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Yahaba watches as Watari is nearly overcome in laughter across him. Yahaba doesn’t know what’s so funny about this situation not when he’s so stricken with despair and yet his friend, his bestest most dearest friend is laughing his ass off some unfathomable reason Yahaba had stopped listening for over five minutes now.
“And oh man Brick was so scared of him!” Watari continues, chortling so hard he’s slapping the table in hilarity.
Yahaba scrunches his forehead in confusion even further. Brick is Watari’s sphinx cat, aptly named for his love of hiding inside wide hollow blocks. But Yahaba isn’t concerned about Watari’s cat. Or even cats in general. He smacks the table once to get Watari’s attention.
“Watari,” Yahaba says and Watari finally looks at him though he’s clearly still very amused by his story.
“Watari, listen to me,” Yahaba continues. “Take this seriously. Piper might be dying.”
Watari nods solemnly though he’s biting back a smile at Yahaba’s tone.
Piper is Yahaba’s corgi. She somehow escaped home a few weeks back and Yahaba had nearly lost it. But then Yahaba had found her again and now it’s been a whole month after her return and she’s been very picky with food, always sleeping, being quieter than usual…
It was a weird change Yahaba could almost cry. What is she caught something while she was wandering? Piper is his baby.
And then his best-friend-also-traitor-because-he’s-laughing suggested to bring Piper to a veterinarian he knows.
And then he proceeds to burst out in laughter after remembering said vet.
This is not very funny to Yahaba though.
“Watari,” Yahaba repeats. “Piper is my child. Don’t let my child die.”
Watari looks confident when he says, “Not to worry I got you on this that doctor is really good you’ll love him! Besides,” They both look over to the hallway where Piper is napping on the welcome mat. “She looks pretty alright to me. A little chubby maybe.”
Yahaba picks at his nails nervously.
“What if it’s internal? What if it’s a tumor? What if she’s dying? Watari I might die.”
Watari pats Yahaba’s hand, looking sympathetic at least.
“Hey now, don’t panic. It’s going to be alright,” Watari’s smile is genuinely encouraging. “Dr. Kyouken will treat her well!”
Yahaba pauses, blinks even, unsure if he heard that right.
“E-Excuse me? Kyouken?” Yahaba’s not sure if he heard that right. No way a veterinarian would be named—
Watari nods encouragingly. “Yep. Everyone calls him that, or at least that one other cat owner I know does. I think it suits him really since he’s…” Watari rambles off.
Mad dog. Amazing. That doesn’t sound good.
So Yahaba looks the clinic Watari recommended up the net and only found one doctor, one without an odd name either however with the name Kyoutani Kentarou, Yahaba can see where the nickname came from. There’s no picture on his page, just a generic photo of a pawprint.
Yahaba has no idea what to expect from this.
He shoots a glance towards Piper, now napping underneath the dinner table and calls Watari up.
“Yo, Yaha—”
“Watari, he has no picture in his website are you sure we can trust him?”
Watari is silent for a second and then Yahaba hears a sigh.
“You looked him up? That’s intense.”
“Wata—”
“You can trust him I swear. I already told you remember? I was saying…”
“You were laughing your ass off.”
“Oh. Yeah,” Watari chortles a bit. “It was funny. Anyway, Kyoutani can come off as scary at first…”
Yahaba swallows.
“He’s what.”
“At first! At first. Brick was scared of him ahahaha…”
“Watari.”
Watari clears his throat.
“Like I said, scary at first. Quite intimidating really but well according to other pet owners, I quote,” Watari adopts a slightly high-pitched voice. “‘Oh, he helped a lot when Snoopy swallowed a bolt once—’”
Yahaba snorts. “And Brick?”
Yahaba could almost see Watari’s shrug.
“You know that thing with cats and socks well sometimes…they end up swallowing it,”
Yahaba swallows.
“What if Piper ate chocolate by accident?”
Watari sighs again.
“This is me patting your back in encouragement. Go see the vet okay? Piper will thank you.”
Yahaba sets an appointment up with Watari’s words still running like a banner around his head and goes to said appointment with a hazy cloud hanging about him, unsure what to expect really even as he steps into the admittedly cozy waiting area with a surprisingly well-behaved Piper in his arms.
There are a few people inside as well, some with their pets in their cages while most have them on their lap. Yahaba hears Watari’s voice again as he sits down beside a man petting a white cat on his lap. Piper perks up when she sees the cat.
“No, Piper.” Yahaba shushes and the man looks up, then he smiles, really hazel eyes warming.
“Hi!” he says, tilting his head. “I haven’t seen you around here before.”
Yahaba tries to make his smile look normal. The hello sir I am not nervous at all normal.
“Yeah. We’re new,” Yahaba says.
“I see. I’m Inuoka! And this,” he prods his cat gently who mews in complaint. Inuoka chuckles. “This is Sugar, here for checkups.”
Yahaba looks at Piper, now staring at a bird in a cage across them.
