#inakuro

"Lute and Aria," Shindou smiles at him from the couch, scratching both cat behind their ears. "Aren't they cute? I thought having one cat would be sad, so I got a another one. A friend for my first one."

"... I thought your cat's name was Gieseking," Kirino says as he clutches the doorframe. "One cat was enough, Shindou. One was enough."

"Lute was never named Gieseking," Shindou frowns, and picks Aria up. "And look, he's so cute... I can't always ask the helpers to watch over Lute when I'm not around." Aria (or Lute, Kirino doesn't care) purrs at Shindou before the boy sets him down on the couch again.

Kirino had at least hoped that the new cat would be a little friendlier than Gieseking (or Aria, or Lute, or whatever) but naturally, it doesn't work that way. It curls up on the /right side of the couch/ and he swears he can hear both cats hiss at him in their cat language.

"Shindou, your cat," Kirino tells him. "He's on the right side of the couch."

"Just put him on your lap," Shindou hums as he brings out the worksheets they had been assigned to accomplish. "He doesn't bite."