Puss (6)

[jaded_grin]

No warnings, no labels, no nothing--this is purely to offset the file-muncher! If the sloppy all-over-the-place feel of my journal bugs you, go friend/join my master fic list community, 'cause I can only be tidy in so many places at once :D

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1                             5                             7

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6

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            Once the floor got too uncomfortable, Reno decided it was time to move the party somewhere else—namely, back to bed. It was, like, four in the morning on a Saturday and he had no business being up if he wasn’t just now coming in from the bars.

            He managed to get his pants back up, disturbing Puss a little in the process. The boy just made a soft, unhappy little mewl and settled back against him, his soft mouth working for a moment like he was sucking on something, his fingers clenching in a brief knead against Reno’s back.

            “Fucking weirdo day already,” Reno sighed, hefting him up and managing to get to his feet. He briefly considered just dumping him onto the floor and leaving him there, but he couldn’t be that much of a dickhead to Puss—even if he was a person now, which changed all the rules—so he just carried the kid back to bed. What was the worst that could happen? He’d already fucked him.

            He eased Puss down onto the mattress, winning another soft, disturbed sound from him. When he tried to unhook the boy’s arms from around him, he found himself in a quandary. He no sooner got one little arm off of him than the other squeezed up tighter, and if he managed to get both arms off then a little leg wrapped up around him.

            “Shit, how many arms do you have?” he cursed, giving up and just sitting there on one knee, the other leg braced off of the bed, the kid’s limbs snuggled around him. With a shake of his shaggy head he leaned over, snatched the covers up from the floor, and flopped down at Puss’s side. It was a bit of a struggle to get the covers over them but he managed and finally settled.

            Puss curled up tightly against him, snuggled under his chin against his chest and throat, his purr vibrating through them both and all sixteen of his appendages wrapped tight around the man’s body.

            Reno laughed a little at the absurdity of the situation but, at this point, things really couldn’t go any further downhill, right? After some uncomfortable shifting on his part (he’d never let his dates or girlfriends stay over so the only other creature to ever share his bed was Puss as a cat) he finally fell into a dreamless sleep with the sugar-cookie scent of Puss’s hair and skin rich and tasty in his mouth.

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            He woke up when his cell-phone alarm went off. It took a minute to penetrate his haze of sleep since he’d left it on vibrate, but when it buzzed its way off of his nightstand to hit the floor with a thud, he finally woke up.

            Puss grumbled sleepily against his chest and once more Reno had a weird sense that this wasn’t really happening. Looking down at the kid all soft and sweet in his sleep just made what had happened in the kitchen feel even more like a particularly vivid dream.

            He leaned over the boy—who lost the ability to spawn extra arms while sleeping—and snagged his phone up from the floor, frowning. He didn’t remember setting his alarm for anything…

            When he looked at the alarm heading he wriggled out of the bed in a near panic. He’d forgotten all about going to the fair with Rude today and had only set the alarm to allow him enough time to grab a quick shower and toss his clothes on, not deal with a newly human cat.

            “Puss!” he said, giving the boy an urgent shake. “Hey, c’mon, wake up! Wake up, kid, I can’t leave you here, yo! Get up, Puss!”

            Puss’s green eyes opened, glassy and bleary, but he was game to sit up. He rubbed at his eye with his curled fist in an oddly adorable gesture and vented his irritation with a bat of his other hand at Reno.

            “Hey, you need to get cleaned up, Puss, okay? We gotta go somewhere,” Reno told him. He’d thought about just leaving Puss here but imagined all kinds of awful scenarios to include his apartment burning down, the kid letting crooks in, the kid wandering off and getting hurt, or the kid peeing on the floor. Awful! “Get up, yo! Come on, come with me.”

            “Rrreno, why you is worried?” he questioned, moving gracefully out of the bed while Reno tugged on his wrist. He yawned, flashing perfect white teeth, and blinked owlishly a few times.

            “We gotta get cleaned up, Puss, we got company coming,” Reno told him, dragging him to the bathroom. “You remember how a shower works?”

