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Jiro really picked the worst day to be stubborn, didn't he? Well, it was really all that brat’s fault. If he hadn’t have teased him about his low cold tolerance he wouldn’t be out at 9 PM in just a tee shirt and thin jacket using a convenience store heating pad to keep his hands from falling off. How cold is it anyw- Shit. His phone says 4°C.
...Maybe Saburo was r-
“Meow.”
Count on one of Tokyo’s plentiful cats to pop up at just the right time to knock an unsavory thought out of your head.
“Heh, thanks cat,” he says, looking in the direction of the meow, “caught me just before thinking something stupid.” Jiro crouches and slips the heating pad under the bush he thinks it’s in. “Here, you’ll probably like this better than a thanks.”
The cat pokes its head out a bit- looks a little small, probably still growing- and sniffs at the pad and his hand. It decides the pad is better than him and tugs it back into the bush.
With his job done and hands significantly colder, Jiro stands, ties his checkered shirt around his neck in lieu of a scarf, and starts his way back home. Just 10 more minutes out here and then he can enjoy a nice warm bath and a nice warm meal and a nice warm bed… and if he’s lucky he won’t have to see Saburo and have a peaceful night. A nice, warm, peaceful night. The only dream ever.
“Mrrw…”
“Wha-” Jiro whips his head around and- there it is again. The cat’s following him. This is why Ichiro told him to ignore the strays, they’ll just follow you around trying to get food out of you and you’ll never be able t-
The cat makes another, louder noise that isn’t quite a meow, but something close.
“Hey, go home. It’s late and I don’t have any food for you.” He walks again and hopes the cat has some sense.
“Mrrrow…”
This time Jiro turns all the way around to glare at the cat. It’s a scrappy little thing, clearly a stray. Mostly black fur, but with a white patch on its chin, the base of its tail, and two coin sized white spots on its back. Its mismatched yellow and green eyes seem to glare back at him.
“I already told you, I got nothing you want, so scram.”
“Mrow.” It doesn’t budge.
“I said go.”
“Meow.”
“Shoo.”
“Meow.”
“Go home.” Silence. “C’mon, that thing oughta keep you warm all night.” Silence again. “Well, you’re not arguing anymore at least…”
Jiro crouches and moves to pet the cat, but it hisses and backs away. “Okay, fine, you’re mad at me, maybe you’ll leave me be…”
There’s a loud wail in the distance, and the cat perks up. Again and it turns its head.
“What, you got a girlfriend or something waiting for you? I told you to go home already.”
The cat looks at him, meows… angrily? Guess it’s still pissed at him, and turns its head back. The noises get closer until another cat darts into view, slightly larger than the first and with the same markings, except with one white spot on its back. It sizes up the smaller cat, then steps in front of it to growl at Jiro.
“‘Kay, fine, I can take a hint,” he stands, backs up, and watches as the two cats run away. “Told the bastard to go home anyway… Not my fault he’s stubborn.”
“Jiro? Who are you talking to?”
Jiro jumps and whips around to see a shivering Ichiro looking at him funny with his hands tucked into his armpits for warmth. “Niichan! U-uh I’m just talking to myself. What are you doing out here?”
“You’re late and you didn’t text either of us, we were worried.” Ichiro sighs, whether out of relief or exasperation, Jiro doesn’t know, and he doesn't care to. He’s too busy feeling guilty to care anyway. “I have half a mind to put you on garbage duty for the rest of the week…”
“Sorry Niichan… my phone died before I could text you…”
“You forgot to charge it overnight again, didn’t you?”
He saw straight through him. “Y-yeah…”
“How many times do I have to tell you- you know what, can we continue this at home? I think my fingers are going to freeze off soon.” Ichiro offers a lopsided smile.
“Y-yeah.”
Jiro decides the first thing he’s gonna do when he gets home is stick his freezing hands down Saburo’s back. It’s what he deserves for making him this cold.
“You’re eating dinner cold, by the way.”
“But Niichan!”
