Work Text:
"Hey, Natsuki, can you-- what's that?" asked Kojiro, stopping at the door to watch his sous-chef poke something with her shoe. It was always darker in the back alley behind the restaurant, making it hard to see much of anything even with the light on, but it looked like she was messing with some cardboard boxes on the ground.
"I think there's something in there," she replied without turning.
"Yeah, trash," agreed Kojiro with a frown.
"No, like, a living thing," Natsuki corrected him while ducking to look inside the box. Well, trying to, because the thing was crumpled and the flap was apparently making it hard to see anything. "Get me a broom?"
"Natsuki."
"Maybe that will spook it, though."
Kojiro cleared his throat.
Natsuki turned to look at him and blinked.
"Your break ended ten minutes ago now," he said tiredly.
Her eyes widened and she chuckled awkwardly. Shameless. "Sorry, man. Just-- I mean, come on."
"It's probably just a rat," Kojiro argued despite already knowing he was going to grab the damned broom. The look she was giving him was pretty damn persuasive, to say the least. "Just go back to work? I need my break."
"You better tell me what it was," said Natsuki in a warning tone as she headed back into the restaurant, pointing an accusing finger at him.
Kojiro sighed. Of course he was going to tell her. He was both curious and not a jerk. So Kojiro followed her back into the storage area to grab the damned broom and went back to the box. Crouching in front of it, he raised the flap with the tip of the broomstick to find…
Eyes, blinking at him in the dark. Big, round eyes.
Well fuck.
This was probably the moment where he asked someone else for help. Kojiro knew fuck all about… cats? Those looked like cat eyes. He was pretty sure none of his employees had any cats - two of them had dogs and one had a snake, but no cats.
He stared at the cat. It stared back at him.
The one person he knew who had actually ever had a cat was Kaoru. He'd left his phone upstairs, though, because he was an idiot and forgot it the last time he'd gone back there. Besides, he knew Kaoru was busy right now. It wasn't like he could come and rescue Kojiro and the cat both, so he had to do something himself.
So Kojiro decided to test the waters. After propping open the box, he gingerly stretched his hand towards the cat and… just snapped his fingers a little bit. "Pspspspsp, here, kitty."
The cat blinked.
"Come on, dude," said Kojiro, trying not to kneel on the pavement. It would be nice if he could do this without getting his pants all dirty, because he kind of had to go back to work soon. Being the boss didn't mean he could just vanish, and he couldn't get back to the kitchen looking all messy. "I know it's warm in there, but I promise it's nicer in my place."
Another blink and the cat didn't budge. Almost as if it couldn't understand a word of what he'd just said.
Kojiro felt like a huge idiot. Not because he was trying to lure the cat out of the box, but because he'd just tried to reason with it instead of using his brain. So he sighed heavily and went back inside to grab something that might help, thinking that Kaoru was going to laugh on his face later.
"Did you manage to see what it is?" asked Natsuki when she spotted him.
"I think it's a cat. What do cats like?" he asked back, looking at the ingredients on the counter. Thankfully things were a bit slow at the moment, so he could step out for a little longer.
"Here," said Natsuki, cutting off a piece of the prosciutto she was handling. "Try this."
"Thanks," he replied and headed back outside, lure in hand. Kojiro crouched in front of the box again and considered the situation. "Should I just put this down here and try to grab you?" he asked the cat, because he talked to cats now, apparently.
A loud sniffing sound came from inside the box. That was encouraging, in a way.
On a hunch, Kojiro held the prosciutto out of cat reach - or so he hoped - and waited for the thing to come out. If it wanted to eat, it would have to come to him. And to his honest surprise, the plan worked and a skittish little form emerged from the inside the box, first poking out its nose and then coming out completely.
It was much smaller than Kojiro had expected. Much, much smaller.
The cat was most definitely actually just a kitten still, though it could walk around and shoot him suspicious glances just fine. Even Kojiro could tell it was just a baby. The tiny thing didn't offer any real resistance when he tried to grab it, far more concerned with gnawing at the prosciutto, and Kojiro could easily hold the kitten while it ate.
It was hard to see in the dark alley, but it seemed to have light, silvery fur and was very, very fluffy. And it was so tiny in his big hands.
"Okay, you are… adorable," he mumbled, tentatively scratching the kitten's head with the tip of a finger. It leaned into his touch, happy to be petted, and Kojiro made the most pitiful noise.
Right. Well. He should take this little guy inside and get some help, because he was really out of his depth here.
He poked his head out of the storage door, holding the kitten in his hands like it could break at the slightest movement. "Natsuki?"
She turned to look at him from the stove, curiosity glinting in her eyes. "Success?"
