Chapter Text
The countless halls and corridors were packed, as usual. Filled to the brim with students of varying age, size and liveliness—some roaring with laughter among their friends and peers, and others seemingly on the brink of death. The smell of semi-fresh baked goods and a mixture of coffee and tea from the small, conveniently placed café completed its objective of making those nearby hungry and consider parting with what little money they could spare for food—you included, and you relented, lining up at the tail end of a short queue with your small change purse clutched at the ready in your left hand.
Once you reached the register, and with a better view of what was on offer, you stared over it carefully before ordering your usual: a peppermint tea to both wake you with its sharpness and warm you against the winter cold outside, and a small pot of porridge with a banana on the side. Having paid, you turned to collect your things in a way you could manage while walking and wandered in the direction of the exit in order to get to your first class, speeding up when it dawned on you that you were just about to be late, not knowing that you were going to be even later than expected when your foot snagged on something and you tripped.
Not enough to fall, but you stumbled and spilled half of the contents of your cup, gasping and turning sharply to see what caught you with an expletive tumbling from your mouth.
“Oh, jeez, I’m so sorry!” You approached the figure slumped across one of the communal sofas, clad in purple with their arm dangling over the edge and their legs curled into their stomach based on what you could see. They didn’t respond, so you pressed your hand carefully onto their shoulder instinctively.
Still no response. Embarrassment flushed through you and made your ears warm up, in equal amounts because of your fall and because you apologized for tripping. Their unresponsive state allowed you to infer that they were asleep, or didn’t care—so, pulling away, you huffed and turned away to rush to your class with half the amount of tea that you wanted and a cold pot of porridge in tow.
The rest of your day at university was as subpar as your morning had started it; your first class had been cancelled, so waking up extra early was utterly pointless, leaving you mourning the sleep you could have gotten; someone stole your usual seat, so you were left without a charger for any of the devices you brought with you since every other useful seat had also been taken; and, worst of all, you realized too late that your earlier fall had left your precious banana misplaced. Given the circumstances, especially when you made eye contact with the bus driver that intentionally drove straight past you when you sprinted towards the stop, adding the fly cherry to your shit sundae of a day, you made the impromptu decision of travelling somewhere else—not too far off, but the bus ride was short, and it got you away from everything. You couldn’t ask for anything better in the moment.
Stepping onto new grounds, you perused the shops along the street walk, occasionally peeking into the window or venturing inside, only to leave when you knew you didn’t want to spend any more cash for the day. That is, until you reached something you didn’t expect to find, or at least you didn’t think was there on your last visit to the area.
The cat café was small, but you could see clearly enough through the window that it was well worth a visit. Stepping inside, it hit you first how warm it was—and the second thing, being that all the drink names were replaced with cat puns, made you laugh. Fantastic—your first laugh of the day, only half a day late. You ordered a small hot chococat (though you considered a kittea to replace your unsatisfactory morning one) and paid for admittance, stepping carefully into the cat-filled play area.
Your heart melted immediately. There were cats so small they could be considered kittens, and larger ones that brought out your immediate instinct to gently poke them in the backside to hear them chirp. There were too many small, perfectly shaped noses in pink and black and brown, some with specks of white, and tiny, tiny paws everywhere. Strewn around the room were cat toys of every kind you could imagine and seats for both human and feline, with ledges on the walls for them to climb and jump on. You noticed one at the highest shelf possible, lounging comfortably with its tail twitching off to the side, surveying everything below—including you. You waved, and it blinked slowly. You were in heaven.
Taking a seat at the closest chair available, you took a moment to nurse your drink, instantly wincing at the hot liquid burning your lips and the tip of your tongue. It did nothing to dampen your spirit, however, nothing could make a dent in that when there were so many sweet cats around. One especially small one trotted beside your foot, becoming entranced by your shoelaces and subsequently started to play around with them, batting them around with its paws and attempting to stuff one in its mouth to sink its teeth in. You lowered your hand slowly, delighted as it sniffed carefully at your fingertips—its nose was cold and you swore you could feel the faintest light touch of its breath on you as well—and it shoved its head forward to rub its cheeks and whiskers on you. When it became distracted and pranced away, leaving you to mend your wounded heart, you looked around at the other people sharing this blissful space with you. One couple was sitting in the living room area, petting one of the older cats that had planted itself on the sofa—it was one of those thick-furred ones that look and act as majestic as the lion it’s kin to, and the people treating it like royalty did nothing to help. Another younger girl was sat on the floor, rolling a small ball with a bell inside towards a mid-sized tabby, and she looked just as excited to play as it was. Your eyes danced around to pick up all the details, since every time you looked, you noticed another cat hiding in plain sight, until your eyes focused on a purple blur at the back of the room.
It was the guy from that morning, and he had the tiniest kitten imaginable in his lap.
