Chapter Text
Ouma has his secrets. Such a statement is simply truth--one that Ouma himself declares proudly on occasions. He likes having secrets, likes letting people know that they exist, but upon being questioned it become clear that he has every full intention of keeping them. The further he’s questioned, the more intricate his lies become until his target leaves, exasperated at their attempts to even try, and sometimes they forget that they were trying to uncover some truth to begin with.
Momota fell victim to that trick too many times to count, to be honest, but after realizing just what Ouma was doing he only resolved to stop giving up. He remembers chasing after Ouma, mostly figuratively but often times literally too, reaching out as he desperately found himself wanting to know more about him.
Well, over time Momota got some answers, though he wasn’t exactly happy with them at first. One of the first truths he learned about Ouma is that Ouma, for all his theatrics and claims otherwise, is like any other person, and, like them, he has his boundaries.
Ouma Kokichi has his secrets, and there are some that he’ll fight to take alone to the grave. Secrets that he doesn’t want to share not with any of his classmates, not with any of the members of his trusted “organization”, and not even with his boyfriend.
And, as said boyfriend, Momota told himself that he can accept that. He respects Kokichi’s privacy as an individual--he didn’t need to take up every single aspect of his life, and the same could be said vice versa.
Still, though, as much as Kokichi loves keeping his secrets, there are some that just can’t be kept hidden, as hard as he could try.
And that being said, one such secret is currently making itself known to Momota as he stares at the door of their guest bathroom, arms crossed. He gazes absentmindedly downwards at the two tiny, fuzzy black things that poke out from the crack underneath their door, wriggling insistently before disappearing, then reappearing.
Momota lightly pinches his own cheek. Nope, not an illusion. There's something in there. If he really had to make a guess right now, he’d say--
A high pitched meow from behind the door beats him to it. Welp, that confirms it. There’s a cat in there, and even with no real concrete reason in mind the only culprit he can think of is Kokichi.
Momota sighs and approaches the bathroom.
“I’m going to open the door, step back?” he offers, hand on doorknob. He wonders just who he’s talking to--Kokichi’s should be out taking a midterm right now, and the cat can’t understand him, but he doesn’t want to be guilty of slamming any creature, gremlin or cat, with a door by accident.
He opens the door, carefully. The door doesn’t seem to hit anything, so he looks around the bathroom. Admittedly, it may have been a while since he set foot in it. He prefers the master bedroom bathroom a lot more, but as he gazes from a small litter box at the base of the toilet to a bowl of cat food and another of water by the shower and finally at the black fuzzball with wide golden eyes staring up at him from the corner, he realizes it’s been far too long since he stepped foot into this room.
Momota stares back at the fuzzball. The thing’s tiny--it can’t be bigger than his foot, to be honest.
The longer he stares, the longer the kitten stares back, until it goes bug-eyed and glances behind Momota. He looks back with it to the open door of the bathroom and, instinctively, shuts it closed with his foot. The kitten flattens its ears at the clock of the door and tries to press itself back against the corner, and then tries to become the equivalent of a shadowy pancake as Momota takes a tentative step towards it.
“Hey, hey… It’s okay,” Momota murmurs, kneeling down in front of it. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
He reaches out towards it, stopping his hand a few inches from the kitten. It gazes at him warily for a few seconds before sniffing at his fingers, pink nose twitching. He gives it another moment before moving further to touch it.
The kitten’s black fur is incredibly soft, and it stills for two seconds before clambering over Momota’s wrist and up his arm.
“Whoa--” The kitten’s already on his shoulder, and he feels short, hot puffs of air in his ear. Momota laughs because it tickles. “Hey, stop that!”
He reaches up and easily plucks the kitten off of him, fingers loosely wrapped around its torso. It squirms in his grip, though, so he adjusts it until its lying on his palm and cradled against his chest. Like some apple-sized fur baby.
Momota stands up and looks at himself at the mirror. The cat's wide eyes stare back at him. It’s so tiny compared to him, it’s actually really fucking adorable--the cat, of course. He finds himself smiling stupidly before blinking, shaking his head.
Alright, first things first. His boyfriend hadn’t been lying about the midterm, and there’s a cat in his bathroom.
Momota looks at the few cat supplies in the bathroom again before grabbing his cell phone from his pocket. He scrolls through his contact list and, upon finding his person of interest, calls.
A few short rings later, they pick up.
“Hey, Momota. What’s up?”
“Yo, Hoshi. I have a question for you, if you have the time.”
