Work Text:
The last thing Takemichi expected to find after waking up was a handsome blond guy sitting on his bed staring at him. Takemichi rubbed his eyes and looked at the alarm clock on the nightstand.
05:52 am.
It was still too early to deal with that kind of stuff. Takemichi ignored the person in front of him, turned to the opposite side of the bed, and closed his eyes. What if it was only a product of his imagination? It had been a rough week at work and he hadn’t been getting enough sleep recently.
Yes. That was probably the case.
He just had to go back to sleep and… and then everything would get back to normal . Takemichi yawned. He felt a pair of arms hugging him from behind, but again, Takemichi didn’t pay much attention. It was probably a hallucination anyway. A really weird and elaborate hallucination.
Once he woke up again, everything would go back to normal.
....
Except it didn’t.
6:30 am
The alarm clock went off, waking Takemichi up. He was on vacation. Why did he forget to turn off the alarm? Ugh. Takemichi was about to leave the bed when he felt the presence of a person sleeping next to him. So it wasn’t a hallucination, huh? The blond guy was lying next to him, his arms fully stretched and- and- He was naked .
Instead of feeling fear or anger at the intrusion, Takemichi’s face immediately turned red. He pushed the guy off of the bed and crawled back until he felt the cold wall behind him. "What- What are you doing here?!"
"Mn? Takemitchy?" The guy rubbed his eyes and slowly stood up. "Why did you push me off the bed? It hurts."
"How- How do you know my name?" Takemichi was getting desperate. "And how did you get into my apartment!?"
"I’m Mikey." Mikey complained.
"What? M- Mikey?!" Takemichi took his time to process the guy’s words. How could that man have the same name as his cat? What were the odds?
"Takemitchyyy, I’m hungry." Mikey whined. "Give me food."
Takemichi left his bedroom. He searched every room in his apartment his cat but he didn’t find him anywhere . Takemichi came back and stared at the man in front of him. His hair was the color as his cat’s and his eyes… they had the same eyes.
Oh god.
How was that possible?
"M- Mikey?" Takemichi said. "Is- Is that really you?"
"Yeah, it’s me. Let me show you." Mikey replied. He turned around and showed Takemichi the side of his waist. There was a scar there. "See?"
Takemichi’s doubts disappeared as soon as he saw the scar. That was definitely Mikey.
Woah.
"Uhm." Now that he had corroborated Mikey’s identity, there were two other problems that he had to deal with. The first one was, of course, to take care of Mikey’s nudity. There was no way Takemichi would be able to focus on the third problem with a naked Mikey running around in his apartment. "Can you put on some clothes?"
"Don’t wanna. I’m comfortable like this."
It took almost an hour to convince Mikey to wear some clothes.
"What do you mean you want to wear these pajamas?" Takemichi pointed at his clothes. "I- I just woke up in them. I’ve got clean pajamas in the closet. They’re way more comfortable!"
"I want the ones that you have right now. I don’t want anything else." Mikey said as he rolled in Takemichi’s bed as a sign of protest.
Takemichi ended up giving Mikey his pajamas.
"See? It wasn’t that difficult, was it?" Mikey said as he followed a very defeated Takemichi to the kitchen.
Out of instinct, Takemichi grabbed Mikey’s bowl of food and water; and refilled them. Mikey was about to lower and start drinking from it when he remembered that he wasn’t a cat anymore.
"I wanna eat what you eat." Mikey complained and sat on the kitchen counter. "I want coffee and fried eggs!"
Although all of Mikey’s body had changed, but his spoiled attitude remained the same.
Once the initial shock passed, Takemichi quickly adapted to the change.
They worked it out.
Takemichi was glad it happened during his vacations.
Mikey’s clinginess proved to be a great obstacle. That, combined with the fact that Mikey disliked wearing clothes, put Takemichi through many difficult situations. He tried his best to avoid looking at him those times and explain why he should wear clothes, but Mikey wouldn’t listen and, instead, would only get closer to him.
It had been hard because Mikey still kept some of his old habits, like sitting on top of his desk when he wasn’t paying attention to him, sleeping on top of Takemichi, or sitting on his lap when he was working at his desk.
Takemichi missed his cat, but he also liked having Mikey around him, to be able to understand him and have proper conversations with him. It made him realize how lonely he had been before.
He had tried dating other people, but none of them seemed interested enough in him to keep in touch with after a night. Takemichi was always ghosted or ignored whenever he tried to contact them.
And yes, that hurt a lot.