“I’m Yahaba. This is Piper. I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”
Inuoka raises his eyebrows and then a sympathetic expression passes his face.
“Is that so? Don’t worry, I’m sure it’s going to be okay.”
Yahaba stares at his adorable dog-child and then at Inuoka who’s infectious smile is giving him optimistic feelings and he nods.
“Yeah. Hopefully.”
His doubts and fears disappear at least partially.
Yahaba has three impressions the moment he comes face to face with Dr. Kyoutani Kentarou in his office and the first and most obvious one being his hair. Yahaba hasn’t opened his mouth to greet politely and already the first thought that passes his head is how does that even work.
As overwhelming the bleached hair and the dark stripes that somehow missed bleaching is though, it somehow fits Kyoutani’s blasé expression and Yahaba just keeps on thinking he has really dark eyelashes and a really nice face in general—
And then he has to stop himself there because he’s a professional at this and he won’t let his thoughts wander and his dog-child is more important in this situation.
“We’re here for an examination,” Yahaba says tentatively, motioning to Piper, on a leash now and is leaning against Yahaba’s calf.
Kyoutani nods and there’s a hint of an understanding smile in his expression and Yahaba’s stomach does a flip.
Professionalism. He has to be professional about this.
“Ah yes. Alright let me see her then, follow me.” Kyoutani says as he stands up and removes his lab coat and hangs it behind his chair. Yahaba watches as Kyoutani walks off into another room, rolling up his sleeves casually and Yahaba closes his eyes.
Second impression. He has really nice arms.
Really nice arms that could lift too as Yahaba walks in on him lifting off a box of equipment out of the table and easily setting it on the floor. The muscles on his arm are rigid from the strain and Yahaba wants to slap himself. He isn’t here for a gun show. His baby is more important.
“Here,” Kyoutani says, patting the table in front of him after having snapped his gloves on.
Yahaba follows, setting Piper down on the table looking a little pale. He moves away and sits on one of the chairs facing them as Kyoutani examines her all the while asking Yahaba several questions to which he answers mechanically. How is she eating? How is her bowel movements? How often does she sleep? Any history of illness? Yahaba had hesitantly added Piper’s little escapade from beyond the fence and Kyoutani nods and seems to be close to smiling at every answer.
And then Yahaba’s third impression: he’s surprisingly gentle despite how he looks, intimidating at most, that even Piper, for once in her life is behaving around a veterinarian.
Yahaba may or may not be secretly gaping and he thinks holy shit. This is either the weird infatuation you get from your savior or he’s just really close to perfect.
“Huh,” Kyoutani says after the examination, now watching as Piper stretches on the table.
Yahaba stiffens in anticipation and slight fear because oh god he’s about to say something horrible—
“Well I think I got what might be her problem,” Kyoutani says, allowing Piper to go down now and she’s immediately scouring the area around for treats.
Yahaba swallows.
“I-Is it something bad?”
Kyoutani looks at Yahaba with a bewildered expression and then looks amused as he takes off his gloves.
“Depends if you didn’t want more dogs than you originally planned.” Kyoutani says.
Yahaba’s eyebrows knit in confusion.
“Wha…?”
Piper nearly bumps against Kyoutani’s leg as she’s trotting around and Kyoutani nudges her with his leg so that she goes about running again.
“All I’m saying is she’s pregnant. Congratulations. We still need to do an ultrasound to know when she’s due but then…” Kyoutani continues on and Yahaba completely blanks out then.
“Holy shit,” Yahaba breathes.
Kyoutani huffs, laughing.
“Maybe she was too adventurous when she ran away.”
“Oh my god,”
“You can always give the puppies away.” Kyoutani suggests hesitantly.
“No, no! I mean, she’s okay!” Yahaba counters, laughing, relief evident and his face and oh he feels very elated as though a ton has been lifted off his chest.
Kyoutani smiles crookedly.
“Yeah, she’s fine.”
“She’s not dying!”
“She’s very much alive.”
Yahaba glances at him and the glance stays even as Piper circles around his legs looking for attention. Yahaba could hug him really. Which is irrational but he wants to do it anyway. Kyoutani paces around the room while telling Yahaba the do’s and don’ts when your dog is pregnant and Yahaba nods earnestly each time, already imagining the words he’s going to tell Watari later.
Watari he’s really good, very efficient Piper seems to like him I like him—
Kyoutani walks up to Yahaba when he finishes talking and hands him a business card.
“Call me if you need anything.” He says.
If Yahaba tells himself he wasn’t grinning triumphantly when he takes Kyoutani’s card, he’d be lying.
There’s still a small smile on Yahaba’s face as he’s driving home, having just gone to a pet shop for supplies. Piper is on the passenger seat staring at Yahaba as he drives.
When the light turns red, Yahaba looks at her.
“Do you think it’s meant to be? Do you think he’ll talk to me if I call him?”
Piper blinks and then moves around the chair to settle down and nap.
“Piper,”
Piper grumbles softly and Yahaba chuckles, facing forward again.
“He is really cute though.” Really ought to thank Watari later.