Into a new world we go

[captaincatblock]

[It had been exciting news at the start, to be invited into the exchange program his wizarding university had with the Hogwarts. Ever since Kuroo had discovered the strange world of wizarding, Hogwarts had been the school everyone this side of the world looked up to. He looked forward to the opportunity to learn Western magic, and to see how the foundation of their wizarding differed from what he knew.

The preparation leading up to the program, though... That was quite tedious, and Kuroo's excitement grew less and less after struggling through Nakano's secret alleyways to look for a bloody oversized cauldron.

Now, after landing in Britain and being in the train, all Kuroo wanted was to sleep. He had gotten there ahead of most other students, stored his baggage, and then just sat to sleep. It was cold, though, so he'd pulled off his jacket, transformed into a cat, and just curled up underneath it. With luck he'll stay asleep for most of the ride. He was sure that the other passengers would just mistake him for someone's pet and leave him alone, especially since his things were right there.]

Comments

[hellacene]

[it's slightly worrying that by the time they get to hogwarts, the cat's owner was still not there. but he has no intentions of being late to the sorting, as reluctant as he is to leave the cat. (he had half a mind to just stuff it in his bag.)

as it stands, he ties a small ribbon around the cat's neck loosely, because he otherwise looks a bit plain, with a small message out of ripped parchment that said you left your cat here which was really irresponsible of you and i hope you don't do that anymore next time. and then he pets the cat before one of the porters announces that the door is open and everyone in their carriage was to disembark.

it's a long walk to the great hall where the sorting was to take place, and even while he was in line, he kept looking over the crowd and on their feet to see if the cat made it out.]

[captaincatblock]

[What a sweet gesture, Kuroo thinks, completely and absolutely charmed. But still, time is of essence, and as soon as occupants of the car leave, Kuroo pulls the curtain on the car, transforms back, and rushes out with his things. The ribbon, he keeps in his pocket for now.

He just makes it time as the sorting on the exchange students start (before the actual first years), and takes his place in line huffing a little. He can see the blond ahead of him, taller than he expected, and wonders if he'd be rebuffed harshly if he tried to make small talk.

Eventually, though, he does find out the blond's name -- Tsukishima Kei, Ravenclaw! -- and Kuroo makes sure to remember it.

(And then he has his own argument with the sorting hat, before it throws him into Hufflepuff.)]

[hellacene]

[he's a bit disappointed that he didn't see the cat again. hopefully its owner had taken good care of it, because it'd be sad otherwise to have a cat roaming around the castle halls. he sits beside akaashi after the sorting in their table, and tsukki starts talking with him about their schools back home while they help themselves with food. tsukki tried very hard to resist the lure of the cakes, but akaashi points out to him that there's going to be cake every day, so he sighs and helps himself to two slices after a rather light dinner.

it's not surprising that after the feast and after they've settled into their rooms, tsukki gets hungry. he supposed that eating a few potatoes with sausages and then rounding off his dinner with a heaping serving of cake was probably not the best idea. the problem is that he doesn't really have anything filling in his luggage beyond .... more sweets. so he makes the trek to the kitchens that night, careful to walk around the halls as he tries to find the right staircase on his way.]

[captaincatblock]

[Kuroo, on the other hand, is hungry simply because it's lunch time for his stomach, and his actual lunch had been a rather small portion of fish from Tsukishima Kei's bento.

He's wandering around as a cat now, because he prefers to explore new places both from the point of view of someone on the ground and as a human, and being a cat during daytime is harder. The castle has other cats as well that Kuroo meets and ignores -- pets of other students, it seems -- before he comes upon, of all things, Tsukishima.

He should have worn his ribbon or something. Still, Kuroo meows and comes padding over, rubbing himself at the blond's ankle like a real cat would.]

[hellacene]

[he nearly trips when he feels something brush on his feet, and has his wand out at ready, only to find a black cat on his ankles - the same black cat, it seems, that had been with him in the train. tsukki sighs.]

Oh. Hello there. [and then he leans down to pick him up when he notices he didn't have the ribbon anymore, and he frowns. that must mean his owner took it off, but now this cat has wandered off again. they must be looking for him.

