This story is not mine. It was made by an old friend...

Purple Violence Special: The Grape and a Cat

(Takes place between chapters 3 and 4)

It was way past Mineta's bedtime, much later than Travis would've usually allowed him to stay up on a Tuesday night...if not for Jeane.

And Mineta wasn't entirely sure if he was grateful towards the cat for his extended time right now, as Jeane was meowling her head off at the moment. Hearing her occasional high-pitched mewls as she patrolled around the compact motel flat were usually quite adorable, but as of now they were almost constant and ear piercing in pitch. The reason for this being was that Travis had forgotten to stock up on cat food yesterday because of a prolonged training session; and when the time came to feed Jeane at 9:30PM as was always done, both of them had found themselves with a very demandingly hungry cat and no food to be found.

The two had figured that, maybe Jeane could wait it out until the morning and would eventually give up on pestering them as they tried to fall asleep. Although, it was no use, the cat was persistent as ever for a good twenty minutes until Travis had given in and decided to make a late night trip to the pet store to satisfy his cat. He hadn't been able to bear hearing his beloved Jeane go hungry, even if it was just for the night, and honestly, Mineta hadn't been able to handle it either. Neither Travis nor he could sleep soundly knowing (and hearing) their cat was dinnerless.

And so here Mineta was, sat upon the bright red recliner in the cramped living room, Jeane sitting at his feet staring intently up at him. At first she'd seemed expectant, but now she seemed rather annoyed and impatient. Mineta too, had a similar expression of annoyance and impatience for Travis to return, but it was not like he could be angry with her for her yearning.

"Geez Travis where are y-" Mineta began to absentmindedly mumble to himself, before another series of demanding meows interrupted him, causing him to flinch at the noise which had over time become ear-grating to listen to.

Mineta's gaze travelled begrudgingly down to the cat awaiting his attention on the floor before him.

"Look I know you're hung-" Another mewl stopped him mid-sentence. Sighing, he slid off of the recliner "Here, I know what'll cheer you up until Travis gets home" he said as he walked over to the mini fridge. Jeane followed suit, and stood expectantly by Mineta's side as he crouched down and pried the magnet-decorated door open, peering inside at the shelves contents. Scratching the back of his head as his eyes searched until he spotted a packet of deli ham. There was only one slice left, and both he and Travis had been saving it for tomorrow's lunch. It had been a race to see who would've gotten the last slice for their sandwich first but, as Mineta looked over at Jeane waiting so patiently beside him, he decided to hand it over to her for now.

Pulling the thin slice of meat out of its now empty packet, Mineta held it out in front of Jeane in offering, watching her and hoping she'd accept it so she'd be satisfied for the time being. Looking on in slight anticipation as she leaned forwards as if cautious about the object in his hand.

"C'mon~" he urged, as Jeane's whiskers twitched and her nose gave a few quick sniffs, she gave a hesitant lick only to immediately regret her decision. The feline seemed to flinch from the taste of the processed meat, and quickly turned away from Mineta as if offended, as if he'd poisoned her somehow. Groaning, he got up from his crouched position and threw the now tainted ham into the trash can.

'Great, now that was a waste of food' he internally lamented, turning back to Jeane only to find her facing away from him, tail tip twitching with annoyance.

"Hey now, it couldn't have been that bad" Mineta couldn't help but find this slightly funny despite how tired he was feeling. Maybe his sleepiness was helping with his sense of humor even. Moving closer to the turned away cat, Mineta crouched near her again, outstretching his arms to pick her up "Here, maybe sitting with me will-"

As his hands found the soft fur of her sides, Jeane responded with a harsh hiss and a speedy dash into the bedroom.

"...Ouch, that was cold," Mineta whined quietly to himself, before sighing and standing up to stretch. Well, he couldn't blame the cat, it's not like he was very close to her. It had only been less than a month since arriving at the motel and making living arrangements with Travis.

Yawning, and remembering his exhaustion, Mineta made his way back to the recliner in the center of the room, plopping down on the cushion and throwing his legs over one of the armrests, his upper back and head supported against the armrest opposite. He stared at the shelf along the wall chocked full of figurines, mostly anime girls and the like. Mineta recalled one time he'd been caught looking up said skirts of the miniature statues by Travis...Where was Travis anyways? It had been almost a half hour since he'd left and his prolonged absence was making Mineta a bit anxious.

