JUNJOU EGOIST

VI

PAST MEETING AGAIN

Again a beautiful and stressful morning at the Kamijou-Kusama household. The young professor was putting on his tie while his beloved pet/lover was making his own backpack for work.

"Hiro-san, sorry to remind you but, there's a vet appointment today at 6" Nowaki turned to see him and smiled "is it okay?"

"can you go alone? I don't know how much extra work I have today" Kamijou scratched his head, trying to get the pile of reference books he had stacked last time on his desk on his mind.

"unfortunately is the annual health report, it's for my work as a Pet's Doctor student" Kamijou felt a stab of guilt, he should have remembered the appointment, he could see the worried swish of Nowaki's tail, "Oh.. yeah, I read about that, fine then, I'll clear my schedule"

"really? Thank you Hiro-san!" Nowaki's ears immediately perked up, his tail wagging quickly behind him in soft circles, "I can go pick you up!"

"Fine, fine, don't be so happy about it" Hiroki mumbled, blushing "I'm leaving"

"take care"

- o -

Nowaki was thrilled for the doctor's appointment, planning to ask Kamijou to eat out after it, it was the perfect excuse for quality time, so, when his job ended at 5pm he almost run to change and leave the hospital. He was exactly at 5:30 pm sharp, standing by Kamijou's office door. He was thinking to knock when a strange smell reached his sensitive nose. The essence was flowery and musky, it pulled memories from a very dark corner of his mind, and it triggered a flash of anxiety and anger.

The more he inhaled it the worse he felt, his mind fogged out and without much thought Nowaki opened the door and entered the office, finding a young cat pet, sitting on the opposite chair from his beloved's. The cat looked back at him, inhaled deep and growled. Tension filled the room so thick it stuck to Nowaki's skin, like a heavy blanked, like a blanked decorated with pins and needles, sucking the blood from him. Again without a thought Nowaki closed the door and launched himself to the cat, who reacted the same, wild, jumping towards him.

Nowaki grabbed the kitten by the shoulders, his mind sending different orders that made no sense but felt "right" in a way that was wrong. "fuck, fuck, fuck"

"2245" the youngster mumbled "2245 order" and something burned on Nowaki's neck, he growled deep and low, a deafening murmur in his brain muted everything, a voice he had long forgotten spoke, "fuck him" it said, "the only reason you exist" "fuck him!"

And his body could do nothing but obey, pulling with one hand the kittens head, to uncover his neck, bending and opening his mouth, almost savoring the skin and blood. When suddenly the university's bell chimed, signaling the end of classes, breaking the trance both of them were on.

Nowaki let go of the kitten's head, backing away, confused, disoriented, while the youngster in front looked at him with shock, terrified of the meaning of what had just almost happened, what could STILL happen.

"no…. no, this can't be, not now…" the kitten mumbled

"what?" Nowaki tried to clear his mind, shaking his head lightly, pressing his fingers to his temple, but the fog didn't leave, he tried to grab the kitten again by the shoulder but the kitten was no longer trapped under cruel memories, instead, he pulled away from his grip and run away, leaving a distressing smell, acrid and pungent. Nowaki tried again with his memories, but it felt like walking through mud, the smell didn't help so he opened the windows, the spring air, soft and cool breached the room and Nowaki's stolen mind. He saw the door, "I knocked? No… I didn't" something had happened, "what?" He was about to move towards the door when it opened again, and Kamijou entered, one look at him and everything disappeared, all the stress, all the fog, it cleared leaving just the sweet essence of his beloved.

"Oh, you're here already" Kamijou placed a pile of books in the only empty corner of his desk, turning to see his pet Kamijou's brows furrowed, "you okay?"

"yes!" was Nowaki's immediate answer, his tail coming to live with the happiness of Kamijou's existence, "I just arrived, are you ready?"

"No, I just need to gather some materials, please wait for me a spell" Hiroki moved and brought his messenger bag from bellow the desk, gathering a good amount of books from around the office and his desk, and magically making them all fit inside his bag. Nowaki observed his darling Hiro-san fumble with his material, amazed at his abilities to hide 15 books inside a not so big, and almost ripping, messenger bag.

"Done! Let's go"

"Yes! Oh, and I was wondering Hiro-san, if you wouldn't mind having dinner out after the vet" Nowaki followed Kamijou outside the office.

"It's okay"

- o -

The vet office was in a two story building, decorated with landscape pictures and vases with flowers. Hiroki was given a series of papers to fill out by the receptionist and he settle down on a comfy sofa to do them.

"Okay, lets do this, name? Kusama Nowaki… should I put my last name? But the adoption is different… it's not like we're married or anything, I shouldn't… but if I do, no, I don't need to, it's just a last name" Hiroki's brows furrowed deeply while he engrossed himself in the paperwork, till he found information he didn't know.

"Nowaki, how much is your height?"

"191cm Hiro-san" Nowaki smiled and Hiroki felt like hitting him, he had no reason being so damn tall, no reason whatsoever

"weight? that can be done here… allergies?" "Do you have any allergies?"

"Not that I know off Hiro-san"

"You know what, you know yourself better, you write this down, I'll read it when you're done" Hiroki grumbled, passing the papers to Nowaki unceremoniously. The wolf hybrid took the papers and happily filled the pages without a problem.

"The doctor will be ready for you in a few minutes" said the receptionist once she received the documents. And indeed, it only took 7 minutes, not that Hiroki was counting them, of course not, to be let inside the doctor's room.

"Hi, my name is Dr Matsumoto Ringo, Kamijou-san told me about you already, so I have been really excited to meet you, Nowaki-kun" the doctor stood from her desk and extended her hand to shake Nowaki's.

