FANFIC: "Tiger Tamer" (Ch 1: Unlikely Beginnings) (The GazettE- Aoi & Uruha)
Title: Tiger Tamer: Ch 1: Unlikely Beginnings
Pairings: Aoi x Uruha (More to come?)
Writer: black_prophet (Midsummer_Slave)
Genre: AU, Sci-Fi with Angst & Smut
Rating: PG (For Now)
Warning: None so far.
A/N: Ch 1 is a bit of "background/ childhood" etc before things get rolling. I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not now, nor will I ever, claim to own The GazettE (though I do have several CDs & Concert DVDs and a LOT of pictures). They belong to themselves and each other. This fic and the world it is set in is completely the product of my imagination. I do all my own stunts writing. Please do not attempt these techniques at home. No Beta (sorry for mistakes, I try to spare you).
Previous Ch: "Summary & Bios"
***
The day stretched over and around him in crystal detail, the faint sent of cherry blossoms drifting on the wind from the not-so-distant line of trees. Mutely he cocked his head, examining the position of the bright orb high in the sky. Scraps of cloud, like shreds of cotton, drifted against a sea of blue. A sudden breeze sent his sun-kissed hair to tumbling around him, scattering his world with flower petals it pulled from the trees. He glanced from them back to the wisps of cloud, comparing the two in his mind.
“Kou-darling.” His mother murmured, her tone a flitter of worried disapproval. “Don’t stare at the sun, you’ll hurt your eyes.”
He voiced his reply in an innocent voice, a sweetly-pouting croon. “But Momma! It’s all so pretty.”
Turning to face her, he lifted both hands to shade his eyes, smiling at the sight of the petite woman in her elegant suit. Perched on her hip was his twin sister, the elder by four minutes and heir to a fate that kept their mother up late at night whispering into the phone. Kouyou had heard some of it, but only some of the words made sense.
At least, until today. This morning when they’d come down to breakfast, there had been shadows in their mother’s eyes. We’re going somewhere special, so hurry and eat your breakfast.
The estate lay in the countryside, away from the busy sprawl of city life. A parking lot edged in cherry trees gave way to a walk-way that was the same, the path meandering to one side of the building and the receiving room. This first building was a traditional Japanese structure, an elegant and beautiful image that was at odds with the dark whispers of this place.
Even children on the playgrounds knew the whispers of ‘The Facility’. There were stories of children going in there and never leaving again, or others returning horribly mangled. A great many were supposedly put into exclusive schooling and training programs and moved all through Japan. It was said they were the most valuable assets of The WTA.
He knew what “valuable” meant, and had asked his mother about the rest. She’d simply petted his hair and told him very important things lived at the Facility of the WTA. Important things happened there. Only important people went there. It was quite exciting for a seven year old to be told he was important enough to be admitted into such a secretive place.
“Come on, Kouyou.” His mother murmured holding out her hand to him as they neared the front doors. “We don’t want to be late.”
“Late for what, Momma?” He asked, obediently catching her hand with his and allowing her to lead him through the door. He glanced briefly at the stern-faced man in the suit who held it for them as they passed, and then back to his mother. “Why are we here?”
“We have an appointment, darling.”
**
An appointment, it turned out, that was for his sister. Everything was for Kisa, he was beginning to understand that fact. Though their mother claimed to love them both, there was something special about Kisa. It was more than her being older, more than her being a girl. Kouyou didn’t understand it, but he didn’t have to.
He knew he didn’t like it.
When the woman behind the desk told his mother that she and Kisa were expected, she also said that it would be best if he went somewhere else. Kouyou watched the two whisper for a little while before his mother returned to him.
“The nice lady behind the desk is going to show you the playground, Kou.” She had crooned, petting his hair. “You behave while Kisa and I talk to the Trainers, alright?”
Nodding obediently, he gave her his best innocent look. “Yes Mama.”
**
Since that day Kouyou had been slipping away from the “play area” and exploring. Due to his link with Kisa, he always knew when time was up and he had to return to the approved location. Until then, he wandered.
A child shouldn’t wander amongst the corridors of cages like he was doing. In spite of that knowledge -or perhaps because of it, as he had always been a rebellious child- Kouyuou meandered along in quiet contentment. From time to time he hesitated by a cage, curling his hands around the bars as he peered in, searching for an inhabitant. Most of the cages were empty, but the few inhabitants he had encountered had showed no interest in him.
