fic; let's go little kitty kat
Title: Let’s go little Kitty Kat
Paring/Characters: Jin-centric, Jin/Shige friendshippy-ness I don’t really know. >_>
Rating: PG
Summary: Jin turns into a cat.
Author’s Note: 5597 words. For ryogrande since it’s all her fault, lol. ♥ Idk how I managed to make this fic so long, but here it is, in all it's weirdness. XD I hope you like it! :3 The title’s from the song Kitty Kat by Beyonce.
It’s two in the morning when Jin finally reaches his apartment and he feels completely dead on his feet after the long, tiring flight from Budapest. It takes him almost five minutes to find the right key and get the door open and then he’s stumbling straight through it and not caring if he wakes Pi up, if Pi is even home, that is.
It seems like he is when Jin finds his shoes in the genkan and then quiets down as he heads to his room, drops his bag onto the floor and falls face-first into the mattress. He’s asleep in the next minute.
Upon waking almost eight hours later, Jin realizes instantly that something is wrong. Everything seems a hundred times bigger, like his room had grown magically overnight. Then his eyes widen and he exclaims, “Oh my god, I shrunk!”
Except he doesn’t hear his voice. All he hears is a loud meowing that has him jumping, whirling around to find the source, because last he checked neither he nor Pi had a cat, unless Pi got one while Jin was away (Pi gets lonely like that, but neither of them are really cat-people).
And that’s when he realizes he’s a cat, catching his reflection on the mirror across from his bed. His clothes from yesterday are in a crumpled pile under his four feet, and his cat-like eyes stare back at him from the mirror. He has soft looking, brown fur, though his left ear and the spot around his left eye is all black.
Jin screams. It comes out as a whiny screech that hurts his ears so he stops and wonders what the fuck he’s supposed to do now.
It takes him awhile to find the courage to jump down from his bed - is it really that high up from the floor? - and then pad to the door thinking (hoping) that Pi is still home so he can scratch his face and demand help, somehow. Belatedly he realizes that the door is shut and Jin really has no idea how to open it in his cat form, staring miserably up at the doorknob from the floor.
Jin strains his ears and tries to figure out if Pi is at home. He leaps up excitedly when he can make out distinct movement on the other side of the door and starts frantically clawing at the wood, hoping Pi can hear it. He meows too, just in case, quite proud of himself for keeping his head in this bizarre situation.
Just as Jin is getting tired and desperate he hears the doorknob turn and quickly jumps away before he ends up pushed into the wall.
Pi pokes his head inside, looking very curious, and Jin runs to his feet and purrs. Pi freezes, looks down. He stares at Jin for a long moment before looking back up and walking into the room. His gaze drops on the bed and then he blinks, calls out, “Jin? Where are you? I don’t care if you just got back from freaking Budapest, you can’t walk around naked again, okay, remember what happened-” His words cut off in a loud yelp and he looks down at Jin who has sunk his nails into Pi’s ankle.
Pi reaches down and scoops Jin up. Jin tries to look innocent and cute, meowing softly. “Jin,” Pi says, heading out of Jin’s room. “When did you get a cat?”
Pi is an idiot, Jin thinks irritably and meows louder until he gets Pi’s attention again. Pi stares and stares and then, finally, it seems like he’s put two and two together.
“Jin?” he says cautiously and Jin purrs happily. Pi’s eyes widen for a brief second before he relaxes and scratches Jin behind the ears. Jin meows loudly, his cat body greatly appreciating the gesture and Pi laughs. “Well, this is interesting,” he says, but otherwise doesn’t seem too concerned that his best friend has turned into a cat. And Jin thinks as long as Pi keeps petting him like this, he probably won’t care much either.
At least that’s before Pi shoved him into his bag and told him to be quiet, not closing it all the way to give Jin room to breathe, and then Jin feels himself toppling over inside as Pi clearly carries him out of the apartment and to work. Walking like this makes Jin feel a little sick, and it doesn’t help that it’s kind of dark and cramped inside Pi’s bag. At least when they’re in the car waiting to take Pi to wherever he has work that day, Pi sets him on the seat beside him, opens the bag a little more and trails his fingers along Jin’s fur again.
“I think I might like you better as a cat,” Pi whispers and Jin hisses, reaching out a paw to swat at him. Pi just laughs and adds, “Yeah, you’re definitely Jin.”
Jin glares, or at least tries to; he doesn’t exactly know what kind of a face he’s making as a cat. It seems to amuse Pi, so he thinks he’ll have to work on it.
When they finally arrive, Pi pushes him back into the bag and zips it up again. Jin peers out through the tiny opening, trying to figure out where they are. They ride the elevator up to the fifth floor and then Jin finds himself in NEWS dressing room, the other members seem to be in various stages of getting ready for a photo shoot, all of them greeting Pi with smiles and bright “Good mornings!” except for Ryo who just lifts a hand in acknowledgment from where he’s half-asleep across the couch.
“Guys,” Pi says, setting the bag onto the table. “I need your help.” He opens the bag and pulls Jin out.
Instantly Koyama is at his side, cooing over Jin and pulling him from Pi’s arms to hold him instead. Jin tenses a little but then Koyama is petting him gently and he all but melts into the feeling. “I didn’t know you got a cat!” Koyama exclaims. “What its name?”
“Jin,” Pi replies easily and Ryo snorts from the couch.
“You miss that idiot so much you went and got a cat and named it Jin?” Ryo questions. “That’s lame even for you, Pi.”
Jin hisses angrily from Koyama’s arms and Pi just replies, “No, Jin came back last night. But um, he turned into the cat. This is Jin.”
Everyone stops and stares at Pi and then at Jin who meows quietly at them. Then Ryo says, “He’s fat even as a cat,” and Jin jumps out of Koyama’s arms onto Ryo’s chest, sinking his claws into his skin until Ryo yells and pushes him away.
“Well if I didn’t believe you before, I sure do now,” Tegoshi comments as Ryo glares at Jin who just calmly returns to Pi’s side, feeling mighty satisfied with himself.
Pi picks Jin up and tries not to look amused as Ryo complains loudly about being attacked. “What are we supposed to do?” he asks.
“Why do we have to do anything?” Ryo demands and Tegoshi nods, adds, “He has a point.”
“We can’t just leave him like this,” Pi exclaims. “How do we fix him?”
“How did he even turn into a cat in the first place?” Shige questions from where he’s sitting in the furthest corner, eyeing Jin warily. “And can you please keep him over there? I don’t want to spend all day sneezing because of him.”
Jin contemplates jumping over there and rolling all over Shige just to be annoying, but Pi nods and takes a step back as if that’ll help. Pi is too nice, Jin thinks.
“Someone needs to watch him,” Pi continues. “I have work all day.” He looks pleadingly around at all of them. Jin tries to voice that he doesn’t exactly want to go with any of them, but his mewling falls on deaf ears.
“I would, but I have News Every filming later,” Koyama says, and gives Jin an apologetic look and Jin feels doomed. Koyama would, out of all of them, be the best to care for him in his cat form.
