Work Text:
Yuuta heard the knock on their tiny, two-person flat’s door at approximately midnight. Maybe it was thirty minutes after, or maybe thirty minutes before, but it was sometime around then.
To be honest? He probably should’ve said no as soon as he opened the door. Or he should’ve just taken a look and shut it.
But, he didn’t.
And now he was staring at Toge’s pleading eyes and pouting lips and trying his damn hardest not to crumble into dust right on the spot.
Yuuta was whipped for his boyfriend — he would be the first to say it, prompted or unprompted. But right now? He needed to not be whipped.
‘Please? Pretty please?’ Toge signed, a bit clumsy with the bundle of– the bundle of—
Mew.
Yuuta felt his resolve weaken at the tiny, feeble meow of the little cream and brown kitten in Toge’s arms.
“Toge… you know that our landlord has a strict no-pets policy…” Yuuta couldn’t take his eyes off of the kitten as it opened its mouth, little pink tongue poking out as it gave another mew.
Toge nudged his way into Yuuta’s line of sight and batted his eyelashes, lifting the tiny kitten and rubbing it to his cheek. He even threw in his lip wobble.
His lip wobble.
Yuuta gave in and opened their door the rest of the way, looking out into the hallway to make sure no one had seen Toge’s less-than-subtle cat smuggling into their home.
“Toge, you need to take it to a shelter tomorrow. We can’t keep it.”
Toge either didn’t hear him, or he ignored him.
Yuuta was almost certain it was the latter of the two, but since there was a small chance it could be the former, he let it slide. “Anyway, where did you find it?”
Toge waved his hand vaguely, opening up a small plastic bag that Yuuta hadn’t even noticed he was carrying. Yuuta watched him pull out a bottle and a packet labeled KMR. Upon closer inspection, Yuuta realized that KMR stood for kitten milk replacer. A quick skim of the back of the packet told him that kittens were lactose-intolerant, and that this milk replacer would be perfect for kittens unable to feed.
Yuuta sat next to Toge on the floor, stunned speechless as he watched his boyfriend grab the kitten by the scruff and gently hold the bottle to its mouth. He ran his hands down his face, trying to think of what they would do when their landlord inevitably found out about their secret animal.
“Toge, talk to me please, we need a game plan of what we’re going to do from here. So we have a kitten, feed it, and then what? Keep it?”
Toge leaned against Yuuta’s side and rested his head on Yuuta’s shoulder. His expression read, Can we?
Yuuta worried his bottom lip between his teeth, anxiousness settling into the pit of his stomach. Nevermind their landlord finding out — did they even have what it took to care for a pet? He wrapped his arm around Toge’s waist and helped him prop up the kitten, watching as the tiny creature kneaded its paws against Toge’s sweatpants.
“Toge, you have classes during the day and your part-time job at night. I work full-time, usually ten or even twelve hour shifts. We barely have time to take care of a fish, let alone a pet with more necessities and responsibilities.”
At the mention of Panda, their fish, they both looked over at the bowl on their kitchen counter and watched the black and white striped betta fish bonked its head against the little pineapple house they’d bought for it. Then they watched as it turned around and swam until it bounced off of the glass on the other side of its bowl.
Yeah… maybe their fish wasn’t the smartest one, but it was cute.
It swam in a circle and then smacked the pineapple house again.
Toge looked up at Yuuta, setting the kitten into his lap and gently taking Yuuta’s hands between his own.
Oh, shit.
He was serious.
Once Toge had Yuuta’s full attention, he signed, ‘I’m the one who brought it home… so I promise I’ll take care of it. You wont need to do anything.’
Yuuta chewed on the inside of his cheek. “Alright… I’ll help you though. But if the landlord comes knocking, it better be you answering the door.”
Toge nodded, even though they both knew that Yuuta would open the door anyway. Their landlord’s knowledge of JSL was limited — extremely so — which meant that Yuuta handled most of the translating for Toge.
Yuuta rubbed the kitten’s head with his index finger, feeling a little flutter of warmth fill his chest.
This wouldn’t be so bad, he supposed. As long as they didn’t get too attached.
