Title: In the TV Light
Rating: G-ish tbh
Characters: The Cat King, Natori, Haru, and a bit of Natoru at the end
Pairings: None except for mentions of Lune and Yuki, but I hope you're prepared for an eventual tender heart-to-heart where one of the participants is the Cat King.
Notes: Written for the TCR 2020 Birthday Bash. I mean. Mostly. It actually first began life as a response to being given the one-word prompt "Glow." Which at the time I had intended to be a reference to the glow of the convenience store lights on pavement or something pretentiously poetic like that lmao
i've also decided to go ahead and split this enormous rambling fic into pieces in the interest of making it more. uh. Accessible. however, there may be erratically. Long periods of time in between updates, aha rip
Chapter 1: In Which Haru Makes A Questionable Decision
Natori's face is pressed against one of his paws. Rather uncomfortably, he should add, as it's a gesture that anyone who wears glasses will tell you is difficult to pull off without some vexing little issues, feline or not. After a moment or two of this private mourning for the nap he'd been at least absently looking forward to, he finally lifts his head again so that he can look his Issue in the grinning, odd-eyed face. The king is waiting for his answer. No doubt he's already convinced himself it will be a favorable one, despite Natori's show of exasperation. If not immediately, then… eventually.
Frustrated with the swell of helplessness that washes over him at this prospect, Natori turns his attention instead to the window, inadvertently looking out over the mess of still-crumbled tower, stone and rubble. He supposes it might count as a grounding, a ruined emblem to remind him why Claudius must have this voice of reason.
When he does reply, it's with the long-suffering tone of an overworked schoolmarm.
"...You want me to organize another official procession into the human world— and at such alarmingly short notice, I might add— just so you can, if I have this right..." Here Natori's deadpan gaze falls directly on his royal employer's (ex? royal employer's?) hopeful, oblivious face, and he prays he looks just as judgmental as he's about to sound, "...pick up a bag of chips or two..?"
To both his relief and everlasting resignation, the Cat King only snorts at this prospect, or perhaps its ridiculous (but no less accurate) wording, but he does at least step back a bit, wobbling heavily on one foot and waving one paw in overconfidence at the same time. "Nah, babe— forget all that frilly procession baloney. This cat ain't the king anymore, is he? Not on paper, anyway. I say we just ollie on out there, grab what we want, come back, and eat like—" he snorts again, "—kings."
And, then, before Natori can protest again, unimpressed by the other cat's... joke, he continues, head canted, one eye squinted just so that he looks playfully critical of his ex-advisor's apparent poor memory. "And you know me, Natty— I ain't about that bag of chips life. Heh."
The Cat King snorts again, gaze drawn to his paw as he does. "...For all the walking I'm about to endure for it, you know it's gonna be oden or bust."
"Your Majesty, please, to— for you to travel in such a way—! It's—! I-It's.." Natori's objections fade when his old friend looks him in the eye, expression molded into what one would be forgiven for reading as wholly blank were it not for the underpinning of steel mixed in with the ennui. He sees it then— how nothing he says is going to hold any weight, how there is no way for him to make the king understand just how remarkably—! Immature! Unseemly! The Cat King is an old man, a retired one, at that, who is in the process of passing on his crown and livelihood to his more capable son, but he's certainly not supposed to ostensibly sneak out of his own lavish home like a delinquent teenager now that the pressure is off him! ...Is he?
The king is smiling widely at him again— the same smile he's always sported whenever he's gotten his way, or known he was about to get his way, and Natori— steels himself! He huffs; his eyes narrow. He's not defeated just yet!
"...But it must be after midnight in the human world right now." Ah. That came out fainter than he intended. Shoot.
More frustrating still, the king adds a peace sign to his goofy smile.
"Don't worry about it, babe. I had a plan for that all along."
"...This is your plan..."
"This is the plan, babe."
They are lingering outside a familiar home in the human world, perched solidly atop the fence surrounding it. A street lamp down the way they came flickers. Natori turns from that omen and instead regards the modest house with no small amount of dubious chagrin. Yet his companion only chuckles at his overt lack of confidence.