Still, there was something strangely magical about peering through the bars of a cage and being greeted by a lion’s casual regard. The wolves too were interesting, though not as majestic in their consideration of him. Often they snorted and dismissed him rather quickly. The cats were somewhat slower in their perusal, sniffing at him in idle curiosity before they returned to their naps.
Then again, what human was more important to a cat than a nap in the sunshine? It seemed big cats were just the same as their domesticated counterparts, at least in that respect. Overall, the great animals were unconcerned and uninterested in the boy who wandered through their midst without supervision.
Kouyou was seven and on his third visit to the maze of cages when something interrupted his usually-quiet exploration. The chiming clang of metal being struck by something heavy attracted his attention from his usual path. Taking the next sharp turn when it came, the young boy moved into a faintly shadowed run of cages that ran parallel to the main ones he always examined. Continuing along the quieter path, Kouyou tilted his head as the sound occurred again. He seemed to be moving in the right direction.
He halted suddenly.
A juvenile cat threw itself at the bars of his cage, and then tumbled backwards. Snarling and hissing when the iron refused to give under the weight of his assault, the tiger drew himself to his paws and shook his head. Stalking toward the back of his cage and then turning, the cat once again ran straight at the front wall of bars and threw himself at them, again tumbling back.
Again the sound, again the snarls. Again the cat stood and shook and paced back toward the far corner of his enclosure. Kouyou drifted closer.
“You shouldn’t keep doing that; you’re going to hurt yourself.” He murmured the soft admonishment in a tone his mother often used when she was trying to stop him from doing something stupid. He didn’t expect it to work. Not that it did, exactly, but it certainly attracted the cat’s attention.
Yuu spun at the sound of the soft voice, launching himself once again. This time he threw his weight against the bars rather than directly at them, aiming to startle the human rather than break the barrier between them. One large paw reached through the bars, swiping threateningly at the cinnamon-eyed stranger.
Instead of making an expected noise of fear and retreating, the boy regarded him with a tilt of his head and an arched eyebrow. “Does it make you feel better to be mean to everyone, even when they haven’t done anything to deserve it?”
‘Yes.’ He thought bitterly, dropping to all fours with a muttered snarl.
The boy didn’t smell or act like another shifter, leaving the tiger to guess he was a Tamer. It didn’t make sense for a Tamer to be wandering through the cages alone, but it made even less sense for a normal human to be doing so.
“Don’t you want a friend?” The boy drifted closer, bringing strange scents that intrigued Yuu in spite of himself. A dozen brushes of people, the lingering scents of foods and places, traces of wherever the other had been before he’d arrived here. Underneath it all was a hint of jasmine and warm vanilla. The hint of sweetness made the young tiger inhale again, drifting slightly closer to the bars as the boy did.
The scent of sun-warmed skin, grass as though he’d been kneeling somewhere… A hint of the lion shifter that Yuu considered a friend, and some trace of the wolves that never failed to annoy the temperamental tiger.
Again the boy moved closer, stopping once he was close enough to lean against the bars of the cage. Even with Yuu standing near the center of the enclosure, the move was a bold one.
Foolish, but bold. Mutely Yuu pointed out how idiotically trusting the stranger was acting, aloud settling for single unimpressed snort.
“Well… You’re not likely to try and break out again while I’m standing here, are you?” The boy challenged, obviously understanding the noise. “And since I doubt you’ll come closer just so I can look at you, that means it’s up to me.”
Surprised, Yuu tilted his head in a way that was more suited to a dog than a tiger. It still got his point across.
The boy smiled. “You’re beautiful. I want to look at you, is that alright?”
Conflicted, Yuu hesitated. Most of the time he hated it when any of them looked at him. Hated the staring and whispering. But he also hated them, and this boy was nothing like them. Didn’t seem like he was one of them. And he was asking if it was alright.
If it wasn’t, Yuu could just disappear into the thick grass planted in the back half of his enclosure. Even his strange blue-gray coloring didn’t interfere with a tiger’s ability to blend into bright emerald green. Though if a bold orange or gold cat could do it, why not one like Yuu?