Yuuta rolled onto his side and slung his arm over the lump of his boyfriend beside him, fighting off the inevitable act of waking up. It was Sunday, which meant that neither he nor Toge had classes or work, and all of their free time could be spent towards their kitten of three days.
Or, in Yuuta’s case, looking at pet-friendly apartments in case they were evicted from their current one.
What? He could never be too cautious, and having a backup plan in case of a worst-case scenario was smart. He was prepared.
Toge groaned and rolled towards Yuuta, snuggling against his chest.
Yuuta cracked his eyes open, despite his mind trying to urge him to close his eyes for just a few more minutes. He nuzzled the top of Toge’s head and then kissed it.
“G’morning, Toge,” he mumbled, his words trailing off with a yawn.
Toge peeked up at Yuuta with a puffy, bleary-eyed frown. He made a noise and shoved his pillow at Yuuta’s face.
‘Why the hell do you look like you walked out of a mattress ad?’ He signed, a grumpy furrow between his brows.
Yuuta kissed down the bridge of Toge’s nose and gave him a peck on the lips. He wiped the sleep from Toge’s eyes with his thumb, smiling to himself as his boyfriend’s face scrunched with displeasure.
“Maybe because I’m not the one who had to wake up every two hours to feed our new kitten?”
Toge flopped onto his belly and buried his face in the blanket — just in time for the alarm on his phone to go off and remind him to feed their kitten. He signed, ‘I love our kitten to bits, but I didn’t know being a cat dad would be so demanding.’
If Toge could speak, Yuuta was sure he would be whining. He reached over and shut Toge’s alarm off, sliding it onto the nightstand next to their bed and giving Toge a kiss on the shoulder. “Go back to sleep. I’ll feed our cat baby and run out to get supplies.”
Toge blinked up at him. ‘Really?’
Yuuta nodded. “Really.”
Toge threw his arms around Yuuta’s shoulders with a grin, and gave him two kisses. Yuuta laughed.
Cat supplies were more expensive than he originally expected — the litter box, litter, toys, and milk replacement cost as much as a week’s worth of groceries, which meant he’d need to adjust their budget for the rest of the month.
He needed to throw out the box they’d been putting the kitten in as well, so he bought a small pet crate at the next store. As he was walking back, he ran into the one person he didn’t want to see.
Their landlord.
The landlord was standing outside of their flat, arms crossed as she listened at the door. Her foot tapped rhythmically, and Yuuta wanted to drop his bags and run away.
No, Yuuta, he told himself. Just be cool.
He walked up to their landlord and cleared his throat.
She jumped away from the door and huffed at him, a rosy flush coating her cheeks.
Good. Yuuta hoped she was embarrassed about being caught by her tenant with her ear to said tenant’s door.
“What can I do for you, ma’am?” Yuuta asked, schooling his expression into the perfect image of respect and politeness.
She pushed her glasses up her nose and lifted her chin. “I have received several, ah… complaints. Someone says you get up several times throughout the night.”
Yuuta raised his eyebrow, trying not to let his nerves show. His palms were sweating, and he sincerely hoped he wouldn’t drop a bag. “Yes… my boyfriend and I haven’t been… feeling very well these past couple of nights. We may have… gotten a stomach virus. Which kept us up a few nights. Several times.” He coughed awkwardly, then touched his stomach with a grimace. “I… actually might need to go right now! You know, duty calls…”
The landlord looked at him, suspiciously looking at the bags in his hands, but letting it slide.
Yuuta thanked past-him for buying some groceries while he was out and putting them on top of the cat supplies.
He ducked into his flat and quickly shut the door, waiting patiently until the landlord left.
When she did, he let out a sigh of relief and let himself sink to the floor. He peeked into his and Toge’s bedroom, sighing wistfully at his boyfriend’s sleeping face.
Yuuta shut the curtains a little tighter and tucked the blanket — kicked off of Toge’s body and onto the corner of their bed — back up to Toge’s chin. He ran his fingers through his hair and kissed his temple, then closed the bedroom door on his way out.
