Second Aiba-Cat Drabble (ugh, only - it's not a drabble. More like a very long ficlet)
As I said, second Aiba-Cat fic let finished! ^___^ I really like writing these, because they're only short scenes that don't have much plot and are only loosely strung together, which means that I don't have to do much thinking when I write them; I can just scribble down ideas, so I can write them during boring parts in seminars, or on the train home. (That doesn't mean I won't continue my other stories; but it sure is a nice change from having to plot everything out to make it work...^^")
On with the ficlet! ^___^
Getting Photographed
Aiba-chan made his way through the grass, tail erect, curious nose inspecting each little blade that crossed his way. At one sun-bathed spot of short grass interspersed with weeds he stopped to roll around in it, his belly open to the warm sunlight. Oh-chan, who was also running free in the yard, came over to sniff at him gently. Aiba-chan wriggled and arched his back in the clear plea of “pet me!”
Jun, watching the scene from the porch, smiled widely.
“You know, that would make a really sweet photo”, he said and looked down at Ninomiya, who was sitting next to him and playing around with his new camera.
“Yeah. Tooth-rotting sweet”, Ninomiya snorted. “What am I, an employee for a Valentine’s day card factory?”
“You think Oh-chan’s the most adorable dog on earth”, Jun said. “And if anyone else took photos of him, you’d buy all existing copies of them.”
“I think he’s a living vacuum-cleaner”, Ninomiya retorted. “And I think he’s molesting Aiba-chan right now.”
Jun’s head whipped around just in time to see Aiba-chan wriggle away from an interested-looking Oh-chan - whose nose was indeed quite near Aiba-chan’s bottom - and stalk over to the big tree.
Jun’s eyes widened.
“Aiba-chan, no!” he shouted and surged forward, but by the time he reached the tree, Aiba-chan was already mostly up the trunk.
“Aiba-chan, come down there!” he demanded. Aiba-chan hesitated. Jun rubbed his eyes. “Come on, you stupid cat. I know you can come down from there, it’s not so far up.” Aiba-chan still hesitated, clinging to the bark like a squirrel. He craned his neck to look down, his eyes round and wide as saucers. He blinked.
“Come on, Aiba-chan”, Jun tried to cajole. “Come on, I’ve got nice cat-sweets inside for you, co- Nino, stop taking photos!”
Nino, who had appeared next to him with his camera, smirked. “This kind of stupidity has to be preserved for coming generations”, he explained and took a photo of Aiba-chan’s panicky face.
Jun gritted his teeth. “It doesn’t! Stop it and help me!”
Nino just grinned wider.
Jun huffed and stretched up. Aiba-chan was more than two metres up, but if he stretched up really high, he could touch him with his finger-tips. He poked at him.
“Come on, Aiba-chan, I’m here”, he said calmingly. “It’s OK, I won’t let you fall. Get down here, come on!”
Aiba-chan looked down. Then he awkwardly turned around slightly and jumped onto Jun’s shoulder and from there to the ground. He stalked away from the tree a bit and set down to wash himself. Oh-chan sat down next to him and sniffed at him again and Aiba-chan stopped washing himself long enough to rub his head against Oh-chan’s, who thumped his tail happily.
Jun, who was rubbing his shoulder where he could still feel the pricks of Aiba-chan’s claws, grimaced and looked at Nino darkly.
“Give me that camera!” he demanded.
Nino stepped back.
“You just want to delete the photos I made!” he protested.
Jun held his hand out. “If you don’t want me to have the camera, delete them yourself!”
“Nu-huh!” Nino shook his head and grinned. “I’m going to print these out and pin them to my fridge. And then I’m going to point and laugh at your cat’s stupid face whenever I get myself something to eat.”
Jun growled and attacked him, but Nino quickly ducked and, still laughing, ran back into his apartment, where he quickly shut the door behind him.
Jun sighed and bent down to pick up Aiba-chan.
