Author's Note:
We're Back! Darker Halloween The Sequel 2021 on ff dot net and AO3. A bunch of amazing authors took part in this event; please kindly check out their Halloween oneshot (posting from now until All Hallow's Eve) and their other fics if they suit your tastes. Please heed their Warnings too, thank you! Some are horror - truly horrifying in some cases - and some are kinky. All are offered for your trick-or-treating pleasure. In no particular order, contributors are:
NekoPantera, Alastair, Kamil The Awesome, Kairomone, Phoenixreal, Tartarun, AsgardianHobbit98, SerenaJones585, PhantomGypsy13, GustavonkaLondon, TsukikoUchu, ZoroSharingan, i_am_kira
An extra special thank you and all hail to NekoPantera and Seth's Kiss who managed to herd all these cats into one posting event. To do it once was stunning, but twice? You guys are Gods!
"We open up at six in the morning and you're always already waiting in front of the door at 5:45." The handsome blonde man stepped out of the shadow of the alley, surprising Otogi.
"Oh! Uh, hi. Yeah," he laughed. "What can I say? Your coffee is amazing."
"Best in the world. We serve only pure Kopi Luwak."
"Yes." Otogi smiled awkwardly. "I know. It's amazing that you can keep your prices so reasonable."
It was a scam that they kept their prices where they were - low for 'real' civet coffee, but higher than any other coffee shop in the city. It did taste like the real thing - which, frankly, Otogi thought was weak and too sweet - but that was chilling. That implied that it was real civet coffee.
Kopi Lowak was coffee made from beans that had been eaten and 'voided' by civet cats. The biological process fermented the beans in a way human processing couldn't match. It was also insanely expensive to find the beans in the wild, making a good cup of the beverage average around $60. This shop sold it for $10.
There was a way that price could be legit - if they used captive animals. Most countries where civets were common had no laws governing animal treatment. 'Abuse' wasn't strong enough to cover some of the things that were done.
It was a topic that had left a mark on Otogi. It had been his first investigation as an intern with a reporter who covered corporate dirty secrets. To find a store in his own home town that was abusing animals to that degree was horrifying. He didn't want to see animals suffering like that again, but he knew he'd have to in order to bring this story to light. To shut these monsters down.
He knew they had civets on site. Twice he'd seen them, both times near the front of the store, both times around 5:45am. He was just about to search for a back entrance when this, the store manager, seemed to melt out of the shadow where the animal had disappeared.
And the blonde bombshell was possibly the biggest monster of them all. Just because he was tan with golden hair and chocolate eyes didn't mean he wasn't the devil. In fact, that made it worse. How dare he be hot and cruel? It was even more of an outrage!
Blondie grinned. "Let me guess. You want to know how we can serve the real deal so cheap."
"I know. You could tell me, but you'd have to kill me."
"Well, maybe. What do the French call it? La petite mort?" Otogi's demure was only half art. "We do got a secret, one I only share with close friends and family."
"Oh?" It wasn't hard to guess where this conversation was going. "Am I close?"
"You're a regular, but, honestly? I don't even know your name. I mean, we just call you 'long green hot'."
"LGH." Otogi blushed slightly as he nodded. "I thought that was an abbreviation for my order. Otogi. My name's Otogi."
"Long black hair, pretty green eyes, hot ass. I'll bet you make pretty babies. Otogi. I'll remember that. I'm Jounouchi. My friends call me Jou."
"Ok, Jou. Are we friends now?"
"Sure, Otogi." Jou put his hand on the door. "Come on in, friend. I'll buy you a cup. But, uh, that's not what my close friends and family call me. I don't share my secrets with just anybody."
"Of course not." Otogi unclipped his hair, letting its full length drape past his shoulders. If Jou wanted to flirt, he could absolutely play that game. "So what do your intimate relations call you?"
Jou's eyes flicked down and up again before returning to his eyes. "Intimate, pretty kitty? My family calls me Suya. But they're not y'know, intimate. Do your intimate relations call you Otogi?"
"No." He took a couple slow steps forward, closing most of the gap between them. "Ryuji. Yuji to a very. Select. Few."
"Yuji," Jou said. Purred almost. "Well, Yuji, my most intimate relations - the ones I share my secrets with - call me Ka. As is 'Ka-ka-ka'," he panted.
