{oneshot} purrs, whiskers and paws ; gen
TITLE: Purrs, Whiskers and Paws
PAIRING: Gen, mentions of Nishikido Ryo/Ueda Tatsuya
RATING: PG
DISCLAIMER: Do not own.
GENRE: AU, fluff... of sorts.
NOTES: For floppy_snoopi. Happy birthday <3
SUMMARY: Ryo finds a kitten. Nothing more, nothing less. It doesn't turn into a human or grow wings or spout fire from its mouth; it's just a tiny, white kitten. And he loves it.
Being a vampire is lonely.
Ryo's had many friends over the past three hundred years, but none of them had been able to... last very long. That's the problem with being friends with humans, he supposes. They either die by themselves, or get too close and Ryo can't control himself. Eating is a messy affair and none too pretty, but it has to be done. Otherwise Ryo will die, and that's no fun. Ryo's too selfish to die just because he wants to save a friend or two.
He doesn't like other vampires, either. They're too stuck up, always thinking they know more just because Ryo is still young. He gets tired of their bullshit pretty quickly; patience has never been his strong point.
Yet he's still lonely.
>>><<<
Ryo's walking past a newsagency with his yellow umbrella held high over his head when he finds it. It's a battered old cardboard box sitting by the corner of the shops, its corners weak from the rain and covered in mud. He's about to walk right past it but that's when he hears the tiniest sound he has ever heard, if sounds could be tiny.
It's a kitten. Granted, it's rather dishevelled little kitten; Ryo thinks it's meant to be some shade of white or grey but at the moment it's some sort of brownish red. It's meowing up at Ryo, curled up in the corner of the box and shivering in the rain, and Ryo feels something give in his stone-cold heart.
He reaches out for the kitten and it shrinks away, hissing at his hand as it backs further into the box. But Ryo is persistent and manages to grab it, quickly bundling it up into his coat and holding onto it tightly, even as it tries to claw its way back out. It's making a horrible amount of noise, Ryo thinks, but he guesses that should have been expected. It's clawing at his skin and it hurts but he knows it can't do much damage, so he lets it be.
Once home, he carefully places the kitten down on the floor and it shoots underneath the couch. Ryo sighs.
He grabs a small towel and pours a little milk into a saucer - just because he's a vampire doesn't mean he doesn't enjoy tea on cold nights - and leaves it on the ground in front of the couch. The kitten comes out slowly as Ryo watches, its whiskers twitching as it tries to find the milk. The poor little thing is still soaking wet, but Ryo leaves it be for now - it's been through too much tonight.
Ryo finds himself smiling as the tiny kitten bends down and starts lapping at the milk. It gets drops all down its chin and on its whiskers but once it's done it looks tired and satisfied, and it meows up at Ryo. "I guess you want some food?" Ryo asks, and it just licks its lips. "But I don't have anything - tell you what, tomorrow I'll go buy you some, how does that sound?"
The kitten blinks sleepily. Ryo chuckles and lies back onto the couch, leaning over to grab the remote to turn the television on. The kitten rushes back under the couch when the television starts, its loud music and bright lights frightening it.
He's just gotten comfortable in the middle of his weekly drama - he's been following it for the past few weeks and has gotten a little addicted - when there's a small noise at the end of the couch. Ryo keeps as still as he can as the kitten claws its way up the couch and pokes at his ankle carefully; slowly it crawls up the length of the couch to sniff gingerly at his outstretched hand.
It stays curled up near his hand as the night draws on, it's eyes slowly closing as sleep calls to it. Ryo doesn't really need to sleep - he still doesn't know why; vampires don't exactly have a handbook as to why things happen - but he still closes his eyes and drifts into what he assumes is some kind of sleep.
It's weird.
He's not so lonely tonight.
>>><<<
"Kitty?"
The next morning, Ryo goes out to buy kitten food. It's confusing and a little ridiculous because why are there so many types but he sort of just grabs the nearest one and hopes for the best. He also grabs a collar, blue and tiny with a little yellow bell that he just knows will grate on his nerves after a while, and a cat toy. The woman at the store drags him around the place, forcing different things into his hands - when will he ever need a cat harness, for heavens sake? - and he walks out with a knowledge of kittens that he thought he would never have. Or need.
