Phew, it's been like 3-4 months, right? I managed to get an update in during my winter break. I'm going to be graduating from college soon and now I got to look into graduate schools or possibly law schools because patent lawyers are cool. Life is difficult and a pain and yet we all gotta do it.
If anyone reads these, one reason why this was delayed a bit, was because I'm doing some major planning for my two requested stories. I dunno if the people who requested them are still following my stories, but I'll stay true to my word. I dunno when they'll be out, but I've got a lot of the backstory and a few parts of the plot figured out already.
Look forward to them!
Chapter 11- Gokudera: Run Away Feline! [2]
She tried, but she couldn't do it. She just HAD to go. She had to go and see him now!
Run up to him, and jump into his arms- AS SHE CLAWS UP HIS DUMB FACE!
Who told him to be an idiotic jerk face to Haru all of the time, anyways? Uri ACTUALLY liked Haru and if he wasn't such a jerk to her all of the time, she would come to visit him, and by extension herself, more often!
Such an idiotic prick of a master she had!
Did you see how the other masters treat Haru? They treat her well!
From what she saw, that master of the dog and bird was the most dangerous. He was really nice to her.
'Note to self: Remember to bully Jirou harder than before. End note.'
Bringing out one of the small bombs that Giannini had used to change the other two into human forms, Uri had bounded up to Haru's room and with much struggling, managed to find some of Haru's clothes.
She transformed herself with the bomb and then changed into the clothes that she pulled out from Haru's closet.
She pulled out whatever looked the easiest to get into without any assistance and she was on her way! Uri had to escape before Haru could get there and then nag at her to stay behind. Haru likely had enough with being the chaperone for the animal friends of the Cloud Guardian.
Out the door she went! Screw shoes, she was going bare foot.
Perhaps because her own feet were tough to be able to withstand walking barefoot on the roads. Pebbles and dirt? Not a problem. She can handle those without a problem.
Mud and water? That's a problem. She hated to get her paws wet, and if she tracked in mud inside of the house, Haru would get upset.
Trust Uri, Jirou did it once.
Haru was very upset. Good thing she kicked him outside to make him the test escape goat!
Huh? Shouldn't she apologize? For what? He was stupid enough to be in front of her foot when she kicked him outside into the mud!
If anything, he is at fault, right? Uri is sure that even her master would agree!
Like owner, like pet these two.
Uri made her way to where Gokudera was, at school.
She's been here before several times along with Gokudera (in her ring form) and so she knew her way. Her cat instincts were leading her the correct way to go.
Once passing through the school gates, she snuck her way into the school building without being noticed by anyone on the school committee.
She didn't have the time to get caught by anyone and get hauled away by Haru.
No matter what, she had to give Gokudera's face a piece of her paw… or rather… a hand. Could she claw up his face like this? She had nails, but they weren't retractable like her claws her. Did that mean she was always constantly armed?
To test it out, she used her nails to scratch against her forearm but all it did was make her skin go red. Humans had such inferior weapons. These claws didn't retract and they were so dull! Maybe… if she used this wall as a scratching post…
Scrit scrit scrit
Nope. Still nothing. She'll just have to make do.
She can still perform a kitty slap right? She practiced whapping the air with her hands pretending that Gokudera's face was in front of her.
Yeah, this would work. Humans had pretty strong arms and legs, hm?
The longer arm would make it so more power could be converted to swinging power. Humans had some pretty good natural weapons, didn't they?
"Just you wait, stupid Gokudera. I'm coming for you. You're too stupid sometimes to be my master." Uri hissed to herself quietly as she slowly stalked down the hallways, trying to pick up his scent.
It appeared that classes were back in session and so no one was in the hallway, aside from the occasional disciplinary member who just so happened to walk by while they were on their patrol.
What was this? This familiar smell of insolence. There was also a slight scent of something burning. Smoke? Dynamites? Either way, it had to belong to only one person.
That stupid master of hers, Gokudera.
Just you wait, scratching post! Wait, no. These inferior human hands are not meant for scratching. Mmmm, just you wait, slapping post!
Uri crept up to the doorway quietly and pressed her ear against it. Another inferior quality of humans found: Their subpar listening capabilities. Were they really unable to hear as much as she could normally?
Such sad creatures. No wonder Gokudera needed her to care for him. Maybe she should be nicer to him.
…
MAYBE IF HE STOPPED BEING STUPD!
It didn't seem like a teacher was inside of their class teaching, so perhaps they were having a free period or something? Though she regarded Gokudera as being stupid, she knew that he was pretty intelligent when compared to his peers.
Such a sad species. Many of them were even below Gokudera. At least she had him trained well to give her flames whenever she wanted to snack. He also has been taught to find her itchy spots and scratch them for her when she couldn't quite reach them.
Time to teach her pet another lesson.
Much like a cat, she thought she was the highest of the food chain and was under the assumption that her owners were really her pets. Jirou thought the opposite and knew quite well that Yamamoto was his superior.
Interesting how the two animals were so different from each other. It clearly showed in their mentality.
