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“Yamada, you can’t just drop this on me right before school.”
“Dude, what do you expect me to do when I come across two abandoned kittens on the side of the road? Leave them there!? Too cruel!”
Shota sighs, shakes his head, and holds up the kitten carrier now housing two small kittens. Probably not even six weeks old yet, one has light-gray fur, the other jet black. They smell like car oil and garbage, but even then, their cute, innocent, sleeping faces pull on his heartstrings. Of course Yamada’s right, but that doesn’t mean this’ll be easy.
"I’ll set up a little area in the apartment for them today, but I need you to find a suitable home for them. Quickly. I’m not sure how Kacchan and Deku will react to their presence. You know it takes a long time for some cats to accept change.”
Speaking of the two, he looks to the living room. Both have their ears up from where they’re laying on top of each other on the cat post, one curious, one on guard. Deku’s tail swishes back and forth as he licks the back of Kacchan’s neck. Probably because his hackles were raised the moment Yamada came in; he didn’t care for his friend. Didn’t like how loud he was and always ran away to hide if he decided to stay for a longer period of time.
He’s still not sure about this, but it’s almost time for school, and they don’t really have any other options, so after cleaning the kittens up a little, setting up a small nest area for them and giving them some water, he rushes to UA.
Leaving Kacchan and Deku alone with their new friends until, hopefully, he can rush back during lunch period.
>₍^. .^₎<
No matter how much saliva Deku wets Kacchan’s scruff with, it refuses to flatten down.
When a small kittenish meow comes from the kitchen, it raises even more. Of course, Kacchan’s immediately suspicious.
“The hell was that?” Deku notices from where he’s laying on top of Kacchan when his purr creeps into a threatening growl. “There’s something in there,” he meows quietly, looking sidelong at Deku like they should immediately form a plan of attack.
Deku knows he’s right (about something being in there, not the plan of attack), even if he doesn’t want him to be. He can smell whatever it is in the kitchen: urine and the oil that drips from human motorbikes and something like the garbage bags he used to hide under when they were strays. Putrid and tangy. Still, he tries to maintain his calm; the last thing he needs is an upset Kacchan. He was just getting ready to put the moves on him since Shota was leaving…
Kacchan stirs underneath him.
“Maybe if we ignore it it will go away?” he tries, sneakily wrapping his tail around the other cat’s body.
Kacchan gives him a look.
“Cute, Deku, but we’re not mating with that thing in there,” he meows with some sass, then he stands up and leaps off of the cat post. Deku sighs but knows it’s for the best. He doesn’t like when Kacchan’s distracted.
With a meow for Kacchan to wait up, he hops off and follows him to where he’s peeking around the corner through a plastic gate that’s keeping them from the kitchen. That’s new.
Then Deku eyes the mat that has Kacchan & Deku written on it, pondering.
“Doesn’t he know our food and water is in there?” he meows, concerned. “How are we supposed to–”
Kacchan interrupts him with a subdued hiss. “Shut it!” and he pulls on one of Deku’s ears, “Look.” And where he directs his eyes, he sees what’s got Kacchan’s fur all raised.
Nestled in some blankets in an open mesh carrier, sleeping soundly and cuddled up next to each other, are two small kittens.
Silence takes over both of them as they study the smaller versions of themselves.
Deku had only ever seen a few kittens before—his mom only had him, but he’d seen a few on his way to finding Kacchan. He always got worried seeing them alone, and would wait around until the mother showed up. Thankfully, she always did. Unluckily for Deku, though, he didn’t know this the first time he came upon a small bundle of stashed-away kittens. The litter was wet and muddy from a recent rainstorm. Sad and abandoned, they called out to his heart, but just as he’d begun bathing some of them, their mother came back and tried to attack him for approaching her litter—an understandable reaction. He’d managed to run away and, in the future, knew to keep his distance from others he’d come across.
Kacchan, however, was adopted by his previous home as a kitten himself, so he’d never seen one before.
“Kittens,” Deku meows. He looks over to Kacchan.