But now he's home, and the little kitten - who is all dry now, and looking a little cleaner than it was before; it's also very, very fluffy - watches from its vantage point atop the sofa as he pours out some food. It stinks like death and Ryo coughs from the stench - sometimes he hates his sensitive nose. He sets the bowl down on the floor and picks the kitten up before it can rush back under the couch.
"Here," he says, and sets the cat in front of the food. It sniffs at the food and looks up at him before tentatively licking at the food. It's not long before the kitten is eating heartily, food sticking to the long fur on its face. "Calm down," Ryo laughs. "You'll get stomach pains."
But Ryo doesn't speak cat, and the cat doesn't speak vampire. So they're stuck.
It's when Ryo's making lunch for himself that he realises he doesn't even know whether the kitten is male or female. "Huh," he says to himself, before staring at the little animal. "What are you?"
It meows at him.
He's not entirely sure how to tell whether a cat is male or female, so he guesses. "You'll be a boy," he says. "I'll call you Tatsuya."
Ryo knew a Tatsuya, once. Years and years ago. Probably the happiest time of his stupid vampire life. Full of smiles and funny little kisses.
So he names the little animal Tatsuya, because it reminds him of soft hugs and fluffy morning hair; of peaceful Sunday afternoons when they'd curl up on the couch and he'd listen to Tatsuya's heart beating.
The little kitten meows slightly when Ryo calls its name. That's that, then. Tatsuya.
Ryo smiles.
>>><<<
Ryo wrangles the collar around Tatsuya's neck and Tatsuya hates the thing; he gets his paws stuck in it when he tries to claw it back off, he meows and meows and hisses and meows some more until Ryo has enough and kind of roars in Tatsuya's face. (This, somehow, doesn't scare Tatsuya at all - rather, he seems intrigued to find where the noise came from and paws at Ryo's face for quite a long time.)
Tatsuya grows used to the collar and Ryo gets used to the bell ringing every time Tatsuya moves. It becomes kind of a comfort, Ryo thinks. He knows he's not alone when that little bell rings.
Tatsuya hates the collar but he loves the toy Ryo bought him. He twists this way and that, flailing his little paws everywhere trying to attack the stationary object. Ryo laughs as he watches Tatsuya pounce on it before flying back under the couch, glaring at it like it's done something wrong.
"Come here," Ryo laughs, grabbing Tatsuya around the middle and lifting him up into his lap. Tatsuya hisses down at the toy - which still hasn't moved - and twists in Ryo's hold to stare up at him. "Isn't it time for your nap?"
Ryo lies down - his drama is on soon - and Tatsuya curls up on his chest, right under his chin. His fur tickles and it's quite uncomfortable, and Ryo can't exactly breathe - he supposes he doesn't really need to breathe but you get used to doing these kinds of things when you used to be human.
"Tatsuya, could you--"
And then Tatsuya starts purring, a tiny little rumble that Ryo can feel more than hear, and it's the sweetest thing he's ever heard. But Tatsuya stops soon after starting, and Ryo goes back to watching his drama.
He laughs at one point in the show, and the purring starts again before quickly dying away.
"...Tatsuya?"
Purr.
Every time Ryo speaks, or moves, or makes any kind of sound at all, Tatsuya starts purring. Ryo doesn't really know what to do with this, so he resigns himself to watching his drama with added purring sounds. He turns the television up louder. Tatsuya purrs louder. It's like he knows Ryo's trying to listen to the television.
(Ryo ends up shoving Tatsuya off; Tatsuya meows in a disgruntled manner before perching himself on Ryo's hip. This is a much more uncomfortable place for the kitty to sit; his elbows and knees dig into Ryo's skin and it's just at that point where there's bone and it hurts but Ryo is a vampire and shouldn't complain about tiny little kitten pains.)
Ryo ends up throwing Tatsuya's toy and takes great joy in watching Tatsuya bolt across the room to stalk it from behind the leg of the coffee table. He settles back to watch his show when there's a crash from the kitchen and he groans because he knows just what Tatsuya's knocked over - that vase he had kept from the 1800s.
"Tatsuya!" he yells and suddenly there's a tiny white blur rushing from the kitchen to cower under the couch. "What am I gonna do with you...?" he mutters to himself.
