Authors Notes: So you've stuck around to read chapter three have you? The
real chapter three I mean...not the last chapter, which I said was chapter
three when it was really chapter two... That's what happens when you update
things at two A.M. Oh well. Anyway, as always, I really hope that you like
it! Thankyou sooooo much to all of my very lovely reviewers so far! Also,
reviews and constructive criticism are always loved Enjoy!!
Warnings: Wheee, a little bit more shounen-ai-ishness....a whole lot more Kyo-mouth, and maybe even a little bit of violence!!!
Chapter Rating: PG-PG-13
************ BR 7 Days BR By: Genki Ichigo BR Chapter 3 BR ************ BR I
Had I been a bit more alert or my cat senses more in touch with my surroundings, I would have noticed the figure walking slowly up behind me. I would have noticed the net, before it fell down around me, trapping Yuki and I within it's inescapable mesh. /I BR ************
"Hey, kitty kitty, what are you doing out here without an owner, hm?"
The soft voice of a woman washed over me as I felt myself being lifted suddenly into the air, my body pressed uncomfortably against the fibers of the net. I thought about struggling, but realized that it would have been useless, especially since I still had the unconscious Yuki in my mouth. All I could do, was take it as I was thrust into the back of a truck and dumped unceremoniously into a cage.
"Don't worry. I'll take you someplace safe." The woman said again. I turned to face her, finally able to get a good look at her. She was short. Possibly even shorter than Tohru, though about the same build. Her short brown hair was barely visible below the line of her ball cap, the ends of it partially covering deep brown eyes. Her lipstick pink lips curled upward into a semi-reassuring smile as she shut the cage door, shortly followed by the door to the back of the truck. 'Kimiko', that had been the name on her tag... I wondered for a moment, why someone like that was working in a profession such as Animal Control. She didn't exactly look like the type.
I sighed, resigning myself to the fact that I had been caught. No, that we had been caught. I still had Yuki to worry about. Luckily, the woman hadn't noticed him, as I had once more forgotten about him and I hadn't made an effort to hide him. Surveying my surroundings, I spotted a small blanket in the far corner of the cage. Not that it was hard to spot, as the cage was pretty small itself. Only a few inches taller and longer than I was.
I stepped onto the blanket, using my paw to pull back a couple of the layers and shape them into a little mouse-sized bed. That done, I bent down, setting Yuki into the middle of it. I stepped back, watching him until I was sure that he was breathing. He was.
I jumped, when the truck unexpectedly roared to life and started to move. After the few moments that it took to calm myself down, I looked back down at Yuki. He was shaking again, only this time, I realized that it must be due to cold, as he was damp from having been in my mouth. Far be it from me to say why I cared if he was cold or not, but the fact is, that I did. Unconsciously, I found that I had moved a bit closer to him. I sat down, still watching him. I was afraid that if I took my eyes off of him for even a moment, he might stop breathing. I know that it might sound silly, especially because I've never heard of anyone dying because of a broken leg, but that was how I felt.
Seeing that he was still shivering, and not wanting him to get sick on top of everything else, I managed to swallow my pride, and curled up around him, making sure that I was close enough to keep him warm, but not so close that I would crush him. He probably would have killed me, or tried to had he been conscious, but it wasn't as if he were. He wouldn't remember it later.
After what seemed like forever, the truck came to a stop, and the engine cut off. I heard footsteps outside, and I quickly picked Yuki up again, just as the door opened. 'Kimiko' appeared again, backlit by the harsh yellow glow of a street light. I saw her reaching for the latch on our cage, and knew that this would be my last chance for escape. I wasn't counting on the fact that she was going to use the net again, so as the cage opened and I tried to bolt out, I found myself slammed to a stop by the back of the net.
Wonderful, just damn wonderful.
I wanted to scream at her, to tell her to let us go, but I knew that I couldn't. Not only was my mouth full, but had I spoken, it wouldn't have done me much good. It only would have given away what I was. So once again, silently, I let the blasted woman carry me through a door and plop me into a cage. As if I wouldn't have to spend enough of my life in a cage...
Luckily, however, once again, 'Kimiko' had missed the fact that I was holding Yuki in my mouth as she turned and flipped off the lights, closing and locking the door behind herself as she left. I wondered for a moment whether she was blind, or if she was just incredibly stupid, as Yuki wasn't the smallest mouse in the world. Those thoughts aside, I was incredibly grateful that she hadn't spotted Yuki. I can't help but wonder though, what she would have done had she spotted him. She probably would have assumed that he was dead and thrown him in a trash can or something...