At the end of the day, Mikey was the only one he had.
"Takemitchyyy. You finally answered."
Takemichi sighed and regretted answering the phone. It was Mikey calling him to his job again. Was it really worth it to spend a few minutes of his lunchtime talking to Mikey?
Yes.
"Y- Yeah, I was working." Takemichi said. It had happened multiple times during the week. "I told you that I can’t pick up the phone during working hours or my manager will scold me."
"Oh, that’s right." Mikey replied. He completely forgot about it . "But this is important, super important."
"Is it?" Takemichi now felt a bit bad for reprimanding Mikey. "What happened?"
"I found this box of cookies on the counter. Can I eat them?" Takemichi heard the sound of the cardboard being broken. "It says they’re a mix of vanilla and chocolate flavor—"
"Mikey, I told you—"
"No, listen, listen. I know you said I can’t eat chocolate, but the box says it’s a mix of chocolate AND vanilla." Mikey said in a smug tone as if he had actually made a point. " It’s only half-chocolate ."
"…" Takemichi wanted to slam his head against the wall.
"Takemitchy?" Mikey said after Takemichi went silent. "So… Can I eat them? I’m hungry."
After a deep sigh, Takemichi finally answered. "No, Mikey, you can’t eat them."
"Why?"
"Let me put it another way: you can’t eat processed sugars. Be it chocolate, vanilla, or whatever, you can’t eat it, or it’ll make you hyperactive." Takemichi explained, remembering how hard it was to handle a hyperactive Mikey.
It was three in the morning and Mikey was still running around his room. This time he was chasing a moth.
Takemichi really wanted to sleep. He’d been trying for five hours, but just when he was finally closing his tired eyes, Mikey jumped on the bed, right next to Takemichi, making him immediately open his eyes.
"Takemitchyy. I finally caught it!" Mikey whispered in his ear while Takemichi was still trying to decipher what was going on.
"Wh- What? What happened?" Takemichi sat up and rubbed his eyes. Damn, he had found the perfect position to sleep. "Mikey? Why did you jump on top of me?" Takemichi could swear that if he had been just eight centimeters closer, Mikey would’ve broken his ribs for sure.
"Look." Mikey opened his hand and Takemichi saw the big moth in it. The insect was still batting its wings. "Here, you can have it."
Takemichi looked at the clock on the nightstand.
He only had three more hours to sleep.
All of that had happened because Mikey accidentally ate the chocolate muffins that his boss had given him as a present for his third year working in the company. It took three more sleepless nights for Takemichi to finally make the connection between the processed sugars and Mikey’s hyper-activeness.
Takemichi shook his head.
"Besides, I left your lunch on the fridge, just put it in the microwave."
"You made me lunch?"
"Yes, I left you a note on the fridge."
"Oh shit, you’re right. Sorry." Mikey apologized. "I’ll wash the dishes as an apology!"
"Thank you." Takemichi was a bit moved by Mikey’s words. "Don’t forget to—."
A bell alarm went off.
Lunchtime was over and Takemichi hadn’t eaten a single bite of his lunch.
"Bye-bye, Takemitchy."
Sigh.
"Goodbye, Mikey. Be careful with the dishes."
"I will! This time I won’t break any of them. You’ll see!"
Takemichi went to the grocery store once his shift ended. The fridge was going empty and he needed to get more meat and vegetables to refill it. As Takemichi picked the vegetables he’d buy, he remembered how his life was before Mikey woke up as a human. He certainly wasn’t the type to buy groceries or vegetables like he was doing now. His grocery list used to consist in only instant noodles and Mikey’s Gourmet Feast dry cat food with Ocean Whitefish & Tuna, the one that came in a black bag and golden letters.
For a cat that used to live in the streets, fight other cats and eat trash, Mikey turned out to be a very picky cat. He wouldn’t eat anything else.
And yes, Mikey’s food used to be more expensive than his.
Takemichi had adopted Mikey last year, and it was almost three months ago that Mikey became a human, defying reality and everything that Takemichi had used to believe in, but he wasn’t complaining. In fact, he was glad it happened.
As Takemichi walked through the aisles of the grocery store, he remembered the current predicament he was in.
Was it okay to fall in love with your cat that magically turned into a human?
Takemichi had found Mikey inside a trash container one night when he came back from work later than usual. He’d heard some kids laughing and the hissings of the poor cat. They had been torturing the cat, throwing rocks, and kicking the container while the cat was still there.
