"Hello!" a happy voice announced.
An unfamiliar voice, at that.
Natsume opened his eyes blearily to see a cat face above him. Or rather… it appeared to be a cat face, but there was an uncannily large and thin smile that no cat would - or could - ever have. In addition, around the edges the face grew wispy, trailing away in little tendrils of smoke.
Natsume sat straight up in shock, staring at the floating face.
"You're up," the cat continued, sounding pleased. Though that may have been due to the presence of such a constant smile. It blinks, large eyes obscured for a moment, before vanishing.
Before Natsume can actually wonder where it went, the cat reappears in the corner of his room, the whole body materializing this time.
He studies it more closely this time. It's not like Nyanko-sensei - it resembles a real cat. There are stripes along it's body, though they seem to shift in pattern every time the cat moves. It's eyes are just large enough to be out of proportion with the rest of it's face, while it's unsettling grin is like the moon just before it disappears - thin, curved, and sharp at the edges.
"What do you want?" Natsume asked it warily.
It blinks again, the action so noticeable because of it's large eyes. They gleam a bright silver as it asks curiously, "Why do you think I want anything from you?"
Natsume frowns. "You're in my room," he pointed out.
The cat looks around. "Is that bad?"
He wants to punch it, but holds back because it hasn't done anything. Yet. "Normally," he said carefully instead, "Spirits don't wander into human dwellings uninvited."
The cat laughs, it's mouth opening up briefly to reveal a small, pink tongue. "Rules have never applied to me," it says off-handedly, "but if you want me to leave, I will." It looks at Natsume expectantly.
"If you don't mind," Natsume told it.
It nods before vanishing once more.
A scream filled with agony.
A light-hearted laugh.
They go so well together, don't they?
"Natsume!"
Natsume turned to see Tanuma. Smiling, he waits for the other boy to catch up. "Hello," Natsume greeted him. Tanuma returns to the greeting cheerfully, and then they walk in a comfortable silence.
For about two seconds.
"Hello again!"
Natsume turns to see the cat smiling at him from a nearby tree branch. He glances to his side, only to find that Tanuma was looking in the same direction.
"Chessur!" Tanuma said, surprised.
Confused, Natsume looked from one to the other. Tanuma noticed, and gestured to the cat, "He's a cat I had… oh, a while ago." Tanuma glanced at the cat again before adding, "He ran away at some point. What's he doing here?"
Understanding dawned on Natsume. Chessur said amiably, "Yes, well, in my defense I grew fond of Tanuma, and his headaches were awful whenever I was around." His grin widened slightly as he leapt down from the branch, approaching them. "He can't hear me," Chessur added, as if this was natural.
And for youkai, it was.
But Natsume can't help it.
"He was your pet?"
The words come out half-strangled sounding, and now both Tanuma and Chessur are looking at him with quizzical expressions. "Yeah," Tanuma says, clearly confused. "Why? Do you know him?"
Natsume hesitates. "You can tell him if you want to," Chessur says, still smiling - Natsume was beginning to think the cat did nothing but smile. "Or keep it a secret. I don't care." He sits down, still a foot or two away from them, tail over his paws as he waits for Natsume's verdict.
Slowly, hesitantly, Natsume tells Tanuma, "He's… Chessur is… a youkai."
To his credit, Tanuma only blinks before laughing. Then he looks at Chessur and says, "How did none of us notice?" As if Tanuma can hear, Chessur replies matter-of-factly, "I make a good cat."
Then there is Taki.
She does not like Chessur at all.
That is when Natsume first sees an expression other than a smile on Chessur's face.
The cat pouts, his mouth drawn into a small line, his wide eyes downcast.
"Why does she like him but not me?" he asks sadly, referring to the pig-like Nyanko-sensei. But because Natsume honestly can't think of a good reason, all he says is, "Her tastes are a bit different. Don't worry about it."
He forgot Tanuma was beside him. "What'd he say?" the other boy asks curiously.
"He wants Taki to like him," Natsume tells Tanuma.
Tanuma looks like he's trying to stifle a laugh. "She's never gonna look at him, the way she goes starry eyed for Ponta." At this, Chessur's ears go flat as his expression gets sadder. And apparently one of these reactions is visible to Tanuma, because he immediately says, "But her tastes are rather strange, so don't worry about it."
Chessur perks up, grinning uncannily wide again as he looks at Tanuma. "This one has always been my favorite human," he says happily, even though Natsume had said nearly the exact same thing moments earlier.
But Natsume doesn't say anything, because it's a bit cute, seeing the two.
Until Chessur looks at him, then stands, hissing. "Don't -" he says abruptly, then his words are gone. So are his strange eyes, and unsettling smile.
Now he looks an awful lot like an ordinary cat.
Chessur mews, then turns and pads away.