Turning to look at the cage that I was currently in, I noticed that it was a little larger than the one in the truck. Atleast by a few inches. In one corner there was a bowl of water, with a small bowl of cat food next to it. Not that I would be making use of the food if I had anything to say about it. Across the cage, I saw that there was a small litterbox. Also something that I hoped I wouldn't have to make use of, but that was beside the point. In the back of the cage, there was a blanket, also a bit larger than the one that had been in the truck. Upon seeing it, I immediately went about making a place for Yuki, not unlike the one that I had made before. After safely depositing him onto the blanket, I looked him over to make sure that he was still alright. Aside from the broken leg and the shivering that had returned full force, he looked fine.
I wondered as I curled myself around him again, if he was going to come back to consciousness anytime soon. As far as I could tell, he had been out for about half an hour. I moved back a bit, watching him as he lay there, unconscious and pathetic looking. I leaned forward, my cat's instincts telling me to look at him a bit closer. I don't know how or why, but after a moment of closely watching him, I started to wash him. As soon as the full reality of what I had started to do hit me however, I stopped, jerking backward. Wondering just what in the hell I'd been thinking, I looked at him again. Come to think of it, after that, he did look a little bit better. Forget that though. I had just licked Yuki, my worst enemy!
Feeling utterly disgusted with myself and more than a little put out, I stood up, padding over to the water bowl and dipping my head down for a drink. The water felt wonderful. I hadn't realized that I'd gotten so thirsty until the first bit of the cool liquid touched my tongue. I found that it also washed away the taste of mouse that up until that point, had been a constant annoyance. I know that it may sound strange, hearing a cat say that the taste of mouse was annoying, but I, myself, had never developed a taste for mice. Of course I had tried, once anyway, but it just felt wrong. Besides, underneath, I'm still human. Why don't you try going out and killing a mouse with your bare hands and teeth. Then you can tell me that I'm weird for not enjoying it.
I was pulled from my thoughts by a soft moan from behind me. I turned around quickly, fully expecting to see Yuki still unconscious. I was imensely relieved though, when I saw that he had opened his eyes, and was looking around with something akin to confusion. It made me wonder why I hadn't taken my attention off of him sooner, if that was all it would have taken for him to wake up.
"B-" He had opened his mouth to speak, but everything beyond the first syllable had been too scratchy to make out. I realized that he must be thirsty as well, so I turned back to the water bowl, using one of my paws to move it to the back of the cage. After much glaring from Yuki, I managed to help him into a position so that he could drink. After a few moments, it appeared that he'd had enough, and I helped him back down, trying to be as careful as possible with his leg.
"B-baka neko...where are we? What happened?" He winced when I accidentally bumped his leg, letting out a small squeak of pain.
"We..." I tried to keep my temper under control despite the fact that he'd just called me by my most hated nickname. I, atleast, think that I did a pretty good job of it. "We got caught. We're in the pound." I closed my eyes, breathing deeply, fighting my anger with everything that I had.
"And...why am I so...wet? I smell like..." I opened my eyes just in time to see him narrowing his eyes at me. "I smell like you..."
I'm sure that had I been able to, at that moment I would have been as red as a beet. Lucky for me, cats can't blush.
"K'so nezumi! How in the hell do you think I got you here!? You think you held on while you were passed out? No! I carried your ass. Show a little bit of gratitude why don't you!? And what's so wrong about the way that I smell!?" I gritted my teeth, trying unsuccessfully to quell the hissing that accompanied the end of my sentence. I expected him to get mad at me, to yell. I was extremely surprised by his reaction.
"I see." He said softly, his voice once again back to being barely above a whisper.
"You see!? That's all!?" I'm sure that by that point, my fur was standing on end. However, that all went away when I realized that he was shivering again.
"I..." He shook his head, looking down at the blankets around himself.
I sighed, shaking a bit to smooth my fur as I pushed the bowl of water back to the front of the cage and returned to the blanket, sitting down about as far away from Yuki as I could manage. Unfortunately, it was still fairly close. "You're what?" I nearly snapped.
"Nothing. It's nothing." He replied, his normal, stoic demeanor still in place.
If there's one thing that will drive a cat insane, it's curiosity. So despite the fact that I probably wouldn't really care what he had to say, my curiosity was got the best of me. "No, tell me. What?" I asked, this time keeping my voice a bit lower. If there was one thing that I knew about Yuki, it was that he hated it when I yelled or got loud. He hated it when anyone did really. So by keeping my voice at a somewhat normal level, I figured that I was more likely to get a response from him.
"I..." He shook his head again, tugging one corner of the blanket around himself. "I'm cold..."
