Eijun is woken up to the sound of high pitched barking. At first he thinks it's his neighbor's dog again, barking up a storm for one reason or another like it does every night. He pulls the blanket covering him up over his head and tries to go back to sleep. The barking stops for a couple seconds, and just as he thinks his neighbor brought their dog inside and that would be the end of it, the barking starts right back up again. Underneath the loud barking though, Eijun can almost hear a softer, quieter bark. Don't tell him his neighbors got a second dog.
Really? He only wants to sleep a whole night for once!
That's when he realizes something. He is sleeping on his couch, not in his bedroom. Eijun also feels a cold gust of wind blow over him. It's decidedly much colder than it was when he went to bed earlier.
That's when the events of the day before rush through his mind. The bear trap. The tanuki. The hurt tanuki.
Eijun quickly sits up from where he is laying across the couch to where the little tanuki was sleeping before. In the dark lighting of his house, he can only see a pile of blankets pooled on the ground. There's no animal there.
"Shit! Where did the little guy go?!" Eijun asks himself as he gets up and starts looking around his house. The little guy could barely even walk earlier. It's not like he could get that far, right?
As he leans over the back over the couch to see if the tanuki is hiding behind there, he feels another cold gust of air blow on his back. He looks back behind him and across the house, he sees his kitchen window cracked open.
"Huh? I don't remember opening that," he says, thinking to himself. He walks over and sees the snowflakes falling outside. "And why would I leave it open when it's snowing so much out there?"
That's when he hears the soft barking again. It's coming from right outside the window. On second thought, Eijun thinks it sounds very familiar. Then a realization comes to Eijun. It must be the tanuki! And now the animal was stuck outside in the snow and cold!
Racing over to the back door, Eijun stuffs his feet into his boots, not even bothering to grab a jacket or tie the laces as he rushes out the door. He rounds the side of the house and runs to where the outside side of the kitchen sat. On the ground below it he sees the little tanuki. The same one he took his time and energy to treat and feed earlier.
Eijun's guess must have been correct that the animal tried to escape earlier. Although it doesn't seem to have made it that far.
The little tanuki is curled into a ball. It looks even more pathetic than when he found him caught in the bear trap earlier. He isn't even making any sounds as Eijun approaches the small form.
Eijun kneels down by the creature. "Hey there little guy!" He says with a grin, holding his arms out as if offering to help pick up the tiny animal. Which is exactly what he plans on doing anyway. "I don't know why you left, but you're probably really cold right now..."
A tiny chirp escapes the tanuki's mouth, but it doesn't move, doesn't even open its eyes. Eijun can't help but smile widely at the sound.
"Are you okay?" He asks the tiny thing softly. The animal doesn't answer, if anything, it curls up further into a smaller ball. That's when the cold temperature washed over Eijun's body, and he remembers what caused him to rush out of the house in the first place. "That's right! We need to get you back inside where it's warm!"
Eijun reaches his hands carefully to grab the tanuki. The first thing his hands tell him is that the animal is cold… really cold. Eijun assumed the animal spent the last night outside, but even then the animal wasn't this cold when Eijun was carrying him earlier.
"We really need to get you inside," Eijun mumbles to himself as he turns around and runs back through the same door he ran out of seconds earlier.
Once inside, Eijun flicks on the kitchen lights and looks down at the animal in his arms. His fur is covered in a light layer of snow, most of which has blown off of him. But he still hasn't moved other than to curl into a ball in Eijun's arms. The tanuki still feels really cold, freezing actually in his arms. Just how long was the little guy out there?
Eijun glances up at the clock on his wall. 1AM. Grabbing a blanket, Eijun tries wiping off the rest of the snow covering the tanuki and wraps the animal up, placing him on the floor in front of the heater.
Eijun sighs and closes his eyes for a moment before running to grab another blanket from the linen closet in the bedroom, returning to the living room and laying the second blanket across the tanuki, draping the fabric over the tiny furry body so that the animal is covered and protected. Hopefully he will warm up.
Eijun takes a seat on the couch once again, pulling his legs up under him and resting his head against the backrest, watching the little brown tanuki on the other side of the room. After some time, Eijun looks over and sees that the animal still hasn't moved.
He goes over to it and gives it a nudge on its back. "Are you doing alright, little guy?" He asks. Putting his hand on his back, he feels that the tanuki is still very cold.
Eijun sits in silence for a minute, thinking about what to do. He was planning on waiting until the morning to take the animal to Kuramochi's place, but it doesn't look like the little guy is doing too well, and it would be better to get him checked out earlier than later. Eijun frowns as he thinks about his options but quickly comes to a decision.
It seems he will have to go to Kuramochi's place now. He knows the man will be mad at him for waking him up in the middle of the night, especially after he's been out of town all weekend, but it's for a good cause.
