Cat Tales

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Nitori's Roommate Diary, July.

I had Matsuoka-senpai take a look at my English studies today. As expected from someone who lived in Australia for four years. He has perfect pronunciation. It's as if I'm talking to a foreigner. Not only is he good at swimming, but he speaks fluent English. Not only is his English good, but he's among the best ten in all of the school's subjects. That alone is amazing but just yesterday I came upon something even more amazing. When I left campus for food shopping after practice was over, I saw Matsuoka-senpai pick up a stray cat in the rain and bring it home. Since we can't keep pets in the dorms, the cat is living in an abandoned school building right now. Matsuoka-senpai is taking to it again some leftover mackerel from dinner to feed it. Normally he's rude and kind of acts like a delinquent, but he's studious and cool-looking and also a nice guy!

He's completely paafecto!

(From FREE! Drama CD 2)

"Haru," called Rin as he entered the abandoned school building, "I brought some mackerel for you."

Immediately Haru showed himself and ran straight towards Rin, throwing himself into Rin's arm and meowing affectionately. Rin laughed, "You must be hungry Haru-chan," he said to the cat he had rescued the other day from the pouring rain. It was a scene straight out of a shoujo manga and Rin had found himself looking around to see if any cute girls had seen him be all kind and loving. Not that he was remotely interested in annoying, time consuming things like dating when he was focused on the Olympics but he wouldn't mind having a fawning fangirl or two… damn his all male boarding school.

Unfortunately Rin was out of luck. He thought he saw Nitori peering at him from around the corner but he ignored that. Even if Nitori did see him, it was no big deal. It wasn't like he was going to sneak the cat into the dorm against regulations or anything. He was very familiar with his school campus due to this jogs and knew where to keep the cat without drawing attention to it or to himself as he took food out to it. As for the food, he was allowed to do what he liked with his dinner scraps!

As for why he named the cat Haru… Rin told himself because the cat's blue eyes had reminded him of his rival and so Haru had been the first name that had popped into his head. But in truth, part of it was also because he kind of missed his friends and it just felt nice to be able to talk to a Haru without all the history and baggage he would bring to the table with the human Haru.

"Pity there is no Makoto," Rin told cat Haru as it ate its dinner while Rin gently scratched behind his ears, "I bet you would love to have a Makoto to play with. Sorry, you'll just have to make do with me," he said with a grin, "But I am not bad, even if I have shark teeth!"

After spending about half an hour feeding Haru and changing his water bowl, although Rin was sure Haru would be able to find fresh water on his own, Rin headed back to his dorm. He had homework and he wanted to jog if he could. He needed to get stronger, strong enough so that he could triumph with his dedication over the natural talents of the Harus of this world.

Wrap in his thoughts, he completely ignored the flash of silver he saw from the corner of his eyes as he made his way back. It's not that he did not know Nitori worshipped the ground he walked on. He just didn't know how to deal with it. Afterall, he wasn't a deity, he wasn't Nanase Haruka or for that matter Tachibana Makoto. He was half certain the former was the an incarnation of Suijin and the latter an incarnation of Kannon. Damn, now he was depressed and wanted to go back to playing with his cat! Damn human Haru! He really pissed Rin off.

"Senpai is so wonderful," thought Nitori before dreamily continuing on his way to the convenience store to pick-up some manga, some drinks and a few other household necessities and if Nitori also picked-up some toys that Haru the cat would enjoy while he was there, Nitori was sure his studious, cool-looking, nice and all round perfect Senpai would not mind at all!

However, Nitori did not have time to take the toys he bought for Haru the cat that day. So the next day, Nitori headed straight to the abandoned building where Rin was keeping his cat after swimming practice. Nitori was sure he would be able to avoid Rin as Nitori didn't think he could keep it together if Rin found him while he was giving the cute kitty the toys.

When Nitori got there he found a three of his classmate, three delinquent classmates tormenting… "Hey!" screamed Nitori, "What are you doing to senpai's cat!"

