Alright, so my other stories can rot for a little longer. I'll just scrape off the bad parts when I'm done having fun with Yukiko...they'll still be tasty, I'm sure. So, to my one actual reviewer, enjoy chapter two.
For two months and a day now, Temari watched the kitten—Yukiko—grow. She remembered the little creature's siblings and knew they must be bigger than this. But Yukiko was healthy. She was still growing.
She was happy.
Suddenly Temari was thinking of Gaara. He and Yukiko had become like one entity, one being since that sweltering afternoon, two months and one day ago. So to think "happy" and "growing," Temari felt she was referring as much to Gaara as she was to his tiny companion.
It was odd, though. Not once before this did she think she would ever think of Gaara as being "happy."
Yukiko passed by Temari, who watched the kitten from her seat curiously. It was rare to find her alone these days, absent from her favorite perch on Gaara's shoulder. Temari wondered what she was up to.
The kitten ambled along to the other room without giving Temari a single glance. Temari stared off into the space where she'd been.
A minute later Temari's heart gave a surprised jolt at the heavy sound of a door shutting. There was a curse, and a sharp hiss, which could only have been Yukiko. Temari sprang to her feet and dashed into the other room to find the angry feline wriggling in Kankuro's grasp. He eyed the hissing animal distastefully.
"Where the hell did this thing come from?" he muttered, without noticing that Temari was there. Temari sincerely hoped Gaara wasn't nearby. He wouldn't be overly pleased to see this.
"Kankuro!" she hissed; and he looked up at once. "Put her down!"
"Temari, what the hell is this?" he asked her, ignoring her command. "I go away for a couple months and then come back to a pest problem? Where'd this thing come from?"
"Kankuro, I'm telling you, put her down before Gaara—"
Too late. She could already feel the steel eyes behind her.
"Kankuro," Gaara said evenly, "put her down."
Kankuro dropped the cat. Hissing for good measure, Yukiko raced to Gaara and climbed up onto his shoulder. Her pinkish eyes glared intensely in Kankuro's direction.
Gaara looked her over carefully. Satisfied that no harm was done, he left a relieved Temari and a baffled Kankuro alone.
After a moment of contemplative silence, Kankuro asked, "Did I…miss something?"
Temari smiled sheepishly at him. "You just met Yukiko."
Yay, it's done. This chapter, anyway. I'll be doing more...yeah...so, uh, yeah. Please review and tell a friend.