“I can’t either,” Massu says. “My mom’s allergic, I can’t take him home.”
“I have soccer after work today. Sorry,” Tegoshi says, though he doesn’t sound sorry at all.
“Hell no,” Ryo snaps when Pi turns hopeful eyes onto him. “I am not watching after him.”
“I can’t! I’m allergic,” Shige exclaims when everyone turns to stare at him. Jin thinks Pi’s group is completely useless.
“But you haven’t reacted at all since he’s been here,” Pi says.
“Because he’s just there,” Shige says frantically. “If I have to touch him or anything it’ll get worse. I can’t look after him. If I take him home he’ll get all over my things and then I won’t be able to breathe and-”
“Okay, okay,” Pi cuts in quickly. He looks down at Jin and then muses, “Maybe KAT-TUN…” and Jin makes a frightened kind of noise that has Pi laughing. “It’ll be fine. We can go ask, right?”
Jin knows no one in KAT-TUN would ever agree to watching him, but he has no choice but to go along with Pi to their own dressing room, a little surprised that Pi even knows they’re here.
Turns out Jin is completely right. It takes KAT-TUN ten minutes to actually believe that Jin is actually a cat and they only do when Jin walks across the counter along the wall and purposely knocks all of Kame’s hair products onto the floor.
Of course, in hindsight, that’s probably what made Kame tell Pi they had work all day and wouldn’t be able to watch Jin, either, and end the discussion before Pi could even ask the others individually. As Pi takes Jin back to NEWS’ dressing room he decides he wouldn’t want to be watched by any of them anyway. Ueda’s five dogs would probably eat him or something and Kame would probably just let Jin fend for himself.
They end up leaving him in the dressing room, hidden away in Pi’s bag, when they have to go out for their photo shoot. Grumpily, Jin thinks Pi should’ve just left him at home. He’s a cat. He could take care of himself. Cats don’t need to be watched, right?
Eventually sitting in Pi’s bag gets boring and Jin paws open the zipper and slips out. He walks around the dressing room, looking for something to do, and quickly learns that NEWS is full of boring people. There’s nothing around for him to entertain himself with, at least until he finds some food in what he thinks might be Massu’s bag and claws open the packaging with pretty awesome skill, if he says so himself. He’s only been a cat for a couple of hours and he’s already getting the hang of things.
Eating only makes him thirsty and sleepy. Finding something to drink though is not as easy as coming across Massu’s onigiri. There are water bottles left out around the dressing room but Jin’s pretty sure no matter how hard he tries he won’t be able to uncap any of them. Of course that is until he remembers Pi’s tendency to leave things opened and finds Pi’s water bottle still sitting on the table between the couches.
Jin jumps up and, deciding to be a little generous, paws the books and papers off of the table before he knocks the water bottle over. Water spills out from the open top and Jin laps at it, patting himself mentally on the back for another job well done.
When he’s finished he feels tired and bored, knowing he has nothing else to do until someone from NEWS gets back. He jumps onto the empty couch, almost slipping off as he lands on someone’s coat. He claws his way back up and curls up on the coat, using it as a makeshift bed, before his eyes close in sleep.
He’s awoken by a frustrated groan, peering his eyes open to look around the room and settling on Shige who is staring back at him unhappily. Jin knows instantly he must’ve fallen asleep on Shige’s coat and feels slightly vindictive about it. He doesn’t move, just yawns, stretches, and rolls around on Shige’s coat.
“Great,” Shige mutters, glaring. Jin thinks he looks kind of ridiculous. “Just great. What am I supposed to do with this, now?”
“Just get it washed,” Ryo says. “Quit making such a big deal. It’s just allergies. You’re not going to die.”
“You can die from allergies!” Shige exclaims.
“You’re staring him right in the face and not dying. I think you’ll survive,” Tegoshi points out and Shige turns his glare onto him.
“You really can’t take him, Shige?” Pi pleads. “You’re not doing anything after this! You’re just going home, aren’t you?”
“Haven’t you been listening? I’m allergic,” Shige snaps. “And I actually have a meeting now for my butai!”
“But that’ll only take like an hour,” Pi insists.
“Why don’t you make Nishikido-kun take him? Isn’t he just going home now?”
“Because Ryo-chan would probably starve Jin on purpose or something,” Pi answers easily and Jin meows his agreement to that statement. Even Shige looks like he believes it. “Please Shige? I’ll buy you dinner sometime after this is over.”
Shige stares furiously at Pi in a way that makes him look kind of constipated, Jin thinks with amusement. He doesn’t really want to go with Shige at all, but he knows he’d probably be bothersome to go around with Pi, and he doesn’t exactly have many other options. Shige, at least, would be fun to torment in his cat-form.
He doesn’t expect Shige to give in, so he’s surprised when he relents, heaving a very disgruntled sigh and muttering, “If I end up sick because of this, I blame you.”
“That’s fine!” Pi says, clearly just pleased someone is taking Jin off his hands. Jin wonders if he should be offended, but then Shige is turning to him and clearly contemplating how to take him home.
Shige reaches a hand out tentatively and Jin instantly is on his feet, his cat-like senses clearly approving of any attention, no matter who it’s from, and presses his face against Shige’s fingers. Shige looks a little surprised, but then he’s rubbing his thumb across Jin’s fur and Jin purrs.
“See?” Ryo says. “You’re fine. Stop exaggerating.”
“Shut up,” Shige snaps, but he looks perplexed as Jin hops up into his arms. “This is so weird,” he muses but smiles down at Jin suddenly in a way that makes Jin mewl.
Shige borrows Pi’s bag to use to carry Jin around with him and Pi promises he’ll stop by Shige’s apartment when he’s done with work to pick Jin up. Shige just seems glad that Jin hasn’t yet turned him into a sniffling, allergic mess, and absent-mindedly pets Jin inside the bag on the way to his meeting.
Jin is stuck in the bag for the next two hours because Shige’s meeting ends up taking that long. He can’t imagine why, but then again he stops listening after ten minutes. He ends up asleep again, not sure how long he’s actually out until he’s woken suddenly when Shige apparently picks up the bag and disturbs him. He hisses irritably and Shige shushes him and whispers, “Sorry. Are you okay?”
Jin just meows and hopes Shige gets that he is, if just a little annoyed. “Sorry,” he says again. “I’ll take you home now and get you out of that bag. Just stay quiet, all right?”
Jin purrs again and settles back in the bag, glad he’s not too big to make it extremely uncomfortable. Jin is actually a little uncertain on their way there. He and Shige are definitely nowhere near close to being friends, even if Shige sometimes hangs out with him and Ryo and Pi. Jin’s pretty sure they’ve never had a real conversation before and while he’s certain there won’t be much of that today either, it makes him wonder just exactly how the rest of the day is going to go.
From all Jin knows about Shige is that he’s kind of goofy and studies a lot. He just hopes Shige doesn’t spend the whole time reading a book and ignoring Jin. Jin could be much more easily entertained while at home on his own.
