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It was a normal Tuesday for Kenma Kozume, well, as normal as a day can be when your soulmate died and left you alone. He was attempting to make ramen, and actually eat for once because it was what Kuroo, his soulmate, would have wanted, but he had no appetite. Light filtered through the kitchen windows, casting the shadows of the window frames in a pattern of squares all over the plain room. He was staring at his noodles, watching as the noodles sank into the hot water, and the grey-white steam wafted and coiled up into the ceiling, where it finally disappeared when he heard a scratch at the door. He thought it must be one of the cats he had taken to feeding, and went to let it in, but when he saw it, he froze. It was small, orange-brown in color with a short coat. He recognized it at once.
It was his second year in high school when he last saw that cat. He had been on Lev’s shoulders, attempting to help it out of a tree it was stuck in. The cat had jumped down onto his face and he and Lev had toppled over, the loud first year giving him a bloody nose. The cat had run away and that had been the end of that, or so he had thought. After Kuroo yelled at Lev for giving Kenma a bloody nose, Kenma had gone home, snuggled with Kuroo, played video games, and forgotten all about it. But seeing it here in his kitchen doorway brought back so many memories that he had to place a hand on the countertop to keep from swaying. He felt the warmth of Kuroo’s arms around him like he was back on his couch watching tv after school. He could smell Kuroo's hair as he snuggled closer in the middle of the winter. Everything revolved around Kuroo, but his thoughts immediately shifted when the cat spoke.
“Kenma Kozume,” it said. “It's been a while since I last saw you.”
Kenma tried hard to keep his chill, but there was a cat talking to him so he could only stay so calm.
“H- how are you talking?” He asked the cat.
The cat replied, “you didn't know this when you saved me but I am actually a cat deity, a minor god, and in thanks for the time you saved me long ago, I would like to offer you a wish.”
Kenma's heart stopped. “A wish? Like any wish?” This meant he could have Kuroo back, he thought. His Kuroo, who the cruel world had stolen from him. The cat nodded at him. “Well then, I want my soulmate back.”
When Kuroo came back Kenma was so excited he couldn't contain himself and there were tears in his eyes. But when he saw Kuroo, Kuroo was barely there, like a wisp, not in his prime like Kenma would have imagined. He barely looked better than the last time Kenma had seen him in that hospital bed, frail, weak, cheeks the color of paper and what once was a perpetual bedhead flat against his scalp.
Kenma cautiously called out, “Kuro?” but Kuroo barely acknowledges him, staring into space with wide glassy eyes.
He whispers, “Kenma, it hurts,” and it shatters Kenma’s heart just as much as the first time he heard Kuroo say those words.
The tears that started out happy, spilled down his cheeks with a broken sob. He reached out to Kuroo, in an attempt to provide some form of comfort for his soulmate, but his hand passed right through him.
Kuroo looked towards Kenma and whispered, “Kenma?” and Kenma said, “Yes, I'm here.”
Kuroo said, “why am I here? I thought I had finished my suffering, and I was waiting for you on the other side.”
Realization dawns on Kenma and he says, “oh no I'm so sorry I just wanted to see you again so badly, it felt as though half of my heart was ripped away when you were gone. Scratch that my whole heart. But now you're suffering because of me. I'm sorry. I am so sorry.”
“Hey hey, Kenma,” Kuroo said. “There is one thing.” His voice was strained and weak like dead leaves barely clinging onto dry branches in the juncture of winter and fall, but he spoke on, “I can say it to you now, as much as I like.”
Kenma looked up, the ghostly Kuroo was blurry from his tears.
“I love you.”
Kenma's heart swelled with love.
“I love you. I love you, I love you.”
Kenma squeezed his eyes shut. “I love you too. I love you so much, you are my whole galaxy, you are everything to me.”
“I know, kitten. I know,” Kuroo wheezed and tried to lean on the counter but his hand sank through. It shattered Kenma's already fractured heart.
His head jerked up when he heard a meow. He looked to where the cat was sitting on a stool in his kitchen. The cat looked wistful, if that was possible for a cat, ears back looking slightly down. Kenma fell to his knees before the cat, feeling a little foolish but he didn’t care.
“Please,” he said, “please can you save Kuroo? I did this to him. I feel terrible and oh my god now he's in pain and I can't help him.”
The cat bent its head down to Kenma, resting its soft forehead against Kenma’s, and it whispered, “There is one thing I could do, but it might be hard for you.”
“Anything,” Kenma blurted out, “anything I just want Kuroo to be okay. I want him to stop hurting!”
Meanwhile, Kuroo was standing back watching this exchange with mild curiosity. “Kenma,” he said, “isn't that the cat you and lev saved from the tree that one time on the jog? What is it doing in your kitchen? How is it still alive? And how in the world is it talking?”
Kenma let out a little sob. “It appeared in the kitchen this morning and started speaking. I was kinda freaked out but I felt like I could trust him. When he told me he would grant a wish in exchange for saving him, I immediately thought of you but I didn't think it would hurt you if you come back and I didn't think you would come half back and this is all my fault.”
Kuroo shushed him soothingly, “It's okay Ken-ken it's okay.” The cat meowed once again, and this time combined attention shot to him.
Kenma said, “what can you do? How can you make it better for Kuroo?”
The cat then sighed, and said, “I can't tell you before I do it, but I can guarantee to you that Kuroo will be happy and comfortable until the day you join him in the next life.
“Okay,” Kenma said, “that's all I want.”
The cat motioned with his tail for Kuroo to walk towards him, and he obliged. “You two,” said the cat, “kneel on the floor in front of each other and place your hands against each other in the air. I know you can feel Kuroo but just try to keep your hands around him.”
Kenma and Kuroo immediately obliged, but Kenmas heart stung when Kuroo’s hands passed through his, almost like a glitch in a video game. He could smell Kuroo even if he couldn't feel him, and that comforted him. He remembered the way Kuroo smelled well, like spring water and textbooks and paper.
Before he could get too deep into memories, the cat spoke once more, “now rest your foreheads together,” he instructed, and they did. Their foreheads passed through one another’s but the cat seemed satisfied. It leaned forward and stepped onto Kenma's shoulders with grace and placed its front paws on his head. It then leaned forward and they watched in fascination as a golden tear fell from the cat's eye, and onto the place where their foreheads met. A gentle golden glow enveloped all three of them.
When it faded, Kenma sat alone on the kitchen floor. He started to feel panic seize him, but it subsided when he felt a heavy warmth in his lap. When he looked down, he saw a large black cat with spiky hair around his ears. The cat had a snaggletooth that made him look like he was smirking and squinty eyes. He was stretched out over Kenma’s lap, his head hanging over one of his knees, and he seemed to be sleeping peacefully. Kenma felt himself jump when he realized that the cat looked stunningly like Kuroo himself. The spiky hair and the creepy grin were all there. He felt strange for a moment because it was odd seeing his soulmate as a cat in his lap, but after a moment, he reached down and scooped up the cat, holding him close to his chest.
The cat started nuzzling into Kenma's neck and Kenma asked, “Tetsu, is that you?” The cat merely purred, but that was enough of an answer to Kenma.
He would be the first to admit that you should be careful what you wish for, but it was worth it for the seemingly immortal black cat that shared not only Kuroo’s looks but also his personality.