Cat Boy
Chapter 1, lost and found in Tokyo
Amber colored eyes looked up at the cloudy sky. He already knew it was going to rain even before he looked up at the sky. Sure enough, to prove that he was right, a single raindrop fell from the grey clouds and landed softly right on the tip of his nose. He quickly shook the drop from his nose and started seaching franticly for some shelter to the rain. He found an old wooden box just as the rain started falling a little more violently.
The boy had been exploring the huge city for only twenty minutes and he was already lost. He let out a silent sigh as he looked up at the raining sky. His first day of freedom from that place and he already found himself lost. Well, it was to be expected. The only thing he really knew about the Outside was the language. And a small amout of the culture.
He heard a pair of feet stop infront of him and he looked up to see who it was. He almost feared it would be one of the men in the white coats. He was secretly relived that it was acctualy a boy around his age that he had never seen before.
Hikaru Shindou was sitting in his last class for the day. His dark brown eyes looked out the window. The sky was a light shade of grey. Looks like it's going to rain, he tought and sighed. And it was so sunny this morning!
The final bell rang, sygnaling for the students to go home for the day. Hikaru went to open his locker and take out his shoes and umbrella when Kimihiro came running toward him.
"Don't forget, Hikaru, the Go Club will be meeting tomorow," he said, trying to catch his breath.
"I won't. You don't have to worry about it!"
Hikaru stepped in his shoes and was about to step out of the school when the rain started to fall.
"Damn...I hate it when I'm right," he said to himself, opening his umbrella and stepping out into the rain.
The middle school student went walking down the street, thinking about calling his mom from a pay phone and tell her that he was going to be late comming home and go to a Go salon. Sai had been bugging himfor days about wanting to play against more people than just Hikaru. And Hikaru was pretty much just giving in to the earthbound spirit.
He had just turnned down an alley way as a shortcut when he saw what looked like a cat, trying to sleep in an old wooden box as a way to wait out the rain. He stopped infront of the box to get a better look at the redish brown cat. A face looked up at him when he stopped. Hikaru was supprised to see that it was the face of a boy around his age, not a cat.
He looked up curiously at the boy that was now knealing infront of him. He was very intrested in the way the boy's hair looked. The bangs were blond, while the rest of his hair was black. That was very different than the way most of the people's hair looked. The boy's eyes were, however, a normal dark brown. So dark, they were nearly black.
He backed away further into the box when the boy reached out his hand to pet him. The boy's face held a look of confusion. He opened his mouth to speak.
"Daijoubu," he said. "Itai masen."
The boy's hand was still extended toward him. He just looked between the boy's hand and face, staying where he was.
"You can trust me. I'll help you get home if you want."
Hikaru was supprised to see the cat-eared boy backed even further into the box, his ears flat against his skull. This boy didn't seem to like his home.
"Oh, so you're running away," he said. The boy nodded. "I'll help you, okay? You can stay at my place, if you want."
The kitten's eye's seemed to light up a bit. He crept toward Hikaru a bit, still investigating to see if Hikaru was okay to trust. After a minute or two of investigating, he crwled out of the box and under Hikaru's umbrella. Hikaru's eye's widened when he saw that the boy not only had cat ears, but a tail as well.
The boys started walking in the direction of Hikaru's house. The catboy swerved his head to and fro, his eyes lit up in silent curiosity. This made Hikaru smile in amusment. It was only when the cat boy stretched out his neck to look at something that Hikaru saw something shining around his neck. Hikaru thought it might be a collar.
About half an hour passed since Hikaru had found the lost little cat boy. They had just arrived at the midle school student's house. Hikaru turnned to face the cat boy.
"I've got to make sure Mom doesn't see you, so I'll check to make sure it's okay for you to come in, okay?"
The boy nodded. Hikaru led the cat boy toward the fromt door and waved him inside. Hikaru took off his shoes and looked through the next door and checked to see if his mom was there. He saw no sign of her. Hikaru signaled for the boy to follow him. The middle school student didn't see any sign of the boy taking off his shoes.
"Uhm...you're supposed to take off your shoes," Hikaru said to him.
The boy looked at him confusedly. Hikaru blinked a few times.
"Don't you know? You're not supposed to wear shoes inside."
The boy just pointed at his feet. Hikaru looked at them. Sure enough, there were no shoes there. Nor were there any socks. Hikaru looked at where the shoes were put. There were only his mother's and his own. He looked back at the boy, eyes all bubbly.
"Aw...you don't have any shoes!" Hikaru said.
The boy shook it off by pointing at the door way. Hikaru blinked back to earth.
"Oh, right!"
With that, Hikaru started leading the cat boy toward his room. Right as they were about to go up the stairs, Hikaru's mother called from the kitchen, making the boys jump.
"Is that you, Hikaru?"
Hikaru started to push the cat boy up the stairs saying, "Yeah mom!" He turnned back to the boy and whispered, "My room is the first one on the right." The boy nodded.
Hikaru went to see what his mom wanted, while the cat boy went up the stair case as silently as possible. He turned into the room Hikaru said was his. He looked around the room in curiosity.
