Two weeks later...
"Why are we here, Father?" Haruhiko gazes around at the apartment hallway of the apartment they arrived to.
"It's a surprise." Fuyuhiko replies, though he himself wasn't sure. That woman only replied to his call once, but it was very unclear. One thing was sure enough though, and it was that he had to have Haruhiko meet that chibi neko.
Finally they reached their destination.
"This must be it," Fuyuhiko knocks, waiting patiently as he heard footsteps.
"Almost clean, huh Misaki?" Sumiko says happily to her little chibi neko. They were wiping the coffee table together.
"We're almost there!" Misaki cheers, before looking over at the desk near the back glass sliding door leading to the balcony. His shoulders slump a little at the ash blond neko blatantly ignoring them.
"It's okay, Misaki." Sumiko says, moving away from the coffee table to sit back on the couch. The little neko jumps over to sit on her lap. "He'll get used to us." She giggles, "He reminds me of Aito sometimes." He gives her a look. "Sometimes."
"He keeps saying I'm plain looking and dumb cause I can't speak our language."
"Don't listen to him." She pokes his cheek with gentle care. "You're the cutest little neko I've ever seen."
"Everyone says that about their own neko," Misaki mumbles, despite blushing a little at the comment.
"You know," she begins, "Maybe he can teach you how to speak in your own language."
Misaki's ears flatten a little. "I don't know... I can talk to cats and other animals though, does that count?"
"It counts for something, but," she strokes his little head. "The look on your face when others try to talk to you; I think it's best if you learn."
"Yeah..."
*knock*
"Ha?!" The long haired brunette immediately gets up, excited. "Our first guest!"
Jumping up to hang over her shoulder, Misaki frets at her. "You're wearing short shorts."
"Right!" She speeds to her room to put on sweatpants over her shorts before running to the door. "Okay!"
Opening the door, she greets with a smile. "Hello! What can I-" She pauses seeing the two business men. "...? Can I help you?"
Between the two men, Haruhiko looks to his father in confusion. "Father?"
"I... I believe Aikawa Eri resides here? Are you her roommate?" Fuyuhiko asks, hoping that was the case.
"Ah, she went ahead and moved in with her fiancé," Sumiko says, feeling Misaki tighten his grip on her shoulder.
"I see." The older man thoughtfully pauses before continuing. "Did she take that little neko of hers with her?" Misaki shuffles towards her neck to hide in her hair when Fuyuhiko looks at him for a moment. "Is this him?"
"No no, this is Misaki. Did you mean Akihiko? Umm..." she turns to look back at the quiet neko before debating inwardly. This couldn't be one of Akihiko's friends, or Eri's, so she felt lost. Eri didn't say anything to her about these business men. 'Should I call her?'
"Ms. Aikawa didn't tell me someone had gotten to us first about Akihiko," Fuyuhiko begins, thinking about the next course of action. "We were more than ready to take him," he gestures to his son. "Haruhiko was hoping to meet him."
While stoic, Haruhiko was certainly holding a 'what?' expression in the back of his head. Never before has he felt so confused about his father's actions.
"I guess you can meet him..." she steps back. "Come on in."
...
"Aki?" The small neko turned at the voice, seeing Sumiko with her hands out for him to get on. "These two men want to talk to you."
"Don't want to," was the simple response. Violet eyes look off to the side before he goes to lay on the stomach of his teddy bear. "I'm going to sleep-" his eyes widened when she picks him up on her own.
"Sorry," she mumbles quietly, "But I don't think they're going to leave until you do. The older one at least. Just hear him out." Glaring at her, Akihiko pouts before crossing his arms. Giving him a small, apologetic smile, she takes him over.
"This is him?" Akihiko glares at the old man as he was set down on the coffee table. The other man sat next to him, waiting for instructions. "It's nice to meet you Akihiko," Fuyuhiko begins with a smile. "I am Usami Fuyuhiko, and this is my son, Haruhiko."
"What do you want?" Akihiko asks to the point, wanting no more than to lay on his Suzuki-san.
"I am aware that you haven't exactly chosen an owner, and I want to see if maybe Haruhiko is the one for you."
"No." He looks around for Sumiko, wanting to be carried back to his desk. He couldn't jump or climb that much, this pampered neko.
Fuyuhiko raises his brow. "No?"
"Father," Haruhiko starts, understanding now why his father brought him here. "You don't actually believe those rumors, do you? You can't possibly-"
"Ehh, so you came here for that?" Sumiko comes back out from hiding in the kitchen, Misaki on her head. She sets down some drinks for them. "I've heard of that too... Something about soul mates, right?" Misaki shrugs.
"You don't know?" Fuyuhiko questions. "I believe it was a standard that all nekos have soul mates, and that goes for their owners as well."
"That's not true." Akihiko glares at him. "My soul mate is a human."
"Aki..." Sumiko says worriedly, before telling Fuyuhiko her part. "Misaki doesn't really know the customs, so we don't really..."
