurant where he usually goes to have lunch, but when the leather collar on the window catches his attention, he buys it before he can help himself, and when he realizes he has already decided Kazuya’s new home, the first one surprised is himself.
Nakamaru doesn’t know if it’s Kazuya’s character or part of whatever cat nature is in him, or a mix of the two, but Kazuya is curious about everything and anything and he seems to love experimenting. Which wouldn’t be all that problematic in itself, Nakamaru figures, if not because the pet’s favorite research subject seems to be Nakamaru himself. When Kazuya approaches him with an inquisitive look and a distinct lack of clothes again, Nakamaru knows he’s in for a couple of interesting hours.
Kazuya whines loudly and tugs on Nakamaru’s sleeve repeatedly.
“Yucchi~!”
“Not now,” Nakamaru sighs. “I need to finish this for work, you know that. I’ll play with you later.” Nakamaru has to fight a blush at that, because Kazuya’s version of playing often develops into games not suited for all audiences.
Kazuya sits down on the couch with a pout, tail swaying slowly behind him. The constant clicking of the laptop’s keys annoys him because Nakamaru shouldn’t be typing anything; he should be paying Kazuya the due attention. Though maybe he could help his Master realize his mistake…
Nakamaru pokes his head around the laptop’s screen when he hears a telltale clinking of china, only to find Kazuya balancing the tea service Nakamaru’s mother gave him in his arms. Kazuya beams at him and Nakamaru sighs again.
“Alright, alright, I’ll play with you now.” Apparently one’s job comes second to one’s pet.
Kazuya’s life is quite a busy one. He wakes up a few minutes before Nakamaru’s alarm sets off, and takes care of waking his Master himself with playful nibbling across his cheeks. He prepares breakfast while Nakamaru showers and then food for his Master to take to work; he promises to make the bed and clean the kitchen when Nakamaru kisses him before leaving, and then goes back to bed. Kazuya’s day passes by between Korean soap operas, cooking programs, and preparing dinner, with carefully scheduled naps in between.
When Nakamaru arrives home late in the afternoon the bed is undone, the kitchen still a mess, and Kazuya requires some exercice before going to bed after napping all day.
Nakamaru learnt soon after taking Kazuya in that there were some rules to be set and kept if they were to live together peacefully, and the first one to come was the need for the pet to wear clothes at home. Kazuya seemed to accept it pretty fast, or at least when his Master was around, because the sight Nakamaru finds upon coming home from work more often than not is his pet napping naked on the couch.
Kazuya spends a week at Ueda’s when Nakamaru is sent by his company on a business trip, and it takes fifteen minutes to make him let go of his Master on the day Nakamaru is supposed to leave. Ueda reports to Nakamaru that the pet barely eats and sleeps fistfully and clinging to Jin desperately. By the time Nakamaru is back he’s worried sick about Kazuya, and it doesn’t help that Kazuya refuses to let go of him even as they settle down to sleep together in their own bed.
“Did you think I was going to leave you?” Nakamaru asks when Kazuya tries to snuggle closer to him, and Kazuya nuzzles his nose against the side of Nakamaru’s chest.
“Home”, is all he says, and Nakamaru feels funny inside.
The hesitant steps break the peace of their small corner on the sun, and Kazuya looks up from where he had been dozing off against Nakamaru. He gasps in surprise and Nakamaru looks up from his book too. There’s a man looking at them with wide eyes and a confused expression.
“Kazuya?” The man’s voice sounds a little incredulous, a little chocked. “I… I never thought you’d make it…”
“Who are you?” Nakamaru asks with a frown; Kazuya is tense and alert by his side, eyes glued to the stranger and ears pushed back.
The man reaches out with a hesitant hand to pet Kazuya’s head, and Nakamaru’s shocked to see that his pet, usually untrusting around strangers, leans into the touch with a soft purr.
“I’m his Master,” the man says, and for a moment Nakamaru is sure his heart stops beating in his chest.
“No!” Kazuya’s sudden shout surprises the two men. “Yucchi-oppa is my Master now, not you.” The pet sounds a bit like a petulant kid, but Nakamaru feels strangely possessive as Kazuya cuddles closer to him as the stranger’s eyes shift between them a few times before he leaves.
Nakamaru doesn’t miss, however, how Kazuya’s fingers close around the tattoo on his ankle.
Kazuya sits with his back very straight and his tail tense behind him, ears pointing up and twitching only slightly as he pointedly avoids looking at Nakamaru. A stubborn pout has taken over his lips, and he sniffles from time to time. In Nakamaru’s defense, he lasts all of two hours before he gives in and agrees to buy Kazuya the new videogame he wants.
Nakamaru suspects Kazuya has been practicing this for years, because all it takes him to win over his Master’s friends is a smile and a bat of his eyelashes, and he looks so charming that even Nakamaru falls a little in love again.
When Kazuya steals the blankets at night and slowly pushes Nakamaru to the border of what Nakamaru is sure used to be his own bed, Nakamaru wonders how he ended up like this. When Kazuya cuddles closer to him and purrs softly in his dreams, Nakamaru thinks it just kind of happened, and he wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.
Kazuya brushes his fingers over the black kanji tattooed on his ankle and stares absently at the TV, and it breaks Nakamaru’s heart a little to see him so sad.
“Do you miss him?” He asks, and when his question is met with vague confusion, he waves his hand toward the pet’s ankles. “That man. Do you miss him? If you ever… If you ever want to, well, go back to him… You’re free to do that, if you want.”
Kazuya looks at him thoughtfully and finally gives Nakamaru a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “You’re my Master now.”
When Kazuya moves to rest against his side, Nakamaru wraps his arms around the pet and says nothing. He doesn’t miss how Kazuya’s hand is still wrapped around his tattooed ankle.
“Jin, sit down!” Jin obeys as soon as Nakamaru shouts at him, but Nakamaru thinks the perky ears and furiously wagging tail means he’s not very concerned. Jin’s not usually very concerned unless the one getting angry is Ueda, and Nakamaru doesn’t know why he keeps offering to look after his friend’s puppy. “I’ve told you before not to play rough with Kazuya, Jin.”
Jin cocks his head to one side as if considering this. “Why?”
“Because you’re bigger and you can hurt him. You know this already, Jin. Apologize to Kazuya.”
Jin turns towards where Kazuya sits on the other side of the couch, watching the scene with amusement, and grins. “Okay!”
Nakamaru wants to bash his head against the wall when Jin kneels in front of Kazuya to nuzzle his cheek against the other’s crotch.
“Of course you’d apologize like that.”