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Yuu huffed as he ran throughout the streets under the rain, wondering if this was the right time to get mad at the world for everything bad that had happened to him that day, from the way that Guren called him to scream at him to show his ass at the café in that same moment even though he was not late by any means, to how the moment he finished his shift it had decided to rain.
Not that he couldn’t spend his time after work at the café while he waited for the rain to stop, but he wasn’t going to watch Shinya flirt with Guren a second longer than necessary. Plus, he had shows at home he wanted to watch. So after seeing that the weather forecast predicted that the rain would continue until midnight and he lacked the money to catch a taxi, he decided to run home, grateful that he lived somewhat close to his workplace.
But now he wondered why he thought that running home in the rain was an excellent idea.
Not only was he cold and wet, the droplets also got into his eyes and he barely could see where was he going. And to make things worse, the wind was picking up and Yuu was sure that at some point he would be unable to take another step forward because of this rain that seemed to be turning into a typhon.
So maybe it was weird that he was able to see from the corner of his eye a small yellow kitten curled up in a ball next to some carton boxes. The image of such a small animal suffering outside in the middle of this weather pulled at his heartstrings—maybe he could relate thanks to his shitty upbringing—and he stopped in his tracks, approaching the cat slowly as to not frighten it.
The kitten didn’t move, and when Yuu was in front of the animal he could see that it was trembling—thank Gods, at least it was alive. He held out a hand tentatively and patted the kitten’s head, to which the cat weakly opened one blue eye to stare at him and softly meowed.
Yuu’s heart went all soft at such a cry for help and he impulsively decided that he was going to help the kitten, even though he knew nothing of cats, but he was hopeful that he would learn things on the go. He opened the zipper of his parka, took the kitten carefully in his hands—it was so small that it fit in his two hands—and put him inside his parka so the kitten would get warmed up. To his surprise, the cat nuzzled into him, almost giving him an attack at how cute it was being, so Yuu petted him in the head before zipping up. He carefully held the cat to his chest and jogged back to his place, being careful to not joggle the kitten too much.
When he arrived at his place he was out of breath, but there was no time to sit down at rest: he needed to make sure that the kitten was okay. He quickly looked for clean towels and made sure that the kitten was dry—it weakly meowed in protest and Yuu couldn’t help but chuckle. He then made an impromptu bed with some other towels and dirty clothes he had around and placed the kitten on it, and after that he went to change to dry clothes and looked around his fridge to see if he had some milk left to feed the kitten with.
Luckily he had some, so he poured some into a bowl and, thinking that maybe drinking cold milk when the kitten was probably still cold was a bad idea, he decided to warm it a bit so the milk was at room temperature.
He just hoped he wasn’t actually killing the kitten with his null knowledge of how to care for one.
He took the milk to the kitten and prayed that it would drink it.
The cat looked up to him with a confused gaze, sniffed the milk and, luckily, started drinking it.
It was so cute that Yuu took his phone out and started taking pictures right and left and sending them to the squad, his heart already set on keeping it, no matter what anyone said.
He would wake up the next day as a renewed man, be responsible and take the kitten to the vet. He would buy its food, its bed and the litter box, and then he needed to think of a name once he learned what sex the cat was. It needed to be a cool one, so he couldn’t give it a random name!
“Hey, what name would you like?” Yuu asked absent-mindedly while he gently petted the kitten’s head with a finger. “I don’t know if you’re a boy or a girl… But you’re yellow, so maybe ‘curry’? Everyone loves curry! That way everyone will also love you, don’t you think?”
The kitten paused his drinking to look up at Yuu and meow softly, which made Yuu gasp.
“Do you like that name? Would you like to be named Curry?”
The kitten stared at Yuu for a few more seconds before it started rubbing his head on Yuu’s hand, which made Yuu’s heart implode with something akin to tenderness and love for this small ball of fluff.
“Everything is going to be okay now, Curry,” Yuu smiled and took the kitten into his arms, amazed at how soft its fur was. “I’m going to take care of you and make sure that you’re happy and loved.”
Curry meowed and nuzzled into Yuu, as if understanding what Yuu had said and thanking him for that.
When Yuu woke up the next morning, he stared for a few seconds at the empty pillow next to his before he woke up completely and quickly sat up, looking through his room in panic.
Curry was nowhere to be seen.
He was sure that Curry had been sleeping on the extra pillow he kept by his bed when he turned the lights off the previous night, but now there were no signs of the kitten in the room. Yuu quickly got up and looked through the covers in case that Curry had hidden among them, but the cat wasn’t there. He then searched in any possible place—the closet, his backpack, in the drawers even—, but to no luck. It was like Curry had been a piece of his imagination, and if it weren’t for the videos and pictures he took, Yuu would have started doubting his sanity.