When they get dropped off at Shige’s apartment, Shige walks down the street and around the corner instead of heading inside. Jin tries to poke his head through the opening on the bag and Shige seems to realize what he wants. “We need to get you cat food, right? I don’t think those onigiri you ate earlier are exactly good for you in this form,” Shige explains, and Jin blinks at him, surprised.
Shige is pretty smart, Jin thinks reluctantly as they head into a conbini and Shige looks for cat food and other necessities. He finds some pet toys, hold them up in front of the bag for Jin to look at. Unable to tell Shige he’s an idiot wasting his money on this shit, Jin just bats at the ridiculous looking toy with his paw. Thinking this means Jin actually likes it, Shige takes it up to the counter and pays for everything. Jin figures, if anything, the toy might keep him occupied if Shige ends up doing really boring things.
He’s glad to finally get out of the bag when they arrive at Shige’s apartment. Jin runs off before Shige can even get out of his shoes, ignoring Shige’s yelp in favor of exploring. He jumps onto the couch to get higher and take in the sitting room, finding three large bookshelves all full to capacity with thick books and Jin thinks that this is why Shige sucks at picking up girls.
“Don’t do that,” Shige says suddenly, walking over and flopping down onto the couch next to him. Jin almost topples over from the sudden unbalance and Shige lets out an amused laugh. He stares at Jin for a few moments and then sighs.
“I guess some rules would be a good idea. Hopefully you’ll only be like this for today, so I don’t really care what you do as long as you don’t make a mess, okay?” he says to Jin who stares up at him unblinkingly, feeling like every suspicion he ever had about Shige is proving true the longer he talks, setting up rules about how Jin can’t just do whatever he pleases wherever he wants and getting a little carried away, if Jin says so himself.
Jin tunes him out after awhile, hopping off the couch and again ignoring Shige calling him back, and goes to the plastic bag from the conbini. He noses it open and pulls out the stupid toy because the stupid toy will definitely be more entertaining than listening to Shige talk.
It’s one of those electronic mouse toys and Jin can’t get it to work on his own, so Shige reaches out and turns it on. Jin doesn’t think he’d find it amusing, but perhaps his cat-like senses take over and soon he’s chasing after the stupid thing like it’s the greatest creation to exist, ever. Shige watches in amusement from the couch, laughing whenever the mouse gets stuck underneath places that Jin can’t reach with his paws, before coming over to help him.
Jin will never admit it if he turns back human that this is actually kind of fun. He’s suddenly glad that he is being watched by Shige - Shige who probably won’t judge him in this state, unlike Pi or Ryo who would be likely to film it all on their phones and keep it for blackmail.
After awhile Shige just leaves him to it, getting up and disappearing into another room. Jin contemplates going after him but then Shige reemerges, holding his laptop in one hand and a big camera in the other. He sits at the couch, sets the laptop onto the coffee table, the camera beside it. Suddenly the mouse toy is no longer interesting and Jin jumps up onto the couch to see what Shige is doing. Shige instantly reaches out and pets him and Jin, approving of the attention, meows softly as he climbs onto Shige’s lap and sits there, staring out at his computer screen.
Shige might be kind of boring but he does take good pictures, Jin admits after Shige has popped in the memory disk from his camera and goes through the photographs. He tells Jin about each one, the story behind it, like Jin actually cares, but Jin is generous and humors him with soft kitty noises because it keeps Shige’s fingers gently scratching his fur and damn if it doesn’t feel really good.
Jin thinks cats have got it made. All they have to do is look cute and get all the attention they need. He could probably get used to this. Well, at least for a little while because this whole not being able to speak thing is starting to get fucking annoying. Why couldn’t he have turned into a cool talking cat?
Once Jin figures that Shige probably has over hundreds of photos to go through and that he will, one by one, explaining everything about them, does he reach out his claws and scratch at Shige’s hand. Shige hisses, pulling his hand back quickly and demanding, “What was that for?!”
Jin just does it again, because it’s actually kind of amusing, until Shige stands up and says, “Okay, okay. What? Do you want to eat something?”
Better than listening to you ramble, Jin thinks as he makes an approving meowing sound and hops off the couch. He follows Shige into the kitchen, Shige stopping to grab the bag from the conbini on the way. Shige dishes out some of the cat food he bought earlier and sets it onto the floor for Jin who sniffs at it warily. It doesn’t smell appetizing at all.
Shige sits on the floor beside him and says, “What? Are you scared to try it?”
Jin hisses at him, because Jin is fucking not scared of anything, even as a cat. He knows Shige is poking fun at him and takes back his earlier appreciation that Shige wouldn’t be mocking him like this. He can totally eat the cat food. He’s a cat, so he’ll probably like it, right? As if Shige knows what he’s thinking, he just laughs and pushes the bowl towards Jin who gives him what he hopes is his cat-like glare, before tentatively testing out the food.
So it is good. Or maybe Jin’s just hungry. Either way, he eats quite a lot of it while Shige watches him, occasionally telling him to slow down, before getting him some milk that he pours in another bowl and places it beside him. When he’s satisfied he cleans his face with his tongue, his cat-like instincts leading him to do it before he even realizes it. Shige puts the bowls up onto the counter and then looks back down at Jin.
Jin stares up at him expectantly, and Shige looks contemplative for awhile before he sighs, crouches back down and reaches out to pet Jin along his back. Jin mewls his appreciativeness, rubbing his face against Shige’s palm and Shige smiles.
“I’m still not sure why I’m not allergic to you,” he muses aloud. “Maybe because you’re really human?”
Shige thinks too much, Jin thinks. Maybe that’s why he’s so boring. He butts his head against Shige’s palm against and then takes off back toward the sitting room. He figures the only way to keep Shige from being even more boring is to get him to play. Clearly Jin is much more energetic as a cat than he ever was as a human, so leaping around Shige’s apartment and watching Shige chase after him is kind of fun.
“Okay, stop, please, Akanishi-kun,” Shige exclaims after twenty minutes, collapsing on the floor beside the coffee table. Jin does, coming over to walk up onto Shige’s chest, staring down into his face. Shige laughs a little and says, “It sounds weird to call you so formally when you’re a cat.”
Jin’s actually inclined to agree, pats his paw on Shige’s chest twice. Shige eyes him, smiles, and slides his fingers down Jin’s back. “Jin?” he tries tentatively and Jin purrs his approval, laying down and pressing his head against Shige’s body. “That’s a little weird, too,” Shige admits but Jin kind of likes hearing his name in Shige’s voice and loudly noises his opinion.
Shige seems to understand and he laughs again; Jin feels it rumbling through Shige’s body beneath him. “Well, if you like it,” he says softly before he sits up suddenly. Jin almost falls over but Shige catches him and carries him up to the couch where he lies down. He sets Jin back on his chest again and caresses his fur in a soothing rhythm that has Jin suddenly yawning.
“Yeah, I’m kind of tired now too,” Shige says and his eyes close, his breathing evening out.
