Learning Lessons
A Hiyoshi Wakashi One Shot
Look Here: http:/tinypic[dot]com/r/2hzhama/7
Years had gone by and soon Hiyoshi Wakashi was once again deemed a Second Year- only this time he was a high schooler. Many of the people he had seen previously in his life continued to play tennis into high school- some of the only ones he knew of that had left for "bigger things" were Tezuka from Seigaku- who had gone off to play tennis professionally- and some Kawamura guy with something about a Sushi Shop. Now, Hiyoshi had fulfilled becoming the Captain of Hyoutei Middle School's Tennis Team, but upon arriving to high school it was like starting over. In his second year it seemed like someone had just picked up everyone from middle school and plopped them into older bodies.
He was at the age of sixteen now, but everything about him was still the same. He was still tall, his hair was still the same length, and his mindset was exactly the same from his years in middle school. Truthfully he found it tiring to be in the same situations that he had already been in. Hyotei's High School Division had a bigger campus and some flashier things, but it was not really anything he had never seen.
Now, the still young Enbu Master still had the personality that he was known for- cocky and a bit rude at times. So, when he was walking down the street he did not think twice about glaring at the person that smacked into his shoulder. When he did set his eyes on the back of this person he noticed it was a girl with long brown hair. She wore a light colored dress- most likely some shade of off-white(which made him think of his childhood friend Choutarou)- with a pink slip under it and some sort of knee length tennis shoes that were an awful dark purple. She looked fragile, delicate, and so he decided he was not going to scar the girl. Of course, when he saw her face he noticed that she had much more boyish features than he would have expected. He continued to scowl at her as she bowed, apologizing profusely.
"Gomenasai, I was not watching where I was going."
He sneered away from her, seeing her boring brown eyes, before turning, not even giving her another moment of his time.
Ichihara, Meguri was a bright young girl of sixteen. She had just recovered from bumping into a boy around her age and was now looking at herself in the mirror, tugging on her brown hair a bit. It was about shoulder blade length, plain and boring- much like her eyes. She leaned forward and pulled her cheek down a bit to get a good look at her iris. Nothing new.
"What are you doing?"
She jumped back from the sink and mirror to see the cashier from her mother's shop. He was a nice twenty-five year old man with short, rough black hair and dark brown eyes. He always seemed to have a bit of stubble on his chin and the same black tee that showed the tip of his one tattoo. He could be like a big brother to Meguri at times, but that was not usual.
"Nothing, Kai."
"Alright, Meguri."
The girl felt her face flush as he left her alone. She had never liked her name, it was different and caused her to be bullied at times, but she just never took a major liking to it. She usually introduced herself as Maro- meaning myself. Being herself was something she liked, but it made her confused when people would give her odd looks- just like the sneer that the boy with dark gray eyes she just saw gave her. She picked up the end of her light colored dress- the sleeves were long, the shoulders bumped a bit on the fabric, and the front of her dress was like a medieval dress with the pink showing through and the lacings of a darker shade of pink. She was wearing some comfortable shoes today since the ones she usually wore were difficult to walk in. She noticed now that they did not match one bit to her outfit- the dark purple converse were just not the same style.
Sighing, she walked out of the bathroom and up the stairs to go to her room since her day was done with.
"Is that my young Mago(grandchild)?"
Meguri stopped and immeaditely broke into a smile, turning to embrace her grandmother in a giant hug. The older woman laughed and returned the gesture, happy to see her grandchild. It had been at least eight months since her last visit from Southern Japan and she had many things to talk to Meguri about.
"Sofu(grandmother)! I missed you so much!"
The two separated and the older woman took out a box from her shoulderbag,"And I missed you. Now, finish up helping your mother and we can talk."
Meguri did not even bother to pout at the idea of going back to help her mother in the bakery seeing as she had just had a happy reunion with her beloved relative.
"So, what did you want to talk about this time, Sofu?" Meguri asked as she sat down, now dressed in a sleeping outfit and setting a cup of hot tea for the two in their living room.
"Ahh, yes. I've found out that something interesting has been happening in the world lately."
