Chapter 8: Familiar Faces: Erotica: Egoist


Disclaimer: I do not own Sekia ichi Hatsukoi, Junjou Romantica, Freezing Flame or any of these stories' characters.


Sekai ichi "Cat"sukoi

Chapter Eight: Familiar Faces

Takano finally pushed into the store. He saw Sato standing across the room; she was helping an auburn-haired man pick out a pet. "I'll be with you in a minute, Takano-san," The she called.

The editor nodded in acknowledgement.

Sato returned to assisting the man she was with. She'd been trying to help him reach a decision for some time now. "Well now, Kamijou-san, have you decided?" He was choosing between a pair of non-neko hybrids, a shaggy black inu and a silver hare.

"I'm still not sure if I should be doing this," Hiroki murmured. His eyes narrowed as he considered the two pets. He was looking at hybrids on the recommendation of his therapist. The doctor had told him that pets were therapeutic and that he'd feel better with some companionship.

"The Usami rabbit… I know you said has excellent breeding. But you also said he smokes?"

"Yes," Sato said keeping an eye on Takano who was now pacing over by the counter. "That's what the pound said, though we've done pretty well by feeding him nicotine pellets."

"And you say he likes literature and writes as well?"

"Yes."

"Hmmm, that is appealing, but I deal with that in my professional life so much already and Dr. Kobayashi said I need to diversify my interests." Hiroki frowned.

"Well then, the canine hybrid might be the way to go," Sato offered. "And Nowaki-chan is very social. He'd draw you out into the world more. The Usami is quite reclusive by nature I've heard."

"And… erm… they're both semes?" Hiroki asked blushing quite a bit at his own question.

"Assuredly," Sato replied, pretending not to notice Kamijou-san's discomfort.

Hiroki looked between the two pens again. The lavender-eyed rabbit was pointedly ignoring him, which really rather appealed to him. But Hiroki also remembered his therapist pointing out the fact he often chose companions who were unattainable because then he didn't have to deal with the realities of intimacy.

Sighing at how annoying it was to be working with such a perceptive professional, Hiroki looked back over at the inu. The dog hybrid was pressing up against the mesh of the pen; all but bouncing up and down at the prospect he might be his new owner.

The handsome inu hybrid mix, Hiroki had to admit, was very stirring. His every muscle was visible (well, quite not every) in the tight shorts and black tanked-tee,. But there was also something in the dog man's sweet face and extraordinary blue gaze that struck Hiroki as so sad. He found himself wishing that he could just make the big lug happy. Besides who could resist those puppy dog eyes?

"And you say the Kusama's done growing?"

"Well, he was a stray, abandoned as a pup, and most likely a mix… but that's what the pound thought he was predominantly. So yes, Kamijou-san, he should be at his full height now," Sato assured.

"I'll take the inu," Hiroki said finally, after another minute of looking between the two hybrids.

"Really, Hiro-san?" Nowaki's normally floppy black ears were almost standing straight up as Sato went to open his pen. The moment he was freed the huge hybrid glomped his new owner and began nuzzling the smaller man's neck. Nowaki's tail wagged frantically.

"That's Kamijou-san to you," Hiroki snapped regretting he'd offered both his names in his introduction. He pushed the big inu off (though secretly he rather liked the feel of the dog man pressed against him).

A few swats with a rolled newspaper by Sato quickly subdued the Kusama. "Please forgive him for his excitement, Kamijou-san." Sato smiled apologetically. "But Nowaki-chan's been waiting a long time to be adopted."

"As long as he doesn't make a habit of it."

"Wow that's a really good growl, Hiro-san," Nowaki looked at Hiroki with open admiration. "Will you teach me how to do that?"

"There are some things one just can't teach," the rejected silver-back rabbit drawled from his pen. He'd been watching the proceedings with a look of open disdain on his face. The Usami turned back to the novel he was reading. He couldn't care less that Kamijou-san hadn't adopted him. He was waiting for that lovely man, Takahiro, who'd been visiting him the last few days, to return. The spectacled businessman had been making noises about getting a pet for his younger brother for Christmas.

Akihiko didn't fancy that notion much either really, belonging to some brat. But at least it meant he'd most likely be getting to live with Takahiro, which was all he really cared about anyway.

"Kiku-kun, will you please come assist Kamijou-san with his purchase?" Sato-san called to her assistant. "Takano–san is here and I want to show him something in the back."

As Kiku stepped up to help Hiroki, Sato motioned to Takano. He quickly moved to met her at the door that led into the back of the shop.


Kisa had been sitting in the window enclosure, rocking back and forth nervously as he waited for his new owner to return. He was dressed in one of the pet shop issued sweat suits and there was a sold sign now taped to the glass proclaiming his new designation.

