Authors Note: Thank you, all you faithful reviewers. And just so you don't get confused, yes, I am female. ^_^ A little note I need to add… I was watching episode 18 again the other day, and realized that Ken says something in there that really screws up my last chapter. ^_^;;;; Well, if you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry about it. Let's just say that with Ken's past, that part of the story is AU. ^_^ One final thing. While I haven't gotten to any actual shounen-ai, there will definitely be some Yohji-Ken bonding. That's almost as cute, right? ~UP
Bzzzzzt Ken sat up and smacked the alarm clock. After remembering why he was in Yohji's room, he looked over at Yohji's still sleeping form. Go figure. He's not used to go not getting more than 9 hours plus at a time. Ken got up and stretched. He looked over at Yohji again, and saw the playboy had his arms stretched out over his head. He looked pretty comfortable.
Heh. Not for long. Ken picked out a kitten and brought it over to Yohji. He placed it carefully on Yohji's face. The kitten thought it was dinnertime and began chewing on his nose.
"It's eating me-" Yohji woke up with a gasp. He pulled the kitten from his face and glared at his younger companion.
"She's hungry." Ken grinned.
"Yeah, I can tell." Yohji said, sitting up and yawning. "I suppose we should feed them then." He got up and stretched. "All right. Where's the food?"
"Um... downstairs, in the kitchen. Could you go get it?"
"Ken, you're one of my friends, and for that you
should feel lucky. I've been sleeping
for only-" He pauses long enough to glance at the clock. "Three hours, and I would kill most people
for waking me up after so little sleep.
Now you want me to go all the way downstairs to the kitchen and
get the food for the kittens you wanted to take care of?"
Ken looked up at Yohji
with his best puppy-dog eyes. Yohji
sighed and messed up Ken's hair as he walked by. "You're just lucky I like you, Ken-ken."
Yohji stumbled down to the kitchen as quietly as he could. After all, he didn't want to wake up the Ice Dragon. Having only three hours and being awake under ten minutes left him with very little coordination. He found the light switch on the third try and flipped it on. He opened a door under the counter, and saw a box that looked like the one Ken had used earlier to make the milk. He reached for it and heard bare feet slapping on the linoleum floor behind him.
"No, you want the box up there. That's soap for the dishwasher."
"Oh." Yohji closed the door and turned around, a puzzled look on his face. "We have a dishwasher?"
"Yeah, but Omi doesn't like us to use it much. Says it's for the lazy man. Guess I shouldn't have told you, huh Yohji?" Ken grinned at the blonde.
"Yeah," Yohji smiled back. "Wait, why are you down here?"
"Oh, I forgot to give you these to rinse out." Ken held out the two eyedroppers they were feeding the kittens with earlier. "Guess it's a good thing I came down anyway. You don't function well under little sleep, do you?" Ken handed Yohji the eyedroppers and grabbed the box of dehydrated milk. "I'll go ahead and make the milk. You rinse those out, okay?"
"Bossy." Yohji said in a mocking tone so Ken could tell he was joking. "So you don't trust me anymore, huh?"
" I didn't say that." Ken grinned and pushed Yohji playfully.
"You think I'm gonna kill the kittens. Admit it." Yohji turned towards Ken and began tickling his ribs. "Admit it Ken-ken!"
"Stop- Yohji, Stop!" Ken managed to say in-between his laughter.
"Admit it Ken!" Yohji continued his tickle-torture, laughing as well.
"All right, I admit it!" Ken said, ending the tickling. Ken was a bit surprised to see the playful side of Yohji so soon after waking up. Yohji patted Ken on the head before rinsing out the eyedroppers.
***
"So do you think we ought to name them?"
"I think we ought to go to sleep." Yohji pulled out a cigarette and began to light it.
"Oh no." Ken said as he saw what Yohji was doing.
"What?" Yohji asked, getting annoyed.
"Please, Yohji. Don't light that. I'll go to bed. I'm almost done anyway. Please? The kittens don't need that in their lungs. Considering how small they are, it may kill them..."
Yohji sighed and put it out in the ashtray beside his bed. "You win again, Ken." He laid down on his bed and shut his eyes.
"Aww crap!" Ken hissed.
"Now what?" Yohji sat up again and looked at his friend. Ken was sitting cross-legged on the sleeping bag with three of the kittens scattered in front of him. There was a cup which held the milk they were feeding the kittens off to Ken side, but still on the sleeping bag. Ken was holding the fourth kitten. When Yohji looked up, he saw that Ken had been trying to feed her when she had decided she'd had enough and refused the rest that Ken had been trying to squirt out of the dropper. So that milk had dripped on the sleeping bag. Ken tried to act fast to put the dropper to the side and wipe the kitten's mouth and accidentally knocked the cup of milk over. He just looked at it and blinked.
"Sheesh, Ken, can't you ever catch a break?" Yohji got up and helped him put all four kittens back in the box.
Ken picked up the cup and shook his head. "Well, I am the clumsy one," he said sadly as he attempted to mop up the sleeping bag with tissues.
"Ken, that won't work. Here." Yohji took the tissues and threw them away. Then he picked up the sleeping bag and hung it over a chair. "We'll just have to wash it tomorrow."
The younger boy looked at the sleeping bag, then at the floor. "Now where am I suppose to sleep?" Ken yawned and looked up at Yohji.
"Do you think the kittens will be all right for more than four hours? Like, can we just sleep until we wake up and feed them then?"
"Probably," he said, looking at Yohji curiously.
"Good. Now, in case you didn't know, this bed is big enough for two people. If you don't mind sharing."
"Better than a wet sleeping bag." Ken smiled. He didn't really want to sleep on the plain floor, or go all the way back down to his room. Plus, Yohji's bed did look comfortable. "Um... wait. When's the last time..."
"Hasn't been anyone in here besides me for over a week. Heh. Surprising, huh? And yes, I just changed the sheets a few days ago. Don't worry Ken-ken. It's safe."
Ken sighed a sigh of relief and crawled under the sheets.
"Hey Ken?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks. For getting me involved in this ... matter."
"What?" Ken asked, surprised.
"You know, I don't hardly know anything about you. Hell, I had no idea you had such a rough childhood until a few hours ago. I have a feeling I'll be getting to know you a lot better in these next few weeks. And I'm glad. You're a good person Ken."
Ken was silent. Yohji poked him so he turned over to face the blonde.
"Oh, and I have this feeling that you weren't hugged much as a kid, so anytime you need a hug, I'll be ready." Yohji said, smiling.
"Thanks, Yohji." He leaned in and Yohji gave him a hug before turning off the lamp by the bed.
"Good night, Ken-ken."
"G'night Yo-tan."
