Hunting For More Than Just Birds

Tadashi in cat form

Tadashi could tell something was bothering Shiro. That's why he had invited her to go hunting with him that night. While he did kind of want to actually hunt something originally just running around with Shiro was pretty fun too. She was running really, really fast so it was a bit of a struggle to keep up but Tadashi was doing pretty well. His little cat legs ran and ran and it felt really good.

When Shiro stopped to hop on the rock Tadashi was not far behind her. The chance to catch his breath was welcome and he hopped right up next to her, resisting the urge to brush up against her like cats normally tended to do. He was still trying to make sure Shiro had her space. Had to keep reminding himself she wanted them to start as friends, not siblings for now. "It is a nice night. I'm glad you wanted to come. Kinda thought you would say no," he meowed in the cat language as he crouched down, seriously considering grabbing at a nearby firefly.

He hunted pretty regularly even though the school provided food. Though he actually preferred mice and things over birds he didn't mind hunting for them if it meant spending time with Shiro. Of course there was no way they would be sneaking up on birds running like they were.

Tadashi had been working through how he wanted to ask Shiro about the fact that they had forgotten the day of the week earlier and had been acting a little strangely. Finally he just went ahead and blurted it out. "Hey Shiro. We can just hang out or hunt or whatever if you want, that's perfectly fine. But I am a little concerned about you." Well, there it was. Her reaction would probably determine what they were going to do that night.

That was pretty much exactly what Tadashi was expecting to hear. Shiro blowing it off like there was absolutely nothing wrong and trying to deflect by telling him he worried too much. Well that second part was probably at least a little bit true. He did worry about his siblings a heck of a lot and it had, at least in part, lead to some fairly unhealthy courses of action. Like going crazy and shifting into half-cat to tear through the woods, but this wasn't about him. It was about Shiro clearly forgetting things that should have been easy to remember and also being fairly tired and moody.

"Shiro," he meowed as he too flicked his tail back and forth, "I know there's something wrong and to be honest you aren't hiding it very well." He let that sink in as he watched the firefly he was going to bat at slowly float away. It was still very tempting to go after it. To chase it down and.... do something? He kind of lost his planning after the point of catching it. They didn't taste good so there was no reason to eat those bugs. He knew- he had tried a few different colors of the glowing bugs and none were good. "I worry just the right amount," he lied, "and I'll always be concerned about my siblings or friends dealing with problems. Even if they are too scared to tell me about them."

Eventually his attention was drawn back to Shiro as she batted a firefly away into the darkness. Since talking wasn't exactly working super well maybe a little playing around would help Shiro loosen up and want to tell Tadashi at least some of what was going on. He crouched real low, wiggling his behind just a little bit as he prepared for just the right moment and pounced towards Shiro while she was a little distracted by watching the firefly.

The ulcer part honestly was something he should be at least a little concerned about. Especially if his siblings kept trying so very hard to give him things to worry about. It wasn't really something he could turn off. He couldn't help but worry about them. At least he had a response for the hair thing though. "I don't mind gray hairs too much even if they did somehow do that. My owner had lots of gray hair and he was really nice." The memory of him was mostly happy but as always it was tinged with guilt and sadness because of how their situation ended up. Tadashi could have kicked himself for bringing that memory up. He wasn't supposed to be distracting himself thinking about other things, especially those he still hadn't quite healed from emotionally.

Shiro was already doing her best to try to distract Tadashi and he really didn't want to let that happen. He would let her tease and poke fun but he would focus on how she was doing. Or at least that was the plan before she mentioned 'getting laid'. That was very distracting and definitely caught him off-guard. Of course he knew what it meant but he just... well thoughts like that were just way too far ahead of what he was thinking about at that time. He hadn't ever even been on a date, let alone kissed someone. He and his siblings were too young for what she had been referring to.

It sure did make him feel embarrassed though. If he had been in human form tinges of pink would have been noticeable on his face. "I- I'm not worried about that kinda stuff right now. That's for when i'm older and... dating and stuff." Well he sounded like a child. Not terribly wrong for him considering he was only 14 and had only been a kid for 4 years, but he hated that his siblings seemed to be so far ahead socially. Well, perhaps that was part of the reason they were having so many problems. His head was spinning a little from trying to think about all these things and he was losing his focus.