"I see." Otogi could totally believe that. He could totally hear himself calling the blonde beauty that. "Well then, Kaaa-," he gasped, "-kaa-ooh-kaaa, tell me a secret."
Jou's grin turned feral. "Yeah, pretty kitty. I'm gonna tell you everything."
Inside, the cafe was quiet and dark. For an establishment about to open, it looked unprepared for the morning rush. Jou went behind the counter and turned on several machines. He set about making a fresh pot of coffee. While he worked, he set a bowl of red berries on the counter and took a handful to nibble on.
"Are those coffee cherries?" Otogi asked.
"Yeah. Just got them yesterday. My cousin ships them to us from home. We get all our coffee from him."
"Oh, so he sends you the processed beans?"
Jou grinned at him. "Drink first, secrets later." He grabbed another handful of cherries. "Try some."
Otogi took a few and bit into one carefully, mindful of the cherry pit. The skin was thin and bitter but the fruit inside was a sweet cross between a watermelon and a peach. He pulled the raw coffee bean out of his mouth and looked for someplace to put it.
"Just swallow it," Jou chuckled, taking a few more cherries.
"I thought they were indigestible." Jou shrugged and Otogi put the bean on the counter. "I'll pass."
"You want secrets? Swallow it. It just passes through your system after a couple days. I mean I could tell you stuff all day, but you want to understand? Y'know, intimate knowledge?"
Otogi frowned. Obviously this was a test. The raw bean was larger than a multivitamin, but not that much larger. He took another cherry and after he finished the fruit, forced himself to swallow. He ate two more just to make the point.
Jou smiled. It was warm and seductive and somehow dangerous.
"Here." He poured two cups of coffee. "Taste."
It was undoctored Kopi Lowak. Too weak and slightly sweet, without the acidic bite or depth that made coffee drinkable. "Mmm."
Jou snorted. "It's shit."
"What?"
"That's the light roast. That's the sweet shit we use to make all the dessert flavors with. The people who drink that want melted ice cream anyway." He moved the two cups and poured two more from a different pot. It was still a bit sweet for Otogi but it was at least drinkable. "This is the standard roast. I mean, it's OK, right? But it's not a $100 cup."
He poured two new cups. "Now, this is my roast." Still sweet, but there was a hint of the fruit. Richer than the other two versions. Not the best cup in the world, but it was good. Considerably better than the first two. "So, why is mine better than the rest?"
"Better beans, better roasting?"
"That's what I tell people." He grinned.
"But that's not the secret."
"Still want to know what it is?"
"I'm dying of curiosity."
Jou put another cup of coffee in front of him. This one had a foam coffee bean. "Your regular." Otogi sipped. It even had the perfect amount of nutmeg.
"Katsuya-nii," a young woman's voice called out. "Are we still going hunting today because - oh! Uh, hi."
She was high-school aged, which matched her uniform. Otogi had seen her before, covering the register for the first hour of the morning.
In her arms she carried a civet.
"Otogi Ryuji, my sister, Shizuka, and my brother, Honda."
"Hi, Otogi-san," she said with a slight bow. She waved the civet's paw as the animal bleated. "Say hi, Honda-kun."
"Nice to officially meet you, Shizuka-san," Otogi replied.
"Otogi wants to know why our coffee's so good, so I'm going to give him a tour of the pit."
The civet bleated again and Shizuka looked shocked. "The pit? Seriously?"
"He wants to know my secrets."
"No," Shizuka said, shaking her head, "you really don't."
"Why? Does it involve hurting animals?"
The girl looked offended. "Of course not!"
"Then why not?"
She looked at him for a moment, then tsked and rolled her eyes. "Nii-san, if we aren't going, can Honda and I go to the park?"
Jou grinned at Otogi. "Shop's closed today 'cause we had a family thing. But if you want the full tour, I can put it off."
"I don't want to intrude."
"Totally your call, but the tour is a one time offer." Jou leered. "I might not be in the mood to be intimate later."
They were both looking at him and Otogi weighed the possibility that this was just flirting versus an animal rights expose. "Alright. Today, then. I want to know all your secrets while you're in the mood to share." He ate another cherry.