Jin stares at him for awhile then lowers his head to rest on his paws and closes his eyes as well. And he’s asleep before he realizes it.
Loud banging wakes Jin next, sounding like it’s coming from right next to his ears and groaning irritably when it doesn’t cease. He squeezes his eyes shut because he’s comfortable and doesn’t want to wake up just yet, but when the banging does stop, it’s replace with a shrill ringing in the next second.
“Fuck,” he hears Shige groan, and then he remembers that they’d both fallen asleep on the couch. He peers his eyes open to look up at Shige, only to realize quite startlingly that the world isn’t strangely giant anymore and Shige’s eyes stare straight back at him.
Then Shige moves, just a little, and Jin can feel him shift all the way along his body and realizes that he has somehow turned back into a human.
He is also, if the sudden chill up his spine is any indication, improbably naked.
Shige stares. Jin flushes embarrassedly and clears his throat. “Um,” he says. “This is awkward.”
Shige closes his eyes, pushes at Jin’s shoulder. “Please get off of me,” he says but before Jin gets the chance, suddenly Pi is walking into the room and shrieking, “OH MY GOD.”
Jin falls off the couch. Shige groans and exclaims, “How did you get in here?!”
“Your door was unlocked! I tried it after you didn’t answer your phone,” Pi says defensively. “But, more importantly, what is going on?”
“I don’t know what inappropriate thing you’re thinking,” Shige starts, “but he was still a cat when we fell asleep. Also aren’t you supposed to be working?”
“I got done early,” Pi replies dismissively. “I came here to take him off your hands. Guess it doesn’t matter anymore.”
From the floor Jin glares at them both. “Can someone please get me some clothes?” he questions.
~
This is stupid, Jin thinks as he stares at the door before him, contemplating being a coward and leaving. But he’s already here, having wrangled the address from Pi and checking to see if Shige would actually be home at this time. He could’ve just called but something compelled him to come over in person. It isn’t even that big of a deal. He just wants to say thanks.
Feeling like an idiot, Jin finally just plucks up the courage to knock. He’s not afraid of anything, right? He wasn’t scared as a cat, so why is he scared as a human? It’s just Shige for fuck’s sake.
Shige looks genuinely surprised when he answers the door and finds Jin there, and suddenly Jin is very aware of how they’ve never really spoken before. Even last night, all they’d said in the end after finding Jin some of Shige’s clothes to wear, is a very awkward exchange of “Well, thanks, I guess” on his part and “Don’t worry about it,” on Shige’s.
“Hi,” he says eventually, inwardly wincing from how pathetic he sounds. “I wanted to, um, talk to you. Are you busy?”
Shige shakes his head, stepping aside to let Jin in. “It’s fine, Akanishi-kun,” he says and Jin feels a strange pang in his gut hearing his surname when Shige had called him Jin the day before. Of course, he’d been a cat then, but still, the feeling is there, and he tries hard to shake it off.
“Oh, uh, here,” Jin says, handing Shige a plastic bag with a designer logo on one side. “Your clothes. I washed them, too. Thanks for letting me use them.”
Shige laughs as he takes the bag. “Well, you couldn’t exactly leave without them,” he says. “Come on,” he adds, gesturing into the apartment. “Do you want anything to drink or something?”
Jin’s more than surprised by Shige’s amiable behavior, wondering why he feels so awkward when clearly Shige is completely comfortable. Even though he thinks he should just leave right now, he ends up slipping out of his shoes and following Shige into the kitchen. Although he’d been there the day before, it feels like his first time, oddly self-conscious while Shige opens his fridge to look for beverages.
Jin quickly says, “It’s okay, don’t worry about it. I won’t be staying long.”
Shige turns and Jin wonders if he imagined the disappointment that crosses Shige’s eyes. “Oh, okay,” he says eventually.
Jin coughs a bit behind his hand and says after a long stretch of silence, “I just wanted to, um, thank you for yesterday. You didn’t have to look after me at all, but you did.”
Shige lets out a soft chuckle, leans back against the fridge. “It’s all right, Akanishi-kun,” he says. “It was kind of fun. I’ve always wanted a cat, so looking after you was kind of like my only chance to actually have one.”
Jin isn’t sure what to say to that, and in the end all that comes out is his own name. When Shige stares, he rubs his nose, drops his gaze. “Um, you called me Jin, yesterday. You can still…if you want.”
Now Shige looks entirely perplexed, like Jin had just turned back into a cat before his eyes. The longer he stares the more uneasy Jin becomes, feeling his face burn as he returns Shige’s gaze almost defiantly, as if daring Shige to reject his offer.
Finally, after what seems like forever, Shige’s expression relaxes and a smile crosses his face, lights up his eyes. “Okay,” he says, sounding like he still doesn’t quite believe it. “You can call me Shige, if you want, too, then.”
This whole situation is even weirder than when he turned into a cat in the first place, Jin thinks, but he nods his affirmative to Shige. Before Jin can figure out how to kindly excuse himself, Shige laughs and says, as if he read Jin’s mind, “This is weird, isn’t it? Who’d have thought it’d take you to become a cat for us to become friends?”
Jin gives him an unimpressed and crosses his arms over his chest. “Who said anything about being friends?” he questions, and then smirks.
Shige snorts. “Whatever you say, Akanishi-ah, I mean, Jin.” He laughs again. “This will take getting used to.” But he smiles, looking like he doesn’t mind that in the least, and Jin finds himself feeling the same.
“I’m going to go,” he says, finally. “I just wanted to come by and thank you.”
“You didn’t have to,” Shige tells him, following him back to the genkan. “But I’m glad you did.”
“I can pay you back for the cat food and stuff,” Jin offers, just having thought of it.
But Shige just waves a hand in dismissal. “It’s fine,” he insists. “Really,” he adds when Jin opens his mouth to argue. “Besides you never know. Maybe you’ll turn into a cat again.”
“I hope not,” Jin says, shudders at the thought. “It was nice, but only for the day. I’m glad to be human again.”
Shige assesses him, his lips quirking in the corner. “I kind of liked you better as a cat,” he says and Jin glares at him, punches him halfheartedly in the arm.
“I take back all of my thanks,” Jin says petulantly. “You’re mean to your new friend, Shige.”
Shige looks momentarily surprised hearing Jin say his name, but then he laughs. Suddenly he reaches out and runs his fingers through Jin’s hair, and Jin tenses for a second, eyes wide, until he relaxes, feeling a lot like when he was a cat and Shige had pet him. He almost has to stop himself from purring at the touch and really hopes that it’s because of some lingering cat-like senses.
Shige pulls his hand away and grins. “Whenever you’re feeling particularly cat-like, you can come over,” he says, sounding mostly amused, but Jin knows he’s serious. “I’ll keep the mouse toy for you.”
“You’d better,” Jin says, grinning back, and then, feeling there’s nothing more to say than that, he waves his goodbye and leaves. And as he heads home he thinks that he might just take Shige up on that offer very soon.
end.
note: a;lskdg i hope you liked it even a little. ♥ thank you for reading!! ♥ (and this is what kitty!jin looks like. XD)
Paring/Characters: Jin-centric, Jin/Shige friendshippy-ness I don’t really know. >_>
Rating: PG
Summary: Jin turns into a cat.
