“So… you’ve figured out where Jôno went but can’t get him back?” Tetchô asked, in clear confusion, while the tiny cat he was holding nibbled his forearm without remorse.
“Man, you’re–” Teruko simply sighed. The conversation had been going on in a similar fashion for some minutes, and he had yet to put all the pieces together; something which would come off as really funny later on, given how what he had was a blind white cat with some red fur strands. “He’ll be back in a few days tops, so don’t worry. Just–” She interrupted herself, offering him a mischievous grin. “I mean, you can take care of little Sai-chan meanwhile.”
“That’s… a very fitting name, given how the resemblance is uncanny.” Was Tetchô’s answer, and Teruko bursted into laughter.
Despite the kitten not responding nicely to ‘Sai-chan’, the name quickly stuck with him, since it turned out the similarities with Jôno also extended to quite a few personality traits. He hissed at a lot of Tetchô’s own behaviors, only dropped the biting and scratching after a certain amount of time, and seemed to be especially sensitive to the same noises and smells.
But he, at least, didn’t take too long to accept any gesture of care or affection. Even if he still pretended to be somewhat hostile while doing so.
“You’re very cute.” Tetchô didn’t hesitate in telling him, when the cat finally surrendered to some chin caressing. He had hissed again, sure, but hadn’t posed any actual resistance. “Wouldn’t mind if you wanted to stay.”
That earned him another hiss, but instead of using the cushion he had gotten him, Tetchô found a tiny furball curled up over his chest at bedtime.
Teruko was (not surprisingly) right, and Jôno did return just a couple days after he had found the kitten. Except that, instead of being in any expected way… He turned out to be the first thing Tetchô saw upon waking up that morning, apparently asleep and with his head on Tetchô’s chest.
And then everything finally clicked. And his heart started beating insanely fast.
“What the–” Jôno then said, raising his head and smiling at what could only be having returned back to normal, a gesture that quickly made way for shock. “Don’t. Say. A thing. Tetchô-san.”
He hadn’t pulled away from him, though.
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