When Takemichi saw the scene, he just couldn’t ignore it, so he, being now twenty-five years old, remembered his delinquent days and threatened those kids with a broken glass bottle he found on the floor. And of course, when confronted by someone bigger than them, those kids ran away from him while telling him that they’d tell their parents. Once those kids were far away, Takemichi walked towards the container and tried his best to not make any more sounds that would scare the cat inside.
Takemichi slowly opened the container and saw a dirty blond fur. The cat had a trash bag wrapped around its head and a painful-looking rope tightly tied around its stomach. He could see a little blood there. Takemichi thanked the fact that he was wearing one of his thickest coats. He sighed and then grabbed the cat. As expected, the cat hissed at him, and if it weren’t for that coat, Takemichi was sure that his arms would have a lot of wounds.
Sadly, his hands didn’t have the same luck and the cat managed to bite his right hand. Takemichi bit his lip and endured the pain. Once the cat was secured in his arms, Takemichi took it to his apartment, where he finally untied the knot and took out the trash bag from the cat’s head. Both things had left visible marks, but the one from its waist looked worse. There was dried blood around it.
Takemichi had seen that cat wandering around the streets. He used to be a really strong cat, Takemichi knew that because the other street cats would often fight at night, sometimes waking him up in the process. It broke his heart to see such a tough cat be reduced to that state by cruel kids.
The cat was tired, but it never stopped biting his hand, even when Takemichi bathed him. He didn’t know how difficult it was to bathe a cat. His thick coat was practically unwearable now from the countless scratches, and he hadn’t even began yet.
"Mikey, please, just hold on a little longer; we’re almost finished." Takemichi was surprised at his own words. That name came spontaneously out of his mouth. But it felt right in a weird way. Weird but right. It was like the name was meant for the cat. "We just have to clean your wounds and… Agh. No, please, it hurts."
When he felt the water fall on his wound, Mikey pressed his jaw and bit Takemichi’s hands deeper.
Takemichi, on the other hand, did not stop, but instead kept the water running until all the blood and stinky odor on Mikey's fur were gone. He quickly grabbed a towel and tried to dry Mikey’s fur as much as he could. Then he grabbed another towel, a sky-blue one, and wrapped it around Mikey’s body.
"Look, you’re a baby now. Is it warm?" Takemichi said as Mikey’s jaw pressure in his hand slowly gave in. "Ah, it must feel so good. Let’s go to my bedroom, I’ve got a heater there, I’m sure you’ll love it."
Takemichi carried the cat to his room and turned on the heater. He placed the now-asleep cat on his bed, next to the place he usually slept in.
Three in the morning.
Sigh.
He had a long shift tomorrow and it had been a very busy night, but looking at the now comfortable and clean cat sleeping on his bed made it completely worth it. Takemichi changed his clothes and carefully laid down on the bed.
Takemichi woke up three and a half hours later. The cat sleeping peacefully next to him warmed his heart, but just as he contemplated it, a sudden pain came to his hand. There were four red dots in his hand, in the place where Mikey had bitten him. So that was the price for such a cute sight, huh? He quickly changed his clothes and went to the kitchen to cook himself something for breakfast.
It was then that Takemichi realized that Mikey would have to eat too. He had to search through all his fridge to find something that Mikey could eat, the canned tuna saved his day. Takemichi opened the can, put the tuna in a bowl, and then poured some water in another bowl. He’d have to buy proper food for Mikey when he got back.
He left his bedroom open and left the two bowls next to the door of his bedroom so that it would be easier for Mikey to find them. With that, Takemichi left his apartment.
Once his shift was over, Takemichi went to the nearest pet shop he found and bought different bags of cat food for Mikey to choose the one he liked the most; two proper cat bowls, a cat litter box, toys… maybe he went a bit overboard with that. So yeah, he was going to keep Mikey. If Mikey wanted, of course.
The first weeks were rough.
Mikey refused to acknowledge Takemichi’s existence when he wasn’t feeding him. He’d hiss at him every time he tried to pet him or brush his fur. The little cat had even claimed his territory on Takemichi’s bed. Half of the bed was Mikey's, and Takemichi was forbidden to trespass on his territory or even touch Mikey’s sky-blue towel if he didn’t want to be scratched or bitten.
But Takemichi never stopped trying to get closer to him. He knew that there was a reason behind Mikey’s behavior; those kids who tortured him left a big impression on him, one that wouldn’t fade away in just one or two weeks. Takemichi gave him his space and waited until Mikey decided he was ready to trust him.