Kojiro nodded and she quickly found someone else to do the stirring without even looking. If she wasn't his cousin and he didn't trust his kitchen staff, this would probably be an issue. As it was, Natsuki joined him in storage and immediately cooed at the kitten. "Oh my god, it's so cute! Look at you, look at you!"
"Natsuki," he sighed amusedly.
"What? It's so tiny!" she exclaimed, valiantly resisting the urge to pet the kitten. Her hands even twitched a little bit. "You're gonna take it upstairs, right?"
"That's what I was thinking. Can you keep things running--"
"Yeah, yeah, just go," agreed Natsuki, literally pushing him off towards the stairs. It wasn't even that hard for her, being almost as tall as he was. "Go take care of the baby."
"I'll be back in a bit," Kojiro promised but she just waved him off, going back to work.
The kitten tried to protest all of this by screaming its little lungs out on their way up the stairs. The noise was surprisingly loud and sharp for such a small creature, but Kojiro just chuckled.
Once he was back in his apartment, he looked around and then at the kitten in his hands. "Where should I put you?"
His reply was another loud screech.
"Maybe I shouldn't be asking your opinion," concluded Kojiro, taking the kitten to the bathroom on the basis that it had a door he could close and few places where it could hide. This should be safe, right? He put the kitten down on the floor and started looking around for things it could grab, get into or destroy.
During the time it took for Kojiro to baby proof the bathroom, his little guest kept following him around the small space and screaming. It seemed to be a bit unhappy about their current arrangement, but Kojiro couldn't leave it outside where it would surely get into all kinds of trouble.
He grabbed a dirty shirt from the hamper and balled it up into a makeshift cat bed. "This should be good enough for now. I'd give you something clean but you look like you need a bath, so…"
The cat looked up at him and tilted its head, blinking. Here, in the brightly lit bathroom, Kojiro could see it had crystalline, sky blue eyes. This was probably the prettiest cat he'd ever seen, honestly. He couldn't help but pet it again, enjoying the softness of its fur. The little thing butted its head against his hand and it was really, really sweet.
Oh, boy.
While he went to the kitchen to get a suitably small bowl for the cat, Kojiro messaged the group chat, figuring the kids may be able to help. If nothing else they could show up and watch the thing while Kojiro went out to buy cat food and a litter box and whatever else it needed. It was too small to stay by itself in his apartment and Kojiro wasn't sure what to do about it yet.
Joe: So I found a cat and I need some help
He put his phone aside on the table, giving them a minute to do the usual yelling and spamming shit. It would just be the kids anyway, because Kaoru never checked the group chat, often bugging Kojiro into relaying the important bits to him instead like he was a fucking messenger.
Opening the bathroom door very, very carefully, he found the kitten sniffing the shirt-bed with suspicion. It didn't look scared, just curious. Kojiro filled the bowl with fresh water and set it down near the bed, watching the kitten immediately go to it and give it a good sniff. Adorable.
That should be good enough for now. Until the kids descended upon his place, armed with cat toys and the works, that was.
Kojiro checked his phone, ready for the worst.
rexx: cat?????? picspicspics
xXxShadowxXx: Where did you find it? Did you catch it?
Langa: The noise Reki just made…
catboy (HERO MIYA): show pics joe
xXxShadowxXx: Is it a boy or a girl? Did you check?
rexx: can we go see it???
catboy (HERO MIYA): show us the cat already
And those were only the first few messages. The rest was just… more of that.
His was going to be a long night. Kojiro wrote a short reply saying that yes, they could come and see the cat. The rest would more or less sort itself. He went back downstairs to find Natsuki putting the finishing touches on a plate of fettuccine alfredo.
"So? How's the kitty?" she asked while handing the plate to a server.
"It looks fine. I trapped it in my bathroom and the kids will be here soon," Kojiro replied, getting back to work.
"Oh, no," said Natsuki, scrunching her nose.
Kojiro just laughed quietly. It was going to be a long, long night.
An hour later, just as expected, the kids showed up. Miya immediately demanded to see the cat, Reki looked like he was about to bounce off the walls and even Langa was buzzing with energy, somehow. Hiromi was the only one acting remotely normal about the cat situation. While the teens were all eager to play with the poor thing, he was more concerned with checking if there were any other cats outside.
That wasn't something Kojiro had even considered and he felt a bit bad about it, though Hiromi just waved off his concerns. He simply offered to go look for any of his guest's possible littermates by himself, so Kojiro went upstairs with the kids while Hiromi headed to the back alley.
Then Kojiro stood there, watching three teenage boys absolutely lose their minds about a really tiny cat. He tried not to laugh, but watching Reki literally laying down on his living room floor to get nose-to-nose with the kitten was just too much. Of course he made sure to snap a couple of pics, for group chat purposes.
