#inutomo

bestie and i picked out monster energy drinks to represent the ships we mutually favour and respect (what a mess it is)

Oh the summertime. Time magical time of year when the sun is shining, birds are chirping, flowers are sunning. When beach goers flock to the edge of the great puddle to swim and have fun. When the days are longer, and the nights are better. When highschool students scramble to make money for the following school year.

Touko Fukawa, a highschool age author who can just manage a darker side, hasn't sold a book in months. School finally cleared out, and now she could try to make a little money. With the help of one of her classmate's younger sister, Touko landed a job at a little animal shelter.

It wasn't her first choice, but when this sweet girl goes out of her way to help get you a job, how could anyone say no? Biting her thumb in apprehension, Touko walked through the doors of a little shelter not far from her school's old campus. The sweet girl had loaned Touko some clothes too. Dressed in some paint stained overalls and boots, a lighter shirt just showing around the top of the overalls, and her braids undone in favor of a bun, she timidly walked past a series of large cages. Most had a small dog within. Some were napping, some arfed at at Touko in an effort to get attention, and a few were huddled in a corner of their cages, fearfully looking out at whatever was moving. Touko could pick out a few breeds age knew of. Anxiousness was building in her gut, to which Touko forced herself to look at everything like it was written word. The dogs so helpless and scared struck a chord with her. The super friendly ones reminded her of the sweet girl. The napping ones reminded her of someone she saw at school.

"Oh! You must be our new member!" A warm voice beamed from across the room. Touko jumped a little and lost her focus, the anxiousness flooding back to where it was.

"OH! UH-I-oh um yes s-sir. I-I'm Touko Fukawa, and--uh-well----" Touko was swiftly cut off by the man. He walked over too her, lathering hand sanitizer out of habit. He shook her hand and smiled.

"I'm Inutomo. I was told you're a little shy, so you don't have to say much. Komaru told me you were bound to do well, so I'm going to start you off with 1 task for the day, and 2 for tomorrow. I need you to feed the cats in the cat cage, and tomorrow I need you to walk two groups of dogs for me, can you handle it?" Inutomo spoke in rapid succession, never taking a breath. His smile never wavered, making Touko more uneasy than welcomed.

Inutomo led her to the cat cage, a room that had a large metal mesh wall dividing it in half. Opposite the cage was a table and a long counter with a large pet sink on the far end. There was a little fridge close to the door leading in and a jar kitten formula was sitting out, ready to be used at the drop of a hat. Leaning against the door to the cat cage was a large bag of hard food.

"Just fill each bowl about half way with food, don't worry too much about not having enough! There's 8 large bowls around, can't miss them." As Inutomo was about to talk more about the cats, a phone began to ring in the front room. She quickly darted out to answer, leaving Touko to her first duty. Dragging the bag through the doorway, Touko found a scoop on a shelf near the door, followed by the realization that left her mouth agape. A small series of words slipped out as the anxiety turned to a feeling like fear, or like what you feel when climbing the first drop of a roller coaster.

"w h y a r e t h e r e s o m a n y c a t s ?"

All along the walls were cat trees and numerous cats of all shapes sizes and colors. Several cam up to Touko and meowed at her, knowing that food and attention were coming. Quickly, Touko started to move around the room, filling food bowls and trying not to have a panic attack. So many feline eyes watching her, she was getting overwhelmed. Stopping to take a breath and get ahold of herself, a few of the smaller cats began to climb Touko's legs, one little reddish brown cat with a very fluffy tail. Touko pleaded with the little cats not to do that and kept pulling them off, her voice jumping several octaves. One very little white cat with a grey spot on it's head made it up to her shoulder and nuzzled Touko's ear. Touko brain melted a little

'this is so soft and nice nothing has ever done something that sweet to me I want to pet all these kitties and give them treats and head scritches and carry them around and play with them and oh my God when did this one get in my pocket oh man oh god oh geeze it's so fluffy look at her tail and her eyes and her ahdjekrklrltkyirush c a t s'

Touko's thoughts became incoherent for a moment, she had never been around so many friendly cats before. She's never been around so many friendly anything's before, besides the sweet girl and her brother. Touko cradled the fuzzy cat in from her pocket, noting how similar it's coat was to her hair. She secretly named it Tiny Touko.

The warm feeling of the cats being so friendly to Touko make her relax a bit, taking her time to walk around and fill the rest of the bowls, petting and saying hello to every cat that rubbed against her. She lingered in the cat cage, until she heard the quick footsteps of Inutomo approaching. Her usual demeanor came falling back into place as he entered.

"See? I knew you could do it! And it looks like you made some friends too!" Inutomo said while gesturing to the cat hair all over the overalls and Tiny Touko, still in her arms.

"You can put her down for now, I need to show you where the bigger dogs are for tomorrow, and then you can sign some paperwork!"

Touko nodded, unable to get any words out. Scratching Tiny's head, she put her down and followed Inutomo outside.

'I need to thank Komaru for this she's the reason I got here oh my goodness she's so sweet and cute like that white kitten and oh god am I blushing can Inutomo see oh god stop it get ahold of yourself Touko stop being the disaster you know you ar--OH MY GOODNESS THOSE ARE FLUFFY DOGS'