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Nako & Peaches

Call my Name

It’s already fall, the wind is starting to get cold but the warmth of the sun stays and it is just perfect for this cat and her afternoon nap. She does not really bother much with anything. She is just laying there in the bamboo floor porch called egawa of this traditional Japanese Manor, curled basking in the sun. She does not even tried to hide, and does not worry if she got found out. This place is comfortable, is it happiness? She can’t say much, being comfortable does not mean happiness all she can think of is that today is rather peaceful.

Her ear’s perk with the sound of footstep. It does bring her happiness but she will not relent, weighing it off, laying here doing nothing wins over welcoming her. She is not really sleeping anymore. The zen provided by the seesawing bamboo fountain they call Shishi Odoshi and the sound of water pouring from it is too hypnotic, she just does not want to move.

“Peaches!” A voice called.

“Peaches!” She repeated.

How many times that she needs to tell her not to call her Peaches, she does not like it one bit.

“Peaches, where are you?” The cute voice desperately asked.

She got worried; maybe it’s worth checking out, maybe later. She does not feel the need to enter the gloomy place. This porch is the only place worth staying for longer period of time, this atleast have semblance of hope. A few steps from here is the room of that kid who is calling her.

“Peaches, oh you are there, I see.” The voice said somewhat relieve after finding her lying almost motionless and staring out to the garden outside. She flicked her tails gently back and forth to acknowledge her.

They call her Peaches even though it is not her name, she will not accept it as her name. She figured it is because her color is rather creamy, it is diluted orange, almost like a peach.

“Peaches…” The voice said, followed by soft sobs.

She might not care much of the world, but she does deeply care about this girl. Her free nature might not sometimes show it but she definitely does care for her well being. She stretches her body, her feet, her paws and peak to the person calling her. There she is, burying her face on that low desk that is part of this old manor. It is always heart breaking to see her like that.

She peaked to her with her teary eyes, “Sometimes I want to be like you.”  

“You are free… you don’t seem to be lonely… I just want to be like that.” The girl said while looking at her.

She gently walks to her direction, her round eyes fix to her, and just like any other time it is heart breaking when she is like this. “Meow” She gently vocalized trying to get her, her message.

“I am lonely.” The girl sobs.

She graciously jump on the top of the table, her peach colored body, her round head, all there willing to give this girl some comfort. She bumps her head to her hand and pats her with her paw but she knows this is not enough. She curled beside her.

“Peaches... stay with me.” The girl once again said. Head still buried but her hands gently caress her head, she purrs but it’s not enough for the girl to stop crying.

 She can understand why she is feeling this way, this place is depressing. It’s in Tokyo but it’s dim and no other human is mostly there aside from the girl and the only other being that is there, is her-a cat, who sometimes fails to greet her.

She, a cat, feels the guilt of her action – wishing she can do more and kind of hoping the girl could atleast stop calling her Peaches.

She jumps of the table and let her legs stand, she looks down to her.

“Nako, you know that I won’t leave you …. But please call my name, you know what it is, right? ” She pleads rather gently but firmly.  

“hmmm...hmmm” The girl sniffled.

She sighed and slump beside her and guessed that it probably not gonna happen today. There is other more important thing than that right now and it is to comfort her and not make her feel alone. She held her hand, not with her paw but with her own hand, gently squeezing it. The body of a cat may not be enough to comfort her, but maybe this form will. 

She looks at her caringly and whether she would like to admit it or not this girl is her world. All she could hope is for her to feel that she will always be there, regardless of her laziness to welcome her home, she will be there when needs her.

“Hiichan.” The girl finally uttered, it puts a smile on her face. It will do and frankly it is better, she let her tails sway and she curled them to her side gently touching the girl.

The girl lifts up her head and looks at her, she touch her face and gently swept the trail of tears that formed on it.

 “Nako-chan.” She said back, she inched beside her, put her chin on her shoulder and embrace her trying to provide the warmth that is missing.

“You know I’m not really a cat, I’m a spirit. And I can be with you for as long as you wish, as long as you call me. ” Yes she will and yes she is and always will be Hitomi, previously a cat, but now a cat spirit. Her tail is split to two, in this form where she almost looks like human, she still has cat ears and cat tendencies.

“Thank you… Hiichan.”  That made her smile again and her heart warm, she poked her cheeks and inch more closely to her.

Calling her name is important to her, she is somewhat stubborn, but she does not want to forget about it, her days beside the strawberry stand and the days at the back alley where she rest and eats whatever left over bread and strawberry got thrown on her way. She does not want to forget those and most specially the day she met Nako and she ask her, her name and she said it and it became music to her ear.  

“You know, you are the only one who I let to see me like this.” She told her teasingly.

“Because I found you?” The girl asks locking eyes to her.

“Because I want to tell you what they call me.” She said with cheeky smile. “One moment I was looking up to you, then next… I was looking down to you. My paws are not paws anymore but hands… that day... maybe we just really found each other. ”

She look up to the ceiling remembering that day clearly, it was rainy, in the back alley with a petite girl giving her leftover sandwich and asking her, her name. The day she said with words that human can understand “It’s Hitomi.” Tears flowed down from her eyes as confusion dawn on her, she is not a cat anymore.  

The girl look at her curiously, she did not get scared but instead provided her with umbrella, “I see so it’s Hitomi.” and instead of running away she offered her a home, “Hitomi-chan would you go home with me?”

It was and will always be the most important day in her life.

 Another footsteps where heard followed by someone calling the girl. “Nako-sama.”

Sigh, their moment was cut short. She is a lot more comfortable in this form than her cat form but nonetheless she needs to get back to being a cat. It’s not like she is visible to ordinary people but there are people like Nako who can see her.

“Ah, Hiichan...” Nako complained.

She touches her face and put her forehead to hers and she whispered “I like tuna sandwich and creampuffs.” together they giggled at her reminder and she is very happy to hear it.

The footstep closes by and she has no choice but to transform back to being the cute peach colored cat, with folded ears and very round face. She crept to her lap and curled, Nako gently pets her as she falls to sleep.  

“Nako-sama, your food is ready.” The voice said.

She felt herself being lifted and cradled gently.

“Wait a second. I’ll bring Peaches with me.” Nako replied.

She let out a loud meow, to let her know that she is once again displeased for being called Peaches. She jumps out of her arms and walked back to the porch and lay there watching the Shishi Odoshi mesmerizingly rock back and forth. Nako watched her with a smile, later she joined her with snacks on her hand. Some tuna sandwich and cream puffs just for her.

Notes:

Hello - yeah I wrote it lol - It's weird right?

So this is NakoTomi pair.

Who do you think are the other "Cat"-Owner Pairing. ^-^. Sorry if this sound weird... but sometimes those are the kind of ideas I have in mind. The setting of this story is Tokyo.  If you are familiar with the folklore of Nekomata's - the story is somewhat based on that. It is a Japanese folklore, but since I don't have 100% solid reference on it I am afraid to call it that. Nekomata's are cat spirit, there are two kinds those who are in forest and those who are domesticated and after several years transformed into one, a cat spirit. Lol I love folklores :3.