Kojiro was in the middle of posting one such picture, captioned 'catboy and his sidekick', when Kaoru more or less barged into his apartment. He just marched in carrying a couple of bags in his hands, placed them on the table while giving the pile of teens on the floor a stern look, and then turned to Kojiro. It was hard to read his actual mood when he was being all serious, but he looked a bit pissed. Just a little.
What was he even doing here, anyway? Wasn't he busy?
"You found a cat?" asked Kaoru and it sounded almost like an accusation.
"How do-- wait. YOU'VE BEEN LURKING ALL THIS TIME?"
Kaoru smacked him over the head with his fan. "Why don't you say that louder, dimwit?"
"I don't think they heard me, four eyes," replied Kojiro, rubbing the spot as if it had actually hurt. "Did you come here just to bitch?"
"I came here because you're an idiot and they're children," his best friend replied, already taking charge of the situation. He joined the kids and poked Miya with the fan. "Let me see that."
"Why?" asked Miya, narrowing his eyes at him.
"Because I actually know what I'm doing," replied Kaoru, doing the same. When the kid held up the cat for him to see, he just plucked it from Miya's hands and gave it a once over. Kaoru looked at the kitten much in the same way someone would look for cracks in fine china - careful and gentle, to an extent, but very clinical. His eyes squinted a little bit as he checked the cat's private bits, ignoring the way it was screeching angrily. "It's a girl."
"Cool! What are you gonna call her?" Reki asked Kojiro, grinning excitedly.
"She's so cute," said Langa as Kaoru passed him the cat. Miya wanted to hold it again, but he wasn't about to let the younger one monopolize the cat.
"It's not my cat," Kojiro tried to argue, mostly because he wasn't in the mood to be pressured into adopting a cat by a bunch of kids. That would be the end for his already dwindling street cred.
Kaoru gave him a sideways look, like he knew something that Kojiro didn't, and then Hiromi walked in.
"I couldn't find any signs of other kittens, and-- IT'S SO FLUFFY!" he squealed, nearly knocking Reki over on his way to see the kitty. A cacophony of loud, excited cooing ensued while the four of them passed the cat around for pets. It looked mostly harmless and Kaoru wasn't throwing a fit about it, so Kojiro decided to just let it happen.
His friend turned to him and pointed at the bag on the table. "There's a few toys in there, wet food and all the other things she'll need for a few days."
"Did you just buy all that before coming here?" asked Kojiro, taking a look at the bags full of stuff.
"You don't know shit about cats, I wasn't going to sit around and wait for you to fuck it up," replied Kaoru with his arms crossed, watching the kids like an eagle.
Kojiro poked his shoulder. "Why don't you take her, then?"
"You found the cat, you take care of it," Kaoru retorted with a shrug. The cat wailed and he loudly snapped his fan open, immediately getting everyone's attention. "That's enough, let the poor thing rest."
"But Cherry--"
"Put her down."
"Awwwwwww! Come on!"
Kojiro just watched as Reki, glared into obedience, gingerly set the kitten down on the floor. She ran off immediately, a bolt of silver rushing back into the bathroom. Huh. He followed her and when he looked through the door, surrounded by four other curious pairs of eyes, the kitty had curled up on the shirt-bed.
That meant it was time to kick the kids out. They probably sensed that, by the way Kojiro turned to them and silently nodded towards the door. There was a lot of pouting and shoving and sad puppy looks between them, all aimed at him like he was going to budge, but they eventually left.
Kaoru stayed, though.
"Weren't you having dinner with a client?" asked Kojiro as he leaned by the closed bathroom door like he was guarding it.
"I was, but some idiot found a cat in an alley," replied Kaoru, unloading the bags onto his kitchen table. He started sorting things on the counter, cans of cat food and stuff. "She needs a bath and to see a vet for shots."
"It's not my cat," repeated Kojiro with as much conviction as he could muster.
Again his friend looked at him weird. Just a quick side glance, nothing more, but it bugged him nonetheless. Then Kaoru turned back to what he was doing, putting a bit of food on a cutesy black and white cat dish.
"She's sleeping," Kojiro pointed out as Kaoru passed next to him and into the bathroom.
"She's a stray, she must be starving. Cats sleep easy," he replied and sure enough, the little rascal could smell the food in her sleep. The kitten got up and, upon very minimal inspection, dove right into the food. Kaoru remained crouched nearby while they watched the kitten eat. "Get the litter box stuff," he ordered.
Kojiro wasn't about to argue. In fact, this was way more help than he'd expected to get tonight. Kaoru was even fixing the litter box for him, inside the unused shower and away from the kitten's makeshift bed. "Thanks, by the way," he said and his friend just hummed. "Why are you upset?"
"I'm not upset," said Kaoru, sounding even more upset.
"Could have fooled me."