It was a very strange feeling for Kisa to think that after so long being feral, he was going to have a legal owner again. While there was a part of him that was incredibly nervous at the thought, another part of him was equally anxious that at the last minute Yukina might change his mind.

Now that he'd had an owner, Kisa had felt a bit braver, so he was sitting out in the middle of the window where he was visible. That way he could see Yukina better anyway. He'd been tracking the bookseller's movements all afternoon. Every now and then Yukina would look over where Kisa was sitting and smile and wave. While this attention from his new seme was reassuring, it was also embarrassing as the young ladies Yukina was assisting would immediately look over in his direction. When that happened the neko would blush so hard he was sure that it must be visible all the way across the street.

Kisa was just recovering from yet another Yukina salute, when he looked up from his blush and his eye's caught those of a man ambling along the sidewalk. He would have noticed the man anyway as his garb made him stand out: his mode of dress was not Japanese; in fact it was distinctly Arabian.

Kisa's eyes met the silver-haired foreigner's startlingly light-gray gaze. There was an instant flicker of recognition on the man's face.

"Shit!" Kisa exclaimed and made a beeline for his favored darkened corner. That didn't dissuade the man at all. He strode into the pet store, the bell over the door announcing his arrival.

"I'll be with you in a minute, as soon as I finish with this customer," Kiku called from the desk fluttering her eyes at the handsome man. She'd tried flirting with Kamijou-san earlier, but observing the size of the seme he was leaving with, that was obviously an exercise in futility. Given the afternoon they'd been having, the shop assistant was beginning to wonder if there were any straight people left in Tokyo at all.

Prince Sheriku gave Kiku a graceful nod and slipped over to the window pen. "I saw you there, Kisa-chan. No good hiding," he called out.

"God damn it," Kisa muttered. It would have to be now, just before Yukina got here that he would have to encounter one of his former feral fucks.

Sheriku was a prince who visited Tokyo occasionally on business. Kisa had picked up the man at a party held for one of the authors his house represented. The guy was handsome and he seemed nice enough, if somewhat "foreign." They'd gone back to Sheriku's hotel and Kisa had let the man tie him up and fuck him (he'd been going through a light S and M phase at the time). Next thing he knew, after a few glasses of wine, he'd woken up in a crate about to be loaded on the Prince's private plane: headed back to wherever the hell it was the man had come from.

Fortunately Kisa had escaped by employing his well-honed feral skills. The neko had completely forgotten about the experience until this unfortunate reminder had appeared. After all, it wasn't like that was the first time that something like that had happened to him.

Kisa reluctantly crawled out. The black fur on his tail and his ears was markedly fluffed in agitation.

Prince Sheriku peered at the catman through the mesh. "Ah, Kisa-chan, I thought that was you."

"Sheriku-san," Kisa greeted flatly, his ears pinned back.

"Why, Kisa-chan. How you wound me, Kitten, sounding so cold. And here I thought you'd finally reformed," Sheriku purred.

"What the hell do you mean by that?"

The prince motioned to the motion sensor over the door and Kisa noted with chagrin that when Kiku had put him back in his pen the stupid woman hadn't bothered to reactivate the shock sensor. Kisa was stunned to realize that he'd been so focused on Yukina that he hadn't even thought about escaping from the pet store once that whole afternoon.

"So, what do you say I buy you the most expensive leash in the store and we get you back home, Kitten?" The foreign prince smiled lewdly.

"I know you can read Japanese," Kisa snapped. "So didn't you see the sign in the window? It says SOLD."

"How can they sell you when you belong to me, Pet?" Sheriku asked, completely disregarding the increasingly fierce expression on the neko's face or how dark Kisa's brown eyes had grown.

"I don't belong to you!" Kisa snarled. He was unprepared for Sheriku's next move, however.

The prince suddenly threw open the door to the enclosure and grabbed Kisa, who during their conversation had drawn quite close, firmly by the wrist. Sheriku pulled him forcefully out of the pen.

"We'll see about that." The prince's grin widened.


Outside Yukina was coming up the walk. His shift was over and he couldn't wait to pick up Kisa-san and get his new neko home. The cinnamon-haired youth noticed immediately that the Kisa wasn't in the window. He shrugged to himself figuring that one of the shopkeepers must have taken him out, so he'd be ready to go. Especially since he had mentioned earlier when he expected to be back to pick Kisa-san up.

Yukina held the door open for a smaller man with coloring similar to his own. The fellow was trying to exit the pet shop without being bounded over by the energetic leashed inu hybrid he'd obviously just purchased. (Unlike nekos, inus had to be leashed in public unless they were service dogs.)

Yukina watched the pair with a smile. No sooner had the two males exited the shop than the inu picked his new owner up and tried to carry the man.

"Put me down, Nowaki, I am perfectly capable of walking!" Hiroki snapped as he flailed about trying to get out of the black seme dog's grasp.

