I settled on a name! I got a couple of interesting suggestions, particularly one person thought it would be cool if Chuuya named Katelyn the Japanese name that shared her names meaning. In that case it would have been Jun, but I decided on this one :) I'll post the reasoning in the next chapter, but if you want you're free to guess!
"Ah, good morning sir! Good morning Kame!"
Nanami, a young woman who seemed more like a secretary than a member of the mafia, dipped a bow towards them when they walked into the building. She had her arms full of suitcases that smelled like gunpowder and grease. She was a veritable gofer, but she popped up all over the place and she seemed very, very fond of Chuuya.
Kat, the newly dubbed 'Kame', didn't blame her. He was pretty, he was powerful, and he liked cats.
Chuuya waved her off and she straightened up. Kame watched her tuck her hair behind her ear and bit her lip as they passed by.
Kat almost pitied her. Girl had it bad.
Kat trotted along behind Chuuya. She was feeling more and more at home in the tall glass buildings. Ever since Chuuya finally caved and admitted that she was now his cat she had gone with him almost everywhere. At night she slept on his couch, or one of the window sills, and in the morning he came out and made breakfast for the both of them before they walked to the offices. Kat spent the day hunting bugs or the occasional mouse and bothering whoever came close enough to catch her eye while Chuuya worked. Sometimes it was in his office, sometimes it was in the lower levels, but he hadn't had to go out on the streets recently.
Then at the end of the day they would go home. Chuuya, it turned out, read poetry at night and was perfectly willing to abuse his powers if it meant playing with a cat trying to reach a ball of feathers floating in the air.
It had been a couple of weeks, and everyone was used to Chuuya's new tag along. Today, once they reached the floor where the upper-offices were she had to stop. Her ears pricked up and her tail lifted.
She could hear something down the opposite hallway than their usual one.
Chuuya paused at his door when he realized she wasn't following him.
"Don't get into trouble," he ordered, and shut the door behind him.
Kat flicked her tail at him and turned to follow her ears. It was a rough, rattling sound that human ears wouldn't be able to pick up.
The doors all had handles, which was a terrible design if someone was around velociraptors or cats.
Kat jumped up and caught the handle with her paws. She quietly pulled it open and slipped inside. It, like most of the others, closed quietly behind her. The room was another office, this one was smaller and much more spartan, but it was equipped with a fainting couch. A seetee? She wasn't sure. A long black coat hung from a hook.
The rattling sound turned out to be breathing.
On the fainting couch laid a kid on his back, with one arm draped across his eyes and his mouth open with rough, wet breathing.
Octagon Man.
That's right. He's been sick for a long time.
Kat eyed his black coat distrustfully for a moment before she hopped up on the edge of the couch. She spent a few minutes watching the boy before her. And really, when he was like this, he looked his age. He was twenty, and he'd spent most of his life fighting this sickness.
Well.
She'd heard somewhere that cat's were good for this sort of thing, weren't they?
Kat prodded his other arm with her paw and meowed at him.
He barely grunted, but that turned into a couple of weak coughs.
As long as he didn't take a swipe at her…
Kat climbed carefully on top of him. The soft ruffles of his white undershirt felt way too cold under her paws, and he was skinny to boot. Idly, she kneaded his chest before she lay down on top of him in a loaf.
"What do you think you're-"
Kat placed her fuzzy chin on his collarbone and thought about warm blankets on cold days, and hot toddy's in winter time. She thought about soft grass and summer sun, and all the things that made her feel good and happy. She thought of Chuuya and his resigned fondness.
A deep pur rumbled up through her body.
She focused on Akutagawa, and his rattling lungs, and sunk against him.
Slowly, his breathing started to ease and grow deeper. His arm fell away and half off of the couch, and his dark eyes closed.
He slept, while Kat kept watch. The warm sunshine streamed in onto the pair of them and the city passed by in a symphony of rushing cars and clattering feet. The lives of millions of people moved on outside.
How many of them knew what went on inside this building? Was the headquarters well known? Or did most people just assume that they were some kind of office building? Or a corporation? The Port Mafia was pretty clearly well known the community, if people at the grocery store recognized Chuuya on sight.
Movement pulled her attention away from the window and the flashes of life outside of it.
Out of Akutogawa's long black coat popped a very small blob.
It was all black, with a squiggly tail behind it. Two red eyes and a jagged red line made up its face.
Kat blinked at it.
It looked up at her.
"Mrow?" The fuck?
Was that… Rashomon?
It was adorable.
Very carefully she stood up on Akutogawa's chest. Her tail twitched. Her butt wiggled.
She launched herself off of Akutogawa and pounced at Rashomon.
It scrambled out of her way, darting across the room with Kat hot on its tail. Outside of the coat it was little, but still swift. It cut through the air and raced away from her, but Kat was right on its tail.
Kat had to bounce off of a bookshelf when it banked too hard and a cup of pens spilled out onto the ground. Rashomon bounced off of the ground and up onto the couch where it shoved itself into Akutogawa's white shirt.
Kat stopped at the edge of the couch and looked at the fluffy white shirt. She pawed at the scarf bit near his throat. Rashomon didn't come out to play with her.
Lame.
Kat grumbled unhappily and went up to lay around Akutogawa's dark hair like a fuzzy halo. She draped her tail across his throat and glowered at the mount of white cloth where Rashomon was hiding out. It flickered briefly with red lightning before settling again.
Akutogawa held onto things like no other, but Rashomon didn't seem like it had a grudge. It was weird. Weirder still since she didn't know that Rashomon even had a mind of its own.