Current mood:	cheerful
Entry tags:	collie, ferret, ichi, kitten, kiyomine, komahoshi, komatta toki ni wa hoshi ni kike, pets, sakura, shonen-ai, takara

Valentine Pets

Disclaimer: I do not own KomaHoshi or any of its characters. I only own the OC cat. :p

Warning: Shonen-ai fic. Lots of fur. Possibly misleading hints.

Rating: T/PG-13

Pairing: Kiyomine X Takara

Summary: Kiyomine's being neglected by Takara, and on Valentine's Day, he decides to take action to get Takara to notice him.

The dormitories really should be stricter regarding the regulations for pets.

Kiyomine twitched, watching as an unwelcome, furry four-pawed visitor scurried into room 214. He braced himself for what was to come next. Wait for it...wait for it...

"Kyaa! It's Sakura!" Takara's delighted voice exploded from his side of the room, intruding over to Kiyomine's half of the room too. The petite blond-haired teen grinned as the little animal scurried up his shirt with its tiny little claws and settled on his shoulder. Takara's eyes softened, tuning out everything else in the room, including his own roommate. His eyes were only for Sakura as he took the ferret, set it in his lap and patted it absent-mindedly. From time to time, he'd hold it up, smile widely at it and play with it. For the most part, Sakura remained on his lap, a place which should have been reserved for better individuals with black hair and masculine features and not furry little animals, but shortie had a knack for making the most unintelligent choices, so he had to be excused.

A pet definitely has an owner, of course, and moments later, Aritomo barged into the room, his eyes darting around. "Hosaka! Have you seen Saku- oh." Aritomo trailed off at seeing his runaway pet being held in the arms of a smiling angel. Sakura definitely liked Takara better than it did Aritomo, or this wouldn't be happening on such a frequent basis. Aritomo should be ashamed to have his pet running from him all the time. In fact, their owner-pet roles were probably reversed.

The expression on Takara's face as he held Sakura was obviously too much for Aritomo to handle. The lovestruck teen lunged towards Takara with his arms wide. "How cute!!!" he gushed, only to have said angelic-faced blonde fell him in a single punch.

"Stay away from me, you pervert!" Takara snarled. Sakura rolled around happily in his lap, completely unsympathetic towards its owner. Kiyomine sighed. Aritomo ought to have learnt his lesson by now, considering the number of times this had happened. The guy must have a masochistic streak to keep coming back for more.

In conclusion, scratch the regulations for pets. Pets should be banned altogether from the dorms...and from Takara.

XXX

Kiyomine had a strange craving for ferret soup that day...and ferret pie...and ferret burgers...and anything ferret related. In fact, he wanted one right now, and since Sakura was the nearest ferret available, he'd just have to grab it.

The train of thought continued as he watched Takara play with Sakura, effectively ignoring him the umpteenth time in a week. Sakura was so attached to Takara that it kept coming over for frequent visits, so often that it was a wonder Kiyomine hadn't developed a phobia of ferrets yet. He tried sealing all the holes possible, stuffing cloth under the door after Takara was asleep, and closing all the windows just to make sure there were no other entrances for the little rodent, but somehow or other, Sakura would end up sneaking into their room anyway.

Whenever Kiyomine was frustrated over Takara ignoring him during the day, the blonde would pay for it during the night, when he had to carry out his bolster duties to Kiyomine.

"It hurts...Kiyomine, you're crushing me..." Takara complained as the black-haired teen tightened his arms around him.

Kiyomine nuzzled against his chest. "Be quiet and go to sleep, shortie." He relaxed his hold a little and felt Takara's breathing slow to become more peaceful and less painful.

When Takara was asleep, Kiyomine breathed a little deeper, picking up the scent of herbal soap. Takara showered before he went to sleep, and he used a rather boring type of soap, or at least Kiyomine thought so when they first met, but after having Takara around as his bolster, he sort of got used to the scent. In fact he grew to like the scent, having associated it with Takara.

Kiyomine closed his eyes and breathed again. Takara's scent was nice. He smelt...like fur.

The black-haired man gave a violent sneeze, then opened his eyes. Beedy-black eyes stared back at him.