“That bastard. Taking photos of you like that”, he murmured. “He’s going to remind me of this for the next three months!” Aiba-chan in his arms purred. Jun made his way to his apartment. “I should make him hand me that damn camera”, he grumbled and shoved open the sliding door. Looking down to step out of his shoes, he stopped. At his feet sat Oh-chan, staring up at him admiringly, tail thumping on the ground.
“Don’t say he forgot you out here?” Jun said. Oh-chan’s tail thumped harder. “Should I let you into his apartment?” Jun asked. “Though he’d deserve it if I didn’t hand you over to him, just like he didn’t hand me those photos…” he stopped. Slowly, he started to smirk.
“What do you say, Oh-chan?” he asked. “Would you like to spend the night at my place?”
He stepped inside the apartment and Oh-chan followed him happily.
“Let’s see”, Jun said as he went into the kitchen, “how long your master will make it without you.” He smirked at Oh-chan, who ignored him in favour of pouncing on and inhaling Aiba-chan’s dry food that stood in the corner of the room. Jun quickly rescued the last pieces by setting the bowl on the counter.
“Cat food”, he said firmly. Oh-chan licked his mouth and turned begging puppy-eyes on him.
Jun sighed and opened the fridge.
“Let’s see what we shall eat this evening”, he mused.
Aiba-chan jumped onto the counter and tried to climb into the fridge. Jun picked him up.
“There’s nothing in there that wasn’t there this morning”, he admonished.
Aiba-chan clung to his shirt and craned his neck to stare into the fridge. His eyes followed Jun’s hand, as he began to take turkey breast, olives, onions, red peppers, tomatoes, cold cooked rice and a bag with pieces of heart out of the fridge and put it onto the counter.
“I’m going to have pasta today”, Jun announced. “And you can have a bit of turkey with heart and the rest of yesterday’s rice.”
Aiba-chan purred. Jun stroked his head and sat him onto the floor. Aiba-chan jumped up onto the counter. Jun put him on the floor again.
“No kitties on the counter while I’m preparing food!” he said sternly and went over the sink to wash his hands.
Aiba-chan jumped onto the counter again and made his way slowly over to the meat in the apparent believe that, as long as Jun couldn’t see him, he wouldn’t know what he did.
Jun sighed and turned around. “Aiba-chan…” he called. Aiba turned to look at him, lost his footing and fell to the floor. With a hurt expression, he stalked off to the living-room, where he sat down to wash himself some more.
Jun shook his head and smiled, while Oh-chan ignored both of them, his eyes glued to the food on the counter. When Jun moved to prepare the food, he changed his position so that he still had an unhindered view. Jun raised an eyebrow.
“You know, it’s not going to disappear as soon as you can’t see it anymore”, he said conversationally. Immediately Oh-chan came closer, turning his stare from the food to Jun. Jun, who was cutting the olives, held one of the black vegetables up.
“This is an olive”, he said. “You don’t have to beg, because you wouldn’t like it anyway.”
Oh-chan wagged his tail and swallowed, his eyes fixed on the olive now.
“You wouldn’t like it”, Jun repeated. “See?” He bent down and held the olive to Oh-chan’s nose. Oh-chan sniffed at it, then took it from Jun’s hand and swallowed it down. Immediately, his gaze transferred itself to the remaining food on the counter.
Jun stared at him. “What the hell does Ninomiya feed you?” Oh-chan didn’t react. Shaking his head, Jun went back to work.
“I’m going to show you some great dog-food tonight. You won’t want to eat anything else afterwards”, he promised. He finished the olives and started on the peppers. He was just finished with vegetables and about to cut the meat, when he heard Nino’s voice outside, calling for Oh-chan with increasing urgency.
Jun smirked.
“This should be fun”, he told the animals and went to his backdoor. Sliding it open just enough to talk, he called out to Nino, who was standing on the porch: “He’s here!”
Nino turned around. “Oh-chan?”
Jun nodded through the mostly closed door. “You forgot him outside, so I took him in just now.”