"It's a pleasure to meet you doctor"

"Now, I have read your paperwork and I found a few problematic answers, it says here your last vaccination was when you were 18, and you're now 25 years. It's quite irresponsible for your previous owner…"

"I'm sorry doctor, I had no owner, I reached 18 at the orphanage and couldn't get any owner afterwards"

"Oh, I understand, thank goodness that you found Kamijou-san, right?" she turned to see Hiroki and he blushed, his brows furrowing. "But another thing that worried me is your weigh, it says here you weigh 68kg? Looking at you right now it doesn't seem like that" Kamijou looked at the back of his lover, unable to put such a low number in Nowaki's broad frame.

"Oh, sorry, that was the last weigh I had, but that was before I met Kamijou-sama, my owner feeds me quite enough now, so there's no reason to worry"

At hearing Nowaki refer to him with the honorific he felt a bitter taste on his mouth, somehow the visit was changing Nowaki's behavior, but why? Hiroki focused completely on him, his posture was submissive, he was even hunching over, as if trying to make himself smaller.

"Lets take your weigh now then" the doctor moved to the right corner and turned a scale on, Nowaki moved carefully on top, "83kg! Nowaki you're doing so great!" she wrote down on the paper and moved to the table again, "lets check your temperature, pressure and listen to your heart and lungs, okay?"

"Yes doctor" Nowaki moved again slowly, sitting down on the table. Kamijou followed his movements, the listless tail, the tense shoulders.

After a few minutes she wrote again on the papers and smiled at Kamijou, "all seems perfect, now we just have to take some blood and urine samples, now I'm not like other doctors, you need your own privacy so you can take the cup and the toilet is right over there" the doctor pointed to the left corner, a white closed door. "come back and I'll take your blood"

"yes, excuse me Doctor, Kamijou-sama" Hiroki left and entered the bathroom, closing the door behind himself.

"Honestly, I'm glad you're his new owner and that you brought him here. I may not be an specialist on exotic pets but I have some knowledge and can definitely connect you to some if necessary." doctor Matsumoto moved to her desk, and pulling a drawer open she took some cards out, "It could be challenging for the laws but I hope everything goes well"

"I'm aware of them, I read the books you recommended last time" Kamijou looked at the door, still closed, "There's much of Nowaki's past that I don't know…"

"I noticed the scars, I didn't want to mention them yet to Nowaki" the doctor took one card in her hands and extended them towards Kamijou "this is the number of a behavioral specialist, they know about trauma, if you can, talk to him about it, little by little. I can tell Nowaki is a gentle soul, so I hope he can accept the help"

"me too Doctor, me too"

Nowaki then came out, placing the sample cup on the doctor's desk and sitting down again on the examination table. "Hope you don't mind, both of you, but I would like to take some additional blood samples" the doctor pulled the vials "I would like to make a genetic markers test, since your wolf hybrid its so different, I would like to investigate it a bit, if you don't mind" she looked at them both, and Nowaki nodded immediately.

"I don't mind doctor, if Kamijou-sama doesn't mind"

"It's your blood Nowaki, if you're okay with it am fine too" Kamijou almost bark out, trying to calm down he breathed in deep and slow. "I'm fine with it" he repeated, this time without biting anyone's head off.

But the moment the doctor pulled the needle out Nowaki backed off the table and growled, his back arched, his tale swishing, his ears pinned back, his hair standing on end. But then, as quickly as it happened it ended, Nowaki's ears now low, almost flat on his scalp, his tail moving between his legs. "I'm, I'm sorry, it was… I didn't mean to, it's fine, I'm okay, I'm sorry" Nowaki didn't know what to say, he moved and stopped, then moved again. "I promise I'm not dangerous"

"Oh Nowaki-kun…" the doctor sighed, "I am sorry, you have seen injections in a different way, have you not?"

"I won't do it again" Nowaki promised, Kamijou instead moved towards him, and grabbed his hands, holding them "It's okay Nowaki, you did nothing wrong" Hiroki kissed the palm of his hands and moved to embrace him softly, the warmth and love calming Nowaki's fluttering heart. "Hiro-san" he called him and embraced him back.

"Let's try again, like this" the doctor cleans a visible area of Nowaki's forearm and gets to work on them, while Hiroki moved his hand in circles on Nowaki's back, soothing any stress or worry the wolf hybrid could have.

"There you go, I'm done" the doctor said putting the blood vials away "I'll ring you in a few days to let you know about the results, please be mindful of your diet now that we're entering spring, I'll give you some heat medicine as well"

"thank you" both Nowaki and Kamijou answered, separating from their embrace, but then Kamijou processed what had been said, "heat medicine?"

Doctor Matsumo and Nowaki turned to look at him at the same time, but neither had the need to explain anything since understanding downed on Kamijou immediately, "oh yeah, sure, medicine, we'll need it?" Hiroki felt like smashing his body against the wall, or digging a whole to the center of the planet, with how embarrassed he felt. He wouldn't dare mention that on the books he read the heat was said to be controlled with just some good fucking, cause who would explain he was alright with that

Done with the appointment and outside the doctor's office Nowaki pointed to the left, "on the way home there's a family restaurant I wanted to try, if it's okay with you Kamijou-sama"

"it's fine, and you don't need to call me that…" Hiroki mumbled, holding Nowaki's hand for a a brief moment, "Hiro-san is perfect for us" and his cheeks felt inflamed, specially when Nowaki beamed back at him, "Thank you Hiro-san, I love you so much"

"Don't stay stupid things outside in the open!" Hiroki started moving quickly to the left, Nowaki tried to keep his pace, "stupid Nowaki"

Author's note: I fear nobody is reading this, but I still have to finish it, so, here goes another chapter, if there is someone reading it, I hope you like it.