“They stink,” Kacchan meows back. “Why do they fuckin’ stink?” His whiskers move as he wriggles his nose. So cute.
“They probably need bathed, Kacchan.” As Deku explains, his tail and ears perk up with an idea. “Maybe I should groom them?”
“Like hell you should! What if they have fleas?” his meow is a griping sound.
“They’re already in the apartment, Kacchan, so there’s not much we can do about that,” he says matter-of-factly. Then he hops up onto the plastic dividing their spaces. “I’m going to groom them. I wouldn’t want them to get sick since they’re still so young.” He just has to.
Kacchan meows at him, slightly in awe, slightly annoyed. “If you lick their assholes then you can forget about finishing what you started earlier!”
The threat makes Deku stop, just barely, in his tracks, but then he continues circling the carrier, unfazed.
“I don’t think I’ll need to do that,” he laughs with a chirp, “look, their ears are pointed,” and his nose twitches despite himself, taking in everything up close.
Kacchan sends him another look. One that’s more confused. “The hell does that mean?”
He’s so cute when he’s angrily confused.
“It means they’re old enough to use a litter box.” He pauses, then adds, “Probably.”
Behind the gate, Kacchan only scoffs at him. Deku slowly sticks his nose into where the kittens are sleeping. Not meaning to, his whiskers brush against the small gray one, and her eyes pop open, blue and surprised, catching Deku off-guard. He pulls back quickly, but she’s fast, if a little wobbly, as she crawls out of the carrier, leaving her slumbering friend behind.
He stares at her with curiosity as she stumbles up to his front legs, before she dips under his body and disappears. His ears perk up when she stays there. He looks to Kacchan, who’s still glaring behind the gate, then cranes his neck to look underneath him.
“Are you okay?” he meows at the little kitten, concerned.
Her responding meow is soft and timid.
“You looked warm.”
Deku preens at the compliment. Then does the opposite when she says, “I need to pee.”
In panic, his hair raises, just slightly, and he rushes to pick her up by her scruff to carry her over to the litter box. It’s a good sign that she recognizes the need to go, but he knows nothing about her level of bladder control. She could still just be learning.
“You can relieve yourself over here,” he says, dropping her in the box, “since you’ll be staying here for a little.” Then he thinks, “Oh, do you have a name?”
“My name’s Eri,” she meows again, concentrating on her task, and once she climbs off the litter box and onto the wood floor, Deku can see little dirty paw prints left behind in her wake. The urge to groom builds even more. Even if he’s not used to grooming other cats, it’s an easily transferrable skill.
Gently, he lets his tongue stroke her fur, slowly pulling away all the dirt and grime the poor thing’s covered in. She’s practically weightless, compared to Kacchan, so Deku tries to be even softer, keeping her body from being pushed over by his force. It must catch her by surprise, but once she recognizes what he’s doing, her body relaxes and she lays down, closing her eyes and beginning to purr.
With her small size, it doesn’t take him long to clean her, but halfway through, when Kacchan’s still not said anything, he gives an inquisitive meow.
“You’re being quiet, Kacchan.” He keeps his voice soft in case Eri’s sleeping—laying still and silent with her eyes closed.
From where he’s still watching him, Kacchan meows back.
“Am I?” he responds, most of the emotion hidden from his voice, and to that Deku just laughs. Kacchan’s clearly thinking very hard about something right now. He knows he’ll bring it up when he’s ready, so he leaves him be and continues to lick clean little Eri. He’s just about finished when a loud, high-pitched and very-distressed meow makes his fur stick up. From under him, Eri doesn’t react aside from widening her eyes a little and looking to the carrier.
The little black kitten apparently woke up in quite the mood. With his back arched, ears flat, and tail thrashing, he looks like a mini version of Kacchan. Deku can’t help the lilt of amusement that escapes his mouth.
“Kota,” Eri meows, where she’s curled around Deku’s paw, “what’s wrong?”
Kota growls at Deku in response. It’s not super threatening, with how high-pitched it is. But it is really cute.
