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The little cat's back was a soft, smoky gray. Its belly was white, and so were its chest, paws, and nose - well, the part of its nose that wasn't pink. Its eyes were a muddy blue, like they were thinking of changing to something else. It was eating a cricket.
Gojyo hadn't ever thought of crickets as cat food, but at least it meant that the kitten was old enough to be away from its mother ... didn't it?
Lying on his stomach in the long grass, his big school backpack pressing him into the ground, Gojyo realized he'd already decided to take the kitten home They were at least a mile from anyone else's house, and none of the nearest families had a cat that he knew of. So it was a stray. And it was so cute. And it could already catch bugs and stuff. Mom would have to let him keep it.
Wouldn't she?
His mind skittered away from that direction. He had to catch the kitten first, and not hurt it, so it would know he was being friends. He stretched out one hand, and just lay there. The kitten backed up a little, but then got interested and came toward his fingers, sniffing at them. His hands were dirty, but maybe an animal that ate bugs wouldn't care.
The kitten leaned against his fingertips a little with the side of its head. He rubbed gently at its soft fur. It felt like the down at the bottom of a feather, maybe even softer than that. Now it was purring, and its eyes were half-closed. He wriggled a little bit toward it, and it let him. Finally, he grabbed it.
Gojyo knew how to hold cats. He'd watched people who had them, and tried it once or twice with much bigger ones. It was easy to grasp the loose skin on the back of its neck and put his other hand under its chest. The kitten wriggled and mewed, but settled down when he held it close to his own chest. Grinning, he trotted home with his prize.
By the time he got to the house, the kitten was his friend: it wasn't wiggling at all. He could feel its little heartbeat and its breathing, and it made him feel big and strong and like he was special. He opened the door carefully with one hand. The big room with the kitchen at the end was quiet. So maybe Mom was out, or maybe she was asleep: the door to her room was closed, so he couldn't tell. He closed the outside door behind him and put the kitten down carefully on the dirty floor. It opened its eyes and looked confused, then it stretched and said "Eeee!"
"Shh!" Gojyo looked at the door to Mom's room again, but he couldn't hear anything much over the beating of his own heart. The kitten must be hungry. There wasn't much on a cricket. He tiptoed over to the icebox and opened the door as quietly as he could. There was still a big hunk of roast pork left from what he'd helped Jien beg at the butcher shop. He took the plate out carefully, because it was heavy. He managed to get it onto the big table with hardly any noise at all, even though the kitten was trying to trip him. He climbed up onto Jien's chair, because it was steadier than his.
The smaller knife was still on the table from breakfast. It was a real knife, even though it wasn't all that big. Jien had been teaching him how to use it, but he wasn't supposed to touch it on his own. But he needed to give the kitten something to eat, so it would know it should stay here. Carefully, he picked up the knife and gingerly started shaving off slivers of meat. It smelled so good, he had to eat some of it. But he gave the kitten most of it. Then he went and got the second-worst soup bowl - the one that was cracked, but didn't really leak - and got the kitten some water.
He was squatting down, watching the kitten's pink, bristly tongue scooping up the water when he realized that he'd heard a door open behind him.
"What the hell is that meat doing out? If you want food, you ask, boy!"
Gojyo jumped to his feet, guiltily. "S-sorry, M-mom!"
Oh no, he'd really made a mess of it. Her eyes were all weird and sleepy, and she looked all pointy - not just her pretty ears and the teeth and claws he didn't have because he wasn't a proper youkai, but her thin arms made angular, sharp shapes too. She was not going to listen about the kitten now. He was trying hard not to look at it, but it was rubbing against his legs and his eyes went that way.
"What the - gods in Heaven, what is that thing?"
"It's a cat, Mom! It'll catch mice - it already can catch bugs!"
"It's not any bigger than a rat!"
"It'll grow, Mom! C"mon, please?"
"We wouldn't even have mice if it wasn't for a little red-headed crumb-leaving rat ... " And on the last word, she pounced and got the kitten.
She swung it up in the air away from him, while he stood on tiptoe and tried to grab it. She wasn't even hurting it, probably, but it was very scared, and crying, and then it managed to get its tiny claws into her hand, and her bigs claws started to close on it, and she said nasty words that Jien wouldn't let him say, and then she grabbed the knife.
