Kimi Wa Petto (You Are My Pet)

Egoist 1

Egoist

Nowaki hung his apron up in the back room with a sigh and looked at himself in the mirror, normally he wasn’t fussed about his appearance but that day he knew he looked bad. His hair was scruffy, his eyes were red and he had large bags under them from all the crying. He picked up the keys to lock up the little flower shop and sighed again as he noticed it had started to rain. He slipped his coat on and pulled the hood up so it hung low over his eyes before stepping out into the rain and locking up the shop.

He noticed a movement to his left and saw a small, cinnamon-coloured cat running into the alley next to the shop. He shoved the keys in his pocket and saw the cat trying to take shelter in a soggy cardboard box, he rolled his eyes at the feeble attempt and made his way slowly over to the cat. He crouched down and held out his hand, beckoning the cat over. “Come here.” He spoke in a gentle voice so he didn’t scare the poor thing.

Hiroki noticed the giant approaching him and paused in his attempt to get into the box, he looked up and watched as the man crouched down and patronized him, sticking his hand out as if he expected Hiroki to walk right up to him. “Come on, don’t be scared. I won’t hurt you.” Hiroki eyed the man and saw that through the smile on his face there was deep sadness in his eyes, Hiroki tried to pretend he hadn’t seen it as he trotted further into the alley.

Nowaki watched at the cat studied him and then suddenly turned up his nose and moved back into the alley. Nowaki laughed at the cat’s behavior and followed him until the cat came to a stop and turned to look up at him. He bent down and picked up the now drenched cat, it protested loudly, yowling and struggling to get free but Nowaki held him close as he undid the zipper on his coat and tucked the cat inside. “There, all nice and dry.”

Hiroki stopped struggling as he was tucked snugly inside this stranger’s coat, his body was warm and solid, and his steady heart beat was calming and reminded him of his former owner. Hiroki moved further into the coat, enjoying the toastiness of this man and before he realized it, they were back out on the street with Nowaki practically running through the crowd of people and umbrellas.

Nowaki kicked his shoes off and rushed into the living room, he let the now wriggling cat out of his coat and watched as it jumped onto the sofa and surveyed the room as if looking to see if it was good enough. Nowaki hung his wet coat in the bathroom to dry and returned to see the little brown cat curling up on the sofa looking relaxed. “You like it here then?”

The cat turned its chocolate eyes to the man and looked him up and down before stretching and curling back up into a ball. “I’ll take that as a yes. What should I call you?” Nowaki crouched down by the sofa and studied the cat but no name came to his mind. He sighed and his breathe tickled the fur on the small face, the cinnamon cat shuffled back and twitched his ears in irritation. “Sorry. I’ll just call you Choko because you look like a little chocolate cat.” Nowaki laughed and tickled Choko’s head. Hiroki scowled at the horrible name. How could this man think that was a nice name? Nowaki noticed the unhappy expression on the cat and gently placed his finger in between the cat’s eyes. “Don’t look so unhappy. Are you hungry? I don’t have cat food but I might have some fish.” The navy-haired man got to his feet and rooted through his cupboards to try and find some fish for Choko.

He smiled when he found a tin of tuna hidden away at the back, he checked the date and saw it was fine. He reached up to grab a small bowl and tipped the tuna into it, dumping the empty can into the sink to get rid of later.

“Choko?” Nowaki placed the bowl down on the floor and saw the cat watching him with interest. “Come on, Choko. It’s delicious tuna.”

Hiroki’s scowl deepened at the use of that annoying name but he leapt gracefully from the sofa and slowly made his way over to the bowl. Nowaki watched as he sniffed at the tuna, as if not sure whether to eat it or not, but he soon tucked in and had the bowl finished in no time. “You’re so cute, Choko-chan.” Hiroki jumped back from the bowl and hissed at the now added ‘-chan’ to his already stupid name. Nowaki laughed and reached out for the cinnamon fur. “Sorry. Sorry. How about Choko-san?” As much as he didn’t like it, Hiroki had to accept it, anything was better than Choko-chan.