“Hi, Kota!” Deku meows happily at him, but he’s ignored.
“Kota?” Eri meows again, attempting to roll into a better position to look at him, “Deku’s nice. Don’t be like that. He’s been cleaning me up since we got all dirty.” Her head wobbles to look at Deku then at her companion again. “And he’s really warm too.” This, she says as she attempts to crawl further under his body, getting covered by his coat.” Deku has to laugh at her taking an immediate liking to his coat. She must have been cold with how dirty she was.
“Eri’s all cleaned up now!” Deku says as he gets up and tries to step towards Kota, but that makes him back up a couple steps.
“Eri!” Kota meows, despondent as his lanky limbs carry him further away from them, “you can’t just trust random strangers!”
“It’s okay, Kota! I’m not going to hurt you.” Not the most convincing but, hey, he’s trying. “I just want to make sure you guys don’t get sick from all the dirt on you.”
But no, it seems Kota will be doing no trusting today. “Nuh-uh!” he meows as he tries to bolt, but when he hears a little click above him, he looks up, and his ears fall back. Because perched up on the gate is Kacchan. His piercing red gaze stops Kota in his tracks as Kacchan plays perfectly the roll of intimidating.
“Where ya think you’re goin’, pipsqueak?” he says, and it’s threatening but not really looking for an answer. He hops down and grabs Kota by the scruff of his neck, then drags him over to where Deku and Eri are. “Y’stink,” he says where he’s still got him in his mouth. “Gonna behave or not?”
Instead of responding, Kota just glares his eyes at Deku from where he’s still captured. It seems like enough of an answer to him.
“Do you mind holding him, Kacchan,” he meows, going to step over Eri, “while I get him all cleaned up?”
He may look unhappy, which is understandable—Kacchan doesn’t like to be dirty, so he probably doesn’t like an unkempt kitten in his mouth—but when Deku rubs against his cheek in a thank you, the irritation disperses a little.
Eri simply watches as Kota is bathed, entirely against his will. Once, he tries to claw at Deku, but Kacchan heavily suggests he not do that again. After that, he’s as still as a rock. By the end of it, Kacchan has let his scruff go, and Kota’s pouting on the ground pretending to be dead. They’re obviously litter-mates, and yet they have such different personalities! Deku can’t help but find it somewhat amusing. But he also can’t help but think, Were there any other siblings in their litter? Did they just bond more with each other? Oh, that reminds him!
“Were you two abandoned?” he makes sure to keep the question gentle.
“Like we’d tell you!” Kota meows, annoyed, as Eri says,
“Yes.”
To that, Kota closes his eyes and rolls over, once again playing dead. Their liveliness must be growing on Kacchan because it makes him snicker.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Deku meows, empathetic, watching Eri start to play with Kota’s tail. With how annoyed he is, it looks like a little black worm and she takes to it like a toy. Personally, he’d never felt abandoned by his mom. Deep in his heart, he knew she didn’t want to leave him and that something must have happened, but Kacchan…rejection and abandonment were two feelings he knew too well.
“Our mom didn’t like us,” the little gray kitten meows. She sounds more confused than sad. Deku’s eyes flit to Kacchan. He may not look it, but he’s listening. Absorbing her words and understanding her feelings. “I think it was my fault.”
She’s stopped playing with Kota’s tail, and Kota looks at her in mutual sadness, though he tries to hide it quickly. He tries even quicker when Kacchan meows at them both and moves over towards their direction.
His head is lowered to the kittens' height. “That ain’t your fault, kid. Your mom not wanting you is her own deal. Not yours.”
Deku lowers his ears and tilts his head. He’s heard that sentiment before, maybe worded a bit differently—it’s what he’s told Kacchan about his old family abandoning him and those feelings of insecurity, and the wall to his emotions was why he was alone for so long before Deku came into his life.
“Kacchan,” he meows softly. He doesn’t really need a response, just wants to say his name. The only response he gets is Kacchan meeting his gaze, then turning away. An acknowledgement.
