Chapter two
That was not the last time the boy would sneak into the human world outside the sanctuary. It became a weekly occurrence, and he had to admit that he was getting rather good at sneaking on and off the bus, without any of the other occupants noticing. The fact that he had a habit of going off for hours also meant that neither of his parents ever questioned his long absences.
As it was the Little Neko probably would have risked all that and more, as it was on these days that he was able to watch the boy from the library. Ritsu never questioned why he was always there at those times, and he didn't care as he gazed at him from a short distance, or if he got lucky, he could gaze from across the table. This only happened though, when the boy was sleeping, which was a far too rare occurrence to satisfy the Neko. He wanted to be able to observe the boy closer, to learn every detail of his face, to be witness to every expression that crossed it.
The Neko's interest didn't stop there, however, as he also wished to know about the boy's personality. This led him to take note of what he was reading, and then go seek out the books when he was done and read them himself. It had become a habit that he had been repeating for a few months, taking great joy in holding an object the human had had before him. It was in one these moments when he had learnt the boy's name.
Saga Masamune.
The Little Neko smiled with his new found information, his expression becoming dreamy. It only took such a small thing for him to feel so much closer to the boy then he had ever imagined, and it filled him with a great amount of pleasure.
Saga Masamune.
The human who had filled every waking thought, who had inspired dreams which the little Neko would never say out loud. The only being that made his heart pound and his face flush. There was no way to stop the joy that was overflowing through his body at this discovery, and he found himself unable to control the urge to hug the book that had brought him such happiness. Clutching it as tightly to his chest as possible he let out a contented sigh, this was quite possibly the best day of his life.
The Little Neko had even considered finding out whether the kind librarian would let him take the book with him, so he could prolong this joy, and spend hours staring at the human he was infatuated with...no, not infatuation. This feeling, it had to be greater than that, the Little Neko was sure that this feeling could only be described with one word...Love.
Yes! Onodera Ritsu was in love.
Just thinking it caused a fluttering in his chest, and he almost felt as if he would just fly away his body was so light. In that moment he decided, that yes he would go talk to the librarian, as there was no way that he could just let this book go, not while he was feeling this way.
He was so excited that the Little Neko found it terribly hard to merely walk over to the counter where the librarian was situated, as he wanted to run as fast as his legs would take him. He was feeling far too giddy for going so slow; he was feeling so giddy in fact that he didn't notice that someone else was watching him too. Brown eyes watched him with the slightest spark of Curiosity, unable to comprehend why the Neko had been paying him so much attention.
Ritsu, however, caught up in his own excitement, walked up to the librarian, glanced at her shyly and politely asked to borrow the book. The woman smiled at him kindly, having found great amusement in watching the Neko trying to stealthily watch the boy who came in regularly. With this in mind she couldn't help but want to tease the little kitten, just a little.
"If I didn't know any better, I would swear you swear stalking, Saga-san."
Ritsu's ears immediately drew flat, his tail coming to a complete stop, chin dropping to his chest. He had never thought of that before, was he really stalking his library Senpai? The thought brought forth a pain in the little Neko's chest and for a moment he thought that he might start crying. That wasn't the impression he wanted anyone to have, would Saga Senpai think the same thing if he found out? Would he be marked as a stalker? There was nothing the little Neko could think of that could be worse than that.
The Librarian seeing the Neko's distress, immediately tried to dissuade the situation; this had not been the reaction she had wanted when she teased the poor thing. The woman found rather endearing, and she smiled at how sweet the Neko was.
"Here," she said taking the book from the Neko's hands. "I'll let you borrow the book, alright."
Ears perking up slightly, the little Neko lifted his head. "Do you mean it?" he asked, feeling some of his excitement coming back.
The librarian nodded.
"You just have to right down your name...you can write, can't you?" she added the last part as she remembered that in this world there where many Neko's who weren't give the opportunity to learn to read or write. She didn't want to hurt the poor Neko's feelings twice in one day.
Much to her relief, the little Neko grabbed the pen from her hand nodding his head in affirmation. "I write very well." He said as he bent over the paper before him.
