Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty [Oneshot]

[h_itoshi]

Title: Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty
Fandom: Hey! Say! JUMP
Pairing: Hikaru/Inoo
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 3125
Warnings: .... Home made therapy methods?
Summary: And that's how Inoo's idea of cat therapy starts.
Notes: So I got prompted a while ago by arindika to write something about Inoo, Hikaru and cats. And I have no idea if this is anything like what you wanted, but I had fun writing it. And I also have animals I am very afraid of/find gross so I tried to use that feeling for this xD

Hikaru never liked cats. He's not entirely sure how it started, but there was that neighbour cat in 1st grade that scratched his sister in the face, so that might be it.

He doesn't like anything about cats. They're unpredictable and exude utter betrayal with their mere presence, how they hop up and want to be petted, then the next second, there are four paws of claws digging into your skin. He doesn't like their fur or the way they come to stroke themselves against you, marking their ownership and leaving hairs everywhere. They also move so silently they're just suddenly there, they drag in gross half eaten animals and pee everywhere.

Hikaru doesn't like cats, at all. He'd even say he hates cats.

So why on Earth he lives in Japan, the most cat-loving country to exist since ancient Egypt, he doesn't know.

And then there's Inoo.

How Hikaru managed to fall head over heels for him is the biggest mystery of his 26 year old life, because Inoo is like a cat in human form.

He sleeps all the time, everywhere, lazily lying abo ut as soon as there's sunlight, constantly demands attention but then turns it down when he receives it. He can also suddenly shift in temper from being perfectly happy to irritated in a heartbeat with one wrong word or touch, and he even leaves half long brown hair everywhere. Especially in the sink. And then, when there's something he wants, he goes after it with the focus of a hunter. When Hikaru thinks about it, that's probably how he fell for this man. Inoo had already set his eyes on him, and Hikaru's just human.

The only thing between them that they can't agree on is cats. Inoo loves cats, claims they have personality and fluffy fur and that their purring is adorable, while Hikaru sits trying to force down goosebumps just talking about them.

"You know I'll want a cat eventually, right?" Inoo tells him softly one night while they're watching a movie, Inoo's head on Hikaru's lap and their fingers lazily tangled. "If we stay together I'll want one."

"I can't hear you, I'm watching the movie." Hikaru claims even though the movie is a horror and the current scene is a pre-jumpscare one and completely quiet.

Inoo just smiles knowingly, and Hikaru knows he's in trouble, but doesn't have time to question that before the monster shows up and they both scream.

And that's how Inoo's idea of cat therapy starts.

The first encounter with it is when Hikaru's getting breakfast a couple days later, still half asleep and not in the mood for anything, and he looks up at the fridge to face a cat. He jumps and actually drops the cup he's holding, which is thankfully still empty but still crashes into shards of porcelain, backing several steps as he squints to try and make out what he's actually looking at. It's a printed picture of a cat, one of those nasty brown/black/white ones with yellow eyes that stare into his soul and Hikaru wants to shift and back away further but he can't because there's a counter in the way.

“KEI!” He yells out loud, not caring that Inoo probably plans on sleeping for another two hours, because this is his doing and he has to get up and take it away. “GET HERE!”

He hears a groan from the bedroom, and stays perfectly still, trying not to look at the picture of the cat staring straight at him from the fridge, but somehow he can't look away, like the cat will come to life and jump at him if he doesn't keep an eye on it. He's not stupid, he understands that it's a printed picture, but this fear is irrational and won't listen to his head trying to tell it there's no real danger. Instead it acts a bit like a hysteric woman running around in his head and Hikaru doesn't know how to slap it.

After a little while, he hears footsteps padding through the apartment, and when Inoo leans against the doorway in his underwear and the oversized T-shirt he sleeps in, his hair all over the place, the bastard is smiling. “What?”

“You know very well what, take it away.” Hikaru tells him, and his voice comes out a bit frantic despite him trying to keep it calm.

“No. It's just a piece of paper.” Inoo says, yawning, and Hikaru kind of wants to slap him. “Nothing to be afraid of.”

“I know. But I don't like it, it's staring at me.” Hikaru takes a breath and glances back at the cat, feeling very uncomfortable not looking at it but even more so when he looks.

“It's a piece of paper.” Inoo says again, this time softer and more coaxing. “You can touch it.”

“I really don't want to, this is a stupid idea, take it down.” Hikaru says, keeping his voice calm even though he wants to lash out and scream.

“Come on, you can do it.” Inoo tells him, then demonstratively steps forward and lays a hand flat against the surface of the picture, covering most of the cat with his long fingers. “See? I'm not getting bitten. I don't even get hairs on my hand.”

Hikaru glares at his boyfriend, wondering how he can possibly love him, but it's difficult being mad at him when his bedhair is so ridiculous. And after a moment, he figures to hell with it, and slowly steps forward, watching the porcelain chards on the floor, and lays his hand over Inoo's on the picture.

“See? You're doing great.” Inoo praises warmly, and Hikaru looks up at his smile, barely noticing when Inoo's hand disappears from under his and he's left with a cool smooth surface against his palm. “I knew you could do it.”

