Challenge 03
And since Arashi is off on vacation, I'm not going to cross-post this until she gets back in a week and a half. ^^ I had fun with this one, though I took the challenge at its word and...hey, not even I know who I crossed Kaidou with. XD Oops.
Devotion
Challenge:
Kaidou/anybody
A marker, a pair of shoes, and a stuffed cat
Warning: Long sentences, just shy of a thousand words. Plus "little" Kaidou. Whee!
It was love at first sight.
Not that he’d ever admit it to anybody. He was a big boy now, a man, almost thirteen and a half and after today, a Seigaku Regular. Kaidou Kaoru should be too old and grown-up to be caught peering in the toy store window at a stuffed cat.
But he was. Oh, he was. Kaidou couldn’t take his eyes off it. It wasn’t as good as a real cat, of course-but the way those blue beaded eyes stared up at him, the way that stitched mouth curved upwards in a small smile unseen on most stuffed animals, the creamy-pink fur that looked so soft, so silky, he wanted to touch it, he wanted to hold it, he wanted it-
It was simply adorable.
The image of that cat (kitten, Kaidou decided-though anything with that fluffy of a tail should be an adult cat, anything with eyes that big had to be a kitten. Even if no real cat was ever quite so pink) stayed with him all throughout morning practice, school, and the ranking matches of the afternoon. Kaidou was lost in blue beaded eyes and the perk of a button nose-so much so that he lost his match spectacularly, the last ball slamming past him at a speed he knew he could have returned, had he not been thinking of creamy-pink fur and a small thread smile.
The disappointment that he wasn’t going to be a Regular only sunk in with the polite smile of Oishi-senpai covering for Eiji-senpai’s loud sigh-the stoicness of Tezuka’s face, the slight frown on Fuji-senpai’s, the stare of Inui-senpai across the net, the loud exclamation from that idiot Momoshiro. “You could have won that match, stupid!”
Nobody called Kaidou stupid. The two of them fought, and predictably ran laps for it. Kaidou was late leaving practice and as a result couldn’t stop at the toy store to look at the cat again like he’d originally planned. It didn’t matter. The cat made him lose and now he’d have to wait an entire month before he could be a Regular. Those blue beaded eyes made him miss that easy ball, that brown fluffy tail ruined his reputation and he did not care if he never saw it again!
It wasn’t as easy as he wished, though. The morning runs he took led him right past the toy store. If he truly wanted to avoid it he’d have to take a different route. Grabbing a highlighter-a marker by accident-and a map, Kaidou sat down at his desk to figure this out.
He hadn’t been thinking more than a minute or so when the buzzer for the door sounded. Kaidou was tempted to ignore it. He was the only person in the house right now and if he didn’t answer it, nobody would. But the buzzer sounded again, longer and more impatient, and good manners won out. Leaving the marker and the map on the table, Kaidou trooped downstairs to answer the door.
It was Momoshiro.
“Here,” he snapped without preamble, and shoved a bag into Kaidou’s surprised hands. “Inui-senpai told me to give this to you, and that you shouldn’t gawk at stuff in public or some data-person might take notice. (1) Anyway, here, I’ll see you at practice tomorrow and if you’re not wearing that jersey next month, Mamushi, I’m going to be awfully disappointed, terribly disappointed, Mamushi.”
And he left, tennis bag bumping awkwardly against his shoulder before he could mount his bike and pedal away. Kaidou just stood among the pairs of shoes in the entryway and stared after him.
That was unexpected.
He shut the door and kicked his sneakers out of the way before looking to see what was in the bag.
Blue beaded eyes stared up at him out of a face of creamy-pink silk fur. The hint of a fluffy tail was a shadow against the bottom of the bag. A thread mouth smiled sweetly at him from beneath a button nose.
Kaidou dropped the bag, and the stuffed cat tumbled out. He couldn’t believe this! That cat, that darned cat, grabbed his attention so much that it cost him a Regular’s position and it still came back to haunt him?! How had Inui-senpai known-how had he seen, what had tipped him off, why was the one thing Kaidou never wanted to see again lying on the floor in his very home?
There was a note with the fateful, hateful cat. Kaidou picked it up.
Kaidou,
Devote the attention you gave this cat to something else, and there is a 100% chance the Regular’s position will be yours next month.
That was all it said. There was no signature, but if the note itself didn’t give it away, Momo, blunt Momoshiro, had told him who it was from. This was definitely Inui-senpai’s work. And you will win, it almost seemed to say. Be determined, work hard, and you can win.
Kaidou glanced back at it. Just to be sure.
Devote the attention to something else.
The cat was still laying on the floor.
And you will win.
One month later, beaded blue eyes watched Kaidou trying on his new Regular Jersey in the privacy of his own room.
And if anybody ever asked why Kaidou had a slightly pinkish stuffed cat in his room-well, after Momoshiro left with a black eye and a bloody nose and the widest grin anybody’d ever seen, the subject was never brought up again.
(1) The advice was obviously translated into a form shorter and more abrupt than Inui had probably worded it-trust Momo to do something like that. ;)
So....who did Niyali pair Kaidou with? Inui? Momo? The cat? Who knows? XD
Comments are loved and drooled over, as usual. ^^ Thanks for reading!