Nino stared at him impatiently. “And where is he now? As nice as it is of you to play babysitter for him when he doesn’t even need one, it’s time for him to come home now.”
Jun smiled at him.
“Oh, I thought he might spend the night here. After all, you didn’t want to give me what I wanted, either”, he explained.
Nino’s eyes narrowed to slits. “So this is it, then?” he said coldly. “You’re holding him hostage?!”
Jun stayed calm and stared back. “I’m not. I just want you to use the time you have this evening to think about your decision of not giving me the photos. And I think you can do that best without Oh-chan around. Don’t worry, he’ll get the best treatment tonight and as soon as you’ve changed your mind, you just have to bring the photos over and Oh-chan can go back to your place again.”
“And if I don’t?”
“I’ll bring Oh-chan back to you tomorrow morning.”
Nino stared at him harder.
“I’m not going to change my mind”, he said icily. “I’m not going to be manipulated by you. You wouldn’t hurt Oh-chan and I can be without him for a night very easily.” Abruptly he turned around and left for his own flat.
Jun looked down. “Want to bet that he won’t make it two hours?” he asked Aiba-chan. Then he frowned. “Where’s Oh-chan? I’d have thought he’d come when Nino calls for him!” Just then, he heard scrabbling of blunt claws on wood. “Oh-chan!” he yelled and charged into the kitchen, “Don’t you dare touch the food!”
After dinner, Jun sat down to watch TV. He didn’t really have many hobbies - usually his work was so demanding that letting his brain turn to mush with variety shows and silly dramas was the only thing he was capable of afterwards. Aiba-chan and Oh-chan joined him on the couch, Aiba-chan on his lap, purring away like always; Oh-chan next to him, stretched out on his side, snoring. Jun reached out to stroke him and in his sleep, Oh-chan turned over on his back and presented his soft belly. After a few hours, Jun cast a look at the clock, turned off the TV and carefully put the sleeping Aiba-chan next to Oh-chan. Aiba-chan woke up slightly, but accepted the new source of warmth next to him easily. Oh-chan didn’t even twitch.
Silently, Jun went into his bedroom and over to the wall that connected his flat with Nino’s. He carefully put his ear against the wall and held his breath. There - he could hear the soft sound of Nino typing on his keyboard.
He had never understood, what Nino’s job was exactly. Apparently, Nino was some sort of “personalized enemy” in an online game: for an extra fee and from a certain level on the gamers could have the dubious pleasure of being hunted by and then fighting an enemy who was just as intelligent, resourceful and creative as they were - and who knew the game a hundred times better than they did. Jun didn’t understand the appeal of that, just as he didn’t understand why those gamers didn’t just join a role play, or a team shooter game, if they wanted to fight other humans; but apparently enough people liked the idea well enough to make it profitable to the games company to hire people like Nino, who spent their whole time playing those people.
Nino’s job led to different things, including Oh-chan, since his mother had been very concerned that her son should get away from the computer at least twice a day and a dog was the best way to ensure that he had a good reason to go out, and - since most gamers took up the game after school or work - very strange working hours. Jun didn’t know his schedule completely, but he knew that Nino often stayed up until four or five in the morning, went out with Oh-chan, slept until noon and then spent the rest of the afternoon lounging about in the backyard with Oh-chan and his guitar, until he started working again at seven in the evening.
Jun bit his lips. When he’d given Nino the ultimatum, he hadn’t considered that Nino might indeed not miss Oh-chan in the night because he was working the whole time. Quite a draw-back in his plans to get revenge from his neighbour.
Jun sighed. So he’d just have another warm and soft little body in his bed tonight. That was at least something. He quietly turned away from the wall and got ready for bed.
