Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh does not, in anyway shape or form, belong to me. This fanfic has been written with out permission and it is only for entertainment purpose, nothing more.
Note: Thanks to Ice'is Blue for putting up with me and beta-reading a fic for a fandom you don't even like. Thanks again, you're great.
To Humble: Crumbling Pride
Kaiba didn't understand how he had ended up in this situation. It had to be someone's idea of a sick joke. Yes and when he was finally out of this mess, he was going to hunt that bastard down and kill him...slowly and painfully. The very thought made him smile. Well mentally, he didn't think he was capable of smiling. Cats didn't have lips after all.
Yes that's right. A cat. He, Kaiba Seto, CEO of Kaiba Corporation, was a feline. A Balinese to be exact. At least he was an attractive looking cat.
But being a cat wasn't what was really bothering him. Sure the lack of thumbs, among other things, was annoying. He didn't want to be cat. Still there were worse things. Much worse things, like being the owned by one Jounouchi Katsuya. Which he sort of was....
Jounouchi! The mutt! He was the mutt's pet cat. The very thought made Kaiba rankle.
So how had he ended up in this situation? Well, how he ended up as a cat was still a mystery. He had accidently fallen asleep at work about a week ago. When he woke up, he was lying in a trash can in some disgusting alley way as a cat. It was dark by the time he had achieved getting out of the trash can. Worse though, he was lost. He was lost and confused in a cat's body. For the first time in a very long time, Kaiba Seto had been frightened. By the next morning hungry was added to the list.
By that time, Kaiba didn't think it could get any worse. Of course he was wrong. During his mindless wandering, he had stumbled upon a pack of stray cats that weren't to happy to see him there. Needless to say he got into a fight, was throughly whooped, and was about to be finished off when he was saved.
He was too weak to fight off his rescuer. All he could do was meow in annoyance–though it really sounded more like it was in pain–as the blond picked him up and took him home where Kaiba was to be kept prisoner for the rest of the week.
Kaiba wasn't a good prisoner though. He snarled, hissed, and scratched at the mutt as often as he could. Though the blond didn't seem to notice his disdain. The mutt even had the gall to name him. It couldn't possibly get any worse. He had hit rock bottom. There was going no lower. He was throughly disgusted with himself and everything else for that matter.
When he got back to normal, he was so going to make Jounouchi suffer. Put the stupid dog through the same humiliation that he put Kaiba through. Oh he was going to relish every moment of the mutt's pain.
"Bacardi, where are you?" The stupid dog called. Kaiba snorted at the name. The mutt naming him after an alcoholic beverage confirmed every negative thought he's ever had about him.
Though that had not been the name that the mutt was going to give him originally. He actually wanted to call him Seto because he acted like Kaiba. He snorted. I wonder why. He thought sarcastically. But if the mutt had actually named him that, Kaiba really would have killed him. Naming him after a animal. He would not bring Kaiba down to his own level!
It obviously didn't turn out that way since the reason that the blond didn't name him Seto was because it would make him think of the brunet which would 'cause the blond the urge the break things. And apparently Jounouchi also thought (if one could call it thinking) that "such a pretty kitty shouldn't have to put up with the name of an soulless, Blue Eyes-obsessed, Yugi-stalking bowl head." He resented that greatly, he did not have a bowl head.
"Ah, there you are!" The idiot smiled and went to pick him up but Kaiba hissed at him and jumped out the way.
As always, Jounouchi didn't seem a bit fazed by any of it. Kaiba thought it was because of the blond's lack of brain cells. Jounouchi just moved towards the kitchen. A short walk really, the mutt's apartment was so small. Small for even a Japanese apartment. But the mutt didn't seem to upset by it. Again Kaiba attributed it to lack of brain cells but also lack of ambition.
Useless dog. He thought as his blue eyes followed the blond's movements. Jounouchi was getting him dinner. Cat food. The humiliations seemed like they would never end. At first Kaiba had refused food but even his pride crumbled under intense hunger and so he ate. Some would say it was a humbling experience, he would say it was humiliation. He would so get his vengeance.
Jounouchi placed the bowl of–his–cat food on the floor and sat down on a pillow a foot and a half away. That was as far as the blond ever really got, Kaiba knew because he had tried every method possible to get him to move. He had given up on the idea that the idiot would get the hint and leave him be.
Nimbly Kaiba jumped from his perch on the dresser and walked slowly towards the bowl of cat food. Once he reached it, he sniffed the food and wrinkled his nose a bit. He could hear Jounouchi chuckle in the background and it made him rankle. He was right, it could not get any worse. He was now reduced to being a dumb mutt's entertainment
Regardless of all his inner-grumbling he still ate. It was good to have food in his stomach, even if it was cat food. His ears turned when he heard the mutt move, he followed the sounds coming to the conclusion that the mutt was getting water which was confirmed when a bowl of water was placed next to him.
He glanced at the blond before lapping at water. Kaiba was starting to get accustomed to this no matter how much he complained and it really bothered him. He had to figure out how to turn back into a person. The question was how? He couldn't even get out of the mutt's apartment let alone find out who did this to him. All these thoughts were quite disheartening. They made him lose his appetite so Kaiba moved back to the top of the dresser, lying down and watching the mutt move around the apartment.