Devotion
Challenge:
Kaidou/anybody
A marker, a pair of shoes, and a stuffed cat
Warning: Long sentences, just shy of a thousand words. Plus "little" Kaidou. Whee!
It was love at first sight.
Not that he’d ever admit it to anybody. He was a big boy now, a man, almost thirteen and a half and after today, a Seigaku Regular. Kaidou Kaoru should be too old and grown-up to be caught peering in the toy store window at a stuffed cat.
But he was. Oh, he was. Kaidou couldn’t take his eyes off it. It wasn’t as good as a real cat, of course-but the way those blue beaded eyes stared up at him, the way that stitched mouth curved upwards in a small smile unseen on most stuffed animals, the creamy-pink fur that looked so soft, so silky, he wanted to touch it, he wanted to hold it, he wanted it-
It was simply adorable.
The image of that cat (kitten, Kaidou decided-though anything with that fluffy of a tail should be an adult cat, anything with eyes that big had to be a kitten. Even if no real cat was ever quite so pink) stayed with him all throughout morning practice, school, and the ranking matches of the afternoon. Kaidou was lost in blue beaded eyes and the perk of a button nose-so much so that he lost his match spectacularly, the last ball slamming past him at a speed he knew he could have returned, had he not been thinking of creamy-pink fur and a small thread smile.
The disappointment that he wasn’t going to be a Regular only sunk in with the polite smile of Oishi-senpai covering for Eiji-senpai’s loud sigh-the stoicness of Tezuka’s face, the slight frown on Fuji-senpai’s, the stare of Inui-senpai across the net, the loud exclamation from that idiot Momoshiro. “You could have won that match, stupid!”
Nobody called Kaidou stupid. The two of them fought, and predictably ran laps for it. Kaidou was late leaving practice and as a result couldn’t stop at the toy store to look at the cat again like he’d originally planned. It didn’t matter. The cat made him lose and now he’d have to wait an entire month before he could be a Regular. Those blue beaded eyes made him miss that easy ball, that brown fluffy tail ruined his reputation and he did not care if he never saw it again!
It wasn’t as easy as he wished, though. The morning runs he took led him right past the toy store. If he truly wanted to avoid it he’d have to take a different route. Grabbing a highlighter-a marker by accident-and a map, Kaidou sat down at his desk to figure this out.
He hadn’t been thinking more than a minute or so when the buzzer for the door sounded. Kaidou was tempted to ignore it. He was the only person in the house right now and if he didn’t answer it, nobody would. But the buzzer sounded again, longer and more impatient, and good manners won out. Leaving the marker and the map on the table, Kaidou trooped downstairs to answer the door.
It was Momoshiro.
“Here,” he snapped without preamble, and shoved a bag into Kaidou’s surprised hands. “Inui-senpai told me to give this to you, and that you shouldn’t gawk at stuff in public or some data-person might take notice. (1) Anyway, here, I’ll see you at practice tomorrow and if you’re not wearing that jersey next month, Mamushi, I’m going to be awfully disappointed, terribly disappointed, Mamushi.”
And he left, tennis bag bumping awkwardly against his shoulder before he could mount his bike and pedal away. Kaidou just stood among the pairs of shoes in the entryway and stared after him.
That was unexpected.
He shut the door and kicked his sneakers out of the way before looking to see what was in the bag.
Blue beaded eyes stared up at him out of a face of creamy-pink silk fur. The hint of a fluffy tail was a shadow against the bottom of the bag. A thread mouth smiled sweetly at him from beneath a button nose.
Kaidou dropped the bag, and the stuffed cat tumbled out. He couldn’t believe this! That cat, that darned cat, grabbed his attention so much that it cost him a Regular’s position and it still came back to haunt him?! How had Inui-senpai known-how had he seen, what had tipped him off, why was the one thing Kaidou never wanted to see again lying on the floor in his very home?
There was a note with the fateful, hateful cat. Kaidou picked it up.
Kaidou,
Devote the attention you gave this cat to something else, and there is a 100% chance the Regular’s position will be yours next month.
That was all it said. There was no signature, but if the note itself didn’t give it away, Momo, blunt Momoshiro, had told him who it was from. This was definitely Inui-senpai’s work. And you will win, it almost seemed to say. Be determined, work hard, and you can win.
Kaidou glanced back at it. Just to be sure.
Devote the attention to something else.
The cat was still laying on the floor.
And you will win.
One month later, beaded blue eyes watched Kaidou trying on his new Regular Jersey in the privacy of his own room.
And if anybody ever asked why Kaidou had a slightly pinkish stuffed cat in his room-well, after Momoshiro left with a black eye and a bloody nose and the widest grin anybody’d ever seen, the subject was never brought up again.
(1) The advice was obviously translated into a form shorter and more abrupt than Inui had probably worded it-trust Momo to do something like that. ;)
So....who did Niyali pair Kaidou with? Inui? Momo? The cat? Who knows? XD
Comments are loved and drooled over, as usual. ^^ Thanks for reading!