The kitten mewled from the box, and Yuuta gently picked it up. He’d have to ask Toge later about a name for their kitten, but for now he’d let his beloved rest. He mixed a packet of KMR into the bottle and tucked the kitten into his arm like a baby. He fed the kitten, smiling sleepily when the kitten kneaded the palm of his hand and twitched in his arm. The kitten slowly stopped suckling, its head lolling and drooping against Yuuta’s arm. He adjusted his hold on the kitten and laid down, settling the kitten on his chest.
When Yuuta woke up later, after having a nice nap that had spanned four hours, it was to Toge looking down on him while he slept. Toge touched Yuuta’s nose and pointed at his neck.
Ah.
His neck.
It was… itchy?
He reached up and lifted up the kitten that had made its way to his neck at some point during his nap, and had decided to make Yuuta’s neck its own personal bed.
Yuuta groaned softly. “Landlord,” he yawned, “came by. Was sneaking around. I think someone filed a noise complaint about us being up too much over the night and making too much noise.”
Toge looked at him guiltily, sitting down on the edge of the couch and fretting with the end of his shirt. Yuuta laid a hand over Toge’s. “Don’t worry, I told her we were sick.”
Toge nodded, but Yuuta could tell he was still worried.
“We’ll continue looking for a pet-friendly apartment.”
Toge nodded again, then smiled. ‘You looked like a dad right there, with our child on your chest.’
Yuuta snorted. “I don’t know the first thing about raising a cat.”
Toge tangled their fingers together in a brief touch, then signed, ‘Don’t worry, we can learn. Together.’
Yuuta spit out a cat hair, frowning at the offending strand that had been on his sandwich. In the five seconds he’d stepped out of the room to take a leak, their kitten had found her way onto the counter and into his food long enough to leave hairs.
Toge rubbed his face and yawned, picking up their beloved Curse from the floor. She was old enough to eat soft food now, so they’d stopped bottlefeeding her after weaning her off. They were in the process of mixing dry kiblets into her food as well, to ease her into dry food for two meals and wet food for a snack.
It wasn’t working well — and her favorite thing to do seemed to be finding her way into whatever meal Yuuta was eating.
His rice? Carefully inspected to make sure he wouldn’t eat some of Curse’s shedding with it. His eggs? Critically scopes for hair, then eaten.
She never seemed to do these things to Toge, though — which made Yuuta roll his eyes.
“She’s a menace.”
‘She just wants to see what daddy is eating.’
Yuuta choked on his sandwich and thumped his fist against his chest as he coughed and hacked the painful feeling away. Toge called himself Curse’s cat papa, and Yuuta was her cat dad. Toge hadn’t referred to him as—
Yuuta slammed those thoughts to a halt and glowered at Toge.
Toge winked and gave him a kiss.
Yuuta rolled his eyes, but nevertheless, he returned the kiss. “I never expected to be a dad, for a human child or an animal or plant or whatnot, at the ripe old age of twenty-two.”
Toge sidled into Yuuta’s lap and held up Curse, who had put on some weight and grown just as much since Toge had rescued her. Yuuta gave the kitten a kiss and smiled when she gave him a doubtful look.
When she wasn’t giving him the stink eye, she usually caused him problems.
She was playful — too playful, sometimes. (Thank god that Yuuta had been there to catch Panda right when she knocked over the fishbowl — he would’ve been heartbroken to lose their first pet.)
She never did this with Toge. The blatant favoritism gave him a little heartbreak, but he reminded himself not to take it personally.
Cats were just like that!
They hadn’t had any recent problems with the landlord, which they were eternally grateful for, but Yuuta knew it was only a matter of time.
Luckily, Yuuta found a few places they could check out, if they needed to.
It was a stressful two months for Yuuta, and their bubble had to burst eventually.
Buzz.
The buzzer at their door sounded one evening while Yuuta was cooking dinner and Toge was doing an assignment under their kotatsu, shivering even in his sweater. Yuuta had no sooner than set down a steaming mug of hot cocoa for his boyfriend, when the noise had announced that someone was at their door.
Like clockwork, they tucked Curse away into her crate and stowed her in their bedroom, and when the second buzzer went off, Yuuta answered the door while wiping his hands with a dish towel.