Jou's smile grew slowly. "Ok. Drink up." He turned off the coffee makers. "Zuka, do me a favor and clean up for me."
"But -"
"Clean up for me and you can have the whole day. Go to the park, watch Netflix, have kits for all I care."
She huffed. "So gross." She turned and went through a door in the back of the store.
Jou chuckled. "Come on."
"You don't need to finish?"
"She'll come back and get it. She's a good kid." He came around the counter and offered Otogi his hand.
'If it was just sex, that wouldn't actually be bad,' he thought, taking the offering. 'God, he's hot.'
Next to the store's bathroom was a storage room stacked with boxes of paper products, dry goods, and Civet Home Coffee. On the far side of the room was another door.
"You know secrets are secret for a reason, right?" Jou looked at him, suddenly very serious. "We could go up to my room and just have a 'rest'."
"Or," Otogi countered, "we could have some 'rest' after you show me this pit. Maybe I wouldn't be in the mood to, uh, 'make babies' until I see it."
"Pretty kitty plays rough." Jou leaned forward and kissed him softly. Otogi could have avoided it. If he wanted to.
The kiss was flavored with coffee and coffee cherries and the heat that surged through Otogi as their lips met.
It was soft and brief. And then Jou turned and unlocked the door.
The stairs were pitch black and narrow. There was no railing and Otogi found his footing unsure. The door behind them had closed by itself and there seemed to be no light source along the stairway.
"Isn't this dangerous? What if someone fell?"
"Your eyes will adjust. And anyway, only the family comes here."
"I'm here," Otogi pointed out.
"It's not much further."
There were no landings or turns, just steps going down. Two floors? Three? He began to feel lightheaded and unsteady, as if the oxygen was getting thinner the further down they went. Was the pit where the animals were kept or where the bodies were buried? He'd asked about animal cruelty, not human.
"Last step," Jou said, and Otogi abruptly found his feet on a level floor. He stumbled anyway.
Around them was the faint smell of animals and manure.
'Jackpot,' he thought.
The scent grew fainter as they moved to the right and after what felt like spiraling for ages, Jou turned on a light.
"Welcome to the pit."
The room was a bit of a letdown. A circular space, with a hospital-style bed in the center. There were dressers or shelves or cribs…. furniture that slipped through Otogi's mind without clear identification. That didn't seem right but his thoughts didn't linger on it.
"This is the pit?"
"Well it's part of the pit?"
"Well it's the pits," Otogi heard himself giggle and tried to stop.
"This is the nice part of the pit." Jou moved against him. "It's the mating pit."
"Mating pit?" Otogi tried to pull away but leaned in closer. "You smell nice. Did you spike my coffee? You didn't have to do that. I was gonna fuck you anyway."
"You were?" Jou took a step forward, pushing Otogi back. "But I wanna fuck you, Yuji. I wanna mate you."
"Mate?" The word sounded familiar but it didn't have any meaning.
"Yeah, I need a new mate. We were gonna go hunting for someone I could breed but you showed up right on time." He nuzzled Otogi's neck, push forward again.
"I been hot for you even if you are a piece of shit animal abuser."
"Me? Abuse animals?" Jou began unbuttoning his shirt. Otogi felt his legs hit something and his head spun as he fell. "How do I abuse anything?"
Clothing was a nuance, Otogi thought, and removing it was a very good idea. Under his plain white shirt, Jou wore short, tan fur. It covered his chest and shoulders. Down his arms. Over his hips and down his legs. It was soft. Kitten soft.
"Good conditioner," Jou chuckled warmly as he nibbled Otogi's neck.
Jou's teeth were sharp. So were his claws.
"I'm sorry, Yuji. I'll be more careful."
His tail was long and fluffy.
Otogi thought about it. He was pretty sure he didn't remember Jou having a tail. He wasn't generally into toys, but all this fur was very sensual. The fur was sensual, the rounded triangle ears were cute.
"You are really weak to pheromones, aren't you, Yuji? Listen, it's gonna hurt when I bite you, ok? I can't really help that."
Otogi ran his fingers through the soft fur on Jou's arm. It occurred to him that Jou was already moving inside him, that somehow he'd missed all the foreplay and entry. Jou's fur was nice.
"I'm gonna breed you now." Jou's tongue lapped his neck and around his ear, then down his shoulder.
