House Cat [temporarily complete]

c.h.a.p.t.e.r t.w.e.l.v.e


More than anything Isiel looked rather stunned and seemed to forget his initial disgust when it came to anything affectionate regarding Eiji as well as the frosty demeanor he\'d adopted upon being informed of his return by Kiba. As the wolf made up for his charge\'s lack of anything resembling manners Isiel just gazed up at Eiji, unsure whether to echo Kiba\'s greeting or just remain silent. For the time being he waited, watching for any discernable reaction from the stoic man before him.

He waited, watching, but still Isiel did not smile or greet him or respond much at all.

Eiji\'s eyebrows lowered and he turned to look at Kiba, who shrugged apologetically. The freshly-returned man then snarled under his breath and pushed past Isiel, knocking him aside and marching up the stairs, alone.

Kiba sighed heavily when he heard the Master Bedroom door slam shut, rattling even the windows on the first floor. \"Ouch,\" he muttered, rubbing the back of his head and wincing a little at Isiel. \"You\'re cold, kiddo.\"

Isiel sighed and glanced up to the landing, knowing Kiba was right this time. Maybe it had been rather cruel to welcome him in such a way, but that Eiji had shown him even the faintest sign of interest - that he was a presence within the house that registered rather than just another servant or nuisance left behind when Oriel died was more than he felt he should have expected and yet he\'d reacted with far less enthusiasm than it seemed anyone wanted. \"He surprised me....that\'s all.\"

\"Heh, well... you just pissed him off,\" Kiba laughed a little apologetically. \"You probably would have been better off not showing up at the door at all rather than what you just did. Ah well. What\'s done is done. What are you going to do about it?\"

Kiba didn\'t try to hide the fact that he was amused through-and-through.

He\'d expected a little drama and conflict when Master came home, but things had started with a bang already. \"...Or are you going to just stand there like a pup that got his first smack?\" he asked slowly, arching an eyebrow as Isiel didn\'t seem to be moving.

Isiel gave Kiba a rather annoyed look in return, but held any spiteful comments in check - after all he did acknowledge that this was his mistake whereas a few months ago he would quite happily have blamed it upon Kiba and marched off in a melodramatic sulking fit either that or burst into tears. Instead he passed the wolf by and began making his way upstairs with the intention of apologizing whether Eiji liked it or not. \"......\"

He\'d slammed the door so hard that it had bounced back out of its frame, and was slightly ajar. But Eiji didn\'t care-- he wasn\'t going to stay in the room long anyhow.

Taking off his jacket and tie, he tossed them on the foot of the bed, then unbuttoned his shirt quickly, adding that to the pile. Eiji had his belt in his hands when he heard somebody approaching down the hall, and he sighed darkly, turning his back to the door as he threw the belt on the bed as well. He glanced down at his right arm, pulling back the bandages wound around the upper bicep-- the stitches appeared mostly healed and had already started to absorb into his body. Another day, another scar to add to the myriad lacing his entire body.

He took off his shoes and socks as well, then unfastened his pants as he heard the door creak open, wondering mildly if it was the wind or that damned cat.

Isiel lingered by the door, his hands clutching lightly upon the edge of the wooden pane before letting it go as he watched Eiji from the doorway, noting his bandages without a hint of surprise although he could hardly mask the concern upon his face even if it appeared a lot more restrained than it would have been prior to Eiji\'s departure. Taking a deep, quiet breath he spoke up with confidence even though he was expecting to get told to go away, \"I came to apologize...\"

Eiji said nothing, dropping his pants and stepping out of them, placing them on the bed as well and hooking his thumbs in his underwear. They too came off, and he left everything on the bed before moving to the dresser and opening the top drawer. Pulling out a loose pair of black sweatpants that had been sheared off just above the ankle, he slipped them on and tied up the drawstring, noting mildly that he\'d lost a significant amount of weight since he\'d last worn them, and noting again that he\'d have to send out one of the nekos to purchase a smaller pair.