Eijun carefully gathers the tanuki in his arms, hoping he doesn't hurt him anymore. The tanuki doesn't move in Eijun's grip, but he thinks he feels a slight vibration or shivering. That's a good sign, right? It means he is warming up, right?
Before Eijun leaves his house, he puts a jacket on, carefully moving his arms around the tanuki. Kuramochi might only live a couple doors down from him, but he had seen how much snow had fallen tonight, and he knows the man would kill him even if he didn't take care of himself this way.
Eijun leaves his house and runs down the block to where Kuramochi lives. None of the streets or sidewalks have been cleared of the snow yet, so it takes him a bit longer than expected to get there. His shoes and pants are also soaked now, too. Once he gets to Kuramochi's door though, he starts banging, hoping the man will wake up and be aware enough to come out and help him.
"Eijun?" Kuramochi says as he eventually opens the door. "What are you doing here?! It's like… two in the morning?" Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he then sees what Eijun is holding in his arms. "Is that a… what is that?!"
Eijun moves his arms into a position to better show Kuramochi what he is holding. "It's a tanuki I found earlier today. He was hurt! And then he tried to escape when I was sleeping and now he's really cold and I don't know what to do! Can you help him?!" Eijun explains hurriedly.
Kuramochi blinks at the explanation with wide eyes. Trust Sawamura to bring him random hurt animals in the middle of the night. He sighs, resigned to his fate and knowing he won't be getting any sleep tonight. He opens his door wider and steps back. "Come in you idiot and get out of the cold."
Eijun thanks him for letting him in and walks inside while putting the animal on the counter near the kitchen. The room has a small living room that leads to an open kitchen space with a dining table, and a bathroom that's in there.
Kuramochi motions him to the side and lifts the blanket off the animal. Putting his hands on the tanuki the first thing he noticed is that the animal is cold, really cold. He also sees a bad cut on two of the animal's legs. Turning to Eijun, who looks extremely worried, he asks, "Where did you find this guy again?"
"Out in the forest yesterday! He was caught in a bear trap!" Eijun answers, still looking concerned about the animal.
"Well, that explains the bad injuries," Kuramochi hums to himself. "Although I'd say he got off lucky, they could have been much worse. And you said he tried to escape and got stuck outside? And that's why he's so cold now?"
Eijun nods enthusiastically as he waits for Kuramochi to say something else. "Do you know how to fix him, Mochi?"
Kuramochi winces at the nickname, but doesn't comment on it. "You do know that even though I'm a vet I don't normally work on wild animals, right?" He asks, looking at Eijun with a raised eyebrow.
Eijun's face turns slightly red from embarrassment. He looks down at the floor and fiddles with his fingers. "I know." Then he looks up and meets Kuramochi's eyes again. "But he's really hurt and needs treatment… So can you please help him? Please Mochi-senpai? Just look at him, he looks so sad." His voice breaks with desperation and his bottom lip trembles just slightly.
Kuramochi frowns at Eijun but sighs in resignation. He knew he wouldn't be able to argue against Eijun's puppy dog eyes or pouty lips. He knows it'll take more than that to convince him otherwise. "Fine, but only because it's for your good," he mutters. He glances over at the tanuki once more, looking at all of its injuries.
Truthfully, the animal is still very cold. He hasn't seen him move yet either. If Kuramochi didn't know what he was looking for, he might have already guessed that the animal froze-to-death.
He sighs again. Before he can do anything to treat the tanuki's injuries, he'll have to warm the little body up. This wasn't going to go well. This was never going to go well.
After another moment of hesitation, Kuramochi slowly approaches the tanuki. Careful not to scare the animal, he takes his hand off his knee. With his other hand, he reaches out towards the animal and lightly touches the skin of the animal's head. He feels the fur under his fingertips and gently runs his fingers through it. He then places his hand on the animal's neck and starts to rub it.
The animal lets out a soft whine and tries to move away from Kuramochi's touch. Ah, some improvement!
Gently lifting the tanuki into his arms, Kuramochi tells Eijun to fill the kitchen sink up with some warm water.
The younger boy nods and goes to do as told. Once he has the water filled about halfway, Kuramochi brings the animal to the kitchen sink, carefully setting him down. As soon as the animal is set down, it immediately tries to crawl back into Kuramochi's arms.
With an annoyed huff, Kuramochi pushes the animal down again. "Just stay there for a little while, it'll make you feel better."
Eventually, in the early hours of the morning, Kuramochi and Eijun are able to warm the tanuki back up to a reasonable temperature and treat the injuries on his legs.
They're now sitting on the sofas in the living room, with the tanuki wrapped up in a blanket and sleeping on Eijun's lap.
"What are you going to do with him now?" Kuramochi asks.
"Huh?"
"You can't just let him back outside with an injury like that, you know? And the hypothermia is still affecting him."
Eijun hums to himself. "I guess I'll just have to look after him until he recovers!"
Unnoticed by the two humans in the room, the tanuki shudders.