By the time he was finished with his night-time ritual, Aiba-chan had woken up and joined him in the bedroom and as soon as Jun lay down, he took up his usual position snuggled up on Jun’s pillow, with his small head pressed to Jun’s neck, making soft, purring snores. Jun turned off the light and closed his eyes - and started smiling, when traipsing footsteps and a sudden weight at his side told him that Oh-chan had decided that he didn’t want to stay alone on the couch anymore. With an air of complete happiness with the situation, the dog turned around himself for a few moments and then curled up pressed to Jun’s side. Luckily he was on the other side from Aiba-chan, which allowed Jun to reach down and stroke the soft big ears with one hand, while keeping his other hand buried in Aiba-chan’s fur. The smile still on his face, he went to sleep.
A few hours later, he was woken by loud banging on his door. Three in the morning, his alarm clock informed him. He stumbled into the living room and turned the lights on. On the other side of the sliding doors to the garden, Nino stood, hunched up, dressed in pyjamas, holding his camera in hand and clearly unhappy. Jun opened the door.
“Here”, Nino said and thrust his camera at him, looking away. “I deleted the stupid pictures. Can I please have my damn dog back, now?”
Jun nodded, but didn’t take the camera. “Oh-chan!” he called into his apartment. “Oh-chan! Time to go!”
“Oh-chan!” Nino joined him. There was a short scuffle and then Oh-chan raced towards them and threw himself at Nino with an enthusiasm that suggested he hadn’t seen his owner in the last three weeks. Nino dropped to his knees and buried his face into Oh-chan’s fur.
“Have you missed me, Oh-chan?” he asked, his voice slightly muffled. “That bastard Jun, kidnapping you and holding you hostage! I bet you were miserable with him, weren’t you? I bet he did everything wrong. And you had to spend the whole evening with him and his stupid cat, my poor Oh-chan!” He picked the dog up. “Come on, Oh-chan!” he announced, “We’re going home! And you’re going to sleep in your normal bed with me and not with that bastard!” Ignoring Jun, he stepped outside the apartment with the happily wriggling dog on his arm and went over to his own apartment. “And when we’re in bed, I’m going to sing you your favourite song. Did that bastard sing to you? I bet he didn’t, because his voice is so ugly!” Jun heard him say quietly, before he disappeared into his apartment.
Jun was nice enough to not start laughing hysterically, until he had closed his own door and went back to bed, muffling the sound of his voice in Aiba-chan’s fur.
I think these are going to vary greatly in length. Oh, well. Tentatively next in line: New landlord Hina and his big (and also big) tom-cat Yoko.
On with the ficlet! ^___^
Getting Photographed
Aiba-chan made his way through the grass, tail erect, curious nose inspecting each little blade that crossed his way. At one sun-bathed spot of short grass interspersed with weeds he stopped to roll around in it, his belly open to the warm sunlight. Oh-chan, who was also running free in the yard, came over to sniff at him gently. Aiba-chan wriggled and arched his back in the clear plea of “pet me!”
Jun, watching the scene from the porch, smiled widely.
“You know, that would make a really sweet photo”, he said and looked down at Ninomiya, who was sitting next to him and playing around with his new camera.
“Yeah. Tooth-rotting sweet”, Ninomiya snorted. “What am I, an employee for a Valentine’s day card factory?”
“You think Oh-chan’s the most adorable dog on earth”, Jun said. “And if anyone else took photos of him, you’d buy all existing copies of them.”
“I think he’s a living vacuum-cleaner”, Ninomiya retorted. “And I think he’s molesting Aiba-chan right now.”
Jun’s head whipped around just in time to see Aiba-chan wriggle away from an interested-looking Oh-chan - whose nose was indeed quite near Aiba-chan’s bottom - and stalk over to the big tree.
Jun’s eyes widened.
“Aiba-chan, no!” he shouted and surged forward, but by the time he reached the tree, Aiba-chan was already mostly up the trunk.
“Aiba-chan, come down there!” he demanded. Aiba-chan hesitated. Jun rubbed his eyes. “Come on, you stupid cat. I know you can come down from there, it’s not so far up.” Aiba-chan still hesitated, clinging to the bark like a squirrel. He craned his neck to look down, his eyes round and wide as saucers. He blinked.