"Really?" The young girl's eyes were wide with excitement to learn what was unbalancing the world at the moment.
The older woman sipped some of the Jasmine tea, not ready to speak again. She had had an interesting encounter before she had walked into her daughter's home that she was sure would have something to do with her granddaughter.
"Excuse me, young man."
Ichihara, Hinata was walking down the sidewalk, perfectly remembering each turn to her daughter's home in the city when she noticed the young boy. She smiled to herself, knowing exactly who he was even though he had no idea of who she was. He stopped and put his gray eyes onto her, looking not as rude as she had been expecting.
"Hai, Obaa-san?"
"Oho, I was just wondering where the Ichihara Bakery was- I can't seem to remember."
The boy looked to be in thought for a moment before pointing down the sidewalk,"If you keep walking that way you should come up to it on your left."
She nodded to him, a bit of her gray hair falling out of her once tight bun. She hoped that this boy was ready for what he everything he was about to learn,"Arigatou."
"You should go check your window, Mago."
Meguri quickly stood up and hurried to her room, knowing that when her grandmother mentioned something that it was usually something true and important. She opened her window slowly, the wind moving her brown hair in it's low ponytail. Her shoulders up fit out the window and she looked around, spotting something caramel colored. She reached down, feeling fur and quickly pulling up the body of the animal. After closing her window she quickly ran back into the living room to her grandmother.
The two stared down at the cat, the younger girl's stare being a bit more out of worry,"Is the cat dead?"
The grandmother laughed aloud, amused by her relative's words,"Oh no, he's perfectly fine."
Meguri let out the air she was holding and picked up the cat that was beginning to twitch in it's sleep. She looked down at it as she smoothed down it's wild fur and held it close,"What should I name it?"
"Wakashi."
Her brown eyes looked up to her grandmother in confusion,"Why Wakashi?"
"Because Wakashi is his name, I think he would appreciate being called by it."
The young girl nodded her head of brown hair, the memories of her grandmother's knowledge and stories flooding into her brain. Now the name seemed perfect for the cat in her arms since it was his name. She resituated the body in her arms and continued to pet him,"Wakashi..."
Hiyoshi's dark gray eyes opened to a different world than the one he had been watching a moment ago. He could only remember suddenly blacking out and feeling like he was flying- nothing more. He stretched his arms, only to find that he no longer had arms. His eyes travelled down to see the paws that he was moving. He wanted to freak out, but he figured it was a dream of some sort. He tried to wiggle out from under the weight of something on his leg and finally popped out, shaking to set himself straight again. A gust of wind made him jump off of the bed to find out what the point of this dream was, but now he was on a wooden floor.
He moved around slowly, seeing all of the dimmed colors in the room, some blues, some grays, some purples, but he could not register something that he could once recognize. He walked towards it, his eyes widening to capture in all of the light it could to see. He noticed that was he was looking at was an apple, but the color of it was escaping him. Hiyoshi brushed it off and ran towards the open door to get out of the room.
"Haha(Mother), I told you that she can't have pets!"
"Oh, Kodomo(Daughter)- listen to me for once, that cat needs a home right now."
"Ugh! I cannot believe you! You're always filling her head with these stories of stupid crap from your family."
"Our family, Chieko, our family. Well, don't worry about me." The old voice was getting closer to the door Hiyoshi stood near. "I'll be leaving tonight, I only came into town to make sure Mago would be alright."
Footsteps began to near Hiyoshi and he felt frantic even though he had no idea why. The voice was familiar, but were not all old people voices? His suspicions of familiarity were proven when the woman- who was now pickng him up- turned out to be the woman he had run into earlier that day. He tried his best to growl at her and yell, but it came out strangled. She laughed at him.
"I was wondering when you would try to make your escape." She tapped his nose, halting the growling. "You need to learn your lesson young man- whatever that may be. You are not dreaming and you will need to stay with my Mago to find out what ever you may have done wrong. Don't try escaping again because I know it would kill my Mago because of how worried about you she was."
He could not fathom what the woman was telling him as he was set down on the desk in the room he had just run out of. His ear twitched as he looked over to see the door closing,"Hopefully this will not take long."