"Why didn't you call me?" he asked, looking over his shoulder, and it suddenly made sense.
"Are you jealous? No, wait, you wanted to see the kitten first?!" Kojiro asked him back, unable to stop his stupid grin. Especially not after Kaoru's glare turned into the same pout he'd been using on Kojiro since they were five years old. There was nothing he could do but laugh, honestly. "Seriously, Kaoru?"
"I'll come back to check on her in the morning," he hissed, jabbing a threatening finger on his chest. "You better be dressed and ready to take her to a vet."
"Yes, ma'am," said Kojiro with a chuckle and Kaoru shoved him against the door as he pushed past on his way out.
By the time they brought the kitten back to his apartment the next morning, Kojiro was already wavering on the whole 'not my cat' thing. Watching the kitten curl up on Kaoru's lap, all nice and clean and upset about her shots, was proving too much for his heart. It was just too damn cute. The way Kaoru absentmindedly petted her, soothing the kitten with gentle, soft touches, was… not unexpected, not really. It was just something he didn't get to see as often anymore.
It reminded him of their childhood.
"You know what's the one thing I remember learning about cats from you?" he asked while making them some lasagna.
Kaoru hummed from where he was sitting on the couch, watching the kitten play with a tiny, jingly ball toy. It made a funny noise and she clearly loved it. Or hated it? She kept pawing at the thing and jumping on it, so it must be fun for her or something.
"The milk thing."
"Oh, ugh, don't get me started," groaned Kaoru and he just laughed. "I'm still absolutely certain that Skitty's liver issues were caused by that bitch feeding him yogurt every day before I got him."
Kojiro put the lasagna in the oven and joined him on the couch. "Yeah, I remember that rant," he said, gently nudging the ball towards the kitten with his foot. She was immediately spooked, jumping a little, but then batted it back more or less in his direction. Kojiro couldn't say no to that.
"Do you remember Skitty?" asked Kaoru, leaning his elbow on the armrest and holding up his fan pressed to his chin. His eyes looked distant, lost in memory, and Kojiro thought that maybe he understood the sentiment. "I miss him."
"He was a good cat, from what I got to see of him," he replied evenly, looking between his friend and the kitty.
The wry smile on Kaoru's face told him the bastard was playing with him. "It's okay, you can say you didn't like him."
"He didn't like me!"
"He didn't like anyone," he reasoned with a shrug.
"Anyone but you," agreed Kojiro, throwing a cushion at him for effect.
Kaoru easily defended himself and returned fire. This spooked the kitty, who rushed under the TV stand and hid with only the tip of her little tail showing. "Sorry, cutie," he said to the cat, giving Kojiro a stink eye.
He just scoffed, amused. The little ball was close to Kaoru's feet and he watched as his friend leaned down to pick it up. There was a small smile on his face, much softer than usual. Much more like he used to be as a kid.
"Come here, kitty," Kaoru cooed, lightly shaking the ball and luring the cat with its jingle. She hesitated, looking at them from under the TV stand, but ultimately couldn't resist the urge to play and jumped at Kaoru's hand. He just laughed, moving the little ball to the kitten's great joy.
That was such a nice sight. It made him smile like a dope. "So, how old do you think she is?" asked Kojiro, watching them play.
"Well, she's definitely a baby, but I think she's just… small," Kaoru replied, almost slipping down to sit on the floor. Almost.
Huh. "Really? Like, not gonna grow much?"
His friend nodded. Kaoru pushed his hair back, as it kept falling over his eyes because he was leaning down close to the kitty. Just a few years back he would have been laying on the floor with the cat, just like Reki had been the day before.
"She's the size of a mouse."
"Chipmunk."
"Same difference."
"You should call her Chipmunk," offered Kaoru with a sly smile.
"It's not my cat," said Kojiro, smiling back at him.
After staying around all day, Kaoru went home after dinner. They hadn't spent the day together like this, just the two of them (and the cat) since their college days. Just hanging out, not really going anywhere or doing anything. They used to do it all the time, sit around in his room or Kaoru's and listen to music, shoot the shit.
Kojiro suddenly missed it, now that he remembered how good that felt.
He finished washing the dishes and grabbed himself some water before heading to his room. The kitten was clean now, so he'd placed her brand new cat carrier in the bathroom with a fluffy towel folded inside. Kaoru had bought… a lot of stuff for her, arguing that he could afford it just fine. The fact that Kojiro had made no mention whatsoever of keeping the cat was inconsequential to him.
Kaoru was bossy like that.
"Where are you, kitty cat?" asked Kojiro to the apartment at large, standing at his bedroom door. He hadn't seen her in a little while, not since after Kaoru left and she ran off to hide in the bathroom again. The windows were all closed and there were no escape routes, so she had to be in the apartment somewhere.