“Come on, Aiba-chan”, Jun tried to cajole. “Come on, I’ve got nice cat-sweets inside for you, co- Nino, stop taking photos!”
Nino, who had appeared next to him with his camera, smirked. “This kind of stupidity has to be preserved for coming generations”, he explained and took a photo of Aiba-chan’s panicky face.
Jun gritted his teeth. “It doesn’t! Stop it and help me!”
Nino just grinned wider.
Jun huffed and stretched up. Aiba-chan was more than two metres up, but if he stretched up really high, he could touch him with his finger-tips. He poked at him.
“Come on, Aiba-chan, I’m here”, he said calmingly. “It’s OK, I won’t let you fall. Get down here, come on!”
Aiba-chan looked down. Then he awkwardly turned around slightly and jumped onto Jun’s shoulder and from there to the ground. He stalked away from the tree a bit and set down to wash himself. Oh-chan sat down next to him and sniffed at him again and Aiba-chan stopped washing himself long enough to rub his head against Oh-chan’s, who thumped his tail happily.
Jun, who was rubbing his shoulder where he could still feel the pricks of Aiba-chan’s claws, grimaced and looked at Nino darkly.
“Give me that camera!” he demanded.
Nino stepped back.
“You just want to delete the photos I made!” he protested.
Jun held his hand out. “If you don’t want me to have the camera, delete them yourself!”
“Nu-huh!” Nino shook his head and grinned. “I’m going to print these out and pin them to my fridge. And then I’m going to point and laugh at your cat’s stupid face whenever I get myself something to eat.”
Jun growled and attacked him, but Nino quickly ducked and, still laughing, ran back into his apartment, where he quickly shut the door behind him.
Jun sighed and bent down to pick up Aiba-chan.
“That bastard. Taking photos of you like that”, he murmured. “He’s going to remind me of this for the next three months!” Aiba-chan in his arms purred. Jun made his way to his apartment. “I should make him hand me that damn camera”, he grumbled and shoved open the sliding door. Looking down to step out of his shoes, he stopped. At his feet sat Oh-chan, staring up at him admiringly, tail thumping on the ground.
“Don’t say he forgot you out here?” Jun said. Oh-chan’s tail thumped harder. “Should I let you into his apartment?” Jun asked. “Though he’d deserve it if I didn’t hand you over to him, just like he didn’t hand me those photos…” he stopped. Slowly, he started to smirk.
“What do you say, Oh-chan?” he asked. “Would you like to spend the night at my place?”
He stepped inside the apartment and Oh-chan followed him happily.
“Let’s see”, Jun said as he went into the kitchen, “how long your master will make it without you.” He smirked at Oh-chan, who ignored him in favour of pouncing on and inhaling Aiba-chan’s dry food that stood in the corner of the room. Jun quickly rescued the last pieces by setting the bowl on the counter.
“Cat food”, he said firmly. Oh-chan licked his mouth and turned begging puppy-eyes on him.
Jun sighed and opened the fridge.
“Let’s see what we shall eat this evening”, he mused.
Aiba-chan jumped onto the counter and tried to climb into the fridge. Jun picked him up.
“There’s nothing in there that wasn’t there this morning”, he admonished.
Aiba-chan clung to his shirt and craned his neck to stare into the fridge. His eyes followed Jun’s hand, as he began to take turkey breast, olives, onions, red peppers, tomatoes, cold cooked rice and a bag with pieces of heart out of the fridge and put it onto the counter.
“I’m going to have pasta today”, Jun announced. “And you can have a bit of turkey with heart and the rest of yesterday’s rice.”
Aiba-chan purred. Jun stroked his head and sat him onto the floor. Aiba-chan jumped up onto the counter. Jun put him on the floor again.
“No kitties on the counter while I’m preparing food!” he said sternly and went over the sink to wash his hands.
Aiba-chan jumped onto the counter again and made his way slowly over to the meat in the apparent believe that, as long as Jun couldn’t see him, he wouldn’t know what he did.