It happened one night after Takemichi came back from work really tired. He refilled Mikey’s bowl and immediately went to sleep, not realizing that he’d fallen right on top of Mikey’s towel and his territory. If that had happened a few weeks ago, Takemichi was sure that Mikey would’ve slapped his face until he woke up and moved, but surprisingly, that didn’t happen. The next day, Takemichi woke up, and the first thing he noticed was that he was sleeping on Mikey’s side; he was about to move when he felt a warm weight on his chest.
It was Mikey.
Mikey was sleeping on top of him.
Takemichi wanted so badly to grab his phone and take a photo of him, but if he did that, Mikey would definitely wake up from the movement. He was so glad that it was his day off, so he wouldn’t have to wake up for work. Takemichi fell asleep while waiting for Mikey to wake up.
Half an hour later, Takemichi was woken up by a pain in his ribs. Mikey was standing on top of him, meowing loudly. His four little paws felt like nails being hammered on his ribs. Perhaps Mikey had been eating a little too much recently. Takemichi understood the message and woke up from bed to give Mikey his breakfast.
From then on, things changed.
Mikey became clingier and constantly demanded his attention. Whenever Takemichi had to review some papers or prepare a presentation on his laptop, Mikey would come and bite the corner screen until Takemichi petted him, and if Takemichi still ignored him, Mikey would start throwing things off of Takemichi’s desk while making eye contact with him, or lay on his keyboard and meow as hard as he could, which was really loud.
Mikey even brought a dead bird to their bed. It was another tiring day and Takemichi immediately threw himself on the bed. He was about to close his eyes when Mikey jumped on top of him and left something next to his head. Takemichi was tired but still turned his head to see what it was. He almost jumped off of the bed when he saw the poor animal.
A dead bird.
Takemichi wrapped the bird in a piece of paper and went down to the gardens of the apartment complex in the middle of the night to bury the poor bird. Mikey accompanied him and watched Takemichi the whole time while grooming himself.
A quick google search showed him that Mikey considered him part of his family, and had brought him that dead bird as a ‘treat’, hoping that by doing that, Takemichi would learn how to hunt for himself too. Something about passing down that important life-saving skill onto him.
Well, that was cute.
So yeah, Mikey grew to love Takemichi.
A bit too much, perhaps.
Takemichi left the groceries in the kitchen when he finally came back from work. He went to change his clothes and, as he imagined, Mikey was nowhere to be seen. Despite the almost three months that Mikey had been living as a human, he still disliked bathing and would not do it alone. That’s why Takemichi would have to be there with him.
"Mikey, you've gotta take a shower today." Takemichi said as he went to the bathroom to prepare the bathtub. "It’s a bubble bath, and I bought new ducks!"
"Takemitchyyy, welcome back!" Mikey came running to the bathroom. Takemichi’s cheeks turned red when Mikey took off his clothes right in front of him and jumped to the bathtub, splashing some water on Takemichi.
"C’mon, Takemitchy. Let’s bath together." Mikey said as he pulled Takemichi’s hands towards him. "It’s been a long time since we’ve bathed together."
"I have to make dinner, Mikey."
Mikey pouted, and Takemichi knew he was done for. Takemichi took off his clothes and got in the tub too. They were a bit cramped, but it was bearable. It wasn’t the first time they took a bath together.
They began playing like kids, throwing water at each other and trying to win their tickling competition. The bathroom was all wet, but neither of them cared. It had really been a long time.
"S- Stop, Mikey, I can’t– laugh anymore." Takemichi managed to say between his laughter. "I’m gonna– I’m gonna die."
Mikey didn’t stop and tickled his waist, Takemichi’s weak point. Takemichi turned around, giving his back to him. Of course, something like that wouldn’t stop Mikey. He kept tickling him.
"M- Mikey." Takemichi looked at Mikey. "Please. I- I can’t anymore."
There was something in Takemichi’s tears, his rosy cheeks, his trembling voice, and his wet skin that awoke something in Mikey. His heart began beating faster, and he could swear that something was getting hard down there. He immediately stopped.
"Thank you." Takemichi was recovering his breathing.
Mikey didn’t move.
"Hm? Is there something wrong?"
"Takemitchy." Mikey gulped and placed his hands on Takemichi’s waist, running them down while getting dangerously closer to him. "I wanna mate with you."
"Ah? What- What are you saying?" Takemichi’s face immediately turned red. He tried getting out of the tub, but Mikey was stronger than him and kept him inside. Dammit. "M- Mikey?"
