Room 226; Saturday [08/27].

[kawaii_complex]

The visit home and the subsequent trip to Okinawa with all her former classmates had been absolutely wonderful for Sakaki. It had been so good to see everyone again, both her friends and her family, and Okinawa was beautiful. She had several adorable little tchotchkes from tourist kiosks clinking around in her bag, as well as several great memories of visiting temples and gardens, of scuba diving and sunbathing, and a part of her was a little bit sad to be returning back to school here in America.

A little bit.

Because there was something else with Sakaki upon her return that made it impossible to be sad about anything, and that something was an absolutely adorable Iriomote kitten.

How Sakaki came to be in the possession of such a cat was a long story; the fact that such a cat not only allowed Sakaki to pet it and play with it, but that it had actually actively followed her around as if claiming her was nothing short of a miracle. She would never forget, that first encounter, when she met Maya and he did not run away, he did not scratch or bite or hiss at her, but, instead, happily let her pet his head and scratch his chin, and started purring, and Sakaki thought she would die right then of complete and total happiness overload...

This had, of course, been on a visit to Iriomote Island, and when they had to leave, it was a tearful departure indeed for Sakaki, who finally made a feline friend, and resolved to the fate of never seeing him ever again.

So imagine her surprise when he showed up at her house a few days later, as she was packing up yet again to return to Fandom. Somehow, he'd figured out a way to return to her. He'd traveled all the way from Okinawa just to be with her, and Sakaki's heart absolutely melted.

She'd never been able to keep pets because her parents were allergic, but that wouldn't be a problem in Fandom! Well, it might be. Perhaps if Harry was allergic, too, but then Maya could still just stay at the animal shelter. He was an endangered species, after all, surely, there could be some sort of protections that could suit them in this case...

But, either way, despite knowing she should probably go be social at the welcome picnic, when Sakaki got back in, she had much more important things to take care of, and that was makings sure Maya was all set-up and comfortable in their room, and then literally spending almost the entire day playing with him and getting him all set up, and just....you know...being the happiest she had ever been in her entire life.


[[ door and post are open! ]]

Comments

[imawizard]

When he was done with the picnic, Harry went back up to the room. His name hadn't been on the roommates list so he probably hadn't been reassigned. He did knock before entering, though, because it has been a while.

"Hi."

[kawaii_complex]

Both Sakaki and Maya looked up at the knock, Sakaki meeting it with a somewhat surprised blink, and Maya meeting it with a meow that wasn't nearly as mighty as he thought it was.

"Oh," Sakaki said. "Harry. You're back."

Eyes immediately trying to look behind him to see if Hedwig was there, too? What? No!

....maybe.

And that's when she realized there might actually be an issue with the fact that she'd come back with her own pet, too, and looked down at the cat, who was now looking at her curiously, as if wondering if this person was a problem that needed to be taken care of.

"Harry," she then added, looking back. "This is Maya. Maya," back to the cat, "this is Harry. He's my roommate here, at school."

[imawizard]

"You got a cat?" he asked, lugging his trunk in. There was no cage for Hedwig this time, no.

And was he supposed to say hi to the cat?

[kawaii_complex]

The disappointment Sakaki felt at the lack of a cage with that trunk was profound, her shoulders squaring a little and getting the distinct impression that she would feel even more devastated if she followed up on that particular missing detail.

But then she nodded, and she looked back over to Maya, and she reached out a hand to pet him, without him even flinching or scratching or biting; in fact, he closed his eyes and nuzzled up into her hand, and the outpouring of love and affection she felt swept all of that away.

"I found him," she explained, even if he found me would probably be more accurate in this situation, "when I went home during the break. We visited Okinawa, and I think his mother got hit by a car, so he didn't have anyone else..."

[imawizard]

"All right," he said, sitting down on his bed and watching the cat. "Hermione's got a cat, so I'm pretty sure to them."

[kawaii_complex]

"He's very nice," Sakaki assured Harry, although, really, the fact that he was even allowing Sakaki to pet him, let alone enjoying it, should be speaking volumes. Not a scratch or a bite to be seen!

And it almost seemed as though Sakaki was going to just leave it at that, and continue just petting Maya and generally forgetting that Harry was even there, but spending the week with her old school friends reminded her a little bit about how interacting with other people worked.

"Did you have a good trip home?" she asked, in her best attempt at conversationally, which was just a little too distracted by cat to have managed to get it quite right.

[imawizard]

"It was pretty terrible, actually," he admitted. "And it's been a year for me."

[kawaii_complex]

See, and that was why Sakaki generally didn't talk to people.

"Oh," she said, looking over at Harry now with a frown that seemed to be going for both sympathetic and apologetic, but was a bit too subtle to even come close to either of them. "I'm sorry to hear tha--"

Then the rest caught up with her, and she blinked.

"A year?"

Maybe she'd misheard him, or mistranslated. She had spent the entire last week speaking almost exclusively Japanese, so it made sense that she would need a warm up refresher on her English again.

[imawizard]

"A year," he confirmed. "I spent a lot of it camping in the woods and hiding from people. Honestly it's good being back."

He probably needed the break!

[kawaii_complex]

Camping itself didn't sound too bad, although for a year would probably make it a lot less enjoyable than a few nights with your friends, and the hiding from people, especially, did not sound good at all.

The whole year part was still a little difficult to wrap her head around, so she focused on what she could understand.

"Well," she decided, "I'm glad you're back, then. That doesn't sound like a very good year at all, Harry. I hope this one's better."

If anything....look at the cute new cat he'd get to spend time with! That could make anyone's year instantly better!

[imawizard]

"Thanks," he said with a little smile. It was at least be a lot calmer than what he'd have at home. "How have you been, cat aside?"

[kawaii_complex]

"I've been fine," Sakaki answered with a nod. Cat aside definitely ruled out a lot of things for her, since the cat was kind of everything right now. "It was really nice to see my friends back home again."

And it sounded like she had a much better (and much shorter) time of it than he had, so she felt a little bad for mentioning it.