Aaaand another crappy tiny update, I apologize profuselyyyyy QAQ I'm not even having any trouble with inspiration. I'm having a lot of inspiration.
For Sousuke.
Who I cannot write in until I'm 100% sure of what he's all about. So. It might be a little bit before any more chapters come out, I'm so sorry. Lemme just say though, that these Sousuke feels... I am definitely enjoying them. I cannot wait to dump them all on you guys. I'm having way too much fun with his interactions!
Chapter 32- Of Cleaning and Escapees
This was going to be one of those days, Makoto admitted to himself three hours into the start of his day. The current score was Makoto: one and universe: three and Makoto didn't much appreciate it. If one wanted to take stock of the day from midnight it gave the universe another point, because nothing had quite prepared him for the surprise at exactly two-thirteen in the morning.
He'd been woken up, blinking cluelessly at his silent alarm clock, by a squeaking noise he was entirely unfamiliar with. Grumbling a little he half-fell out of bed, trying to pinpoint the noise. He checked the hallway first with a sense of dread. What if there were burglars? But if anything the sound was fainter in that corner. He turned, gaze sweeping over his room, and saw the window. Frowning he wandered over to it. He opened it and was assaulted with a furious squeaking cacophony and when he looked down his jaw dropped.
Reacting without thinking he snatched the terrified mewling Akiha off the garden trellis his mother had installed below his window just the other night. The Bobtail had been hanging by a few claws and was looking very scared indeed. He slammed the window shut a little harder than was perhaps necessary but his heart was racing, adrenaline flooding his veins, and so was their kitten. Her heartbeat felt like nothing more then a vibration against his fingers and her claws gripped his nightshirt tightly, too afraid to let go. She crawled up to the crook of his neck and curled there, shuddering, and Makoto laid on his bed to cradle her.
"Does Haru-chan even know you're gone?" Makoto asked Akiha. He tried to keep his voice calm and low to comfort her. "How on earth did you find me, anyway? This is so irresponsible of him, leaving... well, something open so you could get out. I'm going to have a talk with him, believe you me, little lady. I'd give you a talking to as well, but I think you've sufficiently scared yourself."
Her fluttering heartbeat slowed gradually until she began to purr instead. Makoto continued to stroke her soft fur for a while, but as kittens do she grew tired of being stationary and wriggled out from under his hand to sit on his chest. She blinked big blue-green eyes (steadily turning greener, it seemed) and struggled out from underneath his cautiously petting hand with a whining mew. Makoto watched her wander his room for a while before he realized yawning three times a minute was probably a hint he should be headed back to sleep. Between slow blinks he watched as Akiha curled atop his TV and then she was asleep too.
If one didn't count from midnight but instead from when he'd begun his day, he was still on the losing side.
His sole point was that the twins were at a friend's house for the weekend.
The points against him were a lack of Rin (practice practice practice, as Seijuurou had put it with a slightly sadistic grin), a noted lack of Haru (who had left something open at night!) due to sickness, and a lack of parents due to them taking a weekend for themselves.
Which meant that while Akiha could wander the house freely, he had no way to take care of her. Or himself. Heaven (and the kitchen wall) knew he couldn't cook.
Sitting at the table he sighed and propped his chin on a fist. "Oh Akiha, what am I going to do? Suppose I could grab something from my store, but I can't leave you alone! And if I bring you back to Haru-chan's, he'll want to cook for me but he's so sick I can't ask him to do that..."
He sighed and Akiha blinked up him, offering an innocent mew of what sounded to him like encouragement. Makoto sighed and nodded.
"You're right, I can't sit around and do nothing all day. I have chores to do."
After reheating a small portion of the previous night's katsudon Makoto settled on taking care of the laundry. The twins' room was scoured for scattered clothing and his own picked up and added to the basket balanced on his hip. Akiha twined around his ankles and mewed incessantly, big ocean-colored eyes pleading, and Makoto sighed as he made every last effort to not step on her small body.
"Akiha, you have to stop doing that!" He whined once safely in the small room devoted to muddy clothing, wet swimsuits, and the washer and dryer.
Akiha whined right back, almost leveling the feline equivalent of a pout at the tallest of her owners, then began to look around for a way up so she could better demand Makoto's attention.
The big brunette selected the right settings and began the wash. He examined every piece of clothing he unearthed from the basket a second time for surety's sake. Once pleased nothing needed special treatment he finished stocking the washer... and paused when reaching for the detergent, reaching back into the washer and pulling out one particular item.
One small, furry, tail-less item with wet paws and a guileless expression complete with large oh-so-innocent eyes.
"Akiha..." Makoto sighed, his shoulders slumping in a defeat similar to the kind he felt when he found Haru wearing his swimsuit in the bath. He put her on the floor and told her, "No."
She blinked.
