when your mind twinning goes beyond having the same ideas at the same time and extends to the two of you somehow eating the same things at the same time without knowing it
The 8th story in mine and ezzydean’s Puzzles of Our Cats AU! Today you get Fluffball and the Battle for Dominance.
As background, once upon a time, I prompted ezzydean with what would later become her Puzzles of Our Souls AU. (Which is fantastic, and you should go read it if you haven’t already.) This one is 1024 words.
This is Fluffball.
In general, the cats who traipsed through Haru and Sousuke’s apartment were very much the definition of average, quirky cats. They did what they wanted, when they wanted, and how they wanted, with little regard to the humans that actually lived there. The biggest exception was Fluffball.
Fluff was the Makoto of the cats that came to Haru and Sousuke’s place. He always had another cat or two following him, as if he were leading them to where he knew they would be taken care of, and he typically let them get to the food bowl and have their fill before he would eat. He took very special care to only sleep in the cat bed that was left in one of the rooms by one of Haru and Sousuke’s friends, and to never sleep on anything that wasn’t for cats, like clothes or towels.
Overall, Fluffball was the nicest and most polite cat of them all. He behaved well, didn’t make messes, tried to calm down the other cats, and even tempered Gisa’s errant behavior. But Fluffball had a secret. He could be an asshole. But only to one person.
Haru was the unfortunate recipient of Fluffball’s quirky little mood. Once in a while, he got it in his furry little head to accept the most catlike feature of all, and to Haru’s chagrin, he used it well. Haru’s possessions were not safe. Sketchbooks, pens, utensils, anything that Haru used that wouldn’t be broken irreparably was slowly and systematically pushed off of whatever surface it was resting on.
The first time it happened, Haru had been sitting on the floor in front of the couch, with a sketchbook on the table in front of him, and one in his lap. He heard the muffled thump of a cat hopping up on the table, but was too concentrated on his work to bother to see which one it was. He heard a soft tap on the table, but he was trying to get just the right angle on his line, so he hardly glanced up.
He heard the tap a few more times before he heard a slight scraping noise and finally looked up. Fluffball was sitting just next to the sketchbook, and he had one paw on it. He had a look on his face that said that he was waiting for Haru’s attention to focus on him, and then he very, very slowly started pushing the sketchbook towards the edge of the table.
Haru locked eyes with the cat and shook his head. Fluff pushed the book another inch. Haru said quietly, “No.” Predictably, Fluff ignored him. The book moved another inch toward certain doom.
“Fluffball. No.” A slow cat blink and another inch.
“Fluffball. Don’t. You. Dare.” Haru was using his most threatening voice, but it had absolutely zero effect on the cat. Another slow inch. Fluffball blinked once more, lifted his paw, tapped it on the cover of the book, and then swiftly chucked it off the edge of the table to the floor below. The cat did not break the stare that he had been levelling at Haru until Haru looked to the floor where the book lay.
At this point, Fluff stood up, flicked his fluffy tail in Haru’s direction and then proceeded to hop off the table, directly on top of the sketchbook, to Haru’s curse. Then he sauntered off into another room. Sousuke had poked his head in the room at hearing Haru’s admonitions to the cat(which did not sound threatening at all, thanks to the ridiculous name of the cat), and snickered at Haru as he picked his sketchbook back off the floor. Haru leveled an angry glare at Sousuke while he brushed the book off.
These occurrences happened more and more often, when Fluffball was in a “playful” mood. He only did it to Haru, though, and Sousuke got a laugh everytime he heard Haru trying to convince the cat to not do what he was going to do. It never got any more threatening, of course, which just made Sousuke’s day. It was also normal to hear an increasing number of frantic “no”s from whenever Haru was in the apartment.
Fortunately (for Haru), it seems like one other entity has been observing the goings on. Sunshine, after a few weeks of seeing Haru tormented by Fluffball and hearing Sousuke’s reactions to the situations, decides to copy Fluffball. He waits until Sousuke is settled at the table with a nice tall glass of tea while he waits for Haru to bring dinner from the kitchen to the table.
Sunshine hops up onto the table next to Sousuke’s glass and gives him a very concentrated stare.He slowly lifts one pure white paw, and puts it to the side of the glass. Sousuke narrows his eyes at the cat. “Sunshine. Don’t you even dare.”