Without even thinking about it, I reached out, using one of my paws to help him with the blankets. So I was helping him. So what. I figured that after what I had done to him, he deserved atleast that much from me. Even if he had pulled out my hair...
I couldn't let him get sick anyway. We still had a few days before we were due to change back, and we had to find a way out of here before then. I suddenly found myself picturing the headlines if we didn't... 'Two naked boys found caged in local animal shelter' or something. There would no doubt be an enormous photo next to it... That was, if I lived long enough to change back. I've heard, that in places like these, if an animal hasn't been claimed or adopted within a certain amount of days, then they'll be put to sleep. Although I was sure that the time limit was over four days, I couldn't be sure. The only thing that I was sure of, was that if we didn't get out, we'd both have a lot more to worry about than just the press and a broken leg....
Breaking free of my thoughts, I looked back down at Yuki. Apparently the covers had helped him to warm up, as he was no longer shaking, and appeared to have drifted into some semblance of sleep. I hoped that he wouldn't hate me too much in the morning. Well, no more than usual anyway, as broken limbs tended to hurt worse the second day, after the shock wore off... I knew, courtesy of a broken arm that I had recieved as a child while I was training. If I'd thought that I was dying on the day that it happened, I was sure that I'd gone straight to hell when I woke up the morning after...
Sighing, I lay down, curling up and resting my head on my paws, which were folded in front of me. Thankfully, there was a clock on the wall opposite our cage. It was a little after four thirty in the morning, and the sun would be coming up soon. It wasn't as if I would have gotten any sleep anyway. The fact wasn't helped by the sudden cries that I heard from below us. I realized that we must be in only one of many cages, all holding other cats who had been captured. I wondered how many of them were thinking about the same thing that I was. Escape, freedom, something outside of these metal bars and concrete walls. How likely was it that I would actually escape?
Yuki was still asleep, the fact that he was still near me manifested by the way that the blankets were shaking slightly, letting me know that he was shivering again. I guess even the blankets couldn't help the damn mouse from feeling cold. I moved closer to him again, this time trying to be as careful as possible not to wake him as I curled up around him. Satisfied that I hadn't woken him with my movement, I lay my head back down, trying to resume thinking as I noticed his trembling muscles stilling themselves with the addition of my bodyheat.
I let out a long sigh, the spirit of the cat trying to force me into sleeping, the human in me fighting the instinct for all that it was worth. I settled for merely resting, a happy medium between the two. My mind continued to work, a plan beginning to form itself in my head. We would get out of that place. We had to. There was no choice...
TBC *********
More action in chapter four! No, really...I swear...
Warnings: Wheee, a little bit more shounen-ai-ishness....a whole lot more Kyo-mouth, and maybe even a little bit of violence!!!
Chapter Rating: PG-PG-13
************ BR 7 Days BR By: Genki Ichigo BR Chapter 3 BR ************ BR I
Had I been a bit more alert or my cat senses more in touch with my surroundings, I would have noticed the figure walking slowly up behind me. I would have noticed the net, before it fell down around me, trapping Yuki and I within it's inescapable mesh. /I BR ************
"Hey, kitty kitty, what are you doing out here without an owner, hm?"
The soft voice of a woman washed over me as I felt myself being lifted suddenly into the air, my body pressed uncomfortably against the fibers of the net. I thought about struggling, but realized that it would have been useless, especially since I still had the unconscious Yuki in my mouth. All I could do, was take it as I was thrust into the back of a truck and dumped unceremoniously into a cage.
"Don't worry. I'll take you someplace safe." The woman said again. I turned to face her, finally able to get a good look at her. She was short. Possibly even shorter than Tohru, though about the same build. Her short brown hair was barely visible below the line of her ball cap, the ends of it partially covering deep brown eyes. Her lipstick pink lips curled upward into a semi-reassuring smile as she shut the cage door, shortly followed by the door to the back of the truck. 'Kimiko', that had been the name on her tag... I wondered for a moment, why someone like that was working in a profession such as Animal Control. She didn't exactly look like the type.
I sighed, resigning myself to the fact that I had been caught. No, that we had been caught. I still had Yuki to worry about. Luckily, the woman hadn't noticed him, as I had once more forgotten about him and I hadn't made an effort to hide him. Surveying my surroundings, I spotted a small blanket in the far corner of the cage. Not that it was hard to spot, as the cage was pretty small itself. Only a few inches taller and longer than I was.
I stepped onto the blanket, using my paw to pull back a couple of the layers and shape them into a little mouse-sized bed. That done, I bent down, setting Yuki into the middle of it. I stepped back, watching him until I was sure that he was breathing. He was.