The two gazes locked. The clock ticked, ticked, ticked...

"What are you doing in my bed!" Kiyomine popped a vein as he made a lunge for Sakura, which gave a squeak and dove inside Takara's nightwear. He jammed his hand under Takara's shirt and felt around for the little rodent, which of course evaded his attempt with incredible agility. Takara shifted slightly, giving a funny sounding groan as he did so. Kiyomine's blood pressure continued to rise, reaching the level of near bursting. With a growl, Kiyomine pulled Takara's shirt open, popping all the buttons and causing them to fly in different directions, one of them causing a crack in Takara's stationary holder.

Sakura was curled into a frightened little ball on Takara's chest. It gave a squeak, staring up at Kiyomine with cautious little beads. Kiyomine gave a low laugh, a manic gleam in his eyes as he flexed his fingers. He pounced, intending to give that little rodent a good throttling. Moments before he could grab it though, Sakura slinked away. It was too late for Kiyomine to stop, and being unsteady, both of his hands landed on Takara's chest.

Takara's eyes flew open as he gave a wheeze, with his breath knocked out of him. He took only a while to realize who was before him, then his eyes flicked down to spot Kiyomine's hands where they shouldn't be.

A yell of horror escaped Takara's lips before Kiyomine could stop him, and before Kiyomine could even say "Sakura", Takara aimed a lethal uppercut at him, knocking him off his feet and onto the floor.

"You pervert! Where do you think you're touching! What do you think you're trying to do?" Takara continued to scream at him while tossing everything he could find at him (including poor Sakura). The ferret landed on his forehead and scurried off quickly, heading back to its room.

The culprit left the crime scene, while the innocent bystander was now mistaken as the culprit. The fight escalated, and lights came on one by one in the dorms, as sleepy students were rudely awakened by the usual fanfare coming from their most famous couple.

Kiyomine had to pull out all his tricks from his hat as an enraged Takara was out to kill him. A gentle clearing of throat indicated the arrival of his cousin, and as he turned around, Kiyomine mentally wrote his will.

XXXXXXXXX

Takara could not forgive him for what happened...or at least, Takara was temporarily too traumatized to forgive him for what happened. It didn't help that his favourite stationary holder was spoiled, and Kiyomine's mouth went ahead of his mind ("What? Just a commmon holder like this? Throw it away. I can buy you another one anytime.")

The blonde was moved temporarily to Aritomo's room, an arrangement that met fierce protests from Kiyomine and full-hearted support from Aritomo (and Sakura). Takara didn't need the bed, as he was content with just sleeping in his futon, so the arrangement was made possible.

Takara's time with Sakura increased thanks to that (and with Aritomo too, but most of the time he just got bashed before he could even put his hands on Takara). They looked so happy together, with Sakura taking walks with Takara on a near daily basis (Takara's the one doing the walking, and Sakura does the sitting on his shoulder), while Kiyomine had to return to his quiet room and sleep in his cold, bolster-less bed. Kiyomine dreamt of ferret stew those Takara-less days.

It was by pure chance one day when his dog Ichi arrived at the dorm, along with a note from his family saying that everyone was going on a holiday, and someone had to take care of the dog. That 'someone' was not specified, of course, but with Ichi being here, the answer was pretty obvious.

Kiyomine was extremely happy. At least he had his precious dog around now that Takara was not. Thank goodness for the dorm's not at all strict pet regulations.

"Ah. Ichi!" Another good thing was that Ichi drew Takara over like a magnet, and since Ichi was not one to leave Kiyomine's side often, indirectly it was like drawing Takara over to Kiyomine like a magnet. Good dog...

Ichi wagged his tail, causing an expression of delight to spread upon Takara's face as he made a beeline to the dog. Really, Takara chased after anything with fur. If Kiyomine had wrapped a rock in a coat Takara would probably hug it too. It was just too bad that Kiyomine was so hairless.

"How have you been? Have you eaten? Good boy, Ichi." Takara gushed as he stroked the dog's head. Kiyomine could understand why Aritomo was so enamoured by Takara's expression when he was handling animals. He looked so angelic. Ichi continued to wag its tail, looking up at Takara. Abruptly, it lunged and latched its teeth onto Takara's arm.