“None of the others like me much.” Kouyou admitted to the still-bewildered tiger, sliding down to sit against the bars. “I mean, I understand I guess… They say there is only one Tamer for each of you… But I don’t really want to be a Tamer, I’d just like to be a friend.”
A breeze lifted, stirring the boy’s hair. Yuu crept closer, drinking in the soft sweetness of jasmine and sugar beneath the riot of inconsequential scents. He liked the way this stranger smelled.
Kouyou shifted slightly, letting one shoulder settle between the bars as he rested his hand on the flat rock just inside the cage. Judging by what he’d seen in the other enclosures, the boulders were for the cats to sun themselves on. It was strange how the keepers of this place made the enclosures like cages at a zoo… Is that what people thought this place was?
“They say my sister is a Tamer.” Kouyou continued, staring at his hand and the gray stone beneath it, pretending not to notice how the shadow of the cat drifted closer. “She admits sometimes that she doesn’t want to be one… And in her sleep she cries, like it hurts.”
Yuu hesitated as sadness swept the other’s scent, salt-water tears mingling with the honey and jasmine and sunshine.
“Sometimes it hurts me too, because we’re twins.” Kouyou admitted in a whisper. “I don’t tell them, they always send me away to the playground anyway. I don’t want them to think that I’m weird… But it’s boring, so I started walking here.”
Yuu inched forward, the boy smiled.
“I don’t think they’d want me here, but I want to be, so I don’t really care.” He stretched his arm toward the tiger. “Friends?”
Yuu stretched his head out slightly, sniffing at the offered fingers. The scent of sugar and vanilla was stronger.
“I was helping Mama bake cookies before we came here.” Kouyou admitted. “Do you, like cookies? Even when you’re a cat?”
Yuu blinked, tilting his head at the question. The boy blinked back, tilting his head the other way. It made the tiger chuff in amusement.
“You’re a little silly.” Kouyou smiled.
Cautiously, whiskers touched skin.
“But beautiful, you know.” He continued. “I’ve never seen anything like you.”
The sudden relief from Kisa made him leap to his feet, startling the tiger into growling. With an apologetic glance, Kouyou withdrew his arm. “I, I have to go… Maybe I’ll see you next time… Maybe I’ll bring you cookies.”
Watching the stranger disappear back up the path, Yuu blinked in bewilderment and ignored the slight sadness at the loss of his new ‘friend’. With a muttered sigh he withdrew to the back of his cage, crouched, and launched himself at the bars again.
Kouyou glanced over his shoulder at the sound of the familiar clang, shaking his head as he bolted to the play area. Hopefully the headstrong tiger wouldn’t hurt himself too much.
The next time they visited, Kouyou smiled reassuringly as they led Kisa away and bowed to the office staff before taking himself out to the playground. Waiting until he was sure it was safe, he launched himself out of the fenced yard and through the tangle of shrubs and fencing that sectioned off the habitats, grinning as he appeared in front of the lion’s cage like always.
“I’m not here to see you today.” He murmured as the cat huffed at the noise he was making. “Don’t get up.”
Watching the boy run down the path, the lion yawned to himself and snorted, rolling over onto his side. Tamers.
Skidding to a halt in front of the cage, Kouyou smiled at the sight of a certain blue-gray tiger. Momentarily it huffed, the fur down his back spiking and ears flattening, white teeth showing in a snarl.
“Don’t do that.” Kouyou murmured, voice soothing as he leaned against the bars. “I didn’t lock you in there, I just want to help. Friends, remember?”
Yuu blinked, shocked at the mild rebuke and the sight of the hand reaching toward him. Fur flattening slightly, he tilted his head, watching the fingers quirk in entreaty.
“Don’t just stand there.” Kouyou murmured, amused. “Come here. You were much closer last time, remember?”
One paw moved before Yuu even realized it, carrying him within sniffing distance of the graceful hand. Ears flattened again, this time in apprehension, he stretched his neck out as far as he could to scent the other boy. It was best if he stayed as far away as possible, he knew that. But this stranger smelled good, and was kind…
The fingers retreated slightly. Prompting a huff of disappointment from the young tiger as he crept closer. When his whiskers brushed fingertips, they withdrew again. Again he followed, annoyed now. Brushing his nose against the pale digits, he growled softly when they withdrew again. Lunging forward, Yuu carefully caught the boy’s sleeve with his teeth, ears flattened and expression pouty as he growled around the fabric.