“I'm free right now. Let me guess, is this about Ouma’s cat?”
Well, bingo.
“Yeah, actually, I wasn’t aware until now that he has a cat, actually.”
“Huh. Well, I wouldn’t put that past him, seeing how he is, but I thought he’d tell at least you, Momota. Since you’re roommates and all.”
There’s a brief pause.
“Uh, actually, Kokichi and I are dating now,” Momota says, half sheepishly, half proudly because he can’t deny the small grin that forms whenever he states this fact.
“Oh. My bad for not noticing earlier.” A pause. “Just didn’t know you two made it official.”
“Sorry, didn’t realize I didn’t tell you,” Momota says. It was only recently Kokichi said it was okay for them to be public, and by ‘public’ he meant only to Momota’s friends that he knew as well. And, well, as happy Momota was with that huge development, he wasn’t going to make some private Facebook event or group chat for it, so he just went with the flow. He just hadn’t talked to Hoshi from then until now.
Momota suddenly frowns, because he had made the move to rub the back of his neck and instead became aware of the still warmth in his palm. He glances down to see the kitten still curled up on his hand, eyes now closed, whiskers twitching with its breaths. The tiny little thing had fallen asleep.
“... Anyway, you called about the cat?” Hoshi prods helpfully. “Is she alright?”
“Oh, right.” Momota has no idea why he’s lowering his voice now, but he is. “Yeah, it’s fine. Currently sleeping. Can you tell me more about it?”
“Hm. Well, I don’t know the whole story, but I can tell you what I know. Remember that storm two months ago?”
“Uh,” Momota frowns. “Yeah?”
“Yeah, well, I was at home one day of it and Ouma visited me, with the cat. Both soaked to the bone. The cat was in danger of hypothermia so I didn’t ask any questions.”
“Uh… Huh.”
“Yeah. I got them dry and warm--well, best I could for Ouma, no spare clothes to offer--and the cat was responsive immediately. Fighter, that one. Still, though, she wasn’t weaned, and Ouma told me that she’s an orphan, so--”
“He told you that?” Momota interrupts.
“Hm. Yeah, he did.”
Momota’s fingers curl around the bundle of warmth held against his chest. “What brought that on?”
“Oh. Well, if you find pre-weaned kittens without a mother, then it’s likely that she’s just out hunting or exploring and will return soon. I told him this and that was his response.” A pause. “It didn’t seem like he was lying, and, with the storm, I didn’t second guess it.”
“I see…” Momota glances down at the kitten, still sleeping peacefully in his palm. “... Hold on, though, I definitely would have noticed if this cat’s been here for a month now.” At least, he hoped he would have. Ouma couldn’t be that good at keeping such a big secret like this right under his nose, right?
“Ah, right. Well, she was still only a few weeks old, and I think Ouma knew he wasn’t capable of taking care of it himself. Having it stay at a vet’s too expensive, and I didn’t feel comfortable taking care of a pre-weaned kitten myself, so I referred him to Gundam.”
“Gundam?”
“Yeah, a grad student I know. He’s from the zoology department and also directs the local shelter, so taking raising a kitten should be no problem to him, and he could probably find her a good home after, too. Well, not that that would be a problem, I guess.”
Momota snorts lightly. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Yeah. Well, the storm wasn’t letting up, but she was probably starving so I gave Gundam a call and had him come over to us.”
“You stayed for all that?” Momota asks, surprised. As far as he knew, Kokichi and Hoshi rarely interacted the few times they met with Momota (and their grade, he supposed) as their only connection. As far as he knew, they didn't particularly even like each other, what with their clashing personalities.
“Heh. Yeah.”
Momota frowns at a wall, even more confused, because Hoshi just sounded amused over call. That’s a first.
Hoshi continues, “Believe me when I say this, Gundam’s weirder than your boyfriend. I stayed partially to protect the cat and partially because, I dunno, it seemed like it’d be interesting. Also, it was my apartment during a storm. Didn't want to go out.”
Momota, absolutely dumbfounded for a number of reasons, “Okay, then. How the fuck did that go.”
“Gundam came with a carrier and supplies and instantly… You know what, you have to meet him to understand, and even then you don’t, so don’t ask further because I don’t know. But he went into a tirade about us… Bringing a new minion to his dark empire, I think, and that we were lucky that he was willing to accept our offer.”
“ What ,” Momota asks flatly.
“You asked how it went, I told you not to ask further, Momota.”