That ruined a pretty good moment, as Takara gave a yell and shook Ichi off. The dog gave a bark and chased as Takara ran off, trying to get away from it. Kiyomine watched as the blonde went further and further away from him. Yup...definitely a good moment ruined.

Like with Sakura, Ichi kept Takara's attention. Kiyomine was, again, neglected, but unlike with Sakura, at least Takara was hanging around him more often. Poor Aritomo seemed so upset by it, while Kiyomine was secretly pleased.

Ichi kept biting Takara though, and everytime it happened, Takara would run off to play with Sakura instead. Kiyomine certainly didn't like it that his own precious dog was chasing off his precious person...bolster. He had to do something to remedy that.

So it was, the dorms' most famous couple was no longer speaking to each other. Instead, Kiyomine seemed to be speaking to his dog more than he did his roommate, and Takara, seemingly taking offense in that, started hanging out with Sakura (and its owner) more.

"Oh wow...now they're acting like they're divorced." Room 213's Sakumi chuckled. "He'd rather speak to his dog!"

"That's pretty rude, Sakumi." His roommate Kuzumi spoke calmly. They watched as Kiyomine continued to talk to Ichi, seemingly engaged in some kind of a monologue.

Actually, Kiyomine wasn't exactly talking to his dog. Instead, he was giving his dog some belated training, as he instructed it on who to bite and who not to bite. Of course, Takara was added to the 'not to bite' list. It was all for the sake of getting Takara to approach Ichi instead of Sakura.

Ichi was as stubborn as its owner though. One moment it would look like it understood what was being taught to it, and the next it would be swinging off Takara's arm by the jaw. Takara eventually stopped trying to approach Ichi altogether, and Kiyomine wasn't able to train the dog anymore either, for his family returned from their holiday and were able to take care of it again.

Once more, Kiyomine found himself wishing that the rules were changed to ban pets from the dorms.

XXXXXXXXX

"Oro...you're all alone again, Kiyomine."

Kiyomine looked up to find his cousin smiling down at him. Reiichi went to sit a short distance away, knowing that his younger yet taller cousin valued his personal space.

Not too far away from them, Takara was laughing and holding Sakura up high. Next to him, Aritomo was fidgetting, with a box of chocolates hidden poorly behind his back. He obviously wanted to give them to Takara, but was hesitating because he didn't want black and blues on this particular day.

"How sad, Kiyomine. It's Valentine's Day, and you're all alone here while your precious someone is with some other male," Reiichi spoke almost innocently, if not for the mildly sadistic glint in his eyes. Aritomo seemed to have finally gathered enough courage to pass the box of chocs to Takara, who gave his thanks, took one and attempted to feed Sakura. Kiyomine twitched as Aritomo quickly tried to wrestle the box from Takara before his pet ferret got itself poisoned. He didn't like how his hands were grabbing about when he was reaching for the chocs.

"My, my. I don't think chocolates will do for Takara. If anything, you probably need to give him an animal to catch his attention." Reiichi spoke up again, even as he kept one hand on Kiyomine's shoulder least he lunged towards Aritomo or Takara and did something dumb.

That actually gave Kiyomine an idea, as he spun around, turning to Reiichi. "I have a request to make."

XXX

Takara looked grumpy.

Kiyomine couldn't blame him. Takara was having so much fun letting Sakura climb up and down his back when the black-haired teen walked over and dragged him back to their room. Currently, the blond teen had one hand placed on his hip, and his head was cocked to one side, obviously waiting for some kind of explanation from Kiyomine for his actions.

"Here." He tossed over a small parcel to Takara, who caught it neatly. The blonde could have sworn that he heard something when the parcel was being tossed. He lifted the box to his ear and shook it a little, and the parcel moved violently, startling him so bad that he nearly dropped it. A pitiful sounding yowl came from inside the box, and he hurriedly ripped open the wrapping paper.

A tiny little kitten rolled out of the box, looking dazed and shaken...and semi-suffocated. Kiyomine mused that he should have remembered to poke some airholes in the box for it first. Takara picked it up and held it carefully in the palms of his hands. Wait for it...wait for it...