The vase is pretty much destroyed. It lies in shattered pieces throughout Ryo's kitchen, with Tatsuya's toy lying nearby. "Troublemaker," Ryo sighs, and bends down to inspect the damage closely. On one hand, Tatsuya had just destroyed one of Ryo's only relics from the past but on the other hand, Tatsuya had just destroyed the only relic of his past he had kind of hated. He doesn't know why he didn't think of dropping it sooner. It was horrible and brown and dusty - Ryo's not the best duster - and he had only kept it because people kept giving him flowers and he never had anywhere to put them. He still doesn't know why people keep giving him flowers. They always did it with such a sad face.
"Thanks, kitty," he laughs, and cleans the mess up. The broom is very exciting to Tatsuya, who sneaks out from under the couch and watches with pricked ears as the broom goes backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards.
Ryo watches as Tatsuya crouches down into his Prime Hunting Pose, his head following wherever the broom goes. There's the telltale wiggle to his hips and then Tatsuya's rushing forward to bap the broom with one paw before galloping away again, his fluffy tail curled up to one side as he skids back around the corner.
"You're a very brave kitty," Ryo laughs, leaning against the broom to watch as Tatsuya peeks around the corner. He meows.
>>><<<
Tatsuya has no idea what to think when Ryo brings home his own dinner.
Ryo's dinner is a bag full of blood - cow, of course, he doesn't like the taste of human all that much anymore. He does treat himself to one or two humans occassionally though. It's an acquired taste, and Tatsuya's existence (the human one) had sort of made him stop in the first place.
That, and getting rid of the bodies without trying to look too much like a serial killer was too tiring.
But Tatsuya's on the bag of blood like a moth to flame, his nose twitching as he sniffs the bag. "Go away," Ryo snaps. He always gets grumpy when he's hungry. And there's a tiny little white kitten in between he and his food. "Tatsuya, this is not fair."
Once again the language barrier proves a problem, so Ryo just flicks Tatsuya's ear. This does absolutely nothing.
His drama is back on - he's so happy there are so many episodes - and he sits on the couch carefully, a drinking straw in his bag of blood as the show starts. Tatsuya's on the coffee table, lapping up his share of Ryo's dinner from his bowl. "Seriously, this is not fair," Ryo whines. "You get your own food, what about me?"
Tatsuya starts purring and all is forgiven.
>>><<<
Ryo is distraught when Tatsuya needs to get his shots.
He sits in the waiting room - where a tiny girl pulls on his leg and asks him if he's ever snorted milk from his nose - and jiggles his leg impatiently. Tatsuya's crying in his cage, these horrible mewls that Ryo hates because he knows he's confused and scared, and Ryo's the one who made him come here in the first place. He has half a mind to get up and leave and is only stopped when the vet calls his name.
The vet is very full-on. She's in his face with her flyaway hair, asking about where he had found Tatsuya and what he had been feeding him - oh yes, just regular cow blood - and if Tatsuya had been sucking on Ryo's fingers lately. Ryo laughs because there's a memory attached to that with human-Tatsuya and it's none too innocent, but the vet just cocks an eyebrow and Ryo clears his throat.
"No."
She takes Tatsuya's temperature and weighs him - Ryo's oddly proud, even if Tatsuya is underweight - and takes him away to give him his shots. Ryo paces backwards and forwards and reads the posters about dental care for dogs and what to do if your cat has ringworm and is wondering about whether he should invest in life insurance for Tatsuya when the vet comes back.
Tatsuya is shivering and there's a red patch on his back and Ryo feels like crying. "What did you do?" he asks, that hurt creeping into his voice as he takes his kitten back. "He's bleeding, I thought--"
"I needed to give him a microchip," the vet chirps, and slides her glasses higher up her nose as she inputs something into the computer. "Sometimes they bleed a little. He's fine, he's a brave boy."
"I know he is!" Ryo snaps, and holds Tatsuya closer.
Ryo goes hungry that night, but it's all worth it for the satisfied look on Tatsuya's face when he finishes Ryo's cow's blood.
>>><<<
Ryo's drama is back on television - it's the midday encore this time - and he's sitting there on his couch waiting for it to start. Tatsuya pads in from the balcony, having finished stalking a rather scary-looking snail, and meows happily when he sees Ryo.
"Hey you," Ryo says, and pats his lap. Tatsuya jumps up, purring all the while.
It's when Tatsuya curls up on his lap, his little paws kneading Ryo's stomach, that Ryo realises he doesn't know how he lived without him.
"I love you, little guy," Ryo whispers, and strokes Tatsuya's fur.
