Chapter Text
The air was thick, heavy, burning. Too hot. Satoru wiped a line of sweat from his forehead, removing his feet from the pedals of his bike to place them firmly on the ground for a short breather. It had been over two months since he'd moved to Tokyo for university and summer weather was already beginning. His first summer here and the humidity was already catching him off guard. It hadn't been this hot back home, Hokkaido. He couldn't help but wonder if he'd even be able to survive the summer at this rate, especially considering it had barely begun.
He propped himself back up on the bike and resumed pedalling, thankful it wasn't that much further to his apartment. It was late afternoon, but the sun was still high enough to cast burning hot rays down on top of his head and the back of his neck, causing sweat to pool and slide down his back, a very uncomfortable sensation. Satoru never was that good with heat, even looking near the sun with sunglasses was too much for him most of the time. But it was only natural to not want to get blinded, or even melt into a puddle, which it felt like he actually might.
The apartment building came into view. Just a bit more. If Satoru weren’t already athletic, this would be torture. But he was the one who’d decided to bike to school every day, it being not far enough away to warrant taking a bus or train. Finally, he stopped at the apartment, right in front of the bike rack. He usually didn’t have a problem biking the distance there and back but today he was tired, his breath coming in fast uneven bursts. It was no doubt because of the heat, which felt like it was killing most of the stamina he’d worked hard for. He’d have to work harder to overcome it. If he let the heat be an issue, it’d impede the impediment he already had and he’d never get back to where he wanted to be.
Satoru locked his bike up and wiped his forehead again as a sudden yell pierced the air, making Satoru pause. It was a yell... a voice he heard too often. Satoru shifted his body behind the bike rack as much as he could to hide himself. He really didn’t feel like interacting with his noisy neighbour. He always tried to avoid it, but the other boy was so chatty. It was just his luck that they seemed to arrive back at the apartment the same time most days. If only there were trees by the bike rack instead of the clump of tall ones behind the apartment building. That way he’d have an easier time hiding. He eyed the tall, practically towering trees with yearning. The bike rack wasn’t high enough.
His next door neighbour, a boy who seemed to be near his age, was loud and annoying. Sometimes when Satoru came home and encountered him, he was always grinning or laughing or yelling with or at his friend, another boy with lighter hair who seemed to always be scolding him for something. Their loudness was the only reason Furuya knew his neighbour’s name. Sawamura. Or, as the friend liked to yell, Bakamura. It wasn’t only outside he heard it, sometimes he could even hear them yelling through the wall. How anyone could have that much energy Satoru didn’t comprehend. But he would rather not have anything to do with him if possible. The few times they interacted, Sawamura was friendly enough, too friendly even, which annoyed him since he’d rather be left alone. But it wasn’t only that, there was just something about his neighbour and the atmosphere he gave off that was too much that prickled Satoru’s skin with irritation.
Satoru peeked over the side of the bike rack to see if the coast was clear, but unfortunately, his eyes ended up locked with Sawamura’s. His friend, apparently named Kuramochi-senpai which Satoru literally couldn’t help but overhear on more than one occasion, had already left and Sawamura was shaking out his shoe in front of his front door. Sawamura promptly waved upon seeing him, a wide grin on his face, and Satoru let out a deep sigh. Now that he was spotted, he had to go in. Not that Furuya really cared about being rude (which Sawamura had called him on more than one occasion) and staying where he was, but due to previous experience, it would only cause Sawamura to go pester him and ask what he was doing. So troublesome.
Grabbing the railing, Satoru slowly began up the staircase to the second level of the apartment complex, blinking away sweat that slid down his forehead into his eyelashes. It was a small building, a pretty old one too, only two levels and six small apartments, so thankfully he didn’t have to go much further. He just wanted to go in and sit in front of the electric fan. He was so hot. But first, he had pass Sawamura since Satoru’s apartment was at the end of the row. He walked by, picking up the pace in an intent to avoid interaction, but as Sawamura liked to do, he called out to him anyway. Right before Satoru could grab his doorknob. So close.