Author’s Note: 5597 words. For ryogrande since it’s all her fault, lol. ♥ Idk how I managed to make this fic so long, but here it is, in all it's weirdness. XD I hope you like it! :3 The title’s from the song Kitty Kat by Beyonce.
It’s two in the morning when Jin finally reaches his apartment and he feels completely dead on his feet after the long, tiring flight from Budapest. It takes him almost five minutes to find the right key and get the door open and then he’s stumbling straight through it and not caring if he wakes Pi up, if Pi is even home, that is.
It seems like he is when Jin finds his shoes in the genkan and then quiets down as he heads to his room, drops his bag onto the floor and falls face-first into the mattress. He’s asleep in the next minute.
Upon waking almost eight hours later, Jin realizes instantly that something is wrong. Everything seems a hundred times bigger, like his room had grown magically overnight. Then his eyes widen and he exclaims, “Oh my god, I shrunk!”
Except he doesn’t hear his voice. All he hears is a loud meowing that has him jumping, whirling around to find the source, because last he checked neither he nor Pi had a cat, unless Pi got one while Jin was away (Pi gets lonely like that, but neither of them are really cat-people).
And that’s when he realizes he’s a cat, catching his reflection on the mirror across from his bed. His clothes from yesterday are in a crumpled pile under his four feet, and his cat-like eyes stare back at him from the mirror. He has soft looking, brown fur, though his left ear and the spot around his left eye is all black.
Jin screams. It comes out as a whiny screech that hurts his ears so he stops and wonders what the fuck he’s supposed to do now.
It takes him awhile to find the courage to jump down from his bed - is it really that high up from the floor? - and then pad to the door thinking (hoping) that Pi is still home so he can scratch his face and demand help, somehow. Belatedly he realizes that the door is shut and Jin really has no idea how to open it in his cat form, staring miserably up at the doorknob from the floor.
Jin strains his ears and tries to figure out if Pi is at home. He leaps up excitedly when he can make out distinct movement on the other side of the door and starts frantically clawing at the wood, hoping Pi can hear it. He meows too, just in case, quite proud of himself for keeping his head in this bizarre situation.
Just as Jin is getting tired and desperate he hears the doorknob turn and quickly jumps away before he ends up pushed into the wall.
Pi pokes his head inside, looking very curious, and Jin runs to his feet and purrs. Pi freezes, looks down. He stares at Jin for a long moment before looking back up and walking into the room. His gaze drops on the bed and then he blinks, calls out, “Jin? Where are you? I don’t care if you just got back from freaking Budapest, you can’t walk around naked again, okay, remember what happened-” His words cut off in a loud yelp and he looks down at Jin who has sunk his nails into Pi’s ankle.
Pi reaches down and scoops Jin up. Jin tries to look innocent and cute, meowing softly. “Jin,” Pi says, heading out of Jin’s room. “When did you get a cat?”
Pi is an idiot, Jin thinks irritably and meows louder until he gets Pi’s attention again. Pi stares and stares and then, finally, it seems like he’s put two and two together.
“Jin?” he says cautiously and Jin purrs happily. Pi’s eyes widen for a brief second before he relaxes and scratches Jin behind the ears. Jin meows loudly, his cat body greatly appreciating the gesture and Pi laughs. “Well, this is interesting,” he says, but otherwise doesn’t seem too concerned that his best friend has turned into a cat. And Jin thinks as long as Pi keeps petting him like this, he probably won’t care much either.
At least that’s before Pi shoved him into his bag and told him to be quiet, not closing it all the way to give Jin room to breathe, and then Jin feels himself toppling over inside as Pi clearly carries him out of the apartment and to work. Walking like this makes Jin feel a little sick, and it doesn’t help that it’s kind of dark and cramped inside Pi’s bag. At least when they’re in the car waiting to take Pi to wherever he has work that day, Pi sets him on the seat beside him, opens the bag a little more and trails his fingers along Jin’s fur again.
“I think I might like you better as a cat,” Pi whispers and Jin hisses, reaching out a paw to swat at him. Pi just laughs and adds, “Yeah, you’re definitely Jin.”
Jin glares, or at least tries to; he doesn’t exactly know what kind of a face he’s making as a cat. It seems to amuse Pi, so he thinks he’ll have to work on it.
When they finally arrive, Pi pushes him back into the bag and zips it up again. Jin peers out through the tiny opening, trying to figure out where they are. They ride the elevator up to the fifth floor and then Jin finds himself in NEWS dressing room, the other members seem to be in various stages of getting ready for a photo shoot, all of them greeting Pi with smiles and bright “Good mornings!” except for Ryo who just lifts a hand in acknowledgment from where he’s half-asleep across the couch.
“Guys,” Pi says, setting the bag onto the table. “I need your help.” He opens the bag and pulls Jin out.
Instantly Koyama is at his side, cooing over Jin and pulling him from Pi’s arms to hold him instead. Jin tenses a little but then Koyama is petting him gently and he all but melts into the feeling. “I didn’t know you got a cat!” Koyama exclaims. “What its name?”
“Jin,” Pi replies easily and Ryo snorts from the couch.
“You miss that idiot so much you went and got a cat and named it Jin?” Ryo questions. “That’s lame even for you, Pi.”
Jin hisses angrily from Koyama’s arms and Pi just replies, “No, Jin came back last night. But um, he turned into the cat. This is Jin.”
Everyone stops and stares at Pi and then at Jin who meows quietly at them. Then Ryo says, “He’s fat even as a cat,” and Jin jumps out of Koyama’s arms onto Ryo’s chest, sinking his claws into his skin until Ryo yells and pushes him away.
“Well if I didn’t believe you before, I sure do now,” Tegoshi comments as Ryo glares at Jin who just calmly returns to Pi’s side, feeling mighty satisfied with himself.
Pi picks Jin up and tries not to look amused as Ryo complains loudly about being attacked. “What are we supposed to do?” he asks.
“Why do we have to do anything?” Ryo demands and Tegoshi nods, adds, “He has a point.”
“We can’t just leave him like this,” Pi exclaims. “How do we fix him?”
“How did he even turn into a cat in the first place?” Shige questions from where he’s sitting in the furthest corner, eyeing Jin warily. “And can you please keep him over there? I don’t want to spend all day sneezing because of him.”
Jin contemplates jumping over there and rolling all over Shige just to be annoying, but Pi nods and takes a step back as if that’ll help. Pi is too nice, Jin thinks.
“Someone needs to watch him,” Pi continues. “I have work all day.” He looks pleadingly around at all of them. Jin tries to voice that he doesn’t exactly want to go with any of them, but his mewling falls on deaf ears.
“I would, but I have News Every filming later,” Koyama says, and gives Jin an apologetic look and Jin feels doomed. Koyama would, out of all of them, be the best to care for him in his cat form.