Hikaru turns back to look at his hand placed straight in the face of the cat, and even though he feels like his whole arm is creeping, he forces himself to hold it there for another moment before removing it.

“Can we take it down now?” He asks, but Inoo just shakes his head with a smile.

“It stays until you're so used to it you won't even see it.”

Hikaru whines, but Inoo kisses him as comfort and then starts picking up the shards of Hikaru's cup, offering to make him coffee. And so the cat on the fridge stays.

It takes him about ten days until he can open the fridge without feeling totally creeped out, and even though he doesn't tell Inoo that, he somehow seems to know, because suddenly, a picture of two kittens show up on the bathroom door.

And so it goes on. Hikaru keeps finding pictures of cats in the most surprising places, behind the spices in a cupboard, on the shoe shelf, on the inside of his wardrobe door, even one at the corner of the bathroom mirror. They're not constant either, just the one on the fridge, but some are smaller and show up where he least expect them to, new places every day. But he must admit that eventually, he doesn't jerk when he finds one of them, and after some more time, he just removes the picture and puts it on the kitchen counter for Inoo to hide somewhere else.

Apparently, that made him ready for the next step. Since suddenly, there are 3D versions around. He's not as bothered by them as either of them expected, he thinks, since Inoo's eyes are wide when he just picks up the plush cat from the couch and puts it aside.

“I got lots of different ones.” Inoo explains, smiling at Hikaru putting a little plastic cat model on the table before him that he found next to his toothbrush. “All sizes and models.”

“You know our home looks like a crazy cat lady's these days?” Hikaru complains, but Inoo just smiles smugly and Hikaru knows he has no say in this.

There's one that's his nemesis. Another one which is bad, that's a perfect model of a sleeping cat in a pile, but that one works better because it doesn't stare at him. He still doesn't want to touch it if he doesn't have to, but he can handle it. But that freaking cat handbag. It's not shaped like a cat exactly, but Inoo always manages to put it on shelves so that is looks straight out at him with it's realistic ears and eyes and it sends goosebumps up his arms every single time he encounters it. Hikaru even stops opening doors for a while just to avoid it, but Inoo calls him on it and hides it differently.

“You can't keep doing this to me!” He exclaims one day when they're cooking and he finds that bloody cat bag behind the flour and has another minor heart attack. He reaches in to grab the cat bag by the face and throws it at Inoo, who dodges it but smiles. “It's not working and my adrenal glands are starting to demand a vacation!”

“Sure it works.” Inoo tells him, smiling as he picks up the cat. “You just threw a cat at me, didn't you?”

Hikaru just grumbles and tells him not to hide them in the food cupboards at least. He needs some kind of sanctuary.

Halloween arrives, and Hikaru should have known, he SO should have known.

“Don't you think I'm cute?” Inoo asks as he slowly walks up to Hikaru, twirling his tail between his fingers, smiling and making the thin whiskers drawn on his cheeks change direction. He's even got the ears and they're clip ons matching his hair and it's freaky how much they could actually have been there for real.

“This, is so weird.” Hikaru states, backing away because Inoo is kind of cute but they're heading to a party and he's not doing questionable things with a cat anyway, even if it's his boyfriend. It feels better later that night when the tail and paw gloves are lost somewhere at the party, and Hikaru gets to shove the ears off before they tumble into bed when they get home. It's okay when it's just the make-up left.

It's been a few months, but Hikaru must admit Inoo's questionable methods have worked out pretty well. He doesn't notice the cat on the fridge anymore, and he's even okay finding the cat bag with the real face these days.

“Hikaru?” Inoo asks when Hikaru passes the living room, about to get more coffee while working on his assignment, but the tone makes him feel like this is serious. “Can I talk to you?”

“I guess?” He asks, sitting down on the couch with his empty cup, wondering what's up. “Something wrong?”

“No, nothing like that.” Inoo says, smiling reassuringly, but he's still a little tense. “It's just. I think you're ready.”

“Ready... For what, exactly?” Hikaru asks, already having his suspicions, and Inoo's hopeful look says the rest for him.

“Keito's got a kitten. She's adorable.” Inoo explains, sounding pleading and his face is dreamy. “Won't you come along, please please please?”

“That's a lot of please.” Hikaru points out, feeling very uncomfortable because he's not sure he can do that. “A kitten does things you know? Unexpected things.”

“But it's also this big?” Inoo suggests helpfully, showing a distance of maximum two decimetres between his fingers. “You won't have to touch her, just come along and look? Please? You can leave if it doesn't work, but it would mean so much to me if you tried?”

And since Hikaru is whipped, and also a little because he wants to see if it works, he agrees to come along and have coffee at Keito's place the following Sunday.