You knew it was only because of the kitten, but you stood and made your way towards him, stepping carefully so as to not disturb any of the little animals scurrying around your feet. You sat near him, and he regarded your presence with the quickest glance you’ve ever seen. His sulk didn’t change. Funny, he’d looked a lot happier when you saw him from across the room.
The silence bore at you, so you focused your attention elsewhere, occasionally looking back to see the kitten you’d by now fallen in love with. He scratched its head carefully, then held out his finger to let it brush itself against him, but again, his expression remained the same. It only changed when the kitten stood and stretched before crawling across his lap, onto the arm rest of the sofa and jumped across to land on yours, collecting itself in your lap to press its head against your stomach. You’d never seen anything cuter, and the only thing that distracted you from it was the pure, unfiltered devastation on his face. He looked between you and it, and the guilt you felt brought a nervous laugh into the silence.
“Aha, sorry… I promise I don’t have any catnip or anything.” His brows furrowed, and aside from that, he stared at you blankly. It was so consistently unchanging that you felt unnerved deep inside. No one had ever looked at you like that. Swallowing dryly, you picked up the closest toy to you—a wand with a plush mouse at the end of a short string—and handed it to him, shrugging. “You can still play with it, I don’t want to steal him from you!”
He regarded your offer with a grunt, hesitating before yanking the wand out of your grasp. He started off tentative, barely moving the toy until the kitten noticed it and started to attack the poor mouse, at which point he started to bob it up and down to give it more of a challenge. You winced at all the claw marks it was surely giving you in the skin of your upper thighs through your clothes. He seemed to notice that, watching your expression flinch but remain overall happy just to be there.
“Doesn’t that hurt?” He spoke up. You expected him to speak so little that it surprised you, and you did a quick double take on him.
“A little bit, but it’s fine, I’ve had worse.” You paused, eyes focused on the mouse when he pulled it upwards more exuberantly, the kitten leaping up to grab it and missing entirely. You laughed, and it covered the sound of his. You did catch his slight smile, however. Everything fell silent again, but you felt that, with at least a few words having been exchanged, you could continue a bit more.
“So… I saw you this morning, I think,” you started. He looked alarmed, but quickly corrected it. “I think you go to my university, right? I saw you on one of the couches near the food court.”
“No.” Well, that was great. He stopped talking for so long that you thought to ask something else, until he interrupted you by picking up again, “I don’t go there. I just visit because its warm and no one says anything when I fall asleep.”
“Fair enough. I’m sure you’re not the only one who does that, though I’d say maybe be careful where you dangle your arms—I almost tripped on you this morning.”
“I know.” His eyes were focused down, not addressing you at all, and his expression was back to being blank. Trying to read him was almost impossible and you quickly found yourself hating it, especially when he said things so open-ended.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re the peppermint person. You spilled some on my sleeve.” He lifted one arm a minimal amount to demonstrate it, as though the stain wasn’t long gone. Had you been close enough, you believed his intention was for you to be able to still smell it. In any case, your instinct in that moment was to apologize, though you quickly caught yourself before the words came out.
“I mean, I wouldn’t have got it on you if you weren’t in the way.” You made sure to laugh to assure him that you were joking. Half joking. He retorted instantly,
“You wouldn’t have tripped on me if you were looking where you’re going.”
You opened your mouth to speak, then closed it. He was right, despite being so blunt about it. The wording left you a little speechless, as much as you despised that. As much as you wanted to, you really, truly did not know what to say to that.
“Don’t move too much.” You sat still at his words, hoping he would elaborate. When he didn’t, you mouthed a voiceless ‘what?’ at him. He smiled a little. “There’s a cat behind you.”
Though you didn’t know whether to believe him at first, he was proven correct when you felt the gentle puffs of tiny breaths on you, followed by two front paws trying to find balance on your shoulder. It kept going, trying to sniff you out from where your neck connects to your shoulder up to the top of your head, or wherever it could reach. You bit your lip to keep your excitement bottled, not wanting to scare it away. Looking back at him, you felt embarrassed at how hard he was staring at you until you realized he was looking squarely at the cat. Of course he was.
“Her name is Duchess.” He pointed lazily at her, and you could hear her purring in your ear. It got louder when you repeated her name, and she started to sniff closer to your ear to the point that she was almost sticking her nose inside, making you duck your head down on instinct. She didn’t seem to mind aside from a slight twitch at the sudden movement, and she rubbed herself against the side of your head before meowing loudly at you. A small whimper broke from you, so instantly in love with her that you could barely contain it. It made him laugh under his breath, more so when the kitten realized it was getting less attention and started to knead at you and dig its claws a little harder into your lap.
“I think I’m getting a bit overwhelmed by cats here,” you observed. He nodded.
“Not the worst thing in the world.” He spoke simply, pointing to the kitten. “His name is Dingo by the way.” You looked back down at it with pure love in your eyes, carefully scratching behind its ears and relishing in the way it opened its mouth only for the tiniest meow to pop out. Out of the corner of your eye, you could vaguely see him melt at how cute it was.