Makoto had measured out approximately half of the detergent he needed when the orange-and-black splotched item reintroduced itself to the inside of the washer with a splash that coated the edges of the drum.
"Akiha!" He cried, rescuing the now half-soggy kitten from her fun. "You can't be in there! It'll be very bad if you're in there if it starts!"
She mrrw'd irritably and swayed in his grip, trying again for the thing filling with water, but he set her firmly on the floor and bopped her on the nose. She reared back, eyes almost crossed as she attempted to glare at the hand that had dared hit her (no matter how weak Makoto had made the hit and he had because he almost couldn't bear the idea of trying to punish her at all), and despite the very solid "No!" she heard this time she immediately turned and headed back for Mr. Tachibana's coat, which she had been using as a makeshift ladder the entire time.
Makoto caught her around the middle and put her on the floor. A repeat of his reprimand had Akiha whining but he ignored her. Makoto spread the detergent into the drum and this time intercepted the flying kitten leap before she got even halfway to the washing machine. He closed the lid and set her on top of it, sighing at her.
"You're impossible. And Haru is spoiling you! Allowing you into everything water..."
Akiha ignored him, digging her paws into the gap between machine and lid, trying to get back into the drum itself, and with another sigh he scooped the indignant kitten up and left the washroom.
Makoto two, universe three(/four).
He had just barely managed to save Ran's sweater (carelessly left on the floor the night before) from being peed on by a litter box-needing kitten.
He brought her to the garden and watched her like a hawk, corralling her away from his mother's herb garden, casting glances at Haru's assiduously quiet house as Akiha finally squatted.
By his foot.
Makoto two, universe four(/five).
He was beginning to dislike this game.
Akiha scampered back to him after kindly doing her number two on the far side of the lawn. She begged for forgiveness in pets and ear scratches and Makoto was the kind of man weak enough to small animals that he indulged her mewls.
He carried her into the house, set her on the floor, crouched at her side, and made sure she was paying attention when he told her, "Be good and stay out of trouble, okay? I still have chores to do."
She blinked huge eyes at him and ran off at once, sliding on the polished wood floors, claws scraping as she tried to find purchase.
Makoto merely sighed for the umpteenth time and headed to the entryway for the fishbowl.
Fishbowl washed, cleaned, dried, and refilled Makoto smiled at the finished product. It was pristine, and once he added the toys and decorations back in he could replace the fish currently wandering around the small glasses he'd had to put them in. Akiha had been lightly smacked atop the head three times before she realized that pawing at Bonito was something she shouldn't do. The Bobtail had looked extremely offended by the reprimand and even now she maintained a certain distance from him and watched him with half-lidded ocean eyes. Treasure chest and fake seaweed added, the vintage diver figure Ren had chosen, and layered with the vibrant purple rocks Ran had picked out, Makoto sighed with satisfaction.
"Time for the fish to go back home!"
He turned away from the bowl for all of five seconds.
A squeaking noise, a small splash, a splattering of water over a hard surface. Makoto whirled only to gape numbly at what he saw.
Akiha was curled inside the fishbowl, blinking big eyes up at him from underwater, and she surfaced a moment later to mew at him. Makoto couldn't think of anything to say or do. He simply watched the piece of plastic seaweed she'd upended slide off her head back into the bowl. She meowed again, the absolute picture of innocence, and finally he thawed. Akiha turned a couple of excited circles and splashed more water out of the bowl as he approached and plucked her out of the fishbowl. She reached eagerly for him with dripping paws.
Makoto pressed his forehead to the Bobtail's.
"Let's go find you a towel and dry you off..."
Makoto two, universe five(/six).
At seven o' clock that evening an exhausted Haru managed to stumble down to answer the fervid ringing of the doorbell.
When he slid it open, however, he had to blink at what he saw.
"Makoto..?"
The brunette stood on the doorstep in the snow holding a small dark brown kitten trying to escape his grip in a panic. Makoto looked horrible- dark circles smudged his eyes, his shirt was covered in something dark, and he was sporting a sour look the likes of which Haru had never seen.
"Here," Makoto replied brusquely, shoving the squirming kitten into Haru's arms. "I give up. The universe has won."
Without a shred of explanation Makoto turned and stiffly headed back down to his house. Haru blinked into the silence, glancing at the brown kitten in his arms and feeling his jaw drop when he recognized the ocean-colored eyes regarding the snow on the ground with open terror.
"...Akiha?"
Haru couldn't figure out why, when sharing the bath with the excited kitten later, she smelled like soy sauce, but judging by Makoto's irritation... It was probably better he didn't know.
Before anyone asks why it's magically winter bear with me; I'm trying to put together a timeline. Eternal Summer starts in spring with snow on the ground and this fic has been going on for... *mumbles to self and wanders off*