“I can’t either,” Massu says. “My mom’s allergic, I can’t take him home.”
“I have soccer after work today. Sorry,” Tegoshi says, though he doesn’t sound sorry at all.
“Hell no,” Ryo snaps when Pi turns hopeful eyes onto him. “I am not watching after him.”
“I can’t! I’m allergic,” Shige exclaims when everyone turns to stare at him. Jin thinks Pi’s group is completely useless.
“But you haven’t reacted at all since he’s been here,” Pi says.
“Because he’s just there,” Shige says frantically. “If I have to touch him or anything it’ll get worse. I can’t look after him. If I take him home he’ll get all over my things and then I won’t be able to breathe and-”
“Okay, okay,” Pi cuts in quickly. He looks down at Jin and then muses, “Maybe KAT-TUN…” and Jin makes a frightened kind of noise that has Pi laughing. “It’ll be fine. We can go ask, right?”
Jin knows no one in KAT-TUN would ever agree to watching him, but he has no choice but to go along with Pi to their own dressing room, a little surprised that Pi even knows they’re here.
Turns out Jin is completely right. It takes KAT-TUN ten minutes to actually believe that Jin is actually a cat and they only do when Jin walks across the counter along the wall and purposely knocks all of Kame’s hair products onto the floor.
Of course, in hindsight, that’s probably what made Kame tell Pi they had work all day and wouldn’t be able to watch Jin, either, and end the discussion before Pi could even ask the others individually. As Pi takes Jin back to NEWS’ dressing room he decides he wouldn’t want to be watched by any of them anyway. Ueda’s five dogs would probably eat him or something and Kame would probably just let Jin fend for himself.
They end up leaving him in the dressing room, hidden away in Pi’s bag, when they have to go out for their photo shoot. Grumpily, Jin thinks Pi should’ve just left him at home. He’s a cat. He could take care of himself. Cats don’t need to be watched, right?
Eventually sitting in Pi’s bag gets boring and Jin paws open the zipper and slips out. He walks around the dressing room, looking for something to do, and quickly learns that NEWS is full of boring people. There’s nothing around for him to entertain himself with, at least until he finds some food in what he thinks might be Massu’s bag and claws open the packaging with pretty awesome skill, if he says so himself. He’s only been a cat for a couple of hours and he’s already getting the hang of things.
Eating only makes him thirsty and sleepy. Finding something to drink though is not as easy as coming across Massu’s onigiri. There are water bottles left out around the dressing room but Jin’s pretty sure no matter how hard he tries he won’t be able to uncap any of them. Of course that is until he remembers Pi’s tendency to leave things opened and finds Pi’s water bottle still sitting on the table between the couches.
Jin jumps up and, deciding to be a little generous, paws the books and papers off of the table before he knocks the water bottle over. Water spills out from the open top and Jin laps at it, patting himself mentally on the back for another job well done.
When he’s finished he feels tired and bored, knowing he has nothing else to do until someone from NEWS gets back. He jumps onto the empty couch, almost slipping off as he lands on someone’s coat. He claws his way back up and curls up on the coat, using it as a makeshift bed, before his eyes close in sleep.
He’s awoken by a frustrated groan, peering his eyes open to look around the room and settling on Shige who is staring back at him unhappily. Jin knows instantly he must’ve fallen asleep on Shige’s coat and feels slightly vindictive about it. He doesn’t move, just yawns, stretches, and rolls around on Shige’s coat.
“Great,” Shige mutters, glaring. Jin thinks he looks kind of ridiculous. “Just great. What am I supposed to do with this, now?”
“Just get it washed,” Ryo says. “Quit making such a big deal. It’s just allergies. You’re not going to die.”
“You can die from allergies!” Shige exclaims.
“You’re staring him right in the face and not dying. I think you’ll survive,” Tegoshi points out and Shige turns his glare onto him.
“You really can’t take him, Shige?” Pi pleads. “You’re not doing anything after this! You’re just going home, aren’t you?”
“Haven’t you been listening? I’m allergic,” Shige snaps. “And I actually have a meeting now for my butai!”
“But that’ll only take like an hour,” Pi insists.
“Why don’t you make Nishikido-kun take him? Isn’t he just going home now?”
“Because Ryo-chan would probably starve Jin on purpose or something,” Pi answers easily and Jin meows his agreement to that statement. Even Shige looks like he believes it. “Please Shige? I’ll buy you dinner sometime after this is over.”
Shige stares furiously at Pi in a way that makes him look kind of constipated, Jin thinks with amusement. He doesn’t really want to go with Shige at all, but he knows he’d probably be bothersome to go around with Pi, and he doesn’t exactly have many other options. Shige, at least, would be fun to torment in his cat-form.
He doesn’t expect Shige to give in, so he’s surprised when he relents, heaving a very disgruntled sigh and muttering, “If I end up sick because of this, I blame you.”
“That’s fine!” Pi says, clearly just pleased someone is taking Jin off his hands. Jin wonders if he should be offended, but then Shige is turning to him and clearly contemplating how to take him home.
Shige reaches a hand out tentatively and Jin instantly is on his feet, his cat-like senses clearly approving of any attention, no matter who it’s from, and presses his face against Shige’s fingers. Shige looks a little surprised, but then he’s rubbing his thumb across Jin’s fur and Jin purrs.
“See?” Ryo says. “You’re fine. Stop exaggerating.”
“Shut up,” Shige snaps, but he looks perplexed as Jin hops up into his arms. “This is so weird,” he muses but smiles down at Jin suddenly in a way that makes Jin mewl.
Shige borrows Pi’s bag to use to carry Jin around with him and Pi promises he’ll stop by Shige’s apartment when he’s done with work to pick Jin up. Shige just seems glad that Jin hasn’t yet turned him into a sniffling, allergic mess, and absent-mindedly pets Jin inside the bag on the way to his meeting.
Jin is stuck in the bag for the next two hours because Shige’s meeting ends up taking that long. He can’t imagine why, but then again he stops listening after ten minutes. He ends up asleep again, not sure how long he’s actually out until he’s woken suddenly when Shige apparently picks up the bag and disturbs him. He hisses irritably and Shige shushes him and whispers, “Sorry. Are you okay?”
Jin just meows and hopes Shige gets that he is, if just a little annoyed. “Sorry,” he says again. “I’ll take you home now and get you out of that bag. Just stay quiet, all right?”
Jin purrs again and settles back in the bag, glad he’s not too big to make it extremely uncomfortable. Jin is actually a little uncertain on their way there. He and Shige are definitely nowhere near close to being friends, even if Shige sometimes hangs out with him and Ryo and Pi. Jin’s pretty sure they’ve never had a real conversation before and while he’s certain there won’t be much of that today either, it makes him wonder just exactly how the rest of the day is going to go.
From all Jin knows about Shige is that he’s kind of goofy and studies a lot. He just hopes Shige doesn’t spend the whole time reading a book and ignoring Jin. Jin could be much more easily entertained while at home on his own.