“You seem to know their names pretty well! Do you come here a lot?”
He took a while to answer, though there was no way for you to tell why. You put two and two together and came to the conclusion that he was shy or embarrassed, considering he hid himself at the back of the room to begin with. He answered tersely, holding his mouth open a fraction as though he had more to say, but was filtering his words with utmost care. “Whenever I can.”
You nodded, thinking what else you could ask as another silence befell you, though it wasn’t truly silence—the sound of various bells, mewls, chatter and light music filled that absence, taking the edge off a little.
“Oh,” he spoke first, as you were thinking of what else to say. “I have something of yours, since you’re the peppermint person.” He reached into the front pocket of his hoodie and held out your banana. You couldn’t help but laugh at that, considering the fact that its loss was something that had dampened your day and the fact that he held onto it that long.
“Wow, okay, thanks! I didn’t expect that at all.” You took it, showing it to Dingo and then Duchess when they both leaned in to inspect it out of curiosity. “By the way, you can call me ____ instead of peppermint person. Since that’s my name and all.”
“Ichimatsu.”
“What?”
He squirmed in his seat awkwardly.
“My name is Ichimatsu.”
Without thinking, you held out your hand for him to shake, using the hand that was clasped around the banana. He stared at it and, without question, held the other end of it before shaking it with you.
“So Ichimatsu, what about the other cats? Can you introduce me to them?” You spoke softly, and he responded by dancing the mouse at the end of the string across the couch, making both cats currently sitting on you rush towards it. He then stood, wordlessly, and stepped cautiously to each cat in the room, impressing you by not missing even one—he knew where each one was hiding, what their name was, and what their temperament was like. At the end of the tour, he sat in the middle of the floor, and you crouched to sit opposite him.
“Which was your favourite?” He asked, eyes trained on you. You felt intimidated in the moment, but were slowly learning that he didn’t mean as much by it as you thought. The question itself was obviously a trick, however, and you smiled smugly at the fact.
“All of them. They’re all my favourite.”
“Good answer.” He smiled, probably the warmest since you’d met him.
“I don’t suppose you have a favourite either, then?”
His brows furrowed, and you took it as anger at first before realizing it was most likely determination or something of the kind. You briefly wondered if he knew how he came across most of the time. He idly pet one of the cats that started to wander past in one swoop from head to tail. “Of course not. They’re all my babies.”
He looked at you suddenly, eyes widening from their near constant half-lidded state.
“Don’t tell anyone I said that. I swear to god.”
The shift in mood was an odd one, and you could barely keep up with it. You wanted to laugh, but the look on his face was a mix of deadly serious and utterly mortified, so you took the safe route and shrugged.
“Tell anyone you said what?” He looked relieved instantly as you said it, shoulders dropping from their initial tension and eyes going back to relaxed. He darted a shy glance up at you, then back down at the cat sleeping between you both. Frankly, you couldn’t tell who was being cuter.
“There’s something I’ve always wanted to do, in all my times coming here.” He was talking in a much more hushed tone than before, leaning in to keep anyone else from hearing. You leaned in a little as the result, mimicking his volume to ask him what it was. He glanced from side to side, then stared holes into the ground. No one was looking, but they probably would if they knew what he wanted to do; it took a lot of build-up for him to even tell you, let alone do it, but before you could say anything else, he closed his eyes and toppled backwards.
His arms spread and legs splayed out, and he lay motionless on the ground with his eyes still squeezed tightly shut. You watched in quiet awe as one by one, most of the cats in the room took notice, save a few of the more stand-offish ones, and started to traipse up to him to nudge him with their paws and noses. Some climbed onto his chest before curling up and getting comfortable—one tried to climb onto his face until you intervened to make sure it didn’t, after which he ordered you not to bother them, and more lay next to him in the creases along his limbs to nuzzle into and take advantage of his bodily warmth. Pure happiness exuded from him unlike anything you’d ever seen: you’d never seen anyone in quite so much peace. It lasted up until one of the employees approached you, and his eyes shot open in embarrassment.
“Excuse me, sorry to bother—” She spoke directly to you, giving an amused smile at Ichimatsu’s predicament. You could just tell he wanted to hide, but was too burdened with cats to move, even if he wanted to. “Your hour is up. I hope you had a great time!”
“I did, thank you.” You stood, brushing off the clusters of fur that had matted into your clothes with your hands. You glanced to Ichimatsu, knowing that he was there before you’d even arrived.
“I paid for two hours.”
“Ah.” Made sense. “I need to go, but this has been fun. It turned my shitty day into a kitty day.”
“Me too.” You thought to question him on that, but knew there was no time for it. Instead, you opted for a small wave, to which he smiled and a faint blush set onto his face.
“I’ll see you around, probably. Those university sofas won’t sleep on themselves.”
“Sure. Feel free to wake me up next time.”
With that you left, turning back once outside to peer through the window and see him, still laying on the ground, surrounded by cats. You left him in good paws.