Kouyou laughed, the sound as bright as sunlight to the startled Shifter. “Bossy, aren’t you?”
Yuu huffed, an annoyed sound he often treated the younger Shifters to when they annoyed his elder and more mature self. The cinnamon-eyed boy seemed to recognize the sound, rolling his eyes as his other hand slipped through the bars to stroke over Yuu’s ears and cheeks.
“Let my sleeve go?” He murmured. “Mama will be upset if I have holes in one of my best shirts. I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”
The young tiger gave him a speaking look and leaned against the bars, keeping his grip on the fabric. With a sigh Kouyou smiled faintly, not really caring about his sleeve when he had an armful of tiger. Granted, the bars were a little annoying, but that didn’t much matter when there was blue-gray fur striped with black brushing against his arms and just begging to be pet.
“Still so beautiful.” He murmured. “I think I should make up something to call you though.”
Unimpressed, Yuu glanced at the boy.
“Well calling you ‘tiger’ is stupid.” Kouyou pointed out, tapping his nose. “I wish you’d let go of my sleeve, silly.”
Grumbling to let the boy know that ‘silly’ would not be permitted as a name, Yuu laid down. Releasing the sleeve, he immediately rested his face against the boy’s palm, rumbling in approval when the message was understood and the petting continued.
“Well, since you’re blue…” Kouyou mused to himself. “I guess Aoi will work, since I don’t know your real name.”
Yuu grunted, but considered the name.
“Yeah, I think Aoi works.” The boy nodded. “And it’s not like you can argue with me, so Aoi you shall be. I’m Kouyou. There, now we can be friends.”
“Aoi” blinked at the human who settled against the bars of his cage, shrugging to himself when Kouyou’s other hand slid down his back, idly tracing his stripes. Aoi wasn’t so bad, he conceded. In fact, he rather liked it.
“Aoi?”
The cat grunted a question, ear twitching to show he was listening.
“I brought you cookies… If you want one…”
Aoi chuffed. Having Kouyou as a friend wasn’t so bad.
**
A little bit more of "Tamer" because I felt like being productive today! When I wasn't absolutely dead. Yay me! So, what do you think? Who paid attention to the lion? Comments? *wibbles* I want a Maltese Tiger, damn it.
Pairings: Aoi x Uruha (More to come?)
Writer: black_prophet (Midsummer_Slave)
Genre: AU, Sci-Fi with Angst & Smut
Rating: PG (For Now)
Warning: None so far.
A/N: Ch 1 is a bit of "background/ childhood" etc before things get rolling. I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not now, nor will I ever, claim to own The GazettE (though I do have several CDs & Concert DVDs and a LOT of pictures). They belong to themselves and each other. This fic and the world it is set in is completely the product of my imagination. I do all my own stunts writing. Please do not attempt these techniques at home. No Beta (sorry for mistakes, I try to spare you).
Previous Ch: "Summary & Bios"
***
The day stretched over and around him in crystal detail, the faint sent of cherry blossoms drifting on the wind from the not-so-distant line of trees. Mutely he cocked his head, examining the position of the bright orb high in the sky. Scraps of cloud, like shreds of cotton, drifted against a sea of blue. A sudden breeze sent his sun-kissed hair to tumbling around him, scattering his world with flower petals it pulled from the trees. He glanced from them back to the wisps of cloud, comparing the two in his mind.
“Kou-darling.” His mother murmured, her tone a flitter of worried disapproval. “Don’t stare at the sun, you’ll hurt your eyes.”
He voiced his reply in an innocent voice, a sweetly-pouting croon. “But Momma! It’s all so pretty.”
Turning to face her, he lifted both hands to shade his eyes, smiling at the sight of the petite woman in her elegant suit. Perched on her hip was his twin sister, the elder by four minutes and heir to a fate that kept their mother up late at night whispering into the phone. Kouyou had heard some of it, but only some of the words made sense.
At least, until today. This morning when they’d come down to breakfast, there had been shadows in their mother’s eyes. We’re going somewhere special, so hurry and eat your breakfast.
The estate lay in the countryside, away from the busy sprawl of city life. A parking lot edged in cherry trees gave way to a walk-way that was the same, the path meandering to one side of the building and the receiving room. This first building was a traditional Japanese structure, an elegant and beautiful image that was at odds with the dark whispers of this place.
