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Byakuya Togami played no part in the procurement of the cat, much less a cat Touko Fukawa found on her way to their apartment building one day. She almost missed the kitten’s yowling, its pleas smothered by the spitting rainfall’s onslaught against a trash can lid. The sound reminded her of fingers dancing across a computer keyboard, splattering tiny black font onto a word document. So she would have passed through the alley without a second thought had a gust of wind not tipped the trash can onto where her toes would have been moments later. Off clattered the lid and out came a kitten, eyes large and blue and walk clumsy.
Touko never owned a cat before - her parents failed to take proper care of her and she used to doubt a cat would like to be owned by someone dirty and ugly best hidden in her bedroom earning more money for her parents to waste. But her parents were gone, long gone, having taken the international revelation of Genocider Syo’s identity as cue to actively pretend they birthed no daughter. They abandoned her and when she looked at the cat, a wave of empathy washed over her like another gust of wind, so she scooped up the swaying animal and took it home to show to her darling Byakuya.
Touko dripped water into their apartment and presented the mass of grey hued fur in her arms. Neither spoke while Byakuya analysed the situation and she waited for his verdict. In her haste to show him, she forgot to kick off her shoes, so she couldn’t be sure whether he grimaced at the sight of the cat or the wet trail leading from the door to the growing dampness in the carpet beneath her feet. Or if he grimaced not at something he could see but at the cat’s sodden stink.
His gaze flickered between her face and the cat. “No.”
“W-Why not? I found it in a trash can... someone must have abandoned it. I thought we could take care of it together! Then... when we have a baby... we’ll be prepared!”
“Was that supposed to make me change my mind? Those two things are nothing alike. Return that thing to the trash you found it in. It belongs there.”
“I... don’t want to! I want to keep it! Y-You kept me, didn’t you?”
He jerked his head back, eyes narrowing when she blinked. “That’s-!” Byakuya studied her feet for several seconds. “That’s different. You’re different.”
Shouting had been a bad idea. Very bad. What possessed her to talk back? To yell at him? Aoi told her she should. Kyouko and Makoto alluded she should. But she dismissed their so-called advice as a conspiracy to break them up. At least she thought she had dismissed their asinine suggestions - that didn’t explain why she kept the idea in mind afterwards.
When Byakuya met her eyes again, his eyebrows scrunched together and he lowered his voice. “... We’ll have to take it to the vets to ensure it’s not infected with anything. Then we’ll have to buy all the fundamentals... food, a litter tray, a carrier... we should buy a carrier before we take it to be vaccinated... and it’ll no doubt need other amenities on top of that so we’ll have to make a detour to the bookstore for a cat care manual...”
For someone who didn’t want a cat, he did a remarkable job sorting things out. He spoke with the vet, drove to each store and accompanied Touko in purchasing all the necessities. Even if he said he was only doing it because he couldn’t be bothered to deter her from adopting it.
‘It’ turned out to be a he and ‘that thing’ was named Kane after Touko bought him a collar with a bell during a shopping expedition. Kane spent most of the first two days residing in their bathroom, Touko sitting with her back against the bath while she cooed and felt him purr into her lap. Byakuya rebuffed all invitations to join them, preferring to sit at the computer rather than against porcelain. Even when Touko carried a reluctant Kane to him, suggesting he allow Kane to rest on his lap while he typed, Byakuya pushed his glasses up his nose and dismissed them.
On the third day, she opened the bathroom door to let Kane explore his new home.
“We need to set up some ground rules,” Byakuya announced two weeks after Kane officially made their duo a trio.
Touko stroked her palm across Kane’s back in the same direction his hair grew. “Like what?”
Byakuya placed his book onto the bedside table before folding his arms over his chest. “I don’t want him in our bedroom.”
“Huh? Why not?”
“Because he has his own bed to sleep in and doesn’t need to share ours.”
Kane rolled onto his back and wiggled, making himself more comfortable on the blanket draped over his owners’ legs.
“See?” he said. “That cat knows what he’s doing. He’s intentionally encroaching on my territory.”
She chewed her bottom lip. “I’m not sure he’s doing it on purpose... He’s only a cat.”
“A cat who takes up my side of the bed so I have to sleep on the couch if I come home too late. Do you know what he does when I try to move him? He digs his claws into the covers and gloats at me with that smug expression of his.”
Touko gently raised Kane and inspected his face. Kane stared at her angelically.
“You’re not jealous, are you?” She watched Byakuya sidelong, ends of her lips curling upward when he stiffened and failed to totally repress the colour rising in his cheeks. “Because... if you are... I can get Naegi to catsit Kane while I’m out with my editor tomorrow...”
“Don’t be stupid.” He snatched up his book and burrowed his nose into it. “I’m perfectly capable of supervising a cat. Naegi doesn’t need to get involved.”
And when Touko returned late the next night to see Kane resting atop Byakuya’s heaving chest, she thought maybe he was right.