The Neko wrote his name out in full, and went to hand it back to the librarian, when the comment from a few moments ago flashed through his mind, the word STALKER flashing the brightest. Quickly he scribbled out Onodera, and instead wrote Oda, figuring that if it wasn't his full name he wouldn't seem like a stalker to the human of his affections. There was also upon further thought, the fact that he probably shouldn't be using his surname in such a public place. He was after all a Neko, and his father was the most powerful Neko in the country.
Satisfied with the change he handed the paper back to the librarian who stamped it, placed it inside the book before handed the book back to the little Neko. Ritsu grabbed onto the book and held it too his chest again, feeling his happiness slowly starting to come back.
"Thank you, so much." He said to the librarian, giving her a shy and sweet smile.
The woman smiled fondly back at the Neko, before he moved over to another section of the library, where he could read and surreptitiously watch the human boy. He still had a little time before he had to sneak back onto the bus, and every moment of it he wanted to be watching the human who had unknowingly stolen his little Neko heart. He wished that he could stay in his little library world forever, he wished that this was all that existed. It was so much better to him then the world he would have to go back to, the world where nothing ever happened, where he was just Ritsu the son of the mayor.
These thoughts stayed in his mind until he had to reluctantly leave. He said goodbye to his Saga Masamune in his mind, before he walked out of the library, the book clutched tightly to his chest as he walked back to the bus. At least this time he was bringing a little piece of his human back with him, and with that he smiled the whole way back to the sanctuary.
The smile remained on his face for the rest of the night, for the first time in a long time the little Neko was in a good mood. And he had the book he was now holding in his hands to account for this fact.
The smile remained on his face even when his long time friend entered the room. She was the only one who knew about his room filled with Human paraphernalia, and she was the only one who Ritsu trusted not to tell anyone else about. An-chan was in many ways Ritsu's only friend. Of course this also meant that when she came in now, she knew immediately that there was something different about him tonight.
"Is something going on Ritsu?" she asked as she took a seat next to him on the floor, trying not to stare at the poster on the other side of the room.
Ritsu's eyes widened and he clutched the book tighter to his chest. For the first time in his life he wasn't sure if he could tell her about this, but he also wasn't really sure if he could lie. When An-chan looked at him like that the truth always just seemed to come blurting out, but the little Neko was sure that even she would have a problem with this secret.
With that in mind, he quickly stammered out an, "I'm fine, An-chan." Hoping she would just let it drop.
Letting out a sigh, she looked him over carefully. The slight flush on his cheeks and the way he kept fidgeting, made it obvious to her that her friend was lying to her, but seeing as though this had never happened before, she was willing to let it slide. That was until she noticed a certain book in the other Neko's hands.
"What's that?" she said suddenly, in accusatory tone.
The Little Neko's head shot up, surprise and fear taking him over in equal parts. His first reaction was to hide said object behind his back, but as soon as he did it he knew that it was the wrong things to do. The lighter Neko not wasting any time she grabbed at it, her body working quicker than Ritsu's, and slender fingers ripping out of his hands and pulling it closer for inspection.
There was a moment of complete silence as she looked the book over, and then opened the cover. She had noticed it at first because she knew what all of Ritsu's books looked like, and she had most definitely never seen this one before. Then with his reaction to her observation she was sure that the truth to the smile on his face was in this book, and sure enough as she turned the cover she saw exactly what it was.
"This is from a human library."
Her voice had come out in a disbelieving voice, as she wanted it not to be true. Then she looked up at Ritsu, who was holding his tail between his hands, unable to look his oldest friend in the eye.
Suddenly she stood, her hands gathering in fists as she looked at the Little Neko with anger. "You went to the human city, didn't you?"
There was no way the Little Neko could think to deny this, and in the face of her anger there was nothing but guilt eating away at his heart. He had known that it was wrong to hide such a thing from her; he should have known that it would have hurt her. It was just that he couldn't think about anything else, not when his thoughts had been solely centred on the human in the library.