“Hey, you!” Sawamura exclaimed, his voice much louder than it should be, and Furuya stopped in his tracks, sighing again with resignation. Hopefully this wouldn’t take that long. “You’re just going to ignore me again?!”
Turning around to face Sawamura and the indignant expression on his face, narrowed eyes and all, Satoru just shrugged in response.
Sawamura bristled, pointing a finger at him. “That’s rude, you know?”
Satoru just shrugged again, not saying anything as he turned his head away, feeling his skin prickle and irritability come over him in waves. He was called rude on a recurring basis by Sawamura in particular, it was nothing new, nor did it bother him. Ever since he was a child he’d been called things like that. Rude, intimidating, arrogant, scary, monster. It had been more frustrating when he was younger, especially when he’d wanted to connect with others, but now they slid off him easier - he was used to it.
“We’re neighbours, we should be more friendly!” Sawamura insisted. “It’s been three months and I don’t even know your name!”
Friendly…? Satoru couldn’t really imagine being friendly with Sawamura. Not when he seemed to have so much energy, which Satoru didn’t have, especially after long days of classes, of sitting in on team meetings, of watching his teammates practice without being able to do anything himself, of coming home frustrated and unfulfilled. He normally didn’t like talking to people when he didn’t have to, it was difficult, it was tiring, and Sawamura of all people with his energy and loud voice just made Satoru want to cover his ears and avoid him.
“Are you even listening?” Sawamura complained, giving Satoru a clear stink eye. Satoru eyed Sawamura blankly. Why did he want to know so much? He seemed to have quite a few friends already, he counted three or four different visitors since moving in, so why did he want to be friendly with him? Nobody had ever wanted to be friendly with him more than they had to. His teammates in high school, his teammates on the university team, not that he had much of an opportunity to work with them yet… even his classmates had always kept their distance, ever since middle school. In high school, once he’d joined the team and became the ace pitcher, it changed a bit. People admired him, tried to talk to him more. Which was flattering, but he still felt lonely despite the attention. He told himself that he preferred being alone anyway.
Sawamura must be some anomaly. A loud, friendly, overly pushy person who wouldn’t give up even when rebuffed.
“Furuya,” he finally answered. Hopefully now Sawamura would stop asking him.
“Furuya…” Sawamura echoed, as Satoru turned to put his key in, his hand on the knob on the door, opening it. “That sounds familiar. But anyway, nice to meet you!”
Satoru gave him a confused stare. “We didn’t just meet.”
“We might as well have,” Sawamura said, “we never really talked before and I didn’t know your name.”
Satoru’s eyebrows creased. “Okay.” He would consider this talking? Well, it technically was the longest they’ve ever spoken, when Satoru basically avoided replying as much as possible to Sawamura’s chatter. Not that he’d even known what to reply in the first place.
“I should introduce myself too,” Sawamura declared, pointing at himself. “I’m the great Sawamura. Sawamura Eijun!”
“Okay,” Satoru said, wondering if a polite response would get Sawamura to retreat. “Nice to meet you.” He didn’t know if he succeeded in keeping exasperation out of his tone. The great? His neighbour was definitely weird. And even his introduction was loud. Satoru gave up and stepped into his apartment, feeling too tired to continue this conversation, if it even was one.
“Furuya!” Sawamura complained. “You didn’t tell me your first name!”
But Satoru had already closed the door, locking it behind him.
Sighing, Satoru went and sat on the floor, back against the worn-down second-hand sofa, turning on the electric fan and letting it blast right at his face. It felt nice. He rolled both of his shoulders in a light stretch, pleased when he didn’t feel anything more than a twinge in his right side. His eyes moved across the room, landing on the equipment his physical therapist had given him, in a pile by the left wall close to his bedroom. In the front of the pile sat the set of weights, reminding him that he needed to do his exercises for the day.