"Your Majesty, I— what on Earth makes you think Miss Haru is going to be willing to assist you in this venture?" Natori doesn't say as such, but her indignant disdain toward the Cat King after his, er, less-than-eloquent proposal had seemed quite clear to him.
"Because I'm the king."
"I quite clearly recall you saying you're not the king anymore, Si—"
"I'm the king," the Cat King repeats, more firmly this time, "And if she pulls a favor for me, that means she has me in her debt, right? Who could say no to that, uhh?"
Ah. That feels like a trap. Natori bites his tongue, but he's far from placated. This is not going to go the way his employer has envisioned it to in his head. Haru, he imagines, cares little for playing nice with the king and his... eccentricities, and an eventual confrontation between the two seems obvious to the bespectacled cat. Acting as the battered neutral party between two stubborn forces of nature is a far cry from how Natori would prefer to spend his late night, but he supposes there are few other cats as practiced as he is at the balancing act.
"Come on, time's a-wastin'—"
Without any other warning, his employer suddenly hops off the fence, disappearing within the cattails that are still growing in the yard (much to Natori's utter bafflement, at least, so Haru surely can't blame them for that), and takes off.
"Wait—!"
"Well, hurry up!"
By the time Natori catches up to his king, he's already practically glued to what Natori guesses is Haru's bedroom window. Her lights are off, which is to be expected, given the time. He catches only the smallest glimpse of the lump snuggled under the comforter before he's distracted by the king's less than courteous attempt at waking the poor girl— an open-palmed smack on the glass of her window, muted only slightly by his plush fur. To Natori's horror, the king raises his paw to try again, but he somehow manages to stop him before he gets the chance.
"Your Majesty, plea—"
"It worked!"
Indeed, it has. A quick glance back to the window before the two of them reveals that Haru (her face at least, the rest of her still cocooned within her duvet like a caterpillar) has emerged from under the covers and caught sight of the pair of cats currently sitting on her window sill as though they own the thing (...and at least one of them most certainly is the type to think so). And, Natori notes, she's regarding them in much the same way one might a forgotten four-month-old bento at the back of the fridge. That's about all the information he has time to absorb before cold, hard glass collides with his glasses and nose (vaguely, he's aware also of the surprised feline yowl that erupts from the king somewhere beside him).
He comes to seconds later on all fours, once again buried in the sea of cattails that at the moment constitutes Haru's family's yard. Haru herself is leaning nearly halfway out the now open window, pointing out at the two of them accusingly.
"What are you doing here?!" She hisses.
The Cat King pops up from out of his unintentional hiding spot among the tall brush, arms outstretched as if he has any right to be indignant, or perhaps is trying to placate an affronted ex.
"C'mon, babe, what'd I do to deserve that kinda greeting..?"
Natori, still crouched somewhere to the side of his king, can only stare up at Haru's form in the window. She seems to be reluctant to raise her voice, which he supposes is reasonable enough. Meanwhile, an inner voice of his own sees fit to mention to him that he must look like something of a helpless bystander, if not a pitifully frightened kitten, and it's that realization which ultimately tugs him to his full height.
"Don't go acting like you don't know! I almost died because of you!"
"But you didn't!"
"That's not the point!"
Natori distracts the king with a soft tap to the arm.
"...Sire, perhaps it might help defuse the situation if you politely tell her why you've come to... er, visit her..? Politely," he adds again for good measure.
The Cat King is silent for a good moment or two, purring to himself, but finally he nods in approval.
"Good idea, Natty. There's no telling how long we'll be here otherwise."
"...politely..." Natori echoes faintly as he moves away, almost certain his advice will prove too demanding for the king to follow.
Haru, for her part, has at least receded from hanging halfway out the window and instead stands with her arms tightly crossed, looking back and forth between the two with an expression that promises great adversity should they try anything shifty, and for just a brief moment, Natori finds himself struck by a difference he can't quite put a time-frame to. She's quite an image removed from the shrinking violet he'd first spied hiding behind her front drive's stone pillar.