"I want fur," he whispered. "Black fur. Soft fur."
"You'd make a pretty civet, pretty kitty." Jou gasped and seemed to thrust harder. "God, I would love to turn you!"
"Harder," he groaned. "Deeper! Turn me, Ka, turn me, baby, deeper!"
Suddenly, it was as if fire was injected directly into his wrist. The burning was painful, but it was arousing, too. Like an orgasm rolling through his veins looking for a place to release. It passed through his heart and he thought he would stop breathing for a moment.
"Ka - ka - ka," the sensation burst out of his chest in all directions, stealing what little breath he had. The feeling was excruciating - beyond just pleasure, beyond even pain. He thought he was screaming but he really wasn't sure. Everything went white.
And then everything went.
Otogi woke with a sharp pain in his everywhere.
He was naked, in a room he didn't recognize, and with a bandage covering his left forearm from wrist to elbow.
'What the fuck?'
His memory was hazy. He did have sex, of that he was confident. Certain tell-tale aches told that story. Certain residual tingling, certain lingering brain chemicals told him he'd enjoyed it. And a certain vague feeling told him that there was more to it than that.
Like the fact that the bed had bars.
It was a hospital-style bed, but not a hospital-style room. In fact, the room looked rough-hewn. Like it had been carved out of a cave and furnished. The round walls were lined with short dressers and several bassinets. The bed linens were old. They had been washed at some point, probably, but they currently were stiff with dried bodily fluids and stained with too much dark red. Otogi looked at his bandaged arm.
It ached faintly. He could not remember any injury. He looked for the end of the bandage.
And almost jumped out of his own skin when a civet jumped on the bed beside him.
The animal looked at him, brown eyes bright, nose sniffing. Otogi watched the not-cat-not-badger-not-raccoon as it sniffed his arm and his belly. Then, apparently satisfied, it jumped down from the bed and crossed the room. It seemed to play with one of the dressers until a drawer opened and it retrieved a basket of coffee cherries. And Otogi's phone.
He stared at it for a moment before realizing he was naked and alone in an unknown place without his phone. He scrambled awkwardly over the bed rails and got the device. The civet seemed to glare at him as it took a last mouthful of cherries and left the room.
Inside the drawer, Otogi's clothes were neatly folded. He dressed quickly. He also realized he was utterly famished. His phone was dead, giving him no real idea how long he'd been wherever he was. He ate two cherries. They were sweet and almost orgasmicly satisfying. He ate a handful, hardly pausing to chew the fruit and just swallowing the seeds whole. His stomach roiled, feeling bloated. He stood and loosened his belt a notch.
'Questions later,' he thought. 'Let's just go home.'
There was no door, just an entranceway into a narrow hall that seemed to circle the room at least twice. It was dark with no identifiable light source, but Otogi could make out that the walls had the same carved appearance as the room itself. As he walked, he tried to remember anything that would tell him where he was.
Civets. He'd seen several of them. Not just the one that found his clothes. And he'd had a lot of good sex on a fur rug.
Ka. Ka meant something but what? Otogi hadn't the faintest clue.
He stopped short as the hall stopped circling and a wall appeared. To his left, in the distance, he could see light. There was a strong smell of ownership and coffee roasting, which grew stronger as he moved toward the light. It was putrid, but also sweet. Earthy and welcoming. He knew it was unfamiliar, but he also knew the stench was...home. It was strongest at a door he passed.
He could have opened it. He paused and considered the mixed emotions the mixed decay and coffee smell awoke. Opening the door might have answered questions about where he was and why. Maybe the answer to his investigation. He could have opened it, but instead he continued walking towards the light at the end of the hallway.
Then, he was at a chain link door. Beyond it was woodlands.
It was not locked although it did lock behind him. From outside, it looked like a maintenance shack built next to a mound of earth in the woods.
Or a park, he realized. Kids were playing in the distance. He followed the sound. Soon he came to a playground surrounded by woods on three sides and a hedge on the fourth. Several children gave him odd looks which he mostly ignored.
The group of mothers eyed him more suspiciously as he approached them.
"I don't suppose you could tell me where the nearest train station is," he asked them.