Even children on the playgrounds knew the whispers of ‘The Facility’. There were stories of children going in there and never leaving again, or others returning horribly mangled. A great many were supposedly put into exclusive schooling and training programs and moved all through Japan. It was said they were the most valuable assets of The WTA.
He knew what “valuable” meant, and had asked his mother about the rest. She’d simply petted his hair and told him very important things lived at the Facility of the WTA. Important things happened there. Only important people went there. It was quite exciting for a seven year old to be told he was important enough to be admitted into such a secretive place.
“Come on, Kouyou.” His mother murmured holding out her hand to him as they neared the front doors. “We don’t want to be late.”
“Late for what, Momma?” He asked, obediently catching her hand with his and allowing her to lead him through the door. He glanced briefly at the stern-faced man in the suit who held it for them as they passed, and then back to his mother. “Why are we here?”
“We have an appointment, darling.”
**
An appointment, it turned out, that was for his sister. Everything was for Kisa, he was beginning to understand that fact. Though their mother claimed to love them both, there was something special about Kisa. It was more than her being older, more than her being a girl. Kouyou didn’t understand it, but he didn’t have to.
He knew he didn’t like it.
When the woman behind the desk told his mother that she and Kisa were expected, she also said that it would be best if he went somewhere else. Kouyou watched the two whisper for a little while before his mother returned to him.
“The nice lady behind the desk is going to show you the playground, Kou.” She had crooned, petting his hair. “You behave while Kisa and I talk to the Trainers, alright?”
Nodding obediently, he gave her his best innocent look. “Yes Mama.”
**
Since that day Kouyou had been slipping away from the “play area” and exploring. Due to his link with Kisa, he always knew when time was up and he had to return to the approved location. Until then, he wandered.
A child shouldn’t wander amongst the corridors of cages like he was doing. In spite of that knowledge -or perhaps because of it, as he had always been a rebellious child- Kouyuou meandered along in quiet contentment. From time to time he hesitated by a cage, curling his hands around the bars as he peered in, searching for an inhabitant. Most of the cages were empty, but the few inhabitants he had encountered had showed no interest in him.
Still, there was something strangely magical about peering through the bars of a cage and being greeted by a lion’s casual regard. The wolves too were interesting, though not as majestic in their consideration of him. Often they snorted and dismissed him rather quickly. The cats were somewhat slower in their perusal, sniffing at him in idle curiosity before they returned to their naps.
Then again, what human was more important to a cat than a nap in the sunshine? It seemed big cats were just the same as their domesticated counterparts, at least in that respect. Overall, the great animals were unconcerned and uninterested in the boy who wandered through their midst without supervision.
Kouyou was seven and on his third visit to the maze of cages when something interrupted his usually-quiet exploration. The chiming clang of metal being struck by something heavy attracted his attention from his usual path. Taking the next sharp turn when it came, the young boy moved into a faintly shadowed run of cages that ran parallel to the main ones he always examined. Continuing along the quieter path, Kouyou tilted his head as the sound occurred again. He seemed to be moving in the right direction.
He halted suddenly.
A juvenile cat threw itself at the bars of his cage, and then tumbled backwards. Snarling and hissing when the iron refused to give under the weight of his assault, the tiger drew himself to his paws and shook his head. Stalking toward the back of his cage and then turning, the cat once again ran straight at the front wall of bars and threw himself at them, again tumbling back.
Again the sound, again the snarls. Again the cat stood and shook and paced back toward the far corner of his enclosure. Kouyou drifted closer.
“You shouldn’t keep doing that; you’re going to hurt yourself.” He murmured the soft admonishment in a tone his mother often used when she was trying to stop him from doing something stupid. He didn’t expect it to work. Not that it did, exactly, but it certainly attracted the cat’s attention.
Yuu spun at the sound of the soft voice, launching himself once again. This time he threw his weight against the bars rather than directly at them, aiming to startle the human rather than break the barrier between them. One large paw reached through the bars, swiping threateningly at the cinnamon-eyed stranger.
Instead of making an expected noise of fear and retreating, the boy regarded him with a tilt of his head and an arched eyebrow. “Does it make you feel better to be mean to everyone, even when they haven’t done anything to deserve it?”
‘Yes.’ He thought bitterly, dropping to all fours with a muttered snarl.