"I wasn't raised with other nekos," Misaki pipes up, setting his chin comfortably on Sumiko's hair. "I was raised with Bear and Kyou."
"A bear?" Fuyuhiko quickly abandoned the subject about soul mates. "You were raised in the wild? A real bear?"
"Uh-huh," Misaki says in affirmative. "He still lives in the mountains, and Kyou is in Fukuoka right now."
"What kind of bear is your Bear?" Fuyuhiko takes out a small keychain from his pocket of a bear with its salmon. "Like this?"
"He mostly eats berries with me." Misaki cocks his head at the little trinket. "He stands like that though. I think he does that when I'm sleeping or not with him, cause sometimes he'll smell like fish."
"I see."
"Ah, I remember," Sumiko walks off to her room before coming back with some pictures and handing them to Fuyuhiko. "When we went up there months back I took these of the other bears we saw."
"Some of them got very possessive and grumpy," Misaki recalls. "They fight about who has that part of the river and stuff."
"...These are wonderful," Fuyuhiko went through them, astounded at the positions of the bear and the fish flying. Suddenly he stands, taking out bills from his pockets before handing them to her. "I'll take them all."
"!? Hah? Wait," she takes back the photos and hands him back his bills. "These aren't for sale! They're for my Dad!"
"Copies then? I want them made into sculptures."
"Can you wait until my Dad is through with them then? He wants to enter a contest soon with these."
"May I have his number then? I would love to see how he-"
Haruhiko stands up, not liking the bear talk. "Father, we have a meeting to attend to."
"Oh." He finally frowns before standing up and following, but not before bowing a little to Sumiko. "Thank you for the conversation." He hands her a card. "Call me when your father begins his contest entries."
"Okay." 'Well, this was weird.' She thought, recalling that they had wanted Akihiko.
"Can I please go sleep now?" Akihiko demands, irritated. He refused to admit he was interested in what the pictures looked like. He wanted to see the bears too.
At the door, the older man had a awed expression on his face before doing something on his cell phone.
9 minutes later...
"Father?" Haruhiko questions, him and Sumiko exchanging wary, awkward glances. "Can we leave now?"
"Oh yes. Hold on." He looks up at Sumiko. "Your name?"
"Hirakawa Sumiko...?" The two look on quizzically as the man went back to his phone.
"Ah... so you're a photographer?"
"Y-yes?" 'Why is he looking me up?'
'Why is he looking her up?' Haruhiko wondered, before his eyes widen in horror. 'He... he's not interested in her, is he? What is he thinking? He can't...' He resisted the urge to gag, and he peers at the young woman. 'She would reject him, right? She even refused his money...'
Seeing that Akihiko was still on the table, Misaki jumps off Sumiko's head to reach him. "You're not going to sleep?"
[I'm waiting for her to take me.]
Misaki frowns. "You know I can't speak that."
"I'm waiting for her to take me. It wouldn't hurt to learn."
"I have no one to teach me." Misaki scoffs. "At least I can reach the desk without anyone's help."
Akihiko glares. [At least I'm not an idiot.] They glare at each other before Misaki sighs and turns around for him. "What?"
"Here, get on my back," Misaki offers, "I'll take you back to your teddy bear."
"Suzuki-san."
"I'll take you back to Suzuki-san." He held steady as Akihiko actually got on.
...
"You're really strong for a neko," Akihiko comments as Misaki leaps from the arm of the couch to the desk.
"No... not really." He put his hands on his knees after Akihiko gets off, panting slightly. Since Misaki was smaller than him, he definitely felt the difference in weight. The older neko was heavy.
Akihiko pauses in thought before patting his head. "Thanks." Misaki felt his chest flutter at the touch, cocking his head in confusion at the feeling until he realized Akihiko already went to his teddy bear, dozing on it immediately.
"Misaki..." The brunet chibi neko found Sumiko on the couch, seeming distressed because of something. Apparently the men left while he was with Akihiko.
"What is it?" he asks, leaping off the desk after a long stride to reach her. "What's wrong?"
"He... he told his son that he couldn't live at home anymore. How can you say that to someone in front of a stranger?"
"Huh?!" Misaki couldn't fathom why.
"And then he told him- us that he paid Ms. Aikawa and texted her and emailed me through his cell that he's going to live with us officially!"
"...Huh?"
"He said he can learn a thing or two from me, so that's why? I don't understand!" she cries. "All we did was end up talking about photos and bears! And the guy's like bigger than me, what can he learn from me?! How to cook? He looks like he sucks at it a little..."
"Aah-hah!" Misaki reached a conclusion. "He's keeping tabs on you to make sure you end up giving the photos of the bears to him!"
"Should... should I have just made copies?" She rests her forehead on her knees. "But I don't want to face plagiarism if he ends up using the photos for commercial use, and then people see Dad's contest entries!"
"How is it plagiarism when you're responsible for both sets of photos?!"
What is Fuyuhiko planning? Akihiko is a little more childish in here in his little chibi neko form.
I think Suzuki-san is the few of the characters that I use the suffix -san.