Sunshine blinks an extra slow blink, then pushes the glass within an inch of the table edge. Sousuke repeats himself with more force, although trying to use a threatening voice while talking to a cat named Sunshine is not any better than trying to talk to one named Fluffball. Sunshine seems to think better of his actions and puts his paw down. Sousuke lets out a brief sigh, and then he hears soft footsteps approaching. Sunshine lifts his other paw, and positions it higher on the glass, and then proceeds to tip the glass over in the opposite direction, so that the drink is instead spilled over the table’s surface.
Haru seems amused, while with his typical deadpan look on his face, he slides a plate of food across to Sousuke, right next to the puddle of tea, while he says possibly the most ridiculous thing Sousuke has ever heard him say. "Don't be upsetti have some spaghetti.”
Sousuke gives him possibly the most incredulous look that has ever graced his face before he sighs and gets up to clean the mess. The next time Fluffball decides to take advantage of Haru’s possessions, there is a noticeable lack of laughter following the clatter of various objects hitting the floor.
Butterfly and the Terrible Theory (AKA Why Cats Should Never Do Physics)
The 7th installment in mine and ezzydean’s Puzzles of Our Cats AU continues! Today you get Butterfly and the Terrible Theory (AKA Why Cats Should Never Do Physics).
As background, once upon a time, I prompted ezzydean with what would later become her Puzzles of Our Souls AU. (Which is fantastic, and you should go read it if you haven’t already.) This one is 695 words.
This is Butterfly.
Weekly movie night is a recently dubbed tradition that happens on one night each week when all of the friends gather at Haru and Sousuke’s place to watch movies, eat junk food, be nuisances, and generally just spend friend time together again on a regularly demanded (mostly by Nagisa) basis. They typically rotate who chooses the movies, or in some instances, they have a vote. Voting nights tend to be a little more rowdy than normal, as there is usually some form of cheating or mock fighting.
Usually when everyone is over, the various cats tend to find their own things to do with so much going on. Sunshine typically finds a nice spot to nap in the sink or shower, and Suke usually picks a nice perch from which to stare everybody into submission if he thinks it’s getting too crazy. (It never works.) Ai, however, is a cuddler. He’ll wait until everyone is all settled to find a nice spot to lay in and soak up all the warmth of the people around him. Blacky sticks to Rin like glue. He’s the only cat that gives Rin any attention at all, much to Rin’s chagrin.
The other cats migrate to and from the apartment with more frequency, and decide if they are there what they want to do. By the end of the night, there’s usually a sleepy pile of humans and cats alike lounging across the living room. Gisa in particular can be found cuddled away in one of the various empty bowls laying around the room.
They all tend to have lots and lots of snacks, thanks to Nagisa’s persistence that you can’t possibly watch a movie without at least two flavors of popcorn and various other snacks and candies. Haru and Sousuke’s kitchen is enormously packed with a plentiful variety of refreshments, which everyone is currently packed into the kitchen to retrieve. Haru is in charge of popping the popcorn, the old fashioned way, because “It tastes best that way, Haru-chan!”
The rest of them wander about the kitchen gathering bowls, glasses, drinks, popcorn flavorings, and other little odds and ends needed to make the night enjoyable. Sousuke and Rei get the first batch of finished popcorn, and they fill their individual bowls and pick their own toppings. After that is done, they take their glasses of tea and head out of the kitchen to make more room for the rest of them to do their thing while they set up the tv and everything.
They walk into the living room to a slight breeze due to the slowly rotating ceiling fan. They manage to get a couple of steps in before they notice that Butterfly has successfully climbed to the top of the towering bookcase. He seems to have a concentrated look on his little cat face, and perches at the very edge of the shelf. They don’t have much time to react, since at the instant they realize what’s going on, Butterfly has already commenced the typical cat butt wiggle that precedes a great leap across the room.
With varying looks of shock and horror on the two guys’ faces, they watch as Butterfly arcs through the air towards the closest blade of the rotating fan. To his credit, he does make contact with it, though it certainly does not turn out the way the cat expected. After he hits the fan, he scrabbles a bit to try and get a grip, and then proceeds to fall through the air toward the floor.
