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“Nao-kun! C’mon! Hurry up and get up here! We don’t want to miss the fireworks!”
Shibayama/Dr.Kitty exclaimed, climbing up a rusty ladder. His excitement never wavered, his masked yellow eyes shined through the darkness. He looked back at the struggling boy behind him, his soft spiky brunette hair stuck out everywhere. A big contrast to the sleek dark green armor, scales covered his body as the boy moved his dark green bandana from his mouth. Shoving it off his nose as he let it dangle from his neck.
“Slow down, Yuki! Not all of us are used to scaling buildings on a moment’s notice!”
Kuguri/Hebi said back, warily looking out to the vast city. The bright lights sparkled in the darkness, like their own night sky. He adjusted his golden staff on his back, making sure it didn’t fall off. He saw Shibayama flip up to the top, watching as the cat’s mouth spread into a wide smile. His joyful laugh echoed through the night sky, like a beacon, shining a beam of light into Kuguri’s dark world.
He flopped himself over the top of the building, already tired from the impulsive sprint from their meeting place. A mile away from where they were now. How many times does he need to remind the smaller that not everyone has a grappling hook at the ready? He seriously needed to get better at using one. Quick.
“Nao-kun! Look! Look! Look!”
Shibayama babbled something at him, but his tired mind couldn’t pick up on it. He felt the cat drag him towards the middle of the roof, nudging him to look up with the back of his hand.
His blue-back eyes widened. Taking in the view.
The city seemed to glitter, lights bouncing off of each other. The darkness gave way to sparks of life, shining through the dark city. Multiple people were up and about, not strange given the time and the event. The city looked like an endless ocean of light, glistening and glittering in the night sky. Being bathed in the soft moon glow from above, the pale moonlight made a stark contrast to the warmth the light from below gave.
Okay, so maybe the mile sprint was worth it.
He liked the fact he wasn’t down on the streets, it would have been too loud and crazy for him. But he also liked the fact that Shibayama found a building where they were away from everyone but still can observe the city life at a comfortable distance.
“Nao-kun!” Shibayama practically yelled into his ear. The taller gave him a miffed look, but the shorter knew he didn’t actually mean it. Shibayama lifted a tray to his eye level, letting him see there was a multitude of packaged snacks and pastries piled on top of it.
“Oh, thanks.”
Kuguri said, a bit awkwardly. Look, socializing is not his strong suit, he would much rather not talk at all but he just couldn’t stay silent to Shibayama, or leave the poor cat to that many tasty sweets at his disposal. The cat’s teammates would have his head if he didn’t restrict the other’s sugar intake.
Kuguri sat down, letting Shibayama place the tray behind, but in between them. Then he sat down as well, dangling his legs off the roof. Kuguri shifted to sit closer to him, propping a leg up on the ledge and allowed the other leg to hang, mimicking a partial stance of his cat counterpart. He grabbed a pastry, unwrapped it and took a bite out of it, watching the city life below.
A cafe sat near them off to the left, quite small and quaint but still full of life as people sat down and enjoyed the warm mugs of their comfy beverages and grandma’s house-styled food. A park sat right in front of them, and it would normally be empty around this time, but with the upcoming event it was filled with people on colorful blankets, all laughing and having a good time. Some were watching as kids ran around, chasing each other in a big circle while others just enjoyed the scenery around them.
Kuguri was able to finish his food, and was neatly folding up the plastic wrapper when Shibayama nudged his arm, pointing up to the sky. “I think they're starting!” he exclaimed, his legs swinging in excitement, bouncing with each swing as the cat looked up at the sky in expectation.
B O O M
The first firework went off, filling the sparkling dark sky with color. Then more followed, each bursting the sky in different colors and patterns. All glittering and intertwining with each other, the sparks danced across the dark canvas, lighting it up with its routine of glowing hue.
Kuguri couldn’t help but let a soft smile make its way onto his face, one of his hands reaching blindly behind them to grab another pastry. He glanced at Shibayama, watching as the smaller let out soft gasps of awe as color exploded right in front of him. The short life of the colored lights illuminated and reflected against the slope of the black mask and yellow eyes, and as each new firework erupted, Kuguri couldn’t decide which color best captured and highlighted the cat’s soft, child-like features underneath.
If only this moment could stay like this forever…
“-and then I said, “No! That's not the point.” which he still went with anyway.”
The group of girls laughed, happy to finally spend an evening together. Even if it's just to watch the fireworks together, it was reminiscent of old times.
Seated in the homestyle cafe by the large window at the front of the shop, a warm glow came from overhead which set up the perfect vibe for the meet up.
One of the girls went to sip her coffee, glancing up at the color filled night sky as something caught their eye. She placed down her coffee, nudging the girl closest to her, never taking her eyes off of whatever she was looking at.
“Girl, look, look, look.”
Her friend gave her a questioning look, but followed her gaze nonetheless. She let out a quiet gasp, getting the rest of the group’s attention.
“What?”
The girl wordlessly nodded their head over to the sky, everyone followed her gaze before quietly laughing to themselves.