Jun sighed and turned around. “Aiba-chan…” he called. Aiba turned to look at him, lost his footing and fell to the floor. With a hurt expression, he stalked off to the living-room, where he sat down to wash himself some more.
Jun shook his head and smiled, while Oh-chan ignored both of them, his eyes glued to the food on the counter. When Jun moved to prepare the food, he changed his position so that he still had an unhindered view. Jun raised an eyebrow.
“You know, it’s not going to disappear as soon as you can’t see it anymore”, he said conversationally. Immediately Oh-chan came closer, turning his stare from the food to Jun. Jun, who was cutting the olives, held one of the black vegetables up.
“This is an olive”, he said. “You don’t have to beg, because you wouldn’t like it anyway.”
Oh-chan wagged his tail and swallowed, his eyes fixed on the olive now.
“You wouldn’t like it”, Jun repeated. “See?” He bent down and held the olive to Oh-chan’s nose. Oh-chan sniffed at it, then took it from Jun’s hand and swallowed it down. Immediately, his gaze transferred itself to the remaining food on the counter.
Jun stared at him. “What the hell does Ninomiya feed you?” Oh-chan didn’t react. Shaking his head, Jun went back to work.
“I’m going to show you some great dog-food tonight. You won’t want to eat anything else afterwards”, he promised. He finished the olives and started on the peppers. He was just finished with vegetables and about to cut the meat, when he heard Nino’s voice outside, calling for Oh-chan with increasing urgency.
Jun smirked.
“This should be fun”, he told the animals and went to his backdoor. Sliding it open just enough to talk, he called out to Nino, who was standing on the porch: “He’s here!”
Nino turned around. “Oh-chan?”
Jun nodded through the mostly closed door. “You forgot him outside, so I took him in just now.”
Nino stared at him impatiently. “And where is he now? As nice as it is of you to play babysitter for him when he doesn’t even need one, it’s time for him to come home now.”
Jun smiled at him.
“Oh, I thought he might spend the night here. After all, you didn’t want to give me what I wanted, either”, he explained.
Nino’s eyes narrowed to slits. “So this is it, then?” he said coldly. “You’re holding him hostage?!”
Jun stayed calm and stared back. “I’m not. I just want you to use the time you have this evening to think about your decision of not giving me the photos. And I think you can do that best without Oh-chan around. Don’t worry, he’ll get the best treatment tonight and as soon as you’ve changed your mind, you just have to bring the photos over and Oh-chan can go back to your place again.”
“And if I don’t?”
“I’ll bring Oh-chan back to you tomorrow morning.”
Nino stared at him harder.
“I’m not going to change my mind”, he said icily. “I’m not going to be manipulated by you. You wouldn’t hurt Oh-chan and I can be without him for a night very easily.” Abruptly he turned around and left for his own flat.
Jun looked down. “Want to bet that he won’t make it two hours?” he asked Aiba-chan. Then he frowned. “Where’s Oh-chan? I’d have thought he’d come when Nino calls for him!” Just then, he heard scrabbling of blunt claws on wood. “Oh-chan!” he yelled and charged into the kitchen, “Don’t you dare touch the food!”
After dinner, Jun sat down to watch TV. He didn’t really have many hobbies - usually his work was so demanding that letting his brain turn to mush with variety shows and silly dramas was the only thing he was capable of afterwards. Aiba-chan and Oh-chan joined him on the couch, Aiba-chan on his lap, purring away like always; Oh-chan next to him, stretched out on his side, snoring. Jun reached out to stroke him and in his sleep, Oh-chan turned over on his back and presented his soft belly. After a few hours, Jun cast a look at the clock, turned off the TV and carefully put the sleeping Aiba-chan next to Oh-chan. Aiba-chan woke up slightly, but accepted the new source of warmth next to him easily. Oh-chan didn’t even twitch.
Silently, Jun went into his bedroom and over to the wall that connected his flat with Nino’s. He carefully put his ear against the wall and held his breath. There - he could hear the soft sound of Nino typing on his keyboard.