I jumped, when the truck unexpectedly roared to life and started to move. After the few moments that it took to calm myself down, I looked back down at Yuki. He was shaking again, only this time, I realized that it must be due to cold, as he was damp from having been in my mouth. Far be it from me to say why I cared if he was cold or not, but the fact is, that I did. Unconsciously, I found that I had moved a bit closer to him. I sat down, still watching him. I was afraid that if I took my eyes off of him for even a moment, he might stop breathing. I know that it might sound silly, especially because I've never heard of anyone dying because of a broken leg, but that was how I felt.
Seeing that he was still shivering, and not wanting him to get sick on top of everything else, I managed to swallow my pride, and curled up around him, making sure that I was close enough to keep him warm, but not so close that I would crush him. He probably would have killed me, or tried to had he been conscious, but it wasn't as if he were. He wouldn't remember it later.
After what seemed like forever, the truck came to a stop, and the engine cut off. I heard footsteps outside, and I quickly picked Yuki up again, just as the door opened. 'Kimiko' appeared again, backlit by the harsh yellow glow of a street light. I saw her reaching for the latch on our cage, and knew that this would be my last chance for escape. I wasn't counting on the fact that she was going to use the net again, so as the cage opened and I tried to bolt out, I found myself slammed to a stop by the back of the net.
Wonderful, just damn wonderful.
I wanted to scream at her, to tell her to let us go, but I knew that I couldn't. Not only was my mouth full, but had I spoken, it wouldn't have done me much good. It only would have given away what I was. So once again, silently, I let the blasted woman carry me through a door and plop me into a cage. As if I wouldn't have to spend enough of my life in a cage...
Luckily, however, once again, 'Kimiko' had missed the fact that I was holding Yuki in my mouth as she turned and flipped off the lights, closing and locking the door behind herself as she left. I wondered for a moment whether she was blind, or if she was just incredibly stupid, as Yuki wasn't the smallest mouse in the world. Those thoughts aside, I was incredibly grateful that she hadn't spotted Yuki. I can't help but wonder though, what she would have done had she spotted him. She probably would have assumed that he was dead and thrown him in a trash can or something...
Turning to look at the cage that I was currently in, I noticed that it was a little larger than the one in the truck. Atleast by a few inches. In one corner there was a bowl of water, with a small bowl of cat food next to it. Not that I would be making use of the food if I had anything to say about it. Across the cage, I saw that there was a small litterbox. Also something that I hoped I wouldn't have to make use of, but that was beside the point. In the back of the cage, there was a blanket, also a bit larger than the one that had been in the truck. Upon seeing it, I immediately went about making a place for Yuki, not unlike the one that I had made before. After safely depositing him onto the blanket, I looked him over to make sure that he was still alright. Aside from the broken leg and the shivering that had returned full force, he looked fine.
I wondered as I curled myself around him again, if he was going to come back to consciousness anytime soon. As far as I could tell, he had been out for about half an hour. I moved back a bit, watching him as he lay there, unconscious and pathetic looking. I leaned forward, my cat's instincts telling me to look at him a bit closer. I don't know how or why, but after a moment of closely watching him, I started to wash him. As soon as the full reality of what I had started to do hit me however, I stopped, jerking backward. Wondering just what in the hell I'd been thinking, I looked at him again. Come to think of it, after that, he did look a little bit better. Forget that though. I had just licked Yuki, my worst enemy!
Feeling utterly disgusted with myself and more than a little put out, I stood up, padding over to the water bowl and dipping my head down for a drink. The water felt wonderful. I hadn't realized that I'd gotten so thirsty until the first bit of the cool liquid touched my tongue. I found that it also washed away the taste of mouse that up until that point, had been a constant annoyance. I know that it may sound strange, hearing a cat say that the taste of mouse was annoying, but I, myself, had never developed a taste for mice. Of course I had tried, once anyway, but it just felt wrong. Besides, underneath, I'm still human. Why don't you try going out and killing a mouse with your bare hands and teeth. Then you can tell me that I'm weird for not enjoying it.
I was pulled from my thoughts by a soft moan from behind me. I turned around quickly, fully expecting to see Yuki still unconscious. I was imensely relieved though, when I saw that he had opened his eyes, and was looking around with something akin to confusion. It made me wonder why I hadn't taken my attention off of him sooner, if that was all it would have taken for him to wake up.
"B-" He had opened his mouth to speak, but everything beyond the first syllable had been too scratchy to make out. I realized that he must be thirsty as well, so I turned back to the water bowl, using one of my paws to move it to the back of the cage. After much glaring from Yuki, I managed to help him into a position so that he could drink. After a few moments, it appeared that he'd had enough, and I helped him back down, trying to be as careful as possible with his leg.
