Kimi Wa Petto (You Are My Pet)

Romantica

Akihiko pulled the phone away from his ear as his author screamed at him on the other line. “Listen to me you idiot of an author! I extended your deadline by a month! A whole month! And now you’re telling me that it’s not even half-way finished?”

He rubbed his ringing ear and replied in a bored voice. “I’m going to England for a while.” And with that, he hung up the phone and sank down in the couch. It wasn’t like he wanted to be over a month late, he just found that his muse for writing was gone. Despite what he’d told Aikawa, he was in fact only a sentence into his manuscript and he didn’t even like that sentence. He leaned forward and erased it before slouching back and lighting a cigarette, pulling his favourite bear, Suzuki-san, closer to him. He took a long drag and tipped his head back to rest on the back of the couch, the silence of the apartment a blessing for his on-coming headache. Just then he heard his front door slam open, followed by his screaming devil of an editor. Needless to say, all hell broke loose.

After an hour of shouting, crying and begging the man to write something, Aikawa slouched on the floor completely defeated but still trying anyway. “Please sensei…just write something…anything.”

Akihiko shut the top of his laptop and shook his head, already on his tenth cigarette. “I can’t. I don’t want to write.”

Aikawa wiped her tears away and surveyed her author’s apartment. “Maybe you’re just lonely?”

Akihiko raised an eyebrow and took off his glasses. “The last thing I am is lonely with you breathing down my neck all the time.”

Aikawa pouted and suddenly all her energy returned as she came up with what she thought was a brilliant idea. “As you can’t seem to stand even sharing the same air with other people, why not get a pet?”

Akihiko frowned at the woman as if she’d lost her mind. “No. I don’t want anything or anyone else in my apartment.”

Aikawa smiled and clapped her hands together. “I know someone who’s putting a kitten up for adoption.” She turned and ran from the apartment, all thoughts of getting her lazy author to write forgotten.

A half hour later, Aikawa returned with a small cardboard box making strange, mewling sounds. She hurried over to the author who hadn’t even moved from the sofa and placed the box on the table in front of him. “Special delivery.”

Akihiko rolled his eyes and nudged the box away. “Take it out of here. It’s already making my apartment stink.”

The red-haired devil pushed the box closer to the author and stood back with her hands on her hips. “It’s non-refundable. I purchased him in your name so you’re stuck with him.”

Akihiko looked down at the box disgustedly as it began to move where the little kitten inside wanted to get out. “I don’t care. Just take it away.”

Suddenly, the box gave a violent jerk and it fell to the floor, the lid bursting open and a scruffy little kitten rolled across the floor. There was a silence as it got to its feet and opened its large, green eyes to stare directly up at Akihiko. It tilted its head to the side and meowed, waiting for Akihiko to do something.

“Well isn’t he the sweetest thing?” Aikawa cooed. Akihiko glared at her and was about to argue when she turned and dashed from the apartment, shutting the door firmly behind her.

The kitten sat down and wrapped its bushy tail around its legs, bowing its head as if it had done something wrong. Akihiko studied the kitten and then reached for the fallen box, inside was a small collar with a tag, a little bowl and some cat food. He looked at the name on the collar and frowned. “I thought it was a boy?” Akihiko looked down at the kitten who was waiting expectantly for something and reached out for it. The kitten tried to scramble away as Akihiko’s cool hand wrapped around its stomach but the little cat was no match for the man. He set the squirming cat down on his lap but as soon as he let go, the cat leapt from his legs and straight into the table. There was a loud wail as the cat hit the table and landed in a heap on the floor. However, he got straight to his feet and shook himself before looking up at the author and jumping back up onto the sofa. He took tentative steps towards the man and lowered his head, nervous that he might try and grab him again.

Akihiko watched the kitten move towards him, he found the kitten’s behavior odd and reached out once again for him. Misaki froze and flattened his ears and lowering his body into a defensive position, ready to attack if the man grabbed him again but instead he felt cool fingers tickling the top of his head. His little ears pricked up and he heard a small laugh from the man. Akihiko saw as the kitten began to relax and he couldn’t help but laugh at his weird behavior. He held the collar in Misaki’s sight and the kitten watched him warily as he unclasped it and began to try and put it around his neck. Misaki jumped back, his tail beginning to swish back and forth.