¤¤¤
It’s only 4 o’clock in the afternoon and the temperature’s already dipping rapidly. Stupid winter, stop coming so fast. Soon it’ll be snowing and that’ll mean (even more) crowding in the subway and Saburo will be squeezed in between a bunch of sniffling losers who don’t know a single thing about personal hygiene and he’ll get sick during exams…
Whatever. He’ll still get a higher grade than Jiro, even if he was on his deathbed. Ichiro will treat him to a fancy dessert and Jiro will be stuck with fruitcake.
The thought of fresh baked cookies will keep him warm on the short walk from the station to his house, maybe he can ask Ichiro to bake with him-
Squelch
...Well that’s great. Someone’s heat pad just got sticky gunk all over his shoe. Who even litters something like that in this weather? Are they brain dead?
“Meow…”
Huh? Cat?
“Meeooow…”
No, kitten. A pathetic sounding one at that.
“Where are you- oh, the bush.” Saburo spots the tail sticking out from under the leaves and crouches. The tail disappears, he must’ve scared it. Oops.
“Hey, wait… I’m not gonna hurt you. It’s okay little guy.” He digs into his bag and looks for a snack or something to feed him. All he can find is the yakisoba bread he was saving for a mid-homework snack. Oh well, a little altruism won’t kill him he supposes. He opens up the bread and holds a noodle out. “It’s not warm, but it’s all I have, and its pretty good for cheap convenience store yakisoba.”
The cat pokes his head out, sniffs at the noodle warily, and takes it. Saburo lights up and takes a bite of bread for himself, just as the cat finishes his share and emerges from under the bush. He’s a scrawny black and white bicolor kitten, can’t be more than a couple months old. He’s got three white spots on his back, and big green and blue mismatched eyes. He’s definitely underfed, and has a lot of matted fur for his young age.
“You must be the runt of the litter, huh?” Saburo asks, feeding him a piece of meat. “I know how that feels. You’ll get used to it, and you’ll come out stronger than you think you could’ve ever been. Probably.” He takes another bite, hands the cat another noodle. “I haven’t finished growing yet either, but that’s how I imagine it is. You experience more hardship when you’re smaller, it makes you stronger. Well… provided you survive…” He pulls out the rest of the filling for the kitten and finishes off the bread part. “You look like you’ll do fine though,” the kitten is purring loudly, rubbing against his legs. “You’re cute enough, I’m sure someone will take you in.”
He stops purring and meows almost indignantly. “Huh? Don’t like being called cute?”
“Meow.”
“Guess we have even more in common after all.” Saburo scratches behind the kitten’s ears and he goes back to purring, until a rustling from the bush makes them both freeze. Another, slightly bigger bicolor cat with two white spots on its back pops out of the bush.
“A friend?”
The larger cat meows at him and sniffs at the smaller one, which he doesn’t seem to like. The kitten takes a swipe and darts into the bush, the other following angrily behind.
“...Guess not…”
Saburo starts cleaning the heat gel off his shoe (he completely forgot about it because of the cats… what an idiot) and gets to fixing his schoolbag up.
“Oi, Saburo, what are you doing on the ground like that?”
He doesn’t even bother looking up from his bag, “Wouldn’t you like to know, idiot Jiro?”
“HUH?! I was worried something happened to you, but now I see you’re just being a snotty brat,” Jiro sneers. “Niichan wanted me to find you so we could pick up groceries for dinner, but I think I’ll go myself and save me a headache.”
“What? You just want an excuse to make me look bad in front of Ichinii!”
“Maybe, maybe not, maybe I just don’t want to be around someone so not cute.”
“UGH, SHUT UP IDIOT!” Saburo springs up and runs after Jiro, bread wrapper and empty heating pad forgotten litter on the ground.
¤
“I can’t believe they forgot cabbage… next time I’ll send them on a bonding store run when dinner isn’t hanging in the balance.”
It’s colder than the night before, when Ichiro found Jiro standing in the middle of the path talking to nothing. It’s very unlike Jiro, but he keeps insisting that it’s no big deal.
Jiro also said he found Saburo on the ground spacing out before their grocery store trip. Maybe there’s something in the air? Hopefully he doesn’t catch it.