It's a wonder the change hadn't registered as a more permanent shift in confidence to him before now.
As if she hadn't just impulsively knocked the two of them off the very same ledge upon merely spying them sitting there, the Cat King clambers up the side of Haru's house, depositing himself right onto her window sill like a particularly large and unkempt robin and making himself at home all over again. Haru herself looks less than pleased with this development, but the fact she hasn't shut her window and gone back to bed seems a good sign to Natori. After a moment of hesitation, he eventually follows his old friend.
"'Kay, here's the thing, babe—"
Natori opens his mouth to nervously correct the king's… vernacular as he arrives, but in the end merely closes it again, thinking better of it. By this point it's just a nervous tic, not a true term of romantic endearment. Otherwise, he'd refrain from referring to Natori himself in such a way. (...wouldn't he? Well, he doesn't have time to puzzle that one out.)
"—human food is delish, right? But some of us don't have the right, ehhh, savoir-faire to get it for ourselves. Get it? We hafta ask for help. And that's where you come in, babe."
And then, silence. Haru's previously crossed arms have loosened, and she seems to be trapped somewhere between quizzical and skeptical.
"...that's really all you want?"
"Would I lie? A king's word is gold, babe."
Haru looks from him to Natori, and the old cat struggles valiantly to keep a straight face and not allow even a shred of doubt in the king's honesty show. Finally, some of the hard suspicion in her expression starts to fade, though a softer relative is still left behind in the form of uncertainty. When her gaze moves back to the king, it seems she has but one question left.
"Why do you need any help? Lune managed to get a gift for Yuki all by himself."
To Natori's surprise, the king then copies Haru's gesture from just seconds before and looks to him, though in his case it's with rather striking naivete (striking in its apparent authenticity, if nothing else), as if he's waiting for an explanation on that mystery himself. Somewhere, an old, exasperated resignation creeps over Natori… Mm. Claudius has always been only too eager to leave the truly arduous questions to him, hasn't he? Still, he answers readily enough, shoving that unexpected rise of resentment down into the depths from whence it came.
"I'm afraid Prince Lune is something of a— ah, special case. He's quite well-known in the Cat Kingdom for spending a surprising amount of time in the human world." Something he now realizes was likely Yuki's influence. "It's not at all a difficult stretch of the imagination to presume he must have cultivated a number of hospitable bonds here in the process."
"Lune's a networker," the Cat King adds proudly.
"Unfortunately, well, we haven't quite had that same opportunity," Natori finishes. Were he more truthful, he might add that he and the king perhaps have relied a little too heavily on Natoru's ingrained street smarts in the case of traversing the human world in the past. Haru at least appears amused by this explanation.
"...so, what you're saying is you're a couple of clueless, old tourists, is that it?" She eventually deadpans.
"Ha! That's not a bad way to look at it, babe." And yet, in a faint pout, the king eventually also adds, "I'm not that old."
Haru's brow rises. "No?"
"Natty's older than I am."
"Sire—"
"Well, that I'm not surprised by."
The Cat King turns to survey him before Natori can get another word out. "I thought he was carrying his age pretty good myself."
That actually gets a small laugh out of Haru, though it's quickly stifled. Natori, meanwhile, can't help but feel at least a little like the two are ganging up on him.
"No, King, that's not what I meant."
This friendly banter seems to be the last of the encouragement necessary to get through her defenses. Shifting her weight to her other foot, gaze drawn to the night sky in thought, she concedes. At least. Slightly.
"Alright… if it's just a matter of some snacks…" She murmurs first to herself. "But that's all! I'm not letting you rope me into some harebrained marriage scheme again, understand?"
The Cat King is already rubbing his paws together in anticipation of his beloved convenience store oden, but he at least remembers to nod in agreement.
"Sure, sure, babe. No funny business. Cross my heart."
"And stop calling me babe."