Author's Note: This idea came to me when I was in the shower. Bit off the mark, I guess, because it was off the top of my head. Besides, it's been fanon that Rukawa's a cat person so here we go! :)
Reviews would be welcome, if anyone is even reading this.
Disclaimer: I don't own Slam Dunk and Neko Atsume.
No one on the Shohoku High basketball team had ever been to Rukawa's house, so when the ace invited them over for 'a small get-together because my parents insist', everyone clamoured to come. After all, it rumours were rife that Rukawa was a spoilt rich kid living in one of the manicured mansions at the edge of town, and no one on the basketball team wanted to miss out on this somewhat historic moment. When else was the quiet ace going to invite them over? The guy was pretty introverted, barely saying anything (unless it was on court, or to insult Sakuragi), so this was a breakthrough for him, and a once in a lifetime chance for the rest of them.
So that Saturday, everyone gathered to walk to Rukawa's place together. An excited chatter among the members ensued.
"People say he lives in one of the big houses at the edge of town…"
"Yeah, that's what I heard! Apparently he's rich..."
"Feh, that kitsune? Rich? He probably lives under a bridge, for all we know." Sakuragi interjected, then laughed loudly.
"I heard that his dad's a huge businessman."
"Akagi, are you sure we're going the right way?"
"Shut up, Mitsui. I know what I'm doing."
"I wonder why Rukawa-kun suddenly invited us all to his house…?" Haruko said, a sheen of blush on her face.
"Well Haruko-chan, don't you think it's nice of him? Rather than him just thinking about sleep and basketball, I think it's a good thing for all of us as well. Bonding as a team!" Ayako put an arm around her new junior and smiled.
"Aya-chan is definitely right!" Miyagi nodded.
"Okay, team, we're here." Akagi announced, stopping in front of a normal-looking house. An orange and white striped cat looked at them from its perch on the wall.
Mitsui looked at their captain, narrowing his eyes. "Are you sure, Akagi?"
"Yep." Kogure, ever the peacemaker, pointed to the name on the wall. Rukawa. "We're at the right place."
Akagi was already at the front door, ringing the doorbell. The door opened, revealing Rukawa dressed casually in a T-shirt and jeans.
"Hello, captain." Rukawa nodded at Akagi. "Hello, Pumpkin."
"Wha….?"
Rukawa knelt down and picked up the meowing orange and white striped cat that had been lounging on the wall earlier.
"Come on in, everyone." Rukawa cuddled the cat and turned inside.
Everyone took off their shoes and followed their host inside. Contrary to popular opinion, Rukawa's house was pretty normal. There was nothing grand about it, though there was an air of upper middle class society, judging from the carpeted hallways and the Western decor.
"Mum, everyone's here." Rukawa called out, setting Pumpkin on the floor. The cat stretched out and reached for a yellow mouse toy nearby. A lady with long black hair that matched her son's appeared from the kitchen; a smile lighting up her pretty face.
"Oh, there's so many of you! Welcome, everyone."
"Thanks for having us, Mrs Rukawa." Akagi bowed his head.
"It's nice to see Kaede's friends. Come, let's get you all settled in the living room."
"I'm not that kitsune's friend." Sakuragi muttered under his breath. "Come to think of it, this is a pretty nice place." He looked around appreciatively.
"Not bad." Miyagi nodded. He glanced around. "So many cat toys."
"Oh!" Haruko gasped, as a pure white cat started mewling around her legs. "That tickles!"
"That's Snowball." Rukawa said to her. Easily, he picked the white cat up and let Haruko hold it. "She likes you."
Haruko blushed at the short conversation with her crush, holding Snowball tightly to her chest.
"Oi, Rukawa, just how many cats do you have?" Mitsui scoffed. First Pumpkin, then Snowball...
The ace just looked at his senior and raised an eyebrow.
As the congregation entered the living room, a ball of fur zipped off into oblivion. Akagi jumped about a foot into the air at the sudden movement.
"Don't mind. Probably Pickles." Rukawa explained. The grey and white tabby in question was shy and faint-hearted, mostly scared of human interaction. Miyagi and Mitsui were trying to contain their laughter, as Akagi turned slightly red.
"Shut up, you two." The captain hissed.
"I'll get the refreshments. You kids make yourself at home!" Mrs Rukawa smiled again, then disappeared off into the kitchen.
"Woah, more cat toys." Miyagi picked up a mouse toy teaser and whirled it around. A white cat with black patches came up and started playing around with it, trying to catch the mouse at the end of the stick. "Hey, this is fun!"