They exchanged a few looks. Otogi wondered how he looked and tried to smooth his hair. After a silent debate, one of the women gestured toward the hedge. "The station's about a kilometer that way, but you can usually catch a cab at this time of day at the bus stop."
Instinctively, he patted his pocket and breathed a sigh of relief that his wallet was there. "Perfect! Thanks."
A while later, he was in a car and on his way home.
It was a little after 1pm when Otogi was dropped off at his apartment building. In all honesty, he could have walked once he realized where he was. The playground was on the east side of a park that was part of a previous feudal estate now owned by the local park service. He had been to the formal garden on the west side many times before. As a point of fact, it was just down the block from Civet Home Coffee.
Civet Home and the beautiful blonde Jou who managed the shop. Otogi didn't remember when he learned the man's name but he hoped it was deeply related to why his bum felt split open. Hopefully, his memory would clear and it would be full of hours spent in the sexy man's arms. And maybe a tattoo to explain the bandage on his arm.
Any further thoughts about Jou were knocked out of his head by the scent of chicken ramen and his stomach growling loudly.
The ramen shop beside his building was practically his kitchen anyway as Otogi was not much of a cook. He stepped inside and up to the counter.
"Otogi!" The short man behind the register called out to him. "We were beginning to worry! Where have you been?"
"Yeah," his partner in the back added, "what was her name?"
"You two are funny. As a point of fact, there was no her." He paused. "I don't think. Maybe he has a sister?"
"Uh-huh. Your usual?"
"Double noodles. I feel like I haven't eaten in a week!"
When he got his order home, he plugged the phone in, ate, and showered. Afterwards, when the phone finally had enough charge to turn on, it automatically ran a software update.
"Ugh!" He groaned. "Fuck it. Everything can wait."
He crawled into bed, and fell asleep almost immediately.
The smell of human sweat and the unnatural cloying sweet smell that covers them was all over the nest. It was familiar but wrong. Very wrong. He scratched at it, digging into the soft nesting material hoping to find a place not so wrong.
Behind him there was a knocking. A human, not a human. He.
Mating. Breeding. Nesting. Breeding. Mating. Breeding. Nesting. Breeding. Mat
Otogi awoke exhausted in the remains of his mattress.
"What. The. Fuck!"
The bed had been hollowed out, leaving a shredded pile of fabric and memory foam where his expensive mattress and sheets used to be. It appeared he had slept through whatever ate his bed because he was sleeping in the center of it.
Not that he actually slept well. His dreams had been both tantalizing and disturbing. The handsome Jou had come to him and taken him. But so had a monster with sharp teeth and claws. His ass was sore again, so maybe his fingers had done what dreams couldn't.
But dreams didn't shred 500count Egyptian cotton.
"Shit," he sighed, and reached for his phone.
It had turned off overnight, so he huffed impatiently while it booted up.
8:42am. 30 Oct.
His alarm should have gone off at 4:30am, and with the bright sunlight outside, Otogi wasn't surprised that he had overslept or by how late it was. He was expected to be at his desk or to at least call by 8am. All of that was irrelevant.
He had gone to Civet Home Coffee at 5:10am on 18 Oct.
Twelve days. He went to investigate Civet Home twelve days ago. He hadn't been home in almost two weeks. Hadn't even checked the hundred or so notifications flashing. His boss had blown up his phone with vm and text.
Where the hell had he been for two weeks? Why couldn't he remember?
He had another thought and raced into the kitchen to make sure that 'yesterday' had really been yesterday. The take out carton from last night was on the top of the trash, his receipt on the counter had the right date and time. He grabbed a handful of coffee cherries and ate them while he dressed.
Work. Go to work. There is a rational explanation. There is a rational explanation for why he had two weeks of missing time. There is a rational reason for why his bed exploded. There is a rational reason for everything.
He repeated the mantra over and over, waiting for it to sound true.
Bakura was by all accounts a very hands-on boss. He got involved in the writing and editing. He got involved with the lives of the writers and editors.
So Otogi was not surprised that when he stepped into Bakura's office, his boss literally dropped his phone to hug him.
"Give me a minute to finish this and we'll talk, ok?"
"Sure."
"You need money?"
"Uh, no."
"Are the Yakuza after you?"
"Not so far as I know."