Eri looks at him with a small hope shimmering in her blue slit eyes. Kota’s stopped making faces and seems to be taking in what Kacchan’s saying too.
“C’mon,” Kacchan leans down and grabs Eri by the scruff this time. “Let’s get you fed.”
>₍^. .^₎<
Kacchan thought expressing himself to the fuckin’ brats would help make them not feel so alone. Help them deal with similar feelings of abandonment that he dealt with, but now he thinks, fuck that.
However he thought bonding or whatever the hell he was trying to do would turn out, it went the complete opposite direction and bit him in the ass.
“Deku! Get these goddamn leaches offa me! Fucking– Ow!”
Or should he say nipples.
“Kacchan, hold still! I don’t want to hurt them!”
For some messed up reason, these dumb kittens felt so cared for and loved at the moment by him, that they started trying to suckle him! Like ok! He has nipples and he was showing a base amount of care, but those nipples aren’t filled with fucking milk!!?! And he is definitely not their mom!!
“Kacchan,” Deku’s meows are sounding more like laughing than helping, “stop trying to pull them off! You’re gonna hurt yourself! They need to release first!”
Deku’s idea of trying to get them to stop was to offer them some food, but they didn’t seem to recognize it as what it was or care.
“Thought you said they were old enough to eat solid food!” he complains, yanking both of them off successfully and running up to the very top of their cat post for safety.
“They are!” Deku meows as he tries to stop them from climbing up after him. “But I guess they never properly transitioned away from nursing!” Finally, he steps on Kota’s tail and grabs Eri’s scruff stopping them in their tracks. “And then you started being all sweet and comforting them!”
“I was not being fucking sweet!” he meows loudly.
Somehow, Deku wrangles them into their carrier again and uses his mouth to zip them in. “You must look like their mother,” he meows to Kacchan, amused, “She must be a pretty blonde too,” he muses, and then he gets that look in his eyes.
“You come after me too, y'better find something else to start sucking,” he threatens, but it’s light. Deku would never push him or make him uncomfortable. He could never.
“I’m just teasing you, Kacchan,” he says sweetly. And truly, if anyone’s sweet, it’s Deku. Trying to help these orphaned kittens out just because of his big-ass heart. He doesn’t have to, of course. Could just let them sleep and figure things out in the kitchen until their human gets home and deals with them. But if Deku did that, he wouldn’t be the cat Kacchan loved. He was a lover.
Kacchan’s lover. Tearing open their bag of food so that he can offer some to the hungry brats. Shota might not like it, but Deku will own up to it and then he won’t be able to stay upset.
For the rest of the morning, Kacchan stays comfortable atop his perch, watching the chaos happen seeing as Deku’s got it under control and the kittens seem to do better under his attention.
Yet even as he stays out of the way, the kittens refuse to make the day any easier for Kacchan. They stopped trying to nurse from him after Deku got them to eat the wet food Loud Mouth brought for them, but they were still plenty annoying in other ways.
For one, Deku was always paying attention to them. Watching them eat so they didn’t choke. Making sure they used the bathroom, then playing with them and showing them how to groom and play with each other. He even let them play with his damn tail and if that didn’t make him fucking jealous as fuck. He was too damn good at this “taking care of others” thing.
And another thing: they were constantly in the way.
He had to come down from the post some time, and at one point, when Deku was sleeping next to them as they napped, Kacchan decided that he wanted some Deku action, too, but as he went to cuddle up with him, he stepped on a couple tiny kitten paws. They were sleeping under his coat, completely invisible! Then they started meowing at him, and Kota even scratched him!
Sure, it got Deku to pay attention to him, sweetly licking his wounds, but it was still ridiculous. Even more so was that after that, the kittens were hungry again, so he retreated to his spot near the ceiling.
He hates that Deku’s so much better at this than he is, but in the end, he realizes that he hates how inferior it makes him feel. Of course he wants to help Deku, wants to spend time with him and do this with him, but he doesn’t really feel like much help at all.