Satoru tried to quash the bubble of frustration that settled in his stomach, moving up his throat, resulting in a tightness that made it hard for him to swallow. It had already been four months since his injury, and he still wasn’t cleared to play yet. The tear in his shoulder hadn’t even been that bad, his doctor had said, it could have been so much worse, he was lucky, all he needed was rest and physical therapy, but now it was the first day of June, and it still wasn’t fully healed.
Satoru had never been so frustrated in his whole life. He had to sit out the last months of high school baseball, and while he was technically already retired as a third year, graduation not long after his injury, he still participated when he could in training because he wanted to. But then he couldn’t.
Only watch. Not play. Not pitch.
He knew it was mostly his fault. During the fall tournament, he’d felt the pain in his pitching shoulder, but he hadn’t told anyone, not wanting to give up his spot on the team, on the mound, and it had gotten worse. It had gotten worse, until that day during winter training, when he’d thrown one of his fastballs, and he could feel the explosive pain, and he couldn’t hide it anymore.
A partial rotator cuff tear. It was a small one, but it had still hurt, and he still couldn’t play.
He was forbidden from playing baseball at all until it recovered. The physical therapist gave him a plan, full of rest, ice packs and physical therapy, even told him how to lay when he slept. And when he was ready, he’d be shown a better way to pitch so he didn’t put the same amount of strain on his shoulder in the future.
It could have been worse. All he had to do now was exercises to strengthen the muscles, use ice packs, and otherwise follow his doctor’s orders and wait until it was strong enough to resume his regular activities without risk of injuring the area further.
He should be glad that didn’t need surgery.
But not playing baseball for months was way worse than undergoing a surgery.
The frustration of not doing what he loved and was good at was way worse than any physical pain.
It hurt watching another pitcher on the mound, watching his new team win and lose without him. It wasn’t a team he was familiar with yet, he knew he’d get a chance when he recovered, but it was frustrating.
Satoru knew he should feel grateful. It would recover on its own. And despite his injury which had of course gone public, he had been wanted by more than one university offering him scholarships hoping for Satoru to choose them. He had a spot on the team he chose once his shoulder recovered and his doctor gave him the clear.
It could have been worse, he tried to tell himself.
But he still hated all of this time, empty time where he could do nothing but watch practice and run laps while he couldn’t play baseball.
A surge of motivation hitting him, Satoru got up from the floor, moving towards the equipment to do a set of exercises the therapist had given him.
As frustrating as it was, as mentally debilitating as it was, if he didn’t follow his doctor’s orders, he wouldn’t get any closer to recovering.
The next couple of days were the same as usual. He went to classes, watched his team practice from the sidelines, and then rode home on his bike. Thankfully those two days he hadn’t seen Sawamura, so he had gone into his apartment peacefully.
But his thoughts were far from peaceful when he laid down, when he ate, when he did his exercises.
He’d asked his coach if there was anything he could do in team practice that wouldn’t hurt his shoulder. There must be something, he’d said. But he always got the same answer. Run laps. Train your legs. When your shoulder is better, the professionals will teach you how to pitch without straining your shoulder like you did before. We’ll fix your form. What kind of coach at your high school didn’t help you with that? Satoru kept his frustration in, bubbling beneath the surface. It wasn’t like it was his coach’s fault. It was all his own fault. He hadn’t been pitching with the right form. He tensed up too much, he pushed himself too hard. When you’re ready, you’ve got your place here, so don’t act rashly, recover at your own pace. The words did make him feel better, but he just wished he knew what his own pace was and how much longer it would take.
Satoru pulled up to the bike rack, locking it in, when something, or rather, someone in the corner of his eye moved past, catching his attention. He looked over to see that it was Sawamura. Sawamura was walking up to the apartment from his left, carrying a large brown box. Satoru couldn’t help but feel a bit curious about it, since Sawamura usually didn’t have much with him when he came back to his apartment. Usually a backpack, sometimes a bag of fast food.
