Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ If This Cat Could Talk... ❯ Dressing the Kitten ( Chapter 7 )

If This Cat Could Talk…

By: Ellipsis the Great

DISCLAIMER: Kingdom Hearts and everything affiliated with it belongs to SquareEnix and Disney. All I own is the plot…

Summary: Axel's therapist suggests that he get a cat to help him get over an accident involving his little brother's best friend. It doesn't take him long to realize that strange things are afoot, however…

Rated: T just in case. May change later on.

Spoilers: None that I know of…

Warnings: Definite yaoi on the horizon, a little angst (obviously), and I suppose I should point out that this is AU…

 

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CHAPTER EIGHT: Dressing the Kitten

 

It was another of those slow awakenings, but this time I was a little more aware of my surroundings—of the warmth coming from an outside source that was nestled against me, of the soft sound of Roxas' breathing, of the sensation of his fur tickling my nose, and of the feeling of my arms being wrapped around a lean, but familiar figure.

`Wait…what?'

My eyes snapped open so fast I'm surprised I didn't get whiplash, immediately meeting a pair of rather annoyed smoldering eyes.

“Would you care to explain to me why you grabbed me while I was trying to wake you up?” Riku asked irritably, his blue-green eyes narrowed even more than usual.

Apparently, my sleep-fogged mind realized (far too slowly to be natural), it had been his breathing I'd heard and his hair that had been tickling my nose, not Roxas'.

“…No?” I laughed awkwardly, pulling my arms away from him. Then, my mind going back to the dream, I sat straight up, looking around wildly. “Where's Ro—Cricket?”

“How the hell should I know?” Riku asked, apparently not noticing my near-slip as he hurried to get off of my bed; as if he thought I would grab him again (like I would want to when I was conscious).

“Never mind.” I snapped, standing and rubbing the ball of my hand against one of my eyes. “What time is it?”

“Noon…ish.” He replied. “This is the second time you've slept in obscenely late. You'd better be glad Cid called and said for you not to come in today, or you'd be dead right now.”

“Cid did what?” I asked, eyebrows furrowing.

“He said something about getting ready for some race in Hollow Bastion.”

“Oh…I forgot that was today.” I said thoughtfully. Races meant lots of activities in the garage, which usually meant running cars…running cars and I didn't mix well.

“Right. He said he forgot, too, which is why yesterday he told you to come in.” He frowned at me. “Although I don't see as to why it matters. You've seriously got to get over yourself.”

I flinched visibly, wishing vaguely that Roxas was here to scare my brother off. I seriously hated it when he got in one of his vindictive, Axel-is-Satan moods.

“Yeah.” I said softly, no longer meeting his gaze.

He scoffed. “Whatever. Pops said to tell you that Luxord called.”

Luxord Veinardurée: my best friend of about fifteen years, now. We met when we were in the fifth grade, when he was suckering some kids out of their money. That guy was and still is crazy good at gambling, but the kids in question decided he was cheating, so they tried to beat him up when the teacher wasn't looking. Now, I might've been a bit of a jerk myself at that age (most would say I never outgrew that aspect of myself), but fair was fair. Sore losers pissed me off.

So I set them on fire.

It got me suspended, and lectured by my dad and then-pregnant mom, but it also earned me a best friend. We weren't as close as Riku and Sora, mind you—mostly we just took turns getting in trouble and getting each other out of trouble—but we were still close. And he was really good about helping with all of the things I had gone through in my life when most people would have (or actually had) abandoned me.

“Thanks.” I said, still not really looking at him.

Riku had always been horrendously unsympathetic about everything, and while I couldn't help but understand why, I still sometimes wished he could just let it go. On the other hand, it was sometimes nice to have someone who was realistic about my part in the accident. He was just a little too…vehement about it, sometimes, and I could never really look him in the eyes.

He didn't answer, just leaving the room and closing the door behind himself with a sharp slam.

I let out a ragged sigh, sitting back down on the bed and burying my face in my hands. This was the hardest part about both of us still living with Pops: I had to see how much my baby brother hated me every day. He had even hit me a few times—I never tried to stop him—until Pops found out and threatened to send him to anger management classes.

With most people he was just apathetic, and with a rare few (Demyx and Kairi, for example) he was actually somewhat amiable, but with me he was completely unforgiving and hateful. I understood why, like I said before, but at the same time…I mean, no one wants to be hated by their own family, right?

Something shifted beneath me.

“A-Axel?”

Another sigh. “Yeah, Roxas?”

There was no answer, but after a pregnant pause the name I had said registered in my mind.

I jerked back, my hands leaving my face as I looked down at the face peering up at me fearfully from between my legs.

“Roxas?” I gasped.

He nodded, his cerulean blue eyes impossibly wide and frightened.

“H-how…when…what?!”

“I woke up like this.” He said shakily, pulling his hands out from under the bed. They were trembling. “I-I don't know what happened, but when I woke up I wasn't a cat anymore and for a minute I thought we were still dreaming except that we aren't in the room and then I heard your brother so I just climbed under the bed so he wouldn't see me and I don't know what's going on and…and…”

“Whoa, Roxie, calm down.” I said, grabbing his hands and pulling him out from under the bed.

He hissed a little as the carpet scraped against his bare back—he was naked, still—but allowed me to help him up.