She slammed open the doorway and soon all of the eyes were on Uri. Yes. Feast your eyes on the almighty Uri.
Stalking all the way up to Gokudera's desk, with a big scowl on her face she brought her hand up and swiftly brought it down across his face. Righteous retribution.
"Gah! What the hell!? Who are you!?"
Gokudera reeled back and he saved himself from being slapped across the face. Chet. She missed.
Looks like he was getting better at saving his face from torture, didn't it?
"Hmph. So you escaped this time. Give me your face so I can slap it. I need to teach you another lesson." Uri huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest, something she copied from Gokudera when he was trying to scold her for something- such as her clawing up his face.
She never understood what he was talking about however. What was so wrong with beating some sense into something that you own?
Such a haughty little feline she was.
"You told yourself you would be nicer to Haru, but you haven't changed. Still the same mean idiot. If you keep that up, THAT one will win. Do you know how it feels to lose out to that mutt, Jirou? Stop being idiotic!" Uri raised her opposite hand and swung her hand, but instead of missing, Gokudera had caught her hand.
Such a useless body. It was harder than she thought to control this body.
"Wait a minute… are you… Uri?"
This was her chance! Even if her hand was captured, she still had feet! She hastily lifted her leg and kicked him in the stomach before he could compose himself.
He let go of her arm once she kicked him and she reeled her hand back to her side while never letting her look of disgust leave her face.
"That's right, I'm Uri. It's been a while since you last visited me. When is the last time you fed me, huh? Irresponsible. You haven't played with me either." Uri huffed.
The whole classroom was now quiet and all eyes were on Gokudera. When she first burst into the classroom, there was a lot of whispering going to and fro within the classroom but now there was nothing but silence.
You could possibly hear a pin drop with how quiet it was other than Uri's hard breathing.
Gokudera was shocked, and his mind went blank. First, Uri was in a ring form, then she was released from that form and was in her original form and now… she was HUMAN!?
"Gokudera… what is going on? Who is this? Is it really Uri? What is she talking about?" Tsuna whispered over to Gokudera.
After hearing the voice of his boss, he couldn't remain in shock forever.
"Ignoring all of that for now, Uri! Why are you here?" Gokudera had his hands on her shoulders and shook her, earning him a smack from shaking her too hard.
It was making her dizzy.
"Someone had to put you in your place. You haven't learned a thing have you? What? Just last time, you were sulking about how you-" "AH! Okay, time for you to go back Uri. You don't need to say any more." Gokudera nervously clamped a hand over her mouth.
No one needed to know about his problems.
Especially not about how he vows every time to be nice to Haru, but he always ends up failing because of his big mouth. He just found it almost impossible to stop himself from saying mean things to her.
It was a curse. He was Italian, wasn't he? The country of romance and what not? He had none of that.
Uri would always listen (?) to him, and would always ask for some flame for her to lap up. Or maybe she wasn't listening but was just sitting there?
No, she mentioned something about him talking last time, so she does listen.
At this point, everyone in the classroom was staring at Gokudera and Uri like they had each grown two extra heads.
What was going on right now and what was Gokudera doing?
"Juudaime, I'm going to have to take my leave early and return Uri back to where she belongs. I'll take the rest of the day off as well. Come on Uri. Let's go." Gokudera tugged her along behind him and he walked out of the classroom.
The moment the door closed, the room went crazy with questions. Who was that girl? Was he dating her? What was their relationship with each other?
Did you see the way he whisked her out of the classroom!? He was just like a prince!
'Just what is going on through these girls' heads? How did that look anything like a prince whisking a girl away? To me, it looks like an angry owner dragging a disobedient pet along.' Tsuna thought to himself.
Gokudera was hauling the now hissing Uri behind him towards where Haru and the other animals were. "I don't know why you are like this, but it's either a side effect or Giannini must have done something." He grumbled to himself. He was definitely correct in guessing that Giannini's hand was at work in this situation.
He tried to fix the situation but it all backfire on him.
Uri had enough of being dragged and she clambered onto Gokudera's back. "Carry me. My feet hurt."
"No one told you to walk outside without shoes on." Gokudera muttered but made no move to shove her off him. With his retort, she smacked the top of his head with the palm of her hand.
This cheeky feline never knew when to stop hitting him.
They made it to the house and Gokudera invited himself in.
"Haru, I brought a present. An annoying one."
He could hear a few sounds of discord further into the house. It sounded as though things were falling around all over the place and Haru was in the middle of it.
"Hahi! Haru is coming!" Her feet was pounding against the floor and she slid towards the doorway to see an unfamiliar face on Gokudera's back.
Seeing the way that she was patting the top of Gokudera's head with her hand, she could guess who this was.
If she hadn't dealt with Hibird and Roll earlier, she never would have guessed that this girl was Uri.
"Uri! That's where you were! Haru was very worried about you! I see that you went to visit Gokudera! You really missed him, huh? You both get along very well." Haru giggled.
Gokudera was going to retort, and likely say something rude, but Uri pinched him. Someone had to remind him to be nice, didn't they?
