Chapter Text
There were only three days left until Rengoku’s birthday, yet Shinobu had just realised she had forgotten to get him a present. Occupied with sending out invitations, she had overlooked the most important part. She couldn’t possibly show up without a gift.
At the moment, Shinobu lay on her bed, scrolling through Pinterest for birthday gift ideas. She groaned. Nothing that came up felt right. She went to her gallery, hoping she would come across something that gave her inspiration.
The picture of Bartholomew eating caught her attention. What if… Shinobu jumped up from her bed. Rengoku, for all his loudness, has a sad and empty house. He had a kind, nurturing soul. A cat would be the perfect gift!
Shinobu patted herself on the chest, feeling proud. Or maybe she should thank Bartholomew instead. Having made up her mind, she got out the door and headed for a nearby pet shelter.
⨳
The pet shelter was filled with meowing and yowling and hissing. Shinobu stood as still as a statue in front of the rows of cats in cages. She felt extremely out of place.
The night she had met Bartholomew, she researched cat behaviours and what they needed. On the way to the shelter, she felt prepared, armed with research notes on cat care. When she reached, however, all her confidence washed down the drain.
How was she to care for a cat when she didn’t dare to even touch one?
Shinobu tried calming herself down. Three days. She need only put up with the cat for three days. Adopting a cat just the day before the party would be troublesome, no matter how much she wanted to. She couldn’t possibly gift the cat to Rengoku without a proper medical check-up beforehand.
She sucked in a breath. Perhaps it wouldn’t be that bad. After all, she also couldn’t possibly gift the animal to Rengoku while visibly flinching from it. She would use the three days she had to accustom herself to it.
Her current task was to pick out a cat. Would Rengoku like a kitten? Or perhaps an older cat? Shinobu thought about it for a while. According to a post she read before, it had said, ‘You don’t choose the cat, it chooses you’. But the animal was supposed to be a gift for someone else. What if the cat didn’t like Rengoku?
Deciding to just follow her gut, Shinobu walked through the rows of cages. A big, black cat scowled at her as she passed by. She gulped and scurried away. Nope, definitely not that one.
A few cages away, a fluffy ragdoll kitten was jumping up and down, meowing endlessly at her. Shinobu paused for a minute. Were those angry meows or excited meows? She couldn’t tell.
An orange blur in the corner of her vision caught her attention. To the right of the ragdoll, an orange tabby stared at her with its curious, yellow-orange eyes. She held its gaze. It gave her a single, dragged-out ‘meoww’
Shinobu wondered whether this would be the one. If Rengoku were a cat, he would look exactly like it. She read the tag placed on the cage. Orange was its name. It seemed like a calm cat. One easy enough to handle.
Thus, she made up her mind. She informed the shelter worker of her choice and paid the fees. The worker had asked whether she wanted to hold it before finalising her decision. Shinobu declined immediately.
With the paperwork done, the cat was placed into a grey carrier and handed to Shinobu. Placing the carrier on the passenger seat of her car, she drove to a nearby vet clinic.
She occasionally glanced at the carrier, fearing the creature inside would break out and sabotage her car. As if responding to her thoughts, an orange paw flew out from the bars of the carrier.
Shinobu jumped. The paw receded inside the carrier. She grumbled to herself, starting to question all her life choices. “Why didn’t I just get him a new guitar pick… Stupid, reckless ideas…”
The vet check-up went surprisingly smoothly. A nurse had helped carry the cat out from the carrier and back in when it was done. Shinobu hadn’t needed to touch the animal at all. The pet shelter had already vaccinated and dewormed the animal, so it was only a quick wellness check.
Her next stop was the supermarket. She needed to get food and supplies for the cat. Grabbing a trolley, she placed the pet carrier in it. Leaving the cat alone in the car would be weird, after all.
Shinobu walked along the aisle of pet supplies. She got the smallest bag of litter available and six cans of canned tuna. Surely that would be enough, right? She contemplated whether or not to get treats.
Thinking that treats would get the cat to like her more, she grabbed two bags off the shelf. Tuna or chicken… She looked at the carrier in the trolley and bent down to meet the cat, holding out the two bags.
“Tuna or chicken, Orange?”
The cat blinked at her and gave a long, dramatic meow. Shinobu sighed and threw both bags into the trolley. Next to the treat section were shelves full of toys. She picked up a plush fish toy to inspect. It squeaked when she squeezed it.
A loud meow came from the trolley. Shinobu squeezed the squeaky toy again. The cat responded with an equally loud meow. The sides of her lips curled up. How cute. She put the squeaky fish into the trolley as well.
It was already evening by the time Shinobu got home. The easy part — obtaining a cat — was over. Now she had to endure three painful days with it in her home. She sighed. Of all the times, Mitsuri had gone on a family hiking trip just when Shinobu needed her help the most.
Shinobu opened the bathroom door and set the pet carrier inside. She went out to the living room cabinets to search for a tray. The one she found wasn’t very big, but it would be sufficient for cat litter.