"Hey," said one of the delinquents, "Well if it isn't the swimming shouta! What'cha doing here Nito-chan?" asked the delinquent mockingly.

"I am the one asking questions!" yelled Nitori, "What are you doing to that cat!" he demanded again.

"Calm down Aii-kun," said one of the others, the honorific used purely for mockery, "We are just having a little fun with this bag of bones."

"Don't touch that cat!" warned Nitori, "Or… or… I'll… I'll… fuck you up!" Nitori declared, mustering up all his courage just to say the curse word… and then promptly vowed to wash his mouth out with soap water and also never tell his mother he used such a rude word.

"Huh!" said the first delinquent, "three against one, hardly odds in your favour Nito-chan," the delinquent pointed out.

"Don't, don't underestimate a swimmers muscles!" and with that Nitori just decided to throw himself at the delinquents while his adrenalin was still pumping.

The three delinquents were totally taken by surprised, not the least because Nitori hit surprisingly hard for his size. But then again, he was all muscles and so it was that Rin walked into the scene to find Nitori wailing on three delinquents who were mostly bark then actual bite and asked calmly, "Nitori, what the hell are you doing?"

Nitori abruptly stopped and turned around to find Rin casually standing there with… cat Haru resting peacefully against his chest, "Huh?" wondered Nitori before he turned to look at the other cat, the cat the boys had been tormenting. That poor quivering mess of a kitten had emerald green eyes as opposed vibrant blue ones, "Ah… ah… they were hurting Mako-chan!" suddenly Nitori declared, remembering Rin's old teammate Tachibana Makoto had green eyes.

"Mako-chan?" wondered Rin, "You named that cat Mako-chan?"

"No! I mean, I mean… senpai please take care of this cat as well! Because I am… I am… not worthy!" and with that Nitori turned and ran away.

Rin shook his head and approached the beaten-up delinquents and the tormented cat. Absently wondering why the cat hadn't run away. That was when he noticed that the cat's legs had been tied together to prevent it from running away. Rin's face took on a grim visage, "Oi," he said to gain the delinquents attention, who cowered before Rin, remembering Nitori's warning about swimmers muscles because Rin clearly had several times more muscles then Nitori, "Don't dare come near here again and if I find out that any of you did something to one of my cats or hurt any other cats, dogs or some other animal, even if its a rat, I am going to make you dig a large hope and drop you three in there with Nitori and watch while Nitori makes a ladder out of bones and sinew to climb out!"

All three delinquents looked like they were about to have a heart attack but they nodded vigorously before getting to their feet and running as fast as they could, "Evil bastards," thought Rin as he carefully untied Mako-chan's feet, while he was doing that, Haru was slowly purring at and rubbing Mako-chan to calm the other cat down, "Should have figured you two would just start acting like that old married couple. Why the hell did I name you Haru again?"

Rin sighed as he carefully picked-up both the cats. He would have to take Mako to a vet. Just to make sure he was alright. He hoped the vet visit wouldn't be too expensive. Being a swimmer wasn't cheap and it wasn't like he came from a rich family, thus had a large allowance.

Rin sighed again and started heading towards town, "Stupid Nitori," he whispered as he thought of the additional trouble Nitori had visited upon him but he could not help but find a small smile curling his lips. Nitori was worth at least two fangirls, so that was something.

Author's note: I was trying to write an angsty fic but the drama CDs are just so lighthearted and fun that this is what ended-up coming out. FYI Suijin is the god of water, and while it hasn't come across in the anime yet, in the Free! concept prequel novel High Speed! Haruka's swimming is described in terms almost supernatural in addition to "he's pretty like a dolphin". Like seriously, actual quote from the novel "Haruka was swimming while emitting light. The powerful energy becoming light, it was dazzlingly emitted from Haruka.". So yeah, I am pretty sure the thought "Haru's a god incarnated" has crossed Rin's mind a couple of times. Kannon is the Japanese name of the Buddhist goddess of mercy, although I was using it more as a "goddess of kindess" since Makoto is impossibly kind, selfless etc.