"Mnh? Takemitchy?" Mikey’s lips brushed Takemichi’s earlobe.
The action sent a pleasant sensation through Takemichi’s body and made his legs tremble. Then Takemichi felt Mikey’s teeth against the back of his neck.
Mikey was serious.
He really wanted to mate with him.
Oh god.
Takemichi gathered all his strength and finally got out of the tub.
"What were you doing, Mikey?" Takemichi scolded him once he wrapped a towel over his waist and went to the bedroom to put on some clothes. Mikey followed behind him and did the same.
"I wanted to mate with you." Mikey said like it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. "Why did you stop me?"
"What do you mean mate with me?" Takemichi asked as he put on his pajamas. "Why would you do that?" Once he was finished, he sat on the bed and looked at Mikey with a disapproving look in his eyes.
"Because I love you."
Mikey? Love? Him?
Takemichi’s mind went completely blank.
"I love you, Takemitchy." Takemichi was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t notice when Mikey got so close to him that their faces were centimeters away from each other. "I’ve always loved you." Mikey confessed. "Even when I was still a cat, I wanted to become a human so badly to be with you."
When he was still a cat?
"Every weekend you would come with someone new, and they would all ignore you once they got what they wanted from you. It was painful to see you so sad because of them." Mikey held Takemichi’s hands. "Please, Takemitchy, let me love you. I promise I’ll never leave you or make you cry."
"Mikey, I…" Takemichi paused for a second. He felt some tears forming in his eyes. So Mikey had noticed how lonely he’d been? If he was being honest, that made him feel a bit miserable. No one had ever told him that kind of thing or even looked at him the way Mikey was looking at him now . It was as if he held the moon and the stars . "You’re already making me cry." He sobbed.
"I’m sorry." Mikey wiped Takemichi’s tears with his sleeve and rested his head over Takemichi’s shoulders. Takemichi was sure that if Mikey was still a cat, he would be purring.
"It’s- It’s okay, don’t worry." Takemichi smiled and placed his hand over Mikey’s. "I love you too."
Takemichi kissed Mikey, a shy peck on the lips, and waited for Mikey’s reaction.
Mikey’s face was all red. Although he had confessed, he didn’t expect that Takemichi would just kiss him. He had always dreamed of it, sure, but for some reason, he thought that it just wouldn’t happen. Then he kissed Takemichi back. This time it was Mikey who couldn’t help crying.
He would get to keep his human form.
Mikey would never tell Takemichi, but it was thanks to him seeing Takemichi so depressed after another failed date that he gathered all his will and wished to become a human. A kind fairy heard his pleas and granted him his wish.
"Keep in mind that this body I’m giving you won’t last long. It’ll disappear in three months." The fairy explained. "But if you manage to make him fall in love with you too and seal your love with a kiss, then you’ll be able to keep that body forever."
"R- Really?"
"Yes!" The fairy petted his head, and Mikey immediately fell asleep. "Good luck, little human!"
Time had passed, and Mikey found himself enjoying Takemichi’s company as much as he could, rather than doing something to make him fall for him. He had been so busy living his dream that, without noticing, the days had turned into weeks, and the weeks had turned into months.
There had been only four days left.
Mikey had resigned and thought that he’d go back to his cat form, but for some reason, he ended up confessing his feelings without thinking of the possible consequences and…
Takemichi loved him back.
"So that’s why you were always mean to all the people I brought, huh?" Takemichi giggled.
"Yeah, they were a bunch of assholes." Mikey confessed. The two of them were laying on the bed, facing each other. "Especially the last one you brought home. He went to the bathroom to talk shit about you with his friends." Mikey got even closer to Takemichi and snuggled his face against Takemichi’s neck.
"Is that so?" Takemichi asked as he caressed Mikey’s hair. He remembered that Mikey had been especially harsh with that guy. He bit that guy’s hand and made sure to scratch and leave marks on his shoes. "Then I’m glad you ruined his shoes."
"Mnh. He deserved it."
Mikey’s voice was lower. He was about to fall asleep. Takemichi was going to close his eyes too, but he felt strange movements under the blankets. He looked down to see what it was and found Mikey’s hands kneading his favorite towel.
"When will you stop kneading on that towel?" Takemichi laughed. "It’s too small for you now. We can buy another one."
"No! I like this one the best." Mikey replied. "It was your first gift to me."
Takemichi kissed Mikey’s forehead and fell asleep with him.