"Kyaa! It's a kitten!" Takara was beyond smitten, by the looks of it. He stared adoringly at the tiny little ball of fur in his hands, which had recovered enough to give a mew and gnaw angrily at his fingers with its tiny little teeth for its mistreatment earlier.

Takara patted it apologetically until it stopped trying to bite him and instead settled with trying to escape from his palms. He placed a firm hand on its tiny body to stop its attempts before he remembered something.

"Kiyomine! You knew it was a kitten in the box and you actually tossed it to me? What were you thinking?" Takara pointed an accusing finger at him, with a scandalized look pasted on his face.

Kiyomine shrugged. "You shook the box too."

Takara looked a little shot at that, as he seemed to try to come up with a retort for that. "Well...that is...how would I know you placed something alive in there?" He stopped trying to bite Kiyomine's head off when he noticed that it was scaring kitty. "Whose kitten is this?"

"Yours." Was Kiyomine's quick reply.

Takara's head snapped up. "Whose?" he repeated dumbly.

"Yours. I'm giving him to you." Kiyomine elaborated least Takara repeated the question.

Takara tried to hide his expression of delight with as much success as the kitten's attempts at escaping from his hold. Kiyomine smiled to himself. It was worth getting this little furball after all.

"Reiichi, give me one of your cats."

Kiyomine knew that Reiichi's surviving pet cat had kittens a few weeks ago, and were old enough to be independent from their mother. It shouldn't matter if he took one.

His cousin did not even blink. "No." He replied without missing a beat.

Kiyomine raised an eyebrow, and Reiichi stared back calmly. "These are the kittens from my only pet cat left, so they're precious to me. I will not give them to anyone. Not even you, Kiyomine."

"You have five of them. I only need one." Kiyomine tried again.

Reiichi snorted, looking at him with disbelief. "Is this how you ask someone for something?"

A long pause followed that question. "Please." Kiyomine finally spoke up again.

Reiichi turned away slightly, staring at Takara. He gave a smirk before turning back to Kiyomine. "So you really can't get his attention if you do not have a cute little animal with you huh. Very well, but in return, you'll have to become my slave for a month."

Takara was obviously getting attached to it, as he rummaged inside his cupboard and took one of his old sweaters out to make a bed for his new pet. He watched as the kitten curled up inside the sweater and went to sleep. Looking up, he gave Kiyomine a puzzled stare. "Why are you giving it to me today? It's not my birthday."

'It's Valentine's Day, idiot!' Then again, people usually do not give pets as Valentine's Day presents. "I just felt like it. If you don't like it I can take it back." Kiyomine half-heartedly reached out for the kitten, only to have his hand slapped away by Takara.

"I was just wondering, that's all." Takara scowled. He looked at the kitten and smiled. "Thank you."

"Hmph. I'll just have to make you repay for this someday." Kiyomine declared, though he didn't mean it.

XXXXXXXXX

It was so worth giving the kitten to Takara, just to see him looking so happy every day.

The blonde played with Sakura less. Not that he was less attached to the ferret just because he had a new pet, but more because his kitten was so tiny that Takara was afraid that the ferret might get any funny ideas and eat it.

Less time with Sakura meant less time with Aritomo, much to the latter's dismay. He was hanging out more with Kiyomine too, since the black-haired teen helped to take care of the pet too.

However, Takara was still fawning over the pet more than Kiyomine, who was starting to wonder if he should have given the cat to him in the first place. He endured it though. The kitten made Takara happy after all.

"Uwaa! Kei-chan! How cute!" Takara gushed once he finished tying a huge red ribbon around the kitty's neck. The obviously male kitten looked absolutely adorable with the ribbon tied behind it. Disturbing, but adorable all the same. The kitten didn't seem to mind the new accessory as it padded over to give Takara's hand a lick, and Kiyomine could almost see the explosion of little heart-shapes all around Takara's head.

Kiyomine tried to concentrate on his homework, but he was acutely aware of Takara talking to Kei-chan lovingly. "You're so cute, Kei-chan. Unlike your namesake. Ah, if only your namesake were as obedient as you. You're so lucky to not be as troublesome as your namesake."