Sousuke and Rei watch as Butterfly drops like a stone, and hits the couch and bounces a brief bounce against the cushion before he sits up and licks a paw, as if he had intended to do exactly what they had seen. After the paw is thoroughly licked, he hops off the couch and prances down the hallway with his tail in the air. Sousuke and Rei turn to each other and share a face of ‘what the hell did I just see?’ before Sousuke shakes his head and mutters under his breath, as if he’s done it so many times before, “Fucking Butterfly.”
The 6th story of mine and ezzydean’s Puzzles of Our Cats AU continues! Today you get Rin and the Cuddle Solution.
As background, once upon a time, I prompted ezzydean with what would later become her Puzzles of Our Souls AU. (Which is fantastic, and you should go read it if you haven’t already.) This one is 895 words.
This is Rin and Kou-chii.
Haru is the kind of person who always needs something to occupy his hands, whether he’s holding a spoon or spatula, absently twirling a pen, gripping the strap of the bag slung over his shoulder, or idly pulling on the tiny threads his fingers brush inside his pockets. Most of the time, he doesn’t even really realize he does it. No one has ever mentioned it, and it isn’t such a thing that anyone is bothered by it, so there’s not really a need for anyone to point it out.
To be honest, the only reason that he figures it out is thanks to the little menace that he and Sousuke instantaneously dubbed ‘Rin’ at the first sound of it’s piteous little cry for attention. He’s still practically a kitten, with his little lithe blackish tan body and ears that might be just a tad too big for his head. Though the cat meows in order to get anyone’s attention (except for the actual Rin, of course) it seems that he has a particular fondness for Haru himself.
At first Rin just meows from whatever room he’s in until someone comes in and pets him, and that seems good enough. Then he starts to actively search out Haru in order to get him specifically to cuddle with him. If Haru is sketching, Rin will climb up on the arm of the couch or chair he’s in and bat at his hand until he scratches behind his ears. If Haru is accosted in the kitchen, he’s usually busy with some sort of cooking utensil, or in some cases, a plate or glass.
After a few situations where Rin has made it a point to try and remove whatever is in Haru’s hands and subsequently in the way of kitty cuddles, Haru starts to realize that there is quite a lot of time where his hands are already busy, even if he really isn’t doing anything. Even when he’s woken up from sleeping, he realizes his hands are usually clutching a pillow or blanket, or even Sousuke’s shirt.
This starts to be a problem for the tiny cat. Since Haru’s always busy with something, even if he’s not actually busy, it means little Rin doesn’t get his often demanded cuddles. While Haru tries to appease him with one handed petting, much like human Rin, the cat wants what it wants and nothing else is good enough.
One day, while Haru is in the kitchen cooking up a bit of extra mackerel as a treat for the cats that are currently in the apartment, Rin shows up at his feet and meows loudly. Haru nods silently to himself and leans down to pat the cat’s head, then continues attending to the fish on the stove. Apparently this is nowhere near enough for the cat, and he meows loudly again, waiting for Haru to lean down and pet him again.
Rin takes advantage of Haru’s closer to the floor stature, and crouches before carefully leaping up on top of Haru’s closest shoulder. Haru jolts up, but the cat has decent balance and manages to stay where he landed just fine. As Haru straightens the rest of the way up, Rin purrs and settles down on Haru’s shoulder in contentment.
The kitten seems even more satisfied with his new perch than he is even when he gets undivided attention and plenty of cuddles, and as long as he doesn’t fall off, then Haru’s got no problem with having his strange little shoulder guest. He hums a little to himself as he continues cooking, flipping the mackerel in the pan.
This turns into an almost everyday occurrence for both Haru and Rin. In the kitchen, on the couch sketching, doing laundry, pretty much anytime the kitten can balance on Haru’s shoulder he does. Haru has adjusted minutely to the new weight that occurs on only one side of his body at a time, and has become quite skilled at maneuvering around with his tiny passenger. He has also developed a habit of murmuring at the kitten under his breath, stroking his fur and praising how well behaved he is.
One afternoon, while Haru is preparing dinner, Sousuke enters the kitchen after doing some basic yard work in search of some cold water, or even iced tea. Haru turns toward him briefly, and Sousuke pauses for a minute with his hand outstretched toward the fridge door. He looks to the pleased cat sitting up on Haru’s left shoulder, and then back at Haru’s face. “What are you doing now?”