Just as he was about to panic and call Kimizuki to ask for any possible ideas to look for a lost cat, someone rang the bell of his apartment. He was tempted to not answer the door because he was having an emergency—he might have had Curry for less than 24 hours but he was already ready to take a literal bullet for his kitten!—, but the door rang again, so Yuu groaned loudly in frustration and went to open the door, who cared if he was still in his pyjamas and with a bad case of bed hair.
Which proved to be a bad decision, because at the other side of the door was standing the prettiest boy he had ever seen in his life with an angelic smile. His warm blue eyes took his breath away and suddenly Yuu wondered if he could ask this stranger to let him run his fingers through that blond hair to soothe his stress at not being able to find his kitten.
Yuu might have been staring with a dropped jaw for quite a while because the hot stranger chuckled—that might have broken Yuu of his stupor—and held a bag of take-out while flashing a smile so dashing, Yuu might have gone blind.
“Good morning,” he greeted and holy shit his voice was so smooth. “I caused you trouble yesterday so I let myself out and brought us breakfast. What do you say if we eat it together while we get to know each other better?”
Yuu might have been mesmerized by the guy in front of him but he couldn’t help but blink and frown.
“I’m sorry, I think you got the wrong place?”
“No, I don’t think I have, Yuu-chan.”
Yuu blinked a few more times in confusion, because how did this guy he hadn’t seen in his life know his name?
“If you let me in, I can explain?” the stranger said with a sheepish smile and Yuu was tempted to allow him in, but unfortunately, he had been watching too many murder documentaries and he wasn’t going to be added to the list soon, thank you very much.
“I don’t think so,” Yuu held the door handle, ready to slam his door shut. As hot the stranger was, he valued his life too much, especially when he had a kitten to find. “I don’t want to die so young, so…”
The stranger seemed to think very hard for a few seconds, but when he saw that Yuu was starting to close the door he sighed.
“I’m Curry,” he whispered, a blush starting to form in his face. “I’m… I’m the kitten you rescued yesterday, and… yeah…”
“Excuse me?” Yuu was more confused than ever. How did this guy know about the kitten when he had only told his squad? And what kind of things was he saying?
“I…” the stranger that claimed to be his lost kitten was now obviously embarrassed and he scratched the back of his head while avoiding Yuu’s gaze. “I have this… condition? That makes me transform into a kitten whenever it rains. Don’t ask me how I got it, I’m not sure either. But the thing is, I transformed into a kitten while I was out yesterday and since you helped me out, I wanted to return the favour somehow…?”
“Are you seriously asking me to believe that?” Yuu asked, because if the alternative was to believe that he had been cuddling with a stranger that could transform into a kitten the previous day, well…
He would rather hope that Shinoa had decided to play a prank on him and hired someone to do this bullshit.
“Well…” the stranger hesitated. “I can tell you about the conversation you had with your friends via skype, or about your life story you told me, or maybe how it’s best you don’t try to feed real curry to kittens… But as you can see, my hair is the same shade of the kitten’s fur you picked up yesterday, and my eyes are the same. And… also… I’m wearing your clothes?”
Yuu immediately looked down and realized that, in fact, the hot stranger was indeed wearing clothes he recognized as his—the hoodie with coffee stains on the sleeves and those cargo pants were definitely his.
“I’m sorry,” the stranger apologized before Yuu could form a logical train of thoughts that made sense. “But I was naked and… I promise that after I get to my own place and change into my own clothes, I’ll wash and return them to you!”
Yuu opened and closed his mouth in shock. What was he supposed to say in those cases? He was sure that there was no handbook on how to handle a situation as weird as this one.
“Uh, so if you think this is weird, I can just leave the food out here and come back another day with your clothes…?”
The stranger made to leave the bag on the floor, which made Yuu react and he grabbed the blond’s arm.
“Um, sorry, this is kind of confusing,” Yuu rumbled on when the stranger stared at him with confused eyes—holy shit he had been right, they were the exact same eyes as Curry. “But do you want to come in and explain everything to me again so I can understand, uhh…”
“My name is Mikaela,” the blond said with a tentative smile. “Or Mika, for short.”
“Okay Mika,” Yuu ran his free hand through his hair. “My name is Yuu.”
“I know,” Mika chuckled, which made something inside Yuu to flip. “I heard your friends screaming your name many times last night.”
“Ah,” now it was Yuu’s time to get embarrassed. “Sorry about that. Well, Mika, do you want to come in and have breakfast? I’m sure starving.”
Mika’s face lit up in pure happiness, and Yuu’s heart started to beat erratically in his chest at the sight.
Maybe he wouldn’t get to keep a cute kitten to protect and love for the rest of its life, but maybe he would be able to make a new friend.