"Why," Yukine asked, gritting his teeth, "are we out here chasing a fucking cat?"
It was, in his opinion, their biggest waste of time that week, which was saying something because Yato was the master of taking on pointless endeavors.
"And for only five yen!" Yukine complained as they continued to wander the streets, calling out the cat's stupid name without any results. "Who accepts a job for only five yen? What is that even gonna buy?"
Yato rolled his eyes. "Look, if a six-year-old calls you up crying about his cat and only has five yen and some puppy eyes to give you, you take the damn job. Did you want to be the one to say no to the kid?"
Yukine did not, and that point did little to improve his mood. "This is why you don't write your phone number on everything with a flat surface."
Yato ignored that and the two continued on their way.
"Ue-sama!"
"Ue-samaaa!"
People gave them strange looks as they went by, which made Yukine's face burn. He hated attention, while Yato didn't seem to notice at all. He scowled at Yato's back, wondering why he even hung around him. They were technically in the same boat, homeless and all, but the blond often thought that he could live a far better life on his own. He and Yato just barely got by by doing odd jobs for a random assortment of people, but a good chunk of what they earn went to Yato's cell phone bill. Yukine was tired of living off cheap convenience store sushi and the occasional bag of chips.
Yato was annoying as hell, too. Bossy and far more arrogant than any vagabond had any right to be, he irritated Yukine to no end and the younger boy had trouble thinking of him as an actual adult. Maybe that was why he found it so hard to say no to kids; he was a kid himself. Granted, Yato's actual age was on the list of the many things Yukine didn't know about him, but he was so...so idiotic sometimes it was impossible to take him seriously.
The younger boy let out a huff, his breath swirling visibly in the cold air. When he'd run away from home he hadn't thought about what he would do in winter. Yukine shoved his hands in his pockets and turned back to Yato, who annoyingly didn't look like he was bothered by the chill at all.
The brunet cupped his hands around his mouth and let out an especially long, loud "UE-SAMAAAAA!"
There was a long beat of silence. Yato dropped his hands and sighed.
"Who even names their cat that?" Yukine asked.
"Who knows?"
"Why did we even take a 'job' from some stupid kid? Why didn't you just hang up?"
"You're a stupid kid."
"That answered nothing, you moron."
"Sure it did." Yato flashed him a thumbs up and a cocky grin. "You just need to think about it more. Come on, there's a main road a few blocks down. He might be hanging around there."
Yukine groaned. "Fine. Let's find the fucking cat and get this over with."
"That's the spirit!"
They'd begun looking for the cat Ue-sama around late morning, and as they wandered street after street, the day slowly began drifting towards mid-afternoon. Yukine looked around at the high schoolers now milling about, still in their uniforms, and realized how hungry he was. He still wasn't entirely used to roughing it, and going without at least two meals a day.
He prodded Yato's arm, "Hey. I'm getting starving."
"We haven't found the cat yet though."
"We might not find it today. If the kid's been waiting two weeks already he can wait one last night. Let's try again tomorrow." Or never. Yukine would have also been happy with never.
Yato frowned. "I'm not sure we have enough money to buy anything."
"What are you talking about? The kid gave you a whopping five yen just earlier today."
"Shut up, smartass."
"Yatooo." The younger boy switched to whining. That always wore him down eventually. Yato talked about having no money, but he actually wasn't bad at pinching pennies from leftover job payments, and Yukine knew he'd give in anyway when he heard Yato's stomach growling too. "The last thing we ate was those two bread rolls from the free sample lady in front of that bakery at like six o'clock this morning."
Yato groaned, "Fiiine" and pulled a small wad of crumpled bills from his pocket. He rifled through them quickly and then said, "750. Not a whole lot, so let's make it last."
Yukine whooped. "I want udon!"
"That's expensive!"
"We'll get some off a cart or something, then! Don't tell me you don't want some."
Yato's frown twitched, then dissolved into a wicked grin. "Race you for it."
They took off running down the street, both taking competition seriously. Yato had the advantage of longer legs for faster running, but Yukine was smaller and more easily wove between crowds of pedestrians. Hardly anyone paid them any mind; perks of living in a big city, Yukine supposed. Nobody cared about two strangers racing down a sidewalk. In and out of people, nearly matching in speed. Yukine grinned despite himself. Yato was a jackass, but they did have fun like this sometimes.
So engrossed in beating Yato was he that he didn't notice the small gaggle of girls standing near a wall as he reached them, until he collided with one of them and sent them both sprawling on the sidewalk.
"Waugh!"
"Hiyori?!"
Yukine lay splayed on the sidewalk, dazed, until he realized he was sort of crushing someone underneath him. He yelped an apology and jumped to his feet. The girl he landed on followed suit and shook her hair out of her eyes.
"That was surprising," she said breathlessly, turning to face him.
Yukine felt all the air rush out of his lungs when he saw her. She was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, maybe a year or two older than him, with wide, clear magenta eyes. She was taller, but not by much, and Yukine realized she was currently staring back and waiting for him to speak.
"O-Oh!" he stammered, feeling himself turn bright red. "I'm really sorry about crashing into you! A-Are you okay?"
She smiled. "It's no problem, I'm not hurt. You shouldn't run so fast on a crowded sidewalk, though."
