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Geto had rescued his cat Utahime from the streets when she was only a few days old; her body was covered in fleas, she had areas of alopecia with patches of dark gray hair, and a gruesome wound that crossed from her right side of her head to the nose. She hadn’t even opened her eyes and only emitted weak sounds when he picked her up from the damped paper box she was abandoned in. The vet had flat out told him that she wouldn’t survive, unless she was strenuously cared for.
He basically told him to leave her to die. And Geto refused to listen.
Taking care of a cat that required bottle-feeding every two hours, stimulation with a wet tissue to urinate, and giving her medication in a specific way and time had been a nightmare at first. Mei Mei, his boss, was not amused to find him feeding her during working hours in the office.
“I’m not firing you because after Nanami, you’re the second person who gives me the most sales in this place.”
Those were her words before throwing a towel for him to place inside Utahime’s shoe box where Geto intended to keep her hidden in the office. Utahime rubbed against the soft fabric while emitting a small sound. The girls in the office stifled an adorable little cry every time he opened the box to feed her.
Geto blessed the internet a thousand times in those first weeks, with its tutorials on ‘ How to take care of baby cats’ and educational videos of owning said cat. What toys, what brands of foods, what sand for the litter. Nanami even bought him a book and left it on his desk without a word. Hashibara was more excited than his partner, and would drop by from time to time to take a peek inside the box in Geto’s desk.
Utahime slowly began to improve in the weeks that followed. When she opened her eyes-Geto’s were red and puffy because of the sleepless nights-it was his first victory. The next one was when she was able to take a few clumsy steps on top of his desk, awkwardly bumping into the materials, and causing Hashibara to gasp with tenderness. Nanami simply took a few photos and went back to work.
Utahime's fur gradually began to appear on the rest of her body and lost its gray coloration, being replaced by a lustrous black. Geto brushed it carefully and gave the final touch with a white ribbon that Mei Mei had left on his desk one morning. For someone who claimed not to like cats, she sure did like hanging around his desk. The only place where the fur didn’t grow back was the scar on her face.
But it didn’t matter. Utahime was Geto’s little princess.
She was, in his opinion, the most well-behaved and affectionate cat in the world. She slept next to him - on top of his face almost suffocating him - and woke him up with kisses on the cheek. She meowed, waving her tail to get his attention while he cooked, and Geto ended up tucking her into his sweatshirt, cradling her like a baby. She sharpened her nails in her tower. She did her business in her litter box. She cuddled with him on the couch while he was in the process of filling out the application for the adoption agency.
Geto would do anything to protect her.
That’s why when he saw the white cat outside his balcony, Geto stopped suddenly.
He was on his way to his study with a cup of coffee and could have easily missed the sight in his balcony as there was nothing of interest there. But a huge ball of white hair wasn’t easy to miss, especially if it was right next to the glass and the exact place where Utahime was taking a nap.
His first thought was that the cat was grinning. But could cats do that? Grin ? Utahime, who was curled up in her bed, didn’t seem to notice its presence despite the cat staring directly at her as it wagged its fluffy tail from side to side. Its long, white fur looked like it was cared for and its big blue eyes were fixed in Utahime’s form, pupils dilated.
That sent alarms off in Geto’s head.
Carefully, avoiding waking Utahime up, he closed the blinds. He knew there were more people with cats in the apartment complex, but he had never met them before. Most of them kept to themselves like he did. If the cat was a male, he had to be careful.
By the time he opened the blinds again, the cat was gone.
*...*
Ieri Shoko was in another department of the company but smoked at the same breaks as him. He had never really talked to her in all that time he was working in the company, but he liked to stare. Too much perhaps. The woman was beautiful-almost ethereal- as she appeared to float in the smoke. So to tone down his staring, he looked at pictures of Utahime as he waited for the email of the adoption agency. It took his mind off the nervousness.
“Nice cat.”
Geto flinched in his seat and turned to see Ieri Shoko, who sat down next to him and was unfazed by almost giving him a heart attack. She took a drag from her cigarette.
