Title: Haven
Series: Hikaru no Go
Author: Luce Red
Disclaimer: Characters are the creation of Hotta and Obata
Notes: Written for 31_day on LJ
-------2 Nov / animal presence------
It was late in the afternoon, and as it was autumn, the air was already turning cool. The park was deserted. The trees were bare, except for a boy in a garish yellow shirt.
"It can see me," Sai insisted, looking warily at the small grey cat that was staring at them.
"Are you sure?" Hikaru asked, though he sounded less certain than usual. "I mean, I’m the only one who can see you, right?"
"Cats are different. Cats can sense ghosts."
"I thought that was just superstition," Hikaru said, watching the cat with more interest now.
Sai shook his head, not taking his eyes away from the cat. "No, it isn’t."
The cat gave a sudden, loud screech.
Both Hikaru and Sai jumped, and Hikaru nearly lost his hold on the tree branch.
The cat started walking towards them, muttering under its breath.
"Ahh-!" Sai tried to hide his face behind his fan. "It’s going to eat me! Help, Hikaru!" he moaned and tried to squeeze closer to Hikaru.
"I can’t do anything!" Hikaru said. "I don’t talk cat!"
Sai clung to him and whimpered.
***
Touya Akira stopped in the middle of the park, his attention so tightly fixed on the screen of his mobile phone that he nearly bumped into something. "Where are you?" he said, looking around him. It was getting dark, and getting hard to see.
The ‘meow’ of a cat answered him. Looking down, and he saw a small grey cat sitting at his feet.
"Meow," said the cat.
Touya followed the gaze of the cat, and looked up at the tree he’d nearly walked into.
"Um." Hikaru’s voice was very small.
Touya blinked, and tucked into his pocket his mobile phone, where another ten messages containing pleas for help, threats and directions to the park remained to be opened. "Shindou, what are you doing in that tree?"
--------the end---------