It's Kitty Time

It's Kitty Time

Idia Shroud, Yuu

1.2k

I walk along the exterior hallways of NRC, looking through the windows at nothing in particular after class. Class had just ended, and Grim had decided he was going to run off in search of snacks without me. Now, normally I would have followed him to make sure he didn’t cause any trouble, but…

I have decided that today, he is not my problem. Whatever happens is on him today. Not me. I am going to relax, and I’m not going to worry about what Grim is doing. 

I slowly stroll along the hallways, looking outside by the courtyard. The sun is shining with a few clouds out that block the sunlight every few moments. 

I exit the hallway, stepping out into the warm, but not uncomfortable, outside air. I take a deep breath in, fully embracing my commitment to not caring what Grim does today. 

I look across the courtyard for a place to sit down, and I find the absolute *last* person I would ever expect to see outside at a time like this. 

My curiosity gets the better of me, and I stroll up behind him as quietly as possible. 

“Whatcha doing, Idia?”

He practically jumps out of his skin at the sound of my voice, and I can’t help but chuckle. 

He tries to stutter out a response, but ends up pulling out his tablet instead. 

[ Prof Trein asked for someone to find his cat ]

[ if i can find Lucius, i might be able to get some kitty time! ]

He gives his classic ‘Idia’ smile and laugh, and I can’t help but chuckle along with him. 

“Mind if I help?” I give him a smile, rather excited about the idea of looking for a cat with Idia. 

His eyes widen for a moment before they narrow and hide behind his tablet once again. 

[ you get p. good grades in animal linguistics, right? ]

I give a hesitant nod, replying with, “I guess.”

[ nice, you call for Lucius, and I’ll uhh ]

[ look for him ]

Behind his tablet, he gives his signature smile paired with his laugh. Like he’s plotting something…

Well, I get to hang out with him while we look for Lucius together, so it’s fine. 

“Sure. Let’s go!”

Soon enough, Idia and I are wandering around the grounds of Night Raven College looking for a cat. I call out a few times for Lucius, receiving mostly no response. 

After about an hour or so of searching, Idia and I decide to take a break. We sit down in the grass under the trees in the woods behind campus, going over some of the other places we could look for Lucius. 

[ we haven’t looked in the botanical gardens, right? Maybe he’s there? ]

“Maybe. We’ve looked through the whole school, haven’t we? We might just have to spread out a bit further…”

Just as I finish the thought, I hear something. Then…

“Meow!” 

The both of us turn towards the noise, seeing a bolt of fur speeding towards us. 

“That’s not–” I hear Idia mutter before being cut off by the white and grey cat jumping onto his shoulders. 

I can’t help but laugh at Idia’s pleasantly surprised expression at having been ineffectively tackled by a cat that looks to be barely a year old. Idia smiles as the cat rubs affectionately on his face, and of course I have to smile at the display. 

But just as I let myself be distracted by Idia and the new cat, I feel something brush up against my leg. I look over, and I see a dark colored scottish fold looking up at me before it jumps into my lap. 

I chuckle, bringing my hand up behind its ears. “You’re not Lucius either.”

“Eh, who cares? We’re in kitty heaven right now,” Idia replies while rubbing the cat’s head back. “I wonder if there are any more around here…” He looks around with a look of anticipation, obviously hoping there are more cats around. 

I call out a meow-like sound meant as a ‘come here’ of sorts in an attempt to see if there are any other cats around. Unfortunately, no cats come running at the call. 

“Well, it doesn’t look like it…” I look down at the cat in my lap, smiling at it with a certain amount of affection as I scratch behind its ears. “Hey… Do you know where we can find a cat named Lucius? He has black and white fur, kinda grumpy…?”

The cat in my lap perks up at the question, as does the one on Idia’s shoulders. Both of them, after a moment of what appears to be consideration, jump up and begin to walk in the direction of the woods, pausing after a moment to make sure the both of us are following. 

I stand up, holding a hand out to Idia to help him up. He looks at it with a vague sense of discomfort, so I withdraw it before gesturing for him to follow the cats with me. 

Soon enough, the two of us are heading deeper into the woods after the two cats, hoping they’re able to lead us to Professor Trein’s cat. 

After a few minutes of the two of us following the cats in relative silence, punctuated by me asking the cats a few questions every moment or two, they arrive at a certain tree, indicating that this is the tree we’d find Lucius. 

Of course, I can’t climb trees, nor can Idia. Unfortunately, Lucius is perched like an emperor watching over his lands on one of the branches a few layers up. 

“Well…this is gonna be fun.”

“You’ve got this, right Yuu? Whee hee hee…” 

I quickly thank the two cats before heading over to the base of the tree. I look around to see if I can find a foothold, or handhold, or *anything* really. Luckily, there’s a branch low enough for me to grab. 

I grab onto the branch, testing to see if it would hold my weight before using it to attempt to pull myself up. 

After a moment of obvious struggling, I make it onto the branch. After clinging to the trunk of the tree so I don’t fall, I begin to look for the next branch for me to climb to that would get me closer to Lucius. 

Luckily, Lucius doesn’t move as I clumsily make my way over to him. After quite the struggle, I’m finally next to Lucius. 

“Hey there! Professor Trein is looking for you, you know.”

Lucius gives me a look that says he very much does not care, but ends up relenting. Once it seems he’s prepared to head back, I take him in one arm, now looking down at the tree for my way down. 

Hopefully this’ll be easier than the way up…

Luckily, I make it down with Lucius without much incident. 

“Whee hee hee, it’s kitty time~!” Idia creeps up towards Lucius practically immediately after I reach the ground, reaching towards him for pets. 

Lucius seems to begrudgingly accept, and I turn towards the two cats from earlier to thank them again. 

Eventually, Idia and I make our way back to the school on the search for Professor Trein. Well, I end up holding Lucius while Idia dotes on him the whole way. Not that I particularly minded. It was nice to see Idia so excited about something.