“What breed is it?”
“W-what?” Geto clenched his hold on the cigarette, trying his best to calm down.
“Your cat. What breed?”
“Ah....normal? I-I don’t know, she was a stray when I adopted her.”
“Cool,” Shoko blew the smoke. “Mine is a Persian doll face.”
The woman took out her phone and showed him the wallpaper where a white, fluffy cat with beautiful blue eyes grins back. Geto blinked confused as it looked suspiciously familiar…
“Ah,” he smiled nervously, realizing that he had stayed an abnormal amount of time quiet. “It’s very cute.”
“Yeah, he’s a fat bastard.”
Geto stared at her, shocked and surprised. He had heard many nicknames people gave to their pets ‘sweetie, cutie pie, princess, my baby, dude’, but he had never heard ‘fat bastard’.
Shoko snickered at his expression.
“Oh, don’t give me that look. He’s not actually fat, his fur makes him look like that.” She scrolled through her pictures and showed him one where the same cat was drenched from the neck down, giving him the bizarre appearance of a....well, something freaky . Not even Utahime looked like that when he bathed her-she had this terrified look in her eyes as she howled at him, no matter how many times he reassured her it was just a bath. But when Shoko sat closer to him, Geto felt chills run down his body.
“What’s its name?”
“P-pardon?”
Shoko took another drag- Geto’s own cigarette was left forgotten in his hand, the ash falling down to his shoe -and blew the smoke in rings towards his face, holy shit .
“Your cat’s name.”
Geto stammered as he felt his cheeks going red. “U-uta....Utahime.”
The woman chuckled. “Cute name. Mine's Satoru.”
*...*
The white cat returned when he was out buying groceries and forgot to close the window of the balcony. Geto, as soon as he passed the threshold, knew something was wrong because there was a mess of knocked-over stuff in the living room and Utahime was hissing somewhere in the apartment. He dropped the grocery bags instantly and ran inside.
“Utahime?!”
Utahime- his princess - was hissing on top of her castle, her back arched and her lustrous hair on point while the same white cat from last time was playfully hitting her face with his paw.
Geto saw red.
The cat tried to zoom past him in a flash of white fur as soon as he realized that the man advancing towards him had a threatening aura, but Geto had faster reflexes and caught him by the neck. The cat yowled and shook vigorously in an attempt to escape as Geto lifted him to his face. Utahime meowed as she rubbed herself against his leg, as if she was happy of the trouble the intruder was in for annoying her.
Going from apartment to apartment was not an easy task because the damn cat kept trying to escape. Geto was forced to hold it with both hands to avoid this, and his mood got worse and worse as the cat kept struggling in his arms, trying to claw his way out. Utahime followed close behind and sat next to Geto whenever he knocked on a door to ask “Is this your cat?” only to be turned away. At the umpteenth door, Ieri Shoko opens and Geto freezes.
“Oh, that’s mine,” Shoko took the cat from Geto’s arms easily, and made him stare at her “What did you do now, you little bastard?”
The cat-Satoru, Geto remembered. Ieri Shoko’s cat was a Persian doll face named Satoru-meowed while grinning- was that ball of fur even a cat? They aren’t supposed to do that! - and stuck his tongue out. Utahime meowed angrily behind Geto’s leg.
“Awwww, is that Utahime?” Shoko crouched down and scratched her ear. “She’s even cuter up close.”
Now Utahime meowed weakly, closing her eyes at the bliss of the scratches and purring loudly. Geto quickly took her in his arms as if to protect her, but in reality was to calm himself down. Shoko didn’t appear to be bothered by this, and gave a relaxed smile.
“So, I can only guess he did something bad.”
“H-he snuck into my apartment and...Well, he bothered Utahime.”
‘Nice one, Suguru, you just sounded like a whiny kid.’ Geto thought with a cringe.
“Oh?” Shoko turned to look at the cat in her arms. “So you have a little girlfriend now?”
