Chapter Two:
Sneaks
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Disclaimer: All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I don't own them.
Note: Wow, thanks to all my reviewers! I'm so glad you liked the story so far! Also, be sure to check out Arktos's fanfiction, she's quite awesome, if I do say so myself! Anyway, here's chapter three, enjoy! 8D
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Cats, no less liquid than their shadows, offer no angles to the wind. They slip, diminished, neat, through loopholes less than themselves.
- A.S.J. Tessimond
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She was startled awake by a succession of knocks on her door. She kicked at her blankets and they flipped away as she swung her legs over her bed and stumbled to the door. She blinked bleary-eyed, confused for a moment at the door before opening it. She almost squeaked in surprise when she saw a stern-faced Shuiichi waiting patiently by. He gave her a small smile when she answered the door, but she felt it a little…fake, for some reason.
It somewhat disturbed her a little, but then she quietly stuffed away her thoughts, realizing that she was tired and reading into things.
"Good morning, Lauren. I'm sorry to disturb you, but there's something I'd like you to see." He motioned down the hallway and Lauren, feeling awkward, followed him wordlessly, bewildered by what was going on.
He led her over to the small balcony where he kept several plants he owned outside. They ranged from several flowers and herbs. But, as he slid the glass door open, Lauren saw that something was wrong. There were no longer any colorful flowering plants or delicious-smelling herbs outside. They were all gone, their pots now filled with what looked like…cat tails. Lauren then looked over the edge of the balcony as she stepped out, and looked down. Their apartment faced the streets, and in the small garden just outside the front doors of the apartment complex was filled with even more cat tails.
Lauren stared, eyes wide and she saw several others were hanging out on their balconies, pointing at the plants below.
"Oi, Shuiichi! You been growing something more than flowers now," a young man whom Lauren recognized as their neighbor shouted, lazing over his balcony railing. He spotted Lauren herself and gave her a bigger grin and a wink. She stiffened and walked back inside, indignant. Shuiichi followed after her.
"How the hell did those things grow overnight? They weren't there last night!" She muttered.
"So…you don't know what's going on, then?"
"How could I? I can't grow things like that…or anything in general. I've never even planted a seed before!" She huffed before realizing she was snapping at her own roommate, at the young man who was only asking an innocent and reasonable question. She clamped her mouth shut and turned away in embarrassment and mortification at herself. "I'm sorry…I didn't mean to snap, Shuiichi."
"It's all right. You had an ordeal yesterday. The only reason I asked was because I heard you moving around late last night. Perhaps you saw something or someone last night…?"
Lauren glanced at him, shaking her head. "No, no one, I…" She suddenly remembered the cats last night, and their 'Demon King' and she frowned. "No…I didn't see anyone last night. I just couldn't sleep for a little while, that's all."
She turned without a word and headed back to her room, hiding the concerned look on her face.
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Lauren was gone for the rest day, leaving Kurama alone for a good majority of the day. She had left earlier after their conversation, clean and freshened up with a determination to find a job. He found it admirable, that she was still going through with it, but then he would put aside the distraction of her odd behavior, he focused more upon the strangeness that he had witnessed last night.
Of course she lied to him about last night. The cats from last night had been unaware of his presence from nearby, watching quietly in the darkness, eyes glittering as he kept a close watch on Lauren. She was only human of course, and if he allowed her in harm's way, well…it would fall on his shoulders as his failed responsibility when Koenma got word of it. Plus…he found his roommate interesting, in some ways.
She was a hard worker, trying to adhere to the politer side of society when it came to Japan's traditional customs. She kept a strict regiment to try and learn Japanese, in all its forms she was exposed to. She remained polite and yet he sensed a certain strain from her, as if she wanted to venture off from the path, but was too afraid. Too afraid, perhaps, of insulting or upsetting someone. It was endearing in ways; she was comical in some ways and in others, he often was tempted to tell her that she didn't need to be so polite and strict with reigning in her attitude around him. Earlier had been a relief, and a show that she was releasing some of her tension.
But now he had a mystery to solve. The cat she had saved the other day, and then the appearance of all those cat demons…
They certainly didn't seem to want to harm her, which was a big relief, but they were offering gifts to her. Demons were usually not like that, even cats. They were normally selfish creatures, but this unusual change of events has him taking a step back to analyze this situation with more scrutiny.
"What is your game here, king?" He said in a low voice.
"Talking to yourself again, fox? You really shouldn't do that, you know. Someone might think you were losing your touch."