When they get dropped off at Shige’s apartment, Shige walks down the street and around the corner instead of heading inside. Jin tries to poke his head through the opening on the bag and Shige seems to realize what he wants. “We need to get you cat food, right? I don’t think those onigiri you ate earlier are exactly good for you in this form,” Shige explains, and Jin blinks at him, surprised.
Shige is pretty smart, Jin thinks reluctantly as they head into a conbini and Shige looks for cat food and other necessities. He finds some pet toys, hold them up in front of the bag for Jin to look at. Unable to tell Shige he’s an idiot wasting his money on this shit, Jin just bats at the ridiculous looking toy with his paw. Thinking this means Jin actually likes it, Shige takes it up to the counter and pays for everything. Jin figures, if anything, the toy might keep him occupied if Shige ends up doing really boring things.
He’s glad to finally get out of the bag when they arrive at Shige’s apartment. Jin runs off before Shige can even get out of his shoes, ignoring Shige’s yelp in favor of exploring. He jumps onto the couch to get higher and take in the sitting room, finding three large bookshelves all full to capacity with thick books and Jin thinks that this is why Shige sucks at picking up girls.
“Don’t do that,” Shige says suddenly, walking over and flopping down onto the couch next to him. Jin almost topples over from the sudden unbalance and Shige lets out an amused laugh. He stares at Jin for a few moments and then sighs.
“I guess some rules would be a good idea. Hopefully you’ll only be like this for today, so I don’t really care what you do as long as you don’t make a mess, okay?” he says to Jin who stares up at him unblinkingly, feeling like every suspicion he ever had about Shige is proving true the longer he talks, setting up rules about how Jin can’t just do whatever he pleases wherever he wants and getting a little carried away, if Jin says so himself.
Jin tunes him out after awhile, hopping off the couch and again ignoring Shige calling him back, and goes to the plastic bag from the conbini. He noses it open and pulls out the stupid toy because the stupid toy will definitely be more entertaining than listening to Shige talk.
It’s one of those electronic mouse toys and Jin can’t get it to work on his own, so Shige reaches out and turns it on. Jin doesn’t think he’d find it amusing, but perhaps his cat-like senses take over and soon he’s chasing after the stupid thing like it’s the greatest creation to exist, ever. Shige watches in amusement from the couch, laughing whenever the mouse gets stuck underneath places that Jin can’t reach with his paws, before coming over to help him.
Jin will never admit it if he turns back human that this is actually kind of fun. He’s suddenly glad that he is being watched by Shige - Shige who probably won’t judge him in this state, unlike Pi or Ryo who would be likely to film it all on their phones and keep it for blackmail.
After awhile Shige just leaves him to it, getting up and disappearing into another room. Jin contemplates going after him but then Shige reemerges, holding his laptop in one hand and a big camera in the other. He sits at the couch, sets the laptop onto the coffee table, the camera beside it. Suddenly the mouse toy is no longer interesting and Jin jumps up onto the couch to see what Shige is doing. Shige instantly reaches out and pets him and Jin, approving of the attention, meows softly as he climbs onto Shige’s lap and sits there, staring out at his computer screen.
Shige might be kind of boring but he does take good pictures, Jin admits after Shige has popped in the memory disk from his camera and goes through the photographs. He tells Jin about each one, the story behind it, like Jin actually cares, but Jin is generous and humors him with soft kitty noises because it keeps Shige’s fingers gently scratching his fur and damn if it doesn’t feel really good.
Jin thinks cats have got it made. All they have to do is look cute and get all the attention they need. He could probably get used to this. Well, at least for a little while because this whole not being able to speak thing is starting to get fucking annoying. Why couldn’t he have turned into a cool talking cat?
Once Jin figures that Shige probably has over hundreds of photos to go through and that he will, one by one, explaining everything about them, does he reach out his claws and scratch at Shige’s hand. Shige hisses, pulling his hand back quickly and demanding, “What was that for?!”
Jin just does it again, because it’s actually kind of amusing, until Shige stands up and says, “Okay, okay. What? Do you want to eat something?”
Better than listening to you ramble, Jin thinks as he makes an approving meowing sound and hops off the couch. He follows Shige into the kitchen, Shige stopping to grab the bag from the conbini on the way. Shige dishes out some of the cat food he bought earlier and sets it onto the floor for Jin who sniffs at it warily. It doesn’t smell appetizing at all.
Shige sits on the floor beside him and says, “What? Are you scared to try it?”
Jin hisses at him, because Jin is fucking not scared of anything, even as a cat. He knows Shige is poking fun at him and takes back his earlier appreciation that Shige wouldn’t be mocking him like this. He can totally eat the cat food. He’s a cat, so he’ll probably like it, right? As if Shige knows what he’s thinking, he just laughs and pushes the bowl towards Jin who gives him what he hopes is his cat-like glare, before tentatively testing out the food.
So it is good. Or maybe Jin’s just hungry. Either way, he eats quite a lot of it while Shige watches him, occasionally telling him to slow down, before getting him some milk that he pours in another bowl and places it beside him. When he’s satisfied he cleans his face with his tongue, his cat-like instincts leading him to do it before he even realizes it. Shige puts the bowls up onto the counter and then looks back down at Jin.
Jin stares up at him expectantly, and Shige looks contemplative for awhile before he sighs, crouches back down and reaches out to pet Jin along his back. Jin mewls his appreciativeness, rubbing his face against Shige’s palm and Shige smiles.
“I’m still not sure why I’m not allergic to you,” he muses aloud. “Maybe because you’re really human?”
Shige thinks too much, Jin thinks. Maybe that’s why he’s so boring. He butts his head against Shige’s palm against and then takes off back toward the sitting room. He figures the only way to keep Shige from being even more boring is to get him to play. Clearly Jin is much more energetic as a cat than he ever was as a human, so leaping around Shige’s apartment and watching Shige chase after him is kind of fun.
“Okay, stop, please, Akanishi-kun,” Shige exclaims after twenty minutes, collapsing on the floor beside the coffee table. Jin does, coming over to walk up onto Shige’s chest, staring down into his face. Shige laughs a little and says, “It sounds weird to call you so formally when you’re a cat.”
Jin’s actually inclined to agree, pats his paw on Shige’s chest twice. Shige eyes him, smiles, and slides his fingers down Jin’s back. “Jin?” he tries tentatively and Jin purrs his approval, laying down and pressing his head against Shige’s body. “That’s a little weird, too,” Shige admits but Jin kind of likes hearing his name in Shige’s voice and loudly noises his opinion.
Shige seems to understand and he laughs again; Jin feels it rumbling through Shige’s body beneath him. “Well, if you like it,” he says softly before he sits up suddenly. Jin almost falls over but Shige catches him and carries him up to the couch where he lies down. He sets Jin back on his chest again and caresses his fur in a soothing rhythm that has Jin suddenly yawning.
“Yeah, I’m kind of tired now too,” Shige says and his eyes close, his breathing evening out.
Jin stares at him for awhile then lowers his head to rest on his paws and closes his eyes as well. And he’s asleep before he realizes it.
