Unlike the last chapter, I am perfectly proud of this one. Generally. It cheered me up, I was considering to put in a Halloween chapter at the last moment (seeing as it's halloween today) but then decided agaisn't it. It would take me too long to write one up and I want to stare at the trick-or-treaters from my bedroom window some more. (Not I'm not a petifile -.-)
YAY! 52 REVIEWS! (50 would sound so much better...) That's even better than sitting around eating the chocolate I'm supposed to be handing out and drinking diet pepsi! Thanks you guys!!
I'm not completely sure if cats see in black and white like dogs, but I think they do. Correct me if I'm wrong. Happy Halloween!
Disclaimer: Look, I'm a social life wannabe who's waiting for her friends to come by her house so she can throw candy at them. Do you really think I own TMM??
Emerald eyes snapped open. Her body felt…damp, clammy, and yet warm.
She sniffed the air experimentally; the air smelt so dull, the scents of the world around her small.
What she saw also was different; spikes of…bright confusing things invaded her vision, making her eyes hurt so she closed them.
She sighed and sifted closer to the only source of warmth and settled down into a deep, peaceful sleep.
Blue eyes blinked slowly, registering the fact that warm sunlight was pouring onto his face.
"Hnn…" He moaned, shuffling deeper under the covers, shoving his face deep below the blankets.
His face came into contact with something soft, fleshy and warm. He blinked his eyes open pale pink filled his vision.
Since when were his blankets pink…?
His mind worked very slowly, then something clicked loudly in his brain.
He lurched backwards and fell out of his bed, landing with a very audible thunk. The 'something' on his bed stirred restlessly.
A very red-face Ryou slowly approached the bed, as if it might bite him.
He leaned over the lump on his bed.
Yup. This may become awkward for poor Ryou.
She rolled over, blonde hair splaying across the pillow, slowly jade eyes blinked up at him.
She sighed and got on her knees. She stretched like a cat, working out the kinks in her body.
The sheet wasn't being very nice to Ryou.
The blanket slipped slowly off her as she stretched and yawned hugely.
The blonde boy spun and grabbed his bathrobe. He practically chucked it at the girl.
When he dared to look back over she was curled up on the robe, settling down for sleep.
Well… I think Ryou is going to have a lot of fun this morning, don't you agree?
After a long, uncomfortable ten minutes Ryou had the blonde girl in his bathrobe and trotting after him down into the basement.
He plucked a strand of her long, blonde hair from her head; she emitted a soft, 'ah!' noise in pain, wincing slightly.
Ryou turned away from her and placed the hair on the DNA scanner.
As his fingers found the appropriate keys almost immediately something pressed against his leg.
A very human Hitomi rubbed her cheek on his leg, trying to purr.
A very pink Ryou turned back to his computer. Oh he was going to fix this, before anything else embarrassing happened.
Blue eyes glare daggers at green ones, blinking back innocently.
Okay, so what if the DNA scans were useless? So what if there wasn't even a trace of cat DNA in her? So what if he was slowly losing his sanity?
Yes, poor Ryou was having a very stressful morning.
Sighing he dropped his hand from his forehead and looked at the human closely. No, he wasn't trying to extend his knowledge from 'the talk' he had received a few years back. He just wanted to see what she looked like.
Hitomi had shoulder-length pale blonde hair, wide innocent jade eyes, and a cute button nose.
Her chin was stubborn and her pale lips were curved into a soft, content smile, she was curled up and already half asleep.
He groaned and turned away from her, his chair spinning slowly in reaction to his movements and squeaking loudly.
'Mental note to self: get new office chair,' He noted in his head for maybe the seventh time that month.
A soft sound, maybe an attempt at a meow came form his bed, he turned slightly to look over his shoulder.
Hitomi cocked her head to one side, and tried again to use her voice box.
"What?" Ryou asked tiredly, he couldn't be sure she would understand him like she did when she was a cat.
Another attempt at the use of her voice, and Hitomi was losing patience.
Ryou was about to slam his head onto his desk surface when his stomach grumbled hungrily.
"…Oh…"
"Hey Ryou, where's Hitomi?" Keiichiro asked form the kitchen, the man had already finished eating his own breakfast and was cleaning up.
"Uh…I don't know really," Ryou replied nervously, piling extra sausages onto his plate in a hurry.
"Really? She usually shows up first thing in the morning…" Keiichiro appeared in the doorway.
"Uh, Ryou? Why are you taking extra food?"
The brunette earned himself a glare as the blonde spun and turned, stalking towards the stairs he bumped into a curious Hitomi.
Ryou gripped the cat-girl's arm and yanked her up to his room again.
"Here," He shoved a serving of food at the girl. Blinking rapidly she plucked up a piece of bacon in her teeth and ate it happily.