“What's happening?” He asked, his eyes pleading with me to give him an answer.

“I don't know.” I replied with a shrug, unable to keep my eyes from drifting downwards. I coughed awkwardly and blushed. “I should…get you some clothes.”

“Why?” He asked, apparently easily distracted.

“Humans wear clothes.” I said, not quite able to believe I was having this conversation—especially not with someone who had been a cat a few hours before!

“Why?”

“Well, because…it's…to cover up your…you know!” I said, flustered.

“If I knew, I wouldn't have asked.” He pointed out.

“It's to cover up that!” I said, pointing at his groin.

He looked down, blinking. “…Why?”

“Because it's…humans just don't go walking around naked, okay? It's indecent.” I said, hiding my embarrassment by rummaging through the closet.

“But I'm always naked.” He protested, peering over my shoulder curiously.

“Yeah, well, you're usually a cat, too.” I said.

I could practically feel his grimace. “Right.” He said, his voice even smaller than he usually was.

I turned around with an old shirt and pants set I had never really worn but was too lazy to throw away. He had his arms folded behind his back, his eyes on his shuffling feet.

“Hey, don't worry about it.” I said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “We'll figure this out, okay? You help me and I'll help you, remember?”

He stared at me for a moment, and then his mouth broke into a smile that, while it was so little most wouldn't have given it much thought, it made his entire face light up so that I could have sworn he was a flashlight during a blackout.

I ruffled his hair, ignoring his disgruntled whine, and handed him the clothes, ruffling through my underwear drawer and giving him one of the smaller pairs of boxers that I was always telling myself I should get rid of.

“Put those on while I take a shower.” I said, grabbing some clothes for myself.

“A…shower?” He repeated distastefully. “Like…a bath?”

“Yeah. Humans can't wash themselves like cats can, so we have to take baths.” I explained, unable to stop the grin the spread across my face. “We get yucky and smelly otherwise.”

He just wrinkled his nose cutely.

I chuckled. “Be back in about ten or fifteen minutes.” I said, and left the room.

 

~*~PAGEBREAKSORRYNOSHOWERSCENEPAGEBREAK~*~

 

I knocked on the door once I had finished my shower, my hair tied in a loose ponytail.

“You done, Roxie?”

There was a muttered answer from within, closely followed by a thump and a yelp.

“Roxas?” I opened the door, freezing at the sight that met me.

The `thump' I had heard was apparently the sound of Roxas falling to the floor, as he looked up at me with one leg in the pants, and the shirt sleeve halfheartedly pulled around his head. He had also managed to put the vest halfway on, but had apparently given up on the boxers as they had been carelessly deposited on the bed.

I clapped a hand over my mouth, managing to stifle my laughter so that all that escaped was a soft snort.

“I…don't think I'm doing this right.” Roxas said with an embarrassed half-smile, ducking his head. “I'm sorry.”

I shook my head. “It's my fault—I should have known you wouldn't know how to put clothes on when you didn't even know why people have to wear them. Come here.” I offered him a hand, pulling him to his feet when he took it. “Take all of that off, and we'll start over.”

He did so, and I directed him in the proper way to put on the clothes I had provided, mentally scolding myself for not only failing to realize that he wouldn't know how to put them on, but also giving him a horrendously difficult outfit to try to put on. Eventually we managed to get it right, and I grinned as I studied the fruits of our labors.

He now wore pair of khaki pants, as well as a black vest beneath a white shirt with a red inner collar and a checkered pattern where the sleeves met the body of the shirt and just above the hoodie-esque pockets.

“Nice.” I said, my mouth twitching as I watched him look at himself, leaning back on his toes in an attempt to see himself from behind.

He looked at me, his eyes as innocent and curious as ever. “Really?”

I nodded. “But…” I crossed my arms over my chest. “Now that we've made you decent, we have to figure out where we're gonna tell people you came from!”

Both of us pondered this question for a moment.

“We could say I'm Sora's cousin.” Roxas suggested finally.

“You do look like him.” I admitted. “Other than the hair, at least. It could work, I guess, but…if you're his cousin, which I'm assuming means you came to see how he is, why didn't you come before now?”

He bit his lip, eyebrows furrowing together. “I…don't know.”

I snapped my fingers together. “I know! You're a foster kid. You've been fostered to a couple of different families because your folks are dead, and after you were old enough to be on your own you moved around a lot, so you didn't get the news until a few months ago.”

“And we met at the hospital.” He added, seeming to catch on.

“No, it would be better if we met yesterday when I was coming home from Demyx's. You asked where the hospital was, and then you asked for a hotel that was close to it. And I said you could stay here.”

“Okay.” He said with a smile.

“Right. So that's the story.” I said, touching my head with a finger. “Got it memorized?”

“I'm Sora's cousin who just heard about the accident because I'm a…you called it a foster kid? So I've moved around a lot, but I finally got the news and came here to see him. I arrived yesterday and met you while I was looking for a hotel near the hospital. And then you invited me to stay at your house.” He recited dutifully.

I ruffled his hair. “Way to go, Roxie.”

“Don't do that. And my name is Roxas.” He scowled, then put one hand on his hip while he tapped his head with the other. “Got it memorized?”

I laughed. “Yeah, fine. Let's go.”

He nodded and followed me out of the room.

 

~*~ENDCHAPTEREIGHT~*~