Disclaimer: I don't own these boys and I'm broke. Don't sue me.

Koneko
By Anahita ()

Chapter 1

This was turning out to be a most unpleasant day, Eiri thought to himself as he unceremoniously fell onto an empty park bench and closed his eyes. After the day he had, he wanted nothing more than to have a couple moments of peace and quiet at the park.

His park, he amended the thought as he took a long, deep drag from the cigarette between his lips. He couldn't count the number of times he would sit on that same bench and just watch the random faces walk past him. Sometimes in order to lift his mood, he would study them and use them as subjects for his stories. But even that was not possible now as the park was completely empty and desolate at this late hour, Eiri realized sadly as he looked down the cobblestone path in front of him, his mind suddenly overcome with memories of countless lovers, young and old alike, walking arm-in-arm down that path, whispering empty promises of eternal love and happiness to each other.

One of his girlfriends once called him a fraud. He tried to remember which one it was, and eventually narrowed down the choice between the French girl and the pre-med student with curly hair. It really didn't matter to him, he realized as he soon gave up on that endeavor. Faces and names of all the girls he was involved with in the past blurred into one another so much that they appeared one and the same. He wasn't sure he even cared anymore. Her name and face was not important. It was her words that stuck with him. On the day he broke up with her, she called him a fraud, a liar and a hypocrite for writing of love and tenderness when he had none of it to give.

He wondered sometimes how that girl was doing? Was she married now? Did she find the love and tenderness that he was unable to give to her? Would she feel the same when her Prince tired of her and left her for another?

The bitch had no right to judge him. He never promised her something he was unable to give. He was always honest, and that was far nobler of him than any of the men that walked past him on that walkway, oblivious to everything in the world save the woman on their arm. He doubted that any of them had found true happiness with one another. Sooner or later they would all end up the same, alone, betrayed and weary of it all. No, he realized, he was anything but a hypocrite. He gave those girls more than they could dream of getting with another man. He gave them the eternal love they craved. He preserved their love and wrote about the fairy tale hopes and dreams that these girls so desired.

Damn it. He was depressed now. Not that he was surprised, seeing Mika always did this to him.

"So how are things going between you and that new girl you have been seeing?" Mika asked casually over the dinner they had at the small Italian restaurant she was rather fond of, earlier that evening.

"They're not." Eiri responded dryly between forkfuls of pasta. "I broke up with her yesterday."

Mika didn't say anything at first. But she really didn't have to. The deep, exasperated exhalation of breath did a more than adequate job of projecting her disapproval.

"So what was the problem this time?" She finally asked, coldly. "Were her feet too big? Did she breathe through her mouth when she slept? Was that it?"

"Mika "

"No, wait. Let me guess." She interrupted her younger brother as she let the utensils drop out of her hands, hitting the plate in front of her with a loud 'clink'. "She stole your lucky pen. That's why you broke things off with her, wasn't it?"

"I found her poking holes in her fucking diaphragm, if you must know." Eiri spat out with a tone of barely restrained contempt.

Immediately, Mika's face turned crimson as she looked down, not wanting to see the look of pure hatred in her brother's eyes. She hated that look, especially when she was the cause of it. "I'm sorry." She said in a voice barely above a whisper.

As he curbed his anger, Eiri noticed that the restaurant had become awfully quiet all of the sudden. He remembered that earlier he did raise his voice a bit, and he smiled when he realized that the other diners were probably listening in on their conversation. Not that he cared much. He didn't mind giving people a little drama every now and then. He was a writer after all. He thrived on such things.

"I worry about you." Mika continued. "I just want you to be happy and it kills me when I don't see the same from you."

"Contrary to what you may think, you're not my mother. And the way I live makes me happy, whether you want to believe it or not."

"I know you. And what you say is not how you feel in your heart. You can say words to the contrary, but your eyes betray your true feelings."

"Listen Mika. My life is not your cross to bear. And truthfully, I think you should concern yourself more with meeting your husband's needs before your marriage of convenience becomes a bit inconvenient for him."

He regretted those words as soon as they left his lips. Mika looked at him as if she had been slapped in the face.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that "

"It's okay." She interrupted and continued eating without looking him in the face.

That was pretty much the end of any meaningful conversation they would have that evening. Dinner eventually ended and Mika offered to give Eiri a ride home. He refused. He had a couple errands to run and besides, the restaurant was within walking distance of his loft.

"Worried about my happiness " He mumbled to himself as he pulled out a small, amber colored bottle out of his coat pocket and looked at it.

That was one good thing about his sister. Spending time with her never failed to remind him to get a refill on his anti-depressants. Yeah, she sure takes care of that. Although he never told Mika, the truth was that his happiness revolved solely around numbing the pain that he had to live with. He could never share that with his sister. She worried about him enough as it was. As long as he could live with curbing his depression, he didn't need anything else. He didn't need love. He didn't need affection. He didn't need

His train of thought was suddenly interrupted by the loud crashing sound of a trashcan being overturned to his right. He quickly turned his head to see what the source of the commotion was and he was rewarded with the most absurd sight he had ever had the privilege of seeing in all his twenty-two years on that planet.

There at the site of the accident were a small gray cat and a boy who appeared to be in his late teens hissing at one another.

Eiri stared incredulously as he rose from his park bench to get a better view of the spectacle that was taking place before his eyes.

The cat was small and scrawny, so thin that it was possible to see the outline of its ribs through its skin. The boy was even smaller and scrawnier compared to other boys his age, at least , and he was dressed in cut off shorts and a blue tank top. His hair was bight pink and quite disheveled. The two creatures appeared to be fighting over a half eaten sandwich that they had discovered in the trash.

"Are you out of your mind?" Eiri shouted out, not bothering to disguise the tone of disgust in his voice.

The boy flinched and looked over at the source of the voice while the cat, seeing an opportunity, grabbed the sandwich and ran off into the trees.

The boy whined as he saw his meal disappear into the pitch-black woods before him, then he looked up at the man who had just interrupted him.

'That's disgusting, eating food out of the trash like that, do you want to get a disease or something?" Eiri continued, feeling a bit uncomfortable as the boy did not do anything to reply. He simply stared at him with a look on his face that unsettled Eiri to the core of his being.

"Now go on back to your house before I call the police and they haul you away." Eiri said, now truly uncomfortable with the way the boy was looking at him.

Luckily for him, the boy apparently believed his threat, because he quickly turned and ran off into the darkness as well.

Eiri stood there for a moment to regain his composure. He then chuckled, shaking his head at the whole ridiculousness of the situation as he lit another cigarette and continued his way home.

TBC