Hiyoshi had no idea what this crazy woman was talking about, but as he looked down at his claws he began to think about how maybe she was telling him the truth. Though, he may have been leaning towards believing her since he had to sudden urge to scratch on something.
"Mm?"
Meguri opened her eyes, confused as to why she was not under the covers. She looked around, her hair in it's ponytail most likely bunched together. She fixed her blue pajama pants and shirt, swinging her legs off of the bed, reaching down to get her slippers on so that she could fold her blankets. She followed through with her actions and looked out her window when she was done.
Mow
Flinching, she shot her eyes back to her bed to see a caramel cat sitting there with poofy hair going everywhere. She smiled a bit, leaning down and looking at the cat in the eyes,"Aw, you're awake Wakashi. I was worried."
She reached out to pet the cat, but it yanked itself back and growled. Meguri nodded, laughing a bit,"I get it- even cats need some space. I'll go get you some food."
The door to the bedroom closed slowly as Meguri wandered down the hall slowly. She could smell the early morning bread being pulled out by Kai and hoped that her mother was nowhere close. She was about to turn into the kitchen when she stumbled, crashing down with a small table to the floor. She layed there, hoping no one had heard the mishap even though they would have had to have been deaf to not hear it. A sneaker came into her vision.
"Nice one, Meguri- you've knocked that table down about forty times now." Kai stated, picking the table up and fixing up whatever had been placed on top of it. It was true seeing as the girl was only clumsy when she woke up in the morning- leading to the damage the poor table had been shown.
"Hah, Hah, Hah."
"I'll get you some bread."
She smild to him and quickly returned on her way. Kai left down the stairs towards the bakery while Meguri shot down the rest of the hall, through the living room, and slid into the kitchen to find something that cats eat. She settled for some mashed shellfish- something her uncle would munch on when he came. Though, she came up to a dilemma into wondering what flavor the cat would like- maybe a bit more spice?
"Meguri, where are you?"
"In the kitchen, Kai! What do you think cats like more?"
The black haired man stared at the cans, not believing what the animal would be fed. He made a note to buy the girl some cat food. He handed her the bread and pointed to the blue one,"More of a sea flavor since you don't know what it likes."
Brown hair bobbed up and down quickly as the girl accepted the bread, grabbed a small packet of butter and shot down the hall with the can. She opened her door and closed it quickly. Setting down her bread and butter, she made note to where Wakashi was in the room. Than she slowly opened the can and set it down before sitting in her desk chair to eat some of her own breakfast.
Hiyoshi had no idea what to think when the girl opened up the can. He would rather not be here slowly jumped from the window sill, stalking over to the can- catching a whiff of shellfish. A moment later he was next to the can, licking it for a test and than performing the action of not having eaten for a few days. He did not back off when he felt a few fingers rubbing on his furry neck much like he figured he would have.
"Aww, you were just hungry." The sixteen year old said as she pet the cat under his ear. The cat began to purr for a moment before returning to eat so she retracted her hand onto her knees in her kneeling position.
"Well, let me introduce myself. I'm Ichihara, Meguri- you can call me Meguri since you're gonna be family now. Usually I go by Maro since my names pretty wierd."
"Meguri!"
The brown haired girl sighed and stood up,"That's mom. I'll see you in a bit Wakashi."
Hiyoshi looked up from his food with his gray eyes to watch her pick up a few pieces of clothing before leaving the room. He looked back down when she was gone and quickly finished up his food before beginning to think about ways to entertain himself.
It had been three days. Three. Long. Long. Long. Days. Hiyoshi layed on the window sill, basking in the sun and watching all of the commotion going on below him. He had not really given any thought to anyone for the past few days- completely forgetting the words of the old woman that he had heard days before. Instead he kept his distance from the girl he was forced to stay with and only approached her when she offered him food or a toy of some sort. He had been caught by her mother the day before and had worn a large ribbon for a few hours. Sad to admit, but his savior was Meguri- who came running in, swiped him up, took off the ribbon, and scolded her mother about abusing a poor male cat.