Ever since the incident at UA, he had found that he had become a lot more nervous over the smallest things, even to the point of panicking at random times for no apparent reason to him or anyone else. And, although that was a rare occurrence, he was beginning to feel a bit of a nervous adrenaline rush coming on right now. It always started with a sick sensation in the pit of his stomach that grew into an overall uneasy feeling of pure dread. Taking a deep, yet very shaky, uneven breath Mineta closed his eyes, trying to ignore the paranoid thoughts of impending demise racing around his foggy mind. It was no use however, the motel room's silence was deafening and the isolation was making it impossible to ignore his own thoughts. By this point, his entire body was beginning to physically tremble and he was sweating bullets, although the room felt sweltering and freezing at the same time.

The imagined clashing temperatures of the room reminded Mineta of the sensation of Todoroki freezing him to the spot during the end of the year party. How everyone had surrounded him, combined body heat and frigid ice overwhelming him. A sensation he would never forget. A memory that never failed to make him feel the same panic as if he was standing on the edge of a cliff. Echoing in his ears the disgust and fear of his friends during that moment. Oh how they despised him, and knowing that they did strained his heart, and sent pangs through his chest.

'Everyone hates me, everyone hates me, everyone hates me' repeated like a broken record in his mind. Stinging tears were threatening to spill until suddenly he felt a weight on his torso.

It was a dull pressure on his chest, but it was not a panicking, stressful, imagined weight. Despite his body feeling numb and trembling, Mineta could tell this was a real weight. Opening his eyes, the tears his eyelids had been holding back overflowed down his cheeks, through blurry vision he saw Jeane balanced on top of him, looking at him curiously. Silent for a few moments besides the sound of his own shaky breathing, Mineta looked on at Jeane with a dumbfounded expression, and she looked back at him still with that curious gaze, before seemingly growing bored and curling up on his chest to sleep.

Mineta blinked away the rest of his tears until his sight cleared; Jeane had never sat with him before, and of course never on him, so this sudden display of affection and trust was a surprise to him. Reaching out a still trembling hand, he began to stroke gently the silky fur on her head and between her ears. The soft rumble of her purring started up, and sent gentle vibrations throughout his chest.

Slowly at first, his breathing began to even out, the shivering became less intense, and his attention was now directed to the animal on top of him. Continuing to pet the napping feline, Mineta felt a sense of ease begin wash over him. Reflecting on his earlier thoughts was strange, even though he'd only thought of them moments ago. They felt distant, and, although the memory still hurt, it was hard to be upset when you had a cat cuddling you. He let out a long sigh, not realizing he had been holding his breath, and smiled weakly at the snug looking cat before closing his eyes again.

-12:01AM-

Travis returned to the motel, a couple bulk-sized bags of dry cat food carried in his arms as he pushed the creaky door open with the toe of his shoe, stepping into the living room.

"Jesus that took fore-"

His gaze immediately landed on his small roommate and cat asleep together on the recliner, voice instinctively going quiet once seeing the two napping.

Too late though, Mineta began to stir and awakened within a few moments, eyes groggily opened to look up at Travis standing in front of the doorway.

"Wha-what time is it?" he murmured, causing Travis to shrug in response before setting down the bags of cat food.

"Hell if I know, turns out the pet store closed at nine so I had to break in, also turned out I was being followed by someone lookin' to take The 1# Assassin Rank from me. Had to deal with that too"

Travis looked back at Mineta who seemed to be only half listening to his explanation.

"You look tired..this is why we have a bedtime y'know..."

Mineta merely nodded in response, eyes half-lidded. Travis looked over at Jeane relaxing on top of the teen; the cat meowed in greeting as their gazes connected.

"Jeane seems to have finally warmed up to you" Travis commented, only to get no response, and to see Mineta had dozed off again.

"You asleep already? Don't you wanna hear what happened?"

Truthfully, he had been a bit excited to tell the boy about his battle. Mainly because he'd kicked the other guy's ass, but it could also serve as good information on battling, right? That was his only excuse to justify his desire to brag about the fight at least just a little, but for now it seemed his roommate was much too tired to hear about it.

"Well, I'll tell you about it tomorrow" he said in a hushed voice, mostly directed to himself rather than Mineta.

Travis looked back at Jeane again.

'I wonder how he got Jeane to sit with him?' he thought, picking up both dry food bags again and taking them over to Jeane's food bowl, setting them down once more, he proceeded to tear open one of them and fill up the red dish. However, to his surprise, Jeane didn't bound over like she usually would.

Instead, she stayed right where she was, curled up on Mineta.