.... still, there doesn't seem to be anyone around the halls who's looking for a cat, and, well, it's getting quite late. he looks like he's struggling with something, until in the end, he decides to just take the cat with him to the kitchens, petting its furry head as he quickly makes his way there.]

You know, this is the second time I've fed you. [he mutters to the cat as he hides from prefects patrolling the area.] Your owner really ought to pay me.

[captaincatblock]

[Kuroo meows as if in agreement, poking his nose at Tsukki's hand. This isn't the first time he's been showered with affection as a cat -- girls in Tokyo really liked that sort of thing -- but Kuroo's never been picked up by a budding crush before. He feels happy.

He smells the kitchen down the hall that Tsukki passed, though, so he struggles out of the blond's arms and walks down that hallway, hoping Tsukki will follow.]

[hellacene]

No no don't - [he hissed, as the cat moved out of his grip. terrified that he might get detention on his first night, it took him a while to follow after the cat until he realized that they were in the kitchen, and he breathes a sigh of relief. he didn't want to be the first ravenclaw who'd put a dent on their house points on day 1.

the elves are nothing but helpful - then again they always are regardless of which house they serve - when tsukki explains to them their predicament, and at the end of their talk he's given a small basket full of sandwiches and two bottles of pumpkin juice and a bottle of water, and a small saucer for the cat, as well as a whole mackerel. he picks up the cat and then heads to an empty classroom, which he secures with a charm and then sits at a desk near the door so he can start eating and the cat can eat too.]

[captaincatblock]

[Kuroo just preens through all of the commotion with the elves, satisfied that his sense of smell (and for food!) was helpful.

All that pretension dies at the sight of the mackerel, though, and he attacks it with such gusto he might as well have been a dog. Uugh, so hungry. Kuroo wishes he could transform back into his human form, but this sort of magic is incredibly illegal in Britain and may or may not be sanction to penalties even in Japan. As much as he liked Tsukishima, he doubted if the terse boy would forgive his transgressions, either.]

[hellacene]

[even with the amount of food given to him, though, it's clear that tsukki just doesn't eat as much as he should. he picks the desserts first and then eats a little bit of his sandwiches, and only manages to finish one of the smaller-sized clubhouse sandwiches because he was hungry before he decides that he'd rather not eat the rest anyway.

it's nice to watch the cat eat, though, though it's raising some concerns to him as to whether or not his owner had been feeding him properly, if it looked this hungry. he adds more meat to the cat, and then puts water for him. if the cat misses a piece of the mackerel he puts it back in front of him. he wishes he has a pet cat, now. it seems like it'd be a lot of fun to have a cat as well-behaved as this one.

when it was done eating, kei resumes petting it, even nuzzling its face on the desk as he yawns.]

[captaincatblock]

[How does a cat make a human eat food? Kuroo considers this question as he sleepily nuzzles Tsukki back, satisfied at being full of delicious food. If he was human right now, he'd be blushing a lot at the private, midnight affection session.

Eventually, he pulls away and pushes the basket of sandwiches to Tsukki, and gives him an expectant look. It's not entirely beyond the ability of a cat to take care of people, right? Probably not. His parents had dogs like that.

Meow?]

[hellacene]

I don't want to eat anymore. [pushes the basket back.] I'll just save it for tomorrow.

[of course tomorrow means pancakes and jam and fruit in the morning. for now all tsukki seems to want to do is to just nuzzle the cat and keep a hold of him for the next few minutes, or until he hits curfew time and he has to run.]

[captaincatblock]

[Well, all right. Kuroo meows sadly at the stubborness, but seems happy enough to just nuzzle. He headbutts the blond at the chin, and then tucks himself in the space between his neck and shoulder. Kuroo as a cat still has a tiny puff of hair over his head, so it might tickle a little.]

[hellacene]

[he's so happy with this cat. he wonders if he can just take it to his dorm. its owner doesn't seem mindful at all, and this isn't the first time the cat has decided to look for him.

eventually he tidies up their food in their basket and decides to make their way back to the dorms. he has no idea where to leave the cat, so he leaves it in the middle of the giant staircase, hoping that it'll find the right way back home.

he pets it a few more times on the hand before murmuring,] I have to go to bed.