During the passed week Kaiba had gotten to know the mutt more then he ever cared too. It was late evening and Jounouchi had just come home from work. He was busy making himself dinner now, humming pleasantly to himself. He was always so damn cheerful. Why? Kaiba could never understand. He'd be miserable living in such conditions or working that shitty job. But then stupid people were always happier, weren't they?
The blond would eat while finishing his homework. He was working on a B.A. so that when he joined the police force he would have a higher position. Kaiba had to admit, begrudgingly and never out loud, that Jounouchi wasn't so dumb if he could come up with that idea.
Kaiba laid on the dresser for a couple hours watching the blond eat, do his homework, clean up, and so forth. All the while trying to figure out how to get himself out of this predicament. He briefly considering using the window but even if he was able to escape what was he to do next? Find Mokuba? And then what? His brother would probably just send him to the pound. He had no way of communicating with him. Kaiba dreaded the idea of being stuck with more violent strays. He had to admit he was safer with the mutt. Again he was disheartened.
Kaiba was pulled out of his upsetting thoughts by Jounouchi who had moved closer to him. The blond was looking at him curiously and Kaiba realized that it was because he had been mewing for quite sometime. It must have been a reaction to his musing. He did have a tendency to talk aloud when greatly troubled.
"Is something the matter?" The blond asked softly. Kaiba snorted, the stupid dog asked like if were expecting Kaiba to answer.
He really wished he could answer the question though. He was so frustrated.
"Maybe you're sick?" Jounouchi tilted his head curiously and reached out slowly to touch Kaiba. He hissed at the blond and the hand was retracted. He did not want to be touched.
"Nah can't be sick," he mused aloud. "You're still being a stuck up little pain."
Kaiba hissed at him again. He was in no mood for this. But all Jounouchi did was chuckle as he continued to watch him curiously.
"So you understood that?" Jounouchi said, sounded highly amused. Kaiba debated whether he wanted to scratch that smirk off his face or not.
"You're probably just bored," he continued. Kaiba just stared at him. He wasn't bored. He was angry, frustrated and restless. Not that he could ever explain that to the dumb dog. It really couldn't get any worse then this.
Jounouchi began to rummage in his pocket and pulled out his keys. The grin on his face made Kaiba feel slightly uneasy. He was up to something and Kaiba probably was not going to like it.
He was right too. He wrinkled his nose when Jounouchi began to shake the keys in front of his face. They jingled as they clashed against each other and twinkled when they were caught by the light.
Kaiba tilted his head, looking away from the keys but the dumb dog just moved them closer. They were starting to annoy him greatly, all the twinkling and jiggling distracted him from his thoughts. He raised his head, glaring at the blond but of course it didn't faze him. He doubted Jounouchi could tell the difference between an angry glare and an indifferent stare, the stupid dog. In annoyance he raised his paw and swatted at the keys which jumped out of the way before he could hit them. But before Kaiba could think that the blond got the hint, the keys were right back in front of him jingling with more insistence. Kaiba meowed in growing annoyance and Jounouchi just grinned at him.
He wrinkled his nose, head moving back as the keys came closer and swatted at them again. The keys moved away and back again. Kaiba now understood why cats hated people so much. They could be incredibly annoying. Not that he had much time to dwell on that as the keys came at him again. Meowing loudly he smacked the keys hard and was smacked by them in return as they came back.
He cried out in pain, getting hit in the face by a bunch of keys hurt like hell. He closed his eyes and rubbed his nose with the back of his paw. It took him a moment to realize just how stupid he probably looked.... How stupid he probably looked in front of Jounouchi. If he could blush this would probably be one of the only times he would have done so. And that knowledge made him very angry.
So now he was angry and flustered. His nose still hurt too. Peachy. This was all Jounouchi's fault. Him and his dumb ideas. Kaiba was going to scratch his face off, maybe then he'd learn to leave him the hell alone!
"Aw you got hurt," he felt the fingers scratching behind his ear before he heard the blond speak. "I'm sorry."
Kaiba would have retaliated, would have hissed or scratched him. He really would have. If what Jounouchi was doing didn't feel so good. It was incapacitating. So incapacitating that the next thing Kaiba knew he was sprawled out in Jounouchi's lap. The blond hadn't even stopped as he picked him up, had somehow continued that wonderful scratching. And now his long fingers were also running over his side and tummy. Kaiba couldn't help letting out a long, content purr.
He knew he should be upset about this predicament. He should be ashamed of himself and angry at the blond. But now he understood why cats put up with people. Who would have thought Jounouchi could be so useful? And actually, right now, Kaiba could freely admit that the blond really wasn't such a bad dog. Kaiba was comfortable and content, and better off than he had been stressing over Kaiba Corp. Maybe being like this forever wouldn't be so bad. There were worse thing in the world than being Jounouchi Katsuya's pet cat.
Owari
I'm not sure this is good and I'm posting it with many reservations but I also think it's cute and I hope I'm not the only one that thinks that.