Chapter 04: Hunger
The first thing Kaiba noticed when he woke up was that his world was still miscolored and he had paws. Still a cat, Kaiba dejectedly realized. The second thing he noticed was that he was starving.
"Hey," Yami greeted him, startling Kaiba in the process. "Sorry, I just—"
Yami cut himself off, realizing that Kaiba probably didn't want to hear an apology. Instead he said, "You must be hungry."
Kaiba meowed once in confirmation as he stood up and took a few steps closer to Yami. Taking it as a good sign, Yami picked up Kaiba, causing the kitten to immediately start squirming in his hold. "Stop that," Yami reprimanded him as he set Kaiba back on the bed. "Would you rather jump?"
Kaiba cautiously approached the edge of the bed and he pinned his ears back when he saw how enormous the leap would be in his tiny body. He took a step back and was once again surprised when gentle hands took hold of him. "Thought so," Yami said as he gingerly put Kaiba on the floor.
Walking over to the bag of supplies he had gotten while Kaiba had slept, Yami pulled out cat food and opened it. Using a knife, Yami dished some out onto a small plate, figuring Kaiba would let him know if he wanted more. Setting the plate on the floor, Yami somehow wasn't surprised when Kaiba turned his nose up at it.
"You can't eat people food when you're a cat," Yami tried to reason with him. "It would make you sick and neither of us wants to deal with that. I made sure to get you the best money could buy, so it's as close to gourmet as you're going to get."
Finding it interesting that Yami assumed he only ate gourmet food, Kaiba sniffed delicately at the offered food. His brain was telling him no, but his stomach was arguing yes. Tentatively sticking his tongue out to try it, Kaiba was shocked that it actually tasted like meat. Deciding that being hungry was worse than eating cat food, Kaiba daintily ate as cleanly as he could to avoid staining his pristine white fur.
He paused when Yami sat down next to him to eat a snack of his own. It was considerate so he wasn't the only one eating, but Kaiba refused to feel grateful about it. Instead he ate until the nagging hunger abated. When he was finished, his body instinctually began to lick his paw and use it to clean his face. The very notion of it was distressing to Kaiba and he immediately stopped. Yami had to hold back a chuckle at Kaiba's expression and reaction. "I suppose you want to take people showers, too?" Yami asked in an amused tone.
Nodding with a meow, Kaiba perked up at the thought of bathing properly.
"Later tonight," Yami promised and they were both surprised when Kaiba started to purr at the idea. "You must really like that, huh?"
Mortified by the reaction, Kaiba stopped making the noise as quickly as he had started. He didn't like how Yami looked down on him in amusement and said, "You purr in your sleep, you know. It's what cats do, so why resist it?"
Kaiba wouldn't purr if he could help it. He wasn't happy about the situation he was in, so he refused to make that sound if he could help it.
Realizing he had forgotten something, Yami put down some water in a bowl for Kaiba to drink. Kaiba did so and it was surprisingly refreshing. He was also secretly pleased that Yami had the foresight to use bottled water.
Yami had to resist the urge to pet Kaiba, which was a lot harder to do than he would have imagined. Kaiba was just so damn cute as a kitten and Yami wanted to cuddle him. You want to cuddle with him when he's human, too, his mind gleefully pointed out, but he shushed it. It did not good thinking of those things now, especially when they didn't know how long Kaiba would be trapped in kitten form.
Having satiated himself, Kaiba walked back over to the bed and tried to estimate how to jump. Without a frame of reference it was pointless, though. Wiggling his rear as he crouched down, Kaiba gave his best effort to jump. He only managed to make it halfway and had to dig his claws into the sheets to catch himself. He heard Yami protest, but Kaiba ignored it as he climbed his way to the top of the bed. Kaiba may have been breathing heavily from the effort, but it was worth it to prove that he could do it despite his small size.
"So you're stubborn no matter what the form is, good to know," Yami teased as he sat on the bed near Kaiba.
It confused Kaiba why Yami said such a thing with fondness rather than annoyance. Sometimes he thought he'd never understand his rival. Why was he the one taking care of Kaiba anyway? Surely that went beyond the scope of their rivalry? Unless Yami was looking for Kaiba to be in his debt? But somehow that didn't seem like Yami. So then why was he taking such good care of Kaiba? Kaiba wished he could ask, but it was a question that would have to wait until he had his human body back to himself.
A/N: Poor Kaiba, he has so much to get used to in this one…
NEXT CHAPTER:
Tapping Kaiba's paw and causing him to withdraw it back onto the sheet, Yami chided, "You just had to do that, didn't you?"
The next chapter will be posted on Sunday, July 13th, but until then, I look forward to your reviews! I'm so grateful that everyone has really been enjoying this one and taking the time to let me know that. I know it's an odd project, but it's been a lot of fun.
