KITTY CAT

“You’re going to what?”

“I want ‘niisan to meet Kenren.” Gojyo sat on the bed, a cheeky grin aimed at Hakkai. The redhead’s antennae twitched a bit and Hakkai found himself eyeing the appendages, wanting to swat them.

“So you’re going to ask your brother to drop by when it’s Kenren’s turn to watch us?”

“Yup.”

Before either one of them could say anything else, there was a crash from outside the room, followed by a couple of distressed barks, a shout, and a concerned voice. Gojyo and Hakkai looked at each another before quickly exiting their shared bedroom. At the foot of the stairs, they came face-to-face with Kougaiji holding an armful of Sanzo.

“What happened?” Hakkai asked, looking down at the small blond that was currently whimpering in Kougaiji’s arms.

“Sanzo crashed into a table and knocked over a vase,” the redhead replied. “Komyou told me to bring him to our room while he cleans up.” He started walking down the hall, carefully carrying his blond bundle and went inside their bedroom.

“That kid is way too serious,” Gojyo said.

Hakkai laughed and tugged on the cockroach’s arm. “Come on, we should go help Komyou.”

The two teens went downstairs and found the scientist sweeping up glass shards in the living room. Komyou looked up and smiled when he saw them. “Everything’s under control, boys. You’d best go back to whatever you’re doing; Tenpou’s about to arrive any minute.”

“‘Kay.” Gojyo grabbed Hakkai and dragged him towards the kitchen. “Come on, you can make me something to eat while we study.”

It was only a few minutes later that Komyou poked his head into the boys’ bedroom. “Tenpou’s here. You boys behave, alright?”

“Sure.”

“Of course.”

“And help Tenpou with Sanzo and Kougaiji if they misbehave,” the scientist added with a smile. He waved and left, his footsteps sounding against the hardwood floor.

Silence reigned in the room for the most part, disrupted only by the sound of textbook pages being turned. Komyou—as one of the head scientists of the gene-splicing project—had insisted that all of the children be home-schooled. So far, Hakkai was having no difficulties with the lessons though his friend needed help from time to time.

There was a knock at their bedroom door before it opened to reveal Kougaiji standing there. Sanzo was holding onto his arm. “Tenpou says it’s time for dinner,” the redhead said.

“Gojyo, show me how to play that video game,” Sanzo piped in. They had recently received a gift from Kenren in the form of a violent zombie video game. Gojyo had quickly mastered it and Sanzo had wanted to learn how to play it ever since he saw the array of guns you could use as weapons.

The cockroach stood up, stretching and yawning as he did so. “Sure, kid. After we eat.”

The blond’s purple eyes glittered with excitement and his puppy ears perked up. He didn’t smile though. He tugged on Kougaiji’s sleeve and whined.

“Come on, let’s eat,” the seven-year-old said and led the younger boy away.

Hakkai stood up as well and followed Gojyo out the door. They arrived in the kitchen to see Tenpou putting plates of food on the table. Cups were already set at their appropriate places and Kougaiji was helping Sanzo sit on his chair.

The scientist smiled at them and Hakkai had to fight the blush that threatened to appear on his cheeks. He still felt awkward after practically molesting the man last week but Tenpou had simply told him to forget about it. As if he could forget about something like that.

Dinner was a noisy affair and Hakkai found himself wishing that he was back upstairs in his room, studying. It didn’t help things whenever Tenpou spoke to him. “Excuse me,” he said as soon as he finished eating. “I’ve got lots of things to do.”

“Gojyo. Game.”

“Demanding little thing, aren’t ya?”

“Sanzo, don’t be so rude.”

“Before you start, can you guys help me with the table things?” Tenpou looked at Hakkai before the teen could complete his escape up the stairs. “Hakkai? Can you help out too?”

Normally, the cat-eared teen would happily agree to help out but right now, he didn’t think prolonged contact with the scientist would do anything to help maintain his current facial coloring.

“I’d love to but I’m having trouble with my current lesson,” Hakkai lied, smiling sheepishly and scratching the back of his neck. “I really need to get a head start on it.”

Tenpou picked up a plate. “Want me to help you with it?”

NO! “It’s okay, Tenpou, I can handle it,” Hakkai replied with a nervous laugh.

“Gojyo, you and Kougaiji and Sanzo can handle things here, right?”

Hakkai sent a pleading gaze in his friend’s direction. Please oh please oh please… Surely Gojyo wouldn’t just betray him like that? They’ve known each other since they were little kids. They shared all their secrets with one another. They were like brothers!

…And that was why Hakkai knew he should have expected it when Gojyo grinned at him and said, “Sure, Tenpou. We can take care of the dishes. Right, squirts?”

Sanzo barked at him from where he was clutching Kougaiji’s sleeve. The younger redhead frowned. “I’m not a squirt,” he replied, his tone of voice clearly offended.