He normally wouldn't think much of it, assuming that he’d bought something or was carrying something from school or work, wherever he went every day. But to Satoru, it came off as abnormal since Sawamura’s head was in the box, and he heard a low voice, as if Sawamura was talking to whatever was inside. It was too low for Satoru to hear any particular words, but he was definitely speaking aloud. Sawamura seemed strange and eccentric in general, but there must be some reason, right?
Satoru didn’t know why he cared, but he found himself following behind Sawamura, maybe a meter behind, taking slow, quiet steps. It seemed that Sawamura didn’t even notice him, which encouraged him to continue. He followed him up the stairs, up to Sawamura’s apartment. Sawamura was still looking in the box, still not noticing Satoru, as he shifted the box into one arm, pulling out his key and putting it into the lock.
It was then when Satoru heard it.
Meows.
High pitched meows.
He stilled, his eyes widening, staring up at the big brown box, which clearly held kittens, the high pitched sound sound of the meows being an indicator, inside.
His fingers began to tingle, and he wanted to reach for the box and see the kittens for himself.
Satoru loved animals, all kinds of animals. He had his favourites, his all time favourite being the mighty cool polar bear, but he couldn’t help but be weak to baby animals too, especially little kittens and puppies.
He wanted to see them.
He wanted to hold them.
Now that he knew they were there, he couldn’t just go into his apartment and forget about them.
Baby animals. Satoru’s one weakness. He couldn’t help it. A deep feeling bubbled in his chest, a feeling he recognized as yearning. When was the last time he got to see cute animals in real life? He’d been to the zoo in Hokkaido, but the last time he went was a long time ago… and his parents didn’t want any pets, so he didn’t often have a chance like this.
He stared, biting his lip, wondering if his desire to see the kittens outweighed his reluctance to speak up to his neighbour.
Sawamura was opening his door now, and Satoru knew it had to be now if he was going to say anything.
Think of the kittens. “Um,” he said loudly.
Sawamura shrieked, his keychain slipping from his hands, losing his grip on the brown box. Satoru watched with horror, but thankfully Sawamura regained his hold, the box staying firmly in his arm.
“Furuya, you can’t just sneak up on people like that! You scared me!” Sawamura scolded, his face turning red.
Satoru stared at him for a moment. The way Sawamura’s face reddened like that… Satoru found he had to force his lips to stay clamped together. He could have laughed if he was a more expressive person. Was Sawamura always that easy to startle? Not that Satoru knew one way or the other based on one occurrence, but he found himself surprised by the light feeling in his chest as he wondered about it. He had to admit startling him like that was pretty funny.
It was easy for Satoru to keep his composure, however. He gazed at Sawamura, knowing that he had to act… amicable. If he acted like he always did and ignored him, Sawamura would call him rude again and he wouldn’t be able to see the kittens.
“... Sorry,” he said. The words felt awkward, forced, coming from his lips. It was difficult for him to apologize when he didn’t want to, but the box kept meowing. He was doing it for them.
Sawamura’s head jerked back, his mouth falling open. He clearly didn’t expect Satoru to apologize any more than Satoru did.
A sharp, clearly surprised bark of laughter came out of Sawamura’s mouth, and he then shook his head, giving Satoru a wide grin.
“An apology? From you? My rude neighbour who never talks, and ignores me all the time?!”
Satoru frowned, his lips pressing together in a firm line. He turned his head to the side, avoiding Sawamura’s gaze. “I take it back.”
“No, no, don’t take it back!” Sawamura objected. Satoru was surprised when he felt Sawamura step closer, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I accept your apology!”
Satoru looked back to Sawamura, surprised at how close he was standing to him. Sawamura’s eyes were sparkling, and he had a smile on his face. A normal smile, rather than the wide exaggerated grin he often wore when he saw him. Satoru suddenly wanted to step back and shrug the hand off his shoulder, but for some reason he found himself staying right where he was.
“Okay,” Satoru said after a moment, voice quiet. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”
It was true - he’d followed Sawamura, or more accurately, followed the box of kittens, on purpose, but he truly hadn’t meant to startle him like that, no matter how amusing it ended up being.