Akihiko put his hands back down in his lap with a sigh and saw the kitten relax once again. Misaki wondered if his behavior had hurt his new owner, but Misaki wasn’t used to being handled and was scared the man would try to hurt him if he touched him. The little kitten padded towards Akihiko with that same nervous look in his eyes and this time Akihiko decided to keep still and see what the kitten did.

Misaki reached the man’s leg and gingerly poked it with a paw, he jumped back in case the man moved but he just sat there watching him, so Misaki went forward again and gave the man’s leg another poke with his paw. Seeing that he wasn’t doing anything, Misaki bravely rested his paw on the man’s surprisingly warm leg and just stood there looking at his paw. Akihiko frowned down at the kitten, wondering what he was doing when all of a sudden the phone began to ring, making the poor kitten jump and try to hide behind Akihiko. Misaki desperately tried to get in behind the man to protect him from the shrill noise that hurt his sensitive ears, he pawed at the man’s hip to let him in and Akihiko gave in. He sat forward slightly and felt the kitten scramble in behind him, his body trembling against Akihiko’s lower back.

He dropped the collar onto the table and reached around to take the kitten into his arms. This only seemed to cause the kitten to panic even more but he didn’t let him go. Akihiko began to try and soothe the distressed animal by making gentle noises and smoothing his head gently.

Misaki slowly started to calm down as he felt the soothing fingers in his fur. He pushed up against the fingers and looked up at his new owner, thinking that maybe he wouldn’t be so bad. Akihiko smiled down at the kitten and find his big, round, green eyes completely adorable. The phone stopped ringing but instantly started again, almost scaring Misaki just as bad as before, but the relaxed nature of Akihiko helped to keep the kitten calm. He held Misaki in one hand, his front paws resting on his shoulder, as he went to answer the phone. “Sensei just because I got you the cat doesn’t mean you can slack off on your work!”

Akihiko smiled at the angry voice of Aikawa and felt Misaki shift in his hand. “Are now regretting not listening to me in the first place? Having a cat will only slow me down even more.”

There was a pause on the end of the line before Aikawa practically screamed at him. “Don’t go anywhere! I’m coming round.” The line went dead and Akihiko put the receiver down slowly. He looked down at the kitten who had dozed off on his shoulder, his ears twitching as he slept. Akihiko tickled him under the chin before going back over to the sofa and sitting down slowly, he leaned back into the soft cushion while making sure not to jostle the sleeping kitten. However, the movement woke Misaki and he opened his bright green eyes to stare directly into lavender ones, he meowed quietly before climbing up onto Akihiko’s shoulder and touching his nose to the author’s cheek.

The author’s hand came up and petted Misaki, the gesture felt almost natural to Akihiko and this surprised him. His hand stilled and the kitten nudged his hand with his paw, trying to get his attention back to stroking him. Akihiko lifted the kitten from his shoulder who, surprisingly, didn’t resist this time. He held Misaki in the air and studied him, the fluffy ears swinging forward with interest as the kitten studied the man. For some reason Akihiko began to think that having the kitten around wouldn’t be so bad, it’s not like Misaki was particularly noisy, and cats could pretty much look after themselves.

He brought the kitten down to his chest and with minor struggling from him, Akihiko held the kitten close, letting out a long sigh. Somehow the warmth of the small animal was taking away the loneliness he hadn’t wanted to admit to, even to himself.

Misaki’s ear was pressed against the author’s chest and he heard the slow, steady beat of his heart, calming his original fear of being held so close. This man was obviously lonely, Misaki could see that he just needed someone to be around, even if Misaki couldn’t talk to the man, he wanted to try and comfort him. So the kitten rubbed his head on Akihiko’s chest and purred quietly, letting the author know he wasn’t alone.