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It was a shame to ruin an otherwise perfectly good day with groceries, but unfortunately eating isn’t optional. Apparently you can only survive on Monster World plots for so long. They’d tried.
But at least the weather was just about perfect - some gentle fall sun, and a light cool breeze to balance out the sunshine warmth. If you had to walk to the grocery store, this was the weather to do it in.
Ryou took a deep breath of the fresh fall air and considered his options. So long as he was out anyways, he may as well enjoy the outdoors a bit. He sent off a quick voice message to Bakura to let him know he was going to stop in the park first, maybe have a quick lunch. A moment later, Bakura replied with a long string of emojis.
>😖💩🙄🎮
>🥓🍳🍙🧋🫓🧀🥩🍢🫕🍪🍎🥔🧄❗❗❗
Ryou translated this roughly to ‘yeah yeah, I’m not moving, do whatever you want as long as you feed me later’. Ryou smiled at his phone, sent a quick thumbs-up, and pocketed it. So lunch first, then.
Ryou wandered back into the park a few minutes later with a couple containers of take-out sushi in hand. The park really was lovely at this time of year. The trees were in that awkward middle-aged stage, with leaves still half green but edged with their fall colours, creating a beautifully short-lived rainbow of multicoloured branches. Ryou’s favourite little corner of the park held a particularly grand tree just barely starting to tint the edges of its leaves, surrounded on two-and-a-half sides with hedges still lush and green despite the first creeping chill in the air. It was private enough to have his own space, but still excellent for people-watching if the mood struck.
Ryou settled against the trunk and stretched his legs out with a happy hum. As he started in on his sushi he enjoyed the vague sounds of people going about their business, and the much sharper sounds of a group of songbirds in the tree above having a rather passionate disagreement about something. At the park, there was always something. Very abruptly there was a rather loud rustling sound in the hedge beside him, and a squirrel bolted out towards the tree at top speed. It scrambled to the nearest branch before doing its very best to scream its own lungs right out as it scolded the hedge with every ounce of rodentia fury it could muster.
Ryou huffed as the squirrel took the briefest of breaths before screeching furiously one last time and bolting further up the tree. “Well, now what was that all about?” As though in answer, the hedge gave a loud rustle.
Curious.
In the hedge, there was a pair of luminous eyes peering out of the shadows.
“Oh, well hello then. What are you?”
The hedge let out a discontented sort of grumble in response, and when Ryou reached his hand out in invitation the eyes blinked away.
Well fine then. Two can play at that game.
Ryou set his tray of sushi beside himself and carefully pulled a piece of fish away form the rice. He stretched one hand out towards the hedge, fish now temptingly on display, and waited.
For long minutes, the only thing that happened was another discontented sort of grumble. Then, a thin glare reappeared in the shadows. Ryou waggled the piece of fish and used the other hand to have a bite of his own meal, patient. He’d never known food to fail at tempting grouchy creatures out of their hiding places, and had every faith it would work now.
Eventually, one fluffy paw emerged. Then a second. Ryou continued to eat, and twitched the offered fish again. Very suddenly, an exceptionally large pile of thick fur burst from the hedge and descended on the fish, snatching it away and gobbling it down.
Ryou smiled. “Gotcha.”
The cat seemed, indeed, very large, but looked like it was mostly matted fur. Ryou hadn’t seen any strays like it recently, and he had his doubts that what appeared to be a full-grown maine coon would go missing for long without posters being plastered everywhere. So, the fact that the poor thing looked like it had been on its own for long enough to be more dirty fur than flesh was...odd.
Ryou held out another piece of fish and waited. It didn’t take nearly as long before the treat was accepted, and soon enough his lunch date seemed to relax a bit. When the cat stopped eating to gnaw it its own paw between morsels, he saw his chance and carefully held out his fingers to sniff. The cat paused mid-bite, and shot Ryou a look that was remarkably judgmental for something that had just eaten half his lunch.