“Got it,” Sawamura said, looking at Satoru with amusement in his eyes. “You’re so quiet all the time, I didn’t know you were there.”
Satoru sighed. Another thing he got told often. You’re so quiet. Why don’t you show your emotions more? Maybe if you spoke up, you’d make friends.
“I was walking normally,” Satoru said. “You just didn’t notice.”
Sawamura frowned. “Are you saying it’s my fault!?”
Satoru was about to object, but Sawamura shrugged. “I guess it was my fault... whatever. I’ll admit it this time!” Satoru watched as Sawamura looked down at the box again, as another set of meows erupted, and Satoru’s heart clenched. What did they look like? How small were they? Satoru’s mind raced with curiosity.
Sawamura clearly noticed where Satoru was looking, and his head jerked up, his whole body becoming tense as he took in a deep breath, looking from the box to Satoru and back. It was clear he seemed nervous for some reason. Satoru took a step closer, while Sawamura took a step back, and let out a bout of nervous laughter.
“I-I guess you noticed… huh?” Sawamura’s voice was shaky. “It’s true I was going to take them inside, but not for long, I wasn’t going to keep them as a pet permanently, so you don’t have to turn me in or anything, okay?”
Ah, Satoru realized. That’s why he was nervous. The apartment building didn’t allow pets. Satoru watched calmly for another moment, and then he shook his head.
“I won’t turn you in. I…” Satoru looked at the box, and then back to Sawamura, who slumped a bit, relief colouring his expression. Sawamura’s smile returned, and he let out another laugh.
“Thank God!” Sawamura said. “If I get kicked out of here, there’s nothing else I can do. I can’t afford anywhere else, and if my school hears about it, then I’m so screwed…” He shuffled his feet, frowning at the box. “But I couldn’t just leave them…”
Satoru nodded with understanding. He would have done the same if it were him. Even if he got caught, he would still take the kittens home.
The kittens… who were still meowing loudly.
“Crap, I better get inside before someone else catches me,” Sawamura said, leaning down, somehow able to pick up the dropped keychain even with the big box under his arm.
Satoru took a few steps closer to Sawamura and the box, deciding that yes, seeing the kittens was worth this interaction. He seemed to have more energy today anyway, perhaps the kittens fueled him.
“Um,” Satoru said. “Can I… come in?”
Sawamura did look surprised for a split second, but he gave Satoru a grin, and a nod. He stuck his thumb out toward his door. “Of course!”
Satoru nodded, following eagerly. Once they were both inside, Sawamura locked the door behind him, and he set the box down onto the floor. Satoru immediately knelt down on the ground in front of the box, looking down at the kittens. His chest fluttered. There were four kittens, clearly siblings, they all had the same mix of white, black and orange fur. Satoru watched them move around the box, meowing, walking on top of each other. He put a hand in the box, and one of them walked up and began to sniff his finger. They were so cute.
Clearly watching the scene, Sawamura interjected, “so you came here only to play with the cats!?”
“Yeah,” Satoru said. He looked up to see Sawamura getting closer, sitting down at the other side of the box, a pout clear on his face, which evaporated as he saw the kittens again.
"Well, whatever. They sure are cute, huh?”
Satoru nodded. “Yeah.”
Watching the kittens walk over each other, a couple of them batting at each other’s tails, Satoru figured they must not be older than five weeks. They were really little. He picked up one of the kittens gently, holding it in the crook of his arm. One glance told him it was a female kitten. He gently stroked it, his whole body filling with warmth. All of his other worries seemed to fade away, and all that was on his mind was the precious creature. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this relaxed. He set the kitten down and picked up another one. This one seemed to be more squirmy, so he let it, a him this time, walk around on his lap.
“Wow,” Sawamura said, awed, “they really like you.”
Satoru felt his cheeks warm, and his chest puffed out with pride. “Yes, they do,” he agreed. He kept stroking the male’s head gently, looking up to see Sawamura reach into the box and pick up one of the kittens as well. He held it to his chest, grinning down at it.