Tatsuya just purrs louder.
end
PAIRING: Gen, mentions of Nishikido Ryo/Ueda Tatsuya
RATING: PG
DISCLAIMER: Do not own.
GENRE: AU, fluff... of sorts.
NOTES: For floppy_snoopi. Happy birthday <3
SUMMARY: Ryo finds a kitten. Nothing more, nothing less. It doesn't turn into a human or grow wings or spout fire from its mouth; it's just a tiny, white kitten. And he loves it.
Being a vampire is lonely.
Ryo's had many friends over the past three hundred years, but none of them had been able to... last very long. That's the problem with being friends with humans, he supposes. They either die by themselves, or get too close and Ryo can't control himself. Eating is a messy affair and none too pretty, but it has to be done. Otherwise Ryo will die, and that's no fun. Ryo's too selfish to die just because he wants to save a friend or two.
He doesn't like other vampires, either. They're too stuck up, always thinking they know more just because Ryo is still young. He gets tired of their bullshit pretty quickly; patience has never been his strong point.
Yet he's still lonely.
>>><<<
Ryo's walking past a newsagency with his yellow umbrella held high over his head when he finds it. It's a battered old cardboard box sitting by the corner of the shops, its corners weak from the rain and covered in mud. He's about to walk right past it but that's when he hears the tiniest sound he has ever heard, if sounds could be tiny.
It's a kitten. Granted, it's rather dishevelled little kitten; Ryo thinks it's meant to be some shade of white or grey but at the moment it's some sort of brownish red. It's meowing up at Ryo, curled up in the corner of the box and shivering in the rain, and Ryo feels something give in his stone-cold heart.
He reaches out for the kitten and it shrinks away, hissing at his hand as it backs further into the box. But Ryo is persistent and manages to grab it, quickly bundling it up into his coat and holding onto it tightly, even as it tries to claw its way back out. It's making a horrible amount of noise, Ryo thinks, but he guesses that should have been expected. It's clawing at his skin and it hurts but he knows it can't do much damage, so he lets it be.
Once home, he carefully places the kitten down on the floor and it shoots underneath the couch. Ryo sighs.
He grabs a small towel and pours a little milk into a saucer - just because he's a vampire doesn't mean he doesn't enjoy tea on cold nights - and leaves it on the ground in front of the couch. The kitten comes out slowly as Ryo watches, its whiskers twitching as it tries to find the milk. The poor little thing is still soaking wet, but Ryo leaves it be for now - it's been through too much tonight.
Ryo finds himself smiling as the tiny kitten bends down and starts lapping at the milk. It gets drops all down its chin and on its whiskers but once it's done it looks tired and satisfied, and it meows up at Ryo. "I guess you want some food?" Ryo asks, and it just licks its lips. "But I don't have anything - tell you what, tomorrow I'll go buy you some, how does that sound?"
The kitten blinks sleepily. Ryo chuckles and lies back onto the couch, leaning over to grab the remote to turn the television on. The kitten rushes back under the couch when the television starts, its loud music and bright lights frightening it.
He's just gotten comfortable in the middle of his weekly drama - he's been following it for the past few weeks and has gotten a little addicted - when there's a small noise at the end of the couch. Ryo keeps as still as he can as the kitten claws its way up the couch and pokes at his ankle carefully; slowly it crawls up the length of the couch to sniff gingerly at his outstretched hand.
It stays curled up near his hand as the night draws on, it's eyes slowly closing as sleep calls to it. Ryo doesn't really need to sleep - he still doesn't know why; vampires don't exactly have a handbook as to why things happen - but he still closes his eyes and drifts into what he assumes is some kind of sleep.
It's weird.
He's not so lonely tonight.
>>><<<
"Kitty?"
The next morning, Ryo goes out to buy kitten food. It's confusing and a little ridiculous because why are there so many types but he sort of just grabs the nearest one and hopes for the best. He also grabs a collar, blue and tiny with a little yellow bell that he just knows will grate on his nerves after a while, and a cat toy. The woman at the store drags him around the place, forcing different things into his hands - when will he ever need a cat harness, for heavens sake? - and he walks out with a knowledge of kittens that he thought he would never have. Or need.
