Hmm lets see it 3:12am and I can't sleep. In my sleep deprived state I came up with this, when trying to continue my chaptered fic [sweatdrop. This will just be a collection of drabbles/One-shots... I think
Anyway onto my first submission to the collection. There will be OOC-ness and plot holes but that may be due to the fact that I wrote this in the early hours of the morning. It is set in the future and they are both older here than they are in the Manga. Here we go... :D
A Scratching Post.
It was early morning and Narumi sat in his salon frowning at the package he had just received. It was a scratching post meant for that Puffy-head, well he reasoned to himself that it was meant for her cat - Shampoo. She had just called to say that she was going to come down for it, but honestly there was no point in her calling him. It must of been a habit she had developed from her dad. [NOTE
He sighed, wondering when his saloon had turned into her own personal post office. His rather idiotic question was answered soon enough when she popped in through the door that led to his living quarters. (He still refused to admit it was theirs). They had moved in with each other much to their dismay and their friends delight. There 'friends' had schemed out the whole thing and ensured that both of the parties concerned had no choice, he could thank Ochia for that. He was still keeping to his promise to never forgive Ochia, even if it had worked out better than expecte,. he would still stand by his promise.
She walked past him having obviously just recently woken up. Her clothes were wrinkled and she rubbed at her eyes in an ALMOST adorable way. She yawned and stretched out her arms, standing on her tip toes, allowing him to realise she had not grown that much, but enough not to be considered short, it was almost the same in Narumi's case. His attention moved to her hair, the vain of his life, no matter what it went trough, whether it was her sleeping or a storm it still remained in its puffy state. He scowled.
"What is a scratching post for anyway?", he asked his patience growing thin, it seemed to do that when his thoughts drifted to her hair.
She turned to him with a face of indifference, "It's to wear down Shampoo's claws and ensure he doesn't damage anything he is not meant to". She must of felt that was a sufficient explanation for she left Narumi to his thoughts to have a shower and get ready for the shop to open.
Narumi sat in envy of Shampoo. In a way the scratching post allowed Shampoo to take out all his frustrations without hurting anyone or anything. It wore down his claws and made them less harmful. He rested his chin on his hand and growled, he had finally reached his new low being jealous of a cat over such a trivial thing. He pushed his thought aside and prepared to open the shop.
A little later on Kiri appeared, yawning and complaining about the noise. Narumi who had to open the shop by himself stormed over.
"What the hell were you doing?" he hissed, a single vein popping on his forehead. It hadn't been much trouble but this hadn't been the first time either.
"Sorry" she said, no sincerity placed in the single word. She then turned, without having explained why she was late, and greeted her first customer, leading her to a chair and beginning to cut almost immediately.
"So uncute", he mumbled turning on his heel to find that his first customer had finally arrived. She apologised for running late complaining about the awful traffic and Narumi couldn't help but smile. 'At least someone could be sincere', he silently commented to himself while his gaze moved over to Kiri a smirk firmly placed upon his features.
Unlike many other times, when he would of shouted or complained about a waste of time, he only smiled and guided his customer towards her seat. The women raised her eyebrow and followed Narumi's gaze over to Kiri. The women was a regular of Narumi, having followed him from each salon he had worked in. Since the first time she was served and now there was a definite change. Being a regular of Narumi's when she had heard the news of Narumi opening his own saloon she had been delighted that he had finally settled down to one place. When she had heard he was opening it with a girl she was shocked and disappointed (who wouldn't it seemed Narumi was off the market). It had definitely benefited him though, he could finally deal with the customers properly and seemed to have calmed down.
The women smiled, "She's worn you down hasn't she, Narumi-san?". The statement had interrupted his concentration and therefore his cutting. He was about to retort when he was caught by himself. It was true that he seemed to rid himself of his frustrations when he talked to her, she seemed to wear down his anger. Or to have increased his patience threshold, depending on which way you looked at things.
Sighing, he smiled a rare soft smile. "Yeah, I guess she resemble's a scratching post in that sense", he admitted to the customer but more to himself.
His smile soon turned to a boyish grin as he realised he no longer had a reason to be jealous of Shampoo, for now...
I do not own any manga titles, and although I can come up with the occasionally decent drawing I don't have enough talent to draw one. Ruining my Dream of becoming one [runs to her corner of woe
Read and Review, it tempts me to write more, which may mean you don't want to review :P
[NOTE In the manga when Narumi goes to get his hair cut her dad calls Kiri on the phone to tell her to come down to see her 'friends'.