At first it was going to be a story only about Nassor, Toshiaki and their pets, but then I thought that it would be awesome to make a series of oneshots about Victor and his classmates and their relations with their pets (minus Edgar and Bob, because, well, they had none). For now I give you two first shots about Toshiaki, Shelley, Nassor and Colossus.
Patient and persistant
His parents didn't want to buy him a dog and he didn't want to have a goldfish or sea monkeys. When his mom said that cats are cute, he said that they're not (he also didn't want to have anything in common with Weird Girl). He was begging his parents to buy him a rat (he always wanted to have a lab rat), they refused, instead proposing a hamster. But he thought that hamsters are just stupid. His father pointed at a frog, however Toshiaki was more fascinated with a nearby snake.
All three of them – Toshiaki, his mom and his dad – spent almost half an hour looking for the right pet and could not agree about anything. His parents wanted him to have a nice, harmless and cute pet, while their son preferred more fierce and dangerous one. The mere thought that he would agree on some stupid, fluffy, cutesy-woodsy creature was insulting to him. After all – the pets should resemble their masters, right? And he wasn't cute or nice. He was a born winner.
He found his ideal pet in the weirdest place he would ever imagine. Just when he came back to terraries to renegotiate the buying of a snake, his eyes spotted other eyes in the terrarium next to it. The thing that was sitting there and looking at him with lazy, yet in some way intense expression, wasn't too big and too small. It was a turtle. There was many other turtles in the terrarium, but young Japanese was only looking at this particular one. Toshiaki observed it with interest and couldn't help the impression that turtle was doing the same. It had a dignity and Toshiaki couldn't deny it. This small reptile seemed to be above all things that was happening around him.
"I see you're interested in our turtles." The pet shop owner came to him and Toshiaki gazed at him for a moment to quickly return to the terrarium. "And did you know that they can live even hundred years?"
"Really?" Toshiaki's eyes narrowed and he observed the turtle with even bigger interest than earlier. After few seconds he finally turned to his parents and said, pointing at his chosen pet: "I want that turtle."
So this afternoon he came back home with a new companion. He didn't know why he chose to call him Shelley, this name was spinning in his head and seemed to fit the turtle for some reason. There was a times when Toshiaki was looking at his pet and thought that it was the most boring pet ever. His movements were slow, so slow that they seemed to be an act of laziness to the boy. But sometimes Shelley was doing something that reminded Toshiaki why he chose this particular pet among any others. When Toshiaki realized that Shelley was moving from one side of his terrarium (or sometimes even one corner of the room) to another, the boy couldn't resist the impression that his pet is very patient and very persistent when it came to achieving goals. Toshiaki really liked it about his turtle. After all he could be patient and persistent too.
Unfortunately Shelley died not achieving the promised hundred years. Put under care of reckless and ignorant neighbor, Shelley was poisoned with a garbage food said neighbor gave him instead of a salad leaf he was always getting. Toshiaki seemed to be unmoved by his turtle's demise (after all it was just a turtle), but sometimes, when he was looking at the empty terrarium, he felt a weird feeling. And then he was realizing that he missed his Shelley very much.