By the time dinner was ready, Kabuki had the most won cards, though Mr. Patil had just one card less than him. It seemed the Indian man was quite competitive; Kabuki wondered if Mr. Patil watched or participated in sports.

The game had seemed to make Mr. Patil forget that he was playing against a cartoon-ish humanoid animal and Kabuki wondered if he could get Mr. Patil to be okay with him, though the real problem was Macaron's parents.

Speaking of which, Kabuki noticed that Macaron's father was missing as he and Mac got up to fill their plates for dinner. "Where'd your Dad go?" Kabuki asked Macaron.

Macaron's eyes widened, looking around. "Hmm, maybe checking Shelly's food and water bowls," he said when he noticed that the dog was missing from the kitchen as well.

Kabuki nodded and continued to fill up his plate. His plate was mostly ham pieces with small amounts of the non-meat sides and Grandma Friemont seemed to notice, because she pointed it out. "Don't tell me you H-A's keep your same diet? You become like us and you still can't try vegetables?" she asked.

Kabuki jumped. "Oh, no, it's just that my appetite still wants meat. It's hard to fight it," Kabuki explained, embarrassed that he had to explain such a mundane thing. He had never thought of that as something he would have to explain about himself, making him wonder how that would relate to a human coming out.

'There are always some dumb questions, though. It's not like she was being rude; she was just curious because of my food choice,' Kabuki scolded himself he poured himself some soda.

After everyone was sitting down, everyone held hands and said grace. Isadora held Kabuki's right paw loosely while Macaron did the same on his left. Once that was over, Kabuki picked a fork up carefully in his enlarged paw. The two straight digits were just big enough to curl around the flat stem of a fork. Macaron bit his lip seeing Kabuki do that and Kabuki gave the human a look of assurance as he cut up the ham carefully.

"Of for- Just use your claws, if you must," Mrs. Friemont huffed, having caught sight of the overdramatic exchange between Kabuki and her son.

Just then Mr. Friemont came back up from the basement. "Ah, did I miss grace?" he asked, wiping his hands off on a rag that looked like it had been used on a car.

Mrs. Friemont nodded, looking particularly annoyed, while everyone else began to eat silently. Kabuki had learned things about the other men easily, it seemed; well, if Mr. Friemont was indeed working on a car that is. The cat had just assumed that he guessed correctly.


Soon conversation picked up at the dinner table. Grandma Friemont seemed very curious about Kabuki's biology and kept asking the cat about this or that until Macaron stopped her and began to tell everyone about his new job as a Mayor in the town of Fairies.

Kabuki thought it odd that everyone seemed so surprised by this. "Did he really never send word about what his new job was?" he asked in his head.

Kabuki hadn't been there to see the events himself, but according to Wolfgang, everyone had just assumed that Macaron was the new mayor when he left the station. Kabuki had never heard the story from Macaron's point of view, so he was surprised when Macaron told the story very fancifully.

"Becoming a Mayor purely by coincidence, hmm? You've certainly learned a lot since running off after that Joshua boy rejected you," Grandma Friemont smiled.

Macaron blushed. "Well I needed to get away. I didn't think I would find a new, permanent home while I was running away," Macaron said, shying from Kabuki's intrigued glance.

The humanoid-cat still didn't know much about why his boyfriend had moved to an animal town in the first place, though he had asked Macaron plenty of times. This didn't seem like the time to ask about the story, though. "So, what do you do for a living, Kabuki," Mrs. Patil asked, practically sneering.

Kabuki ignored the woman's anger, not wanting to cause any arguments. "Well I'm a playwright. You see, I'm named Kabuki because I began changing near a Kabuki theater hall and I fell in love with that style of play," Kabuki explained, a smile on his face.

"He's gotten three of his plays performed," Macaron added, taking Kabuki's paw in his hand nicely.

Isadora smiled. "That's so cool!" she smiled before continuing to eat. It seemed that the girl enjoyed her meals more than others might.

"So, if you didn't already live in 'Fairies', then when did you two meet?" Mr. Friemont asked, dialing the conversation back a topic.

Kabuki was cutting up a slice of ham and looked up when he was finished. "Well, most animal towns have these community tents for people to stay in the town a day. You know, see if they want to live there or not.

I was looking for a nice, quiet town at the time so I could focus on my writing, but then the mayor here decided to visit and, well, I suppose it was love at first sight," Kabuki smiled, gesturing to the man next to him.

Macaron blushed and nodded. "Yeah, it was pretty much the same for me," the human smiled sweetly.

