Chapter 4

Taking Care of Business

Akira placed a go stone down while warily keeping an eye out on Karu's whereabouts. Since he'd been studying, Akira had gotten approximately thirty minutes of relative quiet. His kitten had been curled up on the couch sleeping. The quiet had been relative 'cause Karu actually snored. Or at least, Akira thought it was snoring. It sounded different from the purring noise the kitten would make when he was being pet.

Sadly, the little terror had woken up and had decided that pouncing onto the go board would make a good game. He'd managed to startle Akira so badly, he'd felt like he'd had a heart attack. To top it off, Karu had not only destroyed the pattern he'd been working on, he'd eaten one of the go stones as well! One of the white stones to be specific and had made such a face as if to say it hadn't been that tasty. Silly fur ball. That had caused Akira to go back on the internet for more information. He hadn't found much on kittens swallowing go stones but he had found that if they did end up swallowing small objects—as long as they didn't choke and it wasn't poisonous—it would come back out. Though Akira didn't think he'd look for it in the litter box, it was of slight relief to know that Karu wouldn't be in any mortal danger. He'd just deal with the loss of one go stone.

Anyway, to keep Karu out of the room and still try to concentrate had proved to be impossible. That kitten had some powerful lungs. So Akira had searched through the bags of stuff that Hikaru had brought that first day and had found various toys. He had grabbed this little rug looking mat that had a spring attached to it. On top of the spring was a bright red cloth ball. He'd dragged the toy to the other room and had placed it a safe distance from his go board. The kitten had joyfully followed him, batting at his pant legs and purring simply because he was getting some attention. He'd sat on his haunches and cocked his head though when Akira had sat back down and told him in a no-nonsense voice that he could play alone for a bit. The kitten's large green eyes looked from the toy with the spring moving from side to side to Akira and back again. "Mew?"

Akira ignored the questioning meow and continued with his review of the game. The kitten sniffed loudly and then hunched before a bit clumsily wading over to the toy and trying to catch the ball. Instead of catching it, the kitten found himself falling on his face and the spring fly from his grasp. The swinging ball came and hit him on top of the head. "Meow! Phsst!" Karu ran away and hid behind Akira. "Mreow…" Karu pawed his side.

"It's a toy." Akira muttered, looking down at him. "Just a toy." He reached for it and brought it closer to him. Karu back away with a slightly hurt look on his face. "It won't hurt you. See?" He gave the ball a hard poke and watched as the kitten tracked its movement. He waited then, knowing what would eventually come next. The little kitten would become mesmerized by the movement and then his butt would start to wiggle and…POUNCE! Karu went after it. Oh good. Whatever had been frightening about the toy was now long forgotten. Perhaps now, he could get some studying done.

Or maybe not. There was someone at the door knocking. Three guesses as to who? Akira made a face before getting up. He pushed his hair behind his ears. "Coming." He had been so sure it was going to be his rival that Akira just kept blinking at the unchanging image of Ogata-san and was that Ashiwara? Yes, yes it was. Akira bit the side of his cheek to keep from grinning back at the openly cheerful face. It was such a contrast to Ogata-san's current expression.

"Akira-kun!" Ashiwara pushed Ogata-san forward. "We heard that you got a kitten from Shindo-kun!" The oldest of the three frowned and fixed his jacket before glaring. Ashiwara ignored the look. "Is it true?"

"Yes…" Akira looked over his shoulder, surprised the bundle of energy hadn't followed him.

"Kya! Sooo cute…" Green eyes that had been staring from the study's door way disappeared at the noise. They reappeared shortly though, blinking at the two new intruders. When he realized that there was no danger, he started to tumble his way out towards the three men. Ashiwara was on his knees in a heartbeat, arms open to greet the tan and white kitten. "He's beautiful Akira-kun." The man cooed. "He's so tiny." He held Karu up and wrinkled his nose as the kitten meowed. As Akira half expected, Ashiwara meowed back. He watched with amusement as Karu's eyes widened and then meowed again in response.

"How old is he?" Ogata-san asked quietly, looking wary at the sight that was at his feet. "It is a he, right?" Akira nodded.

"He's two months old."

"House trained?" The blond man asked, eyebrows rising higher and higher as Ashiwara and Karu started to really converse. Akira covered a laugh with a hand and had to try a couple times before he could answer with a straight face.

"Litter trained. Not house trained."

"Do your parents know?"

"Yes. I called them earlier." And then came the question he really dreaded. Or should have been if he had had time to think about it.

"What's his name?"

"Karu." As the name slipped past his lip, Akira felt his stomach go cold and tighten in nervous apprehension. Ogata-san however, looked as if Christmas had suddenly come early this year. A scary smile stretched his lips and his eyes glinted knowingly. In the background, oblivious to what was happening around them, Karu and Ashiwara continued to hold their conversation.

….…

Hikaru lay on his couch, tired already from having packed a couple of boxes here and there. To think he still had the entire apartment to do. He groaned and threw his arm over his eyes. Kira jumped up onto the couch. Or tried to. He made it half way and then just meowed pitifully as he slid back down to the ground. Hikaru without opening his eyes just swung his free arm around and grabbed Kira from where he was. As he deposited the kitten on top of his chest, Kira began to purr. Hikaru had to smile at the sound. His smile grew as the little kitten wormed his way to his face and started to lick Hikaru's cheek. The sensation was partly ticklish and partly painful! He moved his arm away from his face and used that hand to tap Kira's nose.