“They like me too, you know!” Sawamura said, his shoulders back, giving Satoru a competitive glance.
Satoru sent him a blank stare. Not as much as me, he wanted to say. “Don’t hold them too tight,” he said instead.
Sawamura spluttered. “I-I know!” But he loosened his grip on the kitten, setting it into his lap.
But the kitten immediately stumbled down from Sawamura’s knee and began to wander away. Sawamura’s eyes went wide as he crawled after it, taking it, her, Satoru noticed, and put her back into the box. Sawamura clearly looked dejected after that. Satoru stared at Sawamura, who flushed red, and Satoru felt a bit of smugness at that.
“I-it probably just has too much energy,” Sawamura explained, his voice louder, stumbling. Well, that was probably true, but Satoru wasn’t about to admit that.
“She,” Satoru said, “that one is a she.”
“Oh,” Sawamura said, leaning over the box, looking. “You can tell?”
“Yeah,” Satoru said. He put the male he was holding back into the box, and now all four were back in there. “There’s three girls and one boy.”
“Wow,” Sawamura said, gazing at them curiously. “I can’t tell at all.”
Satoru watched Sawamura, his chest puffing out even more, pleased at the accomplishment. He knew so much about animals, he always had, but Sawamura apparently didn’t. That filled him with an insurmountable pride, and a desire to show off.
“If you’re keeping them,” Satoru said. “You need food, a litter box, toys, water bowl…”
Sawamura’s head jerked toward Satoru, his eyes wide. “I didn’t think of that at all! I just took them in without thinking about that stuff…” he paused, his arms waving about. “I’m not dumb, I know kittens need special care, I just forgot in my urge to rescue them, that’s all!”
A curiosity came over Satoru. “Where did you find them…?”
“I was coming back from school,” Sawamura said, talking quickly, “I got off the bus, and walked on the usual way home… but I heard the meowing! I followed the sound, and I found the box just sitting in an alley… I couldn’t just leave them there, you know? Maybe nobody else would have found them… maybe something worse would happen to them.”
Satoru kept nodding. He looked from Sawamura back to the innocent kittens. “It’s sad…” he said quietly. How could someone not treasure animals and just leave them like that? His skin prickled with anger as he imagined someone just leaving them there without a care in the world, throwing them away like they were trash. Satoru’s hands clenched, his fingernails digging into his palms.
“Right?” Sawamura said. “How can they just leave them there?! If I found the jerk that did that, I’ll punch them good!”
Satoru was taken aback by the passion in Sawamura’s voice. He sounded so angry on behalf of the kittens. Satoru had been wary of and irritated by Sawamura this whole time, wanting to avoid him, but despite that, there was no way he could be a bad person if he cared about animals like that. He found himself nodding in agreement.
“Yeah.”
They looked at each other for a moment, as if sizing each other up. Satoru might have judged Sawamura too much before. Not that he still wasn’t too loud, or irritating, or gave off too much energy, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t a good person.
Sawamura broke the silence by standing up, clearing his throat.
“I’m going to try and get the kittens homes,” he announced, “but I don’t know how long that will take, so I guess I should go pick up some materials, huh?”
“Materials…?” Satoru echoed.
“You know! The stuff you mentioned! The food! The bowls!”
“Right,” Satoru said, gazing at the kittens again. If Sawamura left, he would have to go too… but he didn’t want to quite yet. He wanted to stay with the kittens. But it was true, the kittens would need food and water, it was impossible to tell how long they’ve been in the box in the alley before Sawamura found them.
“You’ll come with me, right?” Sawamura asked, giving Satoru a pleading look. “I hate to admit it, but you know more than me about cats! Please!” he bowed his head, his lips pressed into a line. He clearly had a lot of pride and didn’t like admitting he didn’t know that much about something, even if that something was cats.
That sincere plead and of course, the kittens' well-being made Satoru give the answer he did. “Okay. I’ll come.”