Needless to say, being a cat was not so bad. He lazed around, ate food, jumped on things, and that was it. He moved his gray eyes around the outside, spotting Meguri running around the tables, checking if everyone was alright. He had learned a good amount about her these past few days. She never wore matching colors, her hair was always a mess, she was clumsy when she woke up, she whimpered in her sleep, and she frequently shouted across the house when she felt it was needed. Hiyoshi jumped from the sill to her bed and flipped onto his back, hitting his paws at the string hanging from the wall. There was really nothing to do as a cat but sleep.
Hm, what's that?
He jumped onto his feet at spotting some bright dot on the wall. It was intriguing, like he had never seen anything like it before. He watched it move over an inch and leaned forward, his butt sticking into the air. Than he pounced, missing the dot by centimeters. He jumped after it, from the table to the shelves to the desk. Soon enough he was running across the floor, under his legs and to his tail before the dot stopped. He noticed it pause and smirked to himself, jumping on it. He quickly looked around, not seeing it around him- so, it must have been captured. His caramel paws lifted up to only reveal the wood flooring. He was very perplexed.
"Gotcha!"
Meowp!
He heard a loud laugh as he was held in the two arms of his captor. The villain sat back onto her bed and began to pet behind his ear affectionately,"I've got the rest of the day off Wakashi... What do you wanna do?"
The boy, well cat, did not respond since he was really unable to. He instead closed his eyes and pushed against her hand in a struggle to make her leave him alone. Though, the response was more petting... Well, he could not argue.
"How about we make some Kuzumochi(noncolored and chewy dessert)? Yea, let's do that."
Hiyoshi felt his body being lifted up as the two left the bedroom. He stayed where he was in the girl's arms as they walked down the hall. He noticed a beat up table and figured that it was the one she was always knocking over. His gray eyes wandered around the rooms before he saw the kitchen. It was quaint, not too bad. His paws met the cool floor as a paper door slammed shut behind him. He shot around to see that he would be trapped in this room with Meguri instead of being able to leave.
She tapped the counter,"Tick, tick. C'mere Wakashi."
The boy followed her fingers onto the counter, meowing as if he was going to get something. He ended up getting a slice of fish and began to eat it as the girl walked around the kitchen to get everything she would need.
Meguri sniffed the air, already smelling the kuzuko(kuzu starch) in the room. She got out the kuzuko, sugar, and water to start the simple- but delightful- dish. She was already wanting to sink her teeth into one of them.
"Okay..."
Wakashi sat on the window sill, watching the girl work. He had already wandered around the kitchen- through the things on the counter and over the fridge- and nothing was very interesting. He watched finish up the syrup and begin to set the dirty dishes inside of the sink. He decided to return to his cat nap before going back to the room. Of course, his nap was interrupted by some loud clattering and he stretched his body, deciding it would be best to stay awake. Though, he felt himself become unbalanced and reached out his nails to hold onto the sill. It was a lost cause as he crashed into the sink full of bubbled and water. He shot out like a rocket and onto the counter, shaking wildly at the odd sensation now running throughout his body.
"Ahahaha..."
He looked up to the girl, seeing her hands covered in bubbles. She pet his head lightly and left a bubble afro, returning back to the rest of the pots. Hiyoshi felt embarrased to have done such and thing and turned to face the wall, now looking down at one of the bowls of food. The kuzumochi was lightly covered with kinako(soy bean flour) and some chocolate syrup mix thing. He was very tempted to sniff the food, test it, stick his paw in it, anything.
"Nope, not for you Wakashi."
Once again Meguri picked him up and carried him back to her room, a bowl of the delicious dessert in her other hand.
"Ne, want to know something Wakashi?"
The cat looked up from licking his paw, counting this as the fifth day. Even if he was uninterested, which he actually was, he could not voice his opinion to the brown-eyed girl. She pulled out a long dress that was actually very nice. It was a flowery dress, pink in color with different floral prints on it. He was surprised she even owned an article of clothing like it. She smiled widely as if seeing the expression in his face.
"There's more of them."