Kurama calmly turned to the voice behind him and saw the familiar form of Hiei lounging against the now open sliding glass door to the balcony. The cat tails swayed behind him in a breeze. Hiei himself was staring at Kurama with a cool gaze, lips drawn in a thin line, arms crossed over his chest.
"It's nice to see you as well, Hiei. Make yourself at home," Kurama offered.
"I have no intentions of doing that. I'm here in regards to the incident last night."
"So you're aware of the demons as well? I'm not surprised."
Kurama turned towards the kitchen and Hiei followed behind the taller man.
"Just as I'm not surprised no humans were aware of the events happening, either."
"There was one, actually," Kurama replied, pulling a small container of ice cream from the freezer. He handed it to Hiei, but the fire demon did not take the proffered little gift. He merely stared straight at Kurama, red eyes narrowed at him.
"And you let them see it?"
"She happens to be my roommate…and I think that she may have set off a chain of events."
"Meaning?" Hiei finally took the container with a more forceful swipe than necessary.
"I believe she may have rescued one of the cat demon kingdom's subjects. And not just any cat demon, either. I believe he may have been their prince."
This bit of information held no shock to Hiei, nor did it register as important. It was more along the lines of annoyance. "Perhaps she should have let him get run over. He would've survived. Barely."
"From a car, perhaps. A truck weighing several tons would have sufficiently killed him, however." Kurama countered easily, taking a seat at the small kitchen table, while Hiei hunted for a spoon.
"Would have served their kingdom right for venturing into the human world with no guards. Royalties were always troublesome in the Demon World."
"They are the last to conform, as always." Kurama agreed with a nod of his head. "But I'm not worried about their politics. I'm worried for my roommate. They've offered…gifts to her. For saving their prince."
"Should serve her right for saving a demon prince brat, then."
Kurama frowned at this, but it barely registered to Hiei. Hiei was eyeing him for a moment like an unfavorable insect before his red eyes turned to the ice cream.
"She didn't know." Kurama finally answered. "At least, not until last night, that is, when they approached her. I'm more worried about these gifts they wish to give her than anything, really." He allowed his fingers to steeple together on the table and he gave the front door a glance over the short wall. The only sound in the small apartment was the sound of a ticking clock somewhere, and the occasional stabbing of ice cream from a metal spoon.
"Perhaps…I should gather more intelligence on these cat demons before proceeding with anything else." Kurama said after several minutes of the normally nerve-wracking silence. "I am not aware of their location in the Demon World, however. I have always ventured a visit to their kingdom, but even as Youko, I could never find that place. It may be time to find it now, before anything beyond my control happens."
Hiei had said nothing for the time being and merely attacked his small parcel. When he finished, he threw the entire container and spoon into the sink before pushing away from the counter.
"You should be careful, then. They are not kind to intruders to their kingdom. Not that you'll hear any pity from me if you are caught."
Kurama smiled a little, but it was unlike the patient and kind ones he usually gave to others, Lauren included. It was a reflection of his old self, cold and without humor. Behind his dark eyes, something else stirred. "Now, Hiei…words can hurt you know. I'm rather insulted that you think I'll be caught."
He chuckled, a very low sound. Hiei said nothing, watching the fox before him for a moment.
"Good luck is all I can say from here on out, fox. Don't get killed snooping around."
Then the demon was gone in a blur of black, leaving Kurama alone.
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Lauren was sure that the strange things that happened last night should have been a dream. It could have been a dream, she tried to tell herself. But, the longer the day passed by, the harder it was to convince herself that last night had been a dream.
It all started after she left the house after Shuiichi had woken her up and asked her about the strange growth of the overnight cat tails plants. She had dressed in more proper attire—some nice charcoal slacks, black blouse with ruffles, and some nice slip on shoes—and left the apartment, her bag slung over her shoulder. The first half of the morning passed without incident, except for perhaps braving the forest of cat tails out in the front of her apartment complex.
She had been in such a mental tizzy, thoughts bouncing between the supposed dream last night, to getting a job, to the strange conversation between herself and Shuiichi that morning. She wandered around the several blocks leading near the school campus, the different apartment complexes, and the businesses near the school campus itself. She wandered around with only half a mind near them, not going in yet, browsing through the different stores, eyeing them as she perused through.
In her collective moments, she allowed herself to talk to with the owners or managers of the businesses and was given several applications, although some proprietors stated they were family-run businesses. She noticed this casual string of coincidence more and more, and when she did, she often noticed them staring at her like she was insane.
Is it because I'm not Japanese? She found it a little disconcerting and perhaps even a little insulting if that were the case. Whatever happened to equal opportunity in hiring?