He's tense even before the door opens, but Keito greets them with the little creature in his arms so Hikaru can relax a bit, feeling safe knowing there will be no surprise attacks. The kitten is a white and yellow little ball of fluff, apparently called Luna, and her eyes look like two balls of bright blue that accidentally came a size too large attached to her face. She is pretty cute, Hikaru can say, as long as she stays still where she is in Keito's arms.
But eventually, they sit down in the living room, and Inoo monopolizes the kitten, having it cling to his shirt and continuously removes it one paw at a time to see it run around. It's not that bad, even though Hikaru sits in the couch with his legs pulled up just in case, but he's okay watching it run around on the floor like a little maniac. Apparently it's best toy is a piece of newspaper, and Hikaru thinks quietly that at least it's cheap to amuse kittens.

But mostly, he thinks about how genuinely happy Inoo looks playing with the little creature, even lies down to let it crawl straight across his face if it wants to, and Hikaru can't believe how he does that.

Then Hikaru's distracted as Keito talks to him, and when he suddenly feels something move against his hand, he jumps and his head whips around, and even though his initial reaction would be to slap away whatever touched him, he manages to pause. The little fluff ball is looking at his hand like it's a miracle of this world, then starts stroking itself against it, and Hikaru tries his hardest to accept it, thinking strictly about how tiny this one is. She's hardly in any shape to inflict much damage. His fingers are trembling a little when he decides to give it a go, slowly petting the little girl, and he feels her start to purr with a sound like a tiny heater. After a while, she promptly lies down on his hand and falls asleep. And Hikaru's okay with that.

“This. Is the proudest day of my life.” Inoo says seriously, voice quiet as if not to wake the baby, and the looks he gives Hikaru is so genuine and almost teary Hikaru feels like he just won a presidential election or something.

He's stuck there with his hand under the kitten, not allowed to move so Inoo and Keito serve him coffee which he does his best drinking with his left hand, but he's mostly focused on looking at the little ball sleeping soundly, wondering how it's supposed to grow up to be a terrifying unpredictable predator.

They visit Keito a couple more times while Luna's still a baby, and Hikaru gets more and more comfortable every time, eventually doesn't even flinch when she suddenly gets possessed with crazy and runs around the apartment like a very fast white cloud. Inoo keeps praising him, but Hikaru's not so sure he deserves it, since he still has as much difficulty with other cats. Just Luna is fine to be around, even as she starts growing, because Hikaru knows her and almost understand what she's thinking.

“But that's just it, isn't it?” Inoo asks when Hikaru shares his realizations with him. “You can like a cat because you've seen it grow up and understand them. It's like a parent can love their own child but still hate other kids? I know my mom does.”

“I suppose, that sounds reasonable.” Hikaru nods to agree, and Inoo reaches out to take Hikaru's hands in his, looking straight at him.

“So if. We'd find the right kitten, someone like Luna, would you be okay with it?” He asks, and he's serious, no teasing or encouragement, just a genuine question, and Hikaru sighs.

“I... Suppose. I might.” He tries, because he's not sure, he's never tried. “Luna's okay? So maybe another kitten could be?”

Inoo practically throws himself around Hikaru's neck, chanting “I love you” over and over between kisses, and Hikaru figures that if it makes Inoo so happy, he's willing to try.

It takes another month or so before Inoo finds something he likes, and Hikaru works up to the idea of going to look at several kittens at the same time. But when they go, there are only three of them, not quite as fluffy as Luna is, but patterned in all kinds of colours and they're much smaller than Luna was when they first went to look at her, so it still works.

Inoo chatters on with the lady who's bred them, and Hikaru knows there's a mother cat living in the house, but she's out for now and he couldn't be happier. He was most worried about meeting the grown up cat. Inoo immediately sat down on the floor to let the little ones climb all over him while he asks about the breed and fur and food and indoors and toys and all kinds of things, but Hikaru takes a while to sit down. He does though, slowly, making sure he sees all three of them because he doesn't want to crush them, and waits anxiously for them to approach him, half wishing they won't notice him. He jumps when one suddenly stumbles over his foot, a white and warm brown one with bright green eyes, and Hikaru looks at it as it looks at him for a moment, clearly confused as to what it just encountered. It's kind of cute, and it looks a bit like a chessboard cookie in the face with the pattern of its fur.

Hikaru carefully reaches out for the kitten, and it strokes itself against his hand before trotting off to play with a plush little mouse with a bell to it.

They don't decide on anything while they're there, but Hikaru grows fond of the cookie kitten. The other two are somehow not as cute or has as much personality, and besides, the biggest one tries to bite his knee.

“What did you think?” Inoo asks excitedly as he takes Hikaru's hand on their walk back to the station. “Don't they sound like a good breed for us?”

“I didn't listen, honestly.” Hikaru admits. “But if we're having one, I want the cookie kitten.”

Inoo laughs and asks what he's talking about, and Hikaru explains, but Inoo just shakes his head and calls him adorable.

And so in the end, 14 months after Inoo initiated his cat therapy, they go to bring home their own kitten, and Hikaru's amazed that he doesn't feel a single chill when he picks her up the first time.

They're calling her Cookie.

~*~

Comments

[h-itoshi.livejournal.com]

Haha, I thought that parallell was too obvious not to use xD <3

Thank you for prompting, I had fun writing it! Glad you enjoyed :D