Haru looks him in the eye and simply says, “I’m a pirate.” And then turns back to the counter to continue his chopping.
Sousuke is incredulous. He’s knows Haru’s got a deadpan better than even himself, but that was just unexpected. The kitten turns his head and gives Sousuke what he is starting to think is the third most fierce judging face from the inhabitants of this apartment, following himself and Haru as first and second, respectively. He swears that it even looks like Rin has stuck his tiny kitten tongue out at him, but that must just be his imagination, maybe the heat of the outdoors is getting to him. He grabs a bottle of water from the fridge and resolves to go sit down and cool off before he goes crazy.
The 5th segment in mine and ezzydean’s Puzzles of Our Cats AU continues! Today you get Blacky and his (Unlikely) Favorite Human.
As background, once upon a time, I prompted ezzydean with what would later become her Puzzles of Our Souls AU. (Which is fantastic, and you should go read it if you haven’t already.) This one is 1347 words.
This is what Blacky looks like.
At first Rin is jealous of Haru, and even of Sousuke, who doesn’t seem to appreciate the gift given to him at all. He is still a little embarrassed and a little annoyed that Haru had managed to so slyly dig the pertinent cat related information about Sousuke out of him in a way he he didn’t even notice, but mostly now he was jealous.
Everyone knew that there was a cat named after or for each of them. Most of them found it amusing, or cute, or in Rei’s case, a little embarrassing but thoughtful. But Rin was not pleased in general. Not only was his namesake named for one of Rin’s more pitiful features (he knew he could be a bit of a crybaby), but the darn cat wouldn’t even let him pet it!
The cat version of Rin was much more of a crybaby than he was, and frequently used its pitiful face and cat charm to weasel attention out of anyone and everyone it could, except for Rin himself. The first time Rin tried to comfort it, which was coincidentally the first time he learned the cat’s name, left Rin frustrated and Sousuke dying of laughter while Haru looked on in rampant amusement.
Rin (the cat) swiped his tiny little claws at Rin the first time they met, and absolutely refuses to accept Rin’s affections in any way at all. Most of the cats that traipsed through Sousuke and Haru’s place were much the same, in that none of them had any particular penchant for entertaining Rin’s desire in showing them any kind of love. If Rin was lucky, a cat would use him as a bed after he fell asleep on the couch, but they always left immediately after he woke, as if they could sense him wanting to pet them even through their sleepiness.
There’s one cat, though. The demon of hell personified, at least that’s how Rin feels. These cats have Sousuke laughing at him an awful lot. The first time he met this particular ball of evil fur, he was trying to figure out which of the two cats was named which name. This was when Haru had mentioned that he had taken in an injured cat that he had named after Sousuke, and Rin was curious to see which of the four mostly permanent cats it was.
Of course, neither of the fools would do anything but tell him the names of the cats, and not which cat belonged to which name. Ai was an easy one, since everyone knew the tiny fierce gray fluffball was named for their equally tiny fierce gray haired friend of the same name. Sunshine wasn’t a hard one to figure out either, since Sousuke had a tendency to angrily mutter about “that damn asshole cat with his white fur all over my black clothes” at a frequent rate.
So that left Suke and Blacky. One was a gorgeous sleek black cat with incredibly blue eyes, and the other was a cat with cream spotted black fur that had light green eyes. As Rin stood there with both cats in front of him, he pointed to the all black one and said decisively, “Blacky.”
Sousuke snorted as Haru looked up from his sketchbook and raised an eyebrow at Rin. “No.” Haru said. The cat he pointed to looked highly offended at Rin’s choice. Honestly, the cat had a face on as if it wished it could talk so it could tell Rin how dumb he was. Which, Rin thought, was so alike Sousuke he was surprised he didn’t see it sooner.
“So, that’s Suke?” Rin asked, dropping his hand to his side. He glances down to the cat still in front of his feet. “Then this one must be Blacky.”
At his name, the cat reaches up with his front paws and delicately hooks his claws in the front of Rin’s pants. With a tiny gleeful meow, Blacky attempts to climb Rin in an effort to apparently get closer to the hands that can pet him. This is exactly the opposite of how the cats usually react to Rin, and it is not only a little confusing. Well, he is used to claws. But they usually are trying to get Rin away, not trying to pull him closer.