The boy didn’t smell or act like another shifter, leaving the tiger to guess he was a Tamer. It didn’t make sense for a Tamer to be wandering through the cages alone, but it made even less sense for a normal human to be doing so.
“Don’t you want a friend?” The boy drifted closer, bringing strange scents that intrigued Yuu in spite of himself. A dozen brushes of people, the lingering scents of foods and places, traces of wherever the other had been before he’d arrived here. Underneath it all was a hint of jasmine and warm vanilla. The hint of sweetness made the young tiger inhale again, drifting slightly closer to the bars as the boy did.
The scent of sun-warmed skin, grass as though he’d been kneeling somewhere… A hint of the lion shifter that Yuu considered a friend, and some trace of the wolves that never failed to annoy the temperamental tiger.
Again the boy moved closer, stopping once he was close enough to lean against the bars of the cage. Even with Yuu standing near the center of the enclosure, the move was a bold one.
Foolish, but bold. Mutely Yuu pointed out how idiotically trusting the stranger was acting, aloud settling for single unimpressed snort.
“Well… You’re not likely to try and break out again while I’m standing here, are you?” The boy challenged, obviously understanding the noise. “And since I doubt you’ll come closer just so I can look at you, that means it’s up to me.”
Surprised, Yuu tilted his head in a way that was more suited to a dog than a tiger. It still got his point across.
The boy smiled. “You’re beautiful. I want to look at you, is that alright?”
Conflicted, Yuu hesitated. Most of the time he hated it when any of them looked at him. Hated the staring and whispering. But he also hated them, and this boy was nothing like them. Didn’t seem like he was one of them. And he was asking if it was alright.
If it wasn’t, Yuu could just disappear into the thick grass planted in the back half of his enclosure. Even his strange blue-gray coloring didn’t interfere with a tiger’s ability to blend into bright emerald green. Though if a bold orange or gold cat could do it, why not one like Yuu?
“None of the others like me much.” Kouyou admitted to the still-bewildered tiger, sliding down to sit against the bars. “I mean, I understand I guess… They say there is only one Tamer for each of you… But I don’t really want to be a Tamer, I’d just like to be a friend.”
A breeze lifted, stirring the boy’s hair. Yuu crept closer, drinking in the soft sweetness of jasmine and sugar beneath the riot of inconsequential scents. He liked the way this stranger smelled.
Kouyou shifted slightly, letting one shoulder settle between the bars as he rested his hand on the flat rock just inside the cage. Judging by what he’d seen in the other enclosures, the boulders were for the cats to sun themselves on. It was strange how the keepers of this place made the enclosures like cages at a zoo… Is that what people thought this place was?
“They say my sister is a Tamer.” Kouyou continued, staring at his hand and the gray stone beneath it, pretending not to notice how the shadow of the cat drifted closer. “She admits sometimes that she doesn’t want to be one… And in her sleep she cries, like it hurts.”
Yuu hesitated as sadness swept the other’s scent, salt-water tears mingling with the honey and jasmine and sunshine.
“Sometimes it hurts me too, because we’re twins.” Kouyou admitted in a whisper. “I don’t tell them, they always send me away to the playground anyway. I don’t want them to think that I’m weird… But it’s boring, so I started walking here.”
Yuu inched forward, the boy smiled.
“I don’t think they’d want me here, but I want to be, so I don’t really care.” He stretched his arm toward the tiger. “Friends?”
Yuu stretched his head out slightly, sniffing at the offered fingers. The scent of sugar and vanilla was stronger.
“I was helping Mama bake cookies before we came here.” Kouyou admitted. “Do you, like cookies? Even when you’re a cat?”
Yuu blinked, tilting his head at the question. The boy blinked back, tilting his head the other way. It made the tiger chuff in amusement.
“You’re a little silly.” Kouyou smiled.
Cautiously, whiskers touched skin.
“But beautiful, you know.” He continued. “I’ve never seen anything like you.”
The sudden relief from Kisa made him leap to his feet, startling the tiger into growling. With an apologetic glance, Kouyou withdrew his arm. “I, I have to go… Maybe I’ll see you next time… Maybe I’ll bring you cookies.”
Watching the stranger disappear back up the path, Yuu blinked in bewilderment and ignored the slight sadness at the loss of his new ‘friend’. With a muttered sigh he withdrew to the back of his cage, crouched, and launched himself at the bars again.