            “I see you use,” Puss said, clearly unhappy with the thought of being covered in water. He gave Reno an odd look and announced, “I is needing use box, Rrreno.”

            “Use box?” he echoed, confused. It dawned on him and he groaned a little, honestly grossed out when he thought of why Puss probably needed to “use box.” He turned the kid towards the toilet and asked, “They have these where you come from?”

            Puss cocked his head.

            Reno hurriedly explained it and left the kid alone, rushing to toss the covers up on the bed and act like it was made. He ran to the kitchen, scouring it for evidence of his crime with the same paranoid attention that a murderer would show. He spied the broken chair with a little cry of dismay and wracked his brain for a place to stash it before Rude arrived. He settled for shoving it under the table and hoping baldy was really as tall as Reno thought he was.

            When he got back to the bathroom he heard Puss fumbling with the knobs on the shower. It was followed by a sudden burst of water and the boy’s indignant yowl.

            “You okay in there?” Reno asked, shoving the door open and yanking back the shower curtain to see Puss standing there, shivering under the flood of water and furious. If he’d had cat-ears still, they would’ve been flat against his skull in that amusing “hat-on” look the cat always got when he was pissed six ways to hell. “What you got your hat on for? Hurry and wash up, yo, I need to shower, too!”

            He stuck his hand under the spray, hissed when he found it to be cold, and quickly showed Puss how to adjust the heat.

            “Is better, yes,” Puss said, still frowning. “You is help me, Rrreno.”

            “What?” Shit. It would just go faster if he got in. He shucked his pajama pants and slipped into the shower, soaping the boy up quickly, which got Puss started on a rusty, begrudging purr.

            “You have a name before you got turned into a cat?” he asked, shampooing the boy’s silky, silvery hair while Puss played with the spray of water, trying to catch it in his small hands.

            “Yes,” Puss told him.

            “Well,” Reno pressed, pushing his head beneath the spray to rinse the soap out. “What was it?”

            Puss sputtered a little but let Reno rinse his head off before he asked, “Why I is telling you? You is never remember, Rrreno.”

            “That is not true!” he said, offended. He slapped a wet, soapy washcloth into Puss’s hand and pushed him to the back of the shower so he could wash his own long hair. “Seriously, what’s your name? I can’t go around calling you Puss all of the time.”

            “Is name Rrreno is giving me, is name now,” Puss informed him, washing himself like Reno had told him to because there were parts of him the man simply refused to get near with his first pass of soaping. “But, you is asking Puss, I is telling you. He is calling me Kadaj. I is thinking, not so much name, Rrreno, is his talk.”

            “Huh,” Reno mused, quickly finishing his own shower and shoving Puss back under the spray. “So, this guy who made you a cat, he didn’t speak your language, huh? So maybe the name he called you really meant, like, ‘come here’ or something?”

            “Yes,” Puss agreed, nodding and wriggling around under the water to get the soap off of him. “I is done.”

            Puss raked back the shower curtain and slipped out before Reno could catch him.

            “Hey!” he shouted, fumbling to get the water turned off. “Don’t go anywhere! Puss!”

            Cursing, he hurried out of the shower and found the door standing open, a trail of water leading towards the bed where soppy-wet Puss was curled up in the blankets, making a huge mess.

            “Fuck!” Reno cried, jerking a towel out of the cabinet and quickly drying off. He tossed the towel down to sop up the water and went to his dresser to drag on a pair of boxer-briefs and his favorite loose jeans. “Puss, when I’m telling you something, you gotta listen, kid—okay?”

            There was a chirping, purring giggle from the bed. His demand was, apparently, quite amusing to Puss.

            “Shit, look at this mess,” he sighed, and got more towels to blot up the worst of it. When he was finished, he yanked the wet covers off of the bed over Puss’s outraged yowls and tossed the lot of it into the laundry. “Come on, let’s get you dressed.”

            Puss glared at him, fine silver brows drawn down, strands of wet hair clinging to his soft little face.

            Reno went back to his dresser and yanked out some stuff he thought might fit him. When he turned back to the bed Puss was trying to burrow under the pillows, his round bottom bobbing in the air in one of the most hilarious and alluring sights Reno had seen in a long time.