Moving past the bed and towards the doors, he opened the one Isiel wasn\'t holding onto and stepped out of the room, closing his door behind him and walking past the neko without looking at him, towards the training room. His darkened frown was no longer present; merely the collected stare as always.

Isiel had averted his eyes out of some sense of modesty, but once Eiji was dressed again he continued to watch him, even as he passed by without so much as an acknowledgement - something that gave Isiel a creeping sense of nostalgia and forced him to follow his master, trailing him to the training room in silence. His resolve was hardly even dented by the man\'s lack of interest in his feeble attempts to make up for ignoring etiquette before and he tried again, \"I was not expecting you would even want to see me when you returned and I\'m sorry I was so disrespectful, but your reaction surprised me.\"

\"Do you need something of me?\" Eiji asked shortly, as he lay down on the bench press and took hold of the bar, lifting the impressive weight off the hooks and holding it midair before bringing it to his chest and pushing back up once more, finding his pace as though he\'d never left. This was far too easy-- he\'d been pushing himself a lot in the last year and some odd months, and he was far past the state he\'d been in before he left. After a few more reps he sat up and picked up four thirty-pound weights, sliding them onto the bar and pinning them in place before getting on the bench once more, the muscles in his arms tensing as he lifted it again, and this time he moved slowly.

\"Obviously,\" the bar went up and he breathed out, \"You just want me as a Master.\" The bar went down, then back up again.

Isiel leant against the wall, far from adopting a casual pose and yet still giving Eiji more than enough space to believe that his words were indeed true. The young neko considered them for a few minutes, letting a silence descend over the room before he shattered it with a thoughtful murmur, devoid of much of the frustration he was feeling, \"I don\'t understand what you want from me....I will take care of things here and I\'ve trained hard to learn everything I can from Kiba thus far, but still..\"

He racked the weights after several more reps, then sat up, grabbing a towel from the floor and wiping his face and neck as he stared at Isiel. \"What I want from you?\" he asked flatly. \"I want nothing. I need nothing. I intend to leave this estate to you. If you don\'t want it, leave. I offered you training and the chance to follow my path; you choose to remain a house cat. There isn\'t anything more to discuss, unless you need something, is there?\"

Eiji sat still, staring at the neko, waiting. He wanted this conversation out of Isiel\'s system so he could get back the fuck to training.

Kiba sat on the stairs in the entrance in the mean time, tail flicking back and forth idly and eyes closed with his chin resting in his hands as he listened to their conversation with one ear turned towards the hall the training room was down. \"Don\'t fuck this up, kid,\" the wolf sang to himself. \"Last chance.\"

Somehow Isiel still kept his frustration in check even though Eiji\'s apathy tugged at his nerves as well as still confusing him even despite how much he\'d matured since the man left again without so much as an explanation as to why he\'d been chosen aside from his bond to Oriel which was the only conceivable reason he could think of for his elevation in status within the house after all before Kiba\'s training he was nothing special. \"I stand by what I said before you left, I\'m not going anywhere. But I\'m hardly a house cat anymore....\"


\"Then what do you want?\" Eiji asked with a little more edge to his voice, getting annoyed with these games. If the kid wasn\'t going to say what he wanted, then the man had zero time to waste on him. \"What do you want from me, then, Isiel?\"

He stood and walked over to the boy. Seventeen, Kiba had said. This one was seventeen. His body had obviously matured under the wolf\'s training, but his mind didn\'t seem to have gotten much further than the boy being able not to cry for five fucking minutes.

Eiji stopped directly in front of Isiel and leaned forward so that they were at almost eye level, staring down into the boy\'s eyes. \"You may have anything right now, up to half of my kingdom,\" he said slowly. \"But you won\'t get a thing and you\'ll remain as house cat until you ask.\"

Isiel didn\'t look intimidated in the slightest even though he felt his back pressing firmly against the wall as he held Eiji\'s gaze intently and shook his head just a fraction. Although it had been wonderful living in such opulent surroundings and never having to wonder where the next meal was coming from or if he\'d survive another night there had always been something lacking and he couldn\'t deny how much it made his heart ache, \"I don\'t want you to see me as just another house cat.....and I want to spend more time with you.\" Through all the bitterness he\'d carried around for Eiji he could barely believe he was asking with such sincerity for something he\'d always denied and looked away, waiting for a sharp rejection.