Nowaki's wagging tail showed that he wasn't taking his new owner's protests all that seriously.

"But you said you were tired, Hiro-san."

"I'm tired of you pawing me already!"

"But, Hiro-san, we just got out of the store."

"Maybe I made a mistake getting you." Hiroki muttered.

This caused Nowaki to set the struggling man down immediately. His ears dropped and his wildly wagging tail stilled and took on a slight between-the-legs curl.

"Do you mean that, Hiro-san?" Nowaki said looking forlornly at his new owner. The tiniest bit of canine whine edged his words.

Seeing the hangdog expression on the handsome hybrid's face and those big puppy, blue eyes looking back at him, Hiroki looked down. "N…no," he growled, blushing brightly.

He looked up at Nowaki, "But let me walk okay? Having you carry me is ridiculously embarrassing and I have my pride!"

"Okay!" Nowaki barked happily, all the sorrow of the previous moment seemingly forgotten.

The two males started walking again down the sidewalk, side by side.

"You're getting a bath when I get you home, Nowaki. You smell like the pet shop," Hiroki sniffed.

"Ohhh baths, my favorites, Hiro-san!" Nowaki's tail gave a magnificent sweep and he took his new owner's hand. "Will you take it with me?"

"Oh hell no!" Hiroki snapped but he didn't pull away. Then about thirty seconds later he looked down at the big paw holding his hand. He cleared his throat and amended, "well maybe."


Yukina watched the disappearing pair. He hoped that he and Kisa would be that happy. The grin left his handsome face, however, when he entered the pet shop and saw the scene playing out before him by the window enclosure.

Kiku was beside herself. Sato-san was in the back and this insane foreign prince was going crazy over the Kisa.

Kisa was frantically trying to worm out of the rabid Saudi seme's grasp. "I don't belong to you Sheriku! It was a onetime fuck… you don't even have any papers binding me to you!"

"How dare you speak so impudently," the spoiled sheik growled. He raised his hand to knock some manners into the rebellious neko only to find his drawn arm clutched in a powerful grasp.

"Kisa-san is my neko," Yukina declared with his own seme growl.

Sheriku released Kisa, just in time to be knocked on his royal ass by the angry bookseller. The stunned Prince looked up. "I will pay you ten times what you paid for the Kisa if you sell him to me."

"No," Yukina said flatly.

"Twenty times!" Sheriku offered.

"No."

"Fifty?"

Kisa was beside himself. This was getting ridiculous. There was no way Yukina was going to be able to hold out on such an offer for an old fuck feral like himself. Kisa gasped however when even at this offer Yukina said no.

"Look, I'll give you a hundred times what you paid for him!"

Kisa held his breath as Yukina squatted down to be on eye level with the toppled prince.

"I don't think you understand," Yukina said forcefully, "Kisa-san is my neko and we're quite lovey-dovey. So no amount of money that you offer is going to be enough for me to sell him. It other words, find your own pet. This one's taken."

Yukina raised his fiery gaze to Kiku. "Papers," he said simply.

The shop assistant flew to the counter to grab the Kisa's adoption documents and ran back, thrusting them into Yukina's hands as he rose.

"What about shock collars and leashes?" Kiku asked breathlessly. "Sato-san wanted to talk to about them before you left."

The young woman all but wilted under Yukina's sparkle-less frown. He reached over and took Kisa's hand. The slender neko normally abhorred public displays of affection, but he thought it wisest not to mention this at the moment.

"Tell Sato-san, I won't be needing ANY of those things," Yukina pulled his new neko to him as he began heading towards the door. "Come on, Kisa-san," Yukina said in a voice that was suddenly much gentler. Looking down at the stunned catman, his sparkles slowly began to flicker again.

"Let's go home."


Thank you for all the new alerts and favorites, they please me almost as much as reviews. I am delighted to see some old names back again too. Thank you also for all of you who have left reviews telling me how glad you are to see this fic back. It is a wonderful homecoming.


So I threw something in here for my Egoist stalkers. I know you're out there.

And Freezing Flame's Prince Sheriku can be found in the last couple volumes of that title on mangafox. If you like tied up masochistic ukes it's a pretty fun series. Anyway I put him in for my darling Flamingo after her comment on the number of foreign princes she's encountered in her wide yaoi wanderings.

Just a note, in case anyone is bothered by the use of the terms seme, and uke, yaoi and yuri, as they occur in this fic, I just wanted to offer and explanation.

I understand that these are genre terms and do not mean the same as top, bottom, sub, dom, gay, lesbian, etc. I also know that it is a general rule that good yaoi FF does not use these terms in the actual text. Please note that all my other stories abide by this convention and that these designations only occur in my neko fics and the Uke Flu.

The Neko and the Flu worlds are AU and so here, these terms are part of everyday language and of the culture of these worlds. That is why they are used in this tale and why they occur with such relative frequency.