There was a bed in one corner, located close to the only window that faced down into the streat. Toward the foot of the bed, there was a dresser, which was probably full of clothes. He looked at the other side of the room. There was a desk set against the wall. Next to said desk was a small bookshelf. Only about half of the space was taken up by books, and they were pretty much all manga. But the thing that really caught his eye was a Go board and stones sitting in the middle of the room.
He sat down infront of the board and set open the bowls, unable to take his eyes off of their smooth surfaces. He had just set his first stone on the board when Hikaru came into the room, a look of relief on his face.
"Well, mom shouldn't bother us until dinner's ready." Hikaru noticed that the cat boy was sitting infront of the Go board and had already played a stone on the board. "Do you play Go?" he asked.
The boy nodded. It was pretty much the only thing he ever looked forward to in the days he was at that place.
Hikaru sat down at the other side of the board. He then placed a stone on the board. They continued to alternate turns, each putting their stoned on the board. When the game was over, they counted up points. The cat boy had won by about 25 1/2 points. With komi.
That was when Hikaru realized he didn't know the cat boy's name. "Hey, what's your name?" he saked.
The boy didn't say anything, just pointed at his collar with his tail. Hikaru leaned in to read the tag.
"Mitani Yuki
cat
25-A"
Hikaru looked at the number printed on the tag in confision. He quckly shook the thought from his mind.
"My name is Shindou Hikaru. Can you tell me what the number on your collar means?"
Yuki's eyes widened a bit and his ears layed flat on his head. He shook his head. It wasn't that he didn't know what the numer meant, it was that he didn't want to remember what it means.
Hikaru blinked. "Okay, so you don't know." There was a momentary silence. "Why haven't you said anything?" Yuki shook his head, mouthing "I can't."
It was at that point that Hikaru's mother called him down to dinner. Hikaru stood up and walked all the way to the door before stopping. He turnned to face Yuki.
"Yuki, you stay here. I'll be back later with some food for you."
Yuki nodded as Hikaru went down for dinner. The cat just sat where he was. About half an hour passed when Hikaru came back into his room, holding a plate with a grilled cheeze sandwich and a glass of milk. He set the plate and milk down in front of Yuki.
"Some food, as promised!" Hikaru said, smiling. "I just hope you like grilled cheeze. Since you're a cat, I fugured that you'd like milk..." Hikaru's voice drifted off.
He watched as Yuki slowely took an experimental bite of the sandwich. As soon as he swallowed the first bite, the rest of the sandwich was consumed in no time flat. Afterwards, he quickely gulped down the glass of milk. Hikaru put the empty glass and plate on his desk.
Since there was still pleanty of time before bed, they played another game of Go. This time, however, Hikaru allowed Sai to play for him. Hikaru/Sai won the game. Hikaru stood up after putting all of the stones back in their bowls. He walked over to the dresser. He took two pairs of shorts out of one drawer and two shirts out of another. He threw one pair of the pajamas to Yuki and started to change into the others.
"So, Yuki, why can't you talk?" Hikaru asked as he stepped into his shorts.
As an answer, Yuki held up two fingers. It was just going to be a game of charades for now.
"Two words?" Yuki nodded, then pointed at his throught. "Uhm...throat?" Yuki nodded, then mimed a cough. "Cough?" Yuki shook his head. "Sore throat?" Yuki shook his head.
He had become frustrated with Hikaru and walked over to Hikaru's desk. He wrote something on a piece of paper and handed it to Hikaru. 'It's a fucking throat infection!'
"Oh..." Hikaru said, sweatdropping.
After a while, he was about to step into the bed when he remembered about Yuki. He put the blankets beck on the bed. Hikaru turnned to face Yuki.
"Would you like to sleep on the bed?" he asked.
Not alone... Yuki thought. He shook his head to clear his mind of that thought. Hikaru, however, thought he was saying "no" to sleeping in the bed.
"So you want to sleep on the floor?" the middle school student inquired, brow furrowed in confusion.
Yuki blinked a few times in confusion. He shook his head, this time actually meaning to say "no." Hikaru blinked himself.
"You want to share the floor?"
Yuki's face now held a look that said, "What the hell are you talking about?!"
"I'll take that as a no then..." Hikaru was silent in thought for a moment. Then it dawned on him. " you want to share the bed?"
A slight pink tinge crept up Yuki's cheeks as he nodded "yes." Hikaru stood there in silence. Then he just simply shrugged.
"Well, what ever makes you comfy."
With that, they both climbed into the bed, facing each other. They looked at each other, face to face, in the dark of the night. Hikaru drifted into sleep pretty quickly. Yuki, however, stared into Hikaru's face for a while, wondering why he had been so nice to him. After a while, Yuki wondered if there was any one else in the world as nice a Hikaru.
Hikaru rolled over so that now his back was facing Yuki. The cat wrapped his arms around Hikaru's sleeping form and finaly drifted into an uneasy sleep.
-end chapter-
So, what do you think? I think that's the longest first chapter to anything that I've ever written...I wonder if that's a good thing or not. How about you, my readers, tell me in the form of a review! Thank you. Ja ne!