Satoru meowed, looking directly at Utahime. She hissed in return. Geto looked at Shoko with a horrified expression.
“No! They’re nothing!”
“Chill dude, I’m joking.” Shoko put her cat down, who ran inside the apartment. “I’ll keep an eye on him ok? Make sure he doesn’t try any more funny stuff.”
Geto sighs, suddenly feeling really tired.
“Thank you” he muttered and bowed weakly before leaving.
The next morning he woke up at the sight of Utahime biting Satoru’s face as he was calmly sitting on her bed. And the cat was clearly enjoying it because of how his tail moved. Shoko came for her cat dressed only in shorts and a t-shirt, smiling lazily as she took her fluffy menace, and Geto had the audacity to look away while his face burned bright red.
He catched the cat inside his apartment several more times-how the fuck did he kept getting inside was beyond him-and it was stressing him out, because it stressed Utahime out, because the damn adoption agency hadn’t answered to his request,, and because Ieri Shoko kept coming to his apartment to retrieve her cat with a smile that madehis heart beat abnormally fast.
To be honest, he doesn’t understand at all why the cat kept coming back.
Utahime clearly didn’t like him. She hissed at him, slapped his face and jumped to attack him. And yet, Satoru seemed to be unbothered by this, always wagging his tail like a dog as if they’re playing. The calmest interaction Geto had seen between the two cats was when Satoru played with Utahime's white ribbon, occasionally pawing at it until she snapped, hissing, and trying to bite him. But Satoru moved away quickly, meowing happily as he wagged his tail with a grin.
‘This cat is an attention whore.’ thought Geto as he hurried Satoru out of his door.
His princess would never tolerate him.
But one morning, Geto swore that he saw Utahime give Satoru a kiss in his face before slapping it twice with her paw . His eyes had to be playing tricks on him because he hadn’t had his morning coffee yet. Then one day he returned home and found Utahime curled up on the couch with Satoru, the white cat kneading her stomach, and both of them were purring loudly. The scream Geto let out wasloud enough for a neighbor to call the cops because he was ready to bloody murder the cat .
Shoko laughed like a maniac while Geto was looking at her furious, holding a shaken up Satoru in his arms.
“He got my cat pregnant! Why are you laughing?!”
But that just makes her laugh louder.
“Stop it! It’s not funny!”
Shoko held her stomach and took back her cat like she has done in the past weeks.
“They weren’t having sex, Geto. They were just showing each other affection,” she dropped Satoru inside, who skittered to hide somewhere in the apartment for his own safety. Shoko, with dove-like eyes, glanced at the man that was huffing red at her door..
“Have you forgotten about that? Give each other affection?”
It took a moment for him to understand, gawing and feeling his face blushing. Hours later, Geto was hugging a tired and sweaty Shoko against his flushed chest when his phone buzzed with an email alert. His application has been accepted.
*...*
Nanako and Mimiko were two little angels that couldn't wait to meet Utahime. Shoko had shown them every picture in Geto’s phone of her on the ride back home, and Geto struggled to get them out of their seatbelts because they’re fussing with excitement. He reminds them that Utahime could bite if they weren’t careful and must wait patiently for their turn to carry her.
The twins nod with stars in their eyes as Geto opens the door, and they rush inside after taking off their shoes, looking everywhere for the cat. Geto smiles fondly and stays by the door to thank Shoko for accompanying him to the agency when Nanako shouts at the back of the apartment.
“There's a white cat sitting on Utahime!”
Geto dropped the car keys.
Mimiko’s voice is heard next “Geto-san! He won’t let go of her!”
The girls returned running to the adults, and tilted their head to the side in confusion when they saw their guardian had gone pale as a ghost and wouldn't answer their questions. Shoko, who was shaking while trying her best not to laugh, does it in his stead.
“They’re making kitties, children”
The twins gasped excitedly.
“Kitties?!”
“Yep,” Shoko turned to look at Geto and patted his arm, smiling. “Looks like you won’t be the only one having kids.”