Disclaimer & Author's Notes: Honey & Clover © Umino Chika. This story is loosely based on Shuuji's flashback (episode 6 of the anime series). Feel free to criticize me and point out my mistakes – I'm not a professional writer and not even a native English speaker. Thanks in advance. Our Pet is my first Shuuji + Harada + Rika drabble (ah, but Rika doesn't have a big role in this fic…) and I'm planning to write more about them. Mi AKA Living Dead Boy
Our Pet
"Hey, Shuuji? Shuuji! Look, look, isn't he absolutely –"
"We don't need hamsters, Harada. Really. We don't."
He rolled his eyes and laughed. "What the hell, Shuu, he's such a cutie, stop glaring at him like that, please." He scratched the hamster's ears gently. "There, there, Pii-tan, it's alright, Shuuji is kinder than he seems."
"…Pii-tan?"
Harada was, in a way, a truly amazing person. First and foremost, my friend lacked common sense. Much as I admired Harada, I was practically forced to admit it. I tried my best to view that trait of his simply as something totally natural for a gifted artist and a unique individual, but alas, I failed… And here he stood, with Pii-tan in his hands. To me, a hamster was merely a slightly dumb fluffy rat with an abnormally short tail and sad beady eyes, but Harada probably considered it God's masterpiece – which is why he deserved the title of a genius and I didn't.
I sighed. "We happen to already own six cats, Harada. Six. And Wan-Wan, who is known as your favorite old doggie, hates rodents with a passion of ten burning suns. Let me repeat my question, do you seriously want to… adopt… this… thing?"
"Yeah!" he nodded and grinned. "You see, I met this little girl, and she had to sell Pii-tan because she wasn't allowed to keep him, and he squeaked –"
"And you fell in love with him," I continued. "How nice. And apparently you had some mysterious extra money in your wallet, since –"
"No, but I guess we can go without sanguine, huh, Shuu?"
I felt a sudden urge to smash Harada's head against a brick wall, but we lived in a wooden house, so this was not to be. Besides, I could hurt Pii-tan, Harada's poor innocent victim, in the process. And Pii-tan, useless as he was, didn't have to suffer.
"Well, hello, furball," I muttered and touched the hamster's back. "Don't eat my papers and we'll get along just fine."
Harada smirked triumphally. "I told you –"
"Of course," I snorted. "But I expect you to feed him, and if Wan-Wan decides to dismember your precious Pii-tan after all, don't invite me to the funeral –"
"Sure!"
" – and don't bring more animals. For heaven's sake. Even cockroaches." I paused. "Especially cockroaches. I think there is a couple of those in our kitchen."
"Okay, okay!" he beamed. "Pii-tan will be our last pet, I promise. Our last."
The very next day, Rika joined us.