"No, Mom, no, no no ... !" He grabbed her wrist on that hand with both his hands and pulled, let all his weight drag her hand down. He could feel that the way she was standing was going off, and he threw himself in that direction so that she started to fall over. She dropped the kitten, which landed on the floor with a tiny thump and then scrambled away, and then the knife, which skidded across the floor until Jien stopped it with his booted foot.
"Mom?" Jien's eyes were big, and his voice cracked a little. The bag with the shopping was dangling from his hand, forgotten.
She caught herself with her scratched hand on the kitchen table and flung Gojyo across the room. But that was OK - she did that a lot. He rolled into a ball and managed to hit the wall mostly with his feet and legs. Then he uncurled and scrambled after the kitten.
"Jien! Get rid of that thing!"
Jien took one good look, added up the situation, and put down the shopping bag. "Give it here, squirt."
Gojyo's mouth fell open and he felt tears coming. "Jien ... !"
"GIve it here," his brother repeated. "And come with me."
Gojyo held out the kitten slowly, It was still crying. Jien took it in one of his big hands - they were too big for the rest of him nowadays, same as his feet - and grabbed Gojyo's arm with the other, and hustled him out the door. They were out of sight of the house before Gojyo realized that Jien wasn't hurting him and probably wasn't hurting the kitten either.
"Will he be OK, Jien?"
Jien looked back toward the house, then let him go and turned the kitten over, looking at it. It was crying only a little bit now. Gojyo could see blood in a couple of small spots on its fluffy fur.
"I think so ... she couldn't really get her claws into it. If she'd really meant to kill it, squirt, she would've used her teeth."
He bared his own sharp fangs - new, grown-up ones - to show him. Gojyo bared his teeth back, and Jien looked at them, and sighed, then passed the kitten back to him. "C'mon."
Farmer Ko lived two miles away, and he had a bunch of cats in his hay barn. He scratched his head when Jien told him that their mother wouldn't let them keep the kitten, then gave them a lopsided smile. "Sure, let's see if the other ones'll put up with him. It's good to get some new blood in there every once in a while ... but ... ." He looked at Gojyo and then looked away. Jien made his face all blank. Gojyo bent down and nuzzled the kitten to hide his own scowl, then set it down. It made sad little noises and tried to hide under his feet.
The farm cats were pretending it wasn't there. But then one lady cat - her titties were big and sticking out though her fur on her belly - came running up and sniffed it all over, then started licking it. The kitten looked shocked, but then its started leaning into her licking. Farmer Ko grinned.
"Best thing for both of 'em. She misses her last litter."
Jien was trying to dig a hole in the dirt floor of the barn with his boot toe. Gojyo looked at him, then back at the farmer. "What happened to her kittens?"
"Well, now ... ," said Farmer Ko.
Jien put an arm around Gojyo and started to steer him out of the barn. "Thanks, Ko-san."
"No problem, kid. Like I said, we needed some new blood."
Jien didn't slow down until they reached the stream at the foot of the Ko fields. Then he stopped and hunkered down to splash cold water over his face. Gojyo squatted down next to him.
"Jien? What happened to the other kittens?"
His brother sighed. "Same thing I'm gonna let Mom think happened to your kitten." He picked up a rock and threw it into the deepest pool, under the far bank. "In the water. Like that."
Gojyo's mouth fell open. The tears that had gathered earlier started leaking out of his eyes. "Why?"
"He's a farmer. He buys and sells animals for food or to work. He has to kill stuff all the time. He had too many of the same kind of cat - that's why he said yes to your kitten." He reached over and pulled Gojyo's face close. "That's just how it is, sometimes, squirt. You can't save 'em all. But look - your kitten is OK."
Gojyo pulled away and buried his face in his arms and cried, bawling his eyes out like he wasn't a big boy who went to school already. Jien let him for a while, and then stood up and hauled him to his feet. "We'd better get back. She should be chilled out now - I bought her a new bottle."
Gojyo sniffled and wiped his face with his hands, but his hands were dirty. "Maybe I need t' wash my face?"
Jien studied him for a minute, his eyes sad, and shook his head. "Nope. Let her tell you to do it. Got it?"
Jien was so smart. "Yeah."
Slowly, reluctantly, the brothers walked home together.