So, the afternoon was spent with some sort of soft music playing from the small radio in the room as she showcased each of the dresses. They were all different in some way, but all connected in some form or fashion. Hiyoshi for once in the five days he had been in this place did not feel tired or as if his eyes were going to fall out of his head from boredom. If anything he was enjoying this. Which was sort of frightening for him since this was something that he would have never given a second thought to before.
"This is my favorite." Meguri stated as she walked out of her closet in a light purple dress, her hair up in a messy bun instead of some sort of ponytail. She smiled down at the dress as she spun in her room. She soon looked like she was dancing with somebody, as if she was longing to be standing with someone on the dance floor at some nice event. She stopped slowly, curtsied, and collapsed onto the bed, giggling to herself. Hiyoshi's gray eyes met her brown ones as she looked to him.
She quickly flipped onto her stomach and poked at his right paw,"I like to dance around in these dresses- it makes me feel important, like one day I'll meet someone..."
She trailed off and Hiyoshi yanked his paw away- returning to cleaning his face since he felt that it was still dirty. Why should he care about what this girl likes or dreams about? All he really wanted was to be out of this nightmare.
Hiyoshi recognized the hallway of the home. He had recently escaped from the Meguri's room, wanting to find somewhere to go. He hurried down the hall, looking every which way for some sort of exit.
"Eh? What do we got here?"
The caramel cat halted, looking straight up at the man in front of him. He had rough black hair and some facial hair. He must have been the Kai that he had heard Meguri shouting at sometimes. Before the cat could gather his paws and make a break for it he was picked up, now being tossed into the air. It was positively frightening.
"Kai!"
The boy went flying down from a neon ball smacking into his forehead. Hiyoshi was immeaditely caught by two soft hands and pulled to the chest of his savior. He clutched onto them for dear life since the previous experience of his had been very frightening.
"Where the hell did you get this, Meguri? !"
The girl shushed him loudly,"People can hear you shouting my name."
"You're such a dork. Fine, Maro. Where the hell did you get this tennis ball?"
Hiyoshi glanced from under the warm neck of the girl to see what had smacked into Kai's, now red, forehead. He wanted to snicker, but it only came out as a pathetic sneeze.
"Some kid left it on the ground outside. I brought it in and was going to ask you what I should do with it when I saw you tossing Wakashi around."
"He was enjoying it!"
The cat made a strangled meowing sound and Meguri held him up in front of her,"Aww, are you alright?"
Hiyoshi had no idea what to say- well, think. There was no words for what he was experiencing... This girl was so quick to defend him and make sure he was alright. He had never had his own pet, but when she held him back into her own chest he could not help but purr loudly.
"Wakashi, I'm going to take a shower." Meguri stated to the caramel cat that was stuck in his frozen position on the bed. He had just watched some sort of horrid film with the girl- it was actually quite frightening. Of course, his thoughts had to process before the reaction came.
That movie was scary and you want to take a shower? ! Are you crazy? !
He jumped down from his spot and bolted out the gap in the door as she was leaving the room. He quickly slid into the bathroom and jumped onto the counter, demanding full attention. The girl giggled, petting his head and kissing it a bit,"Are you going to protect me?"
He felt his fur twitch and his tail fly every which way from the contact. He looked from the girl, now staring at the doorknob on the door. He heard the water begin to flow out of the showerhead and the unzipping of Meguri's jeans. He could not handle the noise and quickly bent down, covering his face with his paws. Her giggled reached his ears before the sound of some sort of broadway song flooded the room. He looked next to him on the counter at the CD case to see that it was some English words.
Beauty and the... Beast? Huh?
As the girl's voice spilled from the speakers Hiyoshi's ears twitched as he noticed another voice accompanning it. It was soft at first, slowly rising in volume as confidence seemed to gain within it. He sat on the counter, staring at the dark shower curtains, but seeing the arms of Meguri up in the air for some sort of reason. He had never seen a girl taking a shower before and it was odd. He did not listen to music when he took his showers and he certainly would not sing to the songs if he did listen to them. He was never fond of anything music related.
You came back
If only I'd come here sooner
Maybe it's better this way
No! Don't talk like that. We're together now.
Everything will be fine
At least I get to see you one last time.