He had never understood, what Nino’s job was exactly. Apparently, Nino was some sort of “personalized enemy” in an online game: for an extra fee and from a certain level on the gamers could have the dubious pleasure of being hunted by and then fighting an enemy who was just as intelligent, resourceful and creative as they were - and who knew the game a hundred times better than they did. Jun didn’t understand the appeal of that, just as he didn’t understand why those gamers didn’t just join a role play, or a team shooter game, if they wanted to fight other humans; but apparently enough people liked the idea well enough to make it profitable to the games company to hire people like Nino, who spent their whole time playing those people.
Nino’s job led to different things, including Oh-chan, since his mother had been very concerned that her son should get away from the computer at least twice a day and a dog was the best way to ensure that he had a good reason to go out, and - since most gamers took up the game after school or work - very strange working hours. Jun didn’t know his schedule completely, but he knew that Nino often stayed up until four or five in the morning, went out with Oh-chan, slept until noon and then spent the rest of the afternoon lounging about in the backyard with Oh-chan and his guitar, until he started working again at seven in the evening.
Jun bit his lips. When he’d given Nino the ultimatum, he hadn’t considered that Nino might indeed not miss Oh-chan in the night because he was working the whole time. Quite a draw-back in his plans to get revenge from his neighbour.
Jun sighed. So he’d just have another warm and soft little body in his bed tonight. That was at least something. He quietly turned away from the wall and got ready for bed.
By the time he was finished with his night-time ritual, Aiba-chan had woken up and joined him in the bedroom and as soon as Jun lay down, he took up his usual position snuggled up on Jun’s pillow, with his small head pressed to Jun’s neck, making soft, purring snores. Jun turned off the light and closed his eyes - and started smiling, when traipsing footsteps and a sudden weight at his side told him that Oh-chan had decided that he didn’t want to stay alone on the couch anymore. With an air of complete happiness with the situation, the dog turned around himself for a few moments and then curled up pressed to Jun’s side. Luckily he was on the other side from Aiba-chan, which allowed Jun to reach down and stroke the soft big ears with one hand, while keeping his other hand buried in Aiba-chan’s fur. The smile still on his face, he went to sleep.
A few hours later, he was woken by loud banging on his door. Three in the morning, his alarm clock informed him. He stumbled into the living room and turned the lights on. On the other side of the sliding doors to the garden, Nino stood, hunched up, dressed in pyjamas, holding his camera in hand and clearly unhappy. Jun opened the door.
“Here”, Nino said and thrust his camera at him, looking away. “I deleted the stupid pictures. Can I please have my damn dog back, now?”
Jun nodded, but didn’t take the camera. “Oh-chan!” he called into his apartment. “Oh-chan! Time to go!”
“Oh-chan!” Nino joined him. There was a short scuffle and then Oh-chan raced towards them and threw himself at Nino with an enthusiasm that suggested he hadn’t seen his owner in the last three weeks. Nino dropped to his knees and buried his face into Oh-chan’s fur.
“Have you missed me, Oh-chan?” he asked, his voice slightly muffled. “That bastard Jun, kidnapping you and holding you hostage! I bet you were miserable with him, weren’t you? I bet he did everything wrong. And you had to spend the whole evening with him and his stupid cat, my poor Oh-chan!” He picked the dog up. “Come on, Oh-chan!” he announced, “We’re going home! And you’re going to sleep in your normal bed with me and not with that bastard!” Ignoring Jun, he stepped outside the apartment with the happily wriggling dog on his arm and went over to his own apartment. “And when we’re in bed, I’m going to sing you your favourite song. Did that bastard sing to you? I bet he didn’t, because his voice is so ugly!” Jun heard him say quietly, before he disappeared into his apartment.
Jun was nice enough to not start laughing hysterically, until he had closed his own door and went back to bed, muffling the sound of his voice in Aiba-chan’s fur.
I think these are going to vary greatly in length. Oh, well. Tentatively next in line: New landlord Hina and his big (and also big) tom-cat Yoko.