"Why do you have so many cats, kitsune?" Sakuragi slumped into an embroidered armchair.
"Not your business, do'aho. Don't sit there. Xerxes won't like it." Rukawa simply said, then turned to entertain his other guests.
"Xer….what? Kitsune!" Sakuragi was left in confusion. Suddenly, a white Persian cat hopped onto his lap and looked at him haughtily, as if its black eyes were saying ahem, you're sitting in my seat.
Mrs Rukawa was back with a tray of drinks, announcing her presence cheerfully. Trying to make themselves useful, Ishii, Sasaoka and Kuwata helped her out.
"Aw, it's okay, boys. I'm doing fine. You're my guests! No need to help!" Mrs Rukawa said.
"Let us help, Mrs Rukawa." Kuwata grinned. Ishii and Sasaoka nodded fervently behind him. Finally she let the three of them hand out the drinks for everyone, leaving her with the freedom to interrogate her the rest of her son's teammates. She took a seat next to the girls, Haruko and Ayako, who were both preoccupied with Snowball.
"Here she comes." Mrs Rukawa smiled as a striped torbie sauntered up to her, meowing softly.
"Oh, she's cute." Ayako smiled as Mrs Rukawa placed the cat onto her lap. "What's her name?"
"This is Princess."
"Hmmm. Pumpkin, Snowball, Xerxes, Princess. Oh, and Pickles." Mitsui noted. "Mrs Rukawa, what about the one that Miyagi's playing with?" He nodded toward the point guard, who was having the time of his life, teasing the white cat with black patches with the mouse toy.
"That's Speckles. They're all pretty playful. You're lucky if you saw Pickles." Mrs Rukawa said.
Kogure had wandered over to the French doors that overlooked the garden. "Rukawa, do you mind if I go outside?"
Rukawa, who had another cat on his lap - a solid grey ball of fur that he called Shadow - shook his head. "Go ahead, senpai." He went back to listening to Akagi's recount of last year's game with their rivals, Ryonan High.
Kogure opened the French doors, letting in some air. Yasuda joined him. "Nice weather, isn't it, Kogure-senpai?"
"What in the world..." Kogure looked around Rukawa's backyard with an incredulous look on his face. There was a huge cat tree filling up the expanse of the yard, and a couple of boxes made to shape like a car and a train right by the doors. There were also many squishy balls lying around - there was a calico playing around with the blue one - and a cat tunnel lay on the ground in the farthest corner of the yard.
"It's cat heaven." Yasuda whispered, eyeing another cat - a brown and white tabby - peeking at them from the top of the cat tree.
Mrs Rukawa popped up from behind them. "Nice, isn't it? That one's Breezy, just hanging out in his favourite spot. Sunny's the one playing with the ball. Most days there are about maybe five or more cats just hanging around here,"
"Wow, Mrs Rukawa," Kogure was at a loss for words. Mitsui had joined them by now, writing down the new additions to his already extensive list.
"What are you doing, senpai…" Yasuda asked the sharpshooter. Mitsui simply ignored him and proceeded to ask Mrs Rukawa about the breeds of the cats.
"Didn't know that Mitsui-senpai was interested in cats." Shiozaki said to Kakuta.
"Well, I didn't expect Rukawa to have so many cats." Kakuta replied, spotting a white mackerel cat popping out of the cat tunnel.
"Hang on, Mitsui-kun." Mrs Rukawa, who'd been entertaining Mitsui's questions, held her hand up. "Kaede, have you fed the cats?"
"Well, he hasn't fed us yet!" Sakuragi said, now co-habiting the armchair with Xerxes.
"Food's in the kitchen, sweetie. Kae, please."
"Yes, mum." Rukawa stood up, the solid grey cat in his lap landed softly on the ground and curled up on a cushion. Sakuragi followed him to the kitchen, complaining about how hungry he was, and the outrageous number of cats Rukawa had in his house.
"Do'aho. They're not all mine. Most of them are strays." Rukawa said without looking at the redhead.
"Food!" Sakuragi's eyes widened at the spread before him on the kitchen counter. "You peasants! Kitsune's mum told you guys to serve us!" Sakuragi said to the three freshmen crouched near the counter.
Ishii, Sasaoka and Kuwata were playing with a black and white cat. "Well, it's a cute cat, Sakuragi." Ishii defended.
Sakuragi was already ignoring everything else in the world, his mind focused on the food before him.
"Do'aho." Rukawa muttered, as he searched the cabinets for cat food.