“Oh,” he said, seeing the landlord standing before him. Nerves itched into his stomach. “Good evening. We were just making dinner.”
The landlord sniffed and waved her hand in front of her nose. “It stinks.”
Yuuta narrowed his eyes, but didn’t let his smile falter.
The landlord handed him a slip of paper, and as he opened it, he felt arms come around his middle to hug him from behind. Toge rested his head against Yuuta’s bicep and read the letter in Yuuta’s hand.
The landlord didn’t give them time to finish reading.
“There have been several complaints that you are keeping an animal in your apartment. We have a zero-tolerance policy for pets, so we will ask that you either take it to a shelter, or find a new place to stay. This is effective immediately, and the latest you may stay is tomorrow at noon.”
Toge gasped at Yuuta’s side, and his hands angrily flipped through signs so quickly that he wasn’t sure he got everything. He did get the gist of it though.
“I’m so sorry ma’am, but Toge has class during the day. The soonest we could be out is Saturday, but since tomorrow is Thursday we can’t possibly leave yet!”
The landlady curled her lip and snidely said, “Oh yes, you absolutely can. And you will, if you do not have your pet taken to a shelter by tomorrow. I let you keep the fish, since it is contained and more like a… decoration. But anything else is forbidden. Take it out, or you’ll be evicted.”
Yuuta’s hands shook — not with anxiety, but with anger. Yes, they’d kept a pet, knowing that it was against the rules. But leaving them stranded, without a place to stay? All because of a kitten? It was ridiculous!
Yuuta shoved the letter at the landlord and slammed their door — or… well, not their door anymore.
Toge touched Yuuta’s back. ‘What do we do?’
Yuuta choked down a hysterical laugh. He was prepared. He planned for this chance, and he had it under control.
He was fine.
Toge ran to grab Yuuta’s notes, and looked over them. ‘ Tomorrow we can call around. There’s a motel too.’
Yuuta covered his face and scrubbed at his cheeks, which were beginning to feel warm — too warm.
He sniffled, feeling ill. Toge wiped his tears away and rubbed his back, letting Yuuta sit down on their couch and bury his face against Toge’s chest.
They would figure it out.
No worries.
Their motel was small, with a single bedroom and a single bathroom, and barely enough room for the two of them to squeeze into the bed together, but they made it work. As for their stuff, they’d managed to stuff it all into seven large boxes and stack them in the corner of the motel room.
They’d called three of the five places Yuuta had looked up, only to get sent to voicemail each time.
When someone picked up when they tried the fourth place, Yuuta could’ve jumped with joy — only for the place to apologize because they were sold out of apartments.
Yuuta didn’t even want to bother trying the last place. But Toge looked at him hopefully, sitting cross-legged on the motel bed with his favorite scarf and mismatched socks and a kitten in his lap, and Yuuta didn’t want him to have to stay here.
Yuuta tried the last number, and each ring made his heart sink further and further — until someone picked up.
The universe, it seemed, was looking out for them — the place had one apartment left, with a single bedroom. It allowed pets, for a hefty fee and extra monthly rent.
It was still within their price range.
Yuuta was glad that they’d be able to move in on Sunday, because living out of the motel was less than ideal.
Toge tugged on his sleeve and beamed at him.
‘See? It all worked out. All I need is you, Panda, and Curse.’
Yuuta swallowed the lump in his throat, and reached down to hold Toge by the cheeks and give him a kiss.
In his arms, Curse growled.
Yuuta ranted, playfully whiny, “But Curse, it’s me, dad!”
Toge laughed and pet the kitten’s raising hackles.
Blatant favoritism.
Yuuta sulked until Toge put Curse down and allowed Yuuta his lap for a pillow, running his hands through his hair and working out the knots to help Yuuta destress.
‘Don’t worry, Yuuta. We’ll be okay.’
They moved out of the motel and into their new apartment in no time, which, despite being smaller than their old one, was still fairly nice.
And, it allowed pets.
Yuuta hugged Toge close and picked up their kitten, giving her a kiss on the nose — and missing a small swipe of her paws.
His family was together, and that’s all that mattered.