Though if he’s out here for much longer he knows he’s gonna catch something . It’s damn near freezing and he’s definitely not wearing enough layers for that. He’s honestly just glad it’s not snowing yet.
Ichiro takes a peek in the grocery bag again, sort of a habit he picked up shopping with his brothers to make sure they grabbed the right items. He hopes they like the ice cream he got for them, they’ve been getting along a lot better recently so they deserve a treat. Oh, he forgot to check if they still have hot fud-
“Shit!” Ichiro slips on something and falls flat on his front, arm reaching up just in time to protect his face. “What the hell…?” He… slipped on a burst heating pad and plastic food wrapper? People are really getting careless with their litter.
A rustle from the bush by him makes him freeze, slowly turning his head to look. Two bright points of light stare back at him, and for a split second Ichiro is certain he’s met his end. But a quiet meow reassures him it’s just another cat (though that’s not entirely reassuring, what if it has rabies or something??? That’s certainly not ideal) and he sits back up cautiously as to not startle the thing and give it reason to attack.
Once up, the cat meows again and peeks out of the bush, looking up at him with dazzling red and green mismatched eyes.
“Woah, I didn’t even know a cat could have red eyes, let alone odd eyes with red…”
“Meow.”
“Yeah I bet that’s not the first time you’ve heard that, sorry.”
“Meow.”
Ichiro snickers to himself. “Look at me, I’m trying to make conversation with a cat in a shrub. What would my brothers think of me if they saw this.”
“Meow…” The cat steps out of the bush a little more and he can see a white patch on its back. It’s… kinda cute.
“Aw, hey little guy,” Ichiro coos while scratching under the cat’s chin, “it’s freezing out here, haven’t you got someplace to stay warm? Well, no collar… so you’re a stray then?” He chuckles. “I don’t know why, you’re one hell of a cute cat.”
“Meow.”
“I’m sure Jiro and Saburo wouldn’t mind it if you came with us. Saburo did want a pet when he was younger… At any rate, it’d be better than sleeping out here another night. What do you say?”
“Meow…”
“Yeah? Cool! Come on, I think we have some leftover chicken from dinner last night…” Ichiro picks the cat up, and it immediately starts squirming and yelling. “Hey, hey… c’mon don’t be like that, once we get inside I promise no one will pick you up and you can eat as much chicken as your little stomach can handle!”
All his cooing is no use, the further they go the harder the cat tries to wiggle out of his arms (and scratching up his favorite jacket…) “Work with me a little here? Please?” He just gets a loud wail in return.
He hears some low growling behind him, and turns to see two small cats (kittens?) ready to attack. Two more black and white cats with different numbers of white spots on their backs. He looks back to the thrashing cat in his arms and it all clicks.
They’re a family and Ichiro just tried to break them up.
“Oh!” He lamely sets the older cat down and it scrambles to the others, mewling loudly. It looks like such a tender moment, and Ichiro sure feels like a piece of shit for trying to ruin this (albeit unknowingly.) The big cat steps close to him, meows as if to say “all is forgiven”, and walks off with its family.
“I wonder…”
“Niichan!”
“Ichinii!”
“Huh?” Ichiro turns on his heel to find his brothers coming at him at high speed. “Jiro? Saburo? What’s up? Did something happen?”
“Not exactly, Niichan…”
“You were taking a long time and we were worried something had happened to you-”
“It’s really cold, like almost freezing, and you didn’t wear a heavy jacket-”
“W-we just wanted to make sure you were safe…”
Both Saburo and Jiro look like kicked puppies.
Ichiro smiles and pats their shoulders. “Well as you can see, I'm perfectly fine. Just a little scuffed because of someone’s careless litter. You two need to stop being such worry-warts, I've only been out for half an hour.”
“Sorry Niichan.”
“Sorry Ichinii.”
“Don’t be sorry. Anyway it’s late and we need to get dinner ready before bedtime.”
“Right!”
As the trio make their way back home, Ichiro lets loose the question at the front of his mind. “So, how do you two feel about cats?”