365 Days of Starshipping (Part 1)

Cat Treats

5/26/19

Yusei blinked in the kitchen during one of his breaks the next day at the sight of Pharaoh staring out the window, then turning to stare at him with a quiet meow. A paw batted at the glass, luckily without any claws out, while the cat continued to stare relentlessly at him.

"Did... you want outside?" Yusei asked, tilting his head slightly at the question. Pharaoh nodded in response, which made him pause once again before replying, "I should probably ask Judai first. Sorry."

Pharaoh meowed at him again, pawing the window in emphasis before seeming to change his mind and jump off the window sill. He rubbed up against his legs, prompting Yusei to smile and lean down to pet him.

When he rolled over onto his back, Yusei let out a soft chuckle and obliged, eventually saying, "We got treats yesterday at the store."

The cat immediately rolled back onto his feet, cozy-ing back up to him as if he wasn't already going to give him some anyway. He meowed quietly as Yusei picked him up, his fluffy tail batting lazily against his arm as he rustled through the cabinets and tried to remember where they put the treats; said treats were the high-quality ones, of course, because Yusei and Crow insisted on them.

...Maybe they were spoiling the cat a bit too much, but Yusei was just happy and excited that the cat existed in the first place - it helped that Pharaoh was incredibly smart, too.

Crow walked into the kitchen the moment Yusei found the box of treats, and upon spying the cat in one of his arms and the box in the other his face lit up with a grin, "Oooh, let me in on this. I wanna give him one, too."

Pharaoh meowed once again as he approached, Crow scratching him behind the ears while Yusei put him down on the counter so he could tear open the treats.

"Here, we should probably split one - they're pretty big," Yusei said, snapping one of the treats in half; he found it far more amusing than he probably should have that they were shaped like gingerbread men.

"Good idea," Crow agreed, taking the bottom half of the broken treat and holding it out to Pharaoh, "Here ya go, you cute fluff-ball. Chicken flavor and everything, just for you."

Yusei wasn't sure whether he expected Pharaoh to pounce on his hand or not, but he smiled upon seeing Pharaoh give the treat a quick sniff before gently pulling it out of Crow's hand and chowing down on it the second it cleared his fingers. Once the cat had finished that one, Yusei opted to hold out his half on the palm of his hand; he watched on with interest as Pharaoh carefully lifted it out of his palm before crunching it above his hand, surprisingly not letting any crumbs fall down.

"I see you guys have already started spoiling him for the day," Judai said suddenly, startling both of them since they hadn't heard him come in the room.

"Hey, I walked in here like, two minutes ago and Yusei was in the process of getting the treats out anyway," Crow retorted, unashamedly grinning and pointing at Yusei with a thumb, "Don't blame me, blame him."

"How could I not give him any, he rolled over for belly rubs and everything," Yusei defended, pouting slightly before smiling once again at the feeling of Pharaoh rubbing up against his hand, which was still hovering over the counter near him, "You see this? See what I mean?"

"Careful there Yusei, Judai might start to get jealous if you keep sayin' stuff like that," Crow teased, Judai immediately hopping on-board the second it came out of his mouth.

"Yeah, might start thinkin' you love the cat more than me!" Judai exclaimed, a toothy grin taking up his face as he walked over and picked up Pharaoh, who curled up into his arms without any hesitation.

"You guys are mean," Yusei sighed, feeling his face warm slightly at the teasing before he suddenly remembered what Pharaoh had wanted earlier thanks to Judai showing up, "On another note... Judai, Pharaoh wanted to go outside. Through the kitchen window."

"Oh," Judai blinked, looking down at Pharaoh, who merely stared back up at him, "Yeah that's fine, just if you do make sure you re-open it like... an hour or so later. You're not going to stay outside for more than two hours, got it Pharaoh? Can't have us having to search for you in the city... hell, maybe we should finally put a collar or something on you. Or get you micro-chipped, just in case."

Pharaoh somehow managed to pull off a glare at Judai, which Yusei found hilariously cute because it made the cat's face scrunch up a lot.

"Yeah, no, we'll just get you micro-chipped if you keep glaring at me like that."

And thus, Yusei and Crow watched with great amusement as Judai argued with a cat for a solid fifteen minutes.