Maybe he should look for the kitten, just to make sure she was okay.
Kojiro checked inside the carrier first, finding nothing, then the second bathroom, the kitchen and the living room. No sign of the cat. That left only his suite, so he first looked under his bed and dresser, then into his bathroom.
A pair of bright blue eyes looked up at him from inside his tub. Kojiro's lips twitched. The kitten was just sitting there, not really looking very interested in doing anything.
"Come on, you can't stay in there."
She seemed to disagree, blinking at him.
Kojiro gently picked her up, marveling yet again at how incredibly light she was, and put her down in front of the carrier. He even gave her a friendly nudge towards the open door. "This is your bed, missy. I don't trust you alone in my living room all night, sorry."
Instead of going into the carrier, the kitten turned around and started rubbing against his calf. Shit. Okay. Kojiro gave her some pets, scritching her head and admiring how tiny her ears were. She was so cute, soft and apparently very cuddly. It was easy to lose track of time like that, just raking his fingers through her fur and hearing her loud purring. Kaoru had spent most of the day interacting with her, mostly playing while he sat on the couch next to Kojiro, and he could see why it was hard to resist her allure.
"I gotta go sleep. You… do whatever cats do all night. See you in the morning," he said, because he felt weird not telling the cat what he was doing. For some reason. Kojiro left the kitty in the bathroom and set about turning off all the lights he'd turned on during his search. Just before he walked into his bedroom, however, Kojiro heard meowing. Louder and louder, very insistent meowing. "Go to sleep!"
The cat wailed.
Kojiro opened the door and stared at the tiniest cat he'd ever seen in his life. She stared back at him. "Are you upset that Kaoru left?"
The cat rushed past his legs, much too fast for him to react, and ran into his bedroom. Kojiro followed and found her under his bed, curled up into a tiny ball.
His resolve wavered even more. Dangerously so. Taking a deep breath, Kojiro went back for the cat carrier and put it in his bedroom this time, leaving all of the doors open. Maybe he just had to trust that she wouldn't destroy anything, right? That was probably a mistake, but he wasn't about to crawl under his bed to grab the cat, he simply wouldn't fit. Luring her out could work, but…
Kaoru knew him far too well.
"Good night, kitty. Kaoru will be back tomorrow, don't worry."
"So? What name did you pick for the kitty?" asked Reki and Kojiro's eyes drifted to Kaoru, pretending not to care about the conversation. Standing by with his arms crossed and looking bored as hell.
In all honesty, Kojiro had spent all day dying to tell his best friend. So, really, Reki was doing him a favor by prompting this moment. "Spatula," he announced to the gaggle of kids that had adopted them, but it was aimed at Kaoru.
"Are you fucking serious?" he asked, turning to glare at Kojiro. Kaoru even tried to kick him because of how pissed he was. "What kind of name is that?"
He just shrugged. "Better than Chipmunk."
"She's not a kitchen utensil, you dumb gorilla!"
"You're right, she's a cat named Spatula," Kojiro nodded along, arms crossed.
"Oh, great," said Miya with a deep, dramatic sigh. "Here they go again."
"I can't believe you named your fucking cat Spatula!"
"It's my cat! I'll name her whatever the fuck I want!"
"Hey, you guys wanna grab a bite?" asked Langa and then the kids simply left them to their bickering.
Kaoru had been spending a lot of time in his place lately. Kojiro had no complaints - it would take some arm-twisting before he admitted it out loud, but he hadn't been this happy in a long time. Not that he'd been miserable before, but… it felt like something had been missing for a while there and he was only now realizing it. Something important, fundamental even.
He went back upstairs after dinner service was over expecting to find Kaoru in his living room, where he'd usually sit down at the coffee table and do his own work. His life hadn't stopped, he'd just turned Kojiro's living room into a second office without asking. If it was anyone else, he'd be pretty damn pissed at the intrusion, but it was Kaoru and they'd stopped having normal boundaries around each other at age eight.
Taking over his living room was pretty tame compared to some of the shit Kaoru had pulled in highschool.
But he wasn't in the living room now, despite his stuff being left there. The TV was off and so were the lights, leaving only the ones over the counter and the sink to illuminate the room… aside from his open bedroom door. The lights were on in there, so Kojiro headed in before his brain registered the weirdness of it all. Then he saw Kaoru.
His friend was laying sideways on his bed, back turned to the door and unable to see him, playing with Spatula.
"Oh, look at you, my little princess," said Kaoru softly, holding up his hair band for the kitty to swat at. She was still really, really small, but had put on a tiny bit of weight. Still light as a feather, though, enough so that Kojiro often just grabbed her with one hand without any effort. "Does your daddy not play with you? Is he a meanie? I'll teach him a lesson if you ask nicely."