Rin can hear Sousuke laughing in the background, and he’s sure that if Haru even cares at all, that he is getting a kick out of the highly confused expression on Rin’s face. The cat continues to try and climb his way up Rin’s pants to have attention paid to him. Rin can feel the claws dig into his leg, and he flinches, although this does not deter the cat at all. He tries to ignore Sousuke’s almost breathless giggling while he leans down to gently pat the cat’s head and try to detach him without further ruining his jeans.
The action is only partially successful. The cat enjoys the petting but immediately demands more, using his leverage on Rin’s leg to further push his head into Rin’s hand, while simultaneously inching higher and deterring Rin’s attempt to detach him. Eventually Rin looks pleadingly up at Sousuke and Haru, which only causes Sousuke to laugh again, while Haru grudgingly gets up and gently removes Blacky from his perch. Rin sighs a tiny sigh of relief, while Haru holds the cat up to him.
As Rin looks at Haru curiously, Haru tilts his head and cradles the cat in his arms, as if telling Rin what to do. Rin slowly puts his arms together as if he is going to take a baby, which he hasn’t done since Gou was tiny herself, and Haru lightly places the now purring cat into Rin’s waiting arms. Rin knows he has an entirely too stupid look on his face, but he can’t help it. Most of the time the cats refuse to be anywhere near him.
He goes to sit on the couch, but Sousuke stops him and points at his pants, which have tiny pinpricks of blood seeping through. “Off.”
Rin looks up at him and squints. “What.”
“Take them off.”
“No. I’m busy, leave me alone.”
Sousuke smiles. “Rin, if you don’t want to do it, I will.”
Rin scoffs and resumes petting the cat with one hand while he cradles it in the other arm. He notices Haru leaving the living room, but doesn’t really make an effort to figure out why. Sousuke rises from the couch and approaches Rin, far too close for comfort. Then he attempts to unbutton Rin’s pants himself, like he said he would. Rin squawks and almost drops the cat.
“Alright, alright! I’ll do it myself, lemme go!” He gently puts the cat on the couch and finishes what Sousuke started while he grumbles to himself. Sousuke looks entirely too smug. Haru returns from the other room with bandaids and what looks like a tiny sewing kit. He hands the bandaids to Sousuke while he takes Rin’s pants and plops gently on one end of the couch to inspect them.
Sousuke takes the bandaids and nudges Rin down into a chair, while he starts to unwrap the first of a number of bandaids that he not so lightly slaps onto the tiny bleeding marks on Rin’s skin. Rin looks down in mild offense as he sees the bandaids are covered in a variety of fish, sharks, and sparkly butterflies that no doubt came from Nagisa. By the time Sousuke is done, Haru is brandishing Rin’s “fixed” pants at him.
He will never be able to wear these again. What used to be tiny, hardly noticeable pinprick holes are now various tiny patches of mismatching scraps of fabric that consist of Haru’s idea of patching holes. He looks over at Blacky, who gets up and walks over and plops his furry body onto Rin’s underwear clad lap. Then he starts purring. Once again Sousuke is laughing at him. Rin will never be able to live this down. This cat is a demon.
The 4th story of mine and ezzydean’s Puzzles of Our Cats AU continues! Today you get Gisa and the Fridge Incident.
As background, once upon a time, I prompted ezzydean with what would later become her Puzzles of Our Souls AU. (Which is fantastic, and you should go read it if you haven’t already.) This one is 678 words.
This is what Gisa looks like.
Gisa is a very weird cat. That’s pretty much the only way that Sousuke can really describe him. Much like the person he was named after, the cat has what seems to be a neverending supply of crazy energy. Also like his human counterpart, Gisa has a number of terrible habits. Besides running across the house like a cat possessed, which Haru affectionately refers to as “kitten raceway”, Gisa also has the tendency to sneak into Sousuke’s underwear drawer for his morning catnaps.
Butterfly has mostly been the recipient of Gisa’s highly demanding cuddle sessions, although most of the other available cats have been coerced at some point in time or another. Gisa has been seen multiple times hanging half off of the couch while napping, and it seems to be a miracle that he hasn’t yet completely fallen off. He also has a (so far) death defying habit of sprawling out over as much floor space as catly possible, during which Sousuke has to make an extreme effort to not pancake the cat under his feet.