Ryou sat down on his chair next to her and closed his eyes. Now what? Try to hide her in his bedroom for the day, waiting for her to change back to a cat? That didn't sound too great.
"Gyah?" A soft, slightly scratchy voice asked him from somewhere below his knee. Ryou didn't dare look down.
"I guess we have to get you some clothes," He sighed.
A slightly red Ryou led Hitomi out of his bedroom and out a back door from the café.
The cat-girl was wearing a pair of his pants hanging loosely from her waist, held up by a tight belt.
A baggy T-shirt hung off her thin shoulders, hiding her lack of proper woman undergarments slightly.
His blush got slightly brighter, that was something he was dreading. How was he, a sixteen-year-old boy, supposed to buy her a-a-a…girl…chest…thing…
His mind subconsciously avoided the word. An immediate thing it did.
"Hey Ryou! Great morning huh? It's going to be a good weekend!"
The blonde froze and twitched visibly. Lettuce was walking his way, waving, a small smile on her face.
Ryou did the only thing he could thing of, while on edge from all the scary thoughts of girl underwear and mugged up with the vivid memory of dressing Hitomi.
Ryou spun around and ran, Hitomi dangling off his arm, clinging to his hand nervously.
He stopped once the pink-palace was out of view, hidden by the trees in the park. Panting he braced his free hand on his knee then wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead.
"Ryou? What are you doing here?" The blond straightened immediately.
Zakuro blinked at him, one hand propped on a designer purse dangling from her shoulder.
Almost groaning he turned and ran again, this time toward the shops that littered the near-by streets.
---------------------------------------------
"Uh, umm…Excuse me?" Ryou nervously approached a slightly plump, spunky looking older woman, somewhere in her thirties straightening a rack of clothes.
"Hmm? What is it son?" She asked in a jazzy voice, turning around to face the flustered teen.
"Well…Umm, you see my friend here needs some," He waved his hands slightly, trying in vain to get his point across, "Uh, clothes,"
The woman looked past him to Hitomi, dressed in his baggy spare clothes.
"Heck she does! What kind are you looking for?" She asked, turning to face the blonde again.
Ryou's face went pink.
"Uh, well," He flustered for a way to tell this woman what he was looking for, "Clothes,"
"Yes we've established that," She nodded slightly impatiently.
"No she needs, umm, girl clothes," Ryou strained the words, his eyes pleading for the woman to understand.
"What do you expect the girl to wear?" The woman asked, raising one eyebrow.
"No she needs clothes only…uh, umm… Developed girl wear…" Ryou said desperately, flailing his hands wildly.
The woman blinked at him stupidly for a moment, and then it clicked.
"Oh…You mean she needs a bra!" She said loudly. Ryou's face tried to imitate a tomato, "Yes, yes I'll handle that, you just sit over there," She waved one hand to a chair in the very most corner of the store.
"Come on honey, let's get you properly equipped," The woman said, ushering a confused Hitomi away to a corner of the store Ryou really didn't want to go to.
Half an hour passed while the woman, introduced as Iona, fussed and fitted Hitomi with the 'proper equipment' along with a small pile of clothes.
Ryou tried to block out Iona's cries of joy and flattery toward Hitomi 'Lucky thing' was fine but 'Well look at those speed bumps!' made Ryou's face change into various shades of red and pink.
By the end of it Hitomi clumsily held onto a pile of clothes, blinking at Ryou, as if asking 'what's going on?'
Iona helped Hitomi into a light blue skirt and soft pink shirt (the woman had also had to help her into her under clothes as well), for the way home and threw out Ryou's clothes that she had been wearing earlier.
Ryou tried not to twitch. Those…were his… favorite pants…
The bill Iona handed him after was surprisingly small, considering the amount of clothing Hitomi held now in a big pink bag.
"Come back soon!" Iona called after the pair as they exited the store. Ryou twitched, 'Not likely…'
They trudged back to the café, and snuck in through the back door they had used to get out earlier and Ryou led the cat girl up to his room.
He took the bag from her hands and stuffed it under his bed then trotted downstairs, after sternly instructing Hitomi to stay upstairs.
He appeared in the café and immediately got a strange look from Zakuro and a shyly offended one from Lettuce.
Blue eyes blinked. 'Oh yeah…'
"Shirogane! Hold it!" Ichigo stopped him from walking downstairs, "What's up? You weren't around to open up and Zakuro and Lettuce both say you ran away from them!"
The five girls nodded in union. It was almost frightening how they could do that perfectly.
Ryou turned away from the mews and was about to go into the basement anyways when something stopped him.
"Gyah…?"
A blue eye twitched.
Not. Good.
Hee hee... Mini cliffie! Oh who's that yelling outside!! (runs to window) ...Drat, it's not my friends... Oh yeah, they don't know where I live exactly... -.- damn. Here ((flings candy mercilessly at reviwers)) I'm grumpy. Leave me alone...