Purple Eyes, Hidden Lies

Aito, 24, never believed in such things as luck, good or bad. It wasn't luck that paid his rent for that small one-room apartment. It was not luck that paid tuition to college or put food on the table. For as long as he could remember, it was his hands, his sweat, and his sleepless nights that had kept him afloat.

Yet nights like this made him wonder whether it was really worth it.

Rain was pouring down from above, large drops drummed against his skin. He trudged home from another part-time shift with his backpack slung over one shoulder, hunched over against a storm. The city was silent, save for the occasional car splashing its way up, and the distant rumble of thunder.

And then, he saw her.

Huddled in the shadow of a flickering streetlamp, a soaked black cat stared up at him with the most piercing purple eyes he'd ever seen. Aito stopped, rain forgotten for the moment, and the cat cocked its head and let out a pitiful meow.

"She's cursed." his friend Daiki would have said. "Black cats are bad luck, Aito. Just keep walking." Yet, crouching down and extending a shaking hand, Aito did not see a curse. Rather, he saw a fellow stray - lost, cold, and surviving.

"Guess it's you and me now, huh..." he whispered, stuffing the cat inside his jacket to keep her out of the rain. He shrugged off the nagging voice in his head telling him he hardly had enough food for himself, let alone a pet.

He'd make do somehow.

He always did.

What he couldn't know, while carrying that shivering creature home, was that his life was about to change forever, and not in any of the ways one might imagine.

And that was okay, sometimes the things we save save us right back.