"I'm sorry." He said in a small voice, his ears going flat, and eyes dropping to the floor.
An-chan looked at the other Neko on the ground her anger dissipating somewhat. "Its okay, Ritsu, but you have to promise me that you won't go back there again."
"No!" The little Neko yelled out moving forward so he was now on his knees.
Both the Neko's looked completely shocked at the outburst, but Ritsu the most as he grabbed the book back out of An-chan's hands and held it to him. "I have to go back." He whispered.
The expression on the Little Neko's face was one the girl had never seen before, and she realised that it was an expression she had been hoping to when he thought of her. The Little Neko had found someone he cared about, and as the cogs in her mind put everything together. This time her face was full of shock, and there was a pain in her chest, the Little Neko never looked at her like that, but he had found a human.
"You're in Love with a human, aren't you?"
The Little Neko couldn't look up; he just stayed there staring at his feet. There were so many warring emotions inside his little heart that he didn't know which one he should be going with. He didn't want his friend to be upset, but there was no way that he could even for a second consider not going back to see the human boy, just the very thought of it made his chest constrict in pain.
"A relationship with a human will never happen, you know that don't you, Ritsu. There's only one thing they'd ever use us for, but nothing else could happen. We're merely pets to them, expendable."
The words sank in for the Little Neko, for although he didn't want to be believed that they were true, knew that he couldn't deny the facts. When a Neko got to a certain age they were all given a talk, and a shown a video which explained how things where in the world outside the sanctuary.
Outside the sanctuaries walls, Neko's had no rights; there existence was on par with a pet. Except that in certain cases, somewhere used for far less innocent things and according to the law it was all perfectly legal.
Ritsu had known all of this, but with the excitement of his first love, he had pushed it all aside and forgotten the truth of a Neko's existence. Even if the human knew who he was, there was no way that he could ever fall in love with him, there was no way he would ever be seen as anything more than a pet, a lesser being. This realisation cause the Little Neko to burst into tears, his heart breaking as the cruel truths sank in.
The girl Neko standing in front of him felt her own heart constrict at the sight. There was something that she knew she shouldn't say to her depressed friend, but in a moment of pity she told him a secret that in any other circumstance would never leave her lips. The girl knew of someone who could help her Little Neko friend, knew of someone who could give the boy a chance at having his human fall in love.
Kneeling down in front of him, her head bumping against his in affection she whispered in his ear. "There is a doctor that no one dares talk about out loud." She started, "They say that he can do anything, even make a Neko into a human."
The little Neko looked up in surprise, a light flutter of hope in his heart at the words.
"I can only tell you what I have heard, but if you go to him he might be able to help."
The girl told the Little Neko everything that she knew, and he took it all in with a renewed sense of happiness flowing through him. If he could somehow find away to become human, then he knew that he would have a far greater chance at being with his beloved human, or at the very least have his human, actually look at him in return.
"Thank you, An-chan." He said, as he prepared to change his Little Neko life forever.
Wow, I never thought I'd get so into to writing a fanfiction, but thanks to a few other authors and their fics, mainly Don't Preach and Otaku Frappe, whose Neko fabulous works caused me to catch the Neko fever and want to write my own. Hopefully I'll get this story to completion, although I am leaving overseas in about two weeks, with an open ending to when I will actually be back. Guess we just can't control when inspiration will strike (^ O^)
Also I wanted to address the fact that I couldn't remember how An-chan addresses Ritsu. I did try to look it up, but got carried away by Takano, and just never got around to finding the bits with her in it. So sorry if I offended anyone.
And yes, I know the rating is M and I haven't written anything smutty! The truth is I've never actually written anything like that before, and although I think it will be something that needs to come in when it develops further, I'm not sure how to go about it. My own only knowledge is what I've read, so if anyone has any tips for me, please send them on...if I'm going to do it, I want to do it right. Nothing worse than badly written smut lol.
Okay, I think I have addressed everything I wanted to...thinking...thinking...maybe...That aside I'll leave you all to HOPEFULLY review the chapter and tell me what you think, good or bad!
Mwah!