Chapter 9

After Dark all Cats are Leopards

—Native American Proverb

He'd never really thought about the way things were changing between him and his rival. Part of the reason was that it scared him just a bit at the implications of where all of it would lead. A lot would change if he took Waya's not so subtle suggestions to heart, if he accepted the small touches here and there as fact… He glanced at his hands and found them trembling just a bit.

Everything would change.

Wouldn't it?

Yet he didn't want everything to change. He liked—no—he loved their rivalry, needed it. Would that change? Would it lose some of its intensity if they dropped their guards down and started seeing each other as more than just rivals?

Akira shook his head slowly, wishing the thoughts would straighten themselves out into a more orderly fashion.

Ogata-san's tone suggested that he'd been oblivious to the whole matter. That wasn't the case. Not quite. He'd known. He really had, he'd just chosen to remain blind to them for a bit longer, hoping that time would give him more answers instead of more confusing questions. How did they get here? How did it come to this? How and why? He felt his cheeks burning as his eyes sought out his rival in the other room. Shindo was laughing with his friends, enjoying the lunch break before the games would start again. The sight of the other brought on a quickening of his heart beat.

Maybe it'd been selfish of him to ignore the change. Maybe it'd been cowardly… Akira took a breath in and slowly released it out.

'I've run out of time,' With that thought he stood up and made his way to his place. In his mind he was already formulating his plan. His next move. He needed to pick up the slack. After all, Shindo had been playing most of the opening moves by himself…

….…

Hikaru made his way back to the apartment slowly, lost in his thoughts. He'd called two places and actually visited a third place already—all who were looking for renters, looked reasonably priced, and were accepting of cats. The third option was a big NO but he'd just have to see in the next couple days if the other two actually fit their printed descriptions. Waya had already offered to come with him, punching his arm in what was supposed to be a comforting gesture. Comforting—like hell! He probably had a bruise the size of a peach by now. Hikaru bit his lip. He was just being negative about everything right now, the possible apartments especially. He felt a bit wary of them, his mind and heart already made up in hating the two options because if one of them was suitable…he'd really have to leave. He'd have no excuses.

He sighed. It would really suck, having to pack everything again. Maybe he shouldn't have unpacked all of his boxes when he'd moved here in the first place. Hikaru took his time climbing the stairs and walking down the hallway. As he reached the door, throat tight, he shook his head. He was being silly. It wasn't like it was his last day here already! He was acting like he would never be here again…and that was just stupid. He was being stupid. If he didn't start shaping up soon, Touya would get suspicious. He forced a smile on his face and tried to think of a reasonable excuse for why he was coming home so late.

He tried the door and found it unlocked, a clear indication that Touya was already home. Which wasn't strange at all because it was getting rather late. But it was surprisingly quiet in the apartment and after a couple of minutes of careful investigation, Hikaru found out why. Touya was asleep on the couch with Karu laid out near his neck while Kira was curled up on his chest. All three were so deeply asleep that they took no notice of him as he watched them. Piled on the floor next to the couch was a couple of kifu. Hikaru quietly came closer and bent down to see whose they were. He wasn't really surprised when he realized that they were of Kuwabara Honinbo's latest game. Ogata-sensei was going to be playing the old man again in a title match and dead set on winning. But he would have to beat Touya first in the preliminaries. And knowing his rival as he did, he knew that Touya would not give his godfather an easy time at all.

Hikaru placed the kifu back down and sat, his back leaning against the couch. The smile he had forced on his face earlier melted into a softer, truer one. He rested his head, nearly touching Touya's knee and found himself relaxing fully for the first time that day.

He'd never seen his rival like this before. Sleeping and utterly relaxed without any barriers or masks of politeness to keep him at bay and out of reach. Hikaru's eyes started to flutter to a close despite wanting to watch the scene for a just a bit longer—just long enough to be sure that he could memorize it and never forget it. He hadn't realized how taxing today had been. But now home…he could feel again. And he was tired. Within a couple of minutes, he fell asleep as well.

Kira was the first to stir, he blinked sleepily before uncurling and then placing his front paws a little away from him—he stretched his back. He uttered a little contented mrew that seemed to waken his sister and then sat down, licking first his front paw and then the other one. He passed the first paw, after having licked it thoroughly, over his ear. He was very diligent at keeping himself clean unlike his sister who sometimes needed to be pinned down and cleaned by him. Those times were rare still. She was slightly bigger and better at play-fighting.

Karu opened one eye, glared at her brother who ignored the look completely, and closed it again. She wasn't ready to wake up. She was still digesting her yummy dinner and she was warm and safe where she was. She buried her head deeper into her human's long dark hair, hoping that he wouldn't wake up. Karu gave a small sigh before falling right back to sleep.

It was when Kira noticed that his human was home as well that he began to purr. The soft noise rumbled within his chest and grew as he poked Hikaru's cheek with his small nose. There was no response to his greeting but he didn't quite need one. The kitten was happy and moved even closer. His warm tongue started to clean the furless face.

Hikaru frowned in his sleep at the raspy touch and tried to move away from it. Paws then came and rested on his face with just a hint of claws that made him stay still. Hikaru opened his eyes slowly only to have his nose being licked thoroughly. He yelped, startling Kira whose claws came out in instinctual reaction and pierced his skin. Touya at the sound woke up with his heart beating fast in his chest and tried to sit up, his knees moved and one slammed in the back of Hikaru's head. Karu dumped unceremoniously from her perch meowed loudly at the injustice.

"Ow! OW!" Kira fell back on the ground and Karu pounced at him. She pinned him, growling and batting at his head with her free paw. This was all his fault!

"Shindo?" Hikaru didn't know which hurt the worse at this point, his scratched face or his throbbing head. "What—?" Touya moved again, swinging his legs so that they were over the couch. "Are you all right?"

