Chapter Text
Although Yuki's dark-haired, blue-eyed human doesn't often talk to her, she's pretty sure that he likes her just fine.
He gives her a soft pat on the head when he sets her bowl of food on the floor, rubbing the fur behind her ears just the way she likes for a few seconds, before he pulls his hand away and leaves her to eat. He also allows her to sit on his lap whilst he's watching the television, and he doesn't shoo her away when she curls up by his feet as he sleeps. He sometimes even gives her a bit of extra fish from his plate, but only if she sits by his feet and rubs her head on his leg for long enough, and makes her expression just cute enough, and meows just softly and delicately enough. This is how she knows her human likes her, because she's never seen her human share his fish with any other human, or any other animal, in fact.
Her blue-eyed human always makes her feel comfortable, so in return, Yuki makes sure that she keeps him company at all times, whenever he is in the house, because he always seems so lonely on his own. She knows for a fact that humans normally live in pairs, like the other humans that she sees living in the houses near their own, and even her previous human housemate, a frail old woman, lived with another old human for several years before he died. She often wonders why her blue-eyed human lives by himself, and she always comes to the conclusion that he must just prefer it this way. So, to make sure that her human is never too lonely without other humans for company, Yuki will always stay with him.
And, for a long time, she's completely sure that she'll never find a male cat to replace her human. That is, until she meets Miki.
**
It's absolutely certain that Miki's brown-haired, green-eyed human is a kind-hearted man, and anyone who has spoken to him knows it. At first glance, his tall, bulky build and muscular exterior may mislead you, but the minute words start falling from his lips, and the bright, polite smile lights up his face, you know that he wouldn't do anything to harm anyone, and, in fact, he will out of his way to help others.
This is probably how he ended up with four cats living in his house: Miki, his sister Natsu, and two other male cats called Tsuyoshi and Yuu. Though, he doesn't seem to mind their presence, because he gives them all food to eat and blankets to sleep on, and he scratches their heads affectionately whenever he sees them, despite the fact that all of them have peed on his carpet at least once.
Miki knows that his human will always be there for them, that he'll never forget about his cats, no matter how wonderfully complicated his life may get. In fact, his green-eyed human has told him this, one day late at night when they were waiting by the door for Natsu to come in for her dinner, and the rain was pouring down so hard that Miki couldn't bring himself to look for her, but he also couldn't bring himself to sleep until he knew his sister was safe. His human had known that Miki was worried, he had known from the fact that he had been sitting by the door and meowing her name for hours. So, he'd sat down next to his scruffy haired cat and told him not to worry, because Natsu was smart and she would definitely come home safely. Then, he told Miki how he would always make sure that all of his cats were safe, and that he'd always look after them.
And Miki knows he will, because his human never lies. So, in return, Miki vows that he will never leave his brown-haired, green-eyed human for a female cat. He keeps this promise with no problems. He really does, until he meets Yuki.
**
Haruka's life is simple. It is, it always has been, it always will be. It is simple no matter what way you look at it.
He wakes up, he spends too long in the bath, he fries himself some mackerel for breakfast, then he gets changed and goes to work. He then goes on to carry out his day in a equally simple manor, because his job is just as simple as his life. He works at the local sports centre, though he has no idea what his job would be labelled as. He cleans the pools and sweeps the tennis courts and mops the floor in the gym. Sometimes, he even files papers or works the front desk (though, that is the job he hates the most). There are no complications, no serious negatives to the job, and the only legitimate perk it comes with is the access to the pool after hours. But that's as crazy as it gets.
And it's been this way for so long, so simple and repetitive, that it becomes a comfort. Everything is the same every week, nothing ever changes, besides the single weekend every three months that Rin comes to stay with him, and all they do then is catch up briefly and go swimming in the sea. Other than that, his life is a cycle. It's just how he likes it.
This is probably why the little white cat manages to throw everything completely off balance when she somehow slips into his life.
She appears on his doorstep on a Saturday morning, and he finds her just after he's gotten out of the bath and is aiming to check the post for some more inevitable and unfortunately unavoidable bills. She looks up at him from the floor, her eyes wide and pleading. The fur that covers her is discoloured, it's presumably white original colour muddied to a questionable dark brown. Her ears are scratched and bloody, her little legs quivering with fatigue, and her tiny body is so skinny that Haruka suspects she hasn't had anything to eat in days. Haruka feels horribly bad for her. His instinct tells him to leave her be, he knows that she's an animal and she needs to survive by herself, but the pitiful meow that escapes the creature when he moves to close the door makes his heart lurch and he thinks what the heck. Today, he is going to be a good person. He scoops up her trembling body and carries her inside.
He's never bathed a cat before, but contrary to his worries, she allows him to set her in the bathtub and clean her without any fuss. Around her neck, he finds a purple collar, previously caked into the mud that covered her fur, engraved into which are the words "My Name Is Yuki" along with somebody's phone number. He'll have to call them to tell her owner that he's found their cat.
Once he's finished cleaning the little white creature, he dries her fur with the softest towel he has, and takes a look at the injuries on her ears. The scratches aren't bad, he decides they were probably inflicted by thorn-covered tree branches. He finds some sort of disinfectant in his cupboard and treats the cuts anyway, just to be sure. He then gathers the cat into his arms and carries her into the kitchen, where he gives her some fish (cod, not mackerel, they're not that good friends yet) and wanders off to find his cellphone.