Up on the rooftop near them sat two figures. One clothed in a recognizable, trademark dark red suit with black accents marking clawed gloves and shoes hanging over the edge of the building, casually swinging back and forth. Black cat ears illuminated red perched on top of black hair, with a black strip, eyes replaced with yellow pupils. The only telling sign of which feline this was, was the long gray medical coat over the suit. One that could easily be seen reaching till the shins of the cat.
The other figure was covered in hypnotizing, shimmering dark green scales with traces of matte black body armor. Black boots creased with how the person was seated, with one leg hanging off the ledge and the other folded to his chest. A black gloved hand resting on the surface of the roof clutching a half-eaten pastry and the other on the propped up knee, the symbol of the powered group, a long golden staff that curled into a scroll-like shape at the top, was strapped to their back. A green bandana was resting around the neck, but was in a position to be pulled up to cover the Snake’s mouth and nose at a moment’s notice. Spiky brunette hair stood messily from a partial eye mask in the overall scale design reaching from the ear to the nose, only covering the left eye with a green shine, a silver fang adorned the upper cheekbone accompanying the single eye cover.
The feline had their legs dangling off the side of the building, looking up at the sky in awe as the Snake was looking in between the sky and the dark red one. Most likely to enjoy their reaction.
“Is that… Dr.Kitty from The Cats?”
“I think so…”
Their friend group giggled at the revelation, one of them quickly pulled out their phone to take a photo. The cute moment was too precious to not take record of.
“Who’s the green one?”
“Someone from The Snakes? I think?”
Through the window, they saw as the snake leaned closer to the cat, his lips moving slightly before pulling into a smirk, easily dodging the swipe of claws the smaller made, mouth opened like a laugh as he leaned back. The cat huffed, crossing his arms with a dramatic show of pouting from the other’s antics.
The cat turned to the side, grabbing a wrapped pastry from behind himself where the girls couldn’t see, unwrapping it and holding it out close enough for the Snake to grab, and much to the soft shrieking of the watching group, the Snake, still smirking, moved forwards to take a bite out of the snack. But was thwarted at the last second by Dr.Kitty pulling it out of his reach, turning and taking a triumphant bite to intentionally tease the other. The Snake made a motion of huffing, but was smiling fondly as he took another bite out of his own pastry.
The girls watched the two grapple at each other, playfully pushing and teasings exchanged in an obvious show of a close relationship. The opposite of what the media has depicted their respective groups, a civil war with the Parliament as the mediator to control the rivaling pair.
“...They look so cute.” One of them said quietly, adjusting her grip on the coffee she nursed. “It’s totally different from their group members interacting.”
She didn’t have to give any more details to paint the picture. A polaroid scene of a withering cat beside a broken vial of green liquid, similar to a table topper, in between the reptiles’ commanding stance and the cat’s desperate lung to one of their own, others rushing the snakes with protective claws drawn.
Another girl hummed, breaking the thought, “Like this city’s own Romeo and Juliet.” She paused for a bit before adding, “Hopefully they last longer than a few days.”
The group laughed at the joke referencing the powered duo, observing the unsuspecting two for a few more minutes before returning back to their original task of watching the fireworks.
“Looks like someone had fun on their firework date.”
It was the first thing Kuguri heard when he got to the base the next day, and the comment made him stop in his trudgings through the clichely decorated hallway leading to the main area.
“Whatever do you mean, Daishou-san?”
Shit, did Numai-san tell? Last time I checked, he was the only one who I’ve told about the date.”
Daishou just smirked, not saying anything. It pissed Kuguri off, what did he even mean? It's not like Shibayama and him were hiding their relationship, he just didn’t tell Daishou-san where he was last night cause he knew he’ll ask questions and embarrass him. And possibly stalk him.
He felt someone clap their hand on his shoulder, turning his head to see Akama-san judging his expression. He furrowed his eyebrows before turning back towards Daishou-san.
“Suguru, I don’t think he knows.”
Daishou-san threw him a confused look, “Wait, you’re saying he didn’t read the news?”
“What about the news?” Kuguri asked, he knew he didn’t really pay attention to the news. Considering most of the news that becomes popular, he literally was there and lived through it, no need to read through the added conspiracies that people made up.
Daishou grabbed his arm, pulling him closer to the elder. “Ah, the joy of young love. You’ve made headline news.” He casually said, sling an arm across his shoulder while showing him his phone screen.
Tokyo’s Own Romeo and Juliet.
And in smaller font, the opening line to the lengthy article.
A possible relationship between sworn team rivals?
He grabbed the phone, scanning the article before observing the picture on the top.
The picture showed him and Shibayama, from a below angle. Capturing him leaning against the smaller, looking at the night sky while Shibayama laid his head against his shoulder. His soft glowing yellow eyes seemed to be looking at Kuguri and watching the sky as well. The obvious Snake and Cat uniforms pressed together by their wearers despite the infamous inter-team hatred. Kuguri could feel a heat rising through his cheeks to the tip of his ears. He didn’t even have to look at his captain’s face to see his smirk.
“You two seem rather cozy together.”
“Shut up”