The reply was immediate, calm, and short. \"Why?\"

\"You took me in and helped me even though I was worthless.....yet I feel like I don\'t even know you.\" He murmured, ashamed of his honesty and missing the safe comforts of Oriel or Dorian\'s presence more acutely than ever.

It wasn\'t the ideal answer, but it was both an answer and the truth, so Eiji accepted it and took a step back, nodding and turning away, picking up his towel once more and wiping down his chest and the back of his neck before pulling his braid up into a loose knot on the top of his head, re-tying it with the piece of ribbon he used, then moving onto the sparring mat.

Turning to face Isiel once more, he cracked the knuckles in his hands then rolled his shoulders a few times, crouching slightly. \"Show me what you\'ve learned,\" he said, leaving no room for question or disobedience.


Isiel pushed off the wall lightly without any visible signs of hesitation or fear - Kiba\'s training was apparent in his posture normally, yet even more obvious as he settled into a proper stance, distributing his weight evenly and assessing Eiji as he would any opponent. Although he\'d stuck to what Kiba had taught him, practicing with meticulous attention to detail every day gradually he was developing his own style that drew from his honed feline instincts and the newfound quality of his health and strength. Without waiting for anything formal from Eiji he attacked him, making full use of his grace and speed to hopefully at least avoid being slammed into the floor immediately.

Moving a little to the left, he avoided the lunge for the most part, but purposefully slipped his arm under the boy\'s waist as he soared past, lifting him up and ruining his trajectory and inertia both. He tossed the boy in the air and took a step back, waiting to see what he\'d do-- wanting to know how far ahead he could plan and how well he reacted to sudden changes in circumstance.

This was learning on Eiji\'s part; he had to know his own partner\'s strengths and weaknesses if he was going to take him into situations where one\'s life could depend on the other.

Luckily the path of Eiji\'s sudden throw didn\'t land him on top of any of the gym equipment and he reached out just as he was about to hit the floor, springing over upon the weight of his outstretched arm to land facing Eiji in a crouching position from which he immediately sprung back out of, taking stock of his master\'s position instantly and looking unfazed as he\'d expected Eiji to counter without difficulty even though it did not stop him from trying again, feigning this time and not repeating his previous mistake.

He saw the feigned attack and reached out his left hand as though to block, but also brought his right hand down, catching the feline between the legs, his hand skimming past Isiel\'s loincloth and grabbing onto his tail, pulling hard on it and taking his feet out from under him, so that Eiji was holding the neko in the air facing away from him by the tail, which was quickly bristling.

A smirk played on Eiji\'s lips as he watched the boy\'s loincloth flip up, exposing the round bottom to him as he held Isiel midair, waiting. He wanted to see what the boy would do-- run with instinct and hide himself, or try to come up with some way to escape his obvious disadvantage.


Kiba sat back slightly on the stairs as the fight had begun, a pleased smile on his face. \"Good job, kid,\" he murmured. But he sat up with a sharp gasp as he scented the heightened pheromones in the air, his eyes darting down the hall when there was a momentary pause in the fight. Eiji had begun to enjoy the fight-- that meant either Isiel did something very smart, or Eiji was teasing the boy...

The wolf bounded up the stairs and into the hall, opening the first window he saw and jumping into the trees, leaping through branches until he was sitting in the tree nearest the training room window and he could see inside. His eyes went wide as he saw Eiji holding Isiel upside-down by the tail. He did that to me, and then right after was the first time we... The wolf\'s ears flicked forward, and he was at immediate attention.

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e.n.d c.h.a.p.t.e.r t.w.e.l.v.e