Chapter Text
Goro Akechi did not like cats.
They were smelly, stupid, entitled, little creatures who he wanted nothing to do with and their gluttonous diet of even worse smelling fish and food designed specifically for them.
His friend- or more so one of the few people who mildly tolerated him- Haru Okumura, was the owner of what she referred to as her 'little fur baby' named Morgana and the feline alone was enough to give him an insight into what the animals were like.
Morgana was a rude brat who constantly meowed at him noisily, batting at him with ferocious vigor and never once facing any sort of reprimanding when Okumura herself came into the scene and claimed the nasty animal was simply playful, before scooping him up and cuddling him like one would a plush animal or a human baby with no regard for how his fur littered her sweater like Christmas snow, only without the beauty attached.
But the worst part would be when she insisted 'Mona-chan' could talk, having full conversations with him as he meowed and yelped his little head off.
Honestly, cat people were truly deranged…
Despite how much Haru claimed cats were a blessing and how much the media attempted to capitalize on their marketable cuteness, Goro Akechi would never want a cat. He would never be willing to share his home with a furry menace that lived rent-free and caused him inconvenience, he would never-
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Goro turned his head from the book he was currently occupied with a deep annoyance.
It seemed whoever was at his door at night, as it rained down like God had just experienced his first break up (or was perhaps taking a leak, who knew where the water came from) did not care for his silent reading time, forcing him to put down the fascinating read on the philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and open the door to their furious knocks.
"Goro!" A panicked voice came out in an instant, belonging to none other than Haru, who was uncharacteristically scruffy, her curly, light-brown hair sticking to the sides of her pale cheeks and her pale pink, fabric coat dripping with rain.
In her arms she held a cardboard box that also seemed to have taken a toil from the weather. "Oh thank goodness you were still awake!" She announced, before scurrying into his house with no apparent need to ask for permission, pushing him aside and placing down the sopping wet box onto his coffee table before he had the chance to protest against it.
"I was enjoying reading by myself," he huffed, placing a hand on his hip as he shut the door, looking down at her as she quickly ran back to him to remove her boots, which he would've preferred her to do before she went dirtying his carpet to put down whatever was in that box. "So I'm assuming this is urgent by the way you ran inside."
"This is urgent," she quipped back with a pout, removing her coat and placing it on the coat rack that only occupied Goro's own sandy brown coat and flannel scarf. "I need your help," she frowned, "There was this little kitty in this dangerous alley and it looked so weak! The poor thing seemed as if it was going to collapse with the way its ribs were sticking out. It was being bullied by the other cats too!"
Goro let out a sigh, quickly picking up on where this was going. "So you put it in a cardboard box and decided to take it to my house why?"
Haru scowled at him, an expression he was used to, as he made his way over to examine the contents of the box. "Have some compassion! This was urgent!"
Ignoring her, he opened the soggy flaps and looked over the figure of what looked to be a grown cat with matted, scruffy, black fur, its quivering body curled into itself. It seemed to be asleep, shaking with the cold even in its dreams. There was no collar, clearly indicating that it was a stray.
"Haru, this is a stray you found in a shady alleyway, it could have diseases for all you know!" He scolded, only infuriating the woman more as she stomped up to him.
"Then we'll get him checked up in the morning when it's not raining or dark!" She huffed, sizing him up despite her shorter height.
"Who gave you the right to invade my house and demand this of me?" He raised a brow, crossing his arms and leaning down at her.
"I did! And guess what? I'm staying the night here too!"
He almost gagged with scandal, "Don't you have a chauffeur to take you home?"
She paused for a second, blushing embarrassedly, "He had an emergency halfway, his wife called because she was about to give birth and…I couldn't let him miss that."
Akechi sighed, but more gently, suspecting this of her."Why am I not surprised?" Unlike her father, Haru was always kind to her employees and the staff assigned to take care of her, she'd happily inconvenience herself for them. "Fine, but you're sleeping on the couch."
She grinned, happy to finally get him to submit to her will. "Fine."