Isadora gave the two men a smile and Macaron rolled his eyes at her. "She has a gay men kink," Macaron whispered to the cat beside him, who jolted, surprised by the word being used in the presence of Macaron's parents.

"Stop making jokes about me!" Isadora whispered angrily towards the two and Grandma Friemont and Mr. Friemont laughed at the exchange.


After dinner, the family went back out into the living room to talk more. Even the 'angry sisters', as Kabuki began calling them, began to speak up, though they mostly spoke to each other, possibly judging the animal that they had let into the house.

After a particularly silent moment, Mrs. Patil got up and announced that it was time to open presents. Mrs. Friemont joined her sister in passing out the presents and Kabuki noticed that when he was given his presents, the women tended to be quick about handing the presents over. Kabuki wondered if they didn't want to touch his paw.

"What's this? Presents from Jingle and Robo-Santa?" Mrs. Friemont asked, picking up the oddly marked presents.

"Jingle is the humanoid-animal version of Santa," Isadora explained, "He mostly delivers to animal towns."

Macaron nodded. "Yeah, they were delivered before we left, so I figured we should wait until present-time here," Macaron explained, taking his present from his mother.

Kabuki grabbed his present by the sides and checked the inside, smiling when he caught sight of the exotic carpet he had asked for. "Looks like I got what I wanted after all," Kabuki smiled, showing it to his boyfriend, who was playing with a delicate figurine that had been in a box.

Macaron raised an eyebrow when he saw the carpet's color. "I thought you said you requested a brown carpet. That looks pretty red to me," Mac said, getting a playful shove from the cat beside him.

"It's both," he insisted, looking over at Grandma Friemont after that and smiled, "and I can see all the colors you guys can," he added, thinking one step ahead of the old woman, who laughed when it seemed like she had been found out.

After that, all the presents were shared and joked about. Isadora was surprised by an old, yellowing book about alternative study methods by Macaron, while Kabuki gave her a more practical gift of tools that fit a carpenter more than the interior decorator.

It seemed that the book was an in-joke between the cousins because they started joking around and elbowing each other. "He was always terrible about studying when he was in school," Isadora began, pointing towards Mac.

"We gifted it back and forth on Toy Day until I graduated. Since she's still in college I figured it was time to send it back," Macaron finished, laughing with his cousin.

Isadora's gift to Macaron was a board game themed around animals and Macaron loved it, playing with the small figures. "Now I feel bad…" Macaron admitted, though Isadora just laughed.

"Don't worry about it," she smiled, playing with the book before thinking of something.

"Hey, neither of us has even looked in this book, have we?" Isadora asked, flipping open the book.

"I looked up reviews for it online one year. Turns out it's a pretty terrible book," Macaron said.

Kabuki kept an ear towards them and their chatter, but began opening his other two gifts. Macaron's gift for his boyfriend was a receipt for an outdoor-style bath to be installed in the cat's home while Isadora's gift to the cat was a compilation of Chikamatsu Monzaemon's greatest works, which the cat happily thanked her for.

"Yeah, but I didn't have much to go on, much like with your gift," Isadora said, jingling the plastic packaging that the tools were sealed in. Kabuki laughed uncomfortably, embarrassed by what he had gifted her now.

Macaron glanced at Kabuki before opening the gift that had come from the humanoid-animal. Macaron pulled out a green shirt with a landscape printed on it and his face squashed up. Isadora and Kabuki and some of the other adults laughed, recognizing Macaron's hate of unnatural green.

"Sh-shut up!" Macaron shouted in mock frustration before reaching into the present box again.

Before Mac could pull out the other piece of fabric, however, Kabuki put his paw over Macaron's hand and leaned over to whisper in Macaron's ear. "It's a skirt," he explained.

Macaron crinkled up the colorful paper in the box like he had found nothing else inside and returned the shirt to the box his face now red from worry and embarrassment.

"No gifts for me?" Grandma Friemont asked Kabuki teasingly.

"Sorry, Grandma Friemont. Macaron wouldn't tell me who would be here other than Isadora," Kabuki admitted.

The old woman smiled sweetly. "That Macaron, always so secretive. Did you know that I had to learn he was gay by overhearing his friends talking about his love confession?" she asked.

Kabuki's eyes widened and he shook his head. "No, I didn't," he said, looking over at his boyfriend, who was hugging the clothing box awkwardly now.

After a moment the human got up and rushed upstairs, probably planning on isolating himself. Kabuki sighed and went after him, finding the mayor in his room, pulling out the light-blue skirt from the bottom of the clothing box. "Are you going to try it on?" Kabuki asked, shocking the human, who shook his head in answer.