The cat may have been skeptical of his lack of food, but Ryou has nothing if not filled with bloody-minded determination in the pursuit of a goal. Eventually, his was granted cursory sniff of his fingers, which were promptly grabbed and licked thoroughly. Once every particle of fish oil was carefully lapped up, the little beast moved on to gnawing lightly on his fingertips, shooting him pointed looks. How very charming! Ryou smiled and reclaimed his fingers to pull off another bit of fish, which was consumed as voraciously as the very first. Soon enough he’d earned himself a lap overflowing with grumbling cat, who seemed to have accepted the reality that additional fish morsels came with insistent, if politely offered, affection.
“Now, where have you come from, you grump?” Ryou carefully ran his fingers through the ruff around the cat’s neck, searching for signs of a collar amidst the knots. Nothing. He would have continued the search, but the cat's grumbling picked up a notch and the weight in his lap shifted restlessly. To compensate for the prodding he gently scrubbed at the back of its head, which resulted in...well it was some kind of noise, anyways. Ryou couldn’t quite figure out if it was a growl or a purr, but there were no claws or fangs involved so whatever it was must be accepting.
This cat was weird. He already loved it.
It certainly seemed like a stray. It had no collar, matted fur which must mean it had been in the streets for a while, and it was clearly hungry and probably underweight. At first it had snarled like something feral from under the hedge, but had warmed up so quickly and accepted Ryou’s petting with such little fanfare that it seemed like it must have been tamed at some point. It was even sticking around after the food was gone.
Fascinating. Time to further test the situation.
Ryou shifted his weight – there was more grumbling from the cat – and pulled out his keychain. If the viciously furious squirrel had been any indication, the cat probably liked to hunt.
And ah, it was nice to be right. The very moment the sunlight caught on the keychain, the cat’s attention snapped to it. Its odd little grumble-purr cut off into an intent sort of silence as the luminous eyes tracked its prey, and Ryou could feel the deep imprints of four little paws as its weight concentrated there. All was still for just a moment, and then -
“OW!”
The cat was a hunter, all right, and apparently had no problems with immobilizing its prey by means of using every claw on its giant fluffy paws to do so. The cat shot Ryou a stern look an Ryou glared right back as it gnawed on the keychain, with Ryou’s hand and wrist held firmly in place to prevent any escape.
“That was entirely unnecessary, you know.” Now that the shock had worn off, Ryou was glad to see there was fairly limited damage - nothing a little antibiotic ointment wouldn’t cure, anyways. But it looked like getting his hand back might be a trick. It was being pulled firmly towards a furry chest with no signs of letting up until the keychain was thoroughly gnawed to death. Ryou gave his arm an experimental jostle. The claws pressed just a little bit more tightly to his skin, and the keychain was settled more firmly between tiny fangs. The furry beast almost looked like it was grinning in smug victory, and was giving no sign at all of releasing its victim.
Fine then. There were other ways.
Ryou gave the cat his best sunny smile, and then swooped his other arm around to gently scoop it up into a thorough, squishy hug. Furry limbs flailed in all directions with a startled yowl, and Ryou’s arm was free once more. Success. He promptly let go and allowed all four paws to plant themselves firmly back into his lap. Strangely, the cat didn’t immediately vanish back under the hedge after the manhandling, as Ryou had fully expected. Instead, it stared at Ryou as though in deep consideration, narrowing its eyes a little and tilting its head in a way that was entirely cute despite its size and unkempt fur. Ryou held still for a moment, before reaching out a hand in invitation with his best customer-service smile.
“Can I help you?”
Bright eyes narrowed further, and the long fluffy tail lashed back and forth a few times as the cat appeared to consider the offer. Then, cautiously, it stretched its head towards Ryou’s fingers... and took one firmly into its mouth with a grumble. It stared intently at Ryou, and gnawed ever-so-gently.
“Well,” Ryou smiled and wiggled his finger a bit against the scratchy tongue. “That works then.”
There was a pet store just around the corner. Groceries could wait.