Both Sousuke and Haru and even their friends have caught the cat playing in the kitchen sink, and, occasionally, dipping his paws into the open toilet. He also tramples over the counters, giving absolutely no care to the things that he knocks off of them as he goes. It’s lucky that they keep the tea and coffee and sugar in very well sealed containers, as Gisa has knocked them down time and time again, and if they had to purchase them again every time they would be broke as well as unendingly thirsty.
The thing that baffled Sousuke the most about Gisa was the way he would slink into the fridge at the first opportunity available. Every time the fridge opened, the cat was there, worming his way onto one of the shelves, or into a slightly open crisper drawer. Haru, apparently seeing absolutely nothing wrong with a cat wanting to take a nap inside the fridge, would just close the door until Sousuke scolded him. At that point all Sousuke received was a brief look and shrug of the shoulders before he moved in to open the door himself and dig the cat back out.
One exceeding hot summer day, Sousuke finished tending to some laundry and went back into the house to get a well deserved cold drink. He entered the kitchen to find the fridge door flung wide open, with Haru and Gisa curled up together on the floor in front of it, obviously taking advantage of the cooled breeze to partake in an afternoon nap. And while Sousuke has the thought that at least this way he doesn’t have to worry about Haru drowning himself in a cool naptime bath, he does grow a concern for what promises to be a rapidly rising electric bill.
Sousuke leans over the small cuddlepile to get himself a cool drink like he had intended, then gently nudges Haru over so he can close the fridge door before he retires to the couch to take a nap in a civilized human way. When he gets there he takes note of Koko curled on one end, and so that he doesn’t have to move her, quietly props his feet on the armrest above her tiny furry body and lays down.
He wakes a few hours later to a heavy weight on his chest, much heavier than the bird catching Macky, and finds Haru had traded in the kitchen floor for Sousuke instead. Haru twitches only slightly, mostly due to the fact that he is also being slept on, with Gisa stretched out along his back, and mutters to Sousuke about how it’s too warm. Sousuke looks at him with a tired but incredulous look before he responds “Then why are on sleeping on me?”
They both blink at each other for a second, Gisa flicks his tail once in front of Haru’s nose, and they both let out a tiny huff of laughter before closing their eyes and going back to sleep.
So, once upon a time, I prompted ezzydean with what would later become her Puzzles of Our Souls AU. (Which is fantastic, and you should go read it if you haven’t already.) The other night we spent a few hours talking on and off about how Sousuke and Haru wind up owning 15 (thousand) cats. This is that story.
Sousuke and Haru's apartment has what you could call an open door policy. There is, quite literally, always an open door (or window) somewhere wherein any of their friends can mosey on in as they like. This open door (and window) policy also extends to what Sousuke adamantly calls unwanted guests, though Haru is quite satisfied knowing that Sousuke is a liar and will never admit that he actually enjoys the furry company.
Cats. Cats everywhere. Sousuke has a thing with cats, and he does not appreciate his space being taken over like this. What had started as the beginning of a massive and all encompassing prank war that at this point neither of the boys could tell you exactly who started and why, had come to an end with what Sousuke very reluctantly eventually considered an extending of their unconventional family.
The apartment is now home to what must be the entire town’s cat population. Haru loves that the cats seem to like him so much, and is not so secretly pleased about the fact that even more than the cats like him, they like Sousuke. Sousuke does not find this amusing at all. Haru’s mackerel habit is definitely a factor in how much the cats enjoy the apartment.
Sousuke finds cats everywhere. There is a cat in his usual spot on the couch, and one on the television, and one in his bed, comfortably perched on his pillow. Cats greet him in the bathroom, after he showers, rubbing against his ankles before he even has a chance to dry off. Haru finds it mildly amusing when Sousuke complains about it. Even after he disentangles from the pile of fur winding its way through his ankles, he finds yet another furball happily ensconced within his underwear drawer.
Eventually the Sousuke and Haru take to actually naming the cats. Pearl is a cream colored cat that has a tendency to take a nap in the bathroom sink. Macky and Saba are nearly identical gray cats, and Macky has a habit, that Sousuke pretends is disgusting but is secretly proud of, in which he brings Sousuke dead birds. Saba is the ruler of the television, from which he indiscriminately judges everyone in sight. There is also Blacky and Mittens and Socks. Koko’s favorite place is the couch, and she blends into it perfectly.