Kouyou glanced over his shoulder at the sound of the familiar clang, shaking his head as he bolted to the play area. Hopefully the headstrong tiger wouldn’t hurt himself too much.
The next time they visited, Kouyou smiled reassuringly as they led Kisa away and bowed to the office staff before taking himself out to the playground. Waiting until he was sure it was safe, he launched himself out of the fenced yard and through the tangle of shrubs and fencing that sectioned off the habitats, grinning as he appeared in front of the lion’s cage like always.
“I’m not here to see you today.” He murmured as the cat huffed at the noise he was making. “Don’t get up.”
Watching the boy run down the path, the lion yawned to himself and snorted, rolling over onto his side. Tamers.
Skidding to a halt in front of the cage, Kouyou smiled at the sight of a certain blue-gray tiger. Momentarily it huffed, the fur down his back spiking and ears flattening, white teeth showing in a snarl.
“Don’t do that.” Kouyou murmured, voice soothing as he leaned against the bars. “I didn’t lock you in there, I just want to help. Friends, remember?”
Yuu blinked, shocked at the mild rebuke and the sight of the hand reaching toward him. Fur flattening slightly, he tilted his head, watching the fingers quirk in entreaty.
“Don’t just stand there.” Kouyou murmured, amused. “Come here. You were much closer last time, remember?”
One paw moved before Yuu even realized it, carrying him within sniffing distance of the graceful hand. Ears flattened again, this time in apprehension, he stretched his neck out as far as he could to scent the other boy. It was best if he stayed as far away as possible, he knew that. But this stranger smelled good, and was kind…
The fingers retreated slightly. Prompting a huff of disappointment from the young tiger as he crept closer. When his whiskers brushed fingertips, they withdrew again. Again he followed, annoyed now. Brushing his nose against the pale digits, he growled softly when they withdrew again. Lunging forward, Yuu carefully caught the boy’s sleeve with his teeth, ears flattened and expression pouty as he growled around the fabric.
Kouyou laughed, the sound as bright as sunlight to the startled Shifter. “Bossy, aren’t you?”
Yuu huffed, an annoyed sound he often treated the younger Shifters to when they annoyed his elder and more mature self. The cinnamon-eyed boy seemed to recognize the sound, rolling his eyes as his other hand slipped through the bars to stroke over Yuu’s ears and cheeks.
“Let my sleeve go?” He murmured. “Mama will be upset if I have holes in one of my best shirts. I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”
The young tiger gave him a speaking look and leaned against the bars, keeping his grip on the fabric. With a sigh Kouyou smiled faintly, not really caring about his sleeve when he had an armful of tiger. Granted, the bars were a little annoying, but that didn’t much matter when there was blue-gray fur striped with black brushing against his arms and just begging to be pet.
“Still so beautiful.” He murmured. “I think I should make up something to call you though.”
Unimpressed, Yuu glanced at the boy.
“Well calling you ‘tiger’ is stupid.” Kouyou pointed out, tapping his nose. “I wish you’d let go of my sleeve, silly.”
Grumbling to let the boy know that ‘silly’ would not be permitted as a name, Yuu laid down. Releasing the sleeve, he immediately rested his face against the boy’s palm, rumbling in approval when the message was understood and the petting continued.
“Well, since you’re blue…” Kouyou mused to himself. “I guess Aoi will work, since I don’t know your real name.”
Yuu grunted, but considered the name.
“Yeah, I think Aoi works.” The boy nodded. “And it’s not like you can argue with me, so Aoi you shall be. I’m Kouyou. There, now we can be friends.”
“Aoi” blinked at the human who settled against the bars of his cage, shrugging to himself when Kouyou’s other hand slid down his back, idly tracing his stripes. Aoi wasn’t so bad, he conceded. In fact, he rather liked it.
“Aoi?”
The cat grunted a question, ear twitching to show he was listening.
“I brought you cookies… If you want one…”
Aoi chuffed. Having Kouyou as a friend wasn’t so bad.
**
A little bit more of "Tamer" because I felt like being productive today! When I wasn't absolutely dead. Yay me! So, what do you think? Who paid attention to the lion? Comments? *wibbles* I want a Maltese Tiger, damn it.