"Meow?"
Alerted, both turned their attention to the box, a little meow coming from it. "He's awake!" Haru exclaimed, trotting over to the box and leaning over with starry eyes, Akechi following her in a more relaxed and less enthusiastic manner. "Hello, little kitty!"
Slowly, the feline peeled open two beady grey eyes, letting out a confused 'mrrp' sound as it gently turned its head to the woman leaning over it. Excited as a child, she gently scooped it up and cradled it in her arms like a baby. Akechi internally wondered how Morgana would feel about his precious owner being stolen away by a stray.
In response, the cat cuddled up to her, surprisingly willing for a stray.
"Don't you think you should give it a shower first? It's filthy," he commented, gesturing to the dirt stuck in its thick, black coat that seemed to make up most of its weight, a fluffy void with two silver stars for eyes sticking out through the darkness.
"Yes, we need to get you all cleaned up," she replied, talking more so to the cat in her arms than to him, unbothered to even look up. "I'll take him up to clean, you go get him some meat."
Goro huffed, clearly disliking being told what to do in his own house yet obliging regardless.
After what must have been half an hour of showering the filth off, Haru returned with a contently purring kitty wrapped up in a towel.
"That better not be my towel," Goro raised a brow.
"It's exactly that," she smiled back with snarky glee, white teeth exposed with joy. "Look at him, he's so happy," holding the cat in her arms, she beamed down on it like a mother to her newborn child, "You can spare a towel or two for him."
He rolled his eyes in response as she set it down on his coffee table, unfurling the towel to give the now unkempt, damp fur of the kitty a good ruffle.
"Off the dining table," Goro commanded and Haru pouted.
"I don't think he wants to get off," she huffed in reply, turning to the black cat, "Do you, Mr Kitty?"
Promptly the cat hopped off of the table.
"Oh."
Akechi grinned with victory.
He set down a small plate of salmon he found in the back of his freezer. Cats could have a little salmon, as a treat, he had read, and currently he was very much enjoying how Haru's new pet obeyed him over her.
Their sleeping arrangements were intended to be Goro contently in his own bed, Haru on the sofa and the little kitty on a pillow with her, but for some reason it was insistent on being with him and Goro wondered if the salmon had something to do with it.
"Go sleep with your mother!" He groaned, running back to his room for the third time since he had dropped off the cat on his respective pillow and dashed off like hell hoping he wouldn't catch up, but like always the scruffy kitty was just two paw-steps behind. With a sassy strut, it trotted up in front of him and looked up expectantly, as if waiting for a pillow, blanket and an eye mask to be provided for it alongside him.
"He seems to like you," Haru chuckled, dressed in the soft, pink, cotton nightgown she'd previously forgot in Goro's house; a memento of their past arranged relationship that had quickly fizzled out once the two were far enough from their respective fathers' clutches. "You can deal with him sleeping with you for one night," she assured, as if debating a pouty child, unwilling to hear Goro's side.
As if having been given permission, the cat trotted up onto one of Goro's pillows, curling up on it contently and looking up at him as if waiting for him to join him. Holding the bridge of his nose, he sighed, "If that damn thing gives me rabies in my sleep I'm blaming you," he shot a pointed look at Haru as she rolled her eyes and walked back to her spot on the sofa that she made look like the bed of a princess.
Groaning, he tucked himself into bed, back facing the feline that had taken up his second pillow, the one that had been placed on his queen sized bed solely to keep up the appearance that Haru actually slept on it with him. Of course, the damn thing just couldn't leave him at peace, butting at his back with its head until he growled and turned over to face it.
"What?!" He hissed, pulling up the eye mask he had just pulled down to get some rest, staring daggers at the big, dumb eyes of the creature in front of him.
It gave no response, because it was a cat, and simply curled up at his chest: purring.
"Really?" Exasperated, he huffed, feigning annoyance. He recalled reading an article that claimed the purring of a cat was healing to humans.