Spatula made a little chirping noise, like she understood a word he was saying, and jumped at him. It made Kaoru laugh, soft and sweet, and Kojiro couldn't think of anything more beautiful in the entire world. The kitten tried to gnaw on his glasses and Kaoru ended up rolling onto his back, trying to fend off the tiny rascal.
"What are you doing?" asked Kaoru, eyebrows raised at him like he wasn't in Kojiro's bed, playing with Kojiro's cat.
"Just watching youuu… play with her," he said, stumbling on his words like a teenager. Why was he embarrassed by that?
Kaoru blinked at him, and so did Spatula. Then she jumped over him in a hurry to reach Kojiro so she could tangle herself around his legs, snaking around them in a purr fest. "Your cat has awful taste," he commented casually, not really giving any indication that he was going anywhere.
"Maybe she's just tired of your ugly face," replied Kojiro, deciding that he might as well resort to teenage insults if that was the case. He took his jacket off and then his shirt, heading for the bathroom. "If you're gonna stick around, you should make yourself useful and clean her litter box."
"It's not my cat," argued Kaoru, singsong. "Isn't that right, baby? You're not my cat, I'm just your babysitter."
"Self proclaimed," Kojiro pointed out, turning the shower on. He was tired and Kaoru being there was no reason to change his routine, but something felt different now. The fact that his best friend was currently sprawled out on his bed kept coming to the forefront of his thoughts, and Kojiro didn't really know what to do with it.
"Just admit you'd be completely lost without me," said Kaoru with the conviction and certainty of someone who'd been there for, well, everything. There was something about this, about this ease and comfort around each other, that only came from being joined at the hip since kindergarten. It was hard to even remember a time in his life before Kaoru, and the years Kojiro had spent in Italy had been strangely hollow in that sense, even if they saw each other occasionally on trips. "I'm gonna order food, want anything specific?"
"Nah, whatever you decide is fine," he replied, hearing Kaoru leave his bedroom and chatting with Spatula.
Kaoru was right, of course, in a way. Kojiro would be lost without him, and he knew the same was true for his friend. It made him smile, standing there under the hot spray, thinking that he should thank Spatula for fixing something he hadn't realized was even broken.
"Hey," said Natsuki excitedly. Kojiro looked up from the fish he was seasoning to find Kaoru passing by on his way up to the apartment, as usual. He had a bag in his hands, and it had a pet store logo on it. "Got more toys for the kitty?"
"She needed a collar and a tag," he replied, waving at her, and disappeared into the back like he owned the place. The staff hadn't even asked anything when he started doing that instead of just staying around after closing. Kaoru had a key to his place and vice versa, for safety reasons, but they mostly used them to intrude in each other's spaces. Or, more specifically, Kaoru now used his key to get into Kojiro's place almost every day because it was easier and he was practically living there now.
That was an interesting thought. A very pleasant one, too. It was just far-fetched and unrealistic. As if Kaoru would want that - he clearly liked to have his space and his things, and they had very different tastes and lifestyles. This was just them hanging out together more often, like they used to as kids.
"Not gonna lie, I kinda miss having him bitching at you here," said Natsuki next to him, bringing his focus back to reality. "But I'm so glad you two finally worked things out."
"Yeah, me too," Kojiro sighed.
"We were all getting sick of watching you two pine like idiots across this counter," she continued, taking the fish and putting it in the oven while he checked the next order.
Kojiro stopped and blinked at the piece of paper, not really seeing it. "What?"
Natsuki didn't even look up from the green peppers she was chopping. "You've been making heart eyes and sighing wistfully since you were, what, twelve? It was about damn time you started dating for real."
There was some kind of miscommunication going on here. Surely, that must be it. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, it's clearly geriatric dating where you two just sit around and watch TV with your cat," his insolent sous-chef continued as she seasoned the salad and turned to give him a funny look, which she could do now that she wasn't holding a knife anymore. Then Natsuki saw his dumbfounded staring and frowned at him.
"What do you mean, dating?"
"Yeah, it looks kinda boring but-- oh, my god," she said, rolling her eyes and groaning. Natsuki ignored his confused look and grabbed someone else by the arm. "Start the eggplant parm, we'll be right back," she told Kei, who just nodded, then dragged Kojiro into storage.
"We're not dating," he started, ready to… explain it? What was there to explain, anyway?
"How the hell not?" asked Natsuki, exasperated. "He spends more time in your place than you do these days! Does he keep stuff there?"
"There's some work things," Kojiro replied, frowning at her. "A change of clothes or two, for when it gets late and he just stays over."
Natsuki was looking at him like he was crazy. "And he, what, sleeps on the couch?"
"Well, no, but--"
"Kojiro!"
