On Unions Civil and Otherwise

by Kita-Ysabell

Ten years have passed- ten years to the day- and when Utena and Anthy's engagement party goes somewhat awry, Saionji finds that some things are not so easily forgotten, and faces the bitter possibility that to make good his escape from Ohtori, he must rescue his oldest and closest friend- whether that friend wants to be rescued or not.

20. Scratches

Saionji didn't know where exactly he'd gotten the idea for a cat, but when he spoke to the landlady about it, she was delighted and spent almost an hour telling him about a cat she'd had when she was young. And from that point on, it seemed like it would have been pointless not to get one.

Likewise, the choice of a particular cat wasn't a thing he paid any attention to—sleek, black, full-grown, fine—but once the cat was home, it was as if some small part of the world had finally been put right. Touga never spoke to the cat, but it wasn't for want of affection. Saionji talked to the cat and it ignored him; Touga said nothing to the cat and the two were hardly ever apart.

Saionji did not begrudge the cat this closeness, nor did he begrudge being the one to feed and care for the cat. He was glad, merely, that Touga had something to love without complication. He was glad that he could look over, from time to time, and see the two of them completely occupied with one another.

"You can see that someone owns a cat," the landlady had said, "by the scratches on their arms and hands. And you can tell if they're a cat person by the way they react to those scratches."

It was Touga whose hands were marked. When Saionji asked him about it, he laughed in mild, surprised amusement.

"We were just playing," he said.