Everchanging

Mission: Stray

!!TW!! Discussion of Abortion, Cancer, death

Genya bid farewell to his hand, accepting the possibility that it might be bitten off, as he held out a piece of bread to the dog. It growled, snapping its jaws as it backed away from him. Genya noticed that neither animal had tags. It was very likely that they had been out here for a while by the amount of scars the dog had and how skinny both animals were.

"What's your name?" Genya spoke evenly to the dog, setting the bread in front of him a foot away so the dog could sniff it. "Can I name you? Are you okay with that?"

What could he name him? Genya never had the chance to pick a name, so he spent a few long minutes deciding.

"Suika. You'll be Suika." Genya spoke to the dog, giddy when he lapped up the discarded bread and looked up for more. "It means watermelon. It's my favorite food."

The kitten came forward in search of a snack, so Genya turned to grab his other snacks. He pulled off a piece of bread and lowered it. Before he could drop it, the kitten had climbed into his hand to grab the morsel. He couldn't help but smile, taking the chance to feel its soft fur.

"And you'll be Yuka. Isn't it pretty?" Genya cooed at the baby. "It means fragrant. It's kinda weird as a name but I think it sounds pretty."

Suika barked loudly, interrupting Genya and making him jolt. Yuka meowed at him, her whiskers tickling his palm. She allowed Genya to pet her, even if it made Suika mad. The dog yapped and growled, drool dripping from his face. Though the growling made Genya's nerves dance, he wasn't upset. Suika was just scared, he was trying to intimidate what he saw as a threat to protect someone important.

Suika reminded Genya a lot of Sanemi in that regard. Lashing out violently despite his fear just so the people he loved would be safe. Genya hummed to himself, setting Yuka down to let the kitten waddle back to the dog. He didn't want to stress either of them out more than necessary.

"Do you want to come to my house?" Genya asked the strays, dumb since he knew they weren't going to answer him. Gray eyes blinked at him blankly and Genya stood slowly. His phone was chiming in his pocket, surely Sanemi wondering where the boy was, as Genya pulled it out of his jacket.

He kept his eyes on the two animals, watching as Suika sat down and watched him with reluctant curiosity. Yuka had curled up under the dog's undercarriage, huffing lightly before shutting her eyes. Snow started falling lightly just as Genya answered the call.

"Are you on your way back? It's gonna be dark soon and I have to head out to do makeup work at the office." Sanemi spoke the minute his little brother answered the call, his keys jingling in his hand. "Tomioka agreed to hang out at our place, so you won't have to be alone."

"Yeah... I'm just a few minutes away. I dropped the bag, so I had to chase everything down." Genya looked at Suika as if the dog would congratulate the boy on coming up with a believable lie on the fly. Suika just huffed audibly, shuffling closer to the discarded bread. "Are you heading out now?"

"Yeah. I wanna get there before Ubuyashiki locks it." Sanemi sighed woefully. "I won't take too long though, so I should be back before you head to bed."

"Okay, bye Nemi. Love you, be safe." Genya bent down, pushing the bread closer to the strays. He had to bite his tongue to keep from yelping when Suika almost took his finger off, snapping the bread into his mouth. "I'll see you when you get back."

"Love you too, bud. Don't give Tomioka too hard of a time. I'll see you later, Gen." The line clicked and they were left alone in the alley. Luckily, Genya wasn't on route with the school so it was unlikely Sanemi would pass him. But just to be safe, Genya tried to corral the animals deeper into the alley while ignoring his spiking anxiety.