The first cat to be named after one of their friends is a tiny kitten that mewls pathetically when it feels like its not having enough attention paid to it. The first time this happens, Sousuke and Haru instantly look at each other and declare ‘Rin’.
The next kitten to remind them of a friend is a tiny little light gray kitten, the runt of its litter, that has a proclivity for falling asleep in Sousuke’s shoes. They name this one Ai. Ai has absolutely no fear, and will not let any of the other cats boss him around. Sousuke one day witnesses a huge Doberman running for its life down their street, and thinking perhaps a car or larger dog was behind it, Sousuke checks before continuing on his way, only to see tiny Ai chasing the dog.
A playful orange tabby that has a tendency to bring live beetles into the house to play with is affectionately dubbed Little Momo. Haru sees this and tells the cat that it should be eating them and not playing with them, but predictably the cat ignores this advice. They can try to get rid of the beetles but Little Momo just brings them back.
Sousuke has a particularly horrible morning one day where a cat falls into the shower with him. Haru administers first aid and Sousuke spends the next two weeks refusing to talk to him. They witness this very same cat bellyflopping off of the couch and completely failing to stick any kind of landing whenever it tries to jump anywhere. The cat oftentimes looks embarrassed at its failure to be vaguely catlike. Overall it is a distinctly graceless cat, and it gets the name Butterfly.
After a time, they notice a smaller version of the Rin cat hanging around that tends to give him a good wallop if he’s been crying for too long. This one is a girl, and they name her Kou-chii. Rin cat tends to give her a look after she whaps him that distinctly says ‘That was uncalled for.’ Kou-chii ignores him and curls up for a nap.
Sousuke and Haru are noticing an odd correlation between the cats and their friends. Nagisa declares that this is because the cats are awesome and so are their friends. Then he wants to know which cat is his namesake. Gisa is an unruly tortoiseshell with huge greenish yellow eyes that bounces around everywhere. He climbs everything and chases everything, and Sousuke and Haru are horrified the one time that Gisa manages to partake in some catnip (coincidentally, this is the only thing that little Ai shows fear of). He is often the only participant (or the leader) of what Haru calls ‘kitten raceway’ that extends from one end of the apartment to the other and consists of numerous laps. He falls asleep in the dumbest positions, like with his head in Haru’s shoe and Butt in Sousuke’s, or spread eagle on the kitchen floor or counter. He also tries to perch on people’s heads and shoulders and uses their hair as playthings. He coerces Butterfly into cuddling more often than not. Gisa also tends to be the one cat that is constantly sliding into walls and furniture and even people because he is running too fast to stop before pummeling into surfaces.
One day Haru is traveling home when he happens upon a gorgeous sleek black cat that has a minor leg injury. He scoops it up and brings it home and calls on Makoto to help him to make sure he patches it up properly. Suke is quiet, and one of the calmest cats, and even tries to get the other cats to behave with a fierce stare that only particularly works when the receiving cat gets tired and decides to take a nap.
Then there’s the pure white cat that tends to sleep anywhere water normally is, like in the shower. He also tends to sleep on top of Sousuke’s old Samezuka jacket, and all his dark hoodies. Sousuke knows he does it completely on purpose, and he says that he hates this cat the most. (He lies.) He names it Sunshine. Haru understands and appreciates the gesture.
Makoto has a tendency to drop random kittens and cats off at Haru and Sousuke’s place when he finds them. He’ll leave them on the porch, in the backyard, and sometimes even in the front entryway. He knows that they will all follow the smell of cat food into the kitchen and get taken care of there. Sousuke runs on autopilot in the mornings and fills the bowl up. Haru smiles at him, and Sousuke is too sleepy to care that he is feeding the animals he claims that he doesn’t like at all. He glances at Haru and asks what he’s looking at when Sousuke travels along the kitchen to the coffee maker, scritching cats along the way.
There’s one cat that always shows up with at least one other cat following it. It is the pied piper of the cats. This is Fluffball, and he is the only cat to consistently sleep in the random cat bed in the apartment, and seems to make it a point to not sleep on anything he shouldn’t, like clothes or towels. He also usually encourages the other cats to eat first. Occasionally, though, Fluff will get in just the right kind of mood where he wants Haru to pay more attention to him, and instead of mewling like Rin, he just stares and Haru and very slowly pushes Haru’s sketchbook off the table. Haru tries his very hardest to sound menacing and serious when he says “Fluffball. Don’t you dare.” (It doesn’t work very well.) This usually causes great glee and much mirthful laughing from Sousuke.