"No, no. Just admiring it," he said, putting the clothes in his bag and taking out a bag of toiletries marked with his name.

Kabuki followed his boyfriend's thinking and pulled out his special toothbrush and paste as well. They both dropped the items off in an empty drawer in the bathroom. "This used to be my bathroom drawer," Macaron explained as they headed back downstairs where it seemed that the Patil's were leaving.

"I'm staying with parents while I'm visiting," Isadora explained when she caught Macaron's confused look.

Macaron nodded and glanced over at Kabuki to explain it to him. "Her Dad is pretty strict about curfew as long as she has studies."

Kabuki nodded and also gave Isadora a hug, though it was loose, since he saw Mrs. Patil glaring at him. Mr. Patil gave Kabuki a smile. "Next time we meet, let's play chess," the man said, shaking Kabuki's paw before they headed out.

"Sounds great," Kabuki agreed.. After all, 'Apples to Apples' wasn't exactly a serious one-v-one game.

The Friemont's and Kabuki waved to the Patil's as they left. Once there car was gone, Mrs. Friemont looked over at her son and Kabuki. "So, you'll really be staying then?" she asked.

"Wendolen," Mr. Friemont said in a scolding manner beforeturning to speak to Kabuki, "Mac's old sleeping bag is in the basement if you need it. I can't imagine that Mac's old bed would be big enough for the two of you."

Kabuki nodded, smiling. "Thank you, Mr. Friemont," he said before heading upstairs with Macaron.

"Once you've finished getting settled, come down to watch some Toy Day specials!" Grandma Friemont said before they were out of sight.

"Will do, Gran!" Macaron yelled back.

"So… Does your dad like humanoid-animals or no?" Kabuki asked once they were back in their shared room.

Macaron sighed. "I've heard him shout the usual anti-humanoid-animal stuff. Not to mention that he's a dog person, as you can tell with Shelly," Macaron explained as he set out the clothes that he planned to wear the next day.

"I guess since the range of changed animals is so high, it's hard for someone to be okay with every single one becoming like a human, huh?" Kabuki asked.

"It's caused a problem in everything from ethics to religion, Kabuki. Of course it won't be easy for everyone to accept every kind of animal having a small chance to turn humanoid," Macaron noted, lying down on his bed, exasperated.

Kabuki raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't asking for a debate, you know?" Kabuki asked.

Macaron sighed. "Yeah, sorry. I'm just still stuck in my head, thinking of bad scenarios," Macaron said, holding his head.

"How about you take a shower and chill out? I'll go get the sleeping bag," Kabuki suggested, helping the human up from his bed.

Macaron smiled and kissed Kabuki's nose. "Thanks for worrying about me," the mayor smiled before leaving the room to go cool himself off. Kabuki smiled, watching his boyfriend head to the bathroom before heading downstairs.

The cat passed by the living room as he headed down to the basement and waved to the ladies sitting there, watching Toy Day specials. "Todd is downstairs trying to find that sleeping bag for you," Grandma Friemont explained and the cat nodded.

"Thanks. I'll go help him," he said, heading through the kitchen to the door he had seen Mr. Friemont come from earlier that evening.


Notes:

That Joshua boy – Macaron's crush's name, of course!

Kabuki plays – I don't actually know much about these types of plays other than they are the reason why ninjas are always seen in black clothing in modern culture.

Robo-Santa – Read the blog to see the story about Robo-Santa versus Robo. Who knew robots could be possessed!?

"board game themed around animals" – an Amiibo Festival reference, of course!

Chikamatsu Monzaemon – a famous professional Kabuki/Bunraku playwright. I imagine Isadora just searched 'famous Kabuki playwright' just like I did. (Apparently it's really called a 'Kabuki dramatist', but I figure Kabuki uses the more common word so he won't have to explain what dramatist means.)

"Macaron's hate of unnatural green" – Macaron doesn't like the color green, but he's recently accepted green as being the color of nature, so he only hates green when it's not happening in nature. St. Patrick's Day is a painful day for him, haha.

Disclaimer: Any of these headcanons are up for changing or editing on the blog. (Since I forget things about my characters extremely quickly)

Deleted scenes include naming Patient Zero of Humanoid-Animals as a female lab mouse named Tarah that couldn't handle the humanoid changes and died only with an expanded mind (not literally, of course. Basically, gaining knowledge would be the first stage of the 'humanoid change'.)

A/N: Next Chapter might be a while, haha, sorry. This is starting to get a bit bland, so I might wait until Sunday to keep writing. I should've started writing this sooner than the 23rd