Summary: Just your typical day – nothing unusual here…

Since I have no idea the next time I'll have stable internet...

Side Effect

By Dark Ice Dragon

Tao grinned at the black-and-white tabby cat perched on Boss' garden wall. "You might want to move along, buddy – if Boss catches you shedding here, he might skin you to make an example to all the other cats in the neighbourhood." Not that Tao thought Boss would do that, but Takeo and M-21 were taking some time getting ready for work and he had to talk to somebody.

The cat fixed him with an arch stare that it would make Regis take notes. "And does your 'Boss' skin you when you shed?"

…Uh. "What?" He hadn't heard that, the cat hadn't moved her mouth (the voice 'sounded' female, anyway), but he had still understood her perfectly.

A flick of the tail. "You are a nekomata, are you not?"

"Nooo?" How to explain what had happened to him to a cat. How to explain 'modified human' to a cat. …He was talking to a cat.

Tao had no idea how, but he knew the cat was amused. "You smell like a nekomata, you have ears and a tail and-"

"Hey, wait," Tao said, narrowing his eyes juuust a little bit. "How do you know that?" His tail was jammed down his trousers, he was wearing his hat, and he knewthey weren't in view right then.

"Your house has windows." The cat sniffed. "And the whole city knows about you, living with that werewolf."

"Wow," Tao said, sarcasm creeping into his tone, "you make that sound offensive." Yeah, sure, he was talking to a cat, but he wasn't going to let anyone insult his comrades in front of him. "Who cares who-" Not what. "-I'm living with?" He may joke about M-21's lycanthropy, but that was all they were: jokes - nothing intended to actually hurt or entail that was all there was to M-21.

"He's a werewolf." Said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "They stink."

"Horror," Tao said, his voice flat. He gave the cat a bored look as he crossed his arms, feeling his ears flatten under his hat, his throat starting to rumble. "You should leave."

"Hmph." The cat did, though, disappearing over the other side of the wall.

"Trying to talk to cats now?" he heard M-21 say behind him.

"Feh," he declared, turning around and leaping at him. M-21 caught him like he always did, allowing Tao to hug him. "They're a bunch of gossipers, the lot of them."

He saw Takeo's raised eyebrows, felt M-21 turn his head towards him, but he wasn't going to tell them the details; they didn't need to know.

Well, if M-21 can talk to dogs in the novel…

All the cats think their household is weird.

This fic started off intending to be lighthearted. Then the cat insulted M-21. Everything just went downhill from there.