He doubted it, but if he wrapped his arm around the fuzzy body of the animal then that was between him and God to know.
The next day followed through as Haru had promised: she had taken the cat to get checked up by a vet and ultimately deduced the feline had few problems other than malnutrition from being out on the streets.
So with that sorted, someone tell Goro why the pesky creature was still in his house?
"I tried to give Akira-chan up to the animal shelter, but he really didn't want to go," a frown on her lips, Haru cradled the newly named 'Akira-chan' in her arms like a baby.
"And you brought 'Akira-chan' back into my house, why?" With a raised brow and a raised attitude, Goro scrutinized her from where he sat reading his book, although the book had been long abandoned ever since Haru came waltzing back into his house and was now more so a prop.
Directing an unimpressed look at him, she stroked up Akira's curly, black fur. "Because you and Mona-chan don't get along well-"
"That's an understatement-"
"-I thought it would be a good way to warm you up to cats through Akira-chan, who already seems to like you," she explained casually, making her way to the large arm chair opposite where Goro sat on his plush sofa and continuing to card her manicured fingers through the kitty's fur like a super villain- which was precisely what she was under the soft, pink sweaters and cute accessories.
He huffed, putting his book up to his face, not because he was reading, but just because he wanted to express his disregard for her, "I have no interest in warming up to any animal, thank you," he bluntly stated, "I like my house clean of fur balls and cat sh*t."
Covering the two little ears on the top of Akira's little head, she gasped with offense, "Don't say bad words infront of Aki-chan, you bitch!"
Aki-chan yawned in response.
And thus with his ex-wife inviting herself in to stay at his place for the rest of the week in order to fulfill her 'mission' (while of course making sure Mona-chan was taken care of by a friend for the time being) Goro had to put up with both her and the stinky, little feline she had bought with her.
Although, one was far more tolerable than the other.
Leaning splayed along his sofa, Goro turned the TV on to an episode of Feathermen, truthfully the only thing he'd watch besides the news. Trotting up to him, Akira rubbed up against his leg and meowed.
"What do you want?" Goro grunted, "I already fed you."
The cat simply clambered up onto the sofa and made his spot on Goro's stomach, curled up contently.
"Who said you were allowed to do that?" Scowling, Goro scolded the fluffy, black feline, yet made little attempt to remove him from his spot.
The image of Red Hawk surrounded by his colorful teammates came into view on the flat screen TV, as the soothingly nostalgic theme song played in the intro.
Akira purred and Goro curiously carded his fingers through the curly mass of fur atop of him, it was soft, the delicacy of it finer than the material on most of his high end clothes.
"You two seemed to be getting along well," a chuckle entered the room and after it came Haru with a kind smile.
"Not at all," Akechi quipped, "Akira simply refuses to get off of me."
"He likes you," she hummed, taking a seat next to him on the sofa, yet still leaving a large person sized space between them as she did. "That's a good thing."
"I don't see how that benefits me in any way," he retorted, eyes glued to the screen.
Huffing, she ignored him to devote her attention to the sweet bundle of joy sitting on his lap. "Come here, baby," she 'pspspsed' (whatever the hell that meant, Goro thought) to Akira, arms outstretched.
The feline looked up at her with its large, silver eyes, no other feature distinguishable from the mass of blackness and crooked its head as if in thought, sparing a glance up at Akechi who had stopped petting it. With a stretch, Akira climbed into Haru's arms, allowing her to pick him up like a baby.
"Oh, so sweet," she cooed, kissing all over his face, "You're so adorable, Aki-chan."
Akira mewed with delight, bumping his small head up into her face and attempting to return her kisses as she chuckled with delight.
Goro found it increasingly more difficult to focus on the TV with the jealousy and slight regret he pushed down upon bubbling up.
"Cats are so fickle with their loyalty."
When night fell once more, Goro tucked himself into bed, the familiar meowing of Akira alerting him of his presence, before he clambered up on his spot on Goro's chest.
Goro huffed, looking down at Akira with furrowed brows.
