Underneath the Red Trees

CHAPTER 25: OLD FRIENDS, NEW ENEMIES

"Hayate?" he asked. Hayate could not answer him. "I didn't know you were out of the hospital." He stopped and frowned. "Hey, what's wrong?" He touched Hayate's face.

His touch left electricity on Hayate's skin. Hayate placed his palm over the hand on his cheek. He squeezed his eyes shut, basking in the feel of his skin. Of his warmth. Of the electricity his touch left.

His voice was grave, just above a whisper, "Touma." Not Yuuki. Not anymore. This was Touma.

Hayate did not know how he was supposed to feel. Touma or Yuuki? Was there a difference? Of course there was! He and Ryogetsu were different people, too.

Hayate really liked Touma. Were they his feelings, or feelings past?

"Mrrrowww!" Touma laughed, pulling his hand away.

Hayate opened his eyes. "Look," Touma said, motioning to the kitten, "I'm taking her home."

Hayate laughed. There was a lightness in his chest. These were his feelings. Not Ryogetsu's. He recognised this feeling. The same way he felt before his memories returned. "What is your roommate going to say about that?"

Touma grinned. "Don't worry, I've done this before. I have a gameplan for when he gets back from his mom's. It involves you."

"All right. How can I help?"

It was two in the morning by the time they got to Touma's flat. It had been a struggle to find a pet store open at this time. In fact, it had taken them three hours. Hayate's ribs had slowed them down especially.

The kitten had been making all sorts of sounds for the last hour.

"Calm down, cutie," Touma said as he opened a can of cat food, "I know you're hungry."

"Meow!" the kitten stared at Hayate with her big blue eyes, as if changing the target of her cries would somehow get her food faster.

Touma placed the bowl by the bathroom door. The kitten slipped on the floor as she ran to it.

Touma plopped down on the sofa next to Hayate. "I'm exhausted."

Hayate chuckled. "She is like a kid."

"Because she is a little baby."

Hayate smirked. "What are you going to call her?"

Touma hummed. "I don't know."

"What about Noisy?" Touma crinkled his nose. Hayate laughed. "It fits. What? Do you disagree?"

"Yes, I do."

"Okay, okay. What about Kumo."

Touma turned his eyes on the kitten. "No. She is a little lady, don't you think?"

"No. I disagree with that."

Touma laughed. He stared at the kitten for a few minutes of quiet. "Oh, I know! Yua."

"I don't think that works."

"Okay would rather I call her Yuki* like every other unoriginal white cat owner in Japan?"

*Yuki means snow in Japanese whereas Yuuki means courage.

"Okay, okay, Yua it is." Naming the cat something so similar to the name of the man he had loved in his past life was too much for Hayate. And Touma seemed set on the name Yua.

Neither of them went to sleep that night. They ended up talking until the sun came up. Ryogetsu and Yuuki also used to talk until the early hours of the morning, but Hayate and Touma's subject matter was vastly different.