"B-baka neko...where are we? What happened?" He winced when I accidentally bumped his leg, letting out a small squeak of pain.
"We..." I tried to keep my temper under control despite the fact that he'd just called me by my most hated nickname. I, atleast, think that I did a pretty good job of it. "We got caught. We're in the pound." I closed my eyes, breathing deeply, fighting my anger with everything that I had.
"And...why am I so...wet? I smell like..." I opened my eyes just in time to see him narrowing his eyes at me. "I smell like you..."
I'm sure that had I been able to, at that moment I would have been as red as a beet. Lucky for me, cats can't blush.
"K'so nezumi! How in the hell do you think I got you here!? You think you held on while you were passed out? No! I carried your ass. Show a little bit of gratitude why don't you!? And what's so wrong about the way that I smell!?" I gritted my teeth, trying unsuccessfully to quell the hissing that accompanied the end of my sentence. I expected him to get mad at me, to yell. I was extremely surprised by his reaction.
"I see." He said softly, his voice once again back to being barely above a whisper.
"You see!? That's all!?" I'm sure that by that point, my fur was standing on end. However, that all went away when I realized that he was shivering again.
"I..." He shook his head, looking down at the blankets around himself.
I sighed, shaking a bit to smooth my fur as I pushed the bowl of water back to the front of the cage and returned to the blanket, sitting down about as far away from Yuki as I could manage. Unfortunately, it was still fairly close. "You're what?" I nearly snapped.
"Nothing. It's nothing." He replied, his normal, stoic demeanor still in place.
If there's one thing that will drive a cat insane, it's curiosity. So despite the fact that I probably wouldn't really care what he had to say, my curiosity was got the best of me. "No, tell me. What?" I asked, this time keeping my voice a bit lower. If there was one thing that I knew about Yuki, it was that he hated it when I yelled or got loud. He hated it when anyone did really. So by keeping my voice at a somewhat normal level, I figured that I was more likely to get a response from him.
"I..." He shook his head again, tugging one corner of the blanket around himself. "I'm cold..."
Without even thinking about it, I reached out, using one of my paws to help him with the blankets. So I was helping him. So what. I figured that after what I had done to him, he deserved atleast that much from me. Even if he had pulled out my hair...
I couldn't let him get sick anyway. We still had a few days before we were due to change back, and we had to find a way out of here before then. I suddenly found myself picturing the headlines if we didn't... 'Two naked boys found caged in local animal shelter' or something. There would no doubt be an enormous photo next to it... That was, if I lived long enough to change back. I've heard, that in places like these, if an animal hasn't been claimed or adopted within a certain amount of days, then they'll be put to sleep. Although I was sure that the time limit was over four days, I couldn't be sure. The only thing that I was sure of, was that if we didn't get out, we'd both have a lot more to worry about than just the press and a broken leg....
Breaking free of my thoughts, I looked back down at Yuki. Apparently the covers had helped him to warm up, as he was no longer shaking, and appeared to have drifted into some semblance of sleep. I hoped that he wouldn't hate me too much in the morning. Well, no more than usual anyway, as broken limbs tended to hurt worse the second day, after the shock wore off... I knew, courtesy of a broken arm that I had recieved as a child while I was training. If I'd thought that I was dying on the day that it happened, I was sure that I'd gone straight to hell when I woke up the morning after...
Sighing, I lay down, curling up and resting my head on my paws, which were folded in front of me. Thankfully, there was a clock on the wall opposite our cage. It was a little after four thirty in the morning, and the sun would be coming up soon. It wasn't as if I would have gotten any sleep anyway. The fact wasn't helped by the sudden cries that I heard from below us. I realized that we must be in only one of many cages, all holding other cats who had been captured. I wondered how many of them were thinking about the same thing that I was. Escape, freedom, something outside of these metal bars and concrete walls. How likely was it that I would actually escape?
Yuki was still asleep, the fact that he was still near me manifested by the way that the blankets were shaking slightly, letting me know that he was shivering again. I guess even the blankets couldn't help the damn mouse from feeling cold. I moved closer to him again, this time trying to be as careful as possible not to wake him as I curled up around him. Satisfied that I hadn't woken him with my movement, I lay my head back down, trying to resume thinking as I noticed his trembling muscles stilling themselves with the addition of my bodyheat.
I let out a long sigh, the spirit of the cat trying to force me into sleeping, the human in me fighting the instinct for all that it was worth. I settled for merely resting, a happy medium between the two. My mind continued to work, a plan beginning to form itself in my head. We would get out of that place. We had to. There was no choice...
TBC *********
More action in chapter four! No, really...I swear...