"Good. Two minutes." He picked up the phone again. "Sorry about that. My missing reporter just showed up. So, tell me again why you can't deliver on the 5th?"
Otogi listened with half an ear. The conversation sounded normal. Reasonable. I need something that you can provide. Ordinary. No one was telling secrets. No one was breeding.
Breeding?
What an odd thought. What a strange choice of words. People don't breed. Although Jou did use it alot. He was probably fun to breed with. He probably made pretty babies.
"Ryuji!"
Bakura's voice shocked him, bringing Otogi abruptly back to the office and the missing time and the questions he didn't know if he wanted answers to.
"Ok, so what happened? Where were you?"
"I…." What did happened? "Well…." Where was he? "I don't - I don't know, really."
"You don't - you were kidnapped?"
"I don't think so?"
"Start with what you do know."
Otogi opened his mouth then stopped again. What did he actually know?
"Ok. Last time we spoke, you said you had a lead on an animal rights case in town, and you were going to check out that cat coffee place."
"They're not cats."
"What?"
"Civets. I know they're called cats, but they aren't cats. They're really they're own thing."
"Does it matter?"
"I don't know. Are you Chinese just because you look Asian?"
Bakura stared at him. Otogi couldn't blame him. Apart from being unnecessary, the remark was very unlike him.
"I'm not Chinese."
"Civets aren't cats."
"O...k. What did you find? I mean apart from advocacy for civets."
"I - I don't know. Really. I went to the coffee shop, I know that. And - and something happened, but - but I don't…. I keep…. All I can remember is this jumble of images that don't make sense!"
"Ryuji, you were gone two weeks. You gotta remember something. Think."
"I have been thinking! I think Jou gave me some coffee. Then the next thing I remember clearly was waking up yesterday in some kind of cave with this."
He pulled up his sleeve to reveal the bandage he still hadn't removed.
"You got a tattoo?"
"I hope so. To be honest, I'm afraid to see what's under it."
For a few heartbeats, Bakura seemed afraid of the bandage, too. Then he rolled his eyes and harrumphed. Quickly, he found the end of the bandage and began unwinding it. Otogi watched for a moment then looked away. He remembered it had hurt….
fire was injected directly into his wrist
Bakura's hands stopped unraveling the bandage as the man sighed heavily. Both of his hands held Otogi's.
"Ryuji." He squeezed his hand tightly. "It's ok. We'll get you through this."
"What?" The response was not what the reporter expected.
"I get it. The important part now isn't to dwell on falling off the wagon. You just need to -"
"What?"
"- get back on. Maybe figure out why you started using again. Have you called your sponsor yet?"
"My sponsor?" Otogi stared at Bakura, aghast. "Using? Using what?" He glanced at his arm.
And blanched at the ugly, angry bruises tracking along the pale flesh.
They were not track marks. He had seen enough of them in his early 20s. When he had run from his father and the pressure of being the failed son. When university had gotten too hard. When even his love life had been nothing but pain and remorse. He needed something to take the edge off for a while. An hour. A day.
Then he got arrested and spent 90 days in jail for stealing a car. He didn't even know why he stole it. But the time locked up had given him a chance to get his head clear and realize that he hated his life. That while he didn't want the life his father tried to force on him, he also didn't want the train wreck he was living.
So, he got into a program that helped him finish school. School got him an internship with a news site. And the site sent him with investigative reporters around the world. Otogi learned that as hard as life without drugs seemed sometimes, life without them was better.
The marks looked similar to track marks but not the same. 'Bite marks' a memory supplied.
Otogi looked at his arm more closely, only vaguely aware that Bakura was still talking. He traced the outlines of several sets of upper and lower jaw marks. Something bit him at least three times, tearing his arm, but leaving damage that healed to bruises in ten days or less. What does that?
"Ryuji, are you listening to me?" Bakura snapped.
"No." Otogi shook his head and spoke over Bakura's response. "Bakura, I swear. I know you don't believe me, but I swear to you I'm not shooting up. I'll give you a urine sample if you need it. I'm not high. I think - I think something bit me."
"Ryuji, lying to yourself is -"
"I am not lying to anyone! I've never gotten so stoned that I lost a week!"
"Ok! Ok! Fine. What bit you? On just one arm. In a line."
