Chapter 4: What's In Store For Me?

What… what's that noise? Oh, it must be Josh, the custom ringtone on my phone is sounding.

I slowly open my eyes, my vision is a little blurry and the sun is shining directly into my apartment, so I put hand over my eyes, shielding them from the light. I suddenly notice a heavy presence on my chest, or rather, all over my body from the neck down. Once my eyes adjust to the light level, I direct my gaze downwards, to find the catgirl resting on top of me. Her head is resting on my chest and her legs are wrapped around my right leg.

What the hell?!

I let out an audible gasp which causes the catgirl to squirm, pushing her breasts up on my stomach. I exhale all the air in my lungs, which, without question, wakes up the catgirl.

She raises up, sitting on my lower region. That's when I notice that she's wearing one of my white button-up shirts. It's a little big on her, but it looks pretty adorable. The catgirl looks down and then back at me. And in that moment, her entire demeanor changes and her face becomes bright red.

"KYAAAAAAAHHH!"

…

"Oww…" I am now sitting upright with the catgirl in the middle of the living room, scolding me for something that's not my fault, "… You throw a mean punch…" I say rubbing my cheek.

"Well, that's what you get for performing such a lewd act." She said sternly.

"But, you climbed on top of me!" I said argued

"Don't try to play mind games with me!" She said angrily.

Mind games? I can't help but a smile take over my current expression. I stand up. She, in response, takes a step back.

"Wh-what's funny?" She asked nervously.

"Nothing." I said back to her, but then I realize the reason I got up in the first place.

Joshua! He was calling me. I walk briskly to my jacket which houses my phone most of the time. I turn the screen on and there's a text message notification from Joshua.

Josh: At this rate, you'll be late, man.

I check the time, 9:52 A.M.

…Crap! My shift starts in eight minutes! My expression quickly turns into one of panic. I quickly throw on my jacket and lace up my shoes.

"Wh-where are you going?" The catgirl asked.

"To work." I quickly replied, I grab the door handle.

"Oh…" She let's out quietly.

I'm halfway out the door before I realize I don't know her name! I can't just call her "cat" forever.

"Hey, I'll see you later, um…" I say trying to get her to finish the sentence.

"A… Ayame. My name's Ayame." She said meekly.

"I'm Makoto, um, I'll see you in a few hours." I say. I'll see if I can get off early, I'm pretty sure if I get Joshua to back me up, I can get off my shift early.

…

So in the end, I was able to get off my shift early, but I'm quite certain it's gonna come out of my check.

Anyway, it's been around four hours since I left to work and I'm just arriving home. I reach for my keys, but I don't feel them in my pocket… then I remember, in my rush, I must have left them next to the door.

Well, Ayame should still be in there. I lightly knock on the door. Immediately, I hear something fall over and scurrying towards the door. I hear the lock turn and the door swing open, nearly hitting me in the process. Ayame standing there to greet me. Her soft yellow and green eyes staring into mine. My eyes draw downwards and I realize that a couple of buttons had come undone and the shirt had began slipping off of her shoulder.

… I probably shouldn't stare. I reaffix my eyes on hers and say,

"Hey, I doubt that you would want to wear that shirt any longer, so, do you want to go shopping? There's a lot of daylight left." It was a spur of the moment thought so we wouldn't be stuck around the house all day, I hope it doesn't sound weird.

She hesitates for a moment before agreeing. I lend her my jacket and we promptly leave off for a clothing store.

Upon arrival, Ayame quickly zips into the store, darting from place to place inside the store.

"H-Hey!" I blurt out. I forgot to tell her that a catgirl must be accompanied by an owner or adult or I could be fined. I quickly pursue Ayame on her rampant trail of bank-breaking that my wallet is gonna have to endure.

Eventually we find ourselves at the changing rooms and Ayame quickly begins making outfits out of random articles of clothing. She only kept around five or six outfits.

In the end, my wallet took a pretty heavy hit, but the outfit that Ayame decided to wear out the store was a half shirt and her booty shorts.

Wait.

"What? Ayame, didn't you pick out more clothes?" I asked.

She shoots me a quizzical look.

"Of course I did." She says simply.

"Then why are you wearing that?"

"I like it, not to mention, this is my signature look!" She said grinning and tugging on the shirt.

I let out a short sigh, "I guess, I just don't want anyone looking at us weirdly."

After a few minutes, Ayame speaks up again.

"Hey, you're incredibly nice." She says.

"I am?" I reply, I never thought of myself as nice. More of a 'meh' kind of guy.

"Yeah, you're either nice or insanely stupid to take a random stranger on a dat-" She stopped mid sentence.

I stop walking and she does, too, with her back facing me.

"Wait, what did you just say?" I ask.

I see her tense up at my question.

"Hm? I-I didn't say anything." She says, denying her slipup. I know she was going to say date, I'm just playing the fool here.

"No, no, I'm pretty sure you said something, something that started with the letter D?" I say teasingly. Her ears go down and her tail twitches in response.

"You must have been hearing things! I didn't say anything!" She's visibly trembling. It could be because she's cold, but I think it's because she's nervous.

"Hey." I say approaching her. I wrap my arm around her, "You're shaking. You must be oh so cold." She looks directly at me.

"Y-Yeah." She said softly and initiated the walk.

That wasn't really the answer I was expecting, but I'll roll with it. As we walk, I can feel her huddle closer to me. Maybe she really is cold.

...

I close the door as we enter the house. And as Ayame places her bags down, I think it's time I brought up her current situation.

"Well, Ayame…" I begin, "About your living situation." Ayame turned towards me.

"Oh…" She sighed, "Okay…"

"What? "Okay" what?" I ask hastily. She grabs her bags up.

"I'll find somewhere else…" She says unhappily.

Wait. Does she think I'm kicking her out?

"Ayame, wait! I'm not kicking you out!" She stopped in her place.

"I'm asking you to live with me!" I say quickly. But, that didn't come out quite how I wanted.

"I mean, if you don't have anywhere else to stay, it's alright if you need to stay here."

Ayame let out a sigh of relief.

"Okay, I'll take you up on that offer." She said.

I smile lightly in response, she smiles back at me, but then it quickly disappears.

"B-b-but, it's not like want to stay here or anything!" She says, her face glowing red after spoke.

… what? My phone suddenly vibrates and it breaks my train of thought. As I answer it instinctively, I see Joshua's name at the top of the screen.

"Yeah, Josh?" I ask.

"Yo, Makoto, since we both have off, do you to hangout at Manga Cafe tomorrow?" He says.

"Sure, man." I reply. I don't have anything on my schedule and Josh is my best friend. So, why not?

"Alright, 9 A.M.?" He asks regarding the meeting time.

"9 A.M." I confirm.

The phone call ends with a "See ya." And I quickly get ready for bed.

Wow, I just the span of a few short days, I end up becoming roommates with a catgirl. Man, if I were talking to me, I would think I was lying.

I say goodnight to Ayame, who is in my room, she provides no response. She's probably already asleep. Without wasting anytime, I quickly diff off to sleep.