𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐙𝐀𝐖𝐀

14

Bringing Shouta home had gone as well as was to be expected. Meaning it hadn't gone well at all. But Y/N really wanted to forget about that little episode as soon as possible and focus on getting him back to normal, because it was getting annoying not being able to talk to him, especially when there was something important to ask or when she was trying to find him in the apartment.

Finding food for him was another issue. She tried giving him cat food, but he had just ignored it. Well, he hadn't really ignored it, he had been hissing at her all day. And Y/N had to admit that she had felt a little weird about buying cat food at the store and feeding it to someone she knew was actually human and not a cat. Ever since then she stuck to fish and meat and Shouta seemed quite happy with that. At least he ate it without complaining too much.

After a few days Shouta finally seemed comfortable with following her around during her patrols, so now Y/N was at least not on her own anymore when going on patrols. She always had a grumpy black cat by her side. And that also meant she barely got any work done. She was paranoid that something was going to happen to Shouta, because he was a lot more fragile as a cat and she had to stop all the time, because some random kids on the street wanted to pet Shouta.

And Shouta did not like pets. He was the grumpiest cat ever, but those kids usually were incredibly stubborn. Y/N couldn't believe that they would still try to pet a cat that was walking away from them and hissing and showing all signs of being uncomfortable. Kids were wild, that's all Y/N learned from this experience. They were wild and fearless and should never be unsupervised, ever.

But that was beside the point, because the other problem was that she didn't get any closer to finding that villain that had turned Shouta into a cat. Y/N was starting to wonder what would happen if they just never found the guy. What if Shouta stayed a cat for the rest of his life? Would she be stuck with him for all eternity? She didn't actually mind it that much, but all the extra food was starting to really make a dent in her finances. Sure, Tsukauchi was paying her well, but she still had to get a lot more food. Especially because fresh meat and fish were expensive.

But what was she supposed to do? She couldn't just let him starve to death. So she had to resort to not using the train to get to work anymore and she had to save a lot of money on heating costs. Which Shouta really didn't like, because he preferred a warm environment, but there was nothing Y/N could do. She couldn't afford heating the apartment right now. At some point, he finally got over himself and huddled up under her blanket with her which actually made it really nice and warm.

And another good thing was that Shouta would always wake her up when her alarm didn't. It was quite annoying, really, but at least she didn't sleep way too long and barely make it to work on time. Not that she was on a strict schedule, but still. She had to go out and work and if there was someone annoying her until she got out of bed, it was much easier to handle. Not that she'd ever admit that to Shouta, because she was pretty sure that he could understand her still.

But she was getting used to living with him in cat form and she was kind of starting to enjoy it, mostly because she wasn't all on her own anymore. Life had been pretty lonely before she had started taking care of Shouta, but now she had someone to talk to and someone to watch movies with and someone that would complain about literally everything and it was amazing.

Y/N had always thought that she was fine on her own, she liked having her quiet time and she liked not having to be social and all, but now that she had gotten a taste of being social, she was really enjoying it. She didn't understand why everyone wasn't into having someone around all the damn time. She sometimes caught herself thinking that it would be nice to just keep Shouta for the rest of her life or something... until she remembered that he was an actual human being and not really a cat.

And thinking about having him leave made her pretty sad, if she was honest. She was wondering if she could just get an actual cat, but then she knew it wouldn't be the same. It wouldn't be the same as knowing that that cat actually understood her and knew what was going on and was silently judging her for everything. Literally everything. And that was what kind of put her off that thought. It was hard to imagine finding someone just like Shouta, but in cat form. So lately her life had become somewhat of an emotional rollercoaster between hoping they'd find that villain quickly, so she didn't get too attached, and hoping they'd never find him, so she could keep Shouta.

But nevertheless, she was always busy doing overtime to try and find the villain from that night, which was a pretty difficult for some reason. It seemed like that guy wasn't really a big name when it came to villains in general. He probably had just chanced that robbery and was someone who just needed the money to get out of a sticky situation. They had the name of the guy, but he was last registered as living with his parents, but they said they hadn't seen him in about a year. Apparently he was staying with friends or something. Y/N could imagine him just hopping from friend to friend, sleeping on the couch for as long as he was allowed to.

Which was kind of sad, thinking about it, but she couldn't say that she couldn't empathize. Rents were high as fuck and it was difficult to get an apartment and if you were in debt once it was terribly difficult to get out of debt again. Near impossible, Y/N would almost say. Turning to villainy wasn't the strangest move in that situation. But obviously she'd never be able to say that to anyone else.

But being out in the cold right now, trying to find a villain while drinking godawful coffee (because she couldn't afford the fancy coffee) made her wonder how likely it was to get caught with a robbery. Surely she could pull it off. Only once. And then she could finally pay the damn heating bill...

"Meow." she heard an annoyed cat next to her. Y/N narrowed her eyes at Shouta. Could he read her thoughts or something? Fucking hell.

"If you know what I'm thinking I'd prefer it if you didn't comment on it, thanks." she replied, before taking another sip of coffee. It had gotten cold already and Y/N was doing her best not to curse her life right now.

That was until she felt a small pat against her leg. She looked down at Shouta who was giving her the look that let her know that she was an incredible idiot without any chance of betterment. She had seen the look a lot lately, if she was honest, and while it kind of annoyed her, it was also kind of sweet. Either way, he was giving her the look and meowing. A long meow.

"What is it, Shou?" she finally asked with a sigh. He walked a few steps back and sat near a wall on the sidewalk, waiting for her, the look still on his face. Did he really want her to turn around? What the hell did he find this time? Sometimes he just made her go back for stupid shit and Y/N hated it.

"Fine, fine, I'm on my way..." she muttered and slowly trotted back to where he was sitting. She looked down and almost had tears welling up in her eyes when she saw what was there. Money. Someone had dropped money. A lot of it. Without a wallet, so she didn't even have to turn it in. It wasn't a huge amount, but exceptionally much for something that was just lying around on the street. Definitely enough for a proper coffee.

"Oh my God. Shouta, you're the best. You're literally the best. You're getting some nice meat for that." she said as she picked up the note, looking at it from all sides. It was real. She was saved. Dinner was saved. This was great.