Veins popped in Kiyomine's head. He was hearing this so often that it was making him sick. It was always Kei this and Kei that. Just who was this Kei whom Takara was so enamored over that he'd even name a cat after him?

Without Takara's knowledge, he went on a hunt for this particular culprit. He somehow bulled Reiichi (a feat he had no idea how he had managed to perform but was pretty proud of) into surrendering the list of students living in the dorms, then he marked and stalked all those whose names had "Kei" in them, ranging from Kei to Keita to Keichi to Keichirou to Keigo and Keisuke. He terrorized them and interrogated them at any available opportunity, hoping to get one of them to finally break down and confess to being the kitty's namesake.

It wasn't effective though. He did traumatize a good number of them, but he was unable to weed out the culprit. Takara remained happily oblivious to everything, as he continued living happily ever after with his "Kei-chan".

Kiyomine grew to dislike the kitty a little, associating it with Takara's not so secret crush, whoever it was. At seeing Takara hang out so much with the kitty, somehow Kiyomine saw it as Takara hanging out with the kitty's namesake instead. It made him want to take kitty and feed it to Sakura...or mail it home as Ichi's dinner.

He nearly went wild with happiness one day when he found Takara seated all alone in the cafeteria, with no kitty in sight. Without missing a beat, he headed over and suavely slid into the seat next to Takara's. His good mood dampened, however, when Takara looked up with slightly red eyes, a sign that he was crying earlier.

"What is it, Shortie?" Kiyomine tried to sound nonchalant, even as he started on his meal.

Takara reached out abruptly and grabbed Kiyomine's sleeve, nearly causing him to spray bits of chewed Tamago sushi all over the table. He looked up with wide, pitiful eyes. "I can't find Kei-chan anywhere. Can you help me look for him?"

Kiyomine looked away. "What's that got to do with me? He'll come home on his own when he gets hungry."

Takara released his hold on his sleeve and turned back to his food, poking absent-mindedly at it without eating it. Kiyomine could practically feel the misery radiating off the shorter male next to him in waves. He tried to ignore it and continue eating. It was such a rare chance to be alone with Takara after all.

Less than half of Kiyomine's plate was now empty. Giving a frustrated sigh, Kiyomine threw down his chopsticks and stalked off from the table. Takara didn't seem to even notice that he left.

XXXXXXXXX

"Why am I doing this again?" Kiyomine questioned himself for the 50th time for the past 200 metres he walked.

He carried a torchlight in his hand as he walked around the dorms, trying to look for that dratted kitty. He had combed the dorms earlier on, and nearly trod on Sakura twice, but otherwise, there was no sign of kitty.

Now, he looked outside for the cat, walking around and parting bushes. He still couldn't find it anywhere, and was about to head back in when he heard a weak, barely audible mew.

That got his attention as he walked around, looking for the cat again. Another mew, stronger this time as it probably heard him walking around. He moved his torchlight around to give him more visibility, then having a feeling, he pointed the torchlight upwards, directly at the branches above him.

Wide, scared (and scary) cat eyes reflected back at him. Jackpot. He wondered just how the heck did a kitten so small manage to get itself stuck so high up. Stupid cat! How could it climb to the point that it didn't know how to get down?

He held the torchlight in his mouth and began to climb up carefully, slowly inching his way up to the scared kitty. It felt like forever, but he finally reached kitty, which hissed and backed away from him.

"Kang here, Kei-kan! (Come here, Kei-chan!)" Kiyomine spoke through a mouthful of torchlight. The kitten gave another hiss, and looked all ready to bolt up to a higher branch.

Moving swiftly, Kiyomine reached out as far and as quickly as he could, grabbing the kitty by the scruff of its neck before setting it on to his shoulder. That move, however, caused him to lose his grip as he fell off the branch, though he managed to stop his fall as he grabbed one of the branches with one of his hands, clinging on for dear life. Kei-chan gave a screech and extended all claws, digging deeply into his shoulder as it hung on to him for dear life.

He dangled precariously by that branch, feeling the muscles in his hand protest from the effort to hold on. Using all his strength, he tried to get his other hand to the branch. He struggled and twisted and maneuvered (with enough effort to make a professional acrobat blush), and finally managed to cling to the branch with both hands. Very carefully, he inched towards the trunk of the tree before climbing carefully all the way down.

