A/N: If lion minks can live with zebra minks, then I don't think Nekomamushi would be like this towards birds. Then again, bird minks don't exist sooo...


"Come on, Marco, I just want to talk."

"Bullshit," Marco glared down at Nekomamushi, "you were trying to swat at me, yoi."

"It was just a garchu~"

"Your claws were out, yoi!"

"A little back scratch never hurt anyone!" the large cat waved a paw dismissively while not-so-subtly wiping away some drool with the other paw.

"Are you salivating, Nekomamushi?!"

Nekomamushi then pretended to clean his paw, "Uh, no…"

"I don't have holes for eyes, yoi."

Nekomamushi began scratching at the tree Marco was perched in, as if it were a scratching post. "Don't make me come up there, Marco."

The tree was not used to anything larger than a bear to scratch at it so it shook immensely under Nekomamushi's strong paws, causing Marco to flap around to avoid losing balance. After a few seconds of fruitless effort, Marco gave up trying to steady himself and flew towards another tree. The hefty cat mink's eyes sharpened on the phoenix in the open air, just ripe for the taking. His muscles tensed and his tail twitched, ready to pounce. Suddenly, Izo threw a giant ball of yarn into Nekomamushi's view.

"Mrwow!" Nekomamushi leapt for the tumbling ball of yarn.

"Now's your chance, Marco! Run!" Izo shouted. Marco then frantically flew off without a second glance.


You know," Nekomamushi said as he nibbled at a strand of yarn, "if Marco didn't look so much like a bird, this whole encounter probably could have gone better."

Izo looked at him. "You mean if Marco just looked like a person, you wouldn't attack?"

"Well, yeah. He'll just be another lesser mink like the rest of you guys. I mean, he doesn't even smell like a bird; more like burnt feathers. It's kind of gross," the feline muttered as he tried to untangle his nails from the yarn.

And so, Haruta went to get Marco and explained the little trick to stay in his human form. When they returned, Nekomamushi smiled warmly at fully human Marco.

"Ah, Marco! It's been a while, huh?"

A vein popped as Marco fumed at the overgrown cat, "Don't say hi so damn casually, yoi! Just a few minutes ago you almost mauled me to pieces!"

"Goronyanya! It's all in the past," Nekomamushi laughed. "Anyway, I have an important matter I would like to discuss with you."

Marco sighed, "Alright, fine. Let's head back to the hideout, yoi."


"Nekomamushi, yoi."

Nekomamushi stopped and turned to face Marco. His paw was in the middle of pushing the bottle of ink off the table, and he was oh so close until he was interrupted.

"Don't even think about it, yoi."

Not breaking eye contact, Nekomamushi gave the ink bottle another nudge.

"I'm warning you, yoi."

Another nudge.

"I thought you had something important to discuss, yoi?"

One more nudge ought to do the trick.

"That's my last bott-"

Crash!

"Damn it, Nekomamushi!"