While she felt somewhat glum about it, she was still grateful for the places that offered her job applications and she was sitting on a bench off to the side of the sidewalk, resting. She reviewed over some of them, most of them retail stores, and several were food joints. She looked up from job applications and the swimming kanji before her eyes and found in front of her another hopeful prospect of a hirable job; she saw a sign in the window across from her seat, and saw it to be a pet store. Irony struck her as she suddenly remembered last night all over again.
It was a dream, wasn't it?
She was trying to cling to that belief, but it was starting to fade. She stared at the sign, then at the store's front and hesitated, sheaths of paper in hand. A wind picked up and she instinctively clutched tightly at her papers and struggled to stuff them back into her bag, hair whipping around her face. She finally shoved the last of the applications into her bag, but paused when her hand brushed against something.
It was a scroll and as she lifted it out as soon as the wind died, she felt her mind drifting to last night once again. The cats…they gave me this scroll…
She opened it slowly and frowned, but nearly dropped it when something brushed against her leg. She jolted in surprise, and a hand flew to her heart, as if the gesture would calm it as she glanced down to see…cats. Several of them. They were all looking at her, purring, eyes wide and open as they stared at her. One of them was rubbing against her leg, mewling at her. Hesitantly, she reached down to pet the cat and it arched against the palm of her hand, purring even louder. She let out a nervous chuckle.
"Cats…great. I must be going insane."
"Hey! Hey, you! What're you doing with the store's cats!"
Lauren's eyes flew upwards and she saw a sallow-looking young man, eyes narrowed at her, jaw clenched…
He stalked towards her and the cats paused to glance lazily at the man for a moment before looking back at Lauren adoringly, and they all started mewing at her, and rubbing against her and one another. One began grooming itself.
Lauren, however, had eyes on the angry looking young man stomping towards her and he scooped down to pick up the grooming cat. It yowled in protest as he did so.
"Are you stupid or something? These cats belong to the store! Were you trying to steal them in broad daylight?"
"What? No, no! I was just sitting here, I-I swear, they just came to me!"
"Right, sure. I bet you have catnip on you." The young man continued, staring at her beadily as he scooped another cat up. Lauren stared helplessly for a moment before picking up a third cat in one arm. The cat was purring deeply, she felt it thrumming through her.
"Look, I'm…not really sure why they came over. But I wasn't trying to…steal your…cats." She swallowed thickly before adding, "I didn't even know you had cats in there."
"It's a pet store, what do you expect?"
Lauren was taken aback by his harsh tone and she felt like simply walking away. She wasn't in the mood to argue or pursue this chain of conversation, but still…this was rather insulting.
"Some pet stores don't carry cats," she finally countered softly before putting the cat down on the ground by the young man. "Sorry your cats like me better than your store."
Then she decided it was time to walk away before it got even uglier between herself and the young man. She needed to get back to the apartment, back to her room. Maybe it hadn't been the best idea to leave after all. She was too distracted. And it seemed like she wouldn't be getting a job at that pet store, anyways. Not now, not after that strange confrontation.
Lauren sighed. She really needed to lie down, that's what she needed to do.
She didn't even notice the trail of cats following her back to the apartment, including the cats from the pet store.
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She had collapsed on her bed as soon as she got to the apartment and lapsed into an hour-long nap. When she woke up and checked her clock, Lauren groaned in exhaustion and buried her face in her pillow groaning a little bit.
"Why me," she said, her pillow muffling her voice. She sighed into it and picked her face up…only to squeal in shock and tumble backwards when she saw a cat staring back at her. It watched unblinkingly with yellow eyes and it mewed at her, before lapsing into a purring fit, settling on her pillow. Lauren threw a hand over her chest and felt her heart beating all entirely too fast and soon began to notice…there were cats everywhere in her room. She froze at all the staring eyes around her, the volume of purring, happy felines, and the furry bodies covering her floor, her bed, her desk, her windowsill…
"What's…going on?" She asked herself, and perhaps even the cats themselves, although she didn't expect an answer. She slowly gathered herself up from her bed, and immediately, cats stood, rumps in the air, tails high up like flags, eyes still staring. She felt rather creeped out by it all, considering the last forty-eight hours. She immediately began a dogged game of dodging feline bodies, big and small, and made for her door. She yelped when she saw even more cats lounging in the hallway, some basking lazily in the sun in front of windows.
They're everywhere, she thought with a little chill worming its way up her spine. Why are they following me? The pet store, now my home! How did they even get in here, anyways!