Upset, he closes his eyes and takes a nap. Hopefully, then it’ll be closer to when Shota gets home.
~
When he opens his eyes again, it’s to Deku jumping over the room-divider in a smooth leap and away from the two kittens who have gone down for a nap. He watches him stalk slowly up the cat post to get to him, leering over the edge of the platform he’s on.
“I’m going to catch myself a sleepy Kacchan, Kacchan!” he lilts, still somehow finding the energy to play around with him. Kacchan throws out a few false swats when he gets close but, ultimately, lets Deku overtake him, and they tussle around a bit until Deku’s got him pinned. Then he’s left staring at his big fluffy head as he holds it above him. “Caught you,” he says, beautiful and victorious.
Kacchan glares at him, but he can’t hide his love. Damn Deku’s always been able to see it in his eyes.
“I saw you take a nap,” he says, not upset, just worried. “Is everything okay?”
Kacchan doesn’t know how to say, you make me feel weak and I love that about you and hate that about me, so he just stares at him.
“I know this is a change of pace for you,” he meows in his sweet manner, eyes growing big.
“Don’t go making it sound like I can’t deal with a change of pace, moron,” he meows, slightly miffed, but Deku starts licking his face with kittenish licks—playful, lively, but most of all, flirtatious.
“You know what I mean, love,” he meows against his ear, smooth, wet nose brushing against the sensitive fur there. Kacchan’s tail starts to shift lightly, side to side, a mirror to Deku’s. “Taking care of kids.”
Here, Kacchan decides to try.
His meow is secretive, like it’s not sure it wants to come out. “You’re better at it.”
Deku tilts his head sideways. “Kacchan?”
“Taking care of the kittens,” he meows, louder this time, “You’re better than me at it.”
It makes him feel weak saying it out loud. But he also feels strong—opening up to Deku.
“Not every cat is great at taking care of kittens, Kacchan,” he tries to meow lightly. He knows Deku’s right but…
“Yeah, but you are and I’m not and that’s all that matters.”
For a moment, Deku is silent above him, like he’s figuring out what to say.
“…I like that about you,” he finally meows.
“Huh?” Now Kacchan tilts his head sideways, dumbfounded by the answer he hears.
“I like that you're bold and confident with pretty much everything, but this trips you up. I like that you have flaws because they aren’t flaws to me. They just make you all that more perfect. Everything about you is perfect, Kacchan. You don’t have to be good at raising kittens.”
Staring at each other, Kacchan sees in Deku’s eyes that hope that carried him through the world, helping out stray cats and kittens as he tried to find someone who would help him. He was just shy of a kitten too.
“You and I weren’t that old when we met.” It makes him sad, imagining Deku alone.
“Yeah,” Deku meows. “But we had to fend for ourselves.” And it’s true. Neither of them had someone to look out for them. Well, he had Shota, but he doesn’t count because Kacchan didn’t trust him yet. “We’d passed that stage of needing someone else to take care of us.” His tongue tickles his whiskers, but Deku knows when to stop before it becomes too much, and he transitions smoothly to this neck.
This, Kacchan thinks about.
Now, Deku’s usually right. Right about Shota being a good guy. Right about it not being a good idea to hide behind the bookshelf (he thought he would fit). Right about the kittens needing cleaned. Right about many things, but not this one.
When his furry, green head gets close to his mouth, Kacchan nips at his ear, causing Deku to pull back and look at him in confusion.
“M’not sure about what you had goin’ on, but I needed you,” he meows and Deku’s slit eyes go wide, like round black diamonds in a pool of green. “Was lonely without you.”
He shakes his whiskered head. “No, Kacchan. I definitely needed you. You were the only thing I needed. I was alone without you too.” Deku’s meow is adamant, and Kacchan’s neck tickles as he nuzzles against him, trying to chase away memories from a different time.
Suddenly, some shuffling and small meows catch their attention, and then Deku’s bounding away in a hurry, back to the kittens to check on them.
But Kacchan stays laying there, soaking in the feelings of Deku, and he thinks, I’m glad we found each other then.