Yukimura tried to calm his breathing with the cool night air. Then he turned towards the hand caressing his face. He grabbed the sheets around himself and shuffled onto his side to face Masamune, then reached up with his own hand to mimic his lover's motions. Masamune chuckled a bit, while whispering his name. They settled into each other's warmth and fell asleep for the rest of the night.

A few hours later, Yukimura opened his eyes to find Masamune's pillow empty. Though there was still a ball of warmth at his side. He tugged open the blankets, and the pink nose of their striped orange cat poked out of the sheets.

The little cat shook the fabric folds off his orange and white face, turned to Yukimura, and meowed.

"Good morning, Tora." He began petting the cat as he purred.

A blue-ish gray figure slid through the doorway and their crescent-headed cat, Tsuki, tip-toed forward. He gave each of their faces a lick, plopped down beside Tora, hooked a paw around him, and began to sleep under the covers.

Not long into the morning, the soft rolling of the shoji door directed all three faces to the man walking in. Masamune stopped wiping his hands with a dish towel and almost laughed as he noted the three faces bundled warmly together. "Hey. You up for breakfast?"

"Ah! Yes!" Yukimura threw off his sheets, much to the cats' respective surprise and annoyance.

xoxoxoxo

Yukimura breathed in a smile which slowly grew wider, as Masamune watched with amusement. "What is this?" Yukimura eagerly took his seat at the kitchen table, his eyes never leaving the spread of plates and syrup.

"Waffles. Thought you'd like it." Masamune took the seat across from him.

Yukimura's eyes sparkled over the pastries with pats of butter, while his hands kept busy with bibbing his napkin.

Masamune thought maybe he should have been annoyed that Yukimura was so transfixed with the food, that Yukimura did not look at him. But watching him clatter with the utensils and instinctively reach for the syrup without even looking, was just too funny. "At my last trip overseas, I saw this waffle iron and figured you'd like something you could drench with sugar."

Yukimura froze. "This is meant to be eaten with sugar?" Yukimura immediately set down the small syrup pitcher and got up. "My apologies, Masamune-dono! To eat your cooking improperly would be too grievous! Please allow me to fetch the sugar!"

"Sit down, Yuki, sit down." Masamune began to laugh again. He settled a smile into his palm, with his elbow on the table, and just watched Yukimura. "Ya don't hafta get the sugar. The syrup's pretty sweet already."

"Ah?..." Yukimura slowly re-took his seat. "Yes, my apologies."

Masamune shook his head, still smiling. The warm morning light coming through the windows and this warmth in his chest, while watching Yukimura take bites of carefully cut waffles and internally squeal at the syrup's sweetness, were all reasons why he loved late days.

"Do you not have work today, Masamune-dono?"

The cats began wandering around the table legs.

"I've just got a late meeting. Not 'til tonight."

They watched Tora wind around Yukimura's legs then beg inquisitively at his side.

"Mao~"

Yukimura dipped a finger into his syrup then held it to Tora's pink nose. As the cat began sniffing, he turned to Masamune. "Do you suppose there is anything unsafe about the cats eating sugar?"

"The vet said they can't really taste it, though."

"That's strange..." Yukimura watched Tora's little tongue lap up his finger. "Tora always seems interested."

"Yuki, are ya givin' that cat your dango when I'm not around?" Masamune felt his patience draining out.

"And small bits of wagashi. Why? Is that bad? Tora always seems to enjoy it."

Masamune scratched his hair. "Well, the vet never said it was bad for 'em...I guess as long as we don't give 'em chocolate..."

A small thump drew their attention to the empty chair beside them. Triangular ears peeked above the table's edge, where their cat Tsuki now sat. The blue-gray cat scanned his one eye across the plates, then reached up with one paw and thumped it on the table. "Mao."

"Fer cryin' out loud..."

"Here you are, Tsuki."

"Yuki, don't give that cat a whole sausage...!"

"Oh, it should be all right, Masamune-dono. The both of us could not possibly eat so much food."

"Ya ever heard of snackin' on leftovers?" Masamune muttered.

"Masamune-dono, please tell me you are not eating while walking about the house? Please take a plate and sit down when you choose to eat!"

"Yeah, yeah..."

Tsuki thumped his paw on the table again.

"What? Another one?" Masamune stared at the cat.

"Mao."

"Here you are, Tsuki."

"Naw-Yukimura! That cat's spoiled enough!"

Tsuki took the second sausage in his jaws, jumped off the chair, and presented it to Tora. The striped cat immediately headbutted the gray cat and rubbed against his cheek several times, while purring loudly, before carefully savoring the meat.

"See, Masamune-dono? Tsuki is not spoiled." Yukimura smiled across the table.

"...But I already fed 'em breakfast..."

"Hm?"

Masamune sighed. "Nevermind." He turned towards the cats. "You two are gonna get fat."

Tsuki hissed at Masamune.

"I swear, that cat knows what we're talkin' about."

"That is understandable. He is very smart." Yukimura proudly scratched Tsuki's head.

Masamune just couldn't deny the smile on Yukimura's face, as he was busy getting Tsuki to actually purr. Though, their breakfast was starting to get cold. "Alright, that's enough of that. C'mon, Tsuki." Masamune twitched his fingers towards the cat.

Tsuki just stared at him, then sat down where he stood.

"Are ya kiddin' me, furball?" Then Masamune arched an eyebrow with a smirk, and repeated his hand gesture. "C'mere, Tora."

Tsuki watched the orange tabby meow happily to Masamune's side.

Tora began to paw at Masamune's lap then stare up with big brown eyes.

"Alright. Get up here." He motioned to Tora.

The tabby hopped up into Masamune's lap and immediately began purring, prompting Masamune to stroke his furry stripes.

Suddenly, the gray cat was ignoring Yukimura's continued pettings and just stared at Masamune with a quiet growl.

"Tsuki?!" Yukimura's petting hand suddenly froze.

The gray cat had snatched the tabby from Masamune's lap and dragged him by the scruff, to who knows where.

"Hm." Masamune watched with his arm slung over the back of his chair. "Yer right, Yuki. That cat's pretty smart."