[team two] kusoinaka, part 4 (or Juri vs. cows)

[elindar.livejournal.com]

short continuation to the inaka!au.

juri + shintaro | G | ~1,030 words



”You want to now?”

”Huh?” Juri blinks at Shintaro’s expectant face. He’s been zoning out, taking in the vastness of the farm.

”The cows? You wanna see them right away?”

”Sure,” Juri says after a beat of silence, and tries to sound even a tad bit excited. ”Can’t wait!”

Thanks to Aunt Hisako’s careless promise, Juri finds himself at the Morimoto farm on a fine Saturday morning instead of soundly sleeping late in his room. He reluctantly follows Shintaro towards the cowshed. The guy’s sporting almost the same outfit as the day they met at the conbini; a backwards cap, t-shirt with overalls and muddy rubber boots. Aunt Hisako had offered Juri a similar pair of boots to wear, but he’d declined, secretly deeming them ugly and lame. Now, seeing the actual farm environment, he regrets it a little.

As Shintaro pulls the cowshed door open, Juri’s greeted with another aspect of the farm environment: a stark smell of dung. He tries his best not to wince as they step in.

Shintaro doesn’t seem to notice anything, just gestures Juri forward excitedly. He leads Juri to a stall close to the door.

“Here’s the calf!”

“Aww,” Juri says as he sees the baby cow. It’s cute, fluffy and small – a size that’s not intimidating. The mother cow is there too, but it’s eating hay at the back so Juri dares to step up by the fence beside Shintaro.

The calf walks up to them curiously and Shintaro immediately reaches out to pet it and scratch behind its ears.

“It’s so cute!” Juri cautiously reaches out a hand, too, and quickly strokes the calf’s head. “And so soft!”

“Of course,” Shintaro says with a laugh. “I should come up with a name for her, mom said I can do it since I helped with the birth.”

“Got any ideas?”

“Not yet.”

“Hmm,” Juri thinks. “How about—AAAH!”

Suddenly Juri feels a warm and rough something against his hand. He instantly bolts back, pulling his hand to safety and putting some distance between himself and the stall. Startled, the calf runs back to its mother while Shintaro turns to look at him with raised brows. Juri immediately feels like an idiot.

“I’m sorry,” he apologizes with a strained laugh. “I just… got surprised. I’m not really used to cows.”

“That’s okay,” Shintaro says. “But try to avoid loud noises or sudden movements, that can scare them. Especially the baby.”

”Right. Sorry,” Juri apologizes again.

“And you don’t have to be scared of them, they won’t do anything,” Shintaro says while he opens the stall gate and slips in. “They just want pets and scratches.”

Juri watches how Shintaro carefully approaches the calf, which is still hovering by the mother. The little cow cranes its neck and sniffs Shintaro’s hand and lets him pet herself again.

”That’s right, everything’s okay, buddy.”

The mother cow turns towards Shintaro and nuzzles his head with its muzzle, as if asking for pets, too. Shintaro laughs and strokes its neck. Juri watches him with awe from the other side of the fence. Despite Shintaro’s reassurance, should the big cow come so close to him, there’d be a Juri-shaped hole in the nearest wall.

Jesse was right, the farm environment is so not for him. Juri wonders if there’d be any excuse he could use to sneak off... Hay allergy? Sudden stomach ache?

“Hey, Juri?” Shintaro calls just then. “Could you fetch me a digging fork and a shovel? Now that I’m here I could quickly clean up the stall.”

“Uh, sure,” Juri says, his hopes about escaping fading away as quickly as they came. “Where are they?”

“Turn right and walk through the shed,” Shintaro says and points. “They should be by the back wall.”

“Gotcha.”

Juri follows the instructions and takes the turn — and freezes on the spot. The narrow way through the shed goes by more stalls on both sides, and they’re full of cows. There are at least a dozen, all lining up and eating the hay that’s stacked in front of them. All Juri sees is rows of huge black-and-white heads that devour the hay mounds. The nearest cow even raises its head and looks at Juri, as if smelling his fear.

Juri wants to retreat, turn back and run away, but he’s promised Shintaro to fetch the tools. He already made a fool of himself, so he should do this much. It’s only some meters through the cows, he can even see the fork and shovel at the back wall.

“Okay, I can do this,” Juri says to himself under his breath. “The cows won’t do anything.”

Taking a deep breath, Juri strides forward, staying strictly in the middle of the walkway so the cows won’t reach him on either side. He hunches his shoulders and covers his head just in case, and can’t help yelping every time a cow raises its head or suddenly moos. Once he makes it to the back wall, he quickly grabs the fork and the shovel and starts back right away.

Now Juri almost runs, closing his eyes, the tools clattering in his hands. He’s panting by the time he reaches the end of the corridor and rounds the corner. He skids to a stop by the stall. Shintaro’s there, looking at him with a perplexed face.

“Everything alright?” he asks, while Juri tries to calm his breath.

“S-sure,” he manages. “Just... a lot of cows out there. But I made it!”

Shintaro’s mouth is twitching a little. “Yeah? They didn’t try to eat you?”

Juri makes a face and shoves the tools to Shintaro. The fucker is still smirking as he starts cleaning the stall.

“Oh shoot,” Shintaro says after a moment and turns to Juri. “I’d also need the wheelbarrow. It’s by the back wall, as well. Could you…?”

Juri just stares at Shintaro, incredulous. Shintaro looks at him for a couple of seconds before he snorts and breaks into a laugh.

“Damn, you should see your face!” He guffaws. “I’m kidding, I’ll fetch it in a moment myself.”

“Watch it, country bumpkin,” Juri says, though he’s smiling, too. “I’ll kick your ass! ...As soon as you get out of there.”




rin_aokuro, you're up!