When Haruka's call finally goes through, the person who picks up is a young man. Upon hearing about Yuki being at Haruka's house, he sighs, somehow sounding both relieved and tense at the same time, and introduces himself as Kouki, the son of Yuki's owner. He tells Haruka that his mother had died three weeks ago, having suffered a nasty fall down the stairs in her house, and the cat was nowhere to be seen when the neighbours found her body. Kouki tells Haruka that he'd been worried, and he was glad to know that Yuki was safe, but he had no idea what to do with the small cat, because his mother had lived by herself, her husband having died only months before her, and none of her relatives have the time or space to keep a pet.
The young man sounds so tired and stressed that Haruka finds himself offering to have Yuki staying with him for a while, just until Kouki can figure out what to do with her.
And like that, Haruka is off of the phone and stuck with a cat. Little does he know, at this moment in time, that his future calls to the number on Yuki's collar would never be picked up again.
So that is how Yuki became his cat, and he's seen her pretty much every day since she arrived on his doorstep, muddied, starved and vulnerable, and he'd reluctantly taken her in. Over time, they'd formed some sort of bond, you could say, and Haruka has, somewhat grudgingly, accepted the fact that Yuki is here to stay.
That's why, when she goes missing for four whole days, Haruka does what he sees appropriate for that moment in time. He freaks out.
Looking back on it, the more efficient thing to do would be to print some fliers and stick them on every surface he can find in the town centre, walls and lamp posts and bins and benches, but considering the fact that Haruka can't remember the last time he woke up without Yuki sleeping by his feet, it's actually completely understandable that he surpasses this option altogether and leaves the house first thing in the morning on the fourth day without seeing her, armed with cat treats and a healthy voice box, and walks around the neighbourhood calling her name.
Haruka spends hours doing this, and by the time two o'clock in the afternoon rolls around, people are beginning to give him some seriously concerned glances, and Haruka is beginning to grow disheartened. Possibilities run through his mind, his worry becoming more and more frantic with every minute that passes. Maybe Yuki has decided that she just didn't want to stay with him anymore. Or worse, maybe Yuki has been hurt. Maybe Yuki is dead, and Haruka just doesn't know.
In a last ditch effort, Haruka gives one last call of her name, hoping for some kind of response from his pet, but receiving none, before he turns around and walks home. He starts work in an hour, and he cannot take the day off just because his cat has gone missing. Cats are independent creatures, Haruka reminds himself, and Yuki can handle herself. If anyone finds her, they will find Haruka's home address and cellphone number on her new collar tag, so his phone will ring if anything happens while he's at work.
Despite his attempts to calm himself down, Haruka has a hard time concentrating at work. When he has his ten minute break at four in the afternoon, he steps out of the back door for some air. He stands in the narrow alleyway, staring at the home screen of his cellphone, devoid of any notifications. His heart sinks, a cold feeling of dread settling within him. As Yuki's owner, it's Haruka's job to make sure that she is fed, cleaned and kept safe. If she's hurt in anyway, Haruka doesn't know how he'd live with himself.
After a few minutes of praying for Yuki's safety, to his surprise, he feels a tap on his shoulder. Startled, Haruka turns, coming face to face with a man whose facial expression is one of concern, his eyes narrowed behind the red glasses perched on his nose. A glance at his name tag reveals his name to be 'Rei', and Haruka recalls that he's relatively new, and has recently started teaching theory lessons to the local track team that hold practices at the sports centre. He also works the front desk when no one else wants to, which is more often than not because everyone knows that poor Rei will just quietly obey if they ask him to do it. Haruka feels guilty when his conscience is in working order.
"Nanase-senpai." Rei starts. "You're quite pale and you've been distracted all day, are you unwell?"
"No, I'm not unwell." Haruka huffs, wanting nothing more than for Rei to turn around and leave. He knows that Rei can talk non-stop for several minutes without trouble, and Haruka's brain just isn't in any condition to deal with it right now, what with how his head his throbbing and his face feels heavy, like his eyeballs are going to give up and roll out of his skull any minute now.
"Is something bothering you? Because if there's anything I can do to help, let me know and I'll try my best!"
Inwardly, Haruka sighs. He supposes recruiting people to help him find Yuki can't hurt. The more people searching for her, the more likely she is to be found. "My cat is missing." He says.
"Oh! When did you last see it? I've heard that it's common for cats to disappear for extended periods of time, they are extremely aloof creatures-"
"She's never been away for this long before, in all of the time I've had her. She always comes home by the evening, no matter what. It's been four days and I'm worried about her."
Nodding thoughtfully, his expression frighteningly sincere, Rei taps his chin. Then, all of a sudden, his faces lights up. "If you email me a photo of her along with your contact information, I can make you some posters! That way I can put them up over the town and there will be lots of people looking for her!"
Haruka blinks, stunned. He'd been expecting Rei to just say "I'll keep eye out for her." and offer Haruka a sympathetic smile like most people would, but he supposes he must have forgotten that some people were just naturally extremely nice, and it seems that Rei is one of those people. "I'd appreciate it." Haruka says, and he means it.
Rei gives him a blinding smile. "I'll try my best to help you find your cat, Nanase-senpai!"
Allowing the corners of his mouth to curve upwards into a miniscule smile, Haruka is pleased to note that he suddenly feels slightly less panicked, even though, objectively, he knows he hasn't actually accomplished anything yet. With any luck, he'll have found Yuki before Rei has to start putting up posters. Even so, he feels a bit lighter when Rei bids him goodbye and wishes him well before he turns and enters the building again, leaving Haruka in the peace and quiet that fills the alleyway.
He closes his eyes, letting his throbbing head fall back against the brick wall behind him. Wherever she is, Haruka hopes that Yuki is alright.