She eyed the closed bathroom door. Oh, good. They couldn't have gotten in there. I need to…think.
Cats rubbed against her legs as she made a carefully picked trail towards the bathroom, careful not to step on paws or tails. Lauren truthfully didn't want to be on the receiving end of a little cat's claws, they hurt like hell.
Lauren grasped the bathroom door and swung it open, expecting a blissfully empty bathroom, and an empty space to think in. Inside, she was not expecting another troupe of felines inside. Inside…she was really not expecting a very large Bengal tiger waiting for her either.
The tiger itself was lounging on the bathroom floor, sprawled on its side, and when Lauren opened the door, it lifted its head, gave her a blink and was immediately on its paws, panting. Lauren stared, stiff scared and when it gave a low yowl, it jolted her out of her frozen state and she immediately squealed—purely out of reflex, she'd assure anyone who heard her—and slammed the door shut. The tiger yowled from behind the door, and she felt a thump against the door, like a paw smacking it, but nothing else.
Her heart raced as she slowly began to process this. There's a tiger in the bathroom. Oh…my God, there's a tiger in the bathroom. What the hell is going on! How did it even get here?
The front door suddenly opened. Even above the deafening purring and constant meowing, she could hear it.
"Lauren? Lauren, are you here?"
Shuiichi's familiar voice brought a sudden and unsuspecting relief to her addled mind. Lauren immediately moved towards the living room, hoping for help, any help. She was met with the familiar flare of red hair, deep green eyes, and his tall stature, standing in the middle of the sea of fur and tails, cats rubbing against him like they were with her. He looked to her as soon as she was spotted, a hint of wanting an explanation in his expression.
"Oh, thank God…Shuiichi, before you think I'm…I dunno, making a cat orphanage or adopting all these cats, I'm not. I have no clue how they got here, I really don't. I came home, took a nap and they were all here!" She said this all almost in a single breath and had to stop to catch it before continuing. She hadn't even noticed the rather shocked expression on his face. "But…there's more. Shuiichi…please don't freak out but…there's a tiger in the bathroom."
This time, she noticed the dumbfounded expression on his face. She later catalogued it away for later uses, and would perhaps laugh later…in private, very quietly, when this whole mess was settled. But right now…
"I'm…I'm sorry, there's…a what in the bathroom?"
"There's a jungle cat in our bathroom! Do you think I could pull off getting a tiger across town without being seen? I don't even know where the closest zoo is!"
Once more, she was met with that dumbfounded look, and she was taken aback by it. It was a rather unusual expression for him, one that didn't suit his well-proportioned features. Finally a smile broke out on his face and he brought a hand to his chin, staring at her with his eyes glittering with mirth.
"I'm sorry, but…a tiger? Are you sure it's not a tabby cat? Your mind might be playing tricks on you, Lauren."
"Go look! It's a freakin' tiger!" She pointed, feeling somewhat dramatic, but she didn't care. She knew what she saw, and it wasn't a rather large tabby like Shuiichi suggested. He smiled disarmingly at her, and she wanted to believe his explanation when he did smile, but…she knew what she had seen. He carefully picked his way past the cats, and he almost seemed to move with a grace of someone older than he truly was. She was rather captivated by his movements and she followed, staring at his broad back with a blush.
Snap out of it, Mackenzie. There's a tiger in the bathroom. Focus on that first! She berated herself. She almost ran into him when he stopped before the bathroom door. He smiled at her reassuringly. "Like I stated before, it was probably just a tabby cat. They're not uncommon in this area, they're quite popular, actually."
He grasped the door handle and she tensed, almost preparing for the tiger to be at the door, claws at the ready, teeth bared behind a snarling, striped face…
Shuiichi opened the door slowly and leaned forward a little. A few moments passed. Then, just as calmly, he closed the door and stared at it for several moments. A few knocks on the door notified a paw smacking at it.
"I believe…you are right, Lauren." He looked to her in that same calm fashion. "There is a tiger in the bathroom."
"…I told you. I swear, I wasn't making a Hangover reference."
He arched a brow in question. "Hangover?"
"…It's a movie. The characters get drunk in Las Vegas, wake up the next morning, and don't remember anything. Their hotel room's trashed and they find a tiger in the bathroom."
"Ah. It sounds…interesting."
"It was funny," she offered meekly. He smiled and pulled a cell phone from his slacks pocket.
"Well, perhaps we can find it at a video store after we deal with this…intrusion."
He then turned away and began dialing on his phone, and Lauren wisely chose to give him his space, silently thankful that she was not crazy and that there really was a tiger in the bathroom.
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