Kiku, after another hour searching his apartment and the park and the block near the coffee shop, began losing hope in finding his pet cat. Hiro wasn't anywhere to be found. It was terrible; Kiku worried day and night over his missing cat...and it had been only four hours since he realized Hiro was missing today, despite himself considering those four hours as days.
As Kiku plastered another poster on a white wall covered with graffiti and various posters he couldn't care less about, someone passed by quickly. Kiku looked over the left and saw a tanned and shirtless man with only a pair of gym shorts jogging down the sidewalk only to suddenly stop. At first, Kiku was embarrassed to see such explicit nudity-in such a public area, too!-but when he saw it was just Hercules, Kiku relaxed slightly. Kiku tried not to glance down at Hercules' bare, tan chest which lightly drizzle with sweat-Hercules was his ultimate weakness, especially when he wore just a pair of pants.
"Is that your cat?"
Blinking back to reality, Kiku stared from him to the poster and back to him with a pink flush of embarrassment.
"Yes...my cat, Hiro, disappeared suddenly," before he could even compose himself, he began blabbering non-stop. "I am so scared right now, I have no idea what to do and I really am afraid for my cat. What if he is hungry and I cannot feed him his favorite food? What if he is cold and does not have his special blanket, and who will Mister Fluffs sleep with? Do you know where Hiro is and do you by chance know how to find cats because you are so good to find cats and you always pick up strays and-" Kiku started panting uncontrollably and Hercules, being the gentle comforter he was, took both of Kiku's shoulders with his hands and told him to calm down.
"I...I am sorry," Kiku apologized restlessly.
"It's fine," Hercules replied understandingly. "I know what it feels like to lose a pet… Before you say I have too many and don't pay attention to them, I give them attention to each and every one of them. Just to let you know, if I find Hiro, I'll let you know."
Kiku watched Hercules' face helplessly and felt his forehead with much distress. Hercules only stared at Kiku; realizing he was comforting him through their silence, Kiku felt calmer now than previously.
"Thank you for saying that, Hercules…"
He smiled with sincerity. "Of course. Oh, um, sorry, I'm sweaty so-"
"Oh, uh, I do not mind! I-I mean, yes, it is strange you are...shirtless, in such a public place. It is like me with this…" he looked down awkwardly, seeing his red and white striped pajamas. He never had the chance to change, so this was his attire of all things.
"I like to not wear a shirt when I jog," he explained coolly. "It works just as well as wearing a shirt, but I get to feel the cool air."
Kiku and Hercules remained standing with his hands on Kiku's shoulders and looking at one another with a bashful look-it was mostly Kiku, but he could sense Hercules was feeling shy somewhat.
With a dry mouth he swallowed and said bashfully, "I should be going, these posters are not going to post up themselves."
Hercules took his hands off of Kiku and just when Kiku was about to move on, Hercules asked, "Can I help you put them up?"
"Oh, um...of course. The more the merrier, as they say…"
With that, Kiku shared the posters to Hercules. Once they began walking, side-by-side, the two secretly enjoyed this close moment. Kiku remembered how they never had the time to catch up and thought that time was shorter than usual. Nonetheless, Kiku and Hercules put posters every wall they could.
XxXxXxX
"Thank you again for helping me with the posters," Kiku said as they walked up the flight of stairs in their apartment complex.
"No worries," said Hercules, assuring him slightly. "I didn't mind. It was a nice change of pace. I'm sorry we couldn't find your cat, but did you notice those people staring at us before?"
Kiku's mind fell blank at that statement. Yes, it was strange for those people seeing a guy wearing pajamas in the middle of the afternoon and a handsome shirtless man searching in the park and putting up posters.
Kiku tried figuring out ways in avoiding the obvious answer, so he said as briskly as possible, "They...must have thought...um...I have no idea what to say." Well, it was the truth, so that counted.
"Maybe it's because of me not wearing my shirt," Hercules said softly. "Lots of girls tried talking to me and one of them touched my arm-"
"I think this is my floor!" blurted Kiku excitedly. Before Hercules was able to say goodbye he saw Kiku run over to the door of the floor and shut it off.
Not thinking of his peculiar behavior, Kiku managed to run down the hall of the apartment, got to his door number 401, took out his carpet and pulled out the key to open the door. Going in, the Japanese man felt relief inside his apartment. But while he stayed in his room, feeling contempt with his room's safety he felt a terrible dread filling within Kiku's heart. Hiro was still out there, starving and cold and frightened amidst the world around Hiro. Just thinking that Hiro was all alone in the dark, cold world, calling out meows for his master with tears streaming out his sweet innocent brown eyes and, and...!
Without acknowledging his automatic movements he did just this: walked down the narrow hall, collapsed suddenly to the floor and shook in apprehension. If that would happen, Kiku had no theory as to what he could do. What now? What was he going to do?
Knock, knock.
Lifting his head agonizingly up and turning over to look behind the door... What was behind that door? Was it his cat, ready to claw him to death for leaving the door open and leaving it open. That was all he remembered and Kiku felt revolting-
"Kiku?" a familiar voice called behind. "Are you there? I have someone who wants to see you." It was Hercules...
Out of nowhere he jumped up, raced forward (which Kiku made a U-turn immediately, realizing he was going the wrong way) to the door and, with all his might on the doorknob, opened the door and witnessed the greatest sight of all time: Hercules, smiling gently, holding a wet Hiro in his hands while hugging it as softly as possible.
"HERCULES, OH MY GOD, YOU FOUND MY BABY! I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU, I-!" He directly hugged Hercules, feeling great contentment between them as Hiro mewed faintly. Before Kiku could shut his blubbering, he heard a few doors next door opening to see what was going on and Kiku, not desiring to risk more embarrassment, pulled an unexpected Hercules in his room.
He would be considering incredibly as to why he was bringing someone in, a man he had a crush for a while now. Yet he looked up at Hercules who stared down at Kiku tenderly, his lips still smiling softly. Kiku blushed slightly and attempted to pull away, however, Hercules successfully wrapped an arm around Kiku's waist and with Hiro now on the palm of his hand, stared deeply into Kiku's eyes.
"Was that true?"
"...huh?"
"I love you?"
Kiku was empty for words; lips twitching to not say anything else that might cause him to look more humiliating. There were a hundred reasons or excuses to say anything against what he said, but what was the point in lying? Kiku pursed his lips slightly, giving a suggestion to Hercules to kiss him, and thankfully Hercules knew what he suggested and gave him a kiss. Hiro watched the small scene and mewed again.
When they finished the small kiss Kiku had to ask, "What happened to Hiro?" Hercules brought Hiro between them and Kiku watched as Hiro licked his paw to brush his damp hair.
"He was in my flowerpot outside my window with my plants," Hercules explained casually. "I got in my apartment room and saw I forgotten to water my plants, so when I poured my water bottle while looking around my place I heard my plant meowed. That wasn't the weird part, what was weird was Hiro liked my plant and wanted to stay in there...hence my hand having some minor cuts." Kiku felt bleak when he saw he had cuts on his hands and felt he had to do something.
After asking Hercules if he could go in his living room and sit down, Kiku scurried to his bathroom for band aids. Going back he heard Hercules saying he didn't need it. Kiku, however, would have none of that and started wrapping them on Hercules's strong, slender fingers. The two may never know how Hiro got in Hercules's plant, but at least he was safe, and Hercules and Kiku got the chance to spend extra time in the end.