1.2 | The Prince of Thieves

she likes cats, he becomes one

MERRY CHRISTMAS (this is long overdue, I know)

Hana Yazumi likes cats. Fat cats, skinny cats, white cats, black cats, regal cats, scruffy alley cats, she likes them all. She entices them with a wiggle of her fingers and a few whispered words, and soundlessly, they pad towards her, eyes unblinking, wondering who this girl with a large smile can be.

Some stare back at her before slinking away, while others, friendlier, nuzzle their heads against her legs, mew piteously, make rounds around her, and stare at her out of wide eyes. Sometimes she has a treat for them. She opens her palm, lets them sniff the food, then drops it on the ground for them. They gobble down the treat, then begin mewing for more.

That's when he pulls her back because he knows they have no more cat food for the hungry alley cats, and if they stay in their territory any longer, the cats might pounce on them and devour them instead.

Grudgingly, she lets him lead her away from the cute, helpless kitty who only wants food and love. Mostly food.

'You know', he says one day, 'The more you feed a homeless cat, the less it hunts for its own food?' Then he glances back to make sure the scruffy - probably flea ridden - cat hasn't followed them.

'But they're hungry.' She glances back, wondering if the yellow-orange tabby has followed them. It has. 'And lonely.'

'They can hunt for the rats that plague this city.'

'Or eat trash that people leave behind. That cat was digging through the trash can when we came!'

He sighs and shakes his head. Maybe he should build a cat shelter for her, pick up all the strays who scrounge for a living, clean them up, treat them of whatever cat disease they have, clip their nails, then he can rest easy while she feeds them and give them whatever love they need.

She's rather like a cat too, he thinks as he gazes fondly at her that night while she plays with their cat, Ugol, a black kitty with a white-tipped tail. The tips of her ears are nearly tapered, her eyes glint and narrow when she smiles, and when she snuggles up to him with her chin on his shoulder and her face upturned to him, well, it reminds him of a little kitty.

He watches as she allows Ugol to knead her belly as she attends to a message on her phone. Her fingers stray to his head and she scratches him so that he purrs. Damned little kitty, he thinks. He wonders what it's like to be a cat; cute, fluffy, carefree, able to go wherever whenever, free food, free petting, and an owner that loves them despite their dastardly attitudes.

Of course it isn't much fun. Ugol stays at home and does nothing, while those stray cats have freedom but eat trash.

Still, it seems nice to be scratched like that.

Ugol steps all over Hana's abdomen, then lumbers over to him. He reaches out to run a hand over its soft fur.

'What kind of cat do you think I'd be?', he asks on impulse. Ugol - his cat before she decided to claim ownership over him as well - gives him a cursory merp before plopping down on his belly beside Leon. He wonders what is it that she does that makes Ugol crawl all over her, and whether he can emulate it too. Then he decides he wouldn't like it at all as he remembers how Ugol likes to swat at books and laptops and phones and anything that one holds in one's hand close to their face.

Hana regards him for a moment with a half smile.

'I think you'd be a standoffish cat that only eats Deluxe Tuna.'

Deluxe Tuna is the more expensive variation of Tuna Bits, which Ugol gets once a month or whenever she deems him a 'good boy'.

'Also', she continues as she gently scratches him under the chin, 'You'd be a handsome cat who wears bow ties and sleeps on a soft pillow.'