Come find me in the morning, okay? I'll feed you again if your owner won't do it.

[he feels kind of ridiculous to say this to the cat when he's not even sure if it can understand him.

and in the morning, tsukki wakes up early to mail a letter to his brother, and then heads to the breakfast table, piling up his pancakes with syrup and jam and whatever else he can take, akaashi shaking his head at him as he reads the prophet.

he also keeps a bunch of meats in a small plate. just in case the cat comes. he and akaashi started looking at each other's schedules. akaashi has about the same amount of advanced courses as he does, but tsukki has advanced subjects like charms and potions. the rest of his schedule includes herbology and magical creatures and defense against the dark arts, though tsukki has arithmancy as well.]

[captaincatblock]

[Have a small cat kiss goodnight on your hand, Tsukki!

But Kuroo does not, in fact, come to breakfast as a cat, mostly because he has early morning class and finding a place to transform without being seen is difficult when everyone's awake. He wishes he could join Tsukki's table and eat from him, though. And nuzzles are nice. Ugh.

Still, he wants to see if he can at least befriend the boy as a human, because it would be totally uncool and pathetic if he couldn't. So after eating his fill (grilled fish and tarts, because why not), he sidles over to Akaashi and Tsukki and sits on Tsukki's other side. He and Akaashi are familiar, though -- their schools played Quidditch against each other -- so he mostly just nods at him.]

Hey, good morning. Kuroo Tetsurou, from Tokyo. May I know your name?

[hellacene]

[this is not the cat he was looking for. akaashi at least seems to know the guy, so he tries to put in a bit more effort and not just seem like a dick.]

Tsukishima Kei, from Miyagi. Nice to meet you.

[kuroo looks a lot older than he does, and akaashi didn't even mention him at all specifically during their talks, so he doesn't really see why the guy's interested. then again, there must only be so few of them who were exchange students, so maybe he's just being nice.] We were just talking about our schedules.

[captaincatblock]

[Kuroo beams at him, then tries his best not to blurt out anything stupid like ask about Tsukki's cat. Smoothly, Tetsurou, he tells himself.]

What year are you in? Are you the same as Akaashi?

[hellacene]

Third year.

[so a year younger than akaashi. kuroo's smile, however, isn't exactly the most sincere-looking thing; coupled with his terrible hair it looks more of a leer than anything else, and beside him akaashi snickers.] You?

[captaincatblock]

Fifth. I'm there in Hufflepuff. [He may or may not be super successful at saying the word, it's hard with his Japanese tongue. But he points at the table to convey the thought.]

[He looks over at Akaashi.] Bokuto's in Gryffindor, right? [At Akaashi's nod, he glances back at Tsukki again.] Our schools used to play against each other in Quidditch.

[hellacene]

Oh. [about the first time genuine emotion actually entered his voice. he knows a bit about quidditch and has played in teams from time to time, but not regularly and at this level of competition like akaashi or kuroo, whose schools apparently competed against each other.]

I play Quidditch as well, but it's more of a pastime for me than anything else.

[captaincatblock]

Oh? [he, too, looks interested.] Are you joining here? Bokuto and I talked about it before that we'll join the teams here, but I'm not sure yet what format they use.

[hellacene]

I'm not sure.

I have a lot of subjects this year, and I may not have time to fit in Quidditch practice at all.

[but akaashi tells him that he's taking two or three subjects already which means that he already knows how to balance his time. he doesn't really think that adding quidditch will take too much - unless he's been adopting cats again, in which case tsukki just sputters and huffs in annoyance. because of course he's told him about the cat and now akaashi teases him about his 'friend' a lot.]

[captaincatblock]

Cat? [grinning] But I think it'll be fun if you tried. I heard the Western style is quite different from how we do it in Japan.

[hellacene]

I've seen one of the English teams play live before. It's interesting.

And don't listen to him. [annoyed;] I've been feeding this cat that I found roaming around the halls, because their owner's quite irresponsible .... this is for him. [points at the plate.] For when I see him again.

[captaincatblock]

[He looks thoughtful for a moment.] Black, kind of long, puff of hair on top?

[hellacene]

[he looks surprised at him.] Yeah. That's how he looks like.

[looks at him suspiciously - ] How do you know?