"So now you decide you want to be with me, is it?" He cast a pointed look to the cat who looked up at him with few thoughts in its head. "Why don't you go sleep with Haru?" He accusedly sneered.
"Meow." Akira responded, because he was a cat and couldn't answer Goro.
"That is not a response."
"Meow." Akira nuzzled up to him and shut his eyes.
"Hey, I'm not done yet," he scolded, but ultimately gave up when Aki made no attempts to listen to him.
Although he wouldn't admit it, Goro couldn't deny that he had been oddly more relaxed in the past two days, last night's sleep being one of the best he's had in his life ever since starting on the path of a dark-eyed workaholic. Akira was oddly easy to take care of and incredibly responsive, almost as if he could entirely understand the words he spoke.
Goro thought back to Haru and Morgana, how he seemed to react accordingly to the words she said, the two having whole conversations of his meowing and her pleasant words casually exchanged. Were all cat owners like this?
The thoughts began to slip from his mind as sleep overcame him, his eyelids drooping shut.
It was still dark. How long had he been asleep, maybe 3 hours or so? He checked his alarm clock on the side of his bed.
00:00, read the glowing red digits.
It was midnight.
He needed to pee, but if he wanted to do that he'd have to get Akira off his chest first.
…Was Akira always this heavy?
His chest heaved under a large weight, his still groggy mind attempting to make out the shapes in the dark. He felt around and two little cat ears entered his hands and further down was a mass of curly fur just usual, but since when did fur feel like this? He felt down.
Skin.
Human skin.
On a human face.
Scrambling upwards, Akechi tugged his lamp to life and yellow light flooded the area, revealing undoubtedly two little cat ears and one not-little human to which those ears were attached to. A very naked human.
"Mmmmh," the stranger whined, "What time is it?"
Akechi hit him on the head with the base of the lamp.
"OW!"
Everything that had happened after that point was a bit of a blur.
"Who are you?!" Akechi demanded, shoving the stranger on top of him onto the floor, to which he could undoubtedly see he had not even a thread of fabric on his entirety. He didn't understand how this could happen, he was always hyper aware, if someone had broken into his house through the door or window, he would've known.
He grappled for the gun in his bedside drawer.
"Wait, hold on!" The strange man with his even stranger cat ears (and…was that a tail?) begged. "Let me explain!"
"What's going on?" Rushing into the room came Haru, clearly ruffled by the noises she had heard.
The strange man turned into a cat.
What the f*ck.
"Goro, what happened?" She asked, eyes widening when she spotted the gun in his hand. Her eyes turned to Akira who was on the floor shivering with fear. "Oh look, you scared him."
"There was..." He fell onto the bed sitting up, staring daggers at the cat. "There was a person here…"
Now how the f*ck was he meant to explain that his cat had turned into a naked person and then back into a cat without sounding like he's lost it officially?
"A…person?" Haru questioned, trying to get to his level.
The cat turned back into the strange man.
Haru yelped.
"Let me explain!" He called out, looking quite desperate on his knees, his tail swooping in to cover his manhood. "It's me! Akira!"
"Akira?" She muttered, bewildered.
"I'm a kaibyō,”, he mustered out before Akechi could move to shoot him, “When Haru-sama found me I was injured and couldn't turn back into my human form," he looked up sheepishly to two pairs of eyes boring into him, becoming even more aware of the gun pointed at him, "None of this was intentional!"
"Kaibyō?" Haru co*cked her head. "Those are cat yōkai, aren't they?"
Akira nodded rapidly in response.
"A yōkai, huh?" Akechi gritted his teeth, thinking back of every vulnerable moment he spent with Akira. "Then why don't you just go back from where you came from?" He sneered.
Cornered, yet with a flash of determination in his silver eyes, Akira looked up from where he was crouched over on the floor. "I'm afraid I can't do that, Akechi-sama."
"Why not?" He snapped.
"Because I have to repay you and Haru-sama for saving my life!" The odd cat-human piped up, completely unaffected by Akechi's frigid glare. He prostrated onto the floor in a bow, "I'll be your own personal butler!"