"Rukawa, what's this cat's name?" Kuwata asked the ace, who pulled out a couple of cans of Frisky Bits out of a cabinet.
"That's Spots. He's a joker." Rukawa said, and left with the cat food.
"Ah! Here we go!" Mrs Rukawa took the Frisky Bits from her son. "Tubbs is probably going to come if we put this out, Kae."
"That's all I could find." Rukawa knelt down near the food bowl, opening one of the cans.
By now, everyone was in the backyard, awaiting the ritual of cat feeding. Haruko and Ayako, each holding Snowball and Princess; even Miyagi had stopped playing with Speckles and stood with his arms folded, trying to look cool, like he hadn't been playing with a cat just a couple of minutes earlier. Mitsui was practically breathing down Rukawa's neck, ready for the new development.
Rukawa filled the food bowl with the entire Frisky Bits can. Breezy and Sunny rushed over immediately and started eating the food.
"Awwww that's adorable." Miyagi cooed. "I mean, cool."
"Haha, Ryo-chin! Like you weren't playing with cats earlier!" Sakuragi munched on a sandwich, holding the platter in one hand.
"Eh? Where did you get food from? Don't finish it all!" Miyagi snatched a sandwich from the plate.
"Initially, we had about five cats: Snowball, Princess, Pickles, Xerxes and Smokey," Mrs Rukawa said to Mitsui. "The rest came slowly, and soon became family. Oh, usually Smokey is sleeping in Kaede's room, so I don't think you'll see it today."
"Look!" Yasuda pointed to the farthest wall. Nobody saw anything. "I swear I saw a cat…" He said sheepishly.
Rukawa picked up another empty food bowl and carried it to the middle of the yard. He filled it to the brim with the Frisky Bits, then returned to the patio.
"The surge." Mrs Rukawa said, a knowing smile on her lips. "This is Kaede's favourite part."
Two cats appeared out of nowhere. One was black, with heterochromatic eyes, and the other had fur so orange that it was almost red.
"Hey Hanamichi, that one looks just like you!" Miyagi laughed.
"Shut up, Ryo-chin!"
"Shut up, do'aho. You'll scare them away." Rukawa interjected, watching the two cats.
"Those cats are strays; they're not used to being around humans." Mrs Rukawa explained.
"Interesting eyes." Akagi said, referring to the cat with heterochromatic eyes - one blue, and the other green.
More cats descended upon the yard, meowing at the prospect of food.
"This is creepy, yet fascinating at the same time." Kogure said. Yasuda and Shiozaki nodded in agreement. There were at least ten cats swarming around the food bowl that Rukawa had set in the middle of the yard, not counting the one on the patio itself.
"Yeah, it's just cats eating. I'm going to look for more food for myself." Sakuragi said dismissively, and disappeared into the house.
"Oh no, he's gonna finish all the food!" Kuwata said. The three benchwarmers rushed off after Sakuragi, followed by Miyagi, who decided that food was important after all.
Slowly, the others shuffled back indoors, leaving Rukawa, his mother, Mitsui, Haruko and Ayako on the patio, still watching the cats.
"There's so many of them." Haruko said. Snowball, who'd been in her arms, had joined the pilgrimage of cats descending upon the Frisky Bits.
"We need to control the number of strays, but we can't just kill them." Mrs Rukawa said. "The animal shelters here in Kanagawa can't support all of these animals. They've got their hands full, so I'm doing my part."
Mitsui nodded in understanding. A couple of cats had broke off from the feeding group for a nap in the cat tree, while another was playing around with one of the balls lying around in the yard. Sunny was already squeezing itself into the car-shaped box.
"Animals taken in by the shelter are usually vaccinated. Some of the strays here, I've taken them to the vet for their shots. Only the friendly ones, though, since they seem to hang around a lot." Mrs Rukawa watched her son pet Breezy, one of the friendly strays.
"So, Mrs Rukawa, isn't it kind of dangerous to be around the unvaccinated strays?" Ayako asked.
The older lady nodded in response. "First, you don't know where they've been. They could be carrying any kind of disease, since they don't have their shots. And besides, like I said, some of them aren't used to human interaction, so we don't know how they might react; they could even attack."
"Why do you do this, Mrs Rukawa?" Haruko asked.
"As much as Kae loves basketball, I love cats." Mrs Rukawa answered the younger Akagi with a smile.
"Here it comes." Rukawa said quietly.
A fluffy white cat, distinctively larger than the others, lumbered towards the food bowl. Pushing its way through, it greedily ate up the remainder of the Frisky Bits as the other cats skittered away.
"Tubbs."
-owari!-