            “Puss, come on,” he said, suppressing the urge to laugh at him. He wrestled the boy out from under the pillows and got him into a pair of cargo shorts that—thanks to the surprisingly generous curve of Kadaj’s hips—actually fit him, even if they did sit a little lower than was probably decent, and a loose tee shirt. As for shoes, Reno had no idea. Puss had tiny little feet. In fact, the kid was tiny, he barely cleared Reno’s chest and was almost dainty thanks to his soft features and slender build.

            Puss made fretful, irritated little noises during the whole procedure, but seemed willing to allow it since his Reno was so insistent. But the expression on his face would never be mistaken for happy contentment, that’s for sure.

            “Okay, I gotta get the bed stripped so the mattress can dry, you go hang out on the couch,” Reno told him, snatching a shirt out of his closet, pulling it on, and hastily buttoning it a little before rolling back the sleeves. “My buddy Rude is gonna be here in a second, okay? You don’t say anything to him, Puss!”

            Puss blinked at him, clearly not impressed by any amount of heat or implied threats. Reno got the distinct impression that Puss would or would not say anything according to what he damned well felt like doing and consequences be damned.

            With a soft yawn, Puss sauntered away to the living room.

            “Well at least he’s not fucking crawling on all fours,” Reno breathed, and turned his attention to stripping the sheets off of the bed.         

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           Rude arrived early from the general knowledge that Reno would need to be hurried along. If he wanted to go somewhere with the red-headed terror and get there on time, then he knew he had to show up early and rush Reno into getting his ass in gear.   

            He knocked and waited, curious when he didn’t hear the frantic thump of bare feet that usually followed. Brows drawn, he knocked again, and this time he heard a soft, questioning chirp followed by several conversational purring, rumbling little noises that made Rude think of a particularly chatty feline of his great-aunt’s.

            “Reno?” he asked, pressing his ear closer to the door and wishing he kept the man’s apartment key on his regular ring.

            There was a soft trill on the other side of the door and an agreeing, “Rrreno! Yesh!”

            “Hello?” he said, and knocked softly. He didn’t recognize the voice—it sounded like a kid—nor could he place the odd, guttural quality of that soft voice.

            “How is making work?” that soft, warbling voice asked, and there were thumps and scratches against the wood.

            “Uh, see the thing that looks like a knob?”

            Immediately, the knob itself turned and there was another hiss of frustrated noises. “Is not working, I is try already!”

            “No, no!” Rude corrected, wondering who in the hell was locked in Reno’s apartment and couldn’t work the damned door. “Above that thing, there’s another little knob, you see—”

            The bolt flipped and the knob turned again, this time allowing the door to open wide enough that Rude got a glimpse of green eyes and a slender young man in Reno’s own clothes.

            As soon as the kid saw him he flung the door wide, his whole pretty little face lighting up in delight. He even clapped his hands together and hugged them under his chin, practically wriggling in joy.

            It was the oddest greeting from an utter stranger that Rude had ever had. Luckily, he was not easily startled or flustered by the absurd or shocking—which made him the perfect partner for Reno.

            “I is remembering you!” the boy cried, and tugged him inside, saying, “You set! You set now!”

            Bewildered, Rude let himself get tugged inside, dimly registering the familiar, frantic noises that heralded Reno attempting to pull himself together from an alcohol coma.

            The boy grinned at him, beaming like a thousand watt bulb. His green eyes were crinkled and looked oddly familiar…

            “Have we met?” he asked, moving where the boy pulled and pushed him, trying to get a look at that happy little face while the young man virtually danced circles around him.

            “Yes!” the boy chirruped, and sighed, “You is being nice to me!”

            Rude frowned a little. He didn’t really think that sitting on the couch was actually being nice—

            He no sooner sat down than the kid curled up in his lap with a happy, soft sigh.

            Now more than bewildered, Rude pushed his glasses up his nose and asked, “Do I know you?”

            “Yes,” came the reply. The kid shifted and got a little more comfy, snuggling against Rude’s chest. With a soft yawn, he said, “You give me pet, now.”