"No!" Hikaru moaned, deciding finally that the throbbing of his head hurt worse. He clutched at his head, wondering vaguely if rubbing it would help or make it worse.

"What happened?" Touya asked. He separated the kittens with a distracted hand, pushing Karu to one side and Kira to another. And then suddenly he was there, kneeling in front of him. He pulled Hikaru's hands away and felt for the bump. "You scared the hell out of me. When did you come in?"

"Fell asleep, Kira woke me up, he was licking my face. I wasn't expecting it. And then…" He jerked away as Touya's long fingers found the source of the pain and gently massaged the area. "That hurts! Man Touya!" Hikaru whined. "Bony shoulders, bony knees… you need to eat more or something."

"Don't be an idiot, Shindo." Touya responded in kind yet his fingers remained gentle and slowly Hikaru relaxed under the ministration. The throbbing too started to lessen and he found himself leaning towards the touch. "You should put some ice on that." Touya finally whispered, sitting back and breaking the contact.

"Yeah thanks." The other got up and turned on the light without warning. Hikaru covered his eyes and both kittens blinked at the change.

"Shindo? Is that blood?" Touya asked.

"Eh?" Hikaru felt his face, grimacing as he felt the warm stickiness. "Guess it is." He sighed. "Is the antiseptic cream back in…" He trailed off as he realized that Touya was already gone. "Maa, Touya!" He got up and started after his rival. "Wait up!"

….…

Minutes later and two band aids decorating his rival's face, Akira sat at the table opposite of him wondering exactly when weird had become a natural state of being.

"I'm sorry I came home so late." Shindo muttered between bites, digging into his reheated plate of food. "Didn't expect my errands to take so long."

"It's all right." Akira really didn't see the need for an apology. It wasn't the first time his rival was late. At least this time he'd had the presence of mind to call and warn him in advance. Though, he had to admit, Shindo had gotten much better at being on time lately. He watched the other eat with a bit of apprehension on whether he'd made enough food after all. Either Shindo truly enjoyed his cooking or he was starving; Akira really couldn't tell from the way the other was shoveling the food in his mouth. Too soon, his rival was filling his plate for the second time. Shindo's appetite never ceased to amaze him. Akira sighed, resting his head on his hand. Maybe he should have cooked for four instead of dividing the ingredients to make the recipe fit for three people.

At the small sound, Shindo paused to swallow and look him over. Under the sudden scrutiny Akira could only sit up and correct his posture. "What is it?" He asked, hoping Shindo would stop staring at him like that.

"If you're tired," Shindo started softly. "You don't have to keep me company. You should go to bed." The other paused for a minute, opening his mouth before closing it once more. Then with a little movement of the shoulder, as if he was bracing himself, he continued. "You didn't have to wait for me tonight…" The grey-green eyes dropped back to look at the contents of his plate.

"I know," Akira whispered. "I just…" Well, this was awkward. He didn't quite know how to broach this subject. "I needed to talk to you about something." He caught Shindo's barely suppressed wince and wondered as to what it was for. He supposed he could ask him afterwards. "The manager wanted to talk to us yesterday. I forgot to mention it yesterday because of the migraine…"

"Ojii-san?"

"Yes." Akira rubbed his palms onto his pants, hoping that Ogata-san was right about this whole thing.

"Is he ok?" Shindo's eyes had gotten huge with worry. "He didn't hurt himself helping that one family move in did he? Old people can be so stubborn you know…" Akira blinked at all the questions, shaking his head a bit helplessly.

"He's fine, Shindo."

"Oh. That's good. What did he want then?" Relieved, he'd gone back to eating. The words were barely understandable amidst the huge amount of food that was crammed into his mouth. Akira sighed at the sight and bit his lip to refrain from commenting. He'd learned from the first week of living with the other man that he'd have no luck in instilling table manners in him. It would be more useful to scream at a rock. Still, it wasn't the most attractive thing in the world and he made a small face. Shindo caught it and smiled, knowing exactly what caused it. He added another large mouthful winking at him.

"Idiot." He muttered and Shindo saluted him with his chopsticks. "Anyway, as I was saying…He wanted to tell me that there was a larger apartment that had been freed up on the floor above us. He was wondering whether we'd be interested…would you be?" He'd spoken rather fast and Shindo blinked at the words. The chopsticks were deposited onto the table slowly.

"If we'd…" He trailed off. "But I thought," He swallowed hard. "I thought I'd be here only temporarily. A month, right?"

"Well, I mean." Akira started to stammer. "I know that's what we agreed upon at first and of course I understand if you don't want to continue with this arrangement. It must be awkward but I thought you should know. That's all." His hands had fisted into the material of his pants unconsciously and inside he felt like he was shaking. It had been a stupid thing to do. He should have just told the manager the same thing he had told him the first time—it was a temporary situation—only temporary. And if he hadn't been completely filled with nerves, Akira was sure he would have felt bruised inside.

"You," Shindo began, still sounding a bit shocked. "Wait. You really wouldn't mind?" The words were faint and filled with hope. Akira shook his head.

"I wouldn't have offered, if I minded."

Shindo inclined his head at that, realizing the truth. A real smile was starting to form on his face as he continued. "I'd like that."

"Really?" Akira asked, hating the way he sounded shy in that one moment. His rival took no notice and just nodded eagerly.

"Really!" And then he was out of his chair, scooping poor Kira in his arms and doing this mad little dance within the apartment. The kitten meowed and braced himself on his human's shoulder. "Did you hear that Kira! We're going to stay!" Karu ran after them and Akira just placed his face in his hands.

"Shindo!" Really. His rival was such a lunatic at times. "The neighbors!"

To be continued…