The cat watched her move around with its body sprawled out. Shinobu poured the bag of litter into the tray and placed it inside the shower area. She opened a can of tuna and placed it along with a small bowl of water she had filled earlier on the floor in front of the carrier. The fish toy was also placed on the floor, a bit further away from the food.
An idea suddenly popped into her head. She scuttled to her bedroom to take her old phone. Shinobu usually kept it charged just in case. She used the old phone to call her newer one, the former on her second account and the latter on her main account. She placed the phone down on the bathroom countertop, with the camera peeking downwards.
This way, she could watch the cat without being in the same room! Shinobu gently applauded herself.
With her preparations complete, she gathered up her courage to open the carrier gate. What if it jumped at her? What if it was mad for being taken from the shelter? Or worse, what if it ate her? Since Mitsuri wasn’t home, no one would spot her corpse! She gulped at the thought.
The girl pumped her fists. No matter what, she still had to let it out of the carrier. She slowly approached the carrier with her left hand, watching for any reaction from the cat. Sliding the lock open, she fled the bathroom as fast as she could and closed the door.
Shinobu let out a breath of relief. Her heart was beating so fast that it could jump out of her chest. She took up her phone to watch the cat. Slowly, it was walking out of the carrier. It looked left and right, then headed straight to the food.
She watched as the orange fluffball chowed down on the canned tuna. It didn’t seem to feel threatened. Shinobu’s stomach growled while watching cat asmr.
After preparing some udon noodles for dinner, she sat down on the couch. Her favourite anime had just released a new episode. Her phone was right next to her, so she could watch over Orange.
An hour later, the cat still showed no signs of displeasure. In fact, it seemed quite happy. The fish toy was keeping it occupied. It pranced and chewed on the toy. Shinobu decided to leave it to itself a little longer.
Around 11 o’clock that night, Shinobu lay sprawled on her bed, scrolling from reel to reel. She was bored out of her mind, yet she wasn’t tired enough to go to bed. That was when it occurred to her that her older phone couldn’t stay on video call for long. Although she constantly kept it charged, it still had a bad battery problem. A few hours would drain all its battery.
She let out a defeated wail. Nonetheless, she tried to make the situation feel more positive. This was a chance to get over her fear of cats! She started devising a plan: walk in with the treats she bought earlier, distract the cat, grab her phone.
Shinobu felt like she was going to war.
She opened up the pack of cat treat sticks and tore one open. Treat acquired. Trying to calm her racing heart, she slowly opened the bathroom door. The cat was lying down with its stomach facing up. Target spotted.
Sensing her presence, the cat sat up on its hind legs. It blinked at Shinobu. She tensed up. “Meow”, it greeted. She extended her arm as far as she could, letting the cat see the treat she held.
It walked over immediately. Shinobu’s heart was that close to flying out of her chest. The cat licked up the treat stick happily as she squeezed it out bit by bit.
While the cat was distracted by the food, Shinobu used her other hand to reach for her phone and shove it into her pocket. Mission accomplished. Now what? Shinobu couldn’t possibly take the unfinished treat away from the cat. That would be rude. And what if the cat got mad? She decided to let it finish the treat first.
As said cat almost finished the treat stick, Shinobu’s fingers had to squeeze closer and closer to its mouth. What if it mistook her for food and bit her finger? Luckily, her worries didn’t happen. Instead, the cat licked her fingers.
It was a weird sensation. Shinobu didn’t feel relieved by it, but at least it was ten times better than chowing down on her finger.
After the treat stick was finished, Shinobu took it away from the cat, about to get up and leave. The cat, however, had other plans. It shoved its head into Shinobu’s palm. The girl yelped.
Her hand was tense against the soft fur of the cat. She didn’t dare to move it. Unsatisfied with her lack of action, the cat rubbed its head on her palm and purred. Shinobu wondered whether it was a battle cry. Or did it simply want to be petted?
“Talk about personal boundaries…” Shinobu murmured. Was this an assault by a cat?
She remembered her cheer-up attempt earlier. This was a chance to get over her fear of cats! The one in front of her proved to be nothing but docile and nice, surely it wouldn’t hurt to engage a little, right?
Shinobu slowly moved her hand left and right over the cat's head. It purred in response and pushed itself closer against her palm. She continued her slow movements, even slightly moving lower to the side of its face just a little.
It’s not that bad…
A small smile formed on her face. Maybe these little things aren’t so terrifying after all.
A thought popped into her head. She hurried out of the bathroom and into the living room to grab a cushion. When she got back into the bathroom, the cat sat quietly facing the door, as if waiting for her to return.
She put the cushion down next to the carrier. It would be a makeshift bed for the cat for now. Leaving it to sleep on the cold, hard floor would be far too cruel. The cat walked over to the cushion and got onto it. It plopped onto its side, leaning its head to settle on the cushion.
Shinobu reached out to give it one last pat before exiting the bathroom and closing the door. She had a sensation of pride in her chest. It wasn’t much, but she felt like she had just overcome an important milestone in her life.