"He has trouble sleeping, so I take the couch!"
"You two gotta be the stupidest people I've ever met."
"Thanks?" Kojiro scoffed, disbelieving. "We're just--"
"Just friends, yeah, I heard," his cousin cut him off, waving her hand dismissively. "Friends who look at each other like you're about to spring into song."
"Okay, that's actually insane," Kojiro tried to argue, unsure where to start. Not because Natsuki was wrong, but because he kept looking for arguments to the contrary and coming up blank. Or, more accurately, with ammo for her.
The thing was, Kojiro had been thinking about Kaoru a lot lately. Mostly because they were together a lot more than they'd been for the past few years. They had recovered something special and now they were in a good rhythm. But that wasn't the entire reason and maybe Kojiro had been pretending he hadn't noticed how much things had changed.
How his heart raced and his brain froze when Kaoru teased him. How Kojiro had been noticing little things about him, new and old, and how wonderful they made him. How hearing Kaoru laugh brought him so much joy, it could carry him through a lifetime.
"That's…"
"Come on, man."
Kojiro sighed, closing his eyes as he threw his head back. Alright, maybe there was something to unpack there. "Do you really think… that he…?"
Natsuki grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him like a ragdoll. Well, she tried and partly succeeded. "Yes!"
"Okay, okay," Kojiro grumbled, amicably batting her hands away. "I get it. Heart eyes, alright."
His cousin chewed on her cheek for a moment, then took some pity on him. "Look, just think real hard about it and ask yourself what you actually want from Kaoru. From your relationship with him," said Natsuki, smiling kindly at him. "'Cause you two look like you're already married."
"I'll… think about it," he settled on for the time being.
"Good! Now go, I've got it covered," Natsuki said, pushing him towards the stairs.
"What, now?" Kojiro asked, laughing awkwardly, but he didn't drag his feet at all. His cousin just rolled her eyes at him and went back to work, shaking her head and grumbling about them being stupid.
Maybe they really were. What a concept.
"I finally found something that fits her," Kaoru said as he entered the apartment, looking over his shoulder at Kojiro with Spatula in his lap. She was already wearing her new thin, bright pink leather collar with a tiny tag attached. It looked beautiful against her silver, velvety fur.
Kojiro walked over to them and leaned over the back of the couch without much thought to look at it over Kaoru's shoulder. This way their faces were pretty close, side by side, as Spatula stood and placed her paws on Kaoru's chest in order to reach him. She wanted a kiss, Kojiro could tell by now, and he pressed his lips to her tiny head.
"Doesn't it look perfect on her?" Kaoru asked and their eyes met when he turned, much too close. Beautiful golden eyes, looking at him in a way that Kojiro thought he understood until a few minutes ago.
"Yeah, it does."
Kaoru smiled, gaze turning back to Spatula who'd climbed down and was now on the rug, stretching languidly. "So, I've got that thing in Nara starting tomorrow," he said quietly and Kojiro had completely forgotten about that. "I'll be back in a few days."
"When is your flight?" asked Kojiro, lingering there because… because…
"I have to be at the airport at ten," he replied, still just watching the kitten. "Shame you can't go with me."
Kojiro almost said that he could, actually. Natsuki could take over and he was the owner anyway, he could easily step away for a few days. Traveling with Kaoru was one of his favorite things and right now all he wanted was to be near him. Even if, or especially because Kojiro was reevaluating their entire relationship right now.
The thing was, he had a cat now. And while Kojiro could probably task one of the kids with cat sitting duty and they'd thank him for it, Spatula was just a baby and Kojiro was… a bit overprotective of her. Just a little. Somehow in the span of a few weeks he'd turned into a cat mom.
And maybe this was just the time he needed to mull over what Natsuki had said and figure out how he felt. About all that had changed recently, about Kaoru and the possibility of them being something more than friends. "Let me drive you to the airport, then."
"Sure," said Kaoru, eyeing him sideways with a soft smile. "I'd like that."
The following night, Kojiro woke up suddenly from a weird dream, but that was not what actually woke him up. It was weird in the sense that he couldn't really remember the contents, the images or the sounds, but that he still felt… warm. And the face in his mind, the first thing he could think of as his eyes opened in the dark, was Kaoru's. He sighed and his chest felt heavy, not out of worry or distress, but because there was a body on top of it.
Though heavy wasn't quite the right word.
"Can I ask you why you're on top of me?"
Spatula made that little huffing, grumbly noise like a broken lawnmower she made when she was upset and stared down at him. If cats could frown, she would be frowning right now.
He reached up to pet her back, just below the collar, and she seemed to settle for just a second, then continued staring. "What's bothering you, Tula?"