Otogi swallowed hard, cradling his arm and remembering the fire that surged through it. "Jou. I think. But it wasn't really…. It was more an impression of Jou, like a civet, dream Jou."
"And you weren't high."
"You think I don't know this sounds insane?" Otogi huffed, and tried to ignore his stomach growling loudly.
"Skip breakfast?"
"I've been starving ever since I got home."
"So you have the munchies."
"No, damn it. I'm hungry. Like I haven't eaten in two weeks."
"And you're sure this Jou didn't slip you something?"
"I…" Otogi hesitated. "I don't think so, but…. But I can't remember a damn thing!"
Bakura looked at him for a long minute, then shook his head. "We're not doing this. Drop the story."
"WHAT?!"
"Look, this guy got you stoned, then kidnapped you for two weeks. Next time, maybe he'll just kill you. Drop the story. What else are you working on?"
"Nothing. This is it." He re-wrapped the bandage on his arm.
"Fine. Here." Bakura slid over a thumb drive. "Type this up."
"What is it?"
"Mazaki's coverage of the Kaiba wedding."
"You're pulling me from a real story to do some admin for the social page bullshit?"
"Front page of the Social Section, and yes, I am. Look, take a couple days off. Get your head straight. Even if you weren't high, something traumatic clearly happened. Figure it out."
"You're sidelining me?"
"No, I'm giving you a paid assignment you could do at home even if you were high. Get that back to me by Wednesday."
"And if I don't want to do it?"
"I can't use a writer who's not a team player."
Otogi let that sink in for a minute. Bakura didn't make threats; you were either part of the team or you were out. He wasn't ready to be out yet.
He took the drive.
There was a civet in front of his apartment building when he finally got home. He'd stopped for a late breakfast near the office and saw the animal as he headed for the ramen shop. It looked at him with beautiful brown eyes and a glossy tan coat, then stretched, and walked into the darkness of the alley. Odd to see one in a developed area especially during the day given that they were woodland nocturnal creatures.
Ramen, extra noodles, and a side of gyoza. 'I keep eating like this, I'm going to need new pants,' he thought.
When he got to his apartment, there was a smelly, oily stain on the wall beside the door.
Civetone?
Years ago, during the first investigation, Otogi had done a ton of research about civets. In addition to their coffee production, their musk was used for perfume. Diluted. At full strength, it was a God awful stench. It smelled better at the pit.
The Pit.
Otogi dropped his soup as the memory of the room struck him vividly. The scent of civetone was all over Civet Home Coffee, actually, mixing subtly under the coffee in the cafe but stronger and richer as you went down the stairs to the pit. The room itself was drenched in the pheromone. Jou had even said something about it before they...before they….
"Otogi-san!"
"AHH!" The voice made him jump.
"Hey, are you alright?"
The landlord, he realized, as he tried to get his heart out of his throat.
"I haven't seen you in a while." The man went on. "Oh! Bad luck there, dropping your dinner."
"What? Oh, crap!"
"You didn't notice?"
He shook his head. "I was thinking about that." He pointed to the stain.
The landlord tsked. "Another one! These cats! I'll put down some poison."
"What? No!"
"They're feral, not like pets. Don't worry."
"First of all, they are civets not cats! Second, what kind of sick asshole are you? You poison animals? Oh My God!"
"They're -"
"Don't touch them."
"Well I can't let them just stink up the building."
"If I hear about any of these animals being harmed, I will report you to Animal Welfare!" He stepped over his wasted soup, unlocked his door, and slammed it shut behind himself.
Otogi waited until the landlord left, then took a broom and dustpan to clean up the noodles. The gyoza survived so he ate those with the coffee cherries in the kitchen. About midway through his meal he realized there were coffee cherries in his kitchen.
They had been there that morning. He didn't buy them. No one gave them to him. Coffee cherries that he'd been swallowing whole appeared magically in his kitchen.
Someone had broken in? He checked the door and the two windows, but there was no sign of forced entry. In the bedroom, he saw his torn up nest-bed. Someone came in overnight, drugged him, tore up his bed, gave him a basket of coffee cherries, and left.
Or. He really was losing his mind.
He realized he was pacing.
Stop. Breathe. You don't need a hit. Breathe. You brought the cherries home and just forgot. You were gone for a few days. Bugs probably infested the bed. It can be replaced.