Akechi turned red, "I don't need a maid!"
Haru hummed, "I don't know, I think it'd be nice."
He turned to her with exasperation, "You're not seriously considering this?"
She smiled. Of course she was.
Perhaps Akechi had become too lenient. Far too lenient.
It all started with letting Haru bring a dirty kitten into his house in a wet box and now it led up to him having a whole other person in his house that he did not ask for.
He should've kicked both Haru and the cursed yōkai she brought in with her.
He didn't.
As of the moment, the yōkai himself was dusting off his furniture as Akechi sat and watched from the sofa, silent, allowing his eyes to follow the swish of his black tail that poked from the top of his jeans and the occasional twitch of the cat ears atop his head.
It seemed that despite being able to shift between human and cat forms, the yōkai could not fully erase his feline features.
He was now sporting a pair of jeans and a white shirt that he had taken from Goro's wardrobe by Haru's insistence, layered over with a casual black blazer that had been sitting collecting dust for who knew how long in the back of his closet, a retired garment.
"I'm done, Master," snapping Goro from his thoughts, Akira perked up, looking at him expectedly with a dusting cloth in hand.
"There's no need to address me as such," Akechi huffed, blushing, although not truthfully disliking being referred to as a superior.
"Why not, Master?" He tilted his head, confused.
"It sounds," he paused, taking in a breath to think of how he should word himself, "inappropriate."
"But you are my Master," Akira retorted, blankly, as if underneath the fluffy, black hair between his two ears was a hollow room.
"Just refer to me normally, Akira-san," he huffed, before stepping back on his words, "Is your name Akira?"
"It's the name Haru-sama gave me," he replied, as if that was a good enough answer for Akechi.
"But is that your name?" Akechi pressed on.
"I like it," he stated, "So yes."
What a weird intrusion Akira was into Goro's life…
For all his oddities and his compliance in Haru's antics, Goro couldn't lie about the fact that Akira had made coming home something that motivated Goro to get through his work, as opposed to a blank end for his busy day.
It had now been a month since Haru had brought him into Goro's life and he couldn't deny how nice it was to come home to a house smelling of a homemade meal.
"I'm home," he called to the smell of a strong curry, hanging his coat up on the hook.
The spaces were now empty aside from his own, after Haru had left to go back to Mona-chan. Would Akira like a coat? It was getting chilly after all, but it's not like Akira ever had left the house. Something about that felt wrong to Goro, like he was keeping him as a wageless slave.
He'd buy Akira a coat- for when he would eventually leave the house, of course.
"Welcome home, honey," Akira replied, stirring the pot with a grin, not facing Goro, but it seemed like he saw the blush on his face regardless. Yet, despite the way he salivated at the beefy and flavourful smell of dinner, Akechi could only collapse onto the sofa.
"Everything alright?" Akira called, turning down the heat to allow the curry to cook, walking over to Goro, his tail swinging behind him with every step.
Akechi groaned in response, "I'm exhausted."
Akira frowned, walking up to him before stretching.
"What are you doing?" Goro asked tiredly, only slightly turning his head.
"My job," he replied back and in one second his cook/butler/odd roommate was standing in front of him and the next his clothes were scrambled across the floor, a small kitten peeking his head from out under them before clambering up the sofa to curl up Goro's stomach.
Goro huffed, but despite himself his hand reached out to stroke him. Despite his attitude, he loved it, loved the softness of Akira's fur, the warmth of his body pressed against his core, the ways his purrs vibrated through him.
He'd be dead before he ever admitted that to Akira.
A gentle moment, maybe two, passes by them with the sound of nothing but quiet breathing and the smell of curry wafting in the air.
The curry!
Akira turns back into a human. "I need to take the curry off the stove now!"
Goro throws a pillow at him. "Put some clothes on!"
Akira sprints to the kitchen bare-assed and Goro wonders why the trickster of a God above had put him in this ridiculous situation.
