As Long As There's A Cat
"I hope you don't mind, you'll be living with a 'friend' of mine, called Shigure, he's the dog zodiac," said Hatori, "along with Yuki, the rat, and Kyo, the cat. Also a girl that knows our secret, called Tohru, I suppose they're all nice people once you get over how annoying they are."
"Don't worry," I said with a smile, "as long as there's a cat I'm all right."
He chuckled, "I take it you're part of the 'Year of the Cat' fan club too?"
"Not really, but yeah, now I am."
He put down my suitcase – which he'd carried to his car and then to the front of a house – and sighed. "He said he'd be in today because Ayame was visiting." He walked up and knocked on the door.
"Hatori! You came! I'm so pleased!" A man with long silvery hair jumped out nearly crushing Hatori.
"Get off me," Hatori said through clenched teeth, the silver haired man obliged then caught sight of me.
"And who is this beautiful maiden?" he said before leaping towards me and caressing my face with his fingers. What was he, a paedophile?
"I shall hurt you if you don't let go, I'm very good at hurting people," I hissed. The silver haired man jumped in fear and his behind Hatori.
"Serves you right Ayame, though I want to know who this wonderful princess is too, with her exotic hair and alluring eyes," he said.
"Ask normally and I'll tell you," I said.
The man sweat dropped, "What's your name?"
"Tia Bailey, like Tee-yah, not tea, I'm English," I said with a smile before adding, "Now really, was that too hard?"
"Nice to meet you Tia, I'm Shigure, and I'm Japanese," he said.
'Obviously' I thought mentally, instead I smiled sweetly and remembered what mother told me about manners and how I should hurt people because they are getting on my nerves. Anyway, he was only complementing, and I guess that's not such a bad thing (even though he looks about thirty). Whilst I waited, Shigure and Hatori talked about the arrangements.
"It's settled, you'll be living here and I hope you don't mind, but you'll be sharing a room with Tohru," he said.
"Girls name right? Sorry, I'm great when it comes to speaking the language but names just confuse me a little bit," I replied whilst anxiously scratching the back of my head.
"She's a girl as far as we know..." said Shigure, then he bowed his head darkly and said: "But who knows what darks secrets she hides..."
Hatori rolled his eyes, "She's a girl, don't worry." He picked up my suitcase, "Come, I'll show you to the room seeing as Shigure is in another world."
I laughed as I followed him upstairs and into one of the bedrooms. A girl was on the bed reading a cook book with a piece of her hair tucked behind her ear and biting her lip in concentration. Aware of our presence she looked up and smiled, "Hi!"
"Hello Tohru, this is your new roommate," said Hatori, "I hope you get along well." He dropped my suitcase down, and turned to me, "is that all you have?"
"Yes, I sold everything else at home and the solicitors are sorting the money out for me and stuff, all I kept was the necessaries'."
"Ah, okay then, I'll be off," he nodded and walked out.
"Goodbye Hatori!" said Tohru as she waved like a hypo kid on sugar, "See you soon!"
I stood awkwardly as she waved for a good minute or two before climbing of her bed and pounding up to me and giving me a hug. She then said, "I take it you're not a zodiac, because I've seen all the zodiacs and Kyo and theirs only thirteen of them including Akito and he's just scary."
"You're wrong," I said, "I'm a zodiac, I am all twelve zodiacs."
"REALLY? I'm so sorry if I've offended you, please forgive me," she kept bowing repeatedly as a sign of respect and repeated: "Please forgive me."
"Chill, I forgive you," I said with a slight laugh, "Where shall I put my stuff?"
In the end, she said we could go halves on the close space and draws. Although my clothes took up a bit more than half and my underwear took up only one of the draws, she allowed me to keep the other two just encase I needed them. And I did, I filled it with my deodorant and razors (to shave my legs, I'm not a slicer) and makeup. I then put my picture of Mother and Grandma on one side of the dressing table looking onto a picture of a woman on the other side that resembled Tohru a lot.
"Is this your mother?" I asked picking up the picture, "She's extremely pretty."
"Yes, I know, she died a year back, but I'm alright now," she said with a faint smile as she gazed at her mother.
"So we're both orphans," I said, "mother and grandma died not long ago, it was my mother's will that I live with the Sohma family, obviously I obliged and came here about a week after the funeral. I cried a lot at the time because I also lost my Grandma at the same time, but now I'm recovering because I know mother will want me to be happy." I smiled gently at Tohru, "I hope I can be just as happy as you are now because I don't like feeling depressed, feeling depressed is for school only." She laughed. I looked at the mirror and stared at my reflection, "It's just that no matter how you look at it, I'm different than the rest."
"I like different," Tohru said, "I'm different. Everyone's different, and if they're not, then they're all just robot clones."
I like her way of thinking. Then my mind darted to something else, "Do you have a cat?"
"You called?" I turned around to see an orange haired boy in a black tank and dark green trousers.
"Hey," I said, "I'm Tia! You're Kyo I guess, I could only imagine the cat having ginger hair."
"Thanks, I take that as a complement. I take it you're staying here?"
"Yes, I am and I'm looking very forward to it, and I'm glad you're here because no house is complete without a cat, ...although grandma was allergic so I wasn't allowed one back home," I sighed.
"I'm not a pet ya know!"
"I know and I also know that you're the only zodiac I can't turn into," I said, "Although, I wouldn't mind, maybe I'd be a sleek black cat with white paws, aw that'd be just too cute."
Kyo muttered under his breath unaware that I could hear him and muttered: "I can tell you and Tohru are going to get along just fine."
I smiled, 'Oh yes we are' I thought.