Another kitty grumble. Louder and more insistent this time, and with a pat to his nose for good measure. She was gentle, though, just poking him without putting out her claws. Spatula was a good kitty.
"Kaoru will be back in a couple of days," he told her, because this must be it. His cat had been restless since Kaoru's last visit and he had an inkling it wasn't because of the collar. It was almost like she could really understand them and was now protesting his absence. Demanding that Kojiro bring him back.
Spatula poked his nose again.
Kojiro gently moved her to the side, off his chest and on the bed, before rolling as well. She curled up with him, staring at his face in the dark, and stopped complaining.
When Kaoru got back from his event, they would talk.
"You're not allowed on the counter, cutiepie."
Kaoru was a disaster in the kitchen, but he sometimes made edible things. Usually for him, as a nice gesture, and Kojiro had never read too much into it. Not until now.
He leaned against the wall, watching him pluck Spatula off the counter and gently scold her. It was very adorable and she didn't look like it was working in the slightest, just staring back at him. Kaoru kissed her and put the kitten down on the floor, then washed his hands and went back to the omelet he was trying to make. Currently stuck in 'the chopping of ingredients' part of the process because Spatula had acquired a taste for prosciutto and bacon and all things tasty.
Which they were both to blame for, really, but that was beside the point.
"You're gonna help or just watch?"
"You seem to be doing fine by yourself," Kojiro said evenly, but the truth was he just didn't know what to do.
Kaoru had been back from Nara for all of two hours, not counting the cab ride over, and he'd come straight to his place. Instead of going home, he had come here, changed into one of Kojiro's shirts, and taken over the kitchen. Like he owned the place.
Natsuki was right, he was a fucking idiot.
After spending the last few days going over the evidence, it was… pretty damn clear now. And Kojiro wasn't sure how to proceed. Hitting on random women was easy, because there was nothing to lose. If they didn't like his vibes, got mildly offended or simply weren't interested, all Kojiro got was momentarily bummed out. If he screwed this up, though, he'd be miserable. Possibly for the rest of his life. He could lose the most important person in the world if he played his cards wrong.
"Stay down! Seriously! Look, you spoiled the cat," said Kaoru accusingly, grabbing Spatula before she could steal any of the ham.
"Yeah, 'cause you had nothing to do with this, right?" asked Kojiro with an exaggerated eye roll, just because Kaoru was looking his way. His friend glared knives at him and put the cat down on the floor again.
"It's not my cat!"
"Sure looks like it is!"
"Are you going to come help me or not?" he asked impatiently and Kojiro liked this part a lot. Sometimes he'd even let Kaoru struggle for a bit just so he could come and save the day, teach him how to do something new. Just a tiny bit, and just because he could tell when the frustration was real and when they were crocodile tears instead. "Is three eggs enough?"
"Dunno, are you gonna eat too?" Kojiro asked him back, taking the skillet off the cupboard.
"Jerk."
"Douchebag."
"You hadn't called me that one in a while," Kaoru said casually and Spatula tried again, jumping on the counter next to them. He picked her up and held her almost like a baby, to which she seemingly had no objections. Her big, blue eyes blinked slowly up at him as if questioning why Kaoru was denying her these delicious human treats. "You're persistent, Miss Spatula, I'll give you that."
Kojiro looked at him, who'd turned his back on the counter to distract the kitten from her thievery, and he simply couldn't resist. Moving closer to stand behind Kaoru, he reached around and poked Spatula's nose, looking at her over his friend's shoulder. "I don't think it's the food, she just missed you."
Kaoru turned his face and his smile softened. "Did she?"
"Yeah," he said quietly, meeting and holding Kaoru's gaze. "A lot."
There was a moment of quiet during which Spatula played with his hair, unaware of what was going on between them.
"Good, I missed--" Kaoru was saying, but Kojiro got impatient and kissed him before he could finish. Wrapping his arm properly around Kaoru's waist and pulling him closer, he finally tasted the lips that had been on his mind for so long now. Kojiro would admit to it later, once they were done making up for lost time, but for now it was enough that Kaoru turned in his arms and deepened the kiss.
Or tried to.
An unhappy meow came from between them, where Kaoru was still holding Spatula like a baby. She didn't jump off, simply announcing her displeasure while squished in their embrace. Which was understandable, but also kind of a dick move for his own cat to pull.
"Sorry, baby, but I have to kiss your daddy now," Kaoru informed her while holding her up by the armpits before setting Spatula down on the floor for the third or fourth time.
"We may need to put these things away first," Kojiro mused but he was more interested in kissing his… boyfriend? That was a conversation for later, though, because the cat climbed on the counter again. "Okay, maybe she does want the ham."
Kaoru just laughed and Kojiro quietly thanked his lucky stars for having found Spatula that day. Though maybe he should give Natsuki a raise, too.