Curiosity burning, Momota still asks, “Well, how did Kokichi respond to that ?”
“This was more than five weeks ago, Momota, so I’ll paraphrase it as best as I can remember. Ouma just responded with his own nonsense about his evil organization or something, and then these two were arguing, except not loudly because hey, there’s a kitten. They argued theatrically the whole time. Gundam checked the cat and bottle fed it. I don’t know, I’d say they enjoyed themselves by the time Gundam left with it.”
“Uhuh.” Sounds about right, to be honest. “Did uh… Did Kokichi say anything about visiting the kitten?”
“Huh. I don’t think he did, but now that you mention it, I think Gundam was saying something about ‘keeping his security fortified’ or something against ‘fiends’ while pointing at Ouma as he left. So I guess he expected Ouma to visit.”
“That’s his way of inviting people over?”
“Like I said, he’s fucking weird.”
Momota huffs in half-laughter, half-confusion. He feels the kitten stir a little against his chest.
“Thanks, Hoshi. This helps a lot.”
“No problem,” Hoshi replies. “Anything else?”
“Yeah, actually. If Gundam took the cat, then how did you know I was calling about it?”
“Ah, right. Well, two nights ago I received a call from Gundam. He yelled at me to give me the ‘coordinates of a certain evil supreme world conqueror’ because he had ‘not properly bound a contract with the dark overlord himself’.”
“... And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“I figured it had something to do with the cat, so I asked about her, and Gundam told me that Ouma had taken her. I asked if the cat was old enough for that, and he said that the age wasn’t the problem, that it was the whole ‘contract’ thing.”
“So...” Momota trails off, squinting. “What, did he steal her?”
“I don't think so? As believable as that is, I think Gundam would've been a lot angrier if he did that. My guess is that Ouma didn’t properly fill out the adoption paperwork or something."
Trusting Hoshi's judgement, Momota nods. "Okay. Did you give him our address, then?"
"Nah, I gave him Ouma’s number--”
“How do you have Kokichi’s number?” Momota interrupts, more confused than anything because, again , he had no idea that Kokichi and Hoshi were so close--.
“Ask him how he got my number, if you didn’t give it to him yourself. He texted me not long after the whole storm scenario.”
“Oh. Alright.” Momota pauses. “Texted you about what?”
“Hm. Well, there’s no point in hiding it now. He told me to not tell you about the whole situation, more or less.”
“Oh, okay,” Momota says blankly. After a long pause, Momota sighs. “Alright. Thanks for answering all my questions, Hoshi. And for taking care of Kokichi. I owe you one.”
“No need to thank me,” Hoshi replies easily. “Just good to hear the cat’s safe. Guess I should’ve told you before, though.”
“Don’t worry about it. You were just respecting a promise, like a good man,” Momota says much more heartily than he feels. “Wanna get a drink sometime? With some of the other guys? I’ll pay for you.”
“Sure, sounds good.” A pause. “I have a question, though.”
“Oh? What is it?”
“You aren’t angry at Ouma about this, are you?”
“Ah, uh,” Momota starts, “Why would I be?”
“I mean, you just found a cat in your mutual home that your boyfriend made an effort to not tell you about, Momota. Fill in the pieces yourself.”
Momota looks down at the kitten again. He frowns, thinking.
“... To be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about all of this, but I’m not angry, I think” he finally answers, slowly.
“I see.” Hoshi pauses. “Hm.”
“Huh? What’s up, Hoshi?” Momota asks.
“Don’t worry about it,” Hoshi smoothly replies. “Looking forward to drinking with you. Just give me a text.”
“Oh, uh, yeah. See you, Hoshi.”
“See you.”
Momota hangs up the call and pockets his phone before rubbing his neck, sighing. That… That was a lot to take in, for a number of reasons. He contemplates the emotions brewing in his chest. Sure, a part of him is definitely hurt that Kokichi very deliberately didn’t tell him about any of this, but a part of him is more worried for the same reason.
Kokichi has his secrets that he wanted to keep even from Momota. Momota told himself he had accepted that.
Momota shakes his head. It’s just a cat.
He looks down again at said cat cradled against him. As if woken by the silence proceeding their call, she stirs in his hand and yawns, flashing tiny teeth and a pink tongue, before blinking owlishly up at Momota.
Momota hovers a finger above her nose, watching her sniff at his fingertip before cautiously touching it with a paw. The touch is so gentle.
“Just what am I going to do with you…?” Momota murmurs.