"I know, I'm sorry, I just..."
The girl's two friends were watching the exchange, looking amused. Yukine was blushing to the roots of his hair and out of the corner of his eye he could see Yato standing ahead. He must have stopped when he realized Yukine suddenly wasn't following. Ugh. If Yato was listening, the blond was going to hear no small amount of ribbing and teasing from him later. The thought made him want to curl up and die. Even worse was the fact that they hadn't been to a bath in a few days and now here was this beautiful girl-
"...looking at my phone."
Yukine blinked and turned his attention back to her. "Sorry, what?"
"I said I wasn't paying attention myself, I was looking at my phone." The girl held up her iPhone. "Had a download going."
Her friend with short auburn hair slung an arm over her shoulders and snickered. "That's Hiyori. She's so stuck in the world of her goood, Touno-san, she never notices anything around her."
"E-Eh?!" Hiyori turned pink. "That wasn't what I was..."
"How shameful," the other girl with the glasses sighed. "What would your mother say?"
"D-Don't tell her!" Hiyori looked frantically at Yukine, then back to her friends. "Don't tell strangers either!"
"I don't know anyone named Touno," Yukine said. Hiyori sighed in relief and stuffed her phone in her pocket.
Yukine glanced at Yato. The older man seemed to be waiting patiently, not even looking in their direction. His attention was across the street, eyes narrowed in concentration and the flier for the missing cat still in his hand.
God, he's weird. Guess I'm safe though.
"Anyway, as long as we're just standing here," Hiyori said, and stuck out her hand. "I'm Iki Hiyori."
Her two friends jumped in immediately.
"Asahina Ami!"
"Hanamori Yama!"
Yukine accepted Hiyori's hand with a shy smile. "My name's-"
"UE-SAMAAA!"
...Fuck.
The small group turned to look at the source of the sudden shout, which of course was Yato. Yukine followed his gaze across the street and saw the very cat milling about on the opposite sidewalk.
Before anyone could say or do anything, Yato launched himself over the road barrier and into oncoming traffic.
"Fuck!" Yukine shouted aloud. "Yato, stop!"
A bus was fast approaching, Yato paying no attention. Yukine took two steps forward to chase after him but, to his surprise, Yukine found himself passed by Hiyori. Hiking her skirt above her knees she leapt over the barrier in one motion, running fast and slamming into Yato with enough force to send him flying to the other side of the road.
This, however, meant she took the full force of the bus in the street.
The bus slammed on its brakes and time seemed to stop. Hiyori lay motionless on the pavement in the middle of the road, unmoving. A few yards to one side was Yato, in a similar position on the sidewalk. In the other direction was Yukine, Ami, and Yama, all three staring at the scene in horror. All the cars in the road slowed and pedestrians halted mid-step.
The spell was shattered by Ami shrieking, "Hiyori!" and darting into the street. She and Yama rushed over to their friend, Yukine hot on their heels. While they were bent over her, he decided to let them care for her for the moment and ran over to Yato.
The brunet was just beginning to stir when Yukine got to him, having been knocked into a daze. A scrape on his forehead sent a trickle of blood over his left eye and he gingerly put his wrist against it with a wince.
"You idiot!" Yukine panted, collapsing to his knees. "Christ, are you fucking stupid?!"
He swatted Yato's dirty jersey-clad wrist away from the scrape and pressed his own relatively clean hoodie sleeve against it. Yato sucked in a sharp breath and the pressure and Yukine eased up a bit.
"Right into traffic for a fucking cat!" he fumed. He noticed Yato's hands were scraped and oozing blood as well, though Yato slid them into his pockets to avoid detection.
Satisfied that he was at least relatively fine, Yukine turned back to the street with a twist of worry in his stomach. A crowd had gathered around Hiyori, who didn't seem to have moved.
"Did she...?" Yato asked.
Yukine nodded.
"Shit. I feel bad."
"You should. Fucking idiot."
"I called an ambulance!" someone in the crowd announced. Surely enough, only a few moments later, there was a ringing of sirens fast approaching. The ambulance came into view soon after, flanked by a police car.
"Shit!" Yato repeated, jumping to his feet and hauling Yukine up by his elbow. "Cops. We need to get out of here."
"But..." Yukine peered through the crowd to get a glimpse of Hiyori. "But shouldn't we see if she's okay? It's technically our-your-fault, so..."
"Look, if we stick around, they'll want to know why she was suddenly running into traffic, and then we'll be pointed out. Odds are you'll be recognized, and I have my own reasons for not wanting to get noticed. Make your choice."
Yukine hated when Yato was right. "Can we...check up on her later?"
Yato's hard expression softened. "Sure. They'll probably take her to the hospital in this area so we'll go visit her later. Promise."
His skinned hand clamped around Yukine's arm, and the blond reluctantly allowed himself to be dragged off out of sight.
A/N:
I didn't know the surnames for Ami and Yama, Hiyori's two friends. I'm going to assume Ami is the lighter-haired of the two. She has two sisters; one is a time-traveler and the other is a star high school swimmer at a certain private academy. Yes.
Anyway, human AU. It's going to be fantastic. It may or may not involve the gods as mafia, but who knows? I don't!