            Rude considered this odd request, not sure of how to proceed.

            The boy, taking his hesitation for misunderstanding, just snatched up his hand and clumsily rubbed it against the fragile curve of his back, saying, “Yes, you give me pet, now.”

            “Uh, Reno?” he called, rubbing the boy’s back as directed, at a loss. He didn’t know enough about the situation to know what he was dealing with, and the child seemed both harmless and pleasant, so he didn’t panic. He knew Reno was fine, he could hear him moving around, so he knew things were okay there—just this bit of oddity from a strange kid with familiar eyes.

            The boy started purring, eyes closing in bliss, urging, “Pet, pet.”

            Reno came down the hallway, took one look at the kid in his lap, and squeaked.

            Rude lifted an eyebrow. He’d never heard Reno squeak before.

            “No! C’mon! Get up!” he cried, rushing over to heft the kid off of Rude, who stood and smoothed his shirt.

            The boy let out a rather outraged yowl, actually hissed at Reno, and sourly bit him, teeth sinking deep into the man’s neck.

            “Ouch! Damn it!”

            “Reno, would you mind giving some introductions?” he asked, wondering what kind of utter bullshit story he was going to get to explain this.

            He wasn’t disappointed—Reno immediately started fidgeting, his eyes flicking to one side as they always did when he lied. His face filled with that guileless earnestness that simply sealed Rude’s suspicion that he was about to lie, and he said, “Uh…this is my sister’s brother-in-law’s cousin…’s kid…”

            “Really?”

            The boy hissed at Reno again, pulled away from him, and began to pull his fingers through his silver hair with feigned nonchalance.

            “Uh, yeah,” Reno said, and gave him a toothy grin. He batted at the boy when the kid started licking his wrist for some reason, hissing at him to stop acting like a nutjob.

            “Reno,” Rude said, and pushed his glasses back up his nose once more. It was less a necessity to keep them in place than it was a momentary breather for his patience. “You don’t have a sister, you only have brothers.”

            “Step-sister!” Reno said with a nervous laugh.

            “So,” Rude asked, crossing his hands in front of him. “What’s he doing here again?”

            “Uh…” Reno licked his lips, batting his big blue eyes and frantically thinking of a plausible excuse—unfortunately, as someone who existed in a landmine of bizarre situations, his lies tended to be too inventive for even the most gullible person to believe. Hell, half of the true stories he told were never believed.

            “Let’s try something easier,” Rude sighed. “What’s his name?’

            “Uh…” Reno scratched sheepishly at his nape, laughing a little.

            The boy glared at him, his fingers curling into threatening fists.

            “Uh…daaahj…” Reno said in a drawn out, fading whisper, avoiding both of their gazes.

            “What was that?” Rude asked, bewildered. “His name is Uhdodge?”

            “Kadaj!” Reno said, saying it with a bright smile as it clearly dawned on him.

            Leave it to Reno to not remember the name of a guest in his home.

            Kadaj just continued to glare at Reno before furiously combing his hair again.

            “Uh, there’s a problem, yo,” Reno said, laughing nervously again and giving Rude that hang-dog look from the tops of his eyes. “He lost his shoes.”

            Rude frowned.

            “Uh…they were those sandal things and they just kinda…I mean…Well, anyway, we gotta stop and get him some shoes,” he finished, willing to leave it at that.

            Rude, who never lacked in the brains department no matter what some people might choose to believe about muscle-bound men, placed where he’d seen those odd green eyes before. Testing his theory, knowing that Reno wouldn’t think twice about the abrupt shift in conversation, he lowly asked, “How’s Puss?”

            The boy’s mouth opened.

            Reno pounced on him, slapping a delicate hand firmly over the boy’s mouth and wrapping his free arm around his slim shoulders to hold him still.

            “Uh, he ran away!” he explained.

            The kid’s eyes widened and then narrowed in a fury, several loud and angry retorts getting smothered against Reno’s hand.

            “Yeah, he…uh…he took off yesterday when I opened the door,” the man continued to explain.

            Rude had seen enough. He wasn’t sure how things happened in such a way, but he was a very factual, practical man and would not refuse to believe what the clues were telling him.