Fortunately he was already poised to pounce at Shiro by that point and that would easily take his mind off all those thoughts. In the end the embarrassment only delayed his playful attack by just a little. He sprang at Shiro with practiced ease and when she didn't get out of the way in time he tackled her. She batted at him with her paws and they both wrestled around for a bit before she slipped away

Tadashi did his best cat grin at Shiro as she teased him for being sneaky. "We're cats, pouncing on people and things is what we do. You just didn't think of doing it to me first. Unless you'd rather just chase bugs?" he snickered and lashed his tail. Regardless of the issues that might or might not need to be discussed playing like that was always fun and and made Tadashi happy.

Tadasi was staring at her when she shrugged off the comment about being too young. He didn't know what Shiro had done or been through and was just assuming she had used the topic to tease and embarrass him a bit. Her response had been a little weird but he just chalked it up to them both being uncomfortable talking about that stuff.

He flicked his tail and then sat down to give her a chance to clean off the dirt before he decided whether he was going to keep up the playing or focus on just talking. It could have probably gone either way at that point. Tadashi was distracted momentarily by the sound of something small running in the bushes behind them, a mouse or other rodent most likely. Cat instinct urged him to turn and go hunt the delicious morsel but his desire to talk to Shiro won out. "I sometimes forget you guys have been using human forms for longer than me. Even when I was living at the cafe I was still spending the night as a cat. I guess i'm just more comfortable like that sometimes." Well that wasn't entirely true really. He had been getting more comfortable in human form ever since he had come to the island and started actually making a few friends. He still definitely preferred sleeping as a cat and very much enjoyed hunting for mice and things though.

Tadashi stood up and his tail lashed back and forth as he grinned at Shiro telling him she wasn't really that great at hunting and he only stopped when Shiro came over to swipe at him with her paw. "Maybe you just need some practice. I don't think you really lost your hunting abilities you're just rusty like you said. Tomo doesn't need to know either. I'm not really a good teacher but we can do this more often if you like." In response to he getting close however he walked forward and brushed against her as he did so before circling around to gently butt her with his head.

"Unless this has to do with the other things you have been forgetting?" Tadashi winced as he asked it and immediately regretted mentioning the problem. After asking the question he turned to look away from Shiro. He didn't want to see her face if she got upset at him. He was probably about to ruin any hope of a fun night stalking around as cats with Shiro. Still if he didn't ask it would have just weighed on him for the whole night. Once again all this people stuff was getting in the way of enjoyment and happiness.

Tadashi had known the reaction was going to be bad. He had turned away so he didn't see her freeze up but he certainly heard the tone in her voice as she snapped at him. It hurt. It hurt a lot more than it probably should have to have his sibling be upset at him for caring about them. As much as he tried to pretend it didn't bother him his tail and ears drooped noticeably. "I- I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked about it. I just was worried and it slipped out."

He turned back around and decided to just lay on the ground facing Shiro. He steeled himself and was planning to keep pushing the point now that he had brought it up. The damage had been done already so all that was left was to try to have something good come out of it. But then Shiro had actually answered his concerns and it seemed like she had things moving in the right direction. It made him feel a little sheepish and stupid for not expecting her to be already getting help.

Sighing a bit himself he got up to move over and flop against Shiro's side. "It's ok, it probably isn't my business to ask about that stuff anyway. I just don't know you well enough to tell if you would get help if you needed it. I think i'd just run from the problems and Tomo would... actually I don't know. Sometimes she runs and sometimes she gets into fights or something. It's all so complicated." As he spoke he pushed against Shiro, not really trying to do anything except by a little bit of a nuisance. He might be the quieter, and usually calmer, of the three but he was still a cat and needed to be a little bit of a pest from time to time.

In fact he batted at Shiro a little bit because they teased him about catching mice. "Pfft i'm the best mice catcher out of all of us," he boasted, though he had no way of knowing for sure, "and I was already an old man cat before I became a boy and I still caught mice and even a few snakes." With the topic of memory loss mostly dealt with as far as he was concerned he was ready to get back to running around and having fun. Still worried of course but maybe they could still enjoy the night after all.