Hiyoshi closed his eyes as he listened to the fourth song from the CD, he was going to guess that it was on some sort of shuffle because of the differences in mood. The water from the shower suddenly stopped and he quickly sat up, looking alert. The girl stuck her head out to smile at him and waved,"Hello, Wakashi."
He turned around and stared at the door knob again, now realizing that he could have escaped during her shower. Though, even when the idea sounded good to him he had no idea where he would go, and even more importantly he could not just leave Meguri in the shower alone when some crazy psycho could walk in and kill her with some sort of old weapon from that crazy movie.
"Ooap!"
Hiyoshi felt water dripping from Meguri's dark hair onto his coat as he looked into the mirror with her. She held him close on her chest even though all that covered her was a towel,"You sure are a gentlemen, turning away from me when I was getting out of the shower."
He recieved another kiss on the head as the two returned to the room.
Mow.
"Hm? What is it, Wakashi?" Meguri asked as she wrung her hair out in the towel. She gave the cat her full attention while he looked at her, his head turned to the side.
Mow.
"Um," she sat down on the bed next to him,"are you wondering what I was listening to in the shower?"
Meow.
"Ah. It was the Beauty and the Beast the musical soundtrack. I like to listen to broadway soundtracks when I take showers since they all tell a story. But, the story of that one is one of my favorites. It's about this prince who owns this whole castle- well, this old woman comes to the door of the castle looking for shelter, but he turned her away. She asked another time, but he continued to turn her away. Well, it turned out that she was a beautiful enchantress and she cast a spell on him- making him a beast and he would only turn back into a human once someone learned to love him for his true self. Well, the castle is enchanted to so everyone is inanimate objects now. There's this rose that will die on his... 21st birthday? Well, anyways he needs to find someone to love him. Eventually Belle ends up at the castle to save her father and at the end of the musical she tells the beast she loves him. It's quite sweet really."
Hiyoshi stared up at the girl who had small tears in her eyes as if it was the most beautiful thing she was stating to him. He rubbed onto her arm and got a nice scratch behind the ear as his response.
One week and five days. It had been quite a while for the cat. He and Meguri had bonded over some time with watching her collection of broadway musicals one by one. She always seemed to end up crying by the end of each one, no matter what was going on. The girl was actually quite fragile now that he was thinking about it. Of course, she was still constantly shouting- the latest one had been yesterday about hating cranberries and not wanting to make anything that has to do with them for Kai.
Ah, yes, Kai... Hiyoshi was not fond of the twenty-something. Ever since their first encounter he was trying to remain on his paws about crossing paths with him again. He licked the paw on his fur as Meguri flipped through her clothing- looking for something of hers. Suddenly he stopped though as his ears picked up the voice of someone very familiar.
"Excuse me, sir."
Kai looked up from clearing off the outside table to see two high school boys. They looked to be about Meguri's age or older. The boy wore Hyotei uniforms so they must have been from the school. One was a bit taller than him with short silver hair and kind brown eyes, while the other was about his height with dark brown eyes, a blue cap on backwards, and shaggy brown hair. He looked to them seeing as he had finished.
"Whatcha need?"
"Have you seen a boy named Hiyoshi, Wakashi around anywhere? He's been missing for almost two weeks."
"No, not off the top of my head. Maybe-"
Kai stopped speaking for a moment when he heared a large crash from inside and smirking to himself. Meguri could take care of this for him.
"Wakashi, stop running!"
"Ah, Maro- take care of this for me."
The girl was dressed in a pair of baggy blue shorts with a purple tee shirt, her hair was cascading down her back, and her brown eyes were on the caramel colored cat in her hands,"Take care of what?"
"Hey, over here. Have you seen a kid about my height with hair like your cat and gray eyes? He's missing."
Meguri looked up, finally situating her cat in her arms,"Um, maybe a week or two ago... I'm not sure- I only saw him for a second."
The silver haired one nodded in thanks and decided to strike up more conversation,"Why did you name your cat Wakashi?"
She looked down at the cat and smiled a bit,"I didn't name him- my Sofu told me that Wakashi was his name."
"What do you mean?"
