Soft

Author: Seth

"Oh come one, it's a perfect name! I mean with your pet, his eyes, and his-"
"You can stop right there."
"Spoilsport."

Another night, another watch. Kuroga sighed as he resigned himself to his dark vigil. It was a habit that was now engrained in his bones, more so than any of his other training.

'Not that I don't have options…' He smiled softly as he absently rubbed his bandana, his finger drifting over the comical eyes drawn on the fabric.

Still, old habits die hard and going cold turkey wasn't an option for everybody.

Kuroga grew sleepier as the hours passed, and his desire for rest battled with his need to ensure the safety of his comrades while they slept. His head dipped once, twice, and almost three times before something soft and fluffy bumped against his left arm.

"Hmmm? Ahh, thanks." The illusion adept gratefully acknowledged his catmeleon as he returned his gaze to his surroundings, gently petting the colour changing feline.

Comforted by the contented purrs that ensued, Kuro calmly sank back into the routine of lookout, if only for a few moments before something niggled at he back of his mind.

'He seems larger than before… A lot larger.' The ebony haired boy thought silently.

"Growing up rather quickly aren't you?" He asked his catmeleon cheerfully. "What are you eating to grow so qui- Huh?" His hand jerked away as he finally looked down to find that he hadn't in fact been petting his unobtrusive familiar, but his orange haired teammate Masatora.

"Is that normal human behaviour?" An innocently curious voice asked.

Kuroga looked up to see his final teammate, Enya, lying on his side with a questioning gaze.

"No… not really." Kuroga answered, distantly noting that the purring had stopped. "I didn't even know it was possible for us to create that sound." The green eyed boy gave the fiery mane an experimental stroke, chuckling lightly when the purring started up again.

Of course the stormy eyed fighter chose that moment to start coming around. Kuroga swiftly withdrew his hand as Masatora started to shift about.

"What?" The orange haired soldier asked as he woke up, only to see both his teammates looking at him with decidedly odd expressions on their faces.

"Nothing." Kuroga muttered, trying and failing to hold back a smile. "Go back to sleep." He leaned back against his tree and slipped his bandana over his eyes, trying to lead by example.

"What's with him?" Tora asked Enya, nodding his head towards their black haired teammate.

"I think… he thinks that you're his pet…" Enya replied after some deliberation.

Masatora just stared at the part-elf for a long while before looking back at Kuroga.

"I'm going to hope that that's the fatigue speaking, and that this'll all make sense in the morning." The grey eyed citizen mumbled as he settled his head back down on the forest floor, leaving Enya to ponder the oddities of the human race alone.

---

Morning didn't bring any answers though, as Tora seemed determined to put the past nights conversation down to an odd dream brought on by the funny batbit he had eaten the night previous, and neither of his companions brought the topic up.

He found out what happened of course, if only because their Unit returned to their rooms one day to find identical cat ears placed on their beds with the kanji for 'Nekotai' emblazoned on each ear.

Kuroga probably should have explained to Enya why it wasn't exactly normal behaviour, but that probably wouldn't have kept the part-elf quiet, and Iroki got a good laugh out of it. Well, the whole Ginsenkei got a laugh out of it eventually, but he wasn't really complaining. The ears were a gift from his family. A joke gift to be sure, but a gift nonetheless.

That and they were fuzzy, and went surprisingly well with his bandana.