Tenpou smiled at the exchange, effectively stopping Hakkai in his tracks. That smile was mesmerizing. In fact, it was so mesmerizing that Hakkai didn’t realize that the scientist was climbing up the stairs and quickly nearing him until he felt a large hand place itself on his shoulder.

He let out an undignified yelp of surprise and leapt up the stairs only to land, catlike, a few steps above where he had been. Tenpou laughed, clearly amused. “Sorry,” he apologized. “Now come on, I want to—”

Fuck you into the mattress, Hakkai’s mind supplied, mid-sentence. He mentally slapped himself. Mentally smacked himself upside the head too, for good measure.

“—help you,” Tenpou said.

He wanted to protest, to say that, really, Tenpou shouldn’t be bothering himself with Hakkai’s problem, that he could handle things by himself. But Tenpou’s smile was muddling up his cognitive processes again and he could swear that he and the scientist were related because that was the same smile he used whenever he wanted Gojyo to let him do something he wanted to do.

He didn’t have any valid excuse to refuse Tenpou. And besides, if the older male really wanted to help him, who was he to deny the man what he wanted to do?

“Alright,” he conceded and turned around to lead the way to his shared bedroom, Tenpou staying a comfortable distance behind him. Hakkai’s heightened sense of smell caught a whiff of what smelled like cologne. He stopped himself from pausing in the middle of the room to close his eyes and just take in the smell. It was a dog-ish thing to do and he was a cat, dammit.

The teen sat down on his bed and opened his book to the lesson he was currently studying. Tenpou settled down beside him—Too close! his mind screamed—and leant in closer to see the page better. “Is this it?” the scientist asked, pushing his glasses up his nose.

“Yes.” Hakkai’s ear flicked and he shifted a bit, trying not to sit on his tail. Earlier, he could understand the lesson perfectly but now, with the body heat and scent coming off of Tenpou, he was finding it more than a little difficult to concentrate.

Tenpou was saying something, pointing at an illustration to further his point, and all Hakkai could think about was how they should really get a study table because having someone with you on your bed at such close proximity was not conducive to absorbing an intermediate algebra problem. No. Not at all.

And of course there was the soft feeling of Tenpou’s hair brushing against his cheek. Hakkai was jolted out of his reverie when he heard the scientist say his name. “Hakkai? What are you doing?”

With a horrified look on his face, Hakkai slowly realized that he was nuzzling the side of Tenpou’s neck and purring. The light reflecting off of the older male’s eyeglasses made it impossible for the teen to see his eyes from where his face was still buried against his neck. There was no way in Hell that he was going to look at Tenpou face-to-face after this. He’d be too red.

“Hakkai?”

He couldn’t bring himself to look at Tenpou’s face. So he climbed fully into the scientist’s lap, wrapped his arms around his neck, and began nuzzling the side of his neck again.

In a moment, he was going to be shoved onto the bed and Tenpou was going to walk out the door, down the stairs, and into the living room where Gojyo was teaching Sanzo how to kill zombies with Kougaiji sitting beside the blond, his rabbit ears twitching. He was going to leave the green-eyed teen there, to slowly die of embarrassment.

Instead, hands came up to pull back his face and he found himself locked in a bruising kiss with the man who could be his older brother.

Hakkai mewled, his hands clutching at the material at the shoulders of Tenpou’s shirt as the scientist forced his mouth open and thrust his tongue inside its warm confines. The touch of that slick muscle against his own sent jolts of pleasure coursing down his spine and he mewled again, rubbing himself against Tenpou’s body. There was a groan and Tenpou moved one hand lower to squeeze Hakkai’s ass.

He had been waiting for this ever since last week. Hakkai had wanted this to happen again, had wanted Tenpou to kiss him senseless, his tongue thrusting in and out of his mouth, his hands tracing lines of fire across his body.

Tenpou kissed his way down Hakkai’s neck, nipping at the flesh there, and the younger male yowled. Dimly, he heard the scientist mutter, “Like a cat in heat,” before swollen lips covered his own again and his next yowl was lost in Tenpou’s mouth.

Downstairs, Gojyo yelled.

Tenpou was on his feet immediately, walking quickly towards the door, leaving a horny Hakkai sitting on the bed. The teen was torn between wanting to go downstairs to claw the cockroach to death or to check if his best friend was all right.

When he entered the living room, he saw Kougaiji holding Sanzo and trying to calm him down while the three-year-old growled at the redhead who was clutching his leg. Tenpou looked like he wanted to sigh or laugh.

“Sanzo, even if you wanted to get a chance to play, you shouldn’t have bitten Gojyo.”

“It was my turn!”

“It’s alright, Sanzo.”

“I’m bleeding!”

Hakkai sat down on the floor and resisted the urge to maim something.