She moved her bangs out of her face and continued,"My grandmother tells me stories, a lot less now though, about unbalancing in the universe. She would tell me of tales of people being turned into animals for certain reasons and needing to fix their ways before being allowed to return to their previous state of life. She fully believes in the stories, but I'm a bit of a skeptic since my mother doesn't like me listening to her."
"Oh, how interesting. I'm Ohtori, Choutarou. This is my friend Shishido, Ryou."
The cat growled a bit at the silver haired Choutarou, feeling threatened by him trying to become friendly. Meguri stuck her finger under his ear and he immeaditely calmed,"I'm Ichihara, Maro. This is Wakashi of course."
He nodded and laughed a little with the girl,"Where do you go to school?"
"Oh, I'm homeschooled by my mother. I did go to one of the public elementary school divisions though."
"We go to Hyoutei."
Meguri took a moment to blink her brown eyes,"Eh? Really? Hm, I should have guessed by the uniforms, haha."
Hiyoshi suddenly shot over Meguri's shoulder and skid into the bakery,"N-Ne, Wakashi! Ugh, gomen, I need to make sure he doesn't wander into an oven. It was nice to meet you Ohtori-san, Shishido-san."
"Same to you, Ichihara-san." "Yea."
Hiyoshi stared down at the brown haired girl as she layed on her bed, restlessly sleeping. Her teeth were currently chattering and she looked like she was going to start crying from the whimpering she was doing. He had been watching her sleep for the past thirteen days, but at this moment he was feeling more remorse for her than all of those other times. He really did not know what to do in this situation. Even if he was a human he would have no idea what to do.
"Mmm... So, cold..."
He stepped closer and set a paw on her forehead. For a moment the shaking stopped and her face relaxed, but only a moment later it was clenched back up in the familiar fashion. The cat sighed and stepped closer, kneeding a small area next to the girl's abdomen and laying in it, snuggling closer to her body in the blanket in the hopes that she would stop shaking.
"Wakashi, do you think my hair would look good wavy?"
Hiyoshi meowed at the girl as she tried to put the other half of her hair into a braid. She had recently left the shower and the two were talking, like they had become accustomed to do every night, about Meguri's appearance. She smiled to him and kissed his forehead.
"Well, I hope I look that good."
The sixteen year old girl leaned over and turned off the lamp in her room to leave only the tv light on- which was playing one of the broadways musicals, Wicked this time. She pulled back the covers and turned on her side, feeling the caramel fur of Hiyoshi rub onto her front. She smiled again and snuggled into him as well, setting her arm over him lightly. She slowly began to talk in a hushed volume.
"You know, I'm really glad I met you, Wakashi. You're a lot more understanding than the people I usually meet. You don't seem to judge me for anything I'm not."
The cat moved it's head a bit to look at the girl from it's spot. She smiled to him and spoke again,"You're a very handsome cat. One day I wanna meet someone just like you. Except, it'll be different because they'll be able to hold my hand and talk to me with words other than 'meow'... But I like that for right now."
Hiyoshi looked away from the girl, returning his gaze to the green woman on TV. He tried not to think too much about what she said, but it was bothering him. He did not know her as a boy, but as a cat. She would never know him differently and he was worried about who she would find to talk with or take that dance with that she wanted to.
Meguri felt a small bit of fur touch the palm of hand and she opened her left eye to see that it was the paw of Wakashi. She smiled and kissed the back of his neck, folding her fingers over his soft paw,"Night, love you..."
That was one of the first times that the Ichihara girl fell asleep without feeling cold or worried, she felt safe and warm. She would continue to sleep through the night like this up till the morning where she would wake up comfortable, but a bit confused, and a lot alone.
There was something wrapped around Hiyoshi's body that was killing him, even to the point of suffocating him. He flailed in an effort to get whatever it was off of him. He succeeded to removing the blanket from his body, but he was sent to the floor in a heap.
"Hm? What was that?"
Light flooded the room and a gasp sounded from a woman's pitch,"W-Wakashi?"
"Meg..uri?"
Two arms wrapped around his body as he realized who it was. He looked down to see his own hand again and to see the interior of his home behind that. He was back in his own body- what was going on?