"I'm clean you know." He muttered quietly. "But thanks." Kira purred loudly at that and moved so that he was curled up under Hikaru's chin. When his cell rang, Kira jumped slightly sending his sharp little claws digging though his t-shirt and into his skin. Hikaru cursed and fished the loud cell phone from his pocket. Glaring daggers at the piece of technology that had interrupted what had started to develop as a good nap time, he answered. "Hello?" Rather grumpily, one could add. His tone changed however when he realized who was on the other line. "Touya?" He sat up slowly, dislodging the kitten from his neck and placing the little furball on his lap. "Are you ok? You sound a little…" Hikaru trailed off not knowing whether if he actually gave the description his rival would be insulted or not. The truth was, Touya sounded harassed. He blinked as his rival started talking, apparently ignoring his worried comment. "Ogata-san wants to what?" Hikaru blinked incredulously. "He said what?" Kira blinked large green eyes and jumped off the couch. "Ashiwara wants to come to?" Hikaru slapped his forehead, feeling his cheeks burn. "What do you mean both of them are coming now?!" He took a deep breath in. "How did they find out in the first place?" Hikaru then winced as Touya's voice took on a very obvious steely note. "Waya and I may have been talking about it in the institute…but!" He conceded softly. "Not everything is always my fault! And…" He frowned as his rival kept interrupting his protests. "But! I… Fine Touya! But you're coming with them! I don't want to have to deal with Ogata-san alone!" Hikaru's eyes certainly became very wide as Touya on the other lined threatened very coolly that Hikaru deserved to face the man alone. "To-ya!!!" Hikaru whined. Ever since Touya had realized that Hikaru was nervous…NOT scared of Ogata-san he would always use the information to his advantage. It was infuriating and completely unfair! Especially since, it wasn't like Touya had such a weakness. Hikaru felt himself begin to pout. "Touya…please?" There was a huff on the other end of the line. The muffled answer that came next brought a relieved smile on Hikaru's face.

But then there was a knock on his door. "Hang on a minute Touya." Hikaru muttered as he got up to let whoever was there. Probably Waya. He opened and shut it immediately, recognizing the blond man and the glint in those scary blue eyes in a very rapid heartbeat. "TOUYA! YOU TRAITOR!"

On the other end of the phone, Akira winced and pulled the phone away from his ear. Really! He huffed in disapproval, frowning. "Shindo," Akira started. "Don't yell! It's rude." He paused and listened with growing amusement as the yelling turned into nervous and angry hissings. "I can't understand a word you're saying, Shindo. And really… I did tell you that they were on their way." One eyebrow arched up as he was accused of being someone vile and inconsiderate. "Excuse me!" Akira had to bite the inside of his cheek in hopes to keep his temper in check. "You cannot be serious Shindo. Have you checked a mirror lately?" He snapped snidely in a fit of immaturity that rankled him even more because he knew… he knew he only got this way because of his rival. "Oh very mature, Shindo!" He started counting to ten and back again. "I am not! You're such an irresponsible oaf! Don't you…" Very faintly he heard knocking in the background. Since he was absolutely sure that the knocking wasn't coming from his end, Akira suddenly had a horrible sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Shindo? You have let them in…right?

"Uhm no?" Hikaru managed to squeak the answer out as he looked at his door with huge eyes! Anger at his rival had already dissipated as it had never been there to begin with. "I panicked. I opened the door and there he was and you weren't there and I just slammed the door shut on his face and Touya he's going to kill me!" The run on sentence that had been whispered forcefully into the cell phone was greeted with silence. "What do you mean you didn't understand that!? Touya just come over already!" And with that he hung up the phone and braced himself before opening the door and plastering a smile on his face. Ogata-san was leaning against the nearby wall, looking way too amused. Ashiwara, who had been in the middle of knocking blinked in surprise as the hard surface was suddenly taken away from him.

"Shindo-kun?" The man asked in cheerful surprise. "Are you all right? You look a bit pale." Ashiwara leaned in so that they were face to face. Hikaru took a step back and gave a strangled chuckle.

"Ah…sorry about that. Come in, come in. It was," He wracked his brain for some sort of explanation that didn't have scary blue eyes, obsessed middle aged blond man who was keen on having too much to drink and… "Crazy idiot on the phone. Couldn't get him off." If anything, his stuttering explanation made Ogata-san's smirk grow.

"Oh." Ashiwara looked puzzled but came in and looked around. "We're very sorry for coming without warning you, Shindo-kun."

"We were just very excited about meeting Kira." Ogata-san stated calmly as he made his own way in. "Akira should be joining us soon I suspect. He said he had a rather urgent phone call to make." Hikaru felt his face redden. "Crazy, huh?"

"Uh..."

"Karu is awfully cute." Ashiwara commented, ignoring Ogata-san's rambling. "What does Kira look like?" Glad for the excuse to get away from the older man, Hikaru started to look for his kitten. He hoped Touya was making his way over here. And he hoped that he was coming fast.

To be continued...

A/N- Sorry for the delay. Reality came and knocked me off my feet. But I always like to keep a healthy dose of fantasy and imagination in my life. So I'm back. grins