Yes, he thought. A quick shopping trip. New mattress, new sheets. See new people. There was a Nitori a few stations away. He could have a mattress shipped and carry a futon home for the short term.
Dreams do not shred beds. Fruit does not magically appear. Everything has an answer if you investigate.
He put down the cherries he didn't realize he was eating again and grabbed his keys.
On the way to the station, he saw a civet in front of the ramen store.
"Hey, pretty kitty," a voice like warm velvet said behind him. "Didn't expect to see you here."
Suddenly the air filled with musk, and Otogi's knees went weak, and he refused to turn and look at the blond God he knew had magically appeared behind him.
Getting out of his apartment had been a good idea. The subway ride had cleared his head with the smell of too many people in an enclosed space washing away the scent of civetone. The sandwich shop had an American cheeseburger and french fries to get rid of the taste of coffee and cherries that had invaded his mouth. The plaza had gotten his mind off anything but redecorating his bedroom.
But now, while considering new towels and should they be yellow or beige, a fragrance that reminded Otogi of romance and pleasure wafted in. And then a firm hand squeezed his shoulder. And then, the voice.
And then….
A lot of irrelevant chatter. Too much bad decision making. Otogi didn't really remember most of what happened next but truly it was because he didn't care what was said or how they wound up at a love hotel for a 'rest'.
This time, under Jou's shirt was silky smooth skin and the most intoxicating body odor Otogi had ever smelled. This time, Otogi was aware of all the teasing and touching that came before the thrusting and groaning. This time, he knew that when he breathlessly tried to cry out 'Ka-ka-kasuya' it was in answer to a breathless 'Yuji'.
Otogi woke, afterward, to a dressed Jou kissing his belly, his chest, his lips.
"Pretty kitty gonna make pretty kits."
"You can keep trying," he chuckled, "but I don't think it works that way."
Jou grinned, kissed his belly again, and left.
Otogi stretched, and got up to shower. Seeing his reflection in the mirror, he paused. His stomach was a bit rounder than usual.
Then he gasped as he felt something distinctly swim across him. He pressed his hand down and felt the swimming sensation again. His stomach felt hard, like it was actually swollen. Like he was carrying….
"No. Nonononono!" He pressed hard trying to feel anything. "That's not even possible. Kink talk. It's a fetish. Just a fetish."
He skipped the shower and dressed. It was hard to maneuver the futon on the train home but again, the mundane atmosphere cleared his head of the insane notion that he could be….
He stopped at the ramen store, got soup and gyozas and ignored the growing civetone stains around his door. He dragged the destroyed mattress to the trash and cleaned up the fluff remaining. He threw away the coffee cherries when he realized he was eating them again.
Hunger pangs. The movement he was feeling was hunger pangs.
When he went to the ramen store again, there were four civets lounging around, but on his way back, there were none.
It was after midnight when he finished, but Otogi got the article about the wedding of the season finished. The younger Kaiba brother married some Irish no name in a ceremony that had everything short of angels singing 'hallelujah'. He emailed it to Bakura and debated sleeping on the couch since he was already there.
But the couch was lumpy and short, and his new futon looked really warm and fluffy. He showered quickly, put his new bedding to use and fell asleep easily.
New nest. Better smell. Not home yet but soon. Soon.
Jou came in, human Jou but he became civet Jou. Beautiful tan gold. Long, he realized. At least twice the normal size. Civet Jou nuzzled him, gave him a dead snake - which he devoured - and gave him delicious coffee cherries. He saw another large civet, black with unnatural green eyes.
Is that a reflection? Is that... me?
It was still dark when Ryuji's phone alarm went off. Jou had to stretch to reach it but managed to do so without waking the civet sleeping beside him.
"I am so pleased with you, Yuji," he whispered, stroking the animal. "You survived the breeding and the transformation. I never thought I'd have a Were-mate, but if you survive the birth…. Well, I better not get my hopes up."
He gave the animal a soft scratch under its chin. He's been right; the handsome man had transformed into an exotic beauty. Solid black with white bandit face and unique green eyes. 'Pretty kitty' was a prettier kit than Jou could have dreamed.
"Alright, Pretty Kitty Yuji. I think we've been in this place long enough. Let's get you home to the birthing pit."