But now he's home, and the little kitten - who is all dry now, and looking a little cleaner than it was before; it's also very, very fluffy - watches from its vantage point atop the sofa as he pours out some food. It stinks like death and Ryo coughs from the stench - sometimes he hates his sensitive nose. He sets the bowl down on the floor and picks the kitten up before it can rush back under the couch.
"Here," he says, and sets the cat in front of the food. It sniffs at the food and looks up at him before tentatively licking at the food. It's not long before the kitten is eating heartily, food sticking to the long fur on its face. "Calm down," Ryo laughs. "You'll get stomach pains."
But Ryo doesn't speak cat, and the cat doesn't speak vampire. So they're stuck.
It's when Ryo's making lunch for himself that he realises he doesn't even know whether the kitten is male or female. "Huh," he says to himself, before staring at the little animal. "What are you?"
It meows at him.
He's not entirely sure how to tell whether a cat is male or female, so he guesses. "You'll be a boy," he says. "I'll call you Tatsuya."
Ryo knew a Tatsuya, once. Years and years ago. Probably the happiest time of his stupid vampire life. Full of smiles and funny little kisses.
So he names the little animal Tatsuya, because it reminds him of soft hugs and fluffy morning hair; of peaceful Sunday afternoons when they'd curl up on the couch and he'd listen to Tatsuya's heart beating.
The little kitten meows slightly when Ryo calls its name. That's that, then. Tatsuya.
Ryo smiles.
>>><<<
Ryo wrangles the collar around Tatsuya's neck and Tatsuya hates the thing; he gets his paws stuck in it when he tries to claw it back off, he meows and meows and hisses and meows some more until Ryo has enough and kind of roars in Tatsuya's face. (This, somehow, doesn't scare Tatsuya at all - rather, he seems intrigued to find where the noise came from and paws at Ryo's face for quite a long time.)
Tatsuya grows used to the collar and Ryo gets used to the bell ringing every time Tatsuya moves. It becomes kind of a comfort, Ryo thinks. He knows he's not alone when that little bell rings.
Tatsuya hates the collar but he loves the toy Ryo bought him. He twists this way and that, flailing his little paws everywhere trying to attack the stationary object. Ryo laughs as he watches Tatsuya pounce on it before flying back under the couch, glaring at it like it's done something wrong.
"Come here," Ryo laughs, grabbing Tatsuya around the middle and lifting him up into his lap. Tatsuya hisses down at the toy - which still hasn't moved - and twists in Ryo's hold to stare up at him. "Isn't it time for your nap?"
Ryo lies down - his drama is on soon - and Tatsuya curls up on his chest, right under his chin. His fur tickles and it's quite uncomfortable, and Ryo can't exactly breathe - he supposes he doesn't really need to breathe but you get used to doing these kinds of things when you used to be human.
"Tatsuya, could you--"
And then Tatsuya starts purring, a tiny little rumble that Ryo can feel more than hear, and it's the sweetest thing he's ever heard. But Tatsuya stops soon after starting, and Ryo goes back to watching his drama.
He laughs at one point in the show, and the purring starts again before quickly dying away.
"...Tatsuya?"
Purr.
Every time Ryo speaks, or moves, or makes any kind of sound at all, Tatsuya starts purring. Ryo doesn't really know what to do with this, so he resigns himself to watching his drama with added purring sounds. He turns the television up louder. Tatsuya purrs louder. It's like he knows Ryo's trying to listen to the television.
(Ryo ends up shoving Tatsuya off; Tatsuya meows in a disgruntled manner before perching himself on Ryo's hip. This is a much more uncomfortable place for the kitty to sit; his elbows and knees dig into Ryo's skin and it's just at that point where there's bone and it hurts but Ryo is a vampire and shouldn't complain about tiny little kitten pains.)
Ryo ends up throwing Tatsuya's toy and takes great joy in watching Tatsuya bolt across the room to stalk it from behind the leg of the coffee table. He settles back to watch his show when there's a crash from the kitchen and he groans because he knows just what Tatsuya's knocked over - that vase he had kept from the 1800s.
"Tatsuya!" he yells and suddenly there's a tiny white blur rushing from the kitchen to cower under the couch. "What am I gonna do with you...?" he mutters to himself.