Every one of their friends is pretty pleased with their cat counterparts, except of course for Rin. Nagisa loves his cat and would love to take him home with him. Momo and Little Momo hunt for beetles together constantly. At first Ai is a little upset that they picked the tiniest kitten to be named after him, until Haru passes by and says “That was the one that chased the Doberman down the street.” and Ai is proud that his kitten is tiny AND fierce. Rei is a little embarrassed, but he can see the humor in Butterfly and appreciates the thought anyway.
One afternoon Rin finally figures out that one of the cats is named after him. He’s in the front entryway of the apartment, and the little Rin cat is mewling as usual. Rin tries to pick him up and comfort him, but Rin-cat is having none of that. (None of the cats particularly like Rin.) He swipes at Rin and cries louder. Both Sousuke and Haru yell from other rooms “Quiet down, Rin.” Rin is confused. Not only has he made no noise, but they don’t even know that he’s there yet, he’s only just let himself in. Rin walks into the living room all grouchy and irritated, and finds Sousuke there on the couch grinning at him. Haru says, “Calm down, Rin, have some mackerel.” Rin snaps toward the kitchen that he doesn’t want any damn mackerel. Haru comes out and stares at him, simply tells Rin, “I wasn’t talking to you.” Tiny Rin cat runs across the house and climbs up onto Haru’s shoulder. Rin is glaring at everyone, especially the cat. Sousuke is just barely restraining himself from laughing his ass off. Haru is still talking to the kitten, “There, there, Rin.” The kitten purrs even louder from his perch. Rin upgrades from glaring to scowling. Sousuke starts laughing so hard he falls off the couch. This startles Mittens, who is sitting on the bookshelf. Macky runs in and plops himself on Sousuke’s chest. Saba is using the patented cat glare to judge them all from on top of the tv. Rin tries to sit on the couch and nearly loses his butt to the cat he accidently almost sits on. Koko is highly offended that he tried to sit on her. (She likes him even less after that incident.)
Rin is now highly suspicious and is wondering just how many cats are in this place. He wants to know why Sousuke is not only okay with the cats around, but one is actually sitting on him. Who is this alien and what happened to his best friend? Rin exclaims, “What’s going on? There’s like 15 cats in here.”
Sousuke just responds, “There’s only 10 today.”
Rin is even more baffled. “ONLY 10? TODAY?”
Haru enters from the kitchen again, and just says “No, it’s 11. You didn’t see the one in the bathroom sink?” Sousuke just shrugs, like, ‘what can you do?’
After a while Rin gets used to the constant flux of cats and addresses the more important issue. “Why that cat?” he whines. As he says it Rin cat mewls. Rin freezes. That’s not cool. He can see why they picked that cat, even if he doesn’t like it. He just wants to know why they couldn’t pick a cooler feature of his.
“All cats have sharp teeth, Rin, so we couldn’t pick that.” Haru deadpans. Sousuke starts dying in laughter.
“Well, Rin, I haven’t found a cat that snores like you, either.” Sousuke gets out between laughs. Haru snorts. Rin is completely unamused. Rin cat mewls again since no one is paying him any attention. This does nothing to dispel the laughter.
“Shut up, cat, they’re paying attention to me right now. Go find a corner to pout in or something.” Rin waves the cat away. Sousuke is crying in laughter, actual tears dripping down his face laughing. Predictably, the cat ignores Rin. Then proceeds to mewl loudly whenever Rin tries to talk. Rin needs new friends. Sousuke is going to need a hospital from laughing too hard at this point. Rin finally gives up and checks the couch before flopping on until someone pays the cat attention. Rin cat adamantly refuses to be coddled by Rin.
One day Rin falls asleep on the couch and awakes with a quiet sleeping cat on his lap. His life is so unfair. He just wants to love the cats like everyone else, but the only time they go to him is if he’s completely asleep. When he lifts his hand to stroke it, it immediately vacates it’s spot. He wants to know how Sousuke can do it when he doesn’t even (supposedly) like cats.