“Yes!” Sawamura cheered. “Let’s go now!”
Satoru got up, gave the box one more glance. Hopefully he’d be able to see them again soon.
And then he followed an eager Sawamura out the door.
“You must really like cats,” Sawamura said as they got off their bikes in front of the pet store. Thankfully there was one not too far away, closer than his university was, at least, which he’d discovered thanks to a search engine and local map. “Your eyes got all sparkly when you were looking at them.”
Satoru felt his cheeks grow warm. “They did not.” A denial was instinct, and it wasn’t like he was embarrassed by his love of animals, but it somehow felt like he was being teased, and it caused his skin to prickle.
“They totally did!” Sawamura laughed. “You’re usually all… blank face, quiet, Mr. Stoic, but then when you saw the kittens your eyes got all shiny.”
“Let’s get the litter box first,” Satoru said, ignoring him.
“Don’t ignore me!” Sawamura complained but followed him into the store. Satoru hadn’t been here before, so it took them a bit of time to search the store to find what they needed.
Satoru picked out almost everything. The litter box, one that wasn’t too big, a couple of water bowls, formula, and kitten food.
“Canned wet food is better for younger kittens,” Satoru had explained when Sawamura had gone to grab the first bag he’d seen off the shelf. It was funny how Sawamura pouted and complained every time Satoru told him something he didn’t know.
“Maybe you should just take the kittens instead!” Sawamura grumbled.
Satoru stilled, hope billowing in his chest. “...Really?”
“No way!” Sawamura denied. “I won’t hand them over like that, no matter how much you like them. I can take care of them well, you’ll see.”
Satoru sighed. He walked ahead of Sawamura with quick, heavy steps, heading for the toy aisle. That was mean, he thought. He had gotten his hopes up just like that.
Sawamura caught up, bumping Satoru’s shoulder with his. “Don’t get all huffy, you can come see them whenever you want, alright?”
Satoru slowed, giving Sawamura a side glance. His shoulders relaxed, and he nodded. “Okay.”
Sawamura gave his usual grin in response.
After some bickering about which toys were better, they had somehow managed to pick out a few, more than was probably necessary, but Sawamura said he could just give them to whoever adopts the kittens in the end. Satoru was surprised to find that he enjoyed the outing more than he thought he would. He usually didn’t go out often, it was school, apartment, school, apartment, physical therapist, apartment, with an occasional walk to a nearby park where he found an area he could run. But spending time shopping with Sawamura hadn’t been that bad.
“Wait!” Sawamura proclaimed as he took the bags off of his handlebars, sticking an arm out to stop Satoru from walking ahead to the apartment. “We should make sure nobody is watching. If someone sees us with the stuff…”
“Oh, right,” Satoru agreed. They had to be careful. At least they got a smaller litter box, it wasn’t clear what it was just from looking at the bag.
When it was clear nobody was around, they headed up the stairs hurriedly. Satoru was panting, out of breath, pushing his hair out of his eyes, which was sticking to his forehead due to the sweat. He hadn’t noticed it until now, but it was yet another hot day. Sawamura stopped at his apartment, eyeing Satoru.
“Are you coming back in?”
Satoru paused, thinking about it. He wanted to see the kittens play with their new toys, but he was hot and tired, and it was getting late. He still had to do his exercises for the day, too.
“I’m tired,” he said. “Tomorrow?”
Sawamura nodded. “Sure. See you later, Furuya. I swear I’ll bond with the kittens more when you’re gone!” He gave a smirk and then entered his apartment, closing it behind him.
Satoru frowned at the closed door for a moment before going into his. Strange. It seemed like Sawamura was competing with him over the kittens. It definitely got under his skin, Sawamura thinking he could be better with them than him.
Somehow Satoru didn’t mind as much as he thought he would, though.
The thing that bothered him more was that he couldn’t spend more time with them that day, if only he wasn't so sleepy.
But when he saw them next, he would show Sawamura how much better he was with them.