            “We’ll stop for shoes,” he said, and almost smiled at the vast look of relief on his partner’s face. He knew Reno hated lying to him—it didn’t stop the man from lying to him, however.

            He watched Reno lean over and hiss something into Kadaj’s ear.

            The boy bit his hand and glared at him, but didn’t resist when Reno got an arm around his waist and urged him towards the door.

            Wondering just what on earth was really going on, Rude led the way to his car with a soft, secretive smile.

            This was going to be one hell of an interesting day.

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Comments

[etrix.livejournal.com]

"This was going to be one hell of an interesting day"

Oh, oh, oh... and you're going to make us wait!?! Evil, evil, eeeeeevil!

So much win; from Puss' 16 arms, to the shower, to Rude's arrival and the demand for petting.

I'll be reading this chapter again.

[jaded-grin.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I decided not to wait for Wednesday and wanted to do something before I got started on the next episode...Which I hope will go over well. How do you feel about Genesis being flamboyantly gay? Frankly, it works for me, but I'm a bit odd. Glad you still like Puss! I'm thinking I might put it on FF.net when I finish it :d

[etrix.livejournal.com]

oh, let's see... Genesis as a flamer. Well, flames are red, coals are black and together they're pretty. Genesis wears red and black and he sure is pretty.

Works for me. =]

I agree you should post on ff.net. I think people there will enjoy it.

[merytsetesh.livejournal.com]

Weird thought: what if they run into a dog at the fair? Or mice or birds?

[jaded-grin.livejournal.com]

Things could rapidly get out of control...but I think that's a general theme for Reno at this point :D

[glorfindel.livejournal.com]

Haha loving this ^__^

[jaded-grin.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And cute icon!

[jaded-grin.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much :D His speech gives me a headache sometimes, trying to remember to make it "kadaj-talk" and all! I thought of every cat I've ever known and their reactions to people they take a shine to and came up with this! Glad you liked it!

[ldyavalon.livejournal.com]

By now Reno could tell Rude what really happened and he'd probably believe it :P

Can't wait for more :)

[jaded-grin.livejournal.com]

I love Rude so much! He's so "I saw it, so this is the truth." You're right, Reno probably could tell him at this point, but the best thing about terrible liars is that they think they're friggin' AWESOME at it! So much fun to exploit!

[nicotine-gum.livejournal.com]

Oh goodness. Am I in Disturbia? (looks around for Rihanna)

This is one heck of a sexy series. But something about it bothers me! (I dunno what, but it's hot)

[jaded-grin.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry it bothers you, that bums me out. I'll have to look up that Disturbia thing, I don't listen to much radio these days, last I heard from Rhianna she was singing "Umbrella"...So, sorry about the bothers you thing. Let me know if you figure it out and maybe I can fix it?

[nicotine-gum.livejournal.com]

No, no, no! Don't do that! This is as good as it gets. Don't change anything about it! I think it's just me - I don't see anyone else complaining!

And I'm trying to pinpoint what is it; perhaps its how such a thing could happen to Reno? Or something.

But you know, don't mind me! It's like your usual faultless writing, just perhaps the concept? I don't know >< Gosh, I can't explain it if I don't know what it is :/

[jaded-grin.livejournal.com]

Well, if you're sure. I mean, later on it will come out how it happened to Reno--there isn't really any magic involved in this, it all has explanations that work in the FFVII world's restrictions, I guess. Just let me know, though.

[momcalling.livejournal.com]

OK, I'm reading along, used to Reno-rama and fantastical places to go when you get the weird itch, and then Puss becomes Kadaj and I lost it. Had I been drinking something, it would have shorted out the keyboard on it's way back out. Except I thought it was going to be Yazoo. So, you got me. A good 'un. OK, next chapter up--they are going shopping for shoes, and I'm assuming more nutty things will transpire...see ya. mc

[jaded-grin.livejournal.com]

Haha! WOOT! Yes, I deviated from my standard of Reno with Yazoo :D Surprise!!! LOL! I'm glad you liked it, though! There are plenty of planned shenanigans in the future!