"No, it's me- your mother."
It had been three days since Hiyoshi, Wakashi had returned to the world. It was out of the blue- he showed up in his own house and his parents were thrilled, as were his grandparents and brother. They asked questions, but he told them he had no recollection of the two weeks he had been missing. No one pressed it any further after a medical checkup that stated he was perfectly fine. So, why did he not feel fine?
He had changed the route he took home to a shorter, less scenic one since it was the closest to being driven home his parents could get to. He felt down, a bit out of it even. Nothing was exactly the same for him- he had smiled during music class even and was able to answer a few questions on some of the most ridiculous things. People were taking notice that he was different, as was he. There was no way to explain it... That's what everyone else said anyways.
Hiyoshi could explain it clearly. He had been changed by the two weeks he spent as a cat in the home of Ichihara, Meguri. He did not want to admit it, but he knew why he was so out of it. He was not seeing her messy brown hair, her shining brown eyes. He was missing the quirks of her nonmatching fashion and the shouting she was a master at. His gray eyes travelled down to his hand that he quickly clenched... He was missing her hand on his own.
He picked up his things from his last class, knowing there was no tennis practice today. It gave him an oppurtunity. So, he took off down the hall, jumped down the stairs, and ran out of Hyotei High School to get back what was missing.
You came back
If only I'd come here sooner
Maybe it's better this way
"Meguri!" He shouted, not knowing any other way to get the girl's attention. He knew that she never told people her real name so when she stopped and turned to him with her wide, plain brown eyes he knew that he had her attention.
"Wha...?"
He took a step forward, his long shadow moving behind him because of the fading sunlight,"My name is Hiyoshi, Wakashi. I've been staying with you for the past two weeks."
The cloth she was holding dropped as she stared up to him with her eyes becoming even wider. How could she fathom any of this? Her eyes slowly turned into ones of distrust, slight anger, and overall confusion. She pulled back defensively and shouted,"Are you saying that you were a cat or something? !"
He stepped forward, a hand on his chest,"You're grandmother used to tell you stories about humans turning into animals, I know you hate your name even though it's really nice, I know that you like to dance around your room in flowery dresses, I know that you like to sing along with broadway songs, I know that you like to sleep with something warm, I know that you hate cranberries," with each of his statements from this one on he took a small step towards her,"I know you love to hold someone's hand(or paw), and I know that you want to meet someone who will love you for who you are through and through instead of just what they see on the outside."
No! Don't talk like that. We're together now.
Everything will be fine.
Her eyes leaked as Hiyoshi stopped in front of her, wanting to move the strand of brown hair that was blocking her face. He never wanted anyone to believe him so badly. He would have never given anyone a second look if they began to spew this crap at him, but it was all true. He hoped that the beautiful girl in front of him would hear him out, would look into his eyes and know.
Meguri felt her hands shake a bit as she sniffed, trying to hold back her tears even though she knew it was too late. Her brown eyes met the boy's dark gray's and suddenly her brain was overwhelmed by everything that had gone on these two weeks. She felt her upper body begin to move forward, slowly followed by the rest of her body.
"Wakashi."
She embraced the one she knew saw her for everything that was not just the outside. She smiled into his shoulder, feeling the happiness that she had been craving for so long.
At least I get to see you one last time.
Okay, this was NOT planned to happen, but I had the idea already and it formed into something much more serious when my cat put his paw into my hand. I thought it was so cute and I pushed myself to the limits of my brain to finish this. Some parts are not as developed as I would have liked, but I got my message across.
IMPORTANT: Originally I was not going to use any Beauty and the Beast, but I did when I decided that Wicked is too well known as a broadway musical. It turns out that it sort of corresponded with everything in a giant mesh.
This really makes me unable to wait for the new movie Beastly that's coming out soon :D. Suuuuure, the trailer explains the entire movie- but what can you expect from a Beauty and the Beast story? Even though I dislike Vanessa Hudgens as an actress, I do feel that the movie will be awesome.
Welp, please tell me what you all thought!
~ [Achy Achy] Tai.