Uri couldn't allow for only Yamamoto to be so far ahead in the game after all.
Her master also had to be in the running.
"I had to remind him something. I'm back~ Haru, I want a snack. Can I have a snack?" Uri pouted and had her eyes opened wide.
Big eyes and a pouted lip was always the best combination to get anyone to do anything for you. The cuteness was guaranteed.
"Hai hai, Haru will go and get you some… mmm… want some canned tuna?" She suggested.
Uri licked her lips and nodded her head enthusiastically.
With that, Haru retreated into the kitchen to get a bowl of tuna ready for the feline-now-human.
As Haru retreated into the kitchen, Uri turned to look at Gokudera with a warning glare. "Don't mess up with Haru. I actually like her. I wouldn't mind having her around all the time." She threatened him before she plopped herself onto her favorite couch, waiting for Haru to return with her bowl of tuna.
Haru got the bowl of tuna for her, and was not surprised to see that Uri was sitting on her favorite couch like she owned it. She sat the bowl down on her lap and Uri pretty much planted her face into the bowl and started eating out of it.
She was an animal after all and that was the only way they knew how to eat.
"Here, I prepared a cup of tea for you. I assume you took the rest of the day off to bring Uri back and to avoid being questioned by everyone else in the class." Haru handed him one of the cups that she had. She sat on the other couch in the room and patted the seat right next to her.
Seeing no reason to reject this, he took the seat right next to her and sipped on the cup of tea she handed him. It was good. She had good taste in tea.
The two of them sat in silence for a while. It was hard to come up with a conversation to have when most of the time they were fighting over something stupid.
Neither of them were mad right now, so what did they possibly have to talk about?
Uri was sitting on the couch, eating her bowl of tuna as she eyed Gokudera warily. Ready to chuck a bowl at him if he did something stupid like make Haru angry.
"Ah… so… about those times we normally fight and I call you a stupid woman…" Gokudera started out slowly.
Haru was tensing up a little bit, getting apprehensive about what his next words would be. She was ready to start a fight if he was going to give her one.
"I don't mean it. I don't think you're stupid. I just say things when I get mad." Gokudera scratched his cheek nervously and looked away from Haru.
Was this… something like an apology? Was he trying to apologize to her right now?
She was honestly quite shocked. She didn't expect for him to apologize to her.
Uri resumed eating her tuna, not realizing that she stopped when Gokudera started talking.
Haru looked down at her tea cup. "Oh! Look I have a floating tea stalk! That's a sign of good luck! Maybe this is a sign that we'll start getting along better, right? Haru will try to be less 'annoying' as you say she is."
Gokudera rolled his eyes and took another sip of his tea. "You aren't annoying either. I just say that since I don't know what else to say." He grumbled.
Just like a cat, they were so hard to understand at first but if you took the time to observe them, it was easy to figure them out.
Perhaps Gokudera was just like Uri. They both cared a lot for people but they didn't always know how to show it. They also tended to bully people that they like and behave really well around people who take really good care of them.
Uri was always bullying the other animals, but she was also one of the first to defend them if some other creature was bullying her friends. It was really funny to see Uri 'defending' Natsu from a big spider the last time.
It was absolutely precious.
She would be prickly around Gokudera, but that's probably because he was always usually a grump. Uri was always so well behaved around Haru.
Perhaps he was the same? He respected Tsuna and behaved well around him, but he is crude around the others because he doesn't know how else to act around them?
Does that mean that on the contrary to hating Haru, he's actually quite fond of her?
She felt her cheeks heating up a little bit at the thought.
POOF!
"Nya~" Uri shook off the clothes that she snatched from Haru and she jumped in between her two favorite people. She rubbed her head against Haru's thigh and against Gokudera's elbow. "Nyaaa~"
The two teens smiled and petted the selfish feline.
"You should visit more often. I think it would be fun to have more relaxed conversations with you and I'm sure Uri would like that, right Uri?"
Uri rubbed her head against Haru's thigh and purred loudly in response.
That's their answer.
"Hmph. I'll come and visit again but it won't be because I wanted to see you."
Uri's fur stood up on end and bristled. Immediately she went on the attack and launched herself at Gokudera's face and started to claw at it.
Before, Haru would have gotten upset, but from this exchange, Haru has decided that Gokudera was a tsundere.
He probably didn't mean what he said.
Geez, such a shy boy.
"Ha ha, well Haru will keep you company for the times when Uri isn't clawing off your face then." Haru chuckled as she took the bowl Uri had just eaten from and walked over to the kitchen to wash the bowl and then return it into one of the cupboards.
Today was quite the hectic day. She was going to sleep well tonight. She was exhausted.
I hope you enjoyed that. Gokudera surprisingly is pretty difficult for me to write for. Maybe I'm deluding myself and it's just that it's this project itself I struggle with. Who knows.
It's still Christmas where I am, so technically I made it within the Christmas season!
Here is an update! Sorry I couldn't make it for when I was on thanksgiving break!
Until next time!
-Neospice12