The vase is pretty much destroyed. It lies in shattered pieces throughout Ryo's kitchen, with Tatsuya's toy lying nearby. "Troublemaker," Ryo sighs, and bends down to inspect the damage closely. On one hand, Tatsuya had just destroyed one of Ryo's only relics from the past but on the other hand, Tatsuya had just destroyed the only relic of his past he had kind of hated. He doesn't know why he didn't think of dropping it sooner. It was horrible and brown and dusty - Ryo's not the best duster - and he had only kept it because people kept giving him flowers and he never had anywhere to put them. He still doesn't know why people keep giving him flowers. They always did it with such a sad face.
"Thanks, kitty," he laughs, and cleans the mess up. The broom is very exciting to Tatsuya, who sneaks out from under the couch and watches with pricked ears as the broom goes backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards.
Ryo watches as Tatsuya crouches down into his Prime Hunting Pose, his head following wherever the broom goes. There's the telltale wiggle to his hips and then Tatsuya's rushing forward to bap the broom with one paw before galloping away again, his fluffy tail curled up to one side as he skids back around the corner.
"You're a very brave kitty," Ryo laughs, leaning against the broom to watch as Tatsuya peeks around the corner. He meows.
>>><<<
Tatsuya has no idea what to think when Ryo brings home his own dinner.
Ryo's dinner is a bag full of blood - cow, of course, he doesn't like the taste of human all that much anymore. He does treat himself to one or two humans occassionally though. It's an acquired taste, and Tatsuya's existence (the human one) had sort of made him stop in the first place.
That, and getting rid of the bodies without trying to look too much like a serial killer was too tiring.
But Tatsuya's on the bag of blood like a moth to flame, his nose twitching as he sniffs the bag. "Go away," Ryo snaps. He always gets grumpy when he's hungry. And there's a tiny little white kitten in between he and his food. "Tatsuya, this is not fair."
Once again the language barrier proves a problem, so Ryo just flicks Tatsuya's ear. This does absolutely nothing.
His drama is back on - he's so happy there are so many episodes - and he sits on the couch carefully, a drinking straw in his bag of blood as the show starts. Tatsuya's on the coffee table, lapping up his share of Ryo's dinner from his bowl. "Seriously, this is not fair," Ryo whines. "You get your own food, what about me?"
Tatsuya starts purring and all is forgiven.
>>><<<
Ryo is distraught when Tatsuya needs to get his shots.
He sits in the waiting room - where a tiny girl pulls on his leg and asks him if he's ever snorted milk from his nose - and jiggles his leg impatiently. Tatsuya's crying in his cage, these horrible mewls that Ryo hates because he knows he's confused and scared, and Ryo's the one who made him come here in the first place. He has half a mind to get up and leave and is only stopped when the vet calls his name.
The vet is very full-on. She's in his face with her flyaway hair, asking about where he had found Tatsuya and what he had been feeding him - oh yes, just regular cow blood - and if Tatsuya had been sucking on Ryo's fingers lately. Ryo laughs because there's a memory attached to that with human-Tatsuya and it's none too innocent, but the vet just cocks an eyebrow and Ryo clears his throat.
"No."
She takes Tatsuya's temperature and weighs him - Ryo's oddly proud, even if Tatsuya is underweight - and takes him away to give him his shots. Ryo paces backwards and forwards and reads the posters about dental care for dogs and what to do if your cat has ringworm and is wondering about whether he should invest in life insurance for Tatsuya when the vet comes back.
Tatsuya is shivering and there's a red patch on his back and Ryo feels like crying. "What did you do?" he asks, that hurt creeping into his voice as he takes his kitten back. "He's bleeding, I thought--"
"I needed to give him a microchip," the vet chirps, and slides her glasses higher up her nose as she inputs something into the computer. "Sometimes they bleed a little. He's fine, he's a brave boy."
"I know he is!" Ryo snaps, and holds Tatsuya closer.
Ryo goes hungry that night, but it's all worth it for the satisfied look on Tatsuya's face when he finishes Ryo's cow's blood.
>>><<<
Ryo's drama is back on television - it's the midday encore this time - and he's sitting there on his couch waiting for it to start. Tatsuya pads in from the balcony, having finished stalking a rather scary-looking snail, and meows happily when he sees Ryo.
"Hey you," Ryo says, and pats his lap. Tatsuya jumps up, purring all the while.
It's when Tatsuya curls up on his lap, his little paws kneading Ryo's stomach, that Ryo realises he doesn't know how he lived without him.
"I love you, little guy," Ryo whispers, and strokes Tatsuya's fur.
Tatsuya just purrs louder.
end