Cat and Mouse - Drabble Series
Pairing: ShikaNeji, AsumaKurenai
Warning: Shounen ai
Summary: [Drabble Series] Cat!Shika. Mouse!Neji. Is it possible for a cat to love a mouse? And would that mouse love the cat back? [ShikaNeji]
Inspired by: TwentyOne by Mrs. Paper (Chapter 17: Cat)
Disclaimer: Naruto and anything related does not belong to me. Don't sue.
A/N: Written a long time ago, but never posted until now because I wasn't sure if I'd gotten it right. Sincerely hope it'll bring a smile to your face!
Chapter 4: The Party. They fight.
Christmas. Shikamaru had a love-hate, cat-nature relationship with the season.
On one hand, Christmas always meant more food, more warmth, more blankets, more milk, more presents and generally a lot more of everything (including Asuma's girth, which Kurenai would fuss over).
On the other hand, Christmas also meant snow. Less sun, less sun-bathing, less lazing around on a sunny day, less birds to chase and flowers to smell, and not to mention the fact that the sun was a worn-out version of itself in the winter, as if the real sun had taken a vacation and had left this runny-yellow creation in its place.
Shikamaru stood on the delicately balanced ledge between love and hate for the Christmas season, but he had never considered one factor in his earlier calculations. And it was rather quickly tipping the balance point.
His nose felt solid as a rock. Shikamaru never thought it'd come down to this.
At first refusing to mew pathetically, he ran around Asuma's ankles, subsequently tripping the older man who fell (arms swinging and cursing) onto the couch. All Shika-cat got for his efforts was a dark glare and a foot nudge in the direction of the living room, which was currently the only room in the house that was not filled with guests.
He tried to lick his nose, but only succeeded in making the feeling worse. He tried to scratch it off, but the layer of ice was persistent. He even tried the fireplace – he burned his whiskers, but his nose remained more or less the same.
Shikamaru doesn't usually despair but despair he did. Nothing worked and he might have to live with a frozen nose for the rest of his life. Or, if things were really bad, he'd get frostbite. He groaned at his prospects.
Having nothing else to try, he plodded back to the living room. A weak stream of sunlight lit the cabinet, coming through the window pane showing a washed-out blue sky. He returned to his sunbathing spot and cursed himself for ever wanting to go outside in the first place.
He sat. He moped. He angsted (something he learned from Sasuke, puppymaster of the Art of Angsting).
A silence filled the air around him and he found it odd. Sunlight, cabinet, clouds, Kurenai and Asuma were all present and accounted for. But there was something about the silence that bothered him.
He glanced at the cage beside him, and was surprised to find the wheel empty of the grey mouse, who was constantly 'training'. The squeak of the wheel! That was what was missing.
Shikamaru looked closely and saw Neji curled in a fluffy grey ball, tail tucked neatly at his side, breath even and steady.
Shikamaru felt the fur on his tail stand up. Suddenly he felt jealous – how can Neji-mouse sleep when he had a major crisis on his hands?
Asuma stood next to Kurenai in the kitchen, watching the spectacle taking place in the kitchen. "Why did you invite Iruka-san's entire class again?"
Kurenai just shook her head, and at that moment a crash was heard on the other side of the room, followed by a meek "sorry". She took note of Iruka, who was dashing around, valiantly trying to restore order back to the Christmas party.
Naruto and Kiba were two loud blurs of motion, zigzagging this way and that. It was no surprise that the teachers at school dreaded seeing Uzumaki and Inuzuka on the same attendance sheet. They seemed to have limitless amounts of energy and a zeal for mischief– even Iruka-sensei has given up on chasing after these two.
When the blonde raced into the living room, Kurenai gasped and Asuma let out a word that earned an icy look from the brown-haired sensei. They hurried after the boys, but almost ran into their backs instead.
"Is that cat molesting the mouse…?" Naruto's stare was blue-eyed and wide.
"Nah, I think it's just hungry." Kiba looked uncertain.
"Then it's got a mouth on its nose?" Naruto was doubtful.
"No, it's just smelling it to see if it tastes good." Kiba rolled his eyes.
A series of mouse squeaks interrupted their back-and-forth argument about exactly what Shikamaru was doing to Neji. Said mouse was trapped beneath said cat, with said cat's nose pressed deep into the soft fur of its belly. Kurenai took all this in wordlessly and quite frankly, she had no clue what Shikamaru was up to. She could only hope that it was some cat-behaviour and didn't have an ulterior motive behind it.
Asuma raced over and pulled the brown tabby off the mouse, who sprinted back to his cage like his life depended on it. Shikamaru gave the dark-haired man a cat-scowl and mewed his displeasure at being interrupted, just when things were going the way he had planned.
It wasn't easy to catch Neji off guard, and it especially wasn't easy to pin him down without losing a claw in the process. But Shikamaru had managed to do both of these with minimal damage to himself when the blond, loud one came racing into the room with the brunet, loud one. Whichever one it was that had alerted Asuma… he didn't like either of the loud ones.
Now he was locked in the bathroom while the Christmas party continued downstairs; locked away from the food and most disappointing of all, locked away from the grey mouse who was so amusing to annoy.
And he had been doing a good job of it too – killing two birds with one swipe of his paws, so to speak – when he was defrosting his nose and annoying Neji at the same time.
Well, he decided, nothing ended that badly for him. He settled down on the window sill for a nice nap. His nose was glowing a fresh pink, all thanks to Neji. And he couldn't get rid of the smell of strawberries and cream from his nose. Strange.
But maybe he'll try that again someday. It was the most amusing thing he's done in a long time.
Having a grey mouse around, stuck in that cage of his, was suddenly looking a lot better.
End Drabble 3