Loud banging wakes Jin next, sounding like it’s coming from right next to his ears and groaning irritably when it doesn’t cease. He squeezes his eyes shut because he’s comfortable and doesn’t want to wake up just yet, but when the banging does stop, it’s replace with a shrill ringing in the next second.
“Fuck,” he hears Shige groan, and then he remembers that they’d both fallen asleep on the couch. He peers his eyes open to look up at Shige, only to realize quite startlingly that the world isn’t strangely giant anymore and Shige’s eyes stare straight back at him.
Then Shige moves, just a little, and Jin can feel him shift all the way along his body and realizes that he has somehow turned back into a human.
He is also, if the sudden chill up his spine is any indication, improbably naked.
Shige stares. Jin flushes embarrassedly and clears his throat. “Um,” he says. “This is awkward.”
Shige closes his eyes, pushes at Jin’s shoulder. “Please get off of me,” he says but before Jin gets the chance, suddenly Pi is walking into the room and shrieking, “OH MY GOD.”
Jin falls off the couch. Shige groans and exclaims, “How did you get in here?!”
“Your door was unlocked! I tried it after you didn’t answer your phone,” Pi says defensively. “But, more importantly, what is going on?”
“I don’t know what inappropriate thing you’re thinking,” Shige starts, “but he was still a cat when we fell asleep. Also aren’t you supposed to be working?”
“I got done early,” Pi replies dismissively. “I came here to take him off your hands. Guess it doesn’t matter anymore.”
From the floor Jin glares at them both. “Can someone please get me some clothes?” he questions.
~
This is stupid, Jin thinks as he stares at the door before him, contemplating being a coward and leaving. But he’s already here, having wrangled the address from Pi and checking to see if Shige would actually be home at this time. He could’ve just called but something compelled him to come over in person. It isn’t even that big of a deal. He just wants to say thanks.
Feeling like an idiot, Jin finally just plucks up the courage to knock. He’s not afraid of anything, right? He wasn’t scared as a cat, so why is he scared as a human? It’s just Shige for fuck’s sake.
Shige looks genuinely surprised when he answers the door and finds Jin there, and suddenly Jin is very aware of how they’ve never really spoken before. Even last night, all they’d said in the end after finding Jin some of Shige’s clothes to wear, is a very awkward exchange of “Well, thanks, I guess” on his part and “Don’t worry about it,” on Shige’s.
“Hi,” he says eventually, inwardly wincing from how pathetic he sounds. “I wanted to, um, talk to you. Are you busy?”
Shige shakes his head, stepping aside to let Jin in. “It’s fine, Akanishi-kun,” he says and Jin feels a strange pang in his gut hearing his surname when Shige had called him Jin the day before. Of course, he’d been a cat then, but still, the feeling is there, and he tries hard to shake it off.
“Oh, uh, here,” Jin says, handing Shige a plastic bag with a designer logo on one side. “Your clothes. I washed them, too. Thanks for letting me use them.”
Shige laughs as he takes the bag. “Well, you couldn’t exactly leave without them,” he says. “Come on,” he adds, gesturing into the apartment. “Do you want anything to drink or something?”
Jin’s more than surprised by Shige’s amiable behavior, wondering why he feels so awkward when clearly Shige is completely comfortable. Even though he thinks he should just leave right now, he ends up slipping out of his shoes and following Shige into the kitchen. Although he’d been there the day before, it feels like his first time, oddly self-conscious while Shige opens his fridge to look for beverages.
Jin quickly says, “It’s okay, don’t worry about it. I won’t be staying long.”
Shige turns and Jin wonders if he imagined the disappointment that crosses Shige’s eyes. “Oh, okay,” he says eventually.
Jin coughs a bit behind his hand and says after a long stretch of silence, “I just wanted to, um, thank you for yesterday. You didn’t have to look after me at all, but you did.”
Shige lets out a soft chuckle, leans back against the fridge. “It’s all right, Akanishi-kun,” he says. “It was kind of fun. I’ve always wanted a cat, so looking after you was kind of like my only chance to actually have one.”
Jin isn’t sure what to say to that, and in the end all that comes out is his own name. When Shige stares, he rubs his nose, drops his gaze. “Um, you called me Jin, yesterday. You can still…if you want.”
Now Shige looks entirely perplexed, like Jin had just turned back into a cat before his eyes. The longer he stares the more uneasy Jin becomes, feeling his face burn as he returns Shige’s gaze almost defiantly, as if daring Shige to reject his offer.
Finally, after what seems like forever, Shige’s expression relaxes and a smile crosses his face, lights up his eyes. “Okay,” he says, sounding like he still doesn’t quite believe it. “You can call me Shige, if you want, too, then.”
This whole situation is even weirder than when he turned into a cat in the first place, Jin thinks, but he nods his affirmative to Shige. Before Jin can figure out how to kindly excuse himself, Shige laughs and says, as if he read Jin’s mind, “This is weird, isn’t it? Who’d have thought it’d take you to become a cat for us to become friends?”
Jin gives him an unimpressed and crosses his arms over his chest. “Who said anything about being friends?” he questions, and then smirks.
Shige snorts. “Whatever you say, Akanishi-ah, I mean, Jin.” He laughs again. “This will take getting used to.” But he smiles, looking like he doesn’t mind that in the least, and Jin finds himself feeling the same.
“I’m going to go,” he says, finally. “I just wanted to come by and thank you.”
“You didn’t have to,” Shige tells him, following him back to the genkan. “But I’m glad you did.”
“I can pay you back for the cat food and stuff,” Jin offers, just having thought of it.
But Shige just waves a hand in dismissal. “It’s fine,” he insists. “Really,” he adds when Jin opens his mouth to argue. “Besides you never know. Maybe you’ll turn into a cat again.”
“I hope not,” Jin says, shudders at the thought. “It was nice, but only for the day. I’m glad to be human again.”
Shige assesses him, his lips quirking in the corner. “I kind of liked you better as a cat,” he says and Jin glares at him, punches him halfheartedly in the arm.
“I take back all of my thanks,” Jin says petulantly. “You’re mean to your new friend, Shige.”
Shige looks momentarily surprised hearing Jin say his name, but then he laughs. Suddenly he reaches out and runs his fingers through Jin’s hair, and Jin tenses for a second, eyes wide, until he relaxes, feeling a lot like when he was a cat and Shige had pet him. He almost has to stop himself from purring at the touch and really hopes that it’s because of some lingering cat-like senses.
Shige pulls his hand away and grins. “Whenever you’re feeling particularly cat-like, you can come over,” he says, sounding mostly amused, but Jin knows he’s serious. “I’ll keep the mouse toy for you.”
“You’d better,” Jin says, grinning back, and then, feeling there’s nothing more to say than that, he waves his goodbye and leaves. And as he heads home he thinks that he might just take Shige up on that offer very soon.
end.
note: a;lskdg i hope you liked it even a little. ♥ thank you for reading!! ♥ (and this is what kitty!jin looks like. XD)
