Love with a Neko

He finds a kitten

The day had started out normally. He had woken up, showered, ate breakfast and was driven to school by his parents. People had, as always, greeted him in the hallways. He got praised by numerous people for numerous insignificant reasons - a few even recounted to him one of the victories he'd made on the team weeks ago. He had sat through all of his classes, bored and impatient for the teachers to move on already. He had eaten his packed lunch, sat through even more classes, and left the school to go home with his usual group. But then he remembered the assignment he had left at school. It was something for history class, a large project that was supposed to show his extensive knowledge of world war two or something. He was only a few blocks away from his home so he could've easily just called it a night and spend a little extra time on his project the next night - it wouldn't have been a big deal, really. But something made him want to turn back. Maybe it was the annoying girls who had insisted on following him, maybe he just wanted to get away. But it didn't much matter, because within a second that reason had him sprinting back the way he came, shouting half-hearted apologies over his shoulder.

He had used one of the back entrances to get into the school, easily slipping past the door with a broken lock. Kiyoto had gone into the library and retrieved his forgotten work when he heard a muffled sound, almost like some kind of squeak. Curious, Kiyoto followed the strange noises to a back corner of the library and saw something that made his heart stop.

The small boy was curled up in a ball, dwarfed by the large armchair he lay in. He had on the school uniform but wore over it a hoodie so large he was practically swimming in it. The sleeves hung off his arms and the bit of the hood that wasn't covering the boy's head had formed a halo-like circle behind him. In fact, he looked almost like a cat, napping in that position. The boy grunted, jerking and squirming in his sleep. Kiyoto stepped up closer to the strange boy, noticing a sheen of sweat across his worried brow. Kiyoto knew that the boy must be having a nightmare. He shook the boy, calling out to him until he finally woke up in a panicked state, and after a strange conversation and a gruesome discovery the small boy was now curled up in Kiyoto's arms as he walked down to the nurse's station.

The boy was so light and peaceful in his arms, his soft and warm body relaxing against the harder planes of Kiyoto's own. The boy nestled his face into Kiyoto's chest, drifting off again with the most adorable look of content on his face. Kiyoto was somewhat frustrated by the fact that he had to watch where he was going, he would have loved nothing more than to look at that peaceful face forever. Wait - what? Kiyoto caught himself. What was he just thinking? Kiyoto couldn't recall thinking about anyone like that before. It was...strange. It was true that in the past he had taken on a girlfriend or two, but they had always broken up due to the fact that Kiyoto just couldn't bring himself to think about the girl in a 'special' way. And yet here he was wishing to stare at some dude's cute face. It wasn't like gay guys were a rarity around here, but for Kiyoto to have these feelings now...and for someone he didn't even know... Kiyoto sighed and shook his head. This was no time to think about those kind of things. The boy he was carrying was still bleeding from that ridiculous collar around his neck. How the small boy had even gotten himself in such a thing was a question Kiyoto would have to ask later, after he had patched the boy up.

After what seemed like much too short a walk Kiyoto reached the open nurses' office. He looked back down at the sleeping package he held in his arms and had half a thought to just keep walking aimlessly around the school with this tiny warmth held snugly in his arms. But again, Kiyoto brushed the useless thoughts aside. Now is not the time. He reminded himself. Kiyoto walked into the room, turning on all the lights and setting the small boy down onto one of the beds. "Hey." he whispered, shaking the boy's shoulder gently.

"Hey." the boy responded. God, that voice was just too much for him. The boy looked around, seeming to remember where he was, and moved himself to sit up on the end of the bed. Kiyoto quickly busied himself with retrieving the scissors, bandages and antiseptic he would need to patch the boy up, along with his pocket knife that he figured he would likely need to cut off the collar. "Sorry for making you do this for me..." he heard the boy mumble.

"It's alright. It's not too big of a deal, really." Lie. Kiyoto didn't know who would have the gall to put such a cute boy like that in such pain. "So, uh- I never got your name."

A brief pause. "It's Shion." the boy replied with startling clarity. Shion...Kiyoto thought it was a rather whimsical name, perfectly fitting a boy so odd and tiny.

"Well...Shion." Kiyoto said, walking over to where the boy still sat on the bed. "I'm going to need to cut off the collar first, so tilt your head for me and just stay still, okay?" The boy hesitated, retreating back and curling up a little.

"Okay." he finally nodded, pulling himself back to the edge of the cot and tilting his head to the side, allowing full access to his slim, injured neck. Kiyoto sucked in a quick breath before sliding the knife under the collar. The boy hissed in pain.

"Sorry, sorry." Kiyoto apologized. "But there's no way to undo the actual latch - it's completely mangled." The boy seemed to slump at the words. Kiyoto continued with the knife, working it around the perimeter to hopefully separate some of the material from the flesh or relieve a little pressure. Kiyoto got an idea. "Hold on for a second." he told the boy, quickly fetching a pair of tweezers from the nurse's desk. "This might hurt for a few seconds, okay?" he warned the boy. Once Kiyoto got a nod in response he quickly grabbed part of the collar with the tweezers, separating the material from the flesh. He pulled the piece even further away from the boy's neck, earning a sharp grunt in response. Kiyoto snatched up his pocket knife, using it to get under the collar next to the tweezers and harshly saw the material until it finally broke.

Kiyoto peeled the broken collar from Shion's skin, causing the boy to wince at the tender areas. "Sorry, sorry." Kiyoto apologized again. "Now we really need to get this disinfected before anything happens to it, okay?" the boy nodded, bracing himself. As Kiyoto took care to thoroughly clean out the wound the boy cried out several times, the harsh sting of the cleaning apparently too much for him to stay silent. "It's okay, it's over now." Kiyoto assured the crying boy, using a thumb to brush away some tears after securing the last of the bandages.

Kiyoto looked into the boy's raw eyes, feeling a strange sense of protectiveness come over him. "Who would do this to you, Shion?" he asked. "How did this even happen?" the boy looked away, color coming into his cheeks. "Who did this to you?!" Kiyoto pleaded with him, taking the boy's delicate face between his hands and turning his head to get a better look at his face. In his desperation, his hands had accidentally knocked the boy's hood back, making it slide off and over the boy's head. Shion's eyes went wide with shock. "Shi-" Kiyoto started, then he looked up...at the boy's fluffy cat ears.