It was very late by the time he returned to his room. His hair was filled with leaves, his hands with splinters, his shirt with bark and his muscles with cramps. The minute he entered the room, Takara made a beeline towards him, throwing out his hands...and picking Kei-chan up from his shoulder (which Kiyomine was pretty sure was bleeding thanks to Kei-chan's acupuncture treatment).

"Thank goodness, Kei-chan." Takara's voice was filled with relief.

Kiyomine decided to get himself a good bath, to wash off all the dirt and disappointment from him, and had only taken two steps towards the bathroom before he felt fingers close over his wrist. Takara dragged him over to a chair and pushed him down into it before he began to inspect him, taking out the leaves from his hair and brushing the bits of bark from his shirt. He then took a pair of tweezers and proceeded to gently remove the splinters from his arms and hands. Takara did all these quietly, but for some reason, it made all the effort so worthwhile as a burst of warmth blossomed in Kiyomine's chest.

Once he was done, Takara stared into his eyes. "Does it still hurt anywhere?" At the shake of Kiyomine's head, Takara let his hand fall. "Thank you, Kiyomine. Thank you for saving Kei-chan."

Kiyomine threw a look at the kitty, now slumbering and recovering from the day's events. He turned back to Takara, giving a hard stare. "Tell me, Shortie. Who did you name your cat after? Who's Kei?" he growled. He had had a tiring day, and couldn't be bothered to mask the hint of jealousy from his voice.

Takara seemed to freeze for a while. Abruptly, he gave a laugh.

"Baka. He's not Kei-chan."

That made Kiyomine blink.

"It's 'K-chan'"

Another blink.

"For 'Kiyomine-chan'"

No more blinks.

The next moment, Takara dashed out of room 214 at top speed, with K-chan held safely in his arms and Kiyomine hot on his heels.

"You actually named a cat after me? Come back here, Shortie!!!"

XXXXXXXXX

Less than a month later, Kiyomine watched disinterestedly as the other boys in the dorm spoke about their experience of giving their other half (be it female or male) chocolates and presents on White Day.

He had to resist throwing a smug smirk at them, however, when Takara took his hand and led him inside their room before closing the door behind him, locking it. The blonde took a box from his table and passed it to Kiyomine. "For you," he said neutrally, though there was a slight flush of pink on his cheeks.

Ah. So Takara was aware of his pet being a Valentine's Day present after all. Kiyomine opened the present, trying not to look too excited. When the wrapping paper was discarded, he came upon a box, and slowly, he opened that to reveal...

...a dog collar.

Kiyomine stared.

Takara mistook his reaction to be that of 'awe', and he clapped his hands together. "It will look good on Ichi. I got matching ones for K-chan and Sakura too! They're going to look so cute, wearing a set." he gestured to his sleeping pet cat, which was indeed wearing the same collar, albeit a smaller version of it.

Kiyomine snorted. Who on earth would give a dog collar on White Day?! "It doesn't look good." He set the dog collar down on the table and went to sit on his bed.

Takara looked offended, as he snatched the collar up and, before Kiyomine could even react, fastened it around the black-haired teen's neck. The collar gave a merry little tinkle as Takara leaned back to admire his handiwork.

"Perfect!" Takara grinned.

Kiyomine sat there, unmoving, his face darkening with every passing second. Takara paled when he saw that Kiyomine wasn't looking happy at all.

"Urm...Kiyomine...did I make you angry?" he gave a squeak when Kiyomine knocked him over, pinning him down onto the bed.

Kiyomine gave him a hard stare. "Rape you."

XXX

Bangs and crashes echoed through the hallway, the source obviously being room 214.

In room 213, Kuzumi and Sakumi were pretty much resigned to their fate as they turned the song on a little louder and continued on with their homework.

In room 309, Yoshiya gave a sigh. "Here we go again." He said to his roommate. Reiichi nodded and walked out of the room to do some damage control.

He really should get that rule ammended and have all pets banned from the dorms...or at least from Kiyomine and Takara.

End of Chapter