a sunlit lifetime
kuraite:
There she is. Haruka’s smile tips at the edges when Takane meets his gaze, the exhaustion in her shoulders fleeing from the sun. There’s a part of him that wonders if this is a screw-up at all – the same part that revels in any experience they have together, no matter how bad it gets – but what she’s saying is true. They’re in this together, and.
‘Yeah.’ He nods his head, presents her with an encouraging grin. ‘It’s not the end of the world. Alright?’
He moves to stand up again –
And then something squirms against his back. Haruka gasps; his sweater starts to move. All of a sudden, he’s whimpering, and his hands fly up to pull at whatever’s putting him in pain. It’s a bad move. It’s a bad move, because –
Sousai squirms free of his sweater and drops, escaping across the floor.
Before he explains, Haruka paws at his back; from the wince alone, it’s clear he got a taste of the cat’s claws. He makes a valiant attempt to check the back of his sweater for blood, but it’s in a spot he can’t see; he gives up before he accomplishes anything. And when that’s out of the way, he remembers where he is, and.
Well.
‘I-I just! I thought! If– y-you could make up! Honest!’ His hands fly up in a panic, and his voice hitches. The boy takes a step back, sends a helpless glance towards the cat in the corner; his claws have retracted, but he looks terribly unconcerned with his new owner’s fate. When Haruka turns back to Takane, everything on his face screams for mercy.
It wasn’t like he was going to dump Sousai in her lap! Honest!
… not at first.
‘Takane,’ he pleads, and he looks like he might say more, except – ‘W-wait! Sousai! No!’
Pleas don’t matter much when your cat is destroying the screen door.
Takane spends a good, long couple of seconds staring at Haruka. She’s not giving Sousai a moment’s attention, even when Haruka starts yelping, pleading, desperate to get the feline felon to let up on his relentless assault upon the screen door.
Just like before, when they’d pushed open the front door and came upon a veritable battlefield--proof of the ongoing Cat vs House conflict--Takane’s strangely tranquil.
She sucks in a sharp breath through her teeth. Suddenly.
“Are you for real?”
The words come out in little stuttering increments; she sounds like she’s laughing. She certainly is making the sound like she’s laughing. But there’s this fiery look in her eyes--the kind that parts the crowds at school in a blink.
Takane stands up.
“No, seriously, are you for real?”
She grabs him by his collar, puling him down to her level, that tic in her eye going thirty pulses a minute.
“Did you really bring that frickin’ cat out here?! Right in the middle of our--crap...!”
Sousai suddenly yowls as the claws of one paw snag on the screen door’s meshing, and Takane shoots Haruka a look that promises this isn’t over. In a rush she’s tackling the screeching cat to the ground, looking like an angry cat herself with her teeth bared and her hair all ruffled by wind and flailing cat parts.
A voice like a creaking rocking chair shouts out about the noise from upstairs, but by then, Takane’s already hauled Haruka into the house by his ear, Sousai shoved under